Design Shopping in Europe..

All I can say is HOLY COW!!! This place is amazing......

The other day I decided to take a little shopping trip to a local furniture and design store called Mobel Martin. It's a three story cross between Homegoods, Ikea and a high-end contemporary Italian furniture showroom. As soon as I walked through the doors and the warmth of the showroom lights hit me in the face, I felt like I was walking through the pearly gates of design heaven. This was one of the first places I've been in where I started to hyperventilate. 

This shop is loaded with everything you could ever want in all price and quality ranges. What a fabulous find! If only we could get this majestic store in the U.S. There's also zillions of antique shops, markets and fairs here in Germany and as soon as things wind down, I know I am going to go crazy at these as well. I am thinking of planning a Paris flea market weekend extravaganza. I took pictures of a few of the unique and quirky things I found in Mobel Martin to share with you! The picture quality isn't amazing but it was the best I could do with a crappy cell phone camera while I was running around like a sugar overdosed, sweaty kid at a theme park.

Check out that amazing black gaudy chair in the corner of the picture above! It's hard to tell, but all the china on the table looks like clock faces.

You WILL be seeing these animal head hooks in my hall that I am painting stripes in today.

I just love the British flag fridge especially after my trip to the UK this last weekend. UK post to come soon.

Check out these fabulously glitzy light fixtures!

Here are some crazy looking kitchens...

The kitchen above is a little too "fake" distressed for me, but is interesting.

This kitchen would look great in a modern bakery. I love the pink gnomes on the shelf, they add a playful touch (as if the pink cabinets weren't playful enough). 

 Europeans do things so completely different and it's refreshing to see all of their innovative ideas. Many of these wacky designs really inspire me to think in a new light. If you live in Germany Mobel Martin is a must! 

Now, I am off to paint giant horizontal stripes in my hall! Pictures to come soon.

Embarking On A New Beginning

Guten Tag! Hey friends! I am finally starting to get settled into our new little village in Germany and are just loving it here! This is a dream come true for the both of us! I can't believe our move finally happened. Because we have been getting a home, buying a car, getting set up and settling in, I am way behind on blogging and everything else it seems. Now that I have some Internet set up I can share some adventures with you!

This last weekend was hectic for us, I wish I could have captured the town all decked out for the Easter festivities. Easter is huge in Europe....I mean huge. They get a four day weekend and all the villages are decorated and there are tons of Oster Markts (Easter markets and festivals). I also wish I had my things from home to set up an Easter table of our own but we won't be receiving most of our personal items from the states for another month or so. I guess I will have to wait to share a European Easter with you next spring, and I really look forward to it. 

By the way, pastries, gelato, and German chocolates are going to be a major problem for me.....

We have found a home that is just perfect for us. We love our little village, adore the heck out of our landlords and our neighbors are fantastic! The home is a fabulous mix of super contemporary and rustic....it is beyond perfect for us and I can't wait to get to decorating. Most homes here are either very very dated or, modern, stark and cold.  Everything is so different here including the typical design, the hardware stores and furniture shops (they are so stinkin' awesome here!) I am finding that Germany is so rich with great design ideas and solutions, incredible engineering and a ton of history and charm. It will be an adventure designing our new home and I can't wait to share the process with you! Our landlords are so wonderful and will let us do all the painting and updates that we want. Woohoo for me! It is quite rare here (and in the states for that matter) to find such lenient landlords and we are blessed with them and their friendship. I will show you pictures of our new home in my next post!

During our first two weeks here we have made great new friends and gone on a few adventures, including visiting a zillion castles (there are two gorgeous ruins of ones in our village!).

The pictures below are of Cochem Castle.

Cochem Castle is a  wonderful place to check out if you are ever in the area. It was inexpensive (about five Euro a ticket) to tour, a great hike to the top, dog friendly, and had a quaint cafe in it that had some spectacular views. 

These are our new friends!

As you know, I love chandeliers and had to get a shot of every one I saw in this castle.

This window looked like the main window at the Snow White Castle in Disneyland. I kept expecting Snow White's wicked stepmother to open the windows and pop her head out.

The view from the castle is unreal. The weird frog looking mascot with an over sized cape was not intimidating in the least....just a little weird haha. Wait....my husband just corrected me, I guess it's not a frog but a knights helmet...looks more like Kermie to me.....

Below are pictures of a village we visited. I felt like I'd bump into Pinocchio at any moment...Sorry for all this Disney talk, I can't help it.

I am obsessed with these wrought iron store front signs and am thinking I need one with our monogram over our front door. I saw some in Ballard designs that I just love! I will look around to see if I can find any antique ones I can refurbish first!

All in all, we love this new land we now call home!

I can't thank all of our family, friends, and fellow bloggers for the love encouragement and support!

Until next time...

Stay Tuned....

Design Solutions and shopping for our new European home.

Design Reveal!

Hello everyone! Hope ya'll are enjoying your weekend! We are visiting  beautiful Kentucky on our way to Germany. I just love Southern style homes, they are absolutely stunning. I can't get enough of the black shutters and red doors on these giant colonials. Before I left California, I worked on a job up until the last couple hours. I wanted to show you the reveal of my clients front sitting room. It still needs a few finishing touches like bamboo blinds and a crazy chandelier but it's 99% finished.  Much of this job was done using my virtual design. My clients were fantastic and so much fun to work with. I so look forward to helping them complete the rest of their home.

Before:

 

This was the design concept board.

We swapped out the colors of the sofa and chairs, and the piano is for this room when they move to a different home in the future.

After Pictures

We are adding topiary or two to these niches and placing a rug in the hallway.

I will keep you updated on the progress as the project finishes!