I love being barefoot. I often padded around our Connecticut home shoeless or when it was cold, with a pair of warm socks. It’s amazing how much cleaner your rugs and floors stay! Living in California, I’m barefoot year round. I love the feel of our oak floors on my feet and the soft cotton rug in my bedroom. To further enhance the serene, comfortable, casual, organic vibe in our homes on both coasts, I keep pattern to a minimum and make…
I almost didn’t post this piece today. It seems that every time I turn on the news, another horrific attack has happened and everything else seems trivial in comparison. But I think in my own way, by creating beautiful, comfortable places to call home, it makes me feel safer. Our homes are our sanctuaries away from all the atrocities happening in the world. And isn’t it nice to have an oasis if even for a little while? So here is…
I was thrilled to be asked by the lovely ladies at Holl and Lane magazine to write an Interiors post for their online blog. Holl and Lane’s motto is: We are more than a magazine; we are a community of women that share our hearts with boldness. We believe in telling stories boldly and vulnerably, to cultivate honest community and authentically inspire home and add flavor to everyday life. They were looking for me to fulfill the authentically inspire home niche!…
I’m a bit of a pillow hoarder. There, I’ve admitted it. Does it mean I’m going to change my hoarding ways? Not anytime soon! I’ve had this problem for quite sometime and it became even worse once I discovered Etsy. I have pillows and their assorted covers in every closet in our smallish home. They make it so easy to change your decor in a snap! One day about a year ago I was scrolling through Instagram and I came…
As many of you might know, I’ve spent this week helping my parents with their new farmhouse in Vermont. How lucky am I to have parents who still hike, ski, and build houses? They decided that it was time for a change and sold their little place in Vermont and got right to work on building a new abode in East Rupert. After selling group insurance for 16 years from 1966-1981 (and working in the World Trade Center when it opened in 1973)…
In the tiny beachside town of Summerland, in a quaint 1920’s Victorian cottage, sits a home and garden boutique called botanik. This is another go-to destination for me and for all who know about this incredible place. What my favorite local shops have in common, are the wonderful, helpful, cheerful people who own and work at them. Botanik is no exception.…
For those of you who follow me, you know I moved to California from a traditional home in New England… a 1917 stone and stucco Connecticut cottage to be exact. I grew up in older homes with lots of character and even lived in a historic brownstone building in NYC when I was first married. “Modern” just wasn’t part of my vocabulary. When we decided to buy a house in Santa Barbara, I was at first drawn to the older Spanish homes that…
I love a good vignette. Simply put by Australian NZ House & Garden writer Janet Dunn, “In the world of interior design, a vignette is a small, pleasing picture formed by grouping several objects…an arrangement that tells a story about you and your home.” A good vignette leaves you wanting to see more. It can be made up of collections, vacation finds, flea market treasures or family heirlooms curated over time. A vignette can be outdoors, on shelves, mantels, or tabletops. As a dear friend…