Thursday, May 9th, 2013
No, I didn’t fall down a rabbit hole or get buried alive by the giant piles of snow that fell this winter spring in Minnesota.
I realize it’s been a while since I posted. Ok, I guess that’s an understatement as I see my last post was last June, before we had finished updating our floors. But I have a really good excuse, I swear. Wanna see it? You will forgive me instantly, I promise.
This is Eleanor Mieko Slack. Born July 30, 2012.
I’ve been working over the past 9 months, but with the little bit of free time I have, I’ve chosen to spend it with this amazing little girl rather than creating new blog posts. The time has flown by, and we are having a blast. But I also want to reconnect with my readers and share all the new design inspiration and products that I’ve discovered recently.
So here is my quick version of Eleanor’s first 9 months, to get it out of my system, and then we’ll get back to design. Though I’ll probably have to post an occasional cute kiddo photo because I can’t resist. And I’m a new mom, so what do you expect?
How quickly they grow! She’s only 7 weeks old here but look at all that hair! It was cool to see how soon her personality started shining through.
3 months old and already visiting a job site to help me during a window treatment installation. She was so happy to be my design assistant for the day.
She was sitting up by herself at 5 months, and then wanted to get back to practicing standing as much as possible once she’d mastered sitting. Here she is at 6 months showing off her balance skills and love of bright colors. (We dubbed this hoodie her baby camo, since it went with every bright piece of clothing.)
I don’t think you can read the shirt in this photo, but it says “My Mom is a Fox.” When I was a toddler I had a t-shirt that read “Foxy Baby.” This is her version of that, though I think my mom saved that t-shirt so we can put Eleanor in it too. She’s 8 1/2 months old and so happy to be cruising and walking around (with our hands, of course.)
Yesterday she flashed those new 2 front teeth at me, and you can see what a happy kid we scored.
Insider tip: if you get a chance to meet her, she’ll think you are awesome if you do Patty Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider or Wheels on the Bus. You’re welcome.
Aren’t you impressed how few photos I included? My folder of favorite photos has 242 images right now, so be glad we aren’t in the era when people invited you over to watch a slide show on their dining room wall. Would that take 4 carousels or more? Do you even remember those?
Alright, thanks for indulging me. Next, an update on those floors from last summer. They look fabulous and have been a great improvement, just as we hoped. And I’ll make sure Eleanor photo bombs at least one picture.
What kinds of posts would you like to see from me moving forward? I have some new ideas, but I’d love to know what kind of information you enjoy the most. New posts coming this year: 3 things I’m loving, behind the scenes project photos, innovative products, etc.
Tags: baby, Eleanor, interior design
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Friday, June 8th, 2012
Happy Friday! I’m headed over to the ASID Showcase Home for the last weekend of tours. I can’t believe how the past month has flown by! I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to tour the house and support our organization as well as the charities that benefit from this event.
I wanted to start your Friday off right with some beautiful things that have caught my eye recently.
First, I watched a marathon of Kitchen Cousins on HGTV recently(one of the few shows on that network I can stand because they do real construction with real budgets and show their problem solving in action. Though I don’t understand clients letting them pick the backsplash with no input.) I’m impressed with their building knowledge, creative reuse of historic building materials, and well designed kitchens.
I like this kitchen they did for one of the designer’s parents. They completely flipped the layout of the kitchen, opened up the traffic flow, and utilized a lovely mix of materials. The tobacco stained upper cabinets are lovely. Mixed with the white lacquer lower cabinets and a handmade Moroccan backsplash, it’s a modern yet eclectic mix. My husband dug the wall graphic on the far wall.
The fact that they do the majority of their work in Hoboken, NJ (just across the river from Manhattan) makes the show extra special to me since my aunt lived there for decades and I’d spend my breaks during college hanging out with her there. (I went to Vassar College, which is 1.5 hrs north of the city, up the Hudson River.)
These orange accessories would fit in lovely with the concept I developed for my deck (see the post here). And the nautical hook, blanket and basket seem so perfect for a Cape Cod retreat I can dream of having (though the commute there is rough on summer weekends – round-about anyone?)
This kitchen has a lovely mix of classic white cabinetry and well worn vintage details and an abundance of natural light. The designer really played with scale (the etageres on the back counter, the chandelier) in a unique way that really takes this room beyond the typical.
The color palette, fabric selections, paneling, wall color and high ceilings in this room are so different than anything I’ve seen in a while, and that’s so refreshing! Look how the designers mixed mid-century armchairs with a Jansen style daybed, French iron side tables and Murano glass lamps with a bone inlay table. What an inviting solarium (though I think any solarium would be lovely with all that light spilling in)! The rest of this D.C. town house is equally well designed, so check it out if you have access to a copy of the May issue of House Beautiful. Or just click through to the article on HB’s website. The kitchen backsplash is amazingly transformative.
Finally, as promised a few weeks ago, here is the page featuring Fox Interiors in the new Mercury Mosaics catalog! For more about this local company, see this blog post and their website.
That’s all for this week, or this post would be a mile long. Next week I’ll share a soon-to-be completed bathroom project that’s ALMOST done and looking fabulous.
Photos:
1. Bruncon.com – Brunelleschi Construction
2, 3, 4. House Beautiful May 2012
5. Mercury Mosaics 2012 catalog
Tags: Brunelleschi Construction, Cape Cod, House Beautiful, interior design, Kitchen, Kitchen Cousins, living room, Mercury Mosaics, nautical, orange, solarium, vintage, white
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Friday, March 30th, 2012
Happy Friday! Here at Fox Interiors I’m always on the hunt for something beautiful to enhance my current and future projects. This week I stopped by Mercury Mosaics, run by my dear friend of 8 or so years, Mercedes Austin. We met at the annual Minnesota Tile Festival at the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis back when she was running her business out of her live/work studio in St. Paul and I was just starting a business designing custom throw pillows. All these years later, she has 5 kilns, a great team of tile craftsmen, and an inspiring design studio not far from me in Northeast Minneapolis.
I love visiting the studio because they are always developing new color blends and tile designs that showcase just how many possibilities there are when designing with their handmade tile. I’ve shared finished projects of theirs before with you (first see the process and then the finished results for this stunning bathroom), but I thought you might enjoy seeing the different styles that caught my eye this week.
The bubbles with organic edge field tiles is one of their most recognizable designs, and one of their most popular. I love the color variation in the Denim blue tiles. Did you know every tile is cut and painted with glaze by hand?!
This board was created for a client trying to decide between two different colors of Stix to anchor their Bubbles. Notice they were going to have the Bubbles floating on the wall without all field tile above. A great way to make an impact (and save a little money). Which would you chose?
Here you can see how a band of Bubbles can be framed out with liner pieces to create a focal point, like over a stove, while the rest of the backsplash could be in a white field tile. Throw in a few clusters of Bubbles around the room to continue the theme. This is good for both the budget and the design. Check out their portfolio online and you’ll see some beautiful examples of this concept in practice.
The Bubble Grid Stagger is not utilized as much as some of their other styles, but I was really struck by how great it looked on this mirror. The Olive Green glaze has a nice range of variation to it, which adds interest without adding in a handful of colors. I love how the grout color becomes a strong element of the design. Imagine it with a khaki or charcoal gray grout… really changes it, doesn’t it?
The Moroccans is another fun mosaic shape, and I love this fresh color palette… so springy! It looks great in the dark reds and browns you may have seen them feature in the past, but this color palette really showcases it’s versatility.
Here are more examples of the newer color blends Mercury Mosaics is showcasing. The new leopard texture on the green Moroccans is fabulous!
You may have noticed the pricing on this panel and the mirror above. You might recognize Mercury Mosaics from their very popular Groupon classes. You get to come in and make your own art panel or framed mirror, and you even learn how to grout it yourself. It’s a super fun class, and the pieces they develop during these classes are for sale in the showroom. I love how this panel utilizes a field of Stixs and a few Bubbles that were cut on the wet saw to add additional movement to the piece. I think this could easily be recreated on a backsplash or fireplace surround.
In a similar vein, this little panel showcases the variation of the Denim glaze and I love the rings of Bubbles integrated with the field tile (I’m guessing that’s a 2×6, but Mercedes could tell you for sure).
Finally, this piece showcases Mercury Mosaics custom mosaic capabilities. I think this overlapping concentric circle design is beautiful and such a work of art. They’ve created some custom designs in the past that incorporate this style, and I’d love to see more examples.
For more examples of their work, be sure to check out their portfolio on Houzz. If you haven’t played around with the over 385,000 images in this database yet, you are going to be ADDICTED! All you need to do is set up an account with an email address, set up a couple of Ideabooks to tag your favorite images into, and then go crazy! Fox Interiors has a portfolio on Houzz as well, (search “Fox Interiors” under the Professionals category to find us) and you can see my Ideabooks if you need ideas for categories. What’s great about this site is that you can add notes to yourself about what you like in each photo so that you remember it was the light fixture or the color palette that caught your eye. Oh, and there’s an iPad & iPhone version too, especially handy when you’re bored waiting in line. =)
I also love that once you’ve created an Ideabook you can Share it with others, including… your Designer! It’s a great resource for helping you figure out your style that you can then pass to your designer to help them understand what you are looking for.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of Mercury Mosaics and Houzz!
Tags: backsplash, Bubbles, field tile, Groupon, handmade, Houzz, interior design, Mercury Mosaics, Minneapolis, tile, twin cities
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Monday, December 12th, 2011
Whether I’m shopping for clients or shopping for holiday presents, I always find things I’d love to buy for myself. Here are a few of my current favorites.
This asymmetrical Modo Chandelier from Roll and Hill was used in an inspiration board for Thanksgiving (I think it was for Dwell Studio’s contest) and I went gaga over it. (Clarification: I don’t mean I put on a red rubber dress and skyhigh platforms ala. Lady Gaga.)
The price tag is high, but I haven’t seen anything like it, and that is always prized in my world. Plus we now have a long dining room table (it arrived Saturday!) that can’t be centered under the current chandelier. Our ceiling slopes up to 2 stories, so moving the light over isn’t really an option. Therefore, an asymmetrical, long fixture like this would work well with our existing conditions.
These cute brass quails would look lovely mixed in with the art on my sideboard or creeping along our mantel between the fairy houses. Buffalo Winter on Etsy has a great selection of brass objects like this if you want to add to your collections. The deer are another favorite set of mine.
For now our Christmas stockings hang at my parents’ house since we all celebrate together at their place. But I know the day will come when we keep them at home during the pre-holiday season and then bring them over to my parents’ for the big day to be filled with goodies. When that day comes I want the right stocking hangers. These pinecone hangers from Terrain might be worthy.
I’ve been on the hunt for a great bag to use to drag my project binders, iPad, endless samples and other tools of the trade around town. Lots of pockets seems to be a key criteria, so this canvas and leather tote from Terrain falls short on that factor. But the color palette and leather accents is difficult to resist. The perfect brown leather with patina AND orange?! So tempting!
Finally, a friend passed along a link to this Etsy seller who creates iPod and iPad docking stations concealed in books.
How clever are these? The shop is rather depleted of options right now because they’ve been so popular for the holidays, so be sure to check out the Sales category on the left side to see examples of past docking station creations. Knowing my love of all things “Pride and Prejudice” sent me a link to a docking station using a beautiful copy of that book. Lovely!
This beautiful Urchin Object from Dwell Studio is another great object perfect for filling out display spaces throughout my house (or your house). I’m amazed that it’s only $18.75!
And finally, how can I resist this blanket? It was practically MADE for me! I don’t know why Dwell Studio decided to make a blanket just for me, but Thank You!
Let’s list its key design elements:
It is Orange
It has Foxes
Hello, what more do you need??
So that’s a round up of a few of my current favorite designs I’m dreaming of. What are you dreaming of treating yourself to this holiday season?
Tags: accessories, blanket, Buffalo Winter, Dwell Studio, Etsy, ipod, lighting, Roll and Hill, Terrain, tote
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Colleen Fox Slack | email: colleen@colleenfoxinteriors.com | phone: 612.868.0348
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