Everything in our house is glowing from the bright sun shining in. It’s so lovely. All the windows are open (all 17 of them!), the breeze from the ocean flowing through and Luna running around the house in just a tank top. I sometimes just stop what I’m doing and watch my life as it’s happening. Then Luna trips on a toy and the oven timer starts beeping. Life moves forward once again.
Our kitchen/dining area faces west and on bright sunny days, the sun shines in quite strong which makes everything glow so beautifully. It’s been gloomy and raining here the past days so sunny days like this makes me happy.
Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. is a must visit Portland destination for homeowners and decorating afficiandos. The massive showroom is located in a 100 yr old industrial building that also houses their manufacturing and shipping center. It’s not just a candy shop for decorators – it’s more like Willy Wonka’s freaking Chocolate Factory. The brand’s signature products, reproductions of turn of the century American lighting, fill the space along with displays of the original-era molds that inspired them. On the day we were there, a group of college students were huddled around a long study table gathering reference from Schoolhouse Electric’s publicly accessible design library.
In addition to the lighting products that Schoolhouse Electric is best known for, the showroom also stocks a complete line of home accessories. The space is beautifully renovated, expansive and wide open while retaining the original factory feel. All the product displays and vignettes are finely curated and expertly styled – classic Americana filtered through an uncompromising modern lens.
For the products, for the space, for the styling, Schoolhouse Electric is full of inspiration and delight. And for extra enjoyment, there’s a boutique florist and coffee bar at the entrance. Highly recommended.
Bonus: watch this video to see more of the showroom and hear the owner of Schoolhouse Electric describe the backstory of the brand.
Happy Monday everyone! It’s sunny and gorgeous here in Vancouver which makes for a good start of the week. And, another reason for why this Monday is special is because our home is featured on Design Sponge today! Thanks to Anne for taking the time to put our story together. You can see the sneak peek of our home here.
The other weekend, we went to the Design Sponge book launch party held at Anthropologie and met the lovely and talented Grace Bonney. I’m so honoured to have my book signed by her and to have finally met her in person after years of continued inspiration. I also have to say that I am completely flattered of her nice write up on our totes over at Design Sponge – so amazingly sweet. You can read it here. Thanks Grace for including Vancouver to your book tour. Come back soon! xo, Nerissa
As Luna grows, our space grows with her too. We’ve changed our studio space numerous times to continually adapt to our ever changing lifestyle. Before Luna came to our life, our studio space was mainly used to work. When Luna came, we had to share the space with her and had to move furniture around to make room for her to crawl around. Now that she’s a little toddler and is more mobile, we’ve changed the space again to adapt to her needs and created a little fun art/play factory for her.
Luna loves doodling and being read to. So she now has a little art table, a reading rug, storage for her toys and a place to feature all her art work. We also created a family picture board where we’ll continually add photos of our family. She loves looking at it and screams out “mommy’ & “daddy” as she points to our photos. Luna loves spending time in here and every time she walks in, she goes straight to her artwork hanging from the ceiling and screams out “nice!”.
I always find it important to create different spaces in the house based on the activities that we would do in them. Luna knows that this is her space and it’s a place where she can freely explore, discover & play.
After years of dreaming about it, we finally got our brand new kitchen & we are extremely happy! The renovation wasn’t as bad as I had imagined – but perhaps it’s because we hired people to do it. All we had to do was to get out of the way – pretty simple on our part. But we did have to live without a kitchen for a full 3 weeks. Thankfully, it was sunny and warm out so we spent most of our days at the park & beach where we ate breakfast, lunch & dinner. Nothing to complain about! However, after the 3rd week, I was ready to spend more time at home & stay home.
Now that the kitchen is completely done, we couldn’t be happier. Nice to finally have our vision come to life. We are still on the look out for what to put on the large white wall by the dining table. We have quite a few ideas but are taking our time to make sure we find the right piece(s) to put on that wall. Once we have it, I’ll update this post with a photo.
When I was gathering inspirational images for our dream kitchen, I always appreciated the ones who listed the materials they used. So here’s a list for you:
Countertop : Quartz Cimstone Lapland 3cm
Backsplash : Statuary white marble 2″x4″ tile
Cabinets : Ikea
Cabinet hardware : Restoration Hardware
Dining Room Light Fixtures : Restoration Hardware
Bar Stools : Industrial Mansard Stool from Home Decorators Collection
Peter also surprised me with a laser etched engraving on the marble. “Collect the moments, one by one. I guess that’s how the future’s done.” – Feist.
We went to check out a fantastic pop up shop called The Found and The Freed which we read about through Janis from Pinecone Camp. I fell in love with the whole shop – I want them all! If you haven’t been, go check them out. They are scheduled to open until July 16th but might be extended throughout the summer or until December. But just in case, go before the 16th so you’re not disappointed.
Thought I would share some behind the scenes photos from the Anthology Magazine photoshoot day. The shoot took all day with a late but extended lunch break with Brian Stevens being the chef of the house & took over the kitchen creating a pretty special salad. That made our stomachs very happy. The day ended with some photos at the beach by our house but those photos didn’t make the cut. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.
We are so happy to be part of Anthology Magazine’s issue No. 3. It’s a fabulous spring issue and the theme is “Life is a Party!”
Early last year, co-founder & creative director of Anthology magazine, Meg Ilasco, asked us if we wanted to be in the issue. Well, that was a no brainer – the answer was Y-E-S! So in October last year, super talented SF/NYC based photographer Thayer Gowdy along with assistant photographer Brian Stevens flew in to shoot our home. Part of the team was also local stylist Heather Cameron and it was a full day of fun, fun, fun! Before the shoot, I didn’t really know what to expect. We were told to wear something colourful & spring like. And, maybe a little vacuuming here and there but to leave the space as is because they wanted to capture how we live and not have the space overly styled. Well, that was easy. All we needed to do was to be there & look decent.
The whole day was so casual and we were just there – living. We told stories, laughed, ate a huge lunch & just hung out. I barely noticed them working. There were also no gigantic photography lights or anything. Just Gowdy’s camera, a huge tripod and a laptop – that was it.
It was nice to have met them all as they are all so talented. I liked hearing Thayer’s stories as a professional traveling photographer. Wow, this woman has been to places! Made me envy her life a bit as she told us stories of where she’s been and people she’s met. Such an amazing woman. Heather Cameron and I have stayed in touch and I recently just finished designing her delicious Missing Goat jams & syrups. I’m so excited to see my labels on her jars soon. Yay!
You can check out their stockist list to pick yourself up a copy. Anthropologie is also now selling the magazine in its online shop and issue No. 3 will be arriving in all Anthropologie store locations in the US, Canada and UK.
Recently, I saw sfgirlbybay’s blog post on her home office. What caught my eyes were her vintage baskets where she stores her magazines. Such a great idea. We’ve got a great collection of magazines that we neatly store in our bookcase but to make them all stand in place, they have to be tightly squeezed together from end to end. Pulling one out cleanly is almost impossible especially when trying to squeeze it back in line. Solution: store them in baskets! So awesome. Why didn’t I think of this before? Now, I just take the whole basket out if I’m in the mood to read an old issue or easily add a new issue into the basket. Brilliant. I also love the old blackboard in her studio space. I want one too!
Today was spent at Francis and Tracy’s place for a little Lucy, Orla and Luna playdate and for the big people to re-connect. Francis and Tracy made us some fabulous sandwiches, banana bread and homemade apple tart made on a whim by Francis himself. We brought Peter’s yummy rosemary parmesan baked polenta chips and a couscous salad. Food with lots of chatting and laughter makes for a perfect weekend, again.
After lunch while the kids played and the two big boys chatted in the living room, Tracy and I had some time to talk mom to mom. It’s rare for two moms to be able to sit down and have a nice conversation without kids climbing all over us. Tracy and I both come from the creative industries so it was nice to be able to talk to a mom who understands the need to not loose your creative self-identity. I think it’s always a challenge to find the right balance of motherhood and rediscovering yourself again. While there are many challenges, there’s also lots of opportunities to chart out personal passions and steer life in new directions. While there will always be decisions to make and paths to find, I believe we have the power to shape our dreams and nurture a family at the same time.
I feel like this past year, I’ve had the time to re-discover who I am again as a creative person. Even with limited alone time, I feel the most creative I have ever been in years and ideas are bouncing out of my head. I’ve learned to really stay focused and to continually remember all the things I want to achieve and to only work on things that bring me closer to what I want to accomplish in my life. With all the choices that I am constantly faced with daily, I always have to stop and ask myself this question, “will doing this bring me closer to my goals and aspirations in life?” If the answer is no, then I turn around and simply don’t do it. If the answer is yes, then I jump right on it.
Though things will continue to change while Luna grows and our family grows with her, I feel it’s important to staying focused on self-defining what matters in life. There’s no simple solution but the answers become a little easier when you’re surrounded by good friends and supportive households. The big people are growing up as much as the little people. As they should.
