Let’s get one thing straight. New York is the fucking shit. It just is. And if you don’t agree with me, you need to get your head checked.

I landed last night and will be shooting here all week. I absolutely love photoshoots even when they are in LA (and I pretty much hate LA), so when they take place in NYC, I kinda sorta feel like my heart is going to pound right out of my chest.

I’m staying at The Standard in the meatpacking district. This is the kind of hotel where the chick who checks you in looks like Giselle, a pay per view movie costs $14.95 and your room looks out at Diane Von Furstenberg’s store and home. Call me shallow, but I eat this shit up. You wanna know what else I eat up? Get ready for it…..

The fact that I saw Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick walking down the mother f-ing sidewalk just blocks from my hotel last night! I am a huge fan of Scott Disick (I know, weird). I love his eyebrows and his sarcastic sense of humor and the fact that he can pull of seersucker pants. I am also a closeted Kardashian fan in general so this whole sighting just about made me wee my pants.

Alright, I’ve got a call time to make. I put together some posh delights that I would deck out my Manhattan pad with if I had one. Stay tuned the rest of this week for Color Me Carla Takes New York!

1) doutzen hide 2) wood and iron chandelier 3) greyhound statue 4) pandora box 5) gold leaf table 6) elias svedberg chair for knoll

Word to your mother.

Today we are here to talk about nooks. Not the kind babies suck on, but the kind you cozy up in, sip coffee in and read US Weekly in while your bearded hubby cooks up a delicious brekkie for you.

So get this. I flew out to LA (for my work trip) a day early so I could scour all of the vintage furniture shops LA has to offer. I had this vision in my head of all these quirky, beautiful, well maintained odds & ends sitting in resale shops just WAITING for me to fly out and rescue them from the land of fake boobs, smog and fake boobs. I even emailed stylist Emily Henderson and she gave me a nice list of places to hit up.

But the shopping day was a total bust. I found a few rad pieces at Inheritance, but sadly not enough to warrant hiring a shipping company to get them back to Minnesota. Other than that, everything I saw was just picked over mid century modern stuff, and I can't say I'm a huge fan of that style.

Okay then. Where am I going with this? Here's where.

Enter Jack. He emails me a Craigslist listing yesterday with the perfect bench/table/corner combo that we can use for our soon-to be-breakfast nook (aka “cozy corner”). For a mere $150. It's the perfect size, perfect clean shape, just perfect. It's currently a glossy wood finish, but we will sand her down and have her sprayed/enameled white along with the kitchen cabinets. I'm pumped. Jack saved the day. Breakfast nooks rule.

via la dolce vita

via pop and glam (love the tulip table!)

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Here I am! I bet you logged on this morning and were like, “Hey! it's past 7:30am Central Standard Time and Color Me Carla hasn't done her blog post yet!”. Well guess what, suckas… I'm in LA! So I'm living a couple hours behind today. Yes indeedy, I am out here for a photoshoot and enjoying every second of my posh hotel room. Such a nice break from the nasty-ass bathroom I've been getting ready in these past few weeks back home.

My heart is pumpin' real fast today because as I write this, the crew back in Orono is demo-ing our house! Yahooooo, today is Day 1! I'm excited to get back and see the dumpster full of the gross carpet, ugly light fixtures and old tile that I've been cursing for the past month.

Below is our plan for the guest bathroom (or if you wanna sound fancy, the “powder room”). Like I said last week, we will be moving the claw foot tub up to the master bath, so the guest bath will consist of a glass shower (white subway tile, black grout), a pedestal sink aaaaaaand… a barn door! Hey! What's a BARN DOOR doing in a HOUSE, that's cray cray! Well, the room is so small, that opting for a sliding door will be a great space saver, and it looks tiiight. Happy Monday, I'm off to the studio, yo.

(GOLD!) showerhead, pretty soap, wallpaper, black hex tile (for the floor)

Boo-urns, I missed a post yesterday. We were going to talk about plans for the guest bathroom… so stay tuned for that one on Monday. Today we are here to talk about CROWN MOLDING!

Among my list of obsessions (windex, black olives, eyebrows) is crown molding. I became particularly conscience of good/bad crown molding and trim when we sold our last house. As we moved furniture away from the walls and cleaned the place, I noticed how the base had been painted over like 72 times. There were cracks in it, drips of paint, dust hardened on… barf. As you will see in the photos below, crisp white crown and base can really make a room look polished and posh.

Sooo… we have picked out new crown, base, casing, etc for the whole place. This will be extremely labor intensive (or so I hear) and take weeks to complete. But it seems like the perfect finishing touch after all of the other work we're having done. We're also getting the wood floors refinished so they will no longer be frickin' yellowy-tan-beige but rather a nice rich brown with lots-o-grain. It will be the perfect contrast to the white base.

Enjoy these photos and I'll catch you pumpkin pies on the flip side!

via apartment therapy
Here is the photo I took to the lumber place … so this is how it should look when it's all done.

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See how nice the dark walls and floor look with the thick crown molding?

via this is glamorous
Very pretty crown but too ornate for the Fahdens.

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This is the floor color we're going for.

Luckily our kitchen is really not in that bad of shape. I love the layout (nice and open with an island and bar/overhang) and the high ceilings. It's just in need of a little sprucing up…

The cabinets are white… errr kinda yellow, so they will be getting re-enameled with a nice bright white (and new hardware, of course). The counters are just white (kinda yellow) laminate so we're replacing them with a pretty white/grey swirly marble (which calls for a new drop-in sink and faucet, or course). Originally we were going to continue the marble up the wall to serve as a backsplash BUT my friend, Allison, shared an amazing tile site with me last week so we are reconsidering. I ordered a sample of the black and white tile below, so that might be added to the mix to spice things up.

Other than that, it's just a matter of replacing the ginormous, hideous, offensive, gaudy pendants currently hanging all over the place. We're doing these clean and minimal pendants over the kitchen sink and island, then the mongo woven chandelier over the kitchen table. The chandelier will go nicely with the super-saturated vintage rug (for under the table) that I purchased last week from “my dealer” in St. Paul. Oh, and the floors are getting redone throughout, but we'll get to that later this week!

Ta!

1) saigon chandelier 2) franklin pendant 3) marrakesh tile 4) bridge faucet (still trying to convince Jack that we should go with form over function… he wants a single handle)

When we verrrry first looked at this house, we knew right away that we’d need to add a master bath. Since the place was built in 1920, there have been four additions made to the original house and it is beyond me why not a single one of the previous owners didn’t add a proper master bath. But I won’t complain too much because that means Jack and I get to pick out everything from scratch!

Here’s the plan for the brand new master bath which will be adjoined to our new master bedroom and a …… drumroll ……. walk-in closet!

We’ve got a beauty of a cast iron claw foot tub hanging out in the downstairs bathroom which will be getting moved up to the master and used as a soaking tub. It sorely needs a nice refinishing and new plumbing fixtures, but other than that I love it’s simple shape and cute little black feet. I’ve loved this fun ostrich wallpaper ever since seeing it here last year. It will be the perfect compliment to the rest of the predominately white room. Also in the mix is a rustic wood dresser which we will be using as a vanity. Atop it will sit a clean white vessel sink and a vintage-inspired wall mount faucet. Throw in some cute blue-green hex tile for the floor, simple wall sconces, some pretty soap and you’ve got yourself a prettaaaay sweet suite (see what I did there?).

There will also be a chandelier above the tubby poo but I haven’t picker ‘er out yet. Oh, and a glass shower with a couple-o-marble walls!

Anyhoo, here ya go! Day Two of the Fahden’s new casa!

1) ostrich wallpaper 2) foam bath 3) wall sconce 4) lavatory faucet 5) atwood chest 6) hex tile in moss

S’up! I’m back, baby! I’ve had a great two weeks off from work, blogging and life in general… but am really eager to get back at it. I’m especially anxious because the demo on our house starts a week from today! I thought we’d be done by now – yeah right! Our tiny little bedroom/bathroom remodel has turned into a full-blown-entire-house-overhaul. We’re doing everything from the floors, to the bannister to the toilets to the…

Instead of ramble on and on about the huge laundry list that’s going to make our house basically unlivable for the next 6 weeks, I decided I will share some deets each day this week so you poopsie pies can really get an idea of what’s in store. Is this gonna be fun or what!?

Today I’m sharing the overall color palette/look and feel…

I’ve had my eye on these Tom Dixon Copper Shade Pendants for over a year, so we finally ordered three to cluster together in our living room. They are gonna look amazeballs hanging from our super high vaulted ceilings! Next up: Jack and I made a decish yesterday on the tile we are going to use to surround our fireplace (which will sit beneath a large reclaimed wood mantel). I need to call up my buddy Nelton at Exquisite Surfaces today to order these bad boys since they will take 6 weeks to arrive. Also included below are a couple of swatches I’m awaiting from John Robshaw, the color of our new Room and Board sofa, a graphic rug we’re considering for in front of the fireplace and just two of the six paint samples we currently have up on just about every wall in the house.

Stay tuned this week for more specific plans for our new house. And hey, I missed you guys!

Let’s hear it for leopard print! And zebra, giraffe or any animal print, for that matter. I am a huge fan of spicing up an otherwise neutral textile (window panels, rugs, pillows) with a tonal animal print.

It is for this reason that amongst the mix of fabric samples I checked out yesterday was a beautiful velvety leopard print swatch that I’m considering using for our living room window panels. Jack said it reminds him of Jersey Shore. SAY WHAT!? I think guys associate leopard print with hookers and cheap tricks so this post is to prove ‘em wrong.

Look how glam and luxurious a touch of leopard can make a room!

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via this is glamorous (my friend Quinn is doing this to her stairs!)

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Last week I came up with the idear to surround our fireplace with vintage inspired tile and then mount a reclaimed wood mantel above. Jack signed off on the plan so I’ve been frantically trying to track down some beautiful tile in hopes that our builder can handle this project while they’re tearing the rest of the house apart. I’ve found some fabulous options over the last couple of days and samples are on their way!

Here are some inspiring photos to give you an idea of the look I’m going for…

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via delight by design

And here are some of the tile samples I ordered… so purdy!

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