a little love story from a happy client... We live in a small house in an older neighborhood and spent years upgrading our home from the 80’s to a more modern, updated look. Finally, we were done with scraping popcorn, installing hardwoods etc. But it needed a final touch to make it feel truly like home. We also had a guest (who happened to be a former interior decorator) coming into town; I wanted my home to be “put together” so it felt serene, calm and felt like, well, home. We also wanted to surprise our 13 year old with a new, grown up bedroom. I have no talent or time to tackle decor details, like choosing and placing just the right cushions on our sofas, or which pictures to hang where. I had many design questions like, how to hide an ugly vent without stopping air flow or where to find the right sized sectional for a very tight space. Christina was fabulous from the beginning. She is such an easy going, beautiful person! So easy to work with. She REALLY listened to what we wanted. After a brief tour of our rooms she began her magic of taking stock of what we had and what she could use. Honestly, I don’t know how she did it in the time she did. Then she returned, a few weeks later, with her team (we, of course, out of the way) and truly conjured up her magic. Her experience shines as a master at creating one-of-a-kind design because she created it for us. I love, love, love everything! She found the perfect solutions for the problem areas we had and it all looks gorgeous! Our guest commented on the details that we appreciated and she said, "I want to live here!" The best part was seeing the joy on my teenager’s face when she saw her tranquil, beach themed bedroom. Now, my only problem is getting her to leave it. before... after... before... after... ...the uber talented artist who painted the vw van art for this free-spirited family and her man... before... after... dear people who leave us sweet love notes on houzz, thank you for trusting us with the most important place in the whole wide world, your home. thank you for believing us when we say we are not happy if you are not happy. thank you for sharing your happiness with all of the people. your words are such a gift to us. may you get what you have given, you generous ones, you. we love you ridiculously. xo...
christina for all before... after... art is anything that moves your soul. her art is calligraphy. she writes beautiful words beautifully. so we hung them on her wall in simple frames to create some serious wow factor at a super nice price... before... after... small changes can make a big impact. layering a cowhide rug and adding a chair makes this room feel finished and welcoming. you do not need all new everything to have a happy home. when you do go new, go with whatever makes you happy. happiness is the new rich. inner peace is the new success. health is the new wealth. kindness is the new cool. oh and... the joneses are broke. before... after... xo... christina for all before... after... home is the most important place in the whole wide world. we have the power to create the world we want at home. when our family rooms are filled with peace and love and generosity... when the ones who sit on our sofas feel freedom and acceptance and understanding... we make our world a more beautiful place... and when we make our own world a more beautiful place... it has a ripple effect... love changes everything. when we frame our kid's art and hang it over the mantel, they feel important, significant, and capable of greatness. when we buy handcrafted baskets to hang on our wall, we promote fair trade and a fair wage for african artisans. when we redesign our room so that we face each other, we prioritize people, conversation, and interaction with the ones we love. when we take our homes and ourselves less seriously, we are way more fun to be around and we make others feel relaxed and welcome. when we leave love notes and fresh scones for people who work for us, we make the angels sing and the design gods bestow blessings upon us... ok, not really. or maybe, i don't know what the design gods do all day. but this i know... most of the time, we get what we give. xo...
christina for all by christina britt lewis before gray malin was featured in the new york times this weekend, he spoke at the annual southern c summit in sea island, georgia. along with many of my heroes, mandy kellogg rye, darcy miller, libbie summers...to name a few. my hope was to learn secrets from these creative geniuses. my whole life feels like a big giant guessing game. i am always winging it. figuring it out as i go. not just with work, but with everything... marriage, parenting, friendship... i have no idea what i'm doing, you guys. i make mistakes. i learn the hard way. i was hoping to learn the easy way from these brilliant people. but instead... i heard every single one of my heroes say something like this... just in case you can't read my writing...
to hear GRAY MALIN say "i didn't really know what i was doing, but i knew it felt right. i figured it out." ...this was a BIG AHA moment for me. he talked about leaving his safe and successful career to do what he loves. he told us how hard that was for the people closest to him to understand. he knew he just wanted to make people happy. that's it. right there. that is why we do what we do... we are a designer and a therapist on a mission to make homes happy. the secret is there is no secret. everybody is winging it. everybody. nobody knows all of the answers. nobody. we are our own problem and we are our own solution. once upon a time gray malin realized he wanted to make every day feel like a getaway for people. once upon a time tim and i realized people do not need new everything to have a happy home. these sweet people were told they needed new furniture. we begged to differ...
pottery they already have and love and our inspiration... what about you? "once upon a time i realized..." what? your turn. xo... christina for all by christina britt lewis the best relationships are when both people feel like they are the lucky one. i can't believe that tim lewis picked me. i mean, TIM LEWIS, you guys. and for reasons i do not understand... he can't believe i picked him even though it's wicked obvious to like everyone 'cept for him. somebody we both went to college with called to hire us. it has been 30 years since our freshman year in college. 30 years. she explained who she was, but i remembered exactly who she was as soon as she said her name. i told her that her call felt like finally being invited to sit at the cool kid's table in the cafeteria. she said something like... yeah, you weren't cool in college, were you? all i really remember about you is that you are that girl from boston that tim lewis married. so, see? i totally am the lucky one and this is my song. can't sing it without twirling around the room. when our california client called she was all... "i can't believe you will come to san francisco!" and i was all... "i can't believe you want us to come to san francisco!" we both felt like the lucky ones. she found us on houzz and fell in love with our philosophy... you do not need all new everything to have a happy home. before... and after 1 day of shopping and 1 day of redesign... sometimes i feel like you must get tired of me saying the same things over and over again... but i swear, you guys... you can do this. you can make a fun and happy home. you can do this on a super tight budget. you can do this in a weekend. you can do this without the help of a designer. here's how... create furniture groupings that are conducive to conversation and game-playing and toasting. bring it in. closer. tighter. off the walls. collect things that make you feel all warm and happy inside. it doesn't have to be expensive to be beautiful. the only rule is "do i LOVE this?" if you LOVE it, it will work. real plants are everything. they are good for your health and good for our world and good for your soul. sooo many people say "but i can't keep them alive" ... us either. think of plants as fresh flowers. for most of us, they won't last forever. but they bring so much goodness. replace them when they die. they are not expensive. and eventually you will find plants that surprise you with their will to live. before... after... take your home less seriously. pottery handmade by the little people you love deserves a place of prominence. a bowl full of clementines on the coffee table makes people feel comfortable. they know this a place where people are more precious than things. and we can put our feet up and eat clementines in the living room if we damn well please. open your windows. fresh air, cool breezes, chirping birds, the smell of rain... my mom calls it "airing out the house" and i do it as often as the weather allows. have fun! i spent way too much of my life feeling notgoodenough, you guys. and it wasn't just in my head. it's still not. i know side eye from a highfalutin designer when i see it. some people just gotta put you down to make themselves feel better. but fear not young ones, the older you get the easier it gets and the funnier it all becomes. things that used to make me cry, now make me laugh. seriously. to everyone who feels notgoodenough... go for what you want anyway. go for the home you want. go for the relationship you want. go for the career you want. we can make our dreams come true. we must shatter our own glass ceilings. cool is overrated. we don't have to be cool to have everything we want. actually, being uncool gives us something to prove to the world. creativity comes from NOT having everything come easily to us. creativity comes from having something to rise up against. to overcome. to conquer. having something to prove to the world and proving it makes us strong. so whether it's popularity or politics, rise up. no more waiting and hoping some hero will save us. time to redesign everything. time to create the world we want. time to save ourselves. we are the hero we have been waiting for. and to the naysayers who tell me, "easy for you to say. must be nice to have people you feel lucky to be loved by." i offer you this... while there are some we need to walk away from because they just use us to get what they want, there are no perfect people. feeling lucky is a choice, a mind-shift, a way of life, a practice... feeling lucky is deciding that what you already have is enough. more than enough, actually. feeling lucky is viewing the world from a place of abundance, not scarcity. tim and i spent years living in hell on earth before we learned how to love. neither of us felt lucky for a very long time. it's easy and natural to see the flaws in people. it's harder to find the beauty. some people are super hard to love. some people make us feel very unlucky. some of those people are family and we are super stuck with them. that sucks. but i am almost 50 years old. after that many years you start to notice nobody is perfect. you are not perfect. you are hard to love too. you are. i am. we all are. own it. once you accept that you suck a whole lot too, you are better able to accept the suckiness of others. once you accept everyone's suckiness including your own, you start to see the beauty. the beauty is always there. even in the person whose political views are different from your own. even here and now in our divided united states. find the beauty. talk about what you love. celebrate the ways we are the same. problems get solved when we focus on fixing ourselves, not other people. forget about fixing others. not gonna happen. fix yourself. that's all you can do. when it comes to other people, spend time looking for the beauty. start by inviting them over for clementines in your living room. gorgeous photo above by kelly lies, who makes me feel like the luckiest person in the whole wide world. to be continued... xo... christina for all |