Blog

Photography by Sara Tramp and Orlando Soria When I moved into Londo Lodge last year, I pretty much took one look at the bathrooms and wrote them off as a lost cause. There are many positive things about the bathrooms, first and foremost that there are four of them. Well, 3.5 (one of them is just a toilet and a sink). Another positive about the bathrooms is the beautiful wood tone on the cabinets. The people who designed and built this house had very good taste in wood tones, they used really nice light toned wood throughout the house, most…

Read More

Note: This post discusses weight gain and loss, body image, and other diet/fitness related issues so if you’re someone who is negatively affected by reading this type of content just look at the photos or skip altogether. I woke up on January first to a tremendous feeling of relief. I realize that the year changing over to 2021 isn’t going to immediately solve our problems (as is evidenced by the fact that it’s only been a few weeks and we’ve already had a group of domestic terrorists try to overturn our legitimate election, literally threatening democracy in the process) but…

Read More

Hark! At short last! The guest bedroom I designed for my parents at Londo Lodge is done! You can read more about the ins and outs of what I did and why over on Emily’s blog, but here I’m gonna concentrate on how I mixed high and low to quickly transform this space. My goal for this first round of rapid makeovers is A) Not to spend too much money – I’m still financially recuperating for having to put a ton of money down to get the house in the first place, B) To renovate in a way that makes…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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….

Read More

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…

Read More

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….

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More