sunday drive on hampshire court

One of my favorite streets here in Newport Beach is Hampshire Court. It’s a very small cul de sac that’s more of a little circular street with only about four homes on it.

As you drive up the street, the first house that catches your attention is this Cape Cod beauty.

And right next door, is this home. These two homes are the perfect companions to one another.

Here’s what they look like, side by side.

And to the right is this southern colonial home.

Last but not least is this fabulous pink house that looks like it belongs in Palm Beach or the Bahamas!

As fabulous as these homes are from the outside, do you ever wonder what some of your favorite homes look like on the inside? I know I do! 

Well, wonder no more about the first home, you see it was designed by the fabulous husband and wife team of Blackband Design, so today we have a little peek at the interior…

More photos of this home can be found on Instagram with the hashtag #projectbackbay.

What did you think of this blog post? If you'd like to see more like this, please let me know!

ciao! fabiana

a little southern town called Bluffton

Rose Hill Mansion at the Rose Hill Plantation

My husband and I have visited Hilton Head Island, South Carolina every summer since we got married, and just about every year, I plan an outing to Savannah to soak up the culture and beauty of my favorite southern city.

Savannah is less than an hour away from our home in Hilton Head, and over the last two years, we’ve added an additional stop in our travels, Bluffton.

Bluffton is about half way between Hilton Head and Savannah, and recently has been part of a historical and architectural revival.

Of course, a handful of the old historic homes have been preserved, but we’re seeing more care taken with the new businesses to maintain that vintage architectural character.

A walk through the downtown area won’t take long as you wander through the Spanish moss lined streets that neighbor the May River.

Downtown Bluffton is as Southern as you can get! And it’s so safe that the local garden gift shop leaves everything outdoors without worrying about anyone taking anything!

For the first time last year, my husband and I toured the Rose Hill Mansion and it was quite a treat. In fact, I think we were on one of the last tours, as the house is no longer open to the public.

Here’s a little peek of it and you can read my story at Cottages & Bungalows to learn a little more about the history of what’s called the most beautiful plantation house in the south.

Lucky for us the Corner Perk opens very early and serves an amazing breakfast and great espresso drinks too!

We’re looking forward to our visit again to Bluffton later this summer, and I’ll be sure to share lots more photos and details about our visit.

ciao! fabiana

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For more on Bluffton, check out these great books...

   

interior design pinners to follow

I can hardly believe that I’ve been included in Carla Aston’s list of Top 20 Must-Follow Interior Design Pinners on Pinterest! She’s included some of my all-time favorite interior designers as well like Emily Henderson and Mark D. Sikes.

The collage above includes my eight faves that I'm going to feature today. 

Carla Aston

Here’s what interior designer Carla Aston has to say about how she compiled the list, “I began this list on New Year’s Day, 6 years ago, with 10 “Pinners To Follow”, adding on to it in that same year. I ended up at 40 interior design pinners featured.

After a few years, some of the pinners on my list moved into different niches or stopped pinning consistently. Pinterest had changes that kept you from seeing the pins of people you were following, so the list seemed a little pointless then.

The introduction of Instagram captured everyone’s attention and Pinterest became more of a marketing tool and search engine, not something you necessarily go to for visual design inspiration.

However, with the “Following” tab at the top of your feed, you can now see more results from the people you follow. It’s becoming more like how it used to be on Pinterest, if you use

that tab.

So, I felt it was time to republish this list with an update.

I wanted to bring you the pinners I feel are still very actively pinning plenty of valuable, current, inspirational interior design images.

I focused on pinners who pinned images without a lot of text overlay, from a variety of sources, not just their own websites.

These pinners below were part of the original list and made the cut. Scroll through them and follow each one, if you haven’t already!”

Here are some of my all-time faves from Carla's list.

Click on designers' photos for link to their Pinterest page.

Irene Turner: IT Sonoma Style

Alessandra Branca

Emily Henderson

Holly Becker: decor8

Holly Phillips: The English Room

Mark D. Sikes

Cindy Hattersley

you can follow me too 😏

So these eight designers are definitely pinners that I’ve followed closely over the years, but Carla’s list also includes these AMAZING PINNERS that I love as well… 

LYNDA QUINTERO-DAVIDS

VICTORIA SMITH, SF GIRL BY BAY

DEBRA PHILLIPS, 5TH AND STATE

RACHEL ELISE DESIGN

GLORIA DE LOURDES BLALOCK

PAM O’CONNELL

MOON TO MOON

LINDA ERVIN

CASABELLA INTERIORS

ISABEAU GREY

AVANT GARDENIST

  

Do you already follow any of these pinners?

I'd love to know!

ciao! fabiana

a beautiful vintage pillow and more

Vintage fabrics and linens are so beautiful, but in today’s world, they aren’t always practical. 

As you can see from this gorgeous pillow, little squares of vintage linen placemats, napkins and fabrics were sewn to form a modern day patchwork motif that’s worthy of any updated farmhouse interior.

My friend Brenda Kristine is a genius when it comes to creating patterns, slipcovers, and pillows for home décor. Not only that, she and I share a mutual love of vintage fabrics of all kind.

Even bits of ribbon and lace were incorporated to provide just the right texture and color palette for this design.     

Country Sampler Farmhouse Style magazine

Brenda’s unique patchwork pillow was even featured in the Spring 2019 issue of Country Sampler Farmhouse Style magazine, seen here. 

I just love how this pillow looks on my Serena & Lily Mattituck Chair here in the family room. It adds just the right amount of color and interest to this corner near the fireplace. 

Brenda and I are working on another amazing collaboration right now for Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, and I can't wait to share that with you!

And speaking of Farmhouse Style, the fall issue will be out around July 15th. I got an advanced copy, and here's a look at the cover... 

This Fall issue features two more of my projects, the first being a really simple to make apple adorned wreath that's so perfect for the front door as soon as September rolls around. 

I used real miniature apples and attached them to a twig wreath in the easiest way. The whole project took no more than ten minutes!

You can see my wreath in top right of this layout.

Also in this issue is my recipe for French Potato & Watercress Soup that’s included with several other yummy soup recipes from other bloggers in a story called “Heartwarming Soups & Stews”.

This is quite literally the EASIEST soup recipe that I’ve ever made, and it’s a real hit with my family. I made it one year for Thanksgiving, and it was the perfect addition to the menu.

I hope you enjoyed this preview of the Fall 2019 issue of Country Sampler Farmhouse Style. 

If you haven’t picked up the Summer issue, make sure you do. It’s an amazing one and of course for me, it’s quite a memorable issue, since my tablescape is on the cover!  

It’s been so fun collaborating with CS Farmhouse Style over the last couple of years. They really make it fun! 

Right now I’m working on four exciting projects for their Spring 2020 issue. There's definitely another vintage sewing project included with Brenda that I know you will LOVE! 

I can’t say much more now, but I’ll update you soon!

ciao! fabiana

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Now you can shop these issue on Amazon...