Deal o' the Day

I picked up these chic sconces for CHEAP from West Elm. The single's just $30 and the double is $40--what a deal! Act fast though...the triple's already sold out and the others are soon to follow. They were such a steal, I'm using the same ones in every bathroom of the new house. Why would I replace brand new light fixtures in a brand new house, you ask?


'Nuff said.

Vote for Room Fu!

You can't vote for President just yet, but you can get your electoral ya-yas out by voting for Room Fu in the Austin Chronicle Reader's Poll! Best of Austin voting ends on Sept. 2nd, so if you haven’t voted, please take a moment and vote for Room Fu for Best Contractor/Home Service! (It’s kind of hard to find, but it’s at the bottom of the Services section.) While you’re there, be sure to vote for other businesses you love, since single-item votes look like you’re stuffing the ballot box. Check out some of the Design Guru's votes here.

Something for Parents & Pet Owners

This sofa and ottoman from Macy’s have been extremely popular with Room Fu clients over the past year, and I just placed my own order for the pair this past weekend.

While I was at Macy’s, I was reminded of how amazing their furniture protection program is. For $150 for the two pieces, they will cover the most mind-blowing range of accidental stains you can imagine--for seven long years. The list of covered occurrences includes pet/human bodily fluids (gross) and food/beverage stains, and if they can’t get the stain out after a professional cleaning, they’ll replace the piece. What’s more…if you don’t file a claim during those seven years of coverage, Macy’s will give you store credit for the amount of the protection plan! I told you it was mind-blowing.

As I gaze upon our existing sofa and see the Smurf-blue yogurt stain (Phoebe) and the monster-sized soda stain (moi), I’m thinking this is $150 well spent.

The House of FU(n)

I think it's safe to disclose that after 5+ years of marriage, Jeb and I are finally leaving what we thought in 2003 were our "temporary" digs and buying a modest house. I've been keeping it under wraps a bit, out of fear that something would go awry with the deal, but everything looks like it's good to go now. We're very excited and if all goes well, we'll close Wednesday morning!

Maybe you can imagine what a blessing and a curse this is for a designer. I have quite the mental maelstrom goin' on, having decorated and redecorated the entire place at least...oh, roughly...1,683 times in the past three weeks. If you could unzip my head, this is the what you'd see inside:



Since this is my stock in trade, I'm not just decorating my house...I'm creating the new corporate headquarters of Room Fu, so to speak. People have preconceived ideas of what a designer's house looks like, and if a client does happen to see the place, they'll undoubtedly measure my talent and abilities according to what they see. Plus, since the house is definitely on the low-budget scale, I'd like to use it to demonstrate how you really can create a space with a lot of style on a tight budget.

Excitement abounds, but my fingernails have been whittled down to the nubs, my insomnia is way out of control and I've learned a lot about myself and my family that would otherwise have maybe gone unnoticed.

For instance, I've discovered we're cotton people.

We're not silk drape people, we're not Hollywood Regency people, we're cotton people. That's not to say that I don't lurv silk drapes and Hollywood Regency but suddenly all of the frills I normally incorporate into my professional design work (when appropriate) seem too fancy for my family and our future neighborhood. This has helped get me through a few bouts of analysis paralysis when I've stumbled upon something that is pretty or a great bargain. "Would cotton people have this in their house," I wonder? If not, I move on.

Because I'm trying to economize, I'm experiencing the greatest grief where my daughter's room is concerned. The restraint it requires when perusing the PB Teen catalog these days is just more than I can bear at times. I keep uttering the phrase, "PHOEBE MUST HAVE..." like some kind of decorator neanderthal. We can't afford to blow out a fantasy bedroom right off the bat with all of the other initial expenses a new home brings, so I keep reminding myself that she gets excited when she spies Sweet & Low packets ("PINK!")--painting the walls a shell pink is more than enough to thrill her beyond belief. But Mama wants to create a design bombshell for her baby girl and I'm already having to bridge the gap between what my three-year old wants (Disney Princesses) and what I want (mod, hip, sophisticated...but still cotton). Being hyper-budget-conscious on top of that is a real struggle for sure.

I'll include updates along the way here, so you can see the transformation our new place into The House of FU(n).

One last thing...while I adore the exterior paint color, I cannot abide that powder blue front door. It looks like the ruffly-shirt tuxes that were popular for Prom Night my freshman year of high school (1979-1980). Just wanted you to know I'm well aware that it looks like crap...and I'm on a mission to change that fo' sho'.

Touring Ikea on My Butt

As some of you may know, I have been on crutches for about a month due to a stress fracture in my right foot. I've been sentenced to another two weeks of crutched life, but this time I have to be religious about it. No longer am I allowed to cast them aside to navigate the toddler toy minefield that is my tiny duplex, or to drop off the tiniest thing at a client's house (unless it can ride undamaged inside a backpack), and gawd forbid I try to measure much of anything myself. I seriously shouldn't complain though, since it is a stress fracture causing this grief and not a tumor...which is what the doctor originally thought my problem was. (Thankfully, he kept this little nugget of information to himself until he got the results of my MRI and saw I was in the clear.)

Doing much of anything while perched on crutches is hard enough, but shopping in particular can be exhausting. And taking on some place like Ikea on crutches? I knew I would give up about a third of the way through the maze unless I bucked up and drove one of those embarrassing scooter carts.

Yes.

Yes, folks, today I did drive the scooter cart through Ikea. You know I didn't drive a bazillion miles out to BFE Round Rock to have the yellow shirts carry my lifeless body out on a hand truck. Much like renting a motorcycle in Bermuda though, driving a scooter shopping cart takes a bit of a warmup and even after I got the hang of it, I was "realigning" pallets of merchandise right and left. Obviously, I tried to be extra careful around the breakables...

But let me tell you, despite my initial embarrassment and the Saturday crowds and tight aisles that left about 45% of the merchandise inaccessible to me, I had FUH-UN (2 syllables) driving that electric cart through the store. Oh. My. Goodness. Yes.

In fact, it was so much fun, I think I'd like to try it on a weekday when I can REALLY whip through the store. Maybe I could make a day of it and hit a few Target stores too. But of course I wouldn't dream of doing this after I'm released from crutches because I know that would just be w-r-o-n-g.

If you know of other superstores with scooter shopping carts in the Austin area and would like to help me create the ultimate Scooter Shopping Cart Extravaganza--and thereby help me enjoy crutch time to the fullest, please add your comments below.

Design Show Blather

PROJECT RUNWAY (Bravo)
I have to say that even though I thought Kelli's was the worst outfit tonight, she's the last person I would've given the boot to. Kenley proved that you can play second fiddle and still have some impact on the finished product, so I hated to see Daniel and Leanne skate by without much of a fuss simply because they weren't the team leaders. I would've liked to see Daniel go home...just repeating you have impeccable taste does not make it so, and I have yet to see him produce anything memorable in a good way (I'm still reeling from last week's Talbots-looking number). It's plainly obvious that Daniel's not going to have any chance of showing a collection at Fashion Week, so why not rip off his band-aid and send him packing now? Kelli might not have made it to the finale herself, but I would've thought she'd have a whoppin' chance compared to Daniel.

As for last week's episode, it definitely made me pay attention to the U.S. Olympic Team's opening ceremony outfits, designed by Ralph Lauren. They looked great and all, but did our team have to look so WASPy? So TrustFund? I'm all for them looking like they're a successful, commanding force...but I think you can pull off looks (as represented by Korto and Joe last week) that look powerful and American without looking like we're all part of the lockjaw set.

FROM THE GROUND UP (Fine Living Network)
Despite my initial half-aversion, I gave this show a second shot when I noticed several episodes piled up on the DVR, and I have to admit this incarnation of Debbie Travis is growing on me. She's turning out to be the uber-demanding kind of boss that would intimidate the H out of you, but you know you'd learn so dang much from her so maybe the ulcers and the Pepto lattes would be worth it in the end. The thing I am especially loving is that most of the challenges her proteges face are straight out of real design-tycoon life...the most recent I've watched involved designing an after-party at a design conference and a spate of "living ads" set up in the Canadian National Gallery promoting Travis' future lifestyle condos. It's much more impactful to see the designers' work showcased to more of a public crowd than the typical 3-person judging panel, partly due to the increased pressure that comes with projects that carry Travis' name in public. The proteges are not just representing themselves, they have the added bonus of representing Debbie Travis (TM). That's a layer of stress most reality show competitors just don't have to face.

Cheap Thrills

That's right, it's another installment of Steals and Deals. This time we've spied some great finds at Williams-Sonoma Home, which normally breaks the bank. (Avert your eyes from the prices on the rest of their merch.) The cool thing about a sale here is that you know you're getting high quality stuff...which makes the victory of the deal all the sweeter.

First off, I just love these green-stitched pillows and am thinking of getting a couple for my bed. Pretty decent price at roughly $40/ea...the price looks even better when you see they were originally $78!



These larger-than-average woven ottomans (20" vs. the routine 18") are a nice little staple. For $100/ea, they're great side tables for a casual setting and were originally $225 each!


Well, I took a second look at the shipping price ($65) and nearly choked on that. $65 to ship an ottoman? Seems steep, even if you are saving $125 off the original price of the ottoman itself. Maybe you're not as cheap as me and you'll still feel like that $125 you saved is like you stuck it to The Man.

Here's a little somethin' somethin' for your guest bathroom or for that little prince/princess in your life. There are still plenty of initials left to be had and at ten bucks a pair, how can you not?