Living Room Inspiration

Today I stumbled upon my new favorite Home Store: Borcade Designs. Of course it's located in NYC, but you can get all their stuff on-line at a pretty reasonable price.

We're going to need some shelves for our books, wine glasses, etc... And I think this would just look stunning in our new living room:

I can envision it looking great with our chocolate couch and coffee table.

And the added white accents would look great with our white lamp and refurbished chair seen here:
I could recover the seat of the chair with a nice bold pattern.

Together I think the chocolate brown and stark white looks part modern, part shabby chic. Do you think that mid-century modern obsessed Mr. Spice would go for it??

I also think that these Marakkah Hanging lamps from Z Gallerie would look fabulous hanging over the desk area??




And I think the final piece would be a very cool bright rug. Since we have both a dog and a cat we are seriously considering the fabu Flor Rugs.


Or right now I am lovin' this Shiny Happy Strip:



What do you guys think? Is this look modern enough, or does it scream shabby chic?

Expectations.

Now that I've shown you the old place and the new place. I guess it's about time to talk about what to expect on this blog.

Well, I am a total DIY wanna-be. I obsessively watch HGTV and they make home decorating projects looks so freakin easy!! Well, some of them; ok, so maybe only a handful look easy, but I got some skills!!

While I won't be jumping into any major home demo projects (we are just renting after all), I do hope to put up some easy peasey decorating projects. And I hope to ask for a TON of advice on what to do and how to do it.

Patience really isn't my thing, so I usually dive right in without really know what I am doing. It has gotten me into a few scraps here and there, but haven't you seen enough pictures of perfect projects anyway??

More importantly, I want to learn to talk the talk and walk the walk, and create a Green, eco-friendly place. Reuse, reduce, recycle with a Modern Flair is how I want to decorate. So while I may be able to walk into Crate and Barrel and buy that perfect book case, I will be searching Craigslist and Flea Market for the better buys. (At least that is what I am telling myself!)

I don't know how long this blog will last- since our place is technically less than 1,000 square feet (seriously, how much decorating can I do??) - but I do want to take my time to find the great pieces at a great price.

If we can find the perfect apartment in San Francisco, I for sure want to make sure that it's decorated perfectly!!

So please bring your ideas and suggestions. What would you like to hear me talk about??

And where is your favorite place to bargain shop in the Bay Area??

The New Place

I can't wait.

I am jumping right in with photos of our new place. Over the last three weeks Mr. Spice and I had seen over 20 different apartments. I was this close to giving up and settling. Thank god that Mr. Spice is way more patient- or was that picky- than I am because he wouldn't settle for anything less than perfect. As his Grandfather's says all the time, we were looking for the Best of the Best.

And boy did we find it. This stunner had everything on our required list. Here's the count down:
7. A good and safe location. You are going to have to trust me on this one because I just can't straight up tell you where we live, but I will say that we will be moving within this seven by seven square and the location is not just good, but AMAZINGLY good:

6. Enough space. We knew we were going to be down sizing from a two bedroom plus to a one bedroom, but we had to make sure that we had enough space for our sanity. (And as large as I think this place is- it's still a downsize, which means smaller foot print, which is light green on the green scale).

Back on target- Check out this huge* living room:

From CA Apartment

And from the window looking back:

From CA Apartment

5. Along with enough space, we needed good closets or storage space. No free storage place here, but HELLO, this is the smaller of the two walk in closets (and there is also a linen closet). Ah-maz-ing!

From CA Apartment

4. Upgrades. I am not talking stainless steel and granite counter tops, I am just asking for a sink big enough to wash the dishes and a bathroom toilet that doesn't have a backwards handle.

Not only is the sink big enough to do dishes, but do you notice the DISHWASHER!!

From CA Apartment

Hallelujah! At this point in the tour I had about died and gone to heaven. And can you just imagine all the color I can add to this kitchen!

3. Charm. (More of a bonus not a requirement). And what doesn't say charm than this Bumble Bee bathroom. I am dying to start decorating it out with yellow and black:

From CA Apartment

2. Light. As I mentioned in my previous post, our living room got absolutely no natural light. Our new place, well, check out our view. This picture was taken at about 7:30pm, so I can only imagine they type of day light this place gets:

From CA Apartment

And here's the view towards downtown:

From CA Apartment

1. The one VERY must have- a place for Kitty and Puppy to hang. We didn't even look at places that didn't allow pets, but we realized half way through our search that if we moved into a huge building with no place for the kitty to go out- we'd be making his life hell.

Well, I didn't get a pic of the two yards, but trust me- there is plenty of space (off the street) for kitty to roam around!

And Bonus, there is a place for Mr. Spice's BBQ!!

You can't see the BBQ, but here's a picture of Kitty and Mr. Spice at our housewarming party in 2007:


So that's the trip around the new place. Hope you enjoyed it. I am bursting at the seams in excitement! I can't wait to get in there and start decorating!! Whoo hoo!!

What was on your must have list?

*Please note, I use the words huge, spacious, upgraded, etc. all on a scale compared to other SF Apartments, not the national average.

Movin on Up

Hey Folks, welcome to the new Sugar and Spice. As of yesterday, Mr. Spice and I are moving, so I thought the blog should move too. While I am not done blogging about our ridiculously fantastic wedding- (christ, how can I, we still haven't seen all the wedding pics!!)- my new obsession is all things Home, so I thought a revamped S&S was in order.

I hope for this blog to be about our adventure to create our first married nest, and my goal *fingers crossed* is to be as green and organic as possible in making our new apartment a home.

So let's get down to business, I thought I would start with a few pics that Mama Sugar took of our current living room at our house warming party two years ago. Just as a sneak peak introduction:

Here's our front porch. It faced a busy street so I have to say we never really used this space. Although, right now it's housing a bunch of boxes.

This living room is 100% charm and character with 0% light. I love this room with all the built ins, but I always felt like I was livin' in a hole. Which was fine for a dark day or at night, but not during the day.

Not sure what's going on with those pillows on the couch in the pic above- talk about randomness, but this pictures does show our coffee table which I've stained twice now, and I am afraid it needs another go. OR is it about time for a new coffee table!??

Here's the other corner of the Living Room, which did get some natural light, but not much.

The lamp and the chair (a more successful revamp project) will totally be makin their way to the new place.

In a small effort to brighten the room, I always tried to have flowers in these vases:

And here's one pic of our old, but fabulous, Wedgewood Stove in our kitchen. One of the few things we will miss greatly! And probably the item that sold us on the place to begin with.



So, what sold you on the place you are living in now?