Interior Design and Beautiful Things
Among the easiest and most cost effective things to do to freshen up a room is to change out the hardware. Light plates, outlet covers, door knobs and drawer pulls are easy to remove and replace and can take a space from outdated to awesome, usually without putting a huge dent in your budget. However, if you too dream of the day you can custom-design everything in your world (down to the toilet tissue), then you will love the land of SA Baxter and their bespoke house hardware.
Although I love this time of year, from an interior design perspective, it also happens to be the most terrifying for me. People are just downright out-of-control. I’ll forgive the lawn full of disparate lighted animals (llamas, and penguins?!). I’ll overlook the retina-burning-blue-Hanukkah-lights. I’ll even give you a pass for the inflatable anything folks have decided is festive. I know that people get excited about the holidays. I get that. What harms me is the Every-single-red-Santa-sparkle-deer-snowman-tree-fugliness approach to holiday decorating. Stop it.
The reality of being young and living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that you already have or probably will have, roommates. Paychecks are now smaller and harder to come by and spending on single-living-situations is a luxury not many can afford. Although rental prices have come down, they are still so much higher than they should be for far less space than we all need. Such is the conundrum of living in such an incredible and vibrant area. Pooling financial resources is the number one way singles are making a go of it.
I love the space and time that we’re in when it comes to interior design. There has never been a moment like this one – a place where industrial, French, traditional, vintage, ethno-glamour, and minimalist can co-exist at auction, on fabulous web sites, and even in one home! While of course there are still firm believers in the mono-culture of specific design styles (mid-century modern anyone?) it’s an exciting time to be re-doing your space as there is so much amazing treasure out there to find!
Autumn has become my most favorite time of year. The weather isn’t yet unbearably cold, Halloween is on its way, evening hot cocoa outside seems right, and the Flower Mart is brimming with amazing gourds, branches, and gorgeous Fall blooms. When it comes to flower selection, it doesn’t get any better in my opinion. Brides who choose Fall for their wedding have so many magical options.
Sometimes when I wake up I’m hit with a wave of melancholy that comes out of nowhere. I stare out my bedroom window and watch the clouds go lazily by and I get this sense of anxiety about how much of the world is out there and how much I have yet to see and how many people I have yet to meet and…It’s hard to come back down to earth and center myself on the things that matter right now, today.
Today an artist friend stopped by in hopes of brightening her mood. Although the weather is gorgeous, and things are relatively okay, things just seemed a little overwhelming and out of nowhere the dread crept in. I’m happy we were here for her to lose herself in. I have those days. When nothing feels “right” and I start to despair, I try to surround myself with people and things that I know make me feel safe, warm, and in a beautiful place – emotionally and physically.
This time of year, when the evenings are still warm and the sun doesn’t set right away, I like to sit in the garden and observe the life outside. It’s tiny joys like this that can lift my spirits, put things back in perspective, and give me the energy to try again tomorrow.
As I do each year, I am working on ways to keep the Apartment 46 boutique fresh and updated. I’ve been repainting trim, re-arranging (which you know I am obsessed with), and I’ve finally decided that yes, friends, I will be painting words on the awning outside the store – finally!
The name of this blog is actually an homage to my favorite bakery in the whole world, Sweet Inspiration, in SF. There is nothing that a slice of their poppy seed cream cheese cake can’t solve – broken hearts, back taxes, lack of lovin’ – whatever it may be, they have a slice of cake for that! So on the subject of having something for everyone’s everything, I just came off of a full-throttle month of creativity that saw me making and buying new jewelry, painting furniture, sewing pillows, drawing garden plans and re-arranging the store.
This is the first in a series of posts I am doing in regards to redecorating and how to start. After several years helping people get past that first step, I realized that it’s a process we all go through and thus, I wanted to share what I have learned.