Pepper Design Blog

Friday Guest Blog Interview: The Novogratz Family

Today I am honored to invite the Novogratz Family (yes the Design by Nine team!) to PDB to participate in our Friday Guest Blog Interview series. I absolutely adore their organic, eclectic and family-oriented style, and I’m pinching myself that they’ve agreed to take a few moments to answer our four usual questions on personal design, and to share their newest collection over at CB2!

The above is one of my favorite rooms.

Robert and Cortney Novogratz (along with their seven children) have made stylish family design and functionality hip, eccentric and homey. The couple have designed a variety of hotels, homes, NYC apartments, have created their very own line through CB2 (check out the ‘family’ lightbox after the jump), are seasoned authors (more in question 2) and reality TV show stars over at HGTV. Their signature design style is wonderful, creating striking, memorable spaces around the globe. Spaces that make you go – I want to copy that now!

What a lucky bunch! I stole this image from a while back, their kids are a wee bit older now. Follow the jump for the full interview!

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Living Room Update: Toy Storage!

Popping in here today to share a recent toy basket purchase for our living room. We’ve outgrown our previous teensy tiny basket (what was I thinking?), and when I spotted these birch weaved beauties at Crate & Barrel on sale I snagged ‘em before I could reconsider.

I’ve always thought that baskets in general are quite pricey. When I come across any that are a deal in my mind I almost feel obligated to purchase just because I know I will find a use somewhere in the house . Always looking for a pretty way to corral ‘stuff’!

The living room is full of dark woods – reddish floors, dark bookcases and couch legs, an espresso-stained mantel. The birch fits in beautifully as a bright, organic contrast.

As far as filling them goes, here’s an unedited look at the inside.

Books and such in the smaller of the two:

And bigger toys in the larger basket. Liv is learning to organize and enjoys putting toys – for the most part – back where they’re ‘supposed’ to go.

We are building a home for a family, so having toys and play stuff is 100% okay with me out in the open. There’s something cozy and comforting and kid-friendly (even a little messy in a good way) about visible toys. It means a space is used and loved and enjoyed. But cute containers are a plus!

PS More on the entire makeover of our little living space here.

Office Wall Collage: An Embroidery Project for Kev

While we were away we celebrated Kevin’s birthday! I actually haven’t gotten around to finishing his present, but I do have his Father’s Day present to share (four months later…). I originally hadn’t planned on posting about this project (part of my effort to show Kevin that I hadn’t made the piece for the blog – but for him! But I think it’s kind of cool and four months of not posting about it is enough time for me.)

It’s an embroidered bicycle that I then framed and had on display on our mantel for a while. Kevin and his family are big bikers, and I was hoping to hand make something that was special to him personally. He and Olivia LOVE to bike (she is thrilled every time she sees one go by, and constantly asks to go for a ride in her iBert) and I thought that something with bicycles might be fitting for Father’s Day. (I also traced her little hand on a card – something that I think will be neat to do every year just to watch how she grows!)

Kevin is really terrible to buy gifts for. I mean, really terrible. He doesn’t need anything, doesn’t really get excited  about anything and in general is hard to impress. I worked on this project during the evenings when he was in class for a few weeks in the spring, when he opened it he thought it was cool and thoughtful and that was enough for me.

Now the embroidered bike sits at the top of the wall collage in the office/guestroom. This is a nice spot for it, perhaps a permanent one.

Sadly, I don’t have photos documenting the progress (goes along with the whole I-made-this-just-for-you part of the gift), but this is an excellent tutorial on how to embroider just about anything. I actually found a generic picture of a bicycle online and printed it out to the proper size, lined it up with an off white fabric scrap I had on hand and reminded myself on how to make a basic embroidery stitch. I didn’t use an embroidery hoop but I will next time. Lesson learned.

It’s a little folksy, a little artsy, and by no means perfect. But that’s what I kind of what I like about it!

Maybe a quick ironing pre-framing would have helped with a few of those wrinkles…

More office/guestroom posts found here.