A Picture says a thousand words...

You see... I told you there was a toilet!

Good Morning everyone.  I wish my people in New York and its neighboring boroughs are baring this Hurricane that is approaching the East Coast.  I know that things that we can’t control is always scary and Nature is one of them.  Let's hope God's hands will weaken the strength of Hurricane Sandy. 
There is one thing I was looking forward to do before our move and that was having a family photo shoot in it.  I can’t tell enough how much I love photo shoots.  It's fun, enthusiastic, and hopeful.  You get up early in the morning, one of my favorite things actually, go out to get fresh flowers, set up, get all made up and dress up and have as much fun as you can.  But, of course the most important part of a photo shoot is the memories that we captured especially family memories. 
I wanted the pictures to be natural, kind of like lifestyle pictures, and we were lucky we came across Diego Molina, a professional photographer who did a great job capturing very special everyday-moments in a fashionable and tasty way.  Photographing kids is not an easy task.  Lucas, our son, for instance goes at his own will.  You don't take a picture of him if he doesn't want to, so I was glad to see that Diego had experience with these kinds of situations and I was able to end up with a bunch of great pictures of our little one for the future, which reminds me I haven't sent the respective grandmas these pictures.  Have a great and safe week!

When is my bed arriving here in our Sao Paulo home, please?  Hello!

Cachow!

Our cutie pie and I trying to surf in the dry.

Me, myself and I.  Diegoalso makes people look not so bad without filter.  ha! an Instagram insiders joke. Thank you Diego for the great pictures!

My Kitchen: Before and After

While thinking about what to post today, my own kitchen came to my mind.  Since we're soon moving to another country (Sao Paulo) I feel it would be great to show how I renovated our kitchen. The picture above shows how our kitchen was before.  Very unattractive!  We teared down everything, from the cabinets to the walls, got rid of that double tray ceiling and redid the floor.  My vision was to create something charming instead of modern because this house was built around the 80's when there was absolutely no reference whatsoever to any period architecture.  So I decided it would look like something between old and au courant.

I wanted the Ikea cabinets to go all the way up to the ceiling so I had the extra open boxes custom made and installed mirror in the back.  I also added crown moldings to make them look more custom.  These cabinets don't really need handles but I decided to install them anyway for the same purpose.  I was happy when I found this kind of porcelain mosaic for a great price at a place called The tile shop.  If you didn't, know the smaller the pieces the more expensive the mosaic, that's why  the places that offer more affordable tiles usually only have mosaic of one inch.  This one is little less than 3/4" which makes it look more like the real thing. 

 

The custom banquet, upholstered more than three years ago in a Quadrille fabric.

photos by Robert Levi

Kitchen of the week: My own design in Manavgat, Turkey

When my in-laws asked me to help them with remodeling their kitchen in their vacation home in Manavgat, Turkey, the first thing they asked for was for a modern kitchen.  They had lived most of their lives in Istanbul so they wanted a space where they can come and rest their minds and eyes from the ornate and splendor of Istanbul.  They are also big fans of modern design and big collectors of glass in every shape and color you can imagine.  One main reason for the remodel was to make the kitchen more spacious and functional and to convert one full bathroom, next to the kitchen, into a powder room.   I made the floor plan and suggested the use of local material such as travertine, which was used on the kitchen floor as well as for the hallway through the entrance.  We did many Skype conference calls to make decisions and go over the details.  It's amazing all you can do with technology now a days!  There are still some things left to be done, such as window treatments and other stuff.

For the powder room I suggested a sliding door and you can see a tiny bit of it towards the right.  

As many vacation homes in the Mediterranean, the washer/dryer is in the kitchen, the small microwave/ oven is a sentimental object because it belonged to my mother in law's mother so she made a point of keeping it. They are very happy with the result and am even happier that they love it.

All images by Belle Vivir.

Lucas's Bathroom Reveal: Before and After

I almost forgot to take before pictures of our little one's bathroom, but this is how it looked during midst of demolition, after removing the floor tiles some of the walls and the pedestal sink.  At that point my light bulb went on and I finally took one picture.  We gutted it down to its bone and re-configured the water pipes in order to install a pedestal tub.  I wanted to create a more of a nautical/bohemian/young atmosphere with some traditional reference. 

The bathtub is really deep and spacious and I love how greatly suits the body.  I opted for bright blue gingham fabric for the curtains to bring in some color and freshness.

A few of the framed butterflies were picked by my husband and his father during camping trips when he was a kid.  The awesome faucet is another nod to traditional.

For the floor, I used penny tiles and my tile installer did a very cute border all around the bathroom for more interest.  I designed the custom made vanity with the intention of having enough space to sit Lucas in the mornings to brush his teeth and it's been such a good idea and incredibly functional.  I adore the niche above the sink and the nautical sconce is my absolute favorite!
You may be able to guess by now that I love niches.

The big scale whale you can spot through the mirror was a piece of art done by my father-in-law from shells we collected in Shelter Island this summer.  I think art is really what tells a story and speaks your heart. 
Photos by Marco Ricca

Snippets of my home

There was a little bit of misunderstanding with yesterday's post.  Apparently some lovely people thought that the first image was part of my home, it's not.  I found the image at New York Social Diary.  The post was intended to inspire a different way to approach Christmas Decoration.  I apologize for the confusion.  For that reason I decided to post a few images of our home, which I don't do much because we all know that magazines would not be interested in featuring somehing that's been already published.  This past Saturday the photographer Marco Ricca was here and took many lovely pictures of two of our bathrooms, the guestroom and Lucas' room.  For the guestroom above I wanted to create a magical space that was cozy, inviting and dreamy.  So my first thought was the movie Amelie.  Since I love French movies for their lightness and happiness underlined I designed our guestroom inspired on Amelie, hence the whimsical and unique wallpaper and the color scheme.  The wallpaper is Champignons by Brunschwig and Fils, the side tables are designed by a Karl Springer apprentice.  I don't remember his name.  The handle is one sculptural gorgeous thing but you can't appreciate it much unless you click on the picture an zoom in.

This is a niche in our new master bath.  I wallpapered the inside in a chinoiserie wallpaper, also by Brunschwig and Fils.  I framed it myself with a reeding wood border (to relate to the custom vanity)  and added the rosettes to the corner blocks.  I finished the wood to make it look old and the rosettes in white.  I love this little space in my bathroom.  It's my contribution to the feminine side of it.

This is our cutie pie, Lucas' bedroom.  You've probably seen this room before.  Since then, the mattress has been lowered so our already three year old boy can hope in and out.  But to be honest with you, that is not happening yet, so we have to put the bar up at nights because he moves a lot.
All photos by Marco Ricca.