As I sit here writing this, not even two full weeks have gone by since the article appeared in print. It feels like months have passed. Even as they were sending up photographers on different days and Penelope Green herself to our late-summer job in Canaan, NY, I never would have believed that The New York Times would give us a section cover, a full spread inside, and even a tiny little photo of our faces on the front front page. Not until we had a copy in our hands. What a feeling!
Finally some nice photos of the London kitchen and living room we redid in a few whirlwind weeks last summer! Enjoy and check out the full post on A Cup of Jo.
Despite what the article says, we made 100% of the design decisions and carried out 100% of the work with our own four hands. (The client was in Venice during the entire project.) We plastered the pink and grey walls; we built the kitchen shelves, a new kitchen table, a new kitchen island, and a console table in the living room; we sourced all the vintage pieces from different flea markets and second-hand shops in London and along the southern coast; we even replaced the mantlepiece and opened up the doorway between the kitchen and living room. You can see how everything looked for years and years before we worked our magic, right here on our blog. But be warned! It’s not pretty.
Tara created another beautiful Christmas vignette for West Elm this past week, and they featured it on their blog a couple days ago. Check out the full post here!
Check us out today on Front + Main, the West Elm blog! It’s such an honor to be featured. A million thanks to Max, who’s the absolute best person to work with and best person in general.
You may not have realized, but you’re also getting yourself a little sneak peek into the job we’re currently working on! This is a small loft bedroom just above the kitchen, with its own staircase. When we started, it was painted white and medium gray with small old rafters and rafter ties exposed and unpainted (nice in theory but disjointed in reality); there were some low built-in cabinets along the wall to the left of where the bed is now, but the doors all stuck; the bed was flipped 180 degrees, with its head against the banister and its foot facing the beadboard-clad chimney with nothing on either side.
We took that strange layout and did some subtle tweaking so the room would look and function way better.
On either side of the chimney, we added matching built-ins to provide some extra storage and the sense of an extended headboard, since anything wider than a twin bed would have been wider than the chimney. Then we flipped the bed around, lowered it a few inches, made those cabinet doors work without sticking, and sprayed everything but the floor a nice super-light gray. Tara added the finishing touches courtesy of West Elm and made it look gorgeous. Now if we can just get a tree up there, we won’t want to leave till after Christmas!
We’re thrilled to see our latest project up on Remodelista today! Many thanks to Erick and Emily for the beautiful photos and Margot at Remodelista for the kind words.
This was a tough one. Not just that we had to start on the North Fork of Long Island in January, getting slammed by snowstorm after snowstorm. Not just that we had to fight against a charmless beast built only about twelve years ago. But also that we must have worked as much in the last month and a half as we did in the first four months of the job. At least the house turned out beautifully!
Head on over to our projects page for more photos. And stay tuned for another blog post with even more photos, before and afters, less complaints and more details!
If you’re reading our tiny little blog, then you probably already read Grace Bonney’s big famous blog Design Sponge. So you’ll already have seen her announcement last Friday that we’ll soon have our own monthly column over there! Well, officially we will, but unofficially Tara will, since she’s the way better writer, researcher, stylist, sourcer. Sourcerer? Not a bad title.
We’re so honored that Grace thought to ask us first, and so so excited to get started. If you have some burning design questions about your space that you want answered by us, gratis, then head on over and submit your space!
We have had so much amazing press lately, but check THIS out! featured on BobVila.com
We are officially Bob Vila approved! And almost everyone we’ve mentioned the article to has responded, “My Dad is going to freak out about this!” – which is basically the ultimate high compliment, so we’re feeling pretty pumped about the whole thing.
Thanks to Caitlin for taking the time to make us look so good. And of course to Bob. For paving the way.
We were super thrilled to have our work featured on And North a couple days ago. Their website itself is gorgeous and all the features are beautifully curated; it was a true honor to be included. Click over to the feature for a lovely writeup and some never-before-seen photos from our big Catskills job last year!
We’re officially the Kitchen Experts over on Remodelista’s new Ask the Kitchen Experts series this weekend. We’ll be answering questions all day today and tomorrow, so click on over if you have anything to ask us!
We’re finally back from yoga-ing, volcano climbing, surfing, and eating all the food in Costa Rica and Mexico. And we’re right back in the swing of things, up on the foggy North Fork of Long Island digging into the biggest house we’ve worked on yet.
We can’t wait to show you photos from our adventures, and also from the Magic Egg‘s little guest house we redid in September. Those built-in bunk beds above are a little preview for you. But first! We finally made it big and were invited to have our own page in Remodelista’s Architect/Designer directory.
We’re also super honored that Remodelista asked us to be the first designers in their new weekend feature called Ask the Kitchen Experts! It’ll be something similar to The Designer/Architect Is In. They’ll feature a few of the kitchens we’ve done over the years, and we’ll be around all weekend fielding any and all questions submitted by their readers. So hop on over and ask away!