I’ve always been a fan of a great at-home bar. I strongly believe it’s a must-learn life skill to mix up classic cocktails, and as an avid host, it’s important to provide an array...
Looking back on Easter as a child, I remember how excited I was to dig through my Easter basket. Full of chocolate bunnies, malt ball Easter eggs, Peeps, golden coins, and my favorite Cadbury...
Lets be honest, salads can be boring. So I’m always trying to think outside of the box to come up with salad recipes that I’ll thoroughly enjoy, but are beyond easy to make. Enter...
Lets be honest, salads can be boring. So I’m always trying to think outside of the box to come up with salad recipes that I’ll thoroughly enjoy, but are beyond easy to make. Enter...
results for juliska/Two unabashed romantics, Capucine and David Gooding founded Juliska in 2001 with a collection of 40 historic Bohemian glasses – since then the company has blossomed to one of the leading home brands in America. Juliska is not about trends; it’s about loving life and living well. Juliska today is made up of an inspired group of individuals committed to providing beautiful things for the home. We are inspired by the gathering of family and loved ones over food, passionate artisans, and centuries of European design.
I’ve started to develop a love affair with art. With a Gray Malin piece and my first piece of original abstract art to my name, my interest in an art collection has only grown. But with my enthusiasm to purchase new art, I’ve also come to realize that an art collection can quickly become expensive (maybe an understatement) and the whole process can be a bit intimidating.
So many stunning interiors make a case for great art, and my favorite part is that many show us how easily you can balance the high-and-low when it comes to original pieces and prints. Thanks to my favorite bloggers and of course Pinterest, I’ve discovered new artists near and far, and many on affordable sites like Minted and Etsy. A great source of art inspiration for me personally is Chassity Evans. She’s the voice behind the popular lifestyle blog Look Linger Love (and one of my favorite daily reads). I knew Chassity would be a great person to tap for a little insight on what to consider when starting your own art collection in the home. Catch her easy tips below, and tell me your favorite sources for great art! Cheers, Kat
1. Collect what you love. I’ve always been drawn to drawings of the female body and my collection shows it.
2. Get your kids interested in art! Last summer I was looking for a large piece for my son Fletcher’s bedroom. I narrowed down a few favorite pieces and then let him choose the one he liked best. He feels pride in this piece now and knows that his opinion matters.
3. Think outside the box (or canvas) for your collection. I own a scarf by my friend and artist Raven Roxanne. It’s a print of one of her nude ladies paintings. Great to wear now and frame later.
4. Find a framer you love and trust and aim for a diverse collection of frames for a “collected over time” look. My favorite source is Framebridge.
5. Check Etsy for art finds! I have found a lot of pieces there like this one at reasonable prices.
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As most of you know two weekends ago I celebrated the Grand Opening of Waiting On Martha Home, and while I still haven’t had time to catch my breath, I wanted to take a moment to share a peek into the weekend, the design, and a little into the process of how I got here.
Opening my own brick & mortar shoppe has been a dream of mine for years. Almost five years, and four different pop-up shop test runs if I’m being exact. So believe me when I say getting to this moment has not been an easy journey.
First I had to tackle the question of, “do I even want a retail storefront?” Retail is not for the faint of heart; I lost many a night’s sleep making pro and con lists over this question. But, in the end I knew this dream of being a Shoppe Girl has been in my heart well before there was a WOM.
So with that box checked the next question was “where?” This was definitely one of, if not the hardest part. Location, location, location was of course key, but I also had a vision of what I wanted the storefront to look like. And then the clientele of course; I needed to put roots in a place where Waiting On Martha Home would be welcomed and supported, and most importantly shopped! Enter the Vinings Jubilee, an adorable neighborhood of speciality stores and restaurants tucked in historic Vinings Village Atlanta. It was, it is, the perfect place for our flagship store!
Lastly, design. This was by far the easiest, and most fun part of the whole process. Having been dreaming this dream for so long I knew exactly what I wanted to do down to the very last detail. First things first, demo.
I worked closely with Rob and his amazing team from Vision Construction. With the help of Vision we knocked down walls, tore up all the flooring, moved electrical, exposed windows that were hidden…which I’ll never quite understand, painted, wallpapered, and built out 8 custom shelving and cabinetry units and 1 custom beverage bar.
And while Vision was a dream to work with, I can’t give them all the construction credit. My father, the talented man that he is, built by hand…in my parent’s garage no less, the most gorgeous check out station you’ll ever see. Plus he built the fireplace, laid the custom flooring in the backroom and with a little help from the hubs hung a room full of shiplap. As Kat says, “dad is a unicorn.”
For the actual design details, it really breaks down to the paint, wallpaper, countertops, and flooring.
For the flooring in the main room, I chose a wide plank, warm toned maple colored laminate wood flooring that I swear you’d never know wasn’t real wood. This was able to save me quite a bit of cash, plus it’s so nice not having to worry about it getting scratched or damaged.
In the back room, I went with hand-stamped laminate wood tiles from Charleston designer Mirth Studios. I stumbled upon these tiles on Instagram and immediately fell in love. Available in 40+ patterns, and with a 15 year warranty I knew they would be just the right amount of pizzaz I was looking for, plus the Sweet Cecilia design paired perfectly with my Farrow & Ball Pale Powder shiplap walls. I loved the tiles so much, we are now the exclusive retail partner of Mirth Studios. So if you’re in Atlanta, stop by the Shoppe and check some of the designs out for yourself!
The wallpaper had to be grasscloth; no question in my mind. My favorite line of grasscloth currently is from Bradley USA. The quality is amazing, and it’s a better cost option than others. And though I loved all of the grasscloth patterns, colors, and textures I ended up going with the Jute Grasscloth in Gleam.
Just as the wallpaper had to be grasscloth, the paint had to be Farrow and Ball. If you remember I visited Farrow and Ball’s headquarters in England last September and actually saw the entire paint process from start to finish, and there’s just no one who does it quite like F&B.
I used Chappell Green in lacquer, Pale Powder in both a flat and semi gloss, Dimity in lacquer, and All White in both a flat and semi gloss. There really are no words to describe just how gorgeous it all turned out. Honestly, the coloring evokes just the right amount of happy, calm, and bright…pure perfection.
Lastly, the marble. This was a difficult task. The marble needed to go in four very large places: the check out station, wrapping station, beverage bar, and fireplace. Measuring to be at least 2 full slabs of the exact same marble, which meant digging through remanent pieces that are always more reasonably priced was not an option. And of course I wanted thick, beautiful, white carrera-esq marble. Not granite, not quartz, not laminate…marble.
After visiting a few marble yards, and finding nothing in our budge, I was referred to Elise from Stone Select. Thank God for Elise!! You see Elise is basically a stone-marble-granite dealer. I told her what I wanted and she searched all the yards and found it. The best part, she found it fast and under budget! Seriously, if you are in Atlanta and need marble Elise is your gal!
And with that, and a lot of product styling, my pinch-me moment of finally opening my Waiting On Martha Home doors was ready.
I’ll be putting the finishing touches on the place over the next few weeks, and invite you to come join the fun; sip on coffee in our custom coffee cups, treat yourself to a little “sercie” or “happy”, find gifts for quite literally everyone, or let me help in designing that custom piece of furniture you’ve been dreaming about. And be on the lookout for upcoming events at Waiting on Martha Home.
One more quick note; thank you. I was thoroughly blown away by the support of WOM’s family and friends who came out to shop on opening day regardless of the torrential down pour. To my online customers and friends who sent so many well wishes. And of course, it meant the world to me to see the amazing response of the Vinings community. Thank you to Kat, Liz, Steph, and the entire WOM Team. To my parents, who have worked tirelessly my entire life to give me everything I could have wanted and needed, who have supported my dreams, and most importantly have loved me unconditionally. And lastly, to my husband, who along with Addison is always my biggest cheerleader. THANK YOU. The best is yet to come Friends! Truly, MKR
P.S. Be sure to follow along on the shoppe’s Instagram and Facebook page for exciting updates, special discounts and more! xo
You know those people that just seem to find THE COOLEST stories? Those people that celebrate tradition, culture (basically all of the good things in life) by passing along hidden gems we all yearn to know about? Well that in a nutshell describes our friend Jess Graves, founder of The Love List. If you haven’t heard of The Love List then you’ve been living under a rock for oh, I don’t know, 10+ years now. Founded in 2006, The Love List provides intimate glimpses into the lives of creatives and makers alike. My favorite part; Jess’s ability to make me feel as a reader like I’m right there in the heart of it, sitting next to her crew, laughing along and moving to the beat. A beat that caught us here at WOM a few weeks ago when we sat with Jess to take a behind-the-scenes look into what makes The Love List what it is.
WOM: It’s easy to see that you’re passionate about the good things in life: food, music and culture (etc.). We’re suckers for all of the above. Can you share with us how you established your niche for The Love List, and how you made it to where you are today? JNG: Haha, I don’t know that there was any intense plan of action when it came to establishing a niche, I’d like to say I was that strategic, but I just come at it from a genuine place. The Love List started wayyyy back almost ten years ago as a literal list of things I love, and I think that idea’s just kind of evolved as I grew up, and the content grew up with me. I take what I learn from working in magazines and apply those ideas to digital content, which is where we’re at now. We like telling stories about the South, and we try not to do it in a stuffy or cliche way, quality over quantity. And I say “we” literally, not royally – there’s no way in hell any of it would get pulled off without our team/contributors. Without them, I’d be up sh*t creek writing listicles.
WOM: You’re one of our favorite storytellers, and you always seem to know how to get your subjects talking. How do you prepare for an interview? And do you ever suffer from “writer’s block”? JNG: Well thanks for saying that! I like telling stories, but I honestly don’t prepare that much! Haha, I sound like such a flake. I just don’t really hunt stories or subjects down. I’m out in the world more than I’m sitting at my desk, and by constantly going places and meeting folks I’m genuinely interested in, stories find their way to The Love List pretty organically. By the time I actually sit down with someone, I’ve usually already known them awhile, and it’s just us having an informal conversation, spending time with them, letting them lead us through what they’re working on, and filling in the gaps later on once I sit down to write. And yes, I totally get writer’s block, but usually if I pick up a great book and read something killer by some writer who is way better than me, it un-blocks me.
WOM: Tell us about your most memorable story: how it came about, what you learned from it, etc. JNG: Every story Caroline and I do together always makes for a great memory. We’ve been working together so long now we kind of have it down to a science. We’re like sisters, we definitely bicker and sass, but we’re good travel buddies and partners in crime, and we both push each other to be better, work harder. She loves the subject matter as much as I do, so sometimes we have these moments where we’re coming back from shooting a video with an amazing musician or being half-drunk with some great chef that we’re just like, “We get to do this?!” Acting jaded or like you’ve seen it all is lame. We’re real-life fans of the stuff we cover, so we’re jumping up and down inside 99% of the time. I never want to lose that appreciation or take those experiences for granted.
WOM: We know you have a soft spot for the tunes, especially those from emerging Southern musicians. Do you have a go-to source for discovering new music? JNG: People always ask me this! I wish there was some magical secret source I could toss out, but honestly I think it comes from just being embedded in it constantly. We’ve got great relationships with musicians, record labels and music venues that are always putting things on my radar, but sometimes I’ll just fall down a rabbit hole on Spotify and see what I can find. My friends all know I’m a music nerd too, so people are always texting me stuff, which I love. Sometimes a song just comes on in a friend’s car and I Shazam it. Like anything, it’s just a matter of having your eyes (or in this case, ears) open all the time.
WOM: Are you guilty of playing a favorite song to death? JNG: Um, yes. I call it “secret repeat” because it’s usually something really uncool. I hate myself for loving the new Justin Bieber album. Not because it’s pop, I love a good radio jam, but because I feel confident Justin Bieber is not someone I’d like to hang out with haha. *shakes fist at Diplo’s catchy beats*
WOM: Where do you seek inspiration/fill your creativity tank? JNG: People! People are what inspire me and keep me thinking and pushing. Everyone said Millenials as a generation were doomed to fail, but I think we’re kind of killing it right now. The value we place on history, integrity, and creativity is creating the kind of energy (at least in Atlanta) right now that makes you feel like you’re a bee in some kind of cosmic hive. That’s kind of a heady thing to say, but there’s a creativity fever here, and everyone is catching it. And the women here are the greatest. I have the best girl friends here.
WOM: Who would you have around the table at your dinner party (dead or alive)? JNG: I don’t care, as long as they come to eat, intend to stay late, and aren’t an asshole. There are currently no vacancies for assholes at the dining table that is my life.
WOM: Favorite city/neighborhood? JNG: Atlanta. I really love it here.
WOM: Signature drink? JNG: Probably bourbon, though I’m hesitant to say that because there is some kind of hard-ass cliche that comes with being a “whiskey woman”. Liking whiskey doesn’t say anything about my personality except that I like whiskey.
WOM: Do you have any guilty pleasures? JNG: Aside from the aforementioned Bieber thing? Probably Shake Shack. It’s way too close to my house.
WOM: Favorite song or band (currently)? JNG: Haha, that’s literally an impossible question. I really like Great Peacock out of Nashville, though. And Leon Bridges. And Chris Stapleton. And the list goes on forever…
WOM: Dream vacation? Next vacation spot? JNG: Cuba. I am obsessed with Cuba right now.
WOM: What are you currently reading? JNG: A lot of Hemingway, which sounds so like, “oh, how original, you’re sooooo Southern” but I did a cocktail article for another publication that kind of sent me down that rabbit hole that re-obsessed me with Hemingway, Cuba, and Cuban rum. So, here we are.
WOM: Favorite way to unwind? JNG: Hot bath, many bubbles, loud music, phone off. The greatest luxury in life is turning your phone the hell off. Also, wine with my closest girlfriends. There is nothing like the combination of cocktails and catharsis.
WOM: Top item on your wish list right now? JNG: I don’t need anything, life is good. My only wish is to keep making a living at what I’m doing and for my friends and loved ones to stay in good health. I did my fair share (*cough understatement*) of screwing up during the first half of my 20’s – I turn 30 in March, so I’m enjoying being a slightly less stupid human being at the moment. I wouldn’t kick Jon Hamm out of bed though, if someone’s offering.
A big, big thanks to Jess for giving us a little peek behind the scenes of The Love List. We can’t wait to see what exciting things Jess and her team have in store for her readers in 2016. Cheers, Kat
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I’ve started to develop a love affair with art. With a Gray Malin piece and my first piece of original abstract art to my name, my interest in an art collection has only grown. But with my enthusiasm to purchase new art, I’ve also come to realize that an art collection can quickly become expensive (maybe an understatement) and the whole process can be a bit intimidating.
