I’m talking about the gold and black one that’s oh-so-geometric and triangular.  I figured I’d give them an extra shout out today because they are a small up and coming Eco design company, called Happy Habitat that deserve some love.

They have a ton of different colors and patterns (as well as pillows and baby blankets) and while they aren’t cheap, they are big and oh-so-soft. Way softer than they look — not that they look hard, clearly they are blankets and not rocks, but you know how some can be itchy and bulky and stiff? Well, these aren’t.

Also, this is not a sponsored post. I just like these blankies. Grab them HERE. 

There’s been a lovely combination of things happening here lately: A. I shot my living room yesterday (with Zeke Ruelas and his assistant Gino in the pics) as a collaboration with West Elm. B. My wi-fi was out due to me trying to hide all the chords in said photo shoot (since fixed obviously) C. I’ve been under the weather, nothing to worry about but the usual blogging time has gone to sleeping time. And D (my personal favorite). The IRS is super interested in me, which is just VERY flattering, indeed. ;)

These are all sneak peeks into the shoot, which I’ll probably post next week but you know me … no promises. I’m behind on like 15 posts — all original design work, so they just take hours to write (all the linking, folks).

Meanwhile, The Fig House is dump trucking along and we are constantly designing, changing, and checking in:

And Joy’s studio is halfway done. Here’s where we are headed:

That’s just inspiration and general direction and I’m 100 percent jealous so far. But really I’m just doing it to get in good with Ruby. That two-year-old chick (below) is cool and I feel like she’ll be auditioning for best friends real soon and guess who’s going to be first in line? ‘Sright, Auntie Emily.

Hey Ruby, wanna go to the mall and get your belly button pierced at Claire’s? Cool. I’ll pick you up … Hey Ruby, wanna watch the remake of the Parent Trap without getting sad that Lindsey Lohan’s career has tanked along with her personality and eat a lot of Red Vines? Cool. Be there in ten.

I’m totally in with the two-year-old crowd, folks. It just might take a few more years of proper courting but we WILL be best friends.

Also, I finished the living room, family room, and office in this house (Grace, Graham and the parent’s bedrooms) and here’s a sneak peek into the dining room. I’m VERY excited.

Photo by Zeke Reulas.

And if you are bored pick up the new “Good Housekeeping” where there is a pretty big spread on yours truly. I took nine pieces from the flea market that were kinda garbage but had potential and remade them. Look at me refusing to use the word “up-cycle” or however you spell it.  I’ll post the story as soon as I can get to scanning it in … which sometimes takes me years.

So that’s what I’ve been up to, friends. All good things, but Bearcat is screaming for attention and my TV stories are just lining up. The RHOC don’t watch themselves, you know what I mean?

Yesterday, I got a couple emails about the rug that you couldn’t really see too well in the post, so I figured I’d feature it. Give it a little shout out, tell you a little story about said rug.

We knew we wanted something that was not crazy graphic and no bold patterns — not that I don’t like them, but if you want your bedroom to remain calm, you want to avoid big high contrast patterns. So we started looking at solids and simply couldn’t find the color we wanted; they were either too dark so they looked black, or baby blue. In a perfect world we would find an antique traditional Persian rug that was all worn and muted and beautiful but those run around $2500 for an 8′ x 10′ and that doesn’t include the time it takes to find them. So when I stumbled up on this rug I knew it would work.

NOW, listen up, folks. I do not like all over-dyed rugs — no, I don’t. It’s a massive trend right now that is definitely at a backlash point. Don’t go out and buy yourself 10 cheap hot pink or lime green over-dyed rugs. But when they are done right they are really pretty and soft and textural. You get the integrity of a handmade wool traditional rug but in the color that you want. I like it when you just get a hint of the pattern so it looks like a texture rather than a pattern, like this one. And make sure you get a color that you can live with, like this blue, totally beautiful.

When everything is new and bright, the age of the rug becomes the grounding piece in the room that has integrity. Kinda like your cool grandpa that wears leather elbow patches and has worn the same watch for 40 years.

This rug is $1,046 as an 8′ x 10′ and you can get your paws on it HERE. And Lulu And Georgia has been nice enough to extend a 20 percent discount on THEIR WHOLE SITE ’til this Friday for just you Emily readers. Just enter Emily20 as a coupon code and clean up. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out their pillows as well — VERY cute, indeed.

But first, let’s start with the very first “before.” When we got the call from these new clients, the first request was paint colors, and FAST. We had just a couple days to choose, swatch, and make final decisions about the paint in all the rooms downstairs that were under construction without seeing what they already had or having a design plan.  So yes, we had to be a bit on the safe side.

Luckily, after designing the 26 rooms on the show and 10 houses since, I have my go-to’s that everybody universally loves. So I chose my favorite gray, Benjamin Moore, Gray Owl for the room and they went for it. Phew.

So that is really where we started. The bed is great but other than that they needed everything. Stylistically they wanted it to go a little Hollywood regency, but still have it feel calm and quiet; nothing too insane and no busy patterns. They were open to any colors although they LOVE peacock blue and teal — it’s like I’m a magnet for people who love blue. I swear that it’s not always my idea. It’s just style fate.

The biggest challenge was where to put the bed. There were only two wall options. The first would be the wall that you see when you walk in and it would have made the bed really hug one side of the room, and then the bed looks straight at the door when you walk in and it made walking tight, which is fine if you need to but it’s definitely not ideal. The other wall is the window wall, and the bed doesn’t fit in between the two windows as is, so we had to come up with a solution. We decided to put extra curtains behind the bed so it kinda becomes the focal headboard wall and you don’t notice how the windows are small. It made the windows look bigger, and added so much softness behind the bed. We just floated the bed out a few inches to allow for the curtains to hang properly.

Resources: Beautiful blue Chadna rug, Lulu and Georgia. White  shams with gray border, West Elm.  Gold silk curtains, Pottery Barn. White linen duvet, Eileen Fisher for Garnet Hill (and yes, they are my favorite bedding — I’ve bought it now for 4 different clients).  Blue king pillows , HD Buttercup.  Bench at the end of the bed, vintage.  Chandelier, West Elm.

The nightstands and lamps were too small and just didn’t have much of a design point of view.

So I found those blue lamps at the flea market and it was VERY hard to give them up, the hoarder in me was chanting, but, but, but, those are miiiiiine … , but we wanted them to take up more visual space since that king bed is big. So we added these larger scale rectangular shades that made them look more modern and were a better proportion to the bed. Also, if a lamp has a rectangular or base, I say go for a rectangular shade. It instantly makes it more modern and a little more masculine.

Nightstands, vintage $750 for the pair.  Vintage lamps, flea market $200/pair. Lampshades, custom from Replacement Shades, $70 each.  Blue pitcher/vase, Crate and Barrel.  Gold bowl, Tom Dixon set of three $90.

Across from the bedroom is a high boy dresser that they already had, and I love. And we styled it up with a pretty white geode lamp from Lamps Plus and some of their books. The paintings were done by, I believe a mom or grandma of theirs, and we just had them framed/floated in simple walnut frames — something that felt traditional and modern at the same time (as opposed to like a modern white lacquer frames or ornate traditional frame).

Resources:  Dresser, vintage.  Lamp, LampsPlus $166.91, Vase, roost.  8 ball in dome, New Stone Age.  Brown leather jewerly box, Pottery Barn.  Huge bird Painting, Dwell Studios, $1195.  Antique paintings framed at Curve Line Space.

So there you have it. A master bedroom redo that makes me jealous all over.

Shoot was produced/designed and styled by me and Orlando, shot by David Tsay.  

Here are the six kids without significant others (Brian didn’t get in ’til later that day) at my little sis’s wedding. I don’t know why we posed like that. I’ll go ahead and blame it on our mother for raising us to be total weirdos.

And there we are with all the little adorable grandkids in tow at our family reunion in Wyoming, two years ago. She now has eight grandkids who adore the heck out of her.

I know I JUST posted this photo (below) last week, but I do love it so much, and my mom looks so pretty and happy in it, with her all matching, dressed-up kids. (I’m the baby on the lap.)

May I give my children the childhood that I was lucky enough to have thanks to my parents. Thanks Mom, for raising me to be incredibly productive, if not obsessive — I know I got that from her. Meanwhile, I’m not as empathetic, charitable, or as selfless as she is, but I’m hoping that maybe I will be some day. Love you, Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day to Brian’s mom, Suz. I couldn’t possibly have asked for a better mother-in-law. I’ve been in their family since I was 21 (four years now :)) and couldn’t feel more at home in their home and with them, where I am right now. :)

Off to brunch where we’ll toast to how wonderfully she (and Bob) raised Brian. I would have married him strictly for his looks and chest hair, but the fact that he is crazy nice, respectful, considerate, and charming is probably all due to his mom, Suz. So thank you. I truly won the parents-in-law lottery. Totally priceless.