Decor

Decor

House (Exterior) Tour: Audrey Scheck’s Urban Oasis

My friend Audrey has the best taste of any human being I have ever met, ever. Zero exaggeration. Her Los Angeles home - which you saw in this post a few months ago - is a master class in casual perfection, and I honestly didn't think it could get any better. And then she made over the exterior, and proved once again that she when it comes to home decor, she has an absolutely flawless eye.

The Makeover: What Audrey Did

  • Painted the house (which was originally yellow).
  • Brought in a carpenter to build custom exterior doors, gates, and lattice.
  • Installed new exterior lighting.
  • Added new exterior accents (mailbox, house numbers, doorbell, etc.).
  • Refreshed the landscaping and brought in tons of potted plants (apparently the black mulch addition was RG-inspired, haha). 
Decor

Eight Fabulous Front Door Ideas

Check out my full house makeover here

I have wanted a pink door for years; ever since spotting this photo on Pinterest. Now that I have one, I am officially obsessed and would like to state for the record that the best pick for a front door color actually is pink (Dutch Boy in Coral Clay, to be specific). But if you're not into being "that house with the pink door" - which I suppose is a choice, albeit a poor one in my book - there are so many other ways to make the front of your house spectacularly cool.

A handful of tips for a bold door makeover:

Decor

Breaking Out The Breakables

When I was pregnant with my son, I asked my parents whether they'd babyproofed for me, already pretty certain what the answer would be, because they did things like put me in a backpack and then drive around New York City on their motorcycles. And sure enough: "No," they said, "Why would we do that? We just told you not to touch things. So you didn't."*

Why has no one ever thought of this before?! You just tell a child not to do something, and then they simply listen to you! GENIUS.

Armed with this obviously foolproof approach, I set about doing the exact same thing with my own child, theorizing that if I let our home remain fairly adult-y, he'd be better-equipped to handle himself in other people's non-child-proofed homes, in public spaces, etc. I did the basics, of course, but I left our table edges uncovered, only locked up cabinets with actual chemicals in them, and never purchased one of those seat-lock thingies that make your toilet impossible for anyone - adults included - to open.

Before & After Renovations

My Dark, Dated Backyard Got A Light, Bright Makeover

I think I bought our house because of the pool (okaaaaay, and the school system). Not because our pool is especially pretty - it's not. And was extra-not when we moved in thanks to a semi-terrifying algae issue that alerted us to the fact that the water hadn't been changed in eight to ten years (uggggggg). No no: the exciting thing about our pool was the fact that it existed. And was part of a property that we could actually afford. (Such a fortuitous combination is, shall we say, "uncommon" in the Silicon Valley area.)

The reason I wanted a pool so much is because I hate entertaining. (Stay with me, because I'm aware that this doesn't make sense.)

See, here's the thing: entertaining makes me fall asleep, like those narcoleptic goats on YouTube. I've mentioned this before, and it's true: all I have to do to get in a really good nap is know that I am about to be forced to interact with large numbers of human beings.


powered by chloédigital