In the making

 Above, you can see a tiny sneak peek of a malachite necklace I'm working on (love my gold dipped nails) sorry... I  have talking ADD.

I mentioned here a while ago that I'm working on two small projects, which I hope get to grow successfully.  I have also said before how much I love jewelry and how much I love to create.  That said, I've been working on a line of bijoux and a line of prints.  More than anything else I've been always an entrepreneur at heart and I realized that I have lost too much time waiting for that perfect moment to do something that involves what I love.  I don't know more than what a regular person knows about jewelry but I know what it's in my mind and I know that if it's there, there is a way to make it.  It's not easy in my case because not knowing much about jewelry I can't exactly translate into physical what's in my mind but, I know I'll get there.
About the line of prints is done in a computer program, which I studied at NYU for a few months so that I know how to do it.  After designed I color them by hand.
All these happen to still be in the making but, I wanted to share with you my dreams and hopes.  Once everything is ready I'll show them here.
The bijoux and print line are both inspired pretty much on Architecture and Interior Design.  I hope you like them. 

What I took with me to Sao Paulo

I feel I've been absent from my lovely blog for ages.  Our little one has been under the weather for what's gone from the week and I've been paying attention to nothing else.  Thankfully today he's feeling much better and I have time to share with you what I have taken with me, not literally, these things were shipped, to Sao Paulo.  I'm very pleased with the things I got in such a short notice. 
Besides that I'll start with what I'm the least happy, the rug bought intentionally for the living room.  How on earth did I end up with a pale beige sisal/jute rug?  Well easy, these stores never have big rugs available, they are always in back order and I didn't have the time to wait for them.  Nothing, that sometimes you have to do with what you have.  Let's see how that works! 
When I opened the box of the Lawrence Flush Mount from Circa Lighting, I ended up gasping for air.  When I got it I had no idea it was going to be this beautiful.  It is really amazing!

  I was lucky finding great pieces at auction for great price.  I found a pair of this oversized French lounge chair which I got for a very good price.  They were lucky to come across my fantastic upholsterer in the US who was able to upholster them in just two days and got them delivered just one hour before the guys finished packing the truck.  Talking about luck, ha!  I used the beautiful ikat Schumacher fabric below. 

  And here, below is the carpet I have no idea what I will end up doing with… 

This handsome mid-century Brazilian sofa was sitting in the back of an Auction.  Begging to be returned back home and I did it a favor.  He'll soon be back home in its birth country.  This one may go in my office.

And finally the awesome headboard for our little one's bedroom.  The fabric is Cap Ferrat by Alan Campbell, Quadrille.  I can't wait to see his bedroom!

Ikea's good art

Everyone knows that designing a house and making it feel like a home takes many long and exhausting months, if not years.  So when I realized that I would only have two months to plan, design, execute, anticipate the smallest details and to think about what we might be needing in the future, I know that in order to not go insanely crazy, I had to rely on things that were not too expensive and too valuable but still good looking.  I don't know much about Sao Paulo yet, but I know that things tend to cost three times more.  So where did I go to for basic things? right!  Ikea.  I was planning to buy things such as a mattress for our little one, a foot step for his sink  and so on.  Imagine my surprise when walking around I found very good looking prints!  God, was I glad, there are an awful lot of empty walls in this house that will need to be filled. We got the top one by Deborah Azzopardi for Lucas's room, of which I will only tell you that it will have a bunch of stripes.  Yeah!

 The top is a motif by Amelia Lancaster.  Bellow, Ikea's selection of Matisse motifs.   We also got one or two of those.

Our home "after"

Our home is a result of all I believe in and stand for.  Uniqueness, individuality and comfort.  A mind of ones own.  It's a home that reflects our lifestyle as much as possible.  It's rooted in the classics but in a relaxed and young sophisticated way with modern and transitional elements.  I strive to be creative and unique so this home does not look like any other home because then it wouldn't be our own.  I like to incorporate modern pieces and/or modernized classic ones because that's what I consider chic.  A home with some modern and/or relaxed mood.  I actualized the classic fauteuil arm chairs by upholstering them in red leather and embellished with brass nail heads.  I did the same with the black stool.  I fell in love with the coffee table thanks to its sculptural lines, another design element I constantly praise about in this blog.  It weights like a forced marriage because its legs are solid steel. Every time I look at it, good memories come up to my mind remembering how my father-in-law and I carried it inside the house.  I'm just glad no one called the police on us suspecting we were carrying a dead body.  I bought the lamps at Gilt Home, excellent delivery time by the way, I added a trim of velvet to the shades to enhance them further.  The abstract painting is a bartered piece, really! The sofa is Paul McCobb with a slip cover and the oushak rug is from ABC.  The painting above the sofa is an Agam, bought at The Antique Garage.

The fireplace; behind the watercolor painting is the TV enclosed in the wall.  The bookcase is from ABC, the drop shaped stools are form Brookstone.  The brass swing arm sconces are from Shades of Light.

Adore, adore that black cocktail table.  It was purchased at ebay but you can find it here.

This precious space was occupied by that closet with wash and drier.  The inlaid dresser is from Lerebours Antiques, the Greek key base echoes the Greek key crown molding on the door and it's a find from Home Goods.

I'm not afraid of mixing patterns and using what I love and believe in.  A home is an extension of our lives and experiences.

The art deco sideboard was left from my inventory when I used to sell vintage and antiques.  I love to display my collection of pottery on top.  It takes no space and it's also decorative.  The French chandelier was purchased online.  The gorgeous dining table with brass details is also from Lerebours Antiques.

If anyone wants to hire me as a food stylist I'm available, consultation services can be provided online though or you have to pay for my plane ticket. :P  The black wine glasses were found at The Antique Garage, the horn cup holding the coffee beans is from TJ Max, candelabras and bowls are from ABC Carpet and the cheese tray is from West Elm.  Mixing high and low is what I like.  :)

Our bedroom is not huge so we kept the storage situation completely relegated to the closets.  No dressers out of the closets.  The wallpaper is from Brunschwig and Fils.  I love how in all this time I've never gotten tired of it and I think it's because the patterns are faded so I always see something different in it.  The headboard and lamps were found at a vintage store; the photographs of Ephesus were taken by me during our trip to Turkey; the Moroccan wedding blanket from West Elm is simply thrown on top of a table that I use as a bench.  The bedding is Pratesi bought on sale. The fabric on the headboard is Kells Dot by Quadrille.

It's been a real pleasure to wake up everyday and enjoy the beautiful view of NYC.  It makes a huge difference in our moods.  What you look at does make a difference.

My nightstand is from Lerebours Antiques and is usually not this nicely organized.  I keep a bunch of magazines, books, journal and pencils underneath it at hand.  I finally made a commitment of starting to write in my journal every night.  More for remembering my daily life than for any secret feeling.  With all the social media craziness of modern lives now I'm afraid people will not remember their lives in the future and by writing every night what I've done in the day and of course any thought or feeling helps me relive the moment and be more present.  I have a lithograph of a woman by Matisse on my side of the bed and on his side Evren has a Dali lithograph of an old man. 

We were lucky to get this house that in a way have a lot of storage.  This closet, below right, is all mine.  Slowly I squeezed out my hubby into one of the others we have in the hallway.  A post about customizing closet is coming soon. :b

This is where I get prettier every time I'm going out.  :)

Believe it or not I usually have the top of my vanity almost like it looks here.  As I've said before I like to see what I use regularly.  Enjoy!

All photographs by Robert Levi.

Our Home - "Before" Version

 I covered this wall above with mirrors and framed it with two architectural columns.

This is how our home was before we started remodeling it.  Light, yellowish floors, two small closets on either side of the living room blocking the nice view, a less than attractive fireplace, a closed-in kitchen and completely bland bathrooms.  Our labor of love was done in two separate times, kitchen, floors, closets were removed and painted before we moved in and the remodeling of the bathrooms were done two years after while living in it.  Tomorrow I'll show you the after pictures!

In the back you can see the powder room and the insane and unnecessary closet in the middle of everything not only taking precious space but also displaying the washer and drier for everyone who came in and out of the bathroom.  Nuts, right?

This closet across from the other one made a bit more sense since it was for coats but it didn't make complete sense for me either so below you can see it fully gutted out.  Now the entire entrance is open and I can see the main door from the stairs. 

The kitchen was a closed in room.  We took down the top half wall, added more lower cabinets and moved the fridge to another wall.  All the way in the back you can see the unattractive fireplace which was also spruced up. 

In order to use a bigger TV and to utilize the space more effectively, we opened up the space more and added another electric outlet for additional electronic equipment.

We added a shelf (not in the picture yet) to put the TV on top and cable box, router underneath.

all images by Julie Yenicag for Belle Vivir

Our powder room transformed with wallpaper remnants

Our powder room was the only bathroom that didn't get gutted and redone.  It would've been a lot of fun.  This is usually the place where designers choose to go wildest.  Maybe in the future we'll do.  Let's be real here, that's far from happening.  The only thing that came down was a ridiculous vanity cabinet,  who has a cabinet in a powder room and why?  To our timing all this bathroom needed was wallpaper, in this case the remnants from Lucas's bedroom.  Didn't I get lazy here?  That's the beauty about seagrass wallpaper; it is highly forgiving due to lack of a pattern, and the natural texture of the grains fit flawlessly together.  I hired a professional to do this, even when he was dealing with remnants- which is exactly the reason why I did it.  The wallpaper was installed in thee of the walls and the one across from the mirror and toilet has a gallery wall from floor to ceiling.   The result is totally flawless, even I can't tell where the seams are.  Go ahead don't throw away those remnants! 

This is the after shot.  The mirror is from Anthropologie and the towel is Pratesi, bought at a sale.

House hunting in Sao Paulo: Our new home and I get a garden for free

I think I'm going to forget about hygiene and I'm going to walk barefoot on that floor.  Are you kidding me? mosaic floor for outdoor and not around swimming pools? 

If you've been house hunting you know how stressful could be to be looking for a home that offers everything you're looking for and a little more.  If you add all that to be looking in a foreign country that you don't know anything about, and which speaks another language, then you have all the scenarios to start biting your nails like a maniac.  We had two real estate agents who took us around, one spoke some English the other didn't.  Spanish is my first language so I'm able to understand a lot of written Portuguese, but understand it when spoken, that's another story.  Fortunately the real estate agents were very patient and we were able to find something that pleased us.
From our experience I could tell that Sao Paulo offers three types of homes.  The first option is a ‘casa condominium’, a group of 7 to 10 homes in a gated community.  After seeing three or four of these houses I started picturing myself ending up like the last Buendia character in One Hundred Years of Solitude, dried from depression and carried away by ants.  Ouch!  So sooner than later we decided that we're not built for gated communities.
Second option is Free Standing Homes.  For all the good reasons you can imagine while living in a foreign country this one was out of the question.
At that point we were left with the third option; high-rise buildings.  I'm not very keen of high-rises, but when we came across this complex with many of the features I love from mosaic walls, cobble stone narrow hilly streets surrounding the buildings and beautiful pine tree courtyards, we were sold.  Brazil is known for its beautiful vegetation and nature so I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that in the middle of the entire complex there is a mini forest packed with monkeys that you can feed.  Lucas, our son, will be amazed by it.
The apartment is higher than I would've liked it, but the view compensates for it.  It seems to be a very common thing in Brazil for the building have one apartment per floor so we also loved the privacy of the elevator coming directly to our apartment.  

I'm not sure if this was a sign from God or if it's freaky.  The building's name has me and my husband’s initials and the funny thing is that neither one of us noticed it until just recently when we were showing the pictures to our family. 

 This made me so happy the first time I saw it.

 I'll be having espresso here soon.  Yes you read that right, espresso under the sun if I need to.

This is part the mini Forrest.  I couldn't take more pictures because they don't allow outsiders to take pictures.

The view that I"m sure will inspire us in many many moments when we feel like strangers far from home.

This is one of the many cobblestone walkways around the complex.  I'm planning to take Lucas for night walks around here.

 I finally have a foyer.  I suspect that ceiling is calling for some patterns!  Uhm...

Since we're not going to do any type of remodeling, I'm happy that the kitchen is in great condition because the bathrooms...ah... that's another post.

I love the open and not exactly open layout of the apartment.  You are able to peek into the dining room and TV room from both sides of the living room. 

The living room.  It's a new beginning and I couldn't be more happy and excited!

One or two things when remodeling a home: My masterbath after

When we started remodeling our home I knew we were not going to live here forever, I also knew what many people know to be reality now a days that the time of the housing boom was over.  Knowing that, my choices on materials and structural changes needed to be more cautious, but I didn't want to sacrifice style or comfort.  So I kept the kitchen and bathrooms as traditional and neutral as possible, something that would appeal to most people, in case one day we decide to sell this house. 
For our master bathroom I mixed "real and steal" materials.  Marble mosaic in calacata gold for the floor, chair rail (to end the tiles that I extended 12" up the wall, below) and the pencil border that frames the walking shower.  The shower walls are in porcelain that looks exactly like calacata gold marble.  It's funny the tile installer didn't know it wasn't marble until he saw the back of it.  I bought the porcelain tiles at Classic Tiles in Brooklyn.  The vanity is custom made. 
The master bathroom is on the small side so I installed a programmable tile warmer, a luxury feature that will compensate for the lack of space.
Anyone who has ever remodeled a home knows that faucets are extremely expensive.  For the shower faucets I simply left out unnecessary things such as volume control handles.  Those things complicate life, really! The main shower handle does the volume control already so why buy an extra one?  I got the big overhead shower at Lowe's and the handheld is a combination of one of those handles that come with the shower I just replaced the hose for one that you can connect separately and got the set of handles with its respective valves at a trade showroom.  After doing all that math and all the search I became more savvy about plumbing and my hubby keeps telling me that I like to complicate my life.  But when he enjoys a shower with more than one water source all hitting his body he gets to understand why I like to complicate my life and why I always choose to go through the less traveled road.  Whatever you think it's possible it's because it is! 

 A shot of the floor and chair rail.

Our sons's bathroom.  We finally got the oval shower curtain rod that was in back order (I don't stand when things are in back order) and replaced the L shaped rod we used for the previous photo shoot. 

Photos (besides the second) by Robert Levi