Author: Orblogdo

Things at Londo Lodge have been simultaneously serene and chaotic. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I feel really at peace here while also feeling completely overwhelmed by my daily life. Living here has definitely come with a learning curve and taken some getting used to. I like all the chores involved: tending the fire, cleaning out the ashes, splitting and stacking wood, dealing with the trash and getting rid of construction rubbish, cleaning up the house after every single project I do, figuring out shopping and laundry and bills meanwhile trying to juggle a number of…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas People think that once I’ve finished designing a home my work there is done. But something many clients don’t anticipate is that over time their home’s styling can fall off. Accessories get moved, things break, people give stuff away. Unless you live in a museum where no one touches anything, it’s likely that you home needs some styling help from time to time. I tend to do this seasonally, as there are items and accessories I like seeing at some times during the year (such as earthy, seasonal leaves in autumn) that I don’t want to…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear Diary, Remember that one time like ten million years ago when I told you I was renovating my parents’ kitchen? RAISE YOUR HAND IF IT’S BEEN SO LONG THAT YOU FORGET ABOUT IT. ALSO RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU’RE LIKE “DUH I REMEMBER BUT WHY IS HE HIDING THIS KITCHEN FROM US???” Well, a few reasons. The project began almost two years ago during the holidays when I started showing my parents renderings I’d made of what their kitchen could look like if we expanded it onto a deck previously occupied by an awkward deck….

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Dear Diary, At long last! My super exciting laundry room makeover with Grove Collaborative and Method Home is ready to share! The family that won our glamorous makeover is Ta’Shiba and Dave Brannon, along with their five EXTREMELY CUTE CHILD MODEL children. They live in San Antonio, Texas, where I’d never been before and which was much more hip and cool than I expected. I’m going to fully break down the makeover, but first, check out the cute video we made of it below: The laundry room in question is a small, windowless space next to their kitchen. It doubles…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear Laundry Lovers, One of my very favorite things on earth is freshly cleaned laundry. I love snuggling into bed on freshly laundered linens, thinking about how clean everything is. But for most people, the laundry room is an afterthought. It’s not a room that most people think to spend a lot of time designing. But for people who like doing laundry as much as I do, having a well-designed laundry room is a bonus that can make everyday life more enjoyable. It’s like a little added treat every time you do a load of laundry….

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Photography by Carly Rudd courtesy Parachute Dear Diary, It’s been a while since I lived in New York, but it’s always fun to head back and waddle around to reconnect with the city I grew up dreaming of. So when Parachute told me they wanted to film the next installment of our makeover series in the City That Never Sleeps, my head exploded with glee. Our first two installments of the series were so much fun to shoot and the third video was basically like taking those first few experiences and mixing them with the iconic film, New York Minute…

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Photography Courtesy James Hardie® Dear Renovation Diary, As you know, I’m currently in the process of renovating my parents’ kitchen and doing a house full of makeover projects for them. Their house is currently a big construction zone and will be so for a few more months. This isn’t the house I grew up in, my parents moved to this area five years ago after retiring and leaving my childhood home in Yosemite. One of the first things I noticed about the area they moved to is that there is a ton of weird siding on houses up there. On…

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Source Dear Construction Diary, It’s become increasingly clear that my parents’ kitchen renovation project has ballooned and is now basically an entire home makeover. One element that I’ve been itching to change on their house since they moved in is the deck the sits outside the kitchen. An interesting thing about their house is that it’s very vertical. There are three levels because it’s on a hillside and the kitchen is on the top level. In order to make sure there’s easily accessible outdoor space, a deck off the kitchen is essential. We’re expanding the new kitchen out onto an…

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Photography by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolish Dear Design Diary, After you’ve lived in LA for a while you start to dread meeting actors, especially ones on popular TV shows who are famous. Normally, they are crazy high-maintenance, attention-hungry, and completely insane (like not in a fun way, in a way that makes them irritating and unrelatable). These are vast generalizations, but I’ve made friends with enough COMPLETELY BONKERS actors to know that you should approach them the way you’d approach a mountain lion in the wild, with caution, fear, and a thoroughly-planned escape route. You can imagine my surprise when…

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Photographs by Zeke Ruelas & Tessa Neustadt Dear Makeover Diary, Firstly, let’s discuss the fact that I’ve named my parents’ house Casa Soria. I did this for a few reasons. Firstly, I love naming things (Orcondo, Châteaulando, orMOMdo, orlanDAD, etc). Second, I’m working on a fair amount of projects there (kitchen, sitting room, family room, foyer, and so on) so I thought it would just be easier if it had a name. Casa Soria is where my family tends to get together. I’m making it nice because I think after working hard their whole lives and saving forever so they…

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Pretty Photograph by Zeke Ruelas Gross Ugly Photographs by Orlando Soria Dear Fireplace Diary, There is a time honored question literally every single person who has a decorative (nonfunctioning) fireplace must ask themselves at some point. “WHAT SHOULD I PUT IN THE FIREPLACE???” It is a question I get from clients all the time. And there are about a million answers. None of them are totally satisfying to be fully honest. Because what you really want in a fireplace is – wait for it – A FIRE. When I stopped by (read: basically broke in) to check out Chateaulando, the first…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear Color Diary, As you may or may not know already, I decided to paint my bedroom blush pink at the beginning of this year. I’ve loved that color, but as a designer I’m constantly using my home to try out new ideas. So when Pratt & Lambert® Paints, the paint company who have been combining quality and beautiful color for over 150 years, reached out to me and wanted to collaborate, I jumped at the chance to re-envision my bedroom. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what the bedroom looked like before. I’ve always wanted…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear People Unsure About Whether to Decorate for the Holidays, If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, it’s not major news that I like decorating for Christmas (read posts from last year, 2015, and 2014 for evidence). I’m not sure why, but I’ve maintained the enthusiasm orMOMdo instilled in me for holiday decorating well into my adult life. Growing up, we went totally crazy decorating the cabin/house I grew up in in Yosemite. To this day, I see winter as a fun time of the year when you get to re-imagine your home and…

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Photography by Carley Rudd Dear Diary, One of my favorite current projects is the web series I’m working on with Parachute. The videos are a chance to do a fun makeover and play while we shoot the video. I had so much fun on the first one, where I designed a nursery for Foujan. When I got the chance to work with Jen Gotch (founder of Bando) I was stoked because she is A) a friend of mine B) one of my favorite people to follow on Insta and C) my actual friend from real life. It helps that Jen…

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