Inspiration at Colonial Williamsburg

This post was brought to you by Colonial Williamsburg. Book your stay at colonialwilliamsburg.com.

I've been really into classical architecture books lately (this one is completely fascinating). We're going to be knocking out and rebuilding a few interior walls of the new house that will need some special moulding. I've been doing as much research as I can before we have to make final decisions there. So when I was invited to come down to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia with my sister Heather and sister-in-law Kenzi, I jumped at the chance to have a girls weekends and to tour the beautiful, historically restored town and soak up all the classical and colonial architecture (and I'll be honest - the spa and the amazing food were a draw, too) :)

The past couple of weeks have been SO intense with work and the upcoming move, it was really amazing to hop in the car, get out of the city and have some kid-free time with these ladies I love so much.

Also, I was excited to go straight to the source to see the new collection of historically accurate paint colors Colonial Williamsburg recently launched with Benjamin Moore.

The colors are more vibrant than you might have guessed, which makes complete sense after touring some of the homes in Colonial Williamsburg. Those early Americans were not afraid of color!

I fell in love with one of the greens especially. Wouldn't this dark jade make the perfect front door color for the new house, with gray for the body of the house, white for the trim and charcoal on some of the accents? I'm feeling good about this combo:

The weekend really was magical. The Williamsburg Inn was amazing, the grounds were stunning, the museums and historical sites were fascinating and inspiring. I practically never put down my camera - there was so much beauty everywhere.

It was so nice to be staying in the hotel right in the middle of the town. We could pop home in the middle of the day if we wanted a little mid-day nap :)

And then we could head right back out to the fun!

Here are about 500 more photos of what caught my eye on the streets of CW. :) I was so inspired by woodwork! The fences, birdhouses, porch railings, radiator covers - everything had such a lovely attention to detail! Check it out...

Last Minute Father's Day Present: Framed Ties

Hello from the road! I'm in Virginia with my sister and sister in law, having a little girls trip today. The weather is fantastic, the food has been delicious and my cheeks are burning from all the laughter. 

Just wanted to pop in and share this idea in case you are scrambling for a last-minute Father's Day present. I saw these framed neckties at a vintage shop in Brooklyn last week and thought the idea was so cool. 

When my Grandpa passed away earlier this year, some of us took a few of Grandpa's ties to keep (he always had cool ties). I picked one out for Michael and he wears it sometimes, but now I'm kicking myself for not taking a few more to put in a shadow box. These guys had a similar idea and used IKEA's deep Ribba frames to display a bowtie collection.

If you use those specimen pins with the hooked ends then you don't even need to glue/potentially ruin the ties. I love easy-to-do and special gift ideas like this. Happy Father's Day to my guy readers! :) 

Hanging Out at the Samsung House

Brought to you by Samsung. Click here to learn more about Samsung Home Appliances.

Wednesday night was SO fun. Samsung is hosting a showhouse on West Broadway and Broome here in New York and they invited me to swing by for a cocktail party to see and report on their new appliances, and also to meet up with the designer of the show house, Hilary Farr, from HGTV's Love It or List It. (geek out!)

(Hilary is the queen of cool - how could she not be with that beautiful accent!? And me, well, this is my signature "straight from the airport" hair and "just finishing an awkward joke" smile)

Check out what a beautiful job Hilary and her team did with the giant show house. They miraculously turned a cold white box of a retail space into a modern, fresh, homey space.

There was some serious moulding action happening and I was inspired.

At the beginning of the evening Hilary talked about how investing in pretty appliances makes it easier to live in more open-concept spaces. Plus, seriously, who wouldn't want to do more household chores when your kitchen and laundry rooms are sleek and modern?

I agreed with Hilary when she talked about how the kitchen is the heart of the home and that appliances, in both form and function, matter more than ever. She said that what she loves most about Samsung's appliances is they are (literally) state of the art, but they're also very affordable when compared to other high end appliances. I loved this new range below. It's the Slide-in Flex Duo Oven Electric Range with no back panel - so no more covering up all that beautiful backsplash tile!

Also, that oven? They invented this sort of slide in shield that makes this a double oven! Like, you can operate it at two different temperatures above and below the shield! I thought that was so smart.

Upstairs in the showroom, I got to see firsthand how well-designed these appliances are. I admit that I wasn't totally up to speed on refrigerator technology until last night, but seriously, these new models are down right amazing. Everything that sort of bugged me about my past refrigerators, they're solving it at Samsung. They have separate cooling systems for the fridge and the freezer sections, it's called Twin Cooling Plus technology, which means the produce stays fresher longer and the frozen foods don't get a bit of freezer burn. Also no more freezer-smelling air in the fridge with the separate air systems. (yes and YES!)

This four door has a built-in sparkling water dispenser!! What the what!? Also, it makes up to 10 pounds of ice a day. I'm a beverage-lover and a party-thrower, so this fridge was absolutely whispering my name.

Also just under the french door sits this genius drawer that's perfectly sized and placed for kid snacks.

The other fridge I was completely drooling over was the T9000, Samsung's Convertible French Door Refridgerator. Check out those super sleek handles on the four doors. Almost an Art Deco look to them, right? Right on trend with the Gatsby craze.

But beyond the beautiful look, this fridge has some serious technology to back it up. You can reconfigure each side of the bottom doors. So if you want two sides to be at freezer temp, or if you want to use the space to chill beverages for a party, or if you have a big family and you want all four compartments to be fridge space, you can change the settings on the digital screen in about five seconds flat.

They really have thought of everything. The seller of our house in Arizona just recently put in new appliances, but now I'm thinking about selling at least the fridge to get my hands on one of these new beauties. I might not be able to go another day without that sparkling water dispenser! :)

FLOR Summer Sale

Oh! Just saw that FLOR is having their annual summer sale right now (through the end of June it looks like) where everything is a whopping 25% off. I've been dreaming of the Vintage Vibe tiles since popping in their Atlantic Ave store a couple weeks ago and completely falling for the small scale Moroccan-inspired pattern. (and it looks like Kirsten used these in her living room recently, so you know they must be chic!)

With this sale going on, I'm so, so tempted to make our first rug purchase for the new house. I think it would be the perfect choice for the family room that's right off the kitchen (working on floor plans right now to share!). If the last two homes we've lived in have been any indication of our future, the rug nearest the kitchen sees the most spills.  :) It would be a dream to be able to totally replace the tiles in the areas of greatest offense.

That was my favorite part of Abbey's entry project using FLOR tiles. Depending on the pattern you want, they can be a bit of an investment, but they hold up SO well. And I know Abbey's been able to reuse her carpet tiles in her newest apartment, so they must travel well too.