Wednesday Five - 1st Edition

Here we are with our first Wednesday Five! It's very exciting.

But first, a quick note, we will be revealing more from our Pearl Street Project (the dining room) and Pilgrim Project (the mudroom) on our Facebook and Instagram accounts over the next week or so. We will eventually get you a full bog post with details, but we don't want to keep those "after" photos hidden any longer!

Ok. Here we go...

 

1. Why is interior design so important? We instinctively know it is, but why? We started Gray Oak Studio based on personal passion for decorating our own homes and helping friends do the same. But, creating a beautiful space is actually only part of why we love our job SO much. We recently read an article from Tara Lenney Designs that captured the other part really, really well. It's a great read for anyone interested in making their own home beautiful, whether you're a DIYer or getting ready to hire interior designers.

 

2. I (Leah) went bathing suit shopping and shopping...and shopping over the past couple weeks in excitement and fearful anticipation of the approaching warm weather. After having my 3rd baby in January, I've officially graduated to one pieces (it's long overdue, but better late then never...). I found a small handful of winners and scored my favorite (below) for $25 with a promo code. It is super slimming (fully lined with cups) and classic, but not boring. I just need a big floppy hat to wear with it and I'm golden.

 

 

I also grabbed this one.

 

 

 

3. If you're not on the podcast train, it's time. There is so much amazing content out there. We're huge Young House Love Has A Podcast fans and look forward to Mondays thanks to their weekly episodes. Sherry and John Petersik are DIYers at their core, but they're also kids of the 80s, parents of 2 young kids, Real Housewife fans...

 

4. We love letter boards (like everyone). They're a dash of humor. They're personalizable (...not a word). They're budget friendly. We recently found an sweet, small biz that makes beautiful letter boards along with a bunch of other beautiful things - Letterfolk. I recently purchased some journals and I love them.

 

From our Pilgrim PRoject 

 

 

5. Swedish Death Cleaning. This is a thing. And, at the moment, a very popular thing. It seems to be an extension of the Minimalist movement, the Marie Condo method and Hygge. All of these similar ways to reduce the amount of stuff we bring into our lives. Anything that gives concrete methods for reducing the material thing clutter and focusing on the special people moments is exactly where we want to be. So, we plan to read up and get to the bottom of this slightly brutal new trend, we'll keep you posted.

Until next Wednesday (or sooner!)

- Leah, Sonia & Michele

*The post contains affiliate links*

Changing It Up on the Blog

Hi There! So, you may have noticed that we've been a little MIA on the blog...ooops face emoji. Does anyone else talk (or think) in emojis? It's become an instinct and it's truly embarrassing.

Sorry about that!!! For the past year, we've been fairly consistent about giving you some Monday morning love, but for the past two Mondays we've fully dropped the ball. First we skipped Memorial Day. We were busy soaking in the one or two rays of sunshine that peaked out that day. Then came...a regular, old Monday. (No holiday excuse available) And we still missed a post.

Basically, we've been pretty darn busy with the interior design arm of this small business of ours. It's an incredible and frankly humbling problem to have. But, nonetheless, it's a problem because we don't want to slack on the blog. The blog is a critical part of Gray Oak Studio. We love sharing our interior design inspirations, random finds, design tips and more. It's an unstructured outlet for everything that doesn't fit into the neat box of a client project. It's also the home for our project reveals, where we can dive deeper into our design process and get a little braggy about our finished spaces. But, it's quite time consuming. So, when push comes to shove (aka - when minutes come to zero), we always have to give time to our clients over the blog. They are the driving force behind Gray Oak and the reason this blog exists.

 from our Pilgrim Project

With all that, we had a little brainstorm about what to do when we're out of minutes and our weekly blog post isn't ready for y'all. How do we simplify without cheaping out?

Here's what we came up with: The Wednesday Five.

Catchy, right? Spirit finger emoji face.

We love reading the "Sunday 7" from our favorite bloggers. It's become a popular format for bloggers to spill anything and everything they've been thinking on all week into a potpourri Sunday post. Links to interesting articles, favorite items from an online sale, random happenings (professional or personal) from the week, etc. 

Rather than give you another Sunday 7, because that market is well saturated and, more importantly, because we think weekends are meant for families (...we try to put down the screens), we love the idea of a midweek touch base. Something fun to get through humpday to the other side of the week. 

 

From our Homestead Project

 

So...that's the plan. Starting next Wednesday. 

Pilgrim Project Reveal - Office

Today's reveal is really special to us. This project began last August!!! Yes, 2017. Yes, 9 months ago. Like a baby, this beautiful space needed lots of love and patience to come to completion.

Here's the story: we began working with our client last August to design a mudroom and office/homework space. The plan required the removal of walls, the construction of built-ins and lots of details in between. We finalized the design shortly thereafter and...as is sometimes the case with contractors...the project got bumped. This is not to say the contractor (Capano Construction) was anything short of fantastic, the timing just didn't line up. The original plan was for completion before Thanksgiving. The revised plan was for start after Christmas. Our amazing client made lemonade out of lemons and we designed her dining room while we waited (click here for part 1 and and here for part 2 of the dining room reveal). When the new year hit we were off to the races! 

Today we're revealing the office/homework space and we'll be back with the mudroom in a separate post. 

 

 

Where to start?! Okay - this amazing, custom, two person desk is the centerpiece of this room and it's truly a stunner. The combination of drawers and cabinets creates a ton of diverse storage. We love some fun containers and trays on top of a desk to coral frequently used stuff, but a truly functional office has hidden storage. And this office has it in abundance.

We had so much fun imagining our client's kiddos sitting side-by-side practicing their multiplication tables...or doodling super heroes.

 

 

We always consider the home itself in our designs. As we mentioned in the dining room reveal, this home was built in the 1920s and retains much of its traditional New England character. With the bones of the home in mind, we chose traditional Windsor chairs in an updated, modern blue for the desk chairs. 

 

 

The pop of blue against the otherwise neutral color palette - black, white and wood tones - is the perfect amount of fun. It brings whimsy to the space that will make homework a less of a downer.  

 

 

Like the desk chairs, the hardware for the drawers and cabinets are also a mix of traditional and modern. 

 

 

On the wall opposite of the desk is a large closet with custom, bypassing, barn doors made of reclaimed wood (built by Capano Construction). 

 

 

The hardware is recessed to allow the bypassing feature and, bonus, it's beautiful. The imperfection of the reclaimed wood - the mixed stains, the cracks, the knots and the marks - add so much character.

A series of large windows flood the narrow room with natural light at the center of the desk. On the right side of the windows we added some floating wood shelves to showcase some colorful, special art from our client's children. Even stealing that awesome framed black and white monster from a different room and relocating it here. The mat is a perfect match for pencil yellow.

 

 

To the right side of the windows we wall mounted a dry erase calendar for function and letter board for humor. Hints of brass (in the lamp and letter board) played well with the schoolhouse yellow.

 

 

As with any space that will be used by kids, we had so much fun with the details. There's nothing better than a crayons and crayons and more crayons. And puffy, green flowers that look like they've come out of a Dr. Seuss book are always welcome.

This was an incredibly fun project and we couldn't be more thrilled with the end result. 

 

 

Have a fantastic week! We'll be back next Monday (Memorial Day!) with another post.

- Leah, Sonia & Michele