Little Chicago Bungalow

My son Isaac is 15 months old and is a little over 2 1/2 feet high. As short as that sounds he’s tall for his age but way too short to sit at the typical kids table. To give you an idea of Isaac’s scale, the tabletop should be 14″ high and the chair seat 7″.

Above is little Isaac sitting at his new shorter Latt Table + Chair. I rubber banded the legs of the chairs together to form a bench for more stability and surface area to climb. Corner guards are a must as Isaac slips and bashes into things quite often.

Hello, Chicago! It’s way too early for most of you to be up but I have a backlog of projects to share with you! For starts I want to share a sneak peak of how I finally chose to dress our front windows.

Above is a photograph of our windows in progress during last summer as you can see the sun, warmth and green outside which is entirely lacking in the beginning of March. It took me a long time to finally come up with a privacy solution for our living room as it had to fulfill the following criteria:

• Fit the architecture of the windows
• Clean and minimal style
• Easy to clean
• Provide privacy and at the same time allow the natural light to pour in
• Be affordable (Custom shades are ridiculously expensive! A simple shade from Home Depot or the Shade Store will cost me $150 and up, each.)
• Easy to make and/or install myself.

Yes, that’s frosted window film you see there and it’s not just for bathrooms.

I don’t have a great overall image of the finished windows but this is a close up of what it looked like after Thundersnow Chicago 2011.

I can’t believe it! -This is the third winter in our little Chicago bungalow! Today marks the first day of December and Hanukkah. To celebrate we will be lighting the Menorah tonight. I am super excited. I even pulled out my winter boots, tromped outside in the snow and collected a few branches to make a simple Xmas Tree.

Above are a few jingle bells hung on our front door.

Just a few snap shots before the baby arrives (April 5th or so).

When Adam and I announced that we were pregnant, his mom had given us about 20+ children’s books as a surprise. Over the last year she had been collecting some of Adam’s favorite books from when he was little and saving them just for this occasion. Adam is going to kill me for telling you this, but when he opened the gift from his mom, he about cried. -Anyhow it was one of the most thoughtful and creative gifts ever.

Since then, we’ve been given so many beautiful children’s books and I want to display them in a way where the covers would be appreciated (versus the spines). And since we’re doing up the baby room now, I thought this would be the perfect solution.

UPDATE: I hung a mini version of the open face book shelves shown above. You can see a sneak peak of the baby room right here.

• The 2 shelves are Ikea Ribba Picture Ledges for $14.99 each
• Crib is Ikea Sniglar Crib for $79.99
• Black + white fabric is from Ikea for $3.99/yard on clearance
• Horse is from Plan Toys and was given as a gift by Jen
• Books + basket of books were all gifts by friends and family

Adam and I are expecting our first baby this April and I am having a lot of fun thinking of ways to make my office into a baby friendly room!

From top row, left to right:

• Marimekko fabric panel stash. -Perfect for the wall above the crib.
• Beaded cord paired with a simple white paper lantern
• Square crib sheet / Lotta Jansdotter fabric to make a nursing pillow
• Moby wrap blanket in forest
• Chevron crib sheet by Dwellstudio
• Hable Construction storage bushel in charcol
• Napkins that would make a great tabbie blanket
• Play toys stacking cone

Emeline Chair + Tufted Leather Ottoman

Classic buttery soft seating that I absolutely love. Yes, I know it’s so much leather and totally not vegan friendly.

Battersea Sofette

A sneak peak of our Fica Xmas Tree, decorated with ornaments from my husband’s childhood. My parents had this tree since I was little and gave it to me a few years ago. I love it.

Plaid blanket tree skirt + an early bird present.

More holiday decoration ideas brewing here.

Originally I wanted to replace our interior and exterior doors with salvaged pieces that were worn, textured and full of character. My hunt for the perfect doors led me to expensive antique shops like Salvage One + Architectural Artifacts to economical non-for-profits like the Rebuilding Exchange.

I found that no two doors measured the same in dimension due to natural weathering + warping, but differed more so because of different standards + building codes. There have been so many beautiful pieces I’ve fallen in love with that are just a tad too big or small for our door openings.

So why not just make the perfect door fit? Changing the size of a door opening means re-framing wall studs, which I really don’t want to do. Also, hanging a door into an egress is somewhat of a more detailed job than anticipated. -Especially when it involves carving out a mortise into the jam for the hinges and trimming a not so square vintage door to fit.

Solution: New Shaker flat panel doors stained to match our dark brown floors. What do you think of the designs below?!

There are so many options for door hardware, but these two are my favorites:

…because,

Geisha cat will destroy all plant matter in the house within a matter of seconds
+
I like to see plants eye to eye.