Surfer Chic Beach House

I have said on several occasions that I want my next apartment to be painted all white. For those friends who have heard this, they look at me like I'm crazy as I obviously love color. So I was delighted to turn to this spread in September's House Beautiful magazine. Designed by Mona Ross Berman, this sixties-inspired beach house shows just how much you can do with color in an all-white space. The only thing I didn't like about the beach house was its location on the wrong coast (New Jersey). I'll take one of these in California, please!

The house's color palette came from the dining room tabletop: orange, yellow, turquoise, and white.

Eames chairs, the AMAZING table, and a Jere sculpture set the scene.

You've got to love the yellow Moroccan poufs!

The white wall-exception: powder room with wallpaper by Studio Printworks. Love!

Last but not least (and possibly my favorite), the master bedroom in shades of orange and pink. Loving the Missoni-inspired floor and the headboard upholstered in a Raoul Textiles fabric.

All images from House Beautiful

Site Searching

Yesterday my brother Eric and his girlfriend guided me down the San Diego coast looking for potential thesis sites. We started in Encinitas, and headed south through Del Mar, Torrey Pines and La Jolla. We stopped at some of the big surf areas, and I was able to convince them we should stop at the Salk Institute (neither had ever been). We had lunch in La Jolla, Eric pointed out where our parents lived in college (both went to UCSD), and he took me by my grandparents' old house - which to our surprise is still boarded up and deserted. It was a beautiful day in San Diego, and I have to admit, it just didn't feel like that much "work" to scout the coast for a site.

Home + Architecture

After spending an amazing few weeks in Nepal, I returned to the hot/humid weather that defines summer in DC and thought to myself, "you're crazy, go home!" - which is exactly what I decided to do for the month of July. A last minute flight and a few days later, I'm settling in to the California lifestyle, which so far has consisted of moving in with my brother in Encinitas, reading a book for pleasure (crazy I know!), going to the beach, and a daily run or bike ride. Not too rough...

I am also really glad I took a definitive break from school, because now that I'm back in California and feeling refreshed, thesis is actually starting to become something I'm excited about. I haven't officially begun looking for a site yet, but over the weekend I walked along the coast for a while, and the ideas definitely started forming.

In addition to the bumming around SoCal for the month, I'm also excited to find out there are some cool exhibits, etc. happening this summer while I'm home. Somehow I usually miss things I'm interested in being on the wrong coast at the time (like Dwell on Design that was the weekend before I decided to come home). However, just got an email from LA Forum, and I'm really looking forward to the

Lewis.Tsuramaki.Lewis exhibit at the end of the month - 4 Projects: 4 Scales. The firm is out of New York, and our CBDS undergrad group permanently carried around their book last semester which I came to know and love. Excited to see some of their work first-hand.

In Need of a Little Sunshine

I know it's only January, but I'm already sick of this cold weather. You can take the girl out of California but you can't take California... Anyways, dreaming of basking in the warm, sunny glow of home - a Sunday at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market and an afternoon nap on the beach?

From Domino Magazine

Heading South

After spending all morning working on my new blog logo (see above!), I am going to make this quick as I need to run a bunch of errands before heading down to Encinitas to hang out with my brother, Eric. The weather should be nice, I'm packing my camera, and a night's stay at the beach sounds like a great way to end my SoCal trip home - 3 weeks are flying by way too quickly!

Here's one of the photos I took up north over Christmas with my new Hasselblad - hopefully I'll have some more great weather today and tomorrow down south.

Soaking up some sun

Apparently it was an unusually cold, overcast summer in California.  Well, I evidently brought the heat back with me from Finland, because it's been gorgeous (if not a tad bit too hot) here my first week here in SoCal.  I'm easing back into Pacific Standard Time (I really hope this going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 6 am is a jet-lag thing, not an I'm-getting-old thing), and enjoying what's left of the summer.  Thursday I went to Newport Beach with almost all of the Casciari girls - it definitely reminded me of our annual summer beach house rentals on 64th Street.  By the time I got there, they of course had already befriended half the population, so we ended up playing a few games of volleyball, which was really fun as I haven't played in ages (and oh was I paying for it the next day).


Sara drove down to 12805 today, and we spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, catching up and eating guacamole (which at this point is becoming our ritual).  It was so great to see her, even if for not long enough.  Although, we're already scheming a potential trip for me to visit her in New York, her come to DC in the spring, and (my favorite:) where I should plan to throw a huge party for my BIG 3 - 0.  We're thinking weekend destination, maybe somewhere tropical...


So now, the final chapter to my beaching, I'm headed down to Encinitas with my Dad, to see the beach shack, now complete after months of renovation.  I haven't seen it at all but for pictures my family emailed me while abroad, so I have to admit, I'm pretty excited.  And, of course it will really be great to spend time with my family, and even, gasp, my younger brother, whom I definitely do not see enough.  I'm hoping he'll give me a photography lesson while I'm down there, or maybe even take me out on a board.

Beach house almost finished - so glad I talked my parents into the pop of teal!

Beach Week

Could there be a better way to spend my first week back in California than at my parents' new beach house down in Encinitas (well, pending new beach house as they've been in escrow forever and actually just rented it for the week)?

Granted, the sun didn't come out until Thursday, but it was nice to just relax and catch up on some much-needed sleep (my parents one day seriously thought I might have mono). The town of Encinitas is really cute, and the house on 3rd street is only two blocks from the beach and two from the main drag of town, so definitely a great location. We enjoyed learning about our new neighborhood - or I should more aptly say eating through the new neighborhood. Also with the cloudy weather came us spending a lot of time talking about the upcoming renovation, which should be pretty fun (well, at least the design part of it, I'm sure my parents will not love the renovation aspect).

Highlights of the week also included a trip down to the Salk Institute with Erik, a new friend of mine from CUA, and seeing Allison Casciari's (Meyer's) newest addition to her family - I cannot believe how big all of her girls are getting already - Bianca at 7 is already at Allison's shoulder. And, of course, after growing up hearing the story of my parents going to VG's Donuts in the middle of the night through their years at UCSD, it was appropriate we finally had some yesterday - and they definitely lived up to all of the hype.

Salk Institute - the "money shot", which I probably could have pulled any one of the million from Google.

After watching "My Architect" about the life of Louis Kahn, Erik and I felt we had to go to Salk as we both grew up living so close to this famous building (in La Jolla).

This is a fun one - my parents' new "neighbors" down in Encinitas. I think the boats have been parked/used as housing since the 20's? Apparently there was a CNN special about them.