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zerbebe nursery: two directions
Ok, so we already showed you what we have in mind for the basic nursery layout, but over the last several months I’ve been thinking more and more about specifics like colors, patterns and furniture. Pregnancy can be pretty overwhelming (so much to learn! so many decisions to make!), but the nursery – well, this is something I know how to do. Although we don’t have a lot of baby experience (most of our friends don’t have kids yet), I feel like I’ve read enough blogs and heard enough advice to be able to form my own opinions about what the nursery should be and what makes the most sense for our lifestyle. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the nursery is mostly for us (or me…as Kyle has stated he only cares about the little munchkin we put in the nursery…that, and a comfy chair). I know the baby isn’t going to care about a particular theme or color palette (we still have a few more years before I get to put the kibosh on her Disney Princess desires), but I do believe that putting together the space helps new parents feel more prepared and well, let’s be honest…it’s fun.
Just like the other rooms in our house, we have the same basic objectives for the nursery: we want it to be functional and reflective of who we are and what we like. We want to invest in smart pieces that are versatile and will last for many years while also getting creative where we can. We don’t want to spend a lot of money, but we also don’t want to buy things that will quickly fall apart.
With those thoughts in mind, we’ve come up with two design directions for our baby girl’s room. They are both based on a collection of images, products and ideas that have been swimming around my head, but they are not a shopping list. Unfortunately, many items are just too expensive (imagine that?), but in our experience it’s best to start with what you want and then employ some creative problem solving skills to achieve a more affordable version.
A general note about color: regardless of the gender, I’ve always imagined the nursery with dark blue-gray walls with layers of gray and yellow. A few weeks ago (right after we found out that we’re having a girl), ModFruGal, Morgan and I were having a little back-and-forth on Twitter about nursery implications and how I could pull off a girl’s room that’s not too girly. Morgan made the below comment about colors. I wasn’t expecting it to, but her words really stuck with me and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this lady is obviously a genius.
Although I love yellow and gray as much as the next person, I knew the nursery would need something else, something more. I kept churning this palette around in my head and this weekend I finally spent some quality time with Photoshop to see how it could all come together. I don’t know if I’m bold enough to go with hot pink, but Kyle and I have talked about a particular coral/pink color that we both like (seen in this quilt that my mom made for me last year)…and an inky blue-gray could mesh well with the other colors and pick up on the subtle dark navy thread in the chevron rug. It’s a palette that’s feminine and sweet without screaming “BABIES” and will work with the rest of our house (keeping in mind that the nursery will be quite visible).
So anyway, DESIGN TIME! Oh, one more thing first – I would like to note that I’m intentionally not choosing a theme. I want our little girl’s room to grow with her, so I’m focusing instead on creating a room that is modern, cozy and feminine.
Scheme 1: (In both schemes, we’ll be using the West Elm chevron rug and IKEA PAX wardrobe that we already own. I’m also showing the Artemide Tolomeo floor lamp, but we’ll likely go with something smaller and oh…not $1K.) During a trip to IKEA a few months ago, I was excited to see the new SUNDVIK crib in gray-brown. At $119, it made me feel less sad about the price tag on the Oeuf cribs. In my head, I’d been imagining incorporating some gray hues with our dark brown cork floors and this seemed like the perfect solution to help tie everything together. The Ryder Rocking Chair is from West Elm and although it’s not inexpensive ($599) I was immediately smitten with the design (it’s comfy too!). Like many new parents, our goal is to find a dresser that can double as a changing table. Ideally I’d like to find something vintage (see Scheme 2) but as a backup the IKEA Hemnes seems like an affordable alternative (unlike many of their pieces, it’s mostly made from solid wood and we could easily swap out the knobs for something else). The birch plywood bench/cubbies is from Offi, but at $500-$600 this is something that we’ll DIY (we’d also like to do a floating shelf or two from the same cabinet-grade plywood above the dresser). As we mentioned in our last nursery post, we plan on installing a ceiling-mounted (i.e. secure) curtain in lieu of cabinet doors on the wardrobe. I’ve been drooling over the Coqo pattern from Anthropologie (available in rugs too) for a while now and could definitely see it as a way to add a punch of color and pattern in the nursery. (I also like that they’re feminine, but in a timeless way.) The gray pouf is from CB2 and the mobile is from Petit Collage.
Now, a quick reminder that this is just one direction and of course does not include the various accessories or other small items that we’ll likely add. We actually plan on incorporating some pink into the room (that’s what the coral-colored band on the left represents), but in small and subtle ways. We also realize that baby stuff is colorful, so we don’t need a lot of brightly colored furniture or textiles to compete. Also, by choosing timeless pieces we can reuse them for any future zerbebes. Finally, I started this palette out with my beloved inky blue-gray wall color in mind. (Even though we’ve painted every other surface in our house bright white (“super white” to be exact), I’ve always thought the nursery could go darker without feeling like a cave.) However, once I added the darker color things quickly got muddy and the grays and browns no longer seemed to work together.
Which brings us to scheme 2.
Scheme 2: I knew that part of the challenge with the first scheme was the gray-brown color of the crib and dresser. For this scheme, I found myself gravitating back towards a birch crib (by the way, are you surprised that we’re going birch instead of fir?). Oh hello, Oeuf Sparrow crib. You’ve weaseled your way back into my life. Ok, I love this crib. I love that it is well-crafted and responsibly made (minus the fact that it’s coming from Europe) and that it’s modern without being austere. I do not love that it is $730. My practical side is telling me that the IKEA Gulliver is similar and $600 cheaper, but there’s something that doesn’t quite click with me. (I do wish that the Sundvik came in birch though, that would certainly help my dilemma.) In my fantasy world I would also love to find a used Oeuf, but after months of trolling Craigslist I’m guessing that people who buy these cribs really do hold onto them or pass them on to their closest and dearest friends. On that note, I would also love to find a sturdy and clean-lined vintage dresser that is in need of some TLC (the example above is from a previously sold piece on Midcentury Modern Finds, the same people we bought our Eames fiberglass shells from). I’ve seen so many posts about people picking up versions of these for $30-$50 but I’ve been stalking Craigslist with absolutely no luck. Anyway, let’s move on to an equally depressing topic: gliders. Kyle has had an eye on the Monte Grano glider, but I have never been on board because to be quite frank, I thought it looked like something from Star Trek. But then, then…I saw the Luca. It’s not super modern, but if you’ve spent anytime researching gliders, this is pretty much the best thing out there. I love the charcoal fabric option and after seeing it in person, I was impressed that it was comfy without being oversized. (It also seems like more bang for your buck than the $600 West Elm rocker. Funny how you can rationalize an extra $400, huh?) The problem of course is that it’s expensive. Just under $1000 for the chair and another $400 or so if you want the ottoman. Although I know this chair would get some serious action and has received stellar reviews, it’s hard (ok, impossible) to justify shelling out that kind of cash for a glider. (Again, a perfect opportunity to buy a used version but they too seem to be nonexistent.) Yes, I also know that gliders/rockers are not a necessity but we really don’t have an equivalent piece of furniture that could serve as a substitute.
Sigh. Ok, let’s talk about something else. I love the yellow and white chevron shower curtain that Benita of Chez Larsson made from fabric she purchased off Etsy. It’s cheery and fun without being all rainbows and butterflies. I’ve also got an idea stewing about air plants in small glass orbs (like these from West Elm).
Finally, wall color. Yesterday I stopped by our local Benjamin Moore store and picked up a dozen or so different shades of dark blue-gray. We used BM’s “soot” on the exterior of our house and I’ve always loved how people have used it and similar shades indoors. The color above most closely resembles “abyss”, but I’m also liking “raccoon fur”, “gravel gray” and “baby black seal”. (If you’re raising an eyebrow and need convincing, check out some of the dark-walled nurseries I’ve pinned recently.)
The blue color is “lakeside cabin” and is what we used on the nursery sliding doors. We could always paint them (or even just the backside) but I’m thinking this color might work fine. The mustardy yellow and coral-pink swatches just represent how we might incorporate those colors through textiles, art, etc.
So what do you think? (You guys have been coming up with some great ideas and tweaks for our other projects, so I am open to all suggestions, especially from people who have “been there, done that”.) Right now, Kyle and I both like Scheme 2 better but of course it’s more expensive. But rather than wallow in my “champagne taste, beer budget” dilemma, I see it as a challenge to achieve the same look without breaking the bank. We have not set a specific budget number for this project (we actually never do, for us it’s easier to just do the best job we can while being financially responsible), so I don’t have a magic number in my head. The important thing is that I now have a vision and direction that I’m happy with and can spend the next few months scoping out thrift stores, online sales and the un-mined creative corners of my brain. (In fact, it’s the same strategy that I plan to use with our baby registry…a topic that is not directly design-related, but might be worth a blog post of its own.)
Finally, this weekend marks the halfway point in baby-growing! I still don’t look very pregnant yet, which I’m a little bummed about but I know that might also be a blessing in disguise. (I’m sure in a few months I’ll want to punch my 20-week self for having such thoughts.)
Seriously Bailey, must you photo-bomb every picture I take?
our design process
I had this post ready to go last week, but got all caught up in the Homies frenzy. Speaking of, you guys totally pulled it off and we placed 3rd in the prelims! That’s huge considering last year we landed in 27th place. We feel so grateful for the support of our readers, friends and family. So again, thank you. We are up against some very popular and well-established blogs and truthfully, we’re feeling a little bit like Bon Iver at the Grammy’s. In other words, we know we’re underdogs in this, but we’re excited nonetheless. So with that, we’d appreciate your vote one more time. The polls have officially reopened with voting ending on Friday (March 9th) at 3:00 p.m. EST. And if you don’t vote for us, at least vote for our friend and fellow indie blogger Daniel of Manhattan Nest.
Now, back to design and stuff. During my purging frenzy in January, I came across a stash of sketches and doodles that I’d saved since we started remodeling our house. (I love me some nostalgia.) Even though we use AutoCAD a fair amount, we always start out sketching. It’s a fast and easy way to think about a concept without getting hung up on technical aspects. After the initial pencil on paper, we usually move on to SketchUp, a free program that’s intuitive and great for quickly visualizing spaces or ideas.
Anyhow, it was fun to look back at early design ideas, so we thought you might get a kick out of seeing where our brains have been these last 5+ years.
Not long after we bought our house, we were out to dinner one night and (over a bottle of wine) came up with the idea to remodel our garage first. It would be a test run of sorts – a way to explore ideas without worrying about getting it perfect. Well, we eventually came to our senses (err, sobriety) and realized that we’d rather have a nice living space before a nice garage. It would have been a sweet garage though – and it will be, someday (although now we’re toying with the idea of doing a second story as a mother-in-law of sorts). In the sketch above, we were also messing around with different porch ideas and getting a window into our attic space.
Our garage is a clunky melding of 1910 gabled roof with a 1960’s carport tacked on. Although we’ll probably keep the same footprint, everything else has to be redone. Will there be a shed roof in our future? This is the Pacific Northwest…it’s our favorite roof form!
Moving on…our first major project on the house was to tear off and completely replace our roof. (That was the worst project! THE WORST!) At the time, we considered adding a second story but just didn’t have the funds for such an endeavor. A few years later, while planning for the big interior gut job, we thought about a small pop-up roof but also nixed the idea due to feasibility and costs.
And we don’t regret that decision. Instead, we decided to make the most of the volume we already had. Slicing through our SketchUp model (below) helped us figure out how we could create a vertical shaft that would help tie the three levels together (while also pulling cooler air up from the basement and exhausting warm air out through the loft – hell yeah!).
We’ve never really shared this on the blog, but we went through SO MANY plan iterations for the main floor. In fact, we spent the first couple of years fixing small things and thinking about what the hell we were going to do with our small house. For practical and home value reasons, our main objective (other than to make it less ugly) was to add a second bedroom. Easier said then done my friends.
Idea #1 – Add an addition off the back (to the right of gridline 2) that would accommodate a bedroom and big bathroom. (You can see the original floor plan here.) This still felt awkward, didn’t really solve all of the problems and would have been more expensive. (It also would have reduced the size of our backyard.)
Idea #2: Similar to #1, but a smaller bump-out that wouldn’t look totally out-of-place. Ok, but the second bedroom would be tiny. We also didn’t love how inefficient the kitchen layout was and the entry was still all sorts of awkward.
Idea #3: Add a tiny bedroom where the old back porch was and move the kitchen over a bit. We also had this badass idea to do an elevated living room (where the two couches are shown) – by raising the floor framing a foot or so, it would create a cozy living space while providing a better ceiling height for the basement room below. We also already had plans at this point for some type of loft. Getting better, but not hitting the sweet spot just yet.
Idea #4: We took idea #3 and shuffled things around – the kitchen went back towards the yard and the second bedroom would be a tiny “flex room” of sorts – essentially a box in the middle of a great room space that could be a nursery or small office. Notice the date on my phasing lists (2007) – WISHFUL THINKING!
Here’s a sketch Kyle did of our raised living room concept. In this version we had the loft over the back half of the house with a sweet wood-burning stove on a raised slate plinth. Vaulted ceiling and exposed beams – sexy, but way too much framing manipulation for our poor centurion house. Ultimately, we landed on the layout we now have. For us, it was the best balance between economy, efficiency and good design. Adapting old houses for 21st-century living is not always an easy task, but when you finally nail it, you feel like you’ve done a small part in advancing society.
In the random department, this is from our bathroom project in ’08. This is typical of my sketching – notes or to-do lists superimposed on sketches.
In 2009, we got busy on the exterior. Here’s a sketch I did looking at different color options. For a while we considered keeping the trim natural wood, but that would have been considerably more expensive and we’d already done the roof. We did end up with a gray-blue paint color, but darker. Sootier.
See what I mean?
Through the powers of SketchUp, we also explored a few other color combinations – at the time we had a thing for ochre (a close cousin of our BFF mustard yellow), but it just didn’t feel right. We needed something that would contrast more against all the wood and brown colors elsewhere.
We’ve also given a lot of thought to furniture, mainly pieces that are built-in and/or do double duty to make the most of a small house.
At one point we considered a built-in banquette for the dining area with the backside of the bench seat being a media cabinet for the living room. Once we demolished our space we decided that there wasn’t enough room to warrant something like that. Again, a good call in retrospect. The sketch at the top was an idea to build something in the flex room that could work for a home office and then a nursery. Well, this remodel stuff always takes longer than you think so we decided to just skip the home office phase and DIY a kid instead.
In lieu of the banquette/media cabinet, Kyle designed this low-slung unit (probably sans TV though). It was going to be built last year, but we continued to futz around with the design and now it’s on the back burner so we can make time for higher priority projects.
For the kitchen, we both did a lot of sketching. With a blank slate before us, we wanted to make sure we were thinking about every little detail. Obviously, this wasn’t the final version but going through the process was invaluable. (On that tangent, always a good idea to hire an architect, especially for small spaces that require a high level of efficiency!)
Before the stair cabinet fauxdenza or the loft, Kyle did this sketch of a possible stair guardrail. We were also going to do a little bench and message center of sorts between the bedroom and bathroom, but that was before the sliding door concept came to fruition.
I did this SketchUp model for the basement, oh…about three years ago. It’s close to our final plan, but instead of a little nook with a desk, we’ll probably do a linen closet of sorts (since the desk will now be in the loft). For now we’re just focusing on the right half of the basement – the laundry room and second bathroom will have to happen later.
Last spring, we were exploring design ideas for the back deck and awning and Kyle did this sketch. As you may recall, the deck got a bit (ok, a lot) bigger and we still haven’t built the awning. (This year? Maybe?) At any rate, the design challenge here (as it is with any building in Seattle) is how to provide protection from the rain while allowing light through. In our case, it also provides a way to BBQ the other 10 months out of the year. So yes, the awning design needs a bit more thought and we still have steel panels laying in our driveway, ready to build that second planter box. Good thing our future daughter isn’t going to care about the backyard for a while.
So there’s a snapshot of the last 5+ years of our life. Yeah, we’re having fun.
zerbebe update: it’s a…
We had our big 2nd trimester ultrasound today and were beyond excited to see a healthy GIRL!
Most of our family and friends were predicting a girl (as did a few old wives tales) and we couldn’t be happier. With three boys in the house already (Kyle, Bailey and Felix), it was high time we leveled the playing field a bit. It’s been a big day and although it’s all still sinking in, I find myself thinking about things down the road – like taking her to see the Nutcracker for the first time or going shopping together. My sister just had an adorable little girl a few weeks ago (the first grandchild in the family!) so it’s exciting to think of the cousins being BFF’s. Kyle is equally thrilled and has already committed to future tea parties with a guy friend who is having a little girl in May.
Now that we know the gender, it’s time to start thinking a bit more about the nursery. On our design page, you’ll notice a certain lack of information on the current floor plan. We intentionally left the flex room blank because it’s secretly always been designed as a nursery. It all started two years ago, when we were getting ready to gut most of our main floor. At the time, neither of us had baby on the brain, but we still wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be making any major mistakes with the size or shape of the space. So we did some research and put together a rough layout that has lived on hidden layers in our AutoCAD file ever since.
For those of you that might be new to the blog, here’s a glimpse of what the room in question looked like when we closed on the house about 5 1/2 years ago:
Before moving in, we tore up the dark green carpet, got rid of the green couch, then proceeded to paint the walls green. Huh.
In the spring of 2010, we tore it all apart:
There was a subtle framed opening separating the 1910 living room from the 1910 dining room, but because we wanted to make it more of a separate space, we added a framed wall with a smaller opening. We thought about just adding a standard door, but thought it would look awkward and the larger sliding doors gave us more flexibility as our needs change.
The space has served mainly as a TV room since then, but we did transform it into a temporary bedroom when we had our house appraised last year. (The wardrobe was purchased intentionally for its ultimate use in the nursery.)
But back to the floor plan – since that quick layout we drew up a couple of years ago, we’ve made a few tweaks since and the current plan for the room looks something like this (click to enlarge):
The obvious starting point was to put the crib under the small “piano window”. Even though we’re not slaves to symmetry, it seemed to be the right solution, both functionally and compositionally. Next, we decided to dedicate the east wall for storage. It will help serve as acoustical barrier from our bedroom on the other side of the wall and is the only solid wall in the room. Our plan in to use a single IKEA Pax wardrobe (39″ wide) in lieu of a built-in closet. With the different interior fittings available, we can easily reconfigure the inside to adapt with our little girl. Next to the wardrobe, we’d like to find a nice dresser than can double as a changing table (and then just be a dresser down the road). We’d love to find something used that just needs a little TLC, but no luck yet. Above the dresser we’d like to have a floating shelf for extra display space.
Although we have doors on the current wardrobe set-up, we’ll be storing those away and using a curtain system. Unlike our bedroom where we have a curtains hung on a suspended cable system, this time we’ll be looking into a ceiling-mounted track to prevent any sagging and provide a safer set-up for little hands.
We also plan on keeping the West Elm chevron rug that is currently in the space. Next to the larger window on the west side of the room, Kyle is going to build his daughter a low bench with storage cubbies underneath. The bench could act as a window seat of sorts and the cubbies could eventually hold books and toys.
In the corner we’ll put some type of rocker or glider and a place to rest our feet. We also already installed a ceiling fan/light combo that will stay.
As far as colors, fabric and all of those other decisions – we’re still mulling things over and doing a ton of research. More posts to come over the next 5 months!
Oh, one more thing. If you haven’t already, you still have two more days to vote for chezerbey over at Apartment Therapy. Only the top six nominees move on to next week’s final voting so we NEED YOUR SUPPORT. It only takes a couple of minutes, but it means so much to our competitive little souls. And when I say “our”, I mean this little girl too:
Look at those two little feet kicking around. Seriously, at one point during our ultrasound she had a foot in her hand, practicing her best Chuck Norris moves. It’s obvious that even the littlest Zerbey means business when it comes to competitions.
And that’s my last shameless plug for this week. We are so grateful for the support we’ve already received, but we know that there are still some slackers out there. (Yes, you.)
studio loft: weekend progress
Between travelling, skiing and recurring colds, work on the house has slowed down a bit lately. But we still made some good progress, like this:
A big thanks to a few of our readers who had the genius idea of installing casters under our IKEA Stolmen units. (We considered steel hairpin legs or building a wood plinth, but the casters were easy and will allow us to more easily more the units around if needed.)
On Friday I headed over to Northwest Casters in north Seattle. I drive by this place all the time and had always been curious about what they had. Basically, I was looking for the cheapest wheels that were at least 4″ tall (so the units could clear the base trim). The least expensive wheels that would do the trick were rated for way more weight than we would need and were about $9/each. So on Saturday I headed down to IKEA (thanks to a tip from a reader) to check out the Rill casters. They were basically the same size as the $9 version but only $5/each. Score. Plus, these came with a detachable brake.
Because of the 360 degree swivel, we decided to inset them so no matter what position they were in, they wouldn’t stick out from the unit. The bottom panel for these units is one solid piece of fiberboard, so it didn’t matter where they went. Kyle used 1″ self-tapping screws for the job.
They turned out to be just about the perfect height, with the back of the units barely clearing the base trim. (A word of caution though, we had to be very careful to not knock the wheels against the floor when turning them back upright. On the first unit, we snagged one wheel and it easily ripped out of the fiberboard.)
Here’s a detailed shot of the casters. We installed the plastic brakes on all of the front wheels to keep them in place (though it probably isn’t totally necessary).
Next, I spent an hour or so filling up the drawers. This is going to be an evolving process as we figure out what we actually use and what we don’t. For instance, we probably don’t need this many t-squares, straight edges and triangles.
For now, I’ve dedicated one drawer to crafts, sewing and wrapping supplies. Obviously, I need to up my crafty inventory.
Another drawer became a home for paints, glues, tapes and cutting tools. Again, it’s probably more than we actually need so we’ll likely edit things down in the coming months.
I organized the drawers based loosely on their proximity to the future desk area (with more frequently used items within closer reach). This drawer is dedicated to writing/drawing utensils. I know, what are the Crayola crayons doing next to the more dignified Chartpaks and Prismacolors? Well, as a kid I always put “sharp-tip crayons” on my yearly Christmas list. It became a tradition, with each year promising a bigger and better box. At some point the tradition fizzled out and this is my last remaining box. In a way it seems silly to keep them, but I rationalized that it’s now only a matter of time before I’ll be coloring with our kiddo. (Wow, that’s almost as exciting to think about as having a reason to re-read the Harry Potter series!)
So wow, what’s a couple of architects to do with way too many sketch pencils and tech pens? It doesn’t seem right to get rid of them but we really haven’t used them in years. Although we still sketch, our graphite preferences have changed (Kyle likes the red ITOYAs and I’m a softie for the good old Dixon Ticonderogas). Maybe time to put together a care package for my youngest brother (who is a 2nd year architecture student)?
Ahh, I also unearthed the upper echelon of architecture school writing devices – Lamy fountain pens and those fat nubby lead holders (perfect for bold, I’m-a-badass sketching). A few of these even travelled through Europe with us nearly 10 years ago. Hello again friends.
Finally, a drawer dedicated to envelopes, stationary and general paper goods. We’ll eventually locate our printer in the loft (it’s been in the basement since we moved in) and it will be nice to finally have everything in one place.
On Saturday we also headed down to Earthwise Salvage in South Seattle. We’ve been on the hunt for some boards that could be used as a desktop in the loft and so after finding a Craigslist ad for some reclaimed fir boards, we revved up Orange Crush (our work truck) and went to check them out.
Seattle has a handful of salvage places and this one is by far the most eclectic.
See what I mean?
They also had a decent supply of building materials, mostly tubs, windows and old doors.
Hidden under a blue tarp, they also had a stash of reclaimed fir that came from an old brewery in Tacoma. We’ve been giving a lot of thought to what type of material we could use for the desktop in the loft. Ideally, it needed to a continuous length (the space is about 13′ wide) and thick enough that it could be supported on three sides so we could avoid any pesky legs or L-brackets. (Since the desk space will be multi-functional, we wanted to be able to easily switch between sewing, working on the laptop, etc. without banging a knee.)
So long story short, we culled through the stack and found the two best boards that were long enough and the same thickness. One is 14′ and the other 15′, so we’ll be trimming them down to fit into the space. The two boards will also be biscuited together to form a single desktop (similar to what we did with our kitchen island).
So how does one transport 14′-15′ boards? Tie-down straps.
Kyle looped one set through the roof of the cab, another at the end and a third in the middle. The set-up was solid and we had no problems getting them back home.
The boards will need to be trimmed (with extra care taken to prevent splitting) and sanded before they’re biscuited together and finally finished. It’s going to be a bit of a process, but we think they’ll clean up real nice. To create the floating look, we’ll likely use small steel angles (painted in our favorite gray primer) that are fastened to the wall framing. Project time!
la + grammys
Last Thursday we boarded a plane and flew two hours south to Los Angeles for a weekend of sun, family and musical extravaganza.
It was sunny and warm when we got there, so we headed straight to the beach.
Obligatory babymoon shot.
Near Muscle Beach, Kyle out to prove that he’s still got it!
Skate park at Venice Beach.
My brother and his girlfriend Audrey are living in Studio City temporarily before they move to Italy for two years. (Yes, I’m completely jealous.) So it was great to spend some time with them before they bounce out of the USA.
This was our first real trip to LA, so we did a lot of touristy stuff. Like having drinks on the Santa Monica pier. (Or in my case, a virgin margarita which is basically a slushy.)
Our hotel the first night was near the Getty Center, so we checked it out the next morning. (We’re totally shameful architects though, only walked around the outside and didn’t go in the museum. Next time.)
Oh yes, the Grammys. A generous gift from a client that Kyle has worked with at his firm, we were invited to the awards show as well as the rehearsals beforehand.
Here we are with my brother during one of our “lunch breaks”. (We had all-access credentials so we played it up.) I admit, I don’t always watch the Grammy’s and didn’t know half of the nominees, but it was completely fascinating to see how a show of this magnitude goes together and the massive amount of coordination and attention to detail required.
At the ESPN bar next door to the Staples center…keeping an eye out for celebs.
Our last night in LA we stayed at The Standard hotel downtown. Fun, very “LA”, and reasonably priced for the area. I’d recommend.
On Sunday morning we watched most of the full dress rehearsal before rushing back to our hotel to get ready for the show. (The show started at 5:00 PST, so we had to get there around 3:30.)
Hey look, we’re not wearing ratty jeans and paint-splattered t-shirts! Oh yeah, we got this. Where’s Entertainment Tonight?
I’ve been pinning different hair ideas for a while, but in our last-minute frenzy to get ready I ended up with about 20 minutes to do my hair. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Kinda messy-chic. I bought the dress about a month before the show. It fit perfectly at the time and I figured the empire waist would be good at hiding my barely-there 4 month baby bump. All was going according to plan, until Kyle went to fasten the clasp at the top of the zipper and it popped off and flung across the hotel room. Fortunately, a stop at the hotel desk and an emergency safety-pin did the trick.
We didn’t know where our tickets would be until the night of the show and were surprised when the ushers directed us to a VIP section that lead to the box office suites!@# Neither of us have sat in a box seat of any type so it was an incredible experience (also fantastic for a lady that has to pee all the time).
Sparkly armbands during the Coldplay performance.
Fun fact – the lights were controlled via RF signals so they just came on when choreographed to. Smart.
Our favorite parts of the show? Ok, Adele’s performance was great and received the longest standing ovation from the crowd. I personally liked the Beach Boys tribute (I was an avid BB fan as a young child, thanks Dad!). Kyle was digging PMac’s (err…Sir Paul McCartney’s) ballad and I might never get that Rihanna song out of my head. We also loved the Foo and Dead Mau5 (we got to see the live rehearsal the night before).
After the show we headed over to the after party at the convention center next door. It was what I would consider Adult Prom, but with shirtless men on trapeze and considerably more bling.
We didn’t get any good photos of the after party, but did stand in a long line at the Patron photo booth to get this. Zerbey’s out on the town!
We flew back to Seattle yesterday. It was such a fun weekend, but we were happy to see the rain again, cuddle with our boys and sleep for twelve hours straight.
