MY TOP PICKS FOR BEAUTIFUL YET AFFORDABLE NEUTRAL WOOL RUGS

I recently made the move from the Hollywood Hills back to Silverlake, which has always been the apple of my eye in terms of LA neighborhoods.  We are back in our extremely walkable, family friendly, people-oriented 'hood and setting up home in a 1930s Spanish bungalow surrounded by gardens and views of palm-lined hilltops at sunset.  Geographically, happy as can be.  Personally and emotionally, you may have guessed that it involved a break-up and a fair amount of sadness and heartache.  All in the midst of the busiest time in my career and the moment-to-moment joy of mothering of my bright and precious little boy (3-year-olds slow down for no one :)  Life just takes these unexpected turns and sometimes it's all you can do just to keep up, you know?  I've been pretty open about my life on this blog in the past, so I wanted to put this out there to fill you in.  Without getting too deep, this was truly nothing that I saw coming, not by a long shot, but here I am, adjusting to my new normal and taking lots of deep breaths.  All is well, of course, and onward and upward is really the only way to do this.
So yes, I'm nesting again and settling in to a new life, and I found myself in need of a fun living room rug.  You'll be seeing the reveal of my cute Silverlake bungalow in the not-too-distant future :)  I set myself a goal of finding something wooly and tribal in roughly 8x10 or larger for right around $500 ... NOT the easiest task!  Rugs can be prohibitively expensive and since I don't carry them yet at Clad Home (it'll happen at some point) I was pretty much in the same boat on my search as all of you are.
Here's the basic vibe I'm after in my living room ... layered neutrals, lots of textiles, white backdrop, lots of natural light, some plants, warm wood tones, and a beautiful Clad Home sofa I designed just for this space and stuck a sleeper in because we don't have a guest room (this sofa and a bunch of new styles we're coming out with will be up on the website very soon, by the way.)

My living room already has a very large natural wool rug in a neutral beige tone, and I needed something with some pattern to layer on top.  So I searched around and came up with a handful of options, and then used my old trick of ordering multiple rugs on Overstock to try out and return (for free) the ones that didn't work.  Any of these would also work great layered over a sisal or jute rug.
This rug seemed like a good contender.  I needed something that would give me enough contrast against the beige wool backdrop, and bring some much needed pattern into the picture ...

In person I liked the pattern and all the tones in this rug a lot ...

This rug has been on my Pinterest boards forever.  It's a great neutral wool kilim rug that adds pattern in a perfect subtle way, and the variation of colors in the weave of the wool is really beautiful ...

I'd had such good success with this well-priced rug that I used in my Little Tokyo Loft project that I added it to the order as well.  I had the benefit of knowing that it's not really gold in person, it's a much better neutral beige tone, and I love all the little black accents throughout ...

Having always loved Moroccan style Beni Ourain rugs, this shaggy wool rug looked great to me.

And another affordable Beni Ourain option ...

I'm including this rug that was actually cancelled from my order because it went out of stock before it shipped, but these things always come and go and come again, so you might find it in stock at a later date.  I didn't see it in person, but it had good reviews, I liked the pattern, the price was very right, and I'm betting it could be good ...

This neutral tribal motif rug is gorgeous, I think ... 

Basically, there were zero out-and-out rejects in this whole group, which is why I'm psyched to be able to share a selection of really decent, really affordable neutral wool rugs with you.  Not the easiest thing to come by!  They were ALL very attractive and I would definitely have used any of them for the right project.  But since I could only pick one ...
The shaggy diamond pattern wool rug was the clear winner for me.  It's well-made, with so much beautiful texture.  Notice how even the flat-woven background of the rug has a small tight diamond pattern to it?  The two-tone tassels are beautiful as well.  I feel like this rug gives me the whole Moroccan Beni Ourain flavor that I love (which always cost well over $1000 and usually that x4) with the added benefit of being more kid-friendly because it's not a purely white background.

Sorry for the cropped-in teaser shots :)  Many more photos to come as soon as I have my house all finished up and ready to reveal.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
xoxo,

SNEAK PEEK OF OUR LITTLE TOKYO LOFT PROJECT

We wrapped up the loft project and photographed it a few weeks back and I'm dying to share it with you.  BUT it gets published soon and the name of the game is that we have to keep it under wraps until then, so in the meantime here are a couple sneak peeks from our shoot.

I promise to make up for this teaser with a FULL "before & after" rundown including all DIYs and shopping sources just as soon as I can divulge them.  And of course you'll be the first to know as soon as our little feature gets published!

In the meantime, check some of the cool details ...

This, my friends, is a gorgeous handmade walnut media cabinet designed by yours truly and available now through our Clad Home store!

Same goes for the custom bar cabinet below ...

Actually, I first met my client 4 or 5 years ago when she came to me (on a word-of-mouth referral) for a custom sofa.  We designed a sweet teal tufted mid-century-esque one that was our jumping off point a few years later when she was ready to tackle the entire space.  

I'd never designed a loft space before and I jumped at the chance to work on such a unique project.  It was a converted 1920s Art Deco building that was once the Westinghouse elevator factory. 

12' ceilings, incredible floor-to-ceiling steel windows, exposed concrete columns, downtown skyline views, and the natural light pouring in was insane ... every designer's dream.

Can't wait to show off the whole space soon!

xoxo,

UPDATE ON OUR CLAD HOME RENOVATION

You guys I am buried right now.  Absolutely buried.  I know I've gone down to 2 posts a week instead of my usual 3, and I apologize!  SO I wanted to share a bit of what's going on right now lest you think I'm completely slacking off.  Because I'm not!  I'm just swamped with getting the new office and store off the ground, and haven't been able to come up for air very much these past few weeks.

 

The renovation of our store is on track to be completed this week (which of course should have been last week, but you know how these things go.)  This means that next week we move everything from my design studio into the new space, and then spend the next few weeks getting the store all installed and up to snuff so we can open our doors to the public!

Not sure how many of you will be interested in these nitty gritty progress photos, but since this is the culprit that's keeping me away from you, here it is.  A pretty, styled decor post this is not, nor is it even a proper "before & after" post, which will come later on of course.

 

Here's where we're at with the new Clad Home space:

 

 

But first, do you remember where we started?  Someone before me had done a number on this place and it wasn't good, not good at all. 

My primary intent was basically to strip down the space and return it to it's most basic state: a bright, clean shell with white walls, raw concrete floors, and lots of natural light bouncing around. 

We're embracing the semi-industrial feel of the exposed AC ducting on the ceiling, the imperfect, marred concrete floors, and the electrical conduit that snakes all over the walls.  The "guts" of this building, usually something concealed within the walls, are visible everywhere, giving it a very utilitarian vibe.

We added a full height wall with a door and transom window between the front retail space and the back office.  The glass door and transom share a lot of natural light between the two zones.

I'm really excited to see some of our new the lighting go in tomorrow which will include 3 groovy wall sconces mounted across this wall above where the ladder is, meant to be the desk wall.
 

The bathroom's been completely gutted and the tilings starts tomorrow...

I'm very pleased with the look of this floor tile I found on Overstock.com.  It mimics the look of authentic cement encaustic tile, though these are actually just ceramic with a good matte finish. 

 Remember the bathroom mood board I mocked up?

Between all of that and the rad solid brass vintage toilet paper holder and door hooks I scored on Etsy, this little bath might be one of the things I'm most excited about!  It's just so satisfying to see a good transformation go down ... because you guys, remember the grossness?

The utility sink I designed is coming along, although  unfortunately we've had big complications with the plumbing, and now it looks like there will have to be a bunch of extra exposed plumbing piped cluttering the wall beneath the sink.  Ugh.  In hindsight it may have been better to go with an enclosed sink cabinet that would have concealed it all, but like I said, I'm trying to embrace the industrial vibe and the imperfections here. 

The doors have all been painted black, and today I sourced some surprisingly decent brass doorknobs at Home Depot.  I'll be sure to share which ones I got once they're installed and I can show them to you! 

I know a lot of people are busy changing out all the brass doorknobs in their houses, but I love the look of brass on black, and I was surprised at how nice-looking the inexpensive hardware store knobs I found are. 

via

All in all we've come a long way, and we still have a long way to go!  Please hang in there with me.  I have a lot of client projects in the works right now too, so I promise it will all be worth the wait :)  I'll be coming at you with more reveals than you know what to do with.  And the store, if all goes well, should knock your socks off.

xoxo,

BEAUTIFUL BURLWOOD AND LES TOUCHES LEOPARD (PLUS A ROUND-UP OF LES TOUCHES LOOKALIKES)

Lately I've been giving you little sneak peeks of a beautiful chinoiserie living room I'm working on.  The project began with a kitchen remodel last summer, which my sweet client (who has now become a friend) described as having "changed her entire life." :)  Hooray!  How much do we love hearing that!?

So eventually the project expanded to include to the breakfast nook, and the living room, and now it's time to make some design decisions for the dining room.  We recently purchased a stunning Milo Baughman burlwood china cabinet to sit alongside a vintage Heywood Wakefield dining set. 

The china cabinet is actually a 2-piece unit that could one day be used as a credenza like in this beautiful vignette ...

(all photos via our project pinterest board)

My client is British though, so she wants to use the full hutch to display her china of course!

The burled wood is just gorgeous.  A word of advice ... if you ever come upon some vintage burlwood furniture for a deal, buy it!  It's so special, and always a showstopper that works with almost any style of decor.  Just look!

I especially love the warm, glowing, honey wood tones paired with a restrained black and white color palette ...

See what I mean?  That leopard spot + burlwood combo is hot!

Which brings me to the classic and much-adored Brunschwig and Fils "Les Touches" fabric.  I'm thinking it might be just the thing to put on our dining room chairs.  We already have a lot of color and pattern going on in the living room and breakfast nook which adjoin the dining room on either side, so the fabric we use on the dining chairs needs to be a "bridge" fabric.  Something a bit neutral, without being boring.

Remember my last post about mixing and matching prints and patterns where I talked about leopard spots acting as a neutral when paired with other prints?  I think "Les Touches" may be my answer.  How pretty are all these leopard spot fabrics in these rooms!? 

(all photos via our project pinterest board)

In fact does anyone know what fabric this is in this dining room?  I'd love to know!

Yearning for that iconic "Les Touches" look?  It doesn't come cheap, so just for fun I rounded up a bunch of lookalikes at all different price points.

 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 

5 // 6 // 7 // 8

My fabric swatches are on the way!