"And then cried Max, 'Let the wild rumpus start!'

It's that time of year again - and this month (like all the others this year) has completely snuck up on me. Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. While I'm completely a beach girl - there's nothing I love more than snuggling up in front of a fire during the Winter. Normally I'm one of the crazy people out on the Friday after Thanksgiving picking out my Christmas tree (honestly I'd go on Thanksgiving if my husband would allow it.) This year, however, we hopped in the truck and arrived at Home Depot to find everything completely picked over and only the sad, Charlie Brown Christmas trees left. We're a little behind schedule this year but we have our tree! It's still outside drying (are we the only ones that hose down our tree before we bring it in??) but I wanted to post the beginning of Christmas around here!

My mom, sister, Jenn and I all made what I'm thinking will now be an annual trip to Roger's Gardens yesterday and I came home with two Euro trees for our mantel. I actually love how they look even after Christmas. The brass candle holders were a gift from my sister and Jenn last year, and they're one of my absolute favorite things. They found them in an antique store back East.

{Close-Up}

We keep it pretty simple around here - but that's the way we like it! : ) Happy Decorating!

'Round Here...

Anybody there?? If you are - thank you for hanging in there with me. I've been struggling with my little blog and what to share. I've mentioned it before but we officially have a blog up and running for Bixby & Ball and it's been tough to merge, manage, fill, nurture both blogs for me. I started Seagrass Interiors as an outlet for everything in my head and in my life. David and I were just moving into our house and beginning to piece together our home. I've been building a career and trying to have some from of a life at the same time. Bixby & Ball has become a huge part of that life and the struggle comes with what to share there and what to share here. I'm probably about to step all over some sort of blogging etiquette but I recently shared a project that I finished over on the Bixby & Ball blog - but thought I'd share it here too (GASP!!! I KNOW!!) : )

This was a collaboration with a dear friend and fellow blogger, Amber of the blog The Girl is Craftee. Amber emailed me and asked if I would help her out with a game/family room is her house. She had an idea of the direction she wanted to go in but needed some help with the execution. Just because I love having the first photo on a post be a pretty one, here's a sneak peek of the after:

*Excuse the slightly blurry photo*

Amber had a vintage, paint-by-number painting that she had found while scouring a flea market and wanted to base the room around it.

{Photo via The Girl Is Craftee}

We came up with a plan and went to work.

The goal was to create a space that looked like it had been there a while. Amber wanted it to feel a little worn and not at all new. To help achieve this, we covered the drywall with horizontal planking. We used imperfect wood, that contained a few knots for character.

We also added a built-in around the main window for books, games and a little reading bench. (Have I mentioned that Amber has the sweetest daughter that made this project even more fun??)

Next up was flooring. We did a worn brick in a herringbone pattern.

{Photo via The Girl Is Craftee}

Check out that natural light!!

We finished off the room with a few vintage pieces, a new sofa and some fun fabrics that Amber had been collecting.

{Photo via The Girl Is Craftee}

For more photos (and facts) on these fun, vintage picnic baskets that Amber has been collecting, click here.

And for the BEFORE photos, click here.

Painted

We officially finished the paint process downstairs and I could not be happier that we decided to do it. Just as a fair warning - this was NOT a big change so no dramatic "after" photo here. It's just a good example of what a little bit of tweaking can do. So, without further adieu....here's the after!

Not a huge change but made a huge difference. (David still can't entirely tell that anything has change. : )

The biggest difference is next to our painting. No more green fighting with our painting.

**Our painting still needs to be ru-hung so that it's not sitting right on our picture rail.

The color we ended up going with is Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl. Gray's are tricky because they can turn, blue, green and even pink very easily. Gray Owl is the perfect balance, and tends to pick up it's surrounding colors.

It looks much darker in this swatch than in reality.

I couldn't quite part with our "mystery green" that we had before. So, we kept it in our desk area but I think we're going to end up painting over it with the Gray. I'm just determined to crack the mystery and figure out what color it is. Until next time....

French Bistro Chairs

I have French Bistro chairs on the brain right now! I've gone into full-on house sprucing mode lately and I'm thinking these may be joining our household. I have been doing a lot of research on bar stools lately and French Bistros are quickly becoming the front runner.

{via Trad Home}

I was thinking about upholstered bar stools for a little while, but I feel like I need something to break up all of our upholstered seating. Our downstairs is essentially one open space where all of the seating except for our side dining chairs (the head and foot of the table are upholstered wing-back chairs)are upholstered. French Bistro's will break that up and add a new texture. However, the best part is, they're indoor outdoor. In other words THEY'RE DURABLE!! Which is a HUGE necessity in our house. Even though we don't have kids yet, I know in the future durability will only continue to be important.

{California Home Magazine, via Maison Gatti}

{via Elle Decor}

{House Beautiful}

{via Ashley Whittaker Design}

I'm doing a little bit of last minute price comparison and then I'm ordering!

**In other news - we finished painting and I've been trying to get a good shot of the paint, but our weather and my schedule has been a little funky this last week and I haven't been able to catch good light. Will post soon though!

Some Much Needed Time...

I'm sorry to have taken some time off, and without warning. I was feeling a HUGE need to step back, take a breath - and a break. This has been a crazy, whirlwind of a year and I still feel like I'm trying to fall into some kind of a routine. I realized that I haven't officially shared the launch of the Bixby & Ball blog. This has been another struggle and challenge. Some of you know that my blog hasn't always been the most (ah hem) consistent. : ) And now to think of keeping up with two feels just a bit daunting. At first I was thinking my posts on Bixby & Ball would be more "business-y" and less personal but let's be honest - first of all, who wants to read an all business blog (NOT ME!) and second, Bixby & Ball IS personal to us. Afterall, it holds a lot of our blood, sweat, and a lot of tears! We're sensitive girls! : ) I'm trying to focus on my reasoning for starting this blog in the first place, and that was a place to catalog inspiration and document the projects we work on at our home. Which is actually a fitting time to kick-start this blog again because we have a lot of changes about to happen around here. Tomorrow we're repainting the downstairs to kick-off the changes! I received quite a few emails asking about our current downstairs color. Right now it looks like this:

and this...

I love this color, and am actually considering leaving it in the office area of the downstairs but the soft green clashes terribly with this:

When we first re-did the house, we had not a thing in it. I generally knew the color scheme I wanted to go with and chose colors that I liked. Then my grandparents started cleaning out and giving us things they no longer had room for. This painting (of the Cyclone Roller coaster in Long Beach) has been in this house (pre everything being re-done) for as long as I can remember. The rich, bold colors just don't go with the soft, pale green.

Below is the original color palette I was planning on going with. These are the colors I always gravitate to for myself. But, as you can see, they just don't go with our painting - and the painting stays. Luckily, I'm flexible and love many different colors.

{Waterleaf Interiors}

Sadly, I absolutely love our current color and somehow misplaced the name. We have an organized binder full of all of the different things in our house (finishes, plumbing fixture brands and models, maintenance manuals, warranties, etc.) and somehow with all of that organization the color for our downstairs never made it in.

I will most likely have to wait to take photos this weekend and will post the after photos then! It won't be a super dramatic change but it definitely will no longer be green.

Home Sweet Home

....for the week at least. To leave this place is going to be difficult to say the least. It is absolutely breathtaking here. It's quaint, historic, and simple. I have so much to share but I have to start with our humble abode that we're calling home for the week. Like, many of the homes here - it has a name: Treetops. Named for its' perch on a hill just grazing the treetops and revealing a sweeping view of the Atlantic. Welcome to Treetops.

The house was built in 1910 and functioned as a "tea house and ladies gift shop." The last part is in parenthesis as the current owner, Eric Drey who also happens to be one of the founders of the town's Historic Society, as well as others speculate on evidence that the building was actually a brothel.

The layout of the house seems to lend itself to that theory. There is one large middle room, surrounded by numerous, curiously small "bedrooms."

Eric has meticulously gathered vintage and antique pieces to furnish the home. Before he left us for the week, he added that it is still a work in progress.

The layout of the house is very unique. The large center room acts as the living room, complete with the original brick fireplace. The ceiling is two stories with exposed beams.

There is a small platform with a railing that runs around the perimeter of the second story with a small room at either end.

There is one teeny, tiny bathroom at one end of the upstairs.

The walk way surrounding the the second story was put to use as a well-stocked library.

Possibly one of the best features of the house is the original floors. I don't know if you can fully tell in this picture but you can actually see through the slates in the floors to the area below.

Below is the staircase leading up to the second floor.

The kitchen has the original wood, slat siding. No back-splash needed.

Although I don't believe that the lights are original to the house, they are definitely appropriate for the era.

It's going to be beyond difficult to say goodbye to Cape Cod, and our little house.

For anyone who is thinking about a vacation to Cape Cod I would HIGHLY suggest looking into renting a house. We went back and forth between a hotel and a house and by the time we did a little number crunching, a house made the most sense. There are six of us, which means approximately 18 meals a day. The house gave us the ease to cook - which was actually a ton a fun!

We traded off eating dinner on the enclosed porch and the family sized pine table.

Thank you all for your Cape Cod suggestions. I think we've done just about everything that was suggested. (I'll post pictures of those next!) The only thing we will be leaving without doing, is a trip to Nantucket. I'm really bummed but that just means we'll have to come back! : )

Cape Cod

I'm popping in for a quick post and hello from.....Boston! I don't know how I didn't manage to post on this earlier. My sister graduated from her master's program at Salem State this week and the whole family made it out to celebrate! We've been in Boston where Heather lives for the last two days and tomorrow AM we're packing up the car and heading to CAPE COD for a week!!! I have never been and I'm so incredibly excited. If I had to describe my personal design style I would have to say Cape Cod is it.

This definitely isn't the time of year for lounging on the beach, but that's just fine! We have tons of exploring planned.

I can't wait to soak up every last minute and load up on inspiration!

I've gotta run! David has never been to the East Coast and we can't leave Boston without a trip to Fenway Park. The Red Socks are playing the Cubs and we're squeezing in a trip!

If anyone has any tips or must-visits in Cape Cod I'd love to hear them!

Movie Star Furniture

Let's try this again......

A few days ago I received a message from Bianca informing me that my blog (or Photobucket I should say) was having some issues. I was out and about and only had my phone on me, so in a moment of panic I just deleted the entire last post I had done. Come to find out, it was actually my entire blog that was having issues. So, I'm now RE-writing that post. For those of you who read the post (sans pictures) hopefully it's somewhere close to the original.

Last week we had a visit at the store from two of our vintage furniture dealers. They are such fun guys with one of the most fun jobs. They, as always, pulled out all kinds of fun pieces but when they brought out one piece in particular, my heart almost fell out of my chest. It was the most perfect old pine table.

These guys have been granted special access to movie production studios, where they go in and clean out old movie props. The pieces are actual vintage pieces, they just aren't being used anymore.

The studios track the pieces with bar coded stickers. The fun part is, the guys always leave the stickers on.

My little pine table starred in some long-lost Dreamworks movie somewhere in its' lifetime. Truth be told - the first thing I checked when I got home was which production studio was behind any Nancy Meyer movie....unfortunately, not Dreamworks. The mystery continues...

This next picture is for you, Janet! Here's a wide-angle look at our entry : )

I was having a little "girl's night out" at our house and decided to spruce up our entry with some fresh flowers. It's Ranuncula season right, and with the Ranuncula fields right up the street - they're everywhere!

Also in full bloom right now - our lemon tree! It's the one thing I can actually grow. We have so many that I'm literally filling random bowls around our house.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and thank you for sticking with me through my technical difficulties!