Sitting the bench.

When entering or leaving our condo I often find myself on the floor lacing up my boots or taking them off. Since we have a slim cove in our long hallway entrance, I plan on building a bench for this area making it easier and much more welcoming for any visitors. The idea is for the bench to fill this 96"x16" space and to have built in cubby holes to place our shoes. Below are some design inspirations I have been looking at in which I may utilize one or many ideas and incorporate them into my design.


I like the space this one allows underneath but I feel it may be too boxy for my intentions and make the hallway feel claustrophobic.


I really like this design because of the multiple cubby hole space that is incorporated into the design and not as big or clunky.


I know this doesn't have the shoe cubbies we are looking for but I really like this design and think some can be added and still maintain it's sleekness.


I'm not so sure about this one but I love the simplicity of it's manufacturing. Soon as I saw it I realized how easy it is to build.

All these benches can be found at Design Public.

pillow talk

I had grand plans for pillows to put around the dining room. I had downloaded patterns and fabric colors and I did little layouts. Then I figured out how many pillows I actually needed. 14.

The day I came up with this number, Carpenter and I went to Ikea to look at picture frames. The economy won on this one. I ended up buying pre-made pillow cases and pillows from Ikea. Then I had enough Marimekko fabric left over to have 1 side of 3 pillows sewn with this fabric.


It is a cozy place to sit and have cocktails...I must admit.


And the great thing about bringing in color with the pillows is that I can change the look later on by swapping out a few.

wall art part 3

I have a lot of wall space in my dining room. I've been dying to have something to break up all of that soft gray. Carpenter was kind enough to hang these today before jumping on the road for a job out east. (thank you)


I got these prints from Good Shape Design
I'm totally loving the partridges. Plus it's nice to have a little splash of red. And the tree is mighty cute, as well.