House + Home: Outdoor Spaces

Over on the HGTV blog, Design Happens, we were just talking about the importance of having an outdoor space in, or shall we say, outside of, your home. The consensus from all of us is that having an outdoor area to unwind in, from the tiniest fire escape to the most lavish landscaped backyard, is a crucial part of a happy life. 

Our last apartment, in which we lived for almost 9 years, started out with an outdoor space. When we first rented out apartment on N. 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in January 2005, it had a big backyard that we loved to garden and grilled. We let our dogs romp around and had friends over for dinners outdoors during the first few years there. Until they paved over it. I can't even get into the disappointment involved in all of that, nor can I discuss when they took it away from us altogether. I can only move forward to the much more pleasant present, and discuss how in our *new* place, that we moved into almost a year ago, we have a lovely balcony overlooking a patio and garden. My landlord has cultivated a gorgeous green "English garden" over the last several years, and with him being away quite a bit, Will and I absolutely love being tasked with taking care of it.

The balcony off the kitchen is a dream. Nearly every day I begin with coffee and a book out there. It's the most peaceful way to start a day, and it makes it easy to resist the urge to check my phone or email until I've read a couple of chapters and had a nice cup of coffee. Is it too much to say that this little outdoor room of zen has changed my life? Because it most definitely has. To have a beautiful space like this that is filled with trees, flowers, plants, squirrels, birds, and other wildlife, it's a little slice of nature in our New York City backyard that brings tranquility through the sliding door with every backyard breeze. The space is exclusively dedicated to quiet, peaceful moments, and having it within eyesight makes it easy to create more and more of those. Where do you find your moments of peace and zen in or around your home? I will do all I can to ensure that our next home has an outdoor space as well, because now I just can't imagine going without. Until then, I'm going to savor every second, sip, and page outside on the balcony.

New Digs: Balcony Life

There are countless little moments every day that make it clear that we found our home. It just feels right here. 

One of my favorite reasons for this certainty is the balcony off our kitchen that opens up to the backyard. We sit here and read the paper, sip coffee, eat our meals, and experience a moment of peace outdoors that I've always wanted. The dogs love to join us out there and watch the goings on in the backyard and feel the breeze on their faces. I watched a squirrel forage for nuts while listening to the clucking of a neighbor's chickens the other day and wondered WHO AM I? What is this new, refreshing life that this New Yorker used to a concrete jungle is living on a brownstone block? How did I get here? I actually mused out loud "I can't believe I live here" while walking down my dream block yesterday. 

I can not believe it. But I'll take it.  

N. 7th Street in TONY

In February of 2010 our home was photographed by Imogen Brown for Time Out New York. Here are a few of the photos, you can see the whole story here. I see SIX episodes of Decor It Yourself in here, can you name them?

Btws, anyone want the 2 lamp shades featured? We are moving and can't take it all with us! For real, email me and they're yours! 

N. 7th Street

Our bathroom, before I packed it all up. 

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N. 7th Street 1 / 2

N. 7th Street

Living Room // Tord Boontje paper cut lamp + vintage gold birds

N. 7th Street

We are moving from our home on N. 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 5-7 weeks and I'm feeling all of the feelings that comes with that. Anticipation, excitement, fear, and attachment to this apartment that has been our home for the last 8 1/2 years. In the almost-decade that we've called this place home, these four walls have seen a lot of life and a lot of love.



This is where:

Will and I learned how to be a family
We celebrated our engagement
We shared in our wedding planning
Had a home with our first rescue dog Thurman
Gracie and Milo have grown up
Gracie was diagnosed with AND survived several bouts of cancer (she is Wonder Dog!)
I started Nest, Decor It Yourself, & MACC
We both turned 30
Will has written countless songs that we'll have forever
Had some fabulous dance parties
Said goodbye to both our beloved Thurman and our bunny Linus
Figured out our entire lives talking endlessly on the couch
Spent countless nights laughing to the point of crying with our closest friends


And ultimately it's where we experienced the heartbreak and healing of life. It's the home that housed us as we walked through painful darkness, and it's where we lived when the light finally began to hit our face again. We went through things we never thought we'd get through in this home, and it's where we have begun to see that we are somehow more alive and vibrant for getting through it.

After enduring so much life in one place, we are really ready for a fresh start in a new home and neighborhood, but it'll be hard to say goodbye to this one. Once we're in our new home it will be exhilarating and wonderful, but there will be some bittersweet sadness in between. I have a hard time with goodbyes, I won't lie. But in order to have a new beginning, something else must end. As this chapter ends, I'll post photos and memories of our home from both the past and present, as a little time capsule of our years on N. 7th Street.

Here's to new beginnings!



All photos by Wendy Hickock

Home Decor Score

I'm bringing a beachy Palm Springs navajo vibe to our bedroom inspired by the lovely California home of my Oma. When I saw this vintage navajo pillow in Josephine Marchons shop on Etsy, it begged to be apart of the muted tones and organic aesthetic of the space. 

So I said okay, sure. I'll buy you. And that was that.

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Score 1 & 2

Room Tour: Meg's Office

Last week's video went live on Saturday, and in it I bring you into my apartment to give you a room tour. In the vid I show you around my office space and provide several home decor and organizing tips and take-aways to bring into yours. Enjoy and be sure to SUBSCRIBE!

Plans

This weekend I plan on...

+ Completing the editing portion of this new MACC video where I'll take you on a room tour of my office.

+ Dreaming of this mecca of all things handmade and DIY. I can barely contain all of the ideas that are jumping off the shelves at me

+ Dining at this insanely delish restaurant. Pro tip: Order the watermelon marg (!!!)

+ Hanging out with this amazing woman, who I am lucky enough to call my sister.

+ Lounging in a dream fort built by Morgan for BYT's Dream Lover event at South Street Seaport. (Pssst...it's free!)

+ Ordering another pair of these to get my summer laps in without getting black eyes from these. 

+ Perusing this to get inspiration to whip up some beachy decor for my future sister-in-law's shower.

+ Wear this while diving into this.

Our Library

Domino / Design Sponge / The Sixties

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon who could not be happy?" -Oscar Wilde

Until we acquire a library with built-in-shelves and a rolling ladder attached, most of our books live in vertical stacks lining the floor of a wall in our living room. This weekend we dove into a total organization of all things that fall under the umbrella of literature and came out with glowing results.


From Will's perspective: There is a very logical rhyme and reason to the set-up, making it much easier for us to grab a book we want to read or reference.

From mine: They look pretty and that makes me happy.


After about 10 minutes of this half-day-long affair, I found the journal that I kept when Will and I started dating. So obviously I spent the rest of the time reading starry-eyed entries and swooning poems aloud as Will categorized and organized the actual books. Upon further inspection I unearthed a dream journal from the '90's containing an alarming amount of written proof that most of my dreams in middle school and high school were nightmares involving sharks. And losing teeth. But mostly SHARKS.



Stacked Books Wallpaper / Color-Coded Books (from January 2008) / Currently Reading 1 + 2

Office Overhaul

Here is a sneak peek of the organization happening in my work space/supply storage room via my instagram feed. The graphic bulletin board that I made for Rue Daily demands a clean and lovely space so I am doing my best to bring the rest of room up to par. Before last weekend, the "office" was really a catch all for everything that I couldn't deal with in the months that our personal life took over. The room was a sorry sad mess that was so bad I couldn't even take the time to take a 'before' pic, I had to just fearlessly and without hesitation dive into the pit of despair in search of order and cleanliness. This is the equation that it took:

4 days of excavating and sorting craft supplies + 1 trip to Ikea + 1 expedite - 2 superfluous pieces of furniture - half of a car full of donations + 3 full bags of trash + several empty vessels and bins to divy up needed supplies + 1 label maker = sanity restored to our clean, clear, workspace (the sound of heaven's gates opening up, or just the beginning of 'The Simpsons' theme song)



While looking for the original Rue Daily link I stumbled across Apartment Therapy's feature on my bulletin board. Thanks AT!

Ate This/Organized This/Wore This

This weekend I....

+ Ate this.

+ Celebrated this, this, this, and new babies!

+ Labeled this.

+ Mourned this. (KNIFETHROUGHTEHEART)

+ Organized this.

+ Read this.

+ Wore this.

Our Kitchen: Plants as Curtains

I love the Plants as Curtains look and have been wanting to create a plantalones screen in the kitchen that would allow light in but keep neighbors eyes out. For a while, I was digging the glass shelves idea seen here, but our windows don't allow for that with their molding (PLUS) and juxtaposition to our armoir (minus). My friends have heard me verbally and lazily plot this idea for years, and this weekend we finally took the short steps necessary to bring this idea into fruition. 

While I was useless and clutching this to my tummy-ache, my handsome/able-bodied/non-cramp-having husband did the dirty work.

STEPS:

1- Measure and locate the center of the window using a measuring tape.
2- Measure 10-12" inches out from the wall, give or take depending on the width of your plant.
3- Screw a ceiling swag hook into the ceiling. If you have a drop ceiling or can't locate a stud, you'll need to use a spring toggle wing (it opens up to be a T-shape) as shown in this kit.

We started with these two plants from the sunroom in my parent's sold D.C. home, and we'll keep adding to create a more dense and lush look to the wall. It's a great green start to a kitchen that has plants as curtains!

// More Kitchen //

Our Kitchen / Kitchen Organization / Our Kitchen: Dishware Special / Morgan's Kitchen Sink Series / Color-Coded Kitchen Towels / Pastels in the Kitchen

Plans

+ Hang this macrame GEM in our apartment.

+ Make and eat popsicles using these. Am thinking of throwing Greek yogurt, blackberries, blueberries, mint, and honey into a blender and seeing what happens.

+ Organize my bills and paperwork with the added aesthetic motivation of this excellent geometric bear organizer from Kikkerland.

+ Pick up another Martha Stewart notebook because the one I am using now (pictured below) has less than 10 pages left. We CAN NOT be without a notebook, now can we?

+ Try out this travel sized sample of the lovely and soothing 268 scented soy candle from the sweet store owner of Skinny Skinny.

10 Beachy Home Decor Ideas

I am FEELING a deep aching need for a beach vacation in my bones right now but sadly have nothing of that nature on "the books". Until I figure out that ole' chestnut, let's gaze dreamily at the beachy elements in my bathroom and just pretend.

Non-beachy but rad: the chevron vintage cabinet that I refurbished on Curbly.

10 Beach Decor Ideas:

+ A DIY Nautical lamp that I made on CRAFT.

+ A bamboo raft photograph taken in Thailand by Ben Freshman.

+ A vase filled with collected shells and rocks from the beaches you've traveled to. In mine I have  remnants collected from Siesta Key, Florida / Maine / Portugal / Lewes, Delaware / Cabin Point / and Montauk over the last 15 years.

+ A vintage black and white photograph of someone elses's beach house that I bought on ebay. Apparently, I am okay with having old photographs of strangers in my intimate spaces. 

 + A photo of my mom in college in a tropical South Moon Under frame. South Moon Under was always my sister's and my favorite store off of the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk.

+ Woven fans from World Market.

+ Ikat shower curtain from World Market.

+ Blown glass orbs with little fish inside. My dear friend Dejon gave me these and they have very sentimental value.

+ A vintage Latin astronomy print that my stepdad had framed and gave to Will for Christmas a couple of years ago. Star-gazing is my favorite night-time beach activity, by far, so anything astronomy feels like I am laying on the sand at night to me.

+ A vintage nautical oil lamp that I bought in Lewes, Delaware donned with Christmas lights because it's just ALWAYS the season for Christmas lights.

Bedside Table, Part 3

There are very few areas in the home that are as vital as the bedside table. It being Bedroom Month and all, let's check in with mine. Each item living on the small space next to where I sleep serves a vital purpose AND runs the nightly risk of me knocking my water glass all over it.

Bedside Table Contents:

Noise machine 

Geode + Gem Terrarium

My grandparent's cigarette box

Mexican tile

PM-Water glass / AM- Coffee mug 

Bedside Table, Part 1 // An Insomniac's Bedside // DIY Terrariums

Dog Portraits

Last weekend we hung the beautiful dog portraits I gave Will in our bedroom. I also wanted to add a natural wood shelf so we rearranged the whole wall. We face this wall when lying in bed so we wanted it just right. We *located the studs for the shelf, measured, double-triple-checked each piece, and hung our pieces with confidance. I really dig the new layout and plan on spending most of THIS weekend staring at it from the comfort of my bed with snacks nearby.

*Pro Tip: Locate studs in your wall with a magnet. I show you how HERE.

More bedroom:

Paper Cut Lamp // Upholstered Headboard // Bedside Table

Coffee Mug

I have had my morning coffee out of this mug every single day for a year. It is the vessel that delivers CAFFEINE to my face every morning making it one of the most crucial and frequently used items in the house.

To be clear, I drink my coffee in bed. Does this mean that I have two very small faint coffee stains on my comforter? Yes. Yes, it does. But it can not be assumed that I can face the day before half a cup of coffee is consumed. Full stop.


Also, MUGMUGMUGMUGMUG.

Bedroom Month

Between the dog portraits we recently hung and a few other room up-grades we've made, it's been a bedroom-centric moment in my decor world. Our bedroom used to be a tiny tucked away nook, but now it's a large room dedicated to lounging and relaxing, an ESSENTIAL in thirty-something life. With these new additions I'm compelled to share more, so March is now officially Bedroom Style Month at Nest. It is now my favorite room in our home.

To start off Bedroom Month, and in honor of my *MARTHAVERSARY yesterday, it seems the perfect time to share the mountain series. The XL original mountain painting paired with the two medium-sized canvases I made with Martha hang together as a series in our bedroom. I am feeling the dialogue between the colors of the paintings and headboard and feel that together they anchor the room by creating a strong focal point. 

More Bedroom:

Blueridge Over the Bed // Pendleton Blanket

Remnants

Heart-Shaped Note  // Chalkboard Fridge // Tissue + Metallic Tassels

And in case you missed it, my 7 Steps to a Fab Party. Have a wonderful weekend!