Design Crush: Ashley Whittaker

Sharing a favorite today….Ashley Whittaker. See her portfolio here.

Ashely Whittaker Design Lattice Interior Walls

Ashley Whittaker Design 2

staircase heaven. and I love love love that wallpaper.

Ashley Whittaker Design 3

Ashley Whittaker Design 4

love a navy butlers pantry. I have been thinking about doing ours in a lacquered navy as well.

Ashley Whittaker Design 5

Ashley Whittaker Design 6

Ashley Whittaker Design 7

Ashley Whittaker Design 8

gorgeous! happy monday!

DIY: Mantel Progress

We are making progress on the living room and I am super pumped to share with you how we created this amazing mantel.

 TNPLH DIY Mantel

So I love that the new house has a fireplace, but it definitely needed some love when we first moved in.

photo(3)

Wood paneling, no mantle, and I hate the stone. So I have been tackling this space for a bit with my husband. First I sanded down the paneling and primed it white. Then we started tackling the mantel. There was already this little stone piece at the top, but you couldn’t fit anything on it. So we just started adding layers to that piece.

TNPLH: DIY Mantel Project

As you can see here we first added a 2×4 to the top of the stone with construction adhesive. Then we added the top and the skirt to the 2×4 to start and box out the mantle.

TNPLH: DIY Mantel 2

My husband used a combination of construction adhesive (glue) to first put in place and then would use a nail gun to secure it to the first 2×4 piece.TNPLH: DIY Mantel 3

TNPLH: DIY Mantel 4

After we had the base of the mantel boxed out we were ready to start making it a bit more pretty with some crown molding.

TNPLH: Crown Molding

We used three different pieces of molding to finish off the mantel. A nice thick piece (4.5 inches wide), a small topper piece to place on top of that (attached to the edge of the topper), and a decorative square piece for the bottom of the skirt.

TNPLH: DIY Mantle 6

This side view you can see how we began layering on the decorative prices.

TNPLH: DIY Mantel 7

TNPLH: DIY Mantle 8

As you can see we still need to fill in all the nail holes and then paint, but it is certainly looking a lot better around here!

TNPLH: DIY Mantel 9

Stay tuned in the coming week to see how paint finishes it off!

Current Obsession: Bust Statues

I always love decorating with a good bust statue.

Design Caredevil ORC Decorating with Busts

Design Daredevil One Room Challenge

I once passed up a beautiful marble vintage bust at the Randolf Street Flea Market in Chicago, I think about it often and it makes me sad.

Patrick Line on Lonny

Patrick Cline for Lonny

I love dressing them up with little things like jewelry to pull them into today.

Little Green Notebook

Little Green Notebook

New twist to the idea? Bold colors!

bust statue

Aren’t these fun? I mean so whimsical. I think I might need one for my mantle. Find them here on Etsy!

Loving Latley

I have had a lot of things on my mind lately both for the house and for fall….

loving roundup sept 20th

OKL Camel Print/ I have seen this print before and I love it. I think it would be fantastic with all my colors in the living room (see inspiration here)

anthropologie door knob/ Last weekend we were working on putting up my fun doors for the master bath…thinking I might need these fun knobs

weekender bag/ I have loved this silhouette for a weekend bag, but haven’t bought it yet. Loving this new color

sole society bootie/ the fall weather has me thinking of fall love these booties in navy

elliot lucca artisan brigitte satchel/ heaven. i love me some florals and this bag is fantastic

target gold and plaid ottoman/ target does it again with a hit accent ottoman. thinking these might be a nice addition to my living room up reupholstered in another fabric.

pier one gilded oval lamp/ still looking for lamp options for my bedroom loving this silhouette

tray/ heaven!

30th Birthday Party

 The summer has been so busy I realized I never shared pictures from my 30th birthday party. I thought 30 was a big one so I wanted to throw a big party with all my friends and family. I just love throwing a big party. I think the planning and preparation is just as much fun as the event itself. I really wanted to do it outside under the stars but weather did not cooperate and we ended up having it in the house. As you know we have been working on the house for a while and it isnt’ done yet, which was one reason I wanted to try it outside, but our guests understood and they looked past some of the imperfections of the house.

TNPLH 30th Bday Flowering Branches in Ginger Jar

When I first started planning I contemplated many different color stories. Black and white came to my head first, because it is so chic and classic. But then I thought – I love color – and you only turn 30 once so go big or go home! Orange and pink it was! I have just been loving orange and pink. It is fun and spunky.

TNPLH 30th Bday Flower 3

I love layering a table to give it dimension and fun. I used scarves for a little table topper and love the added layer it provided the table. I have used scarves before (as you can see here and here).

TNPLH 30th Bday Big Balloons

 The big balloons were so fun. We put them on our mailbox so everyone knew where we were. For most of my friends this was the first time they came to the new house!

TNPLH 30th Bday Flowers

I made all the flowers just from picking some out at our local grocery store. My latest obsession has been to create flower arrangements in cake platters. So luckily I am a crazy person and have many cake platters so I had enough to decorate the tables with them. I also loved that we added in the old fashioned lilac flowers from my new bush in the back yard. I think they added really nice texture.

TNPLH 30th Bday Second Table

TNPLH 30th Bday Table Pic

The flowering branches were also a favorite. They added such nice height to the table.

TNPLH 30th Birthday Table

We had 30 guests for dinner, 31 including myself (which seemed fitting for the 30th birthday!). I rented tables and chairs and then based on lack of additional space we used my normal dinning table as well for some of the guests. Think of how pretty it would have been to have a long table in the back yard! Oh well that will have to wait for another party!

TNPLH 30th Bday Long Table

I think my favorite part was the fun colors, flowers, and good friends. It was a night to remember!

TNPLH 30th Bday Close Up Flowers

Forgive me on the below pictures….as always once the food was out the party started and we forgot to take nice pics!

IMG_0909

I made a bunch of appetizers for people to nibble on right away. Cucumber sandwiches, snap pea crostini with Parmesan, shrimp kabobs, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, cheese plate, and two mini per-desserts homemade pistachio macaroons and mini lemon meringue pies.

IMG_0914

For dinner I made baked pesto chicken, wild rice, caprese salad, and lemon vinaigrette greens. Simple and easy!

IMG_0924

The night ended with a lemon cake with raspberry filling made by my dear friend. Wasn’t it beautiful! We had a great time!

Wallpaper Wednesday: Florals

I have been online stalking this Anthropologie Wallpaper for a while.

Anthro Garden Chinoiserie Mural

OMG I love it. It would be fantastic in my bathroom. See my latest progress from the still unfinished One Room Challenge here. I haven’t posted about my bathroom in a while, but the only thing I am waiting on is the glass for the shower (hooray!) which I am hoping gets installed in the next couple weeks. And I am now toying with wallpaper, because why not?

I love this mural but the problem is I would need to buy 3 of the murals and the third mural I would only end up using about 10% of the total roll which feels like a waste ;(

So I have started giving in a little and peaking around for some other floral fabulous options (hopefully getting a bird in too, bless my husband). The other upside to the anthro one….it is removable. Which I don’t know how removable works in a humid bathroom, but I think it would be a nice option to have after we spent a number of hours scraping three layers off the walls while re-doing the bathroom to begin with.

1

I like this G P & J Baker floral, but it doesn’t’ provide the same amount of spunk I am looking for.

2

This Osborne and Little Paradiso print is once again a favorite (i just love Osborne and Little). So I might need to order in a sample.

3

I also love this Bird of Paradise from Osborne and Little, however I have had a sample pinned up in the bathroom a while, and I am not loving the green with my red vanity.

Any others I should keep an eye out for?