Ilse Crawford and Ett Hem Hotel

My mind is blown by Ilse Crawford and her design of boutique hotel Ett Hem.

Located in Stockholm, Sweden,

Ett Hem Hotel is designed with multiple common rooms centered around a kitchen

and twelve bedrooms.

"The idea is a comfortable, cultured house you can enjoy as if it is a friend's." said Ilse Crawford.

 {images via}

For more about the hotel, go here.

Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

Lately I've felt dead inside because summer has taken over.

By summer I mean kids schedules and the never ending cycle of activity.

My summer jobs include:
greater area water park tour guide, lifeguard, social coordinator, sleepover consultant,
ice cream social director and meteorologist.

All of which are add-ons to my regular duties:
driver, mediator, cook, house cleaner, therapist, and cheerleader.

Don't get me wrong.
I love staying home with my three kids...really.

But summer with kids home has me so busy running around
I don't have time/energy to bother with what I like.
Even reading others blogs seems like such a chore in the summertime.
I partly blame the humidity. It brings out my foul side.

Yesterday though, I had an epiphany.
My oldest girl asked me to play tennis with her.
And it was fun.
A great time, no place I'd rather be, fun.
We talked and laughed and chased tennis balls and acted stupid together.
I really saw her.

The years spent with loss of identity, personal time, personal space...they're for a reason.
I've helped grow a person I want to talk to and be with.
A girl who's funny and kind and wants to play tennis with her mom on a Wednesday night.
I mean, she sucked, but that's not the point.

I'm trying to stay focused on a bigger picture--raising confident, self sufficient, non-assholes.
So far so good.

More about this gorgeous room tomorrow.

{via Pinterest}

One Kings Lane Dhurries

Look at these fine ass dhurries on One Kings Lane.

I want them all. 

Backyard Custom Sofa

It's all happening in our backyard.

Check yourself because this may benumb your facilities.

Yes.
It's a fully custom backyard sofa made entirely of Trex, aka completely weatherproof.
Here's how it happened.

I've talked before about Tony Clementi, master contractor/carpenter of Designed Companies.
He and I were discussing projects and he said he'd like to build
 his own outdoor furniture that wouldn't need to be dragged indoors in the winter.
What? Yes.
He sketched a rough idea, and I knew I was witnessing genius.

He started by building a wood frame
 in the shape and size of our choosing that took weeks to get right.
We wanted something large to fit our 24'x24' patio and something that would hold lots of people.
We have a big family and do lots of entertaining.

This is Tony wrapping the Trex around the wood frame.
The color is Winchester Gray.

I can't stop staring at it.

Office Update

I mentioned I proposed a built-in shelf for Mr. Office.

He liked the two shelf version best.

Tony Clementi of Designed Companies
started with using industrial sized anchors that were drilled in to studs in the wall.

It was important for the shelves to be able to hold a lot of weight for heavy frames and books.

Tony came up with the idea to have the shelf extend from one end of the wall to the other
which visually made them look seamless and modern.

I didn't want moulding.
Just a simple, clean, linear shelf with a lip to help secure what's on it.

I had the shelves painted the same color as the wall which as you know, is my slow jam.

The whole thing looks drop dead awesome.

I decided to nix the standing books idea because it looked too busy with the rock memorabilia.  

The bottom shelf will now hold family pictures in gallery frames
which should be the last job of the room.

For whatever reason I don't have a view of the entire room so until then 

here are some very dark phone pictures
for you to eyeball.