Wednesday Five - 2

Hi There. It's Wednesday again! That came quick, didn't it?

Around here, we're wrapping up the school year with lots of concerts, picnics and parties. It's been an action packed couple weeks on the home front. We've already consumed our annual limit of hot dogs. Limits are meant to be exceeded, no? AND, we decided to squeeze in an install for a family room we've been working on since January. Our client's kiddos are also finishing up the school year and we wanted to make sure their new space was ready for summer fun.

It's technically not 100% complete because we're missing a gallery wall and window treatments. So, we'll get you truly finished photos later in the summer. Here's a quick look before we dive into the Wednesday Five.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram for lots more photos (until we get around to a blog post!). 

1. How often do you wash your dish towels? Or...let's back up. Do you say dish towels or kitchen towels? I guess I spoiled my answer. Well, turns out you should be washing your dish/kitchen towels EVERY. DAMN. DAY. Thanks Better Homes & Gardens for this article, which sent me into a momentary spiral of all the other things that I should be cleaning for more frequently than I do. 

2. I'm having a kimono moment. I keep seeing all these beautiful open front, cardigan style, floral kimonos and I want one. It's not at all my style. But it's calling me. I can't decide whether I get the one I want (this one) or the budget-friendly option (this one) because I'm probably never going to wear it either way. 

3. We're working on two new projects that both require some temporary art. Personal, meaningful art is the goal, but that's not always possible. You might own an 8x10 piece and the space requires a 20x24 piece. Or what you own isn't room appropriate - the old fruit-bowl-painting-over-the-toilet problem. In these situations we recommend going a budget-friendly, universally appealing route. For this, we've searched high and low and consistently come back to Etsy. We used some beautiful prints from South Pacific (an Etsy shop) for our Homestead living room project. Do you have any favorite Etsy shops where you print shop?

4. Plants are a huge part of our styling. And so, we're always keeping our eyes out for beautiful and interesting planters. We discovered this cutie (below) from World Market and it was love at first sight.

5. Domino had a great article this week on some basic Dos and Donts for decorating your home. For example, DO take scale into account. We think this is fundamental to creating a room that feels comfortable and polished. It also isn't always instinctive and takes some consideration. There are a bunch of gems like this. All with great visual examples, and lots of deep links to checklists and more detailed resources. 

Have a great rest of your week!

- Leah

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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

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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.