Dream Home – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Décor August 28, 2015

Coastal Contemporary Home Tour

You know how there are some people in life who are just quintessentially cool? Like, whatever they do, you kind of want to do, too? Well, for me, that’s Nina. Sasha has known her since they were little, as Nina’s parents also immigrated to the US from Serbia. Coincidentally, she married one of Sasha’s fraternity brothers, who is genuinely the sweetest – and a pretty impressive entrepreneur too (ahem, see house below). Mike and Nina moved into their custom built home (by Renaissance Builders) earlier this year, and I’ve been lusting over it ever since. The white paneled wood walls, large windows (I’d kill for that much natural light in our house!), gorgeous modern (warm and comfy!) furniture, dark wood ceilings, massive closets, fun wallpaper… I could go on and on.

When I asked Nina if I could feature their house on Snapshots & My Thoughts, she kindly and enthusiastically agreed. They opened up their house for me to photograph the inside and although Mother Nature was against us, I was around again to take outdoor shots.

I hope you love the house as much as I do (cue me now pinning everything to my Dream House boards on Pinterest). Nina sweetly sourced most of the items featured in these photos (it’s a big house, and I had a hard time narrowing down pictures, but there are rooms and pieces not shown!). If you have any questions for her, please email me and I’ll do my best to track down answers.

Décor July 2, 2015

Decorist Makeover: Your Opinion Wanted

Decorist In the spring, I had a conversation with a good friend about how the interior design industry has changed recently given the popularity of sites like Houzz and Pinterest. What used to be an intimate face-to-face process has become something that can now take place virtually. Interior designers do not need to walk into your house in order to style a room, they can do it all remotely, and I love this.

Just days after having this discussion, Decorist reached out asking to do a collaboration. I went to their site and was immediately sold. I spent ages and ages looking through the design inspiration, and learning about how the design process works.

Décor October 30, 2014

Dream Master Bathroom

Alas, the final post in the Dream Home series (for now, at least!). You’ve seen inspiration for our future (as in… way future) master bedroom and closet, home office, laundry room, living room, kitchen and playroom. One of the rooms that I love spending time in the most is our master bathroom – which is attached to our closet. We designed it exactly like the inspiration I posted years ago here.

I get more and more anxious to build our dream home as the weeks go by, which is not helped by our nightly walks around our neighborhood, where there are at least ten tear-down and rebuild projects within a 1-mile radius. We even got a home tour by an owner by being extra creepy on Sunday – snooping sometimes pays off!

In the meantime, I’ll just keep searching for inspiration for our dream master bathroom. Some of my requirements (or perhaps just nice-to-haves) include:

Large custom mirrors
Natural lighting (so important when putting on makeup)
Farmhouse sinks
Wainscoting on the cabinets (we have this and I love the detail!)
Like most of the other ‘dream’ rooms, a lovely chandelier
Lots of cabinets – with built-in storage for cosmetics (like this)
Calcutta gold marble or white quartz countertops
Stand-alone bathtub (would love a claw foot or sleek modern one!)
Little coffee station – I love this idea so much!
Flowers or greenery
Open shelves for towels and frames/candles

What does your dream master bathroom look like?

Décor October 23, 2014

Dream Master Closet

Alas, the real dream room in any house: the master closet. When we renovated our house, we removed a door from one room, tore down two small closets, and shifted our master bathroom all for the sake of our closet. We have lots of built in shelves (even between our top and bottom hanging spaces), but no natural lighting. When we build our dream home in many years to come, I will definitely ask for a window. I love the closets below that have sun shining in. If you can’t get natural light, a statement chandelier shall do (yeah, so, we don’t have one of those either!).

The closets below are all unique and gorgeous. I would take any of them! My essentials include:

Lots of shelving with self-closing drawers
Massive, full length mirror
Central island (with fresh flowers, if you must) – this could even be Carrera marble, since it’s unlikely you’ll have anything to stain it in your closet!
Glass jewelry display and drawers
Handbag storage space
Pretty lamps and chandelier (or ideally, naturally lighting)
Lots of shoe racks
Individual hanging hooks between closet sections (helps with outfit planning!)
At least one comfy chair
Stylish rug or patterned carpet

Wouldn’t this be lovely? I know, I know. Keep on dreaming (says Sasha). What are your requirements for a dream closet?

PS Have you checked out my dream office space, laundry room, playroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and living room posts yet?

Décor October 16, 2014

Dream Home Office Spaces

I am sitting in our home office as I type this post, and while I love this little sanctuary room, there is quite a bit I would love to change… but that involves knocking down walls to create more natural light (cue Sasha rolling his eyes). I love a bright, clean, modern office – much like the dream laundry room, playroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and living room posts.

I’ve put together an assortment of my favorite home offices. I think that the essentials include:

Large white desk with lots of easily accessible storage space
A massive iMac (thank you, Sasha!)
White framed prints (with pops of gold and pink)
A bold, colorful rug
A shelf above the desk for above mentioned frames or books/knick-knacks
A modern, interestingly design office chair (we love ours from CB2!)
Foliage – whether it be a large ficus or small potted succulents, greenery is key
A unique lamp (my favorite is the Audrey Lamp from Lulu & Georgia)

Do you have a home office? If so, do you spend a lot of time there? What are your ‘essentials’?