Baby/Guest Room Details, Accessories and More

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Hey there!  So, here is a break down on how all the details came together in pulling together Worth's room.  My friend Anna let me borrow a crib skirt and black and white check crib sheet she had from her son's nursery.  It was perfect compliment for my black and white chair, and so I had my first accent pieces free-of-charge! 

Since I knew I was keeping the bed in the room, and it did not have a bed skirt already, I decided now was a good time to get one.  I would have purchased one sooner, but the drop from the top of the box spring to the floor is about 28 inches, so it would have to be custom-made.  I sew most of my pillows and draperies myself, but I haven't taken my hand yet at a bed skirt, so I farmed out this one.  If anyone needs a referral around the Queen City for high quality work at a most economical price, please let me know!  Of course, I made a trip down the road to the one and only Mary Jo's for some inexpensive yet quality white material.  I decided to coordinate the bed skirt to the crib skirt by adding black grosgrain ribbon trim.  I had the ribbon mitered on with a long stitch, so it could easily be removed, and I would still have my white bed skirt for the bed in another room.

This gave me my first project.  I made the pillow with ribbon trim and once we had baby boy and a name, I took it over to L&M Monogramming on East Blvd. for a little personalizing.

Next, I made these frames as a way to tie together all the colors in the room. I found a tutorial on line by super creative Eddie Ross for making this easy project using alternating colors of satin ribbon. Obviously, I knew which colors I would use, but I needed to decide on the layering pattern for the ribbon.  I purchased all materials from Michael's over at Park Road Shopping Center.  Truth be told, I moved to this location of town if for no other reason than that shopping center.  I mean, there is nothing you can't do there! I love all things unique, and these frames customize the decor of the room at total a bargain price.

Layering the ribbon

Frames up on queen anne pink walls

Frames complete with zoomed-in shots of happy baby boy

Thanks so much for reading!  I'll show you the remaining details in my next post.
For the love of great style.... and have a wonderful weekend!  Whitley

Guest Room to Baby/Guest Room Transformation, Part II

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Hi there!  With both boys we decided to not find out the gender prior to delivery.  As I mentioned in the last post, I just completed the guest room when I shortly thereafter learned I was pregnant with baby #2.  I was so proud of the way that room looked.  I found the perfect peach/pink blend for the walls, queen anne pink by Benjamin Moore.  I knew that we would wait again to find out the gender of baby #2, so I decided I would just leave the color on the walls.  The crib we used for our first son was a hand-me-down on its fourth use, and he destroyed it, so we couldn't even donate it to Goodwill.  I was basically starting from scratch.  I did, however, have this wonderful black and white check rocker passed down from my cousin that would become the grounding piece for the room...Voila!  If it were a girl, it would be pink and black and white... my little Chanel room!!  So, I put the black and white check rocker in the room, moved the furniture for baby into the room, and perfection.  I absolutely loved it.

Room fit for a little princess.

Hank ready for his new baby sister.

Everyone seemed to think we were having a girl for whatever reason, and so I think I too was convinced of it.  If baby was a boy, however, I had no game plan.  As a side note, I need to mention that our house is three bedroom, so this meant we basically would be losing our guest room.  Once you have children, I feel like there is a direct correlation to the number of overnight guests you host in your home.  I did, however, want to at least be able to offer a bed for my in-laws or any other surprise visitors that needed a comfortable place to rest their head.   

Fast forward to delivery day... Out popped baby #2, and in this order my husband exclaimed "It's a Boy!" and "I'm Not Painting!" And thus for four months, our sweet baby William Hollingsworth "Worth" slept soundly in his soothing pink room.  It was back to the drawing board on a new baby room.  I knew I wanted fun, punchy bright colors. I was still working around the black and white check rocker. I have always admired the way the hue of turquoise and red complemented each other, and I felt like they would do well with the black and white.  So, Voila again, my new color palette!  I hopped over to my home away from home for paint and everything else fabulous, Black Hawk Hardware, to make my paint selection.  Then magic happened.  One week this summer I took the boys to visit their Grandparents and that sweet most wonderful man in the world painted the room!!  Below is the picture and caption he sent to me...

Smurf Blue!

Whoa!  That is some SERIOUS Smurf Blue.  I was nervous to see it in person, but then when I saw it in natural daylight, I was completely happy with the was it looked.  As you can see in the above picture, I had already picked out some accent fabric in red and white.  After my dear friend Anna purchased a matching red quilt and pillow shams for her two boys from Target, I realized it would bit a nice fit for this room.  So, I trotted myself on over to Midtown Target, and purchased a set for baby Worth.  Perfect!  Below are some shots of the final outcome.  I love it.  As a side note, I read somewhere that black and red and white are the first color a baby is able to see, so I thought this is double winner :)  I wonder what baby Worth thinks?

A room fit for a King!

I love the sweet little table by the door.

Fabric covered letters to match lumbar pillow on bed.

Painted night stand to hold books, cd's and a couple favorite pics.

Every southern gentleman's room needs a touch of monogram.

Homemade ribbon frames for pics of  baby boo.

Sweet baby Worth

I hope you enjoyed this post. Next time I will share with you a little bit more about the accessories, fabrics, etc and how they all came together to create the final look.

For the love of living in style, Whitley

Guest Room to Baby/Guest Room Transformation

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Since I have been home with my boys for the last eight months, I am completely totally obsessed with home design.  I mean, it really all makes perfect sense.  I can't exactly go anywhere during the day outside of the park or grocery story or some other completely child-friendly or child-focused place.  So, whenever the boys and I aren't providing one another's stimulation to each other, I am getting on my bicep and quad workout. If I am not physically redecorating each and every room in my house each and every week, I am mentally moving furniture in my head.  It's a horrible fuel for my already somewhat mild case of OCD.  As if there isn't a place for everything, everything should be in it's place.  All along the way I'm dusting a little hear, smudging finger prints a little there, taking the vacuum hose to the dog hair here and there (and everywhere!!).... You know, the whole stay-at-home-mom-don't-have-housekeeper type of thing.  Definitely much more gratifying with a Manhattan cocktail in hand.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  Right before finding out I was pregnant with baby #2, I finally got my guest room looking just like I wanted. Below is a picture of the room right when we moved in the house, working with what I owned.  It's not that I terribly dislike the room, but it's just not really my taste. Or, maybe it's just not completely pulled together.  It's called working with what you got, or as my mom taught me "living within your harvest," which meant not going out and buying anything.  I do have the gorgeous inheritance piece bed from my Great-Grandmother which I am so lucky to have.

So, by now we had been in the house for four years, and this was the second room in the house that I considered "complete".  My inspiration for the guest room was this gorgeous room at Max and Company. The picture is below, as well as a link to the image on the website. All of owner Pheobe Howard's rooms are just as delicious as the one you see here.  If you are in the Queen City, treat yourself to perusing through all of the rooms at her two stores, Mrs. Howard and Max and Company located at 1001 East Morehead Street.  Click Here

I think the textures and hues are so calm and soothing, perfect for a guest room. So, here is my transformation using only things I already owned.  Images are via my cell phone, so a little fuzzy.

What do you think?  In my next post, I will show you the transformation from New Guestroom to Baby Room/Guest Room. 

Thanks for reading, and hope you have an Oh-so Stylish Saturday!!  Whitley

Recreating Timelessness

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My Grandmother, Martha Whitley, and my Great-Grandmother, Willa Lynch
at Meteor Crater in Arizona, 1943

Happy Rainy Thursday from the Queen City!  Above is the picture that was the inspiration for my little photo shoot reincarnation.  It is of my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother, who I called Nana and Willa, respectively.  Growing up, the Nana I knew typically adorned herself in fashions that created a little more of a dramatic look.  She was big on glitz, sequins, scarves, shiny belts and jewels, large accessories... items that created more of a glamorous look in my mind. The always-fabulously styled Rachel Zoe reminds me a lot of Nana's look which had me totally mesmerized.

However, as stated in the Lucky article, I think she personifies a look more similar to that of Katharine Hepburn in the above photo.  I mean look at her.  Totally unintentionally cool.  I feel like she is wearing Culottes in this picture. I wonder when we will see culottes again in current fashion.  I have a pair of hers in my closet now.  I didn't wear them this summer, since I just had a baby, and they did not fit, but I have worn them summer after summer in years past.  I don't recall ever looking this cool in them.  But anyway, there's a reason they are called Culottes.  They could be called Coolottes, they are so totally relaxed-hip. I love the collared blouse and buttoned crew neck sweater.  I don't know what shoes she is wearing, but I would imagine a comfortable flat or perhaps a saddle shoe like the one in the Lucky story.  For my photo shoot reincarnation, I headed over to J. Crew at South Park Mall for some equally snazzy duds.  I love J. Crew for many reasons, but I have always relied on them for their timeless classics and staple pieces. I worked with a super cute and totally on-trend personal shopper at the store to pull together a couple of ensembles using mix and match pieces.  We threw in a fabulous necklace for a hint of bling, just for fun, which I think sort of modernizes Nana's outfit.  Check out the pieces.  The necklace is so new, that the store is not yet displaying it.  I think I kinda got the "in" on this!

J.Crew Honeycomb Cable Sweater in Pine Bough

J.Crew Flair Skirt in Heather Acorn

J.Crew Blythe Blouse in Alabaster

J.Crew Wool Cafe Capri in Camel

J.Crew School Boy Blazer in Prince of Wales wool

J.Crew Cece Stud Ballet Flat in Cognac

For this little photo shoot, I tried my best to pose just like Nana.  This was not easy.  I was laughing at myself the entire way through.  Could I possibly look any more dorky??  Nope.  But, I just kept on posin'. I was totally into the moment.  Then I realized, she wasn't posing at all.  She was just naturally this unassumingly cool.  So then I tried posing like I wasn't posing.  That really didn't work either.  But anyway, I totally love the outcome of the look created. What do you think?...

                

                                        The Original                                                                              The Copy Cat      

                           And, since this IS a photo shoot, below are a few extra shots just for fun...

Trying to be serious and poised,
next to impossible!

In my breathiest Madonna voice,
"What are you lookin at?"
Could you not DIE for this necklace?

Great hardware and cuff detail on this super cool blazer.

For a normally heels-only girl, I think the little
gold studs add the perfect amount of pop!

There's always room for a little Jazz Hands!

Thank you for reading!  And for the love of great style, here's to a totally stylin' weekend ahead!  Whitley

So excited to be here!

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Hello Everyone!  I am so excited to be writing my first post on this blog.  Almost eight months ago, I welcomed my second baby boy into the world.  Prior to his birth, I operated a nanny placement service that I have owned for eight years.  While I loved my work, I made the leap to stay at home full time with my boys.  It was a tough decision for me, and I wasn't sure the stay-at-home/full time mom roll was going to be a fit for me, but I have had the MOST fun ever in these last months!  Since being home, I have poured what energy I have remaining at the end of each day into all things creative.  With fashion being my first love of creative expression, I submitted a story about my Grandmother and Great Grandmother to Lucky magazine for their back page based on a blog titled My Mom the Style Icon, created by one one hip chick, Piper Weiss.  Each month, I read this story and thought to myself how much Nana or Willa needed to be in this magazine.

For me, the creativity part isn't the struggle, it's the implementation phase. Since I wouldn't be answering to anyone other than yours truly for this "try out" of sorts, I thought "What do I have to lose?!"  So, I picked my photo, sent Lucky the information for my story, and voila... I heard back from them!  Communication exchanges transpired over the course of several weeks, via email, then phone and one last email to fact check.  I only told a few close people about my hopes of this story actually getting published.  I would believe it when I saw it in print.

Well, over this past weekend I received a message from a friend saying how excited she was to open her Lucky Magazine to read my story about my Grandmother.  I could not believe it!!!  In the car already, my sweet husband quickly changed our route to the nearest grocery story.  The aisles were wide, and I was movin'!  My half marathon training pace was put to use, full speed ahead through the doors of the Ingles supermarket.  I swished my way through the check out registers, raced through the frozen food section,  turned a sharp left, and then a right to the magazine aisle.  And, there it was... the December issue of Lucky.  Jessica Simpson beaming at me from the cover.  I wasn't exactly looking for myself, but I knew this must be the issue!  I quickly turned to the back page, and there it was. OH MY GOSH!  I can't believe it!?  I pulled a reverse race back to the check out line, out the front doors of the store and to the car to my husband, waving the magazine above my head in the air.  I was, and still am so excited.

This article has been a source of great validation for me.  I must pursue what I love, and that is All Things Stylish. For months, I have contemplated creating a blog dedicated to fashion in the Queen City.  Then it hit me, as yesterday's morning alarm was sounding loud, I'll write a blog about ALL things stylish in the Queen City.  So here it is.  I'll be talking about fashion, home design, entertaining, stylish places to eat, shop, explore, be quiet, pray, learn, share and more.  I may never make a dime writing this little blog, but that is no problem for me!  I am so excited to be embarking on this new project, and I hope you will enjoy it so.

I decided for my first little project, I would create an ensemble inspired by the one my Grandmother is seen wearing in the photo.  I look forward to sharing with you my attempt at reincarnating her fabulous look.  And you got it, everything you see can be purchased right here in the Queen City.  I can't wait to share with you more stylish things that I love about this city, and I would LOVE to hear from you on anything and everything.  Please share some inspiration with me!

For the love of great style, dahling...
Whitley