Luxe Living for Less
I can’t believe that I’m doing this you guys…but yes, the first home tour of our new house that I’m posting is a No Makeup Home Tour. No staged, professionally photographed glamour shots in this post. But I guess it makes for good “before” pictures, right? When Kyla first invited me to take part, I had no idea we’d be moving a few weeks later!
We’re already over halfway through January and I’m still trying to gear up for the year to come! The blog is 10 years old this month, can you believe it?! It’s been a long and super fun road, let me tell you. Before I talk about my goals and resolutions for this year though, I’d like to go back and talk about a couple of changes that happened on the blog front first.
If you visit the blog much, you’ll have noticed the redesign that happened a few months back. I hope you all enjoy the new look and feel. Here’s the old one for reference, not too different visually, but most of the changes were on the back end. I worked with one of my favorite design team, Bloom. I’d bought ready-made templates from them in the past and loved their modern and minimalist philosophy. So when it came for a more customized design they were my go-to. Every detail has been thought over and designed for ease of use and aesthetics.
We reorganized the navigation as well – with the addition of the shop and well as our design services, the navigation needed a major overhaul. And speaking of the shop, Bloom designed that from top to bottom as well. I barely know how to write a post on WordPress let alone format the site 😉 Thankfully I found a great design team to do it for me, right?
You’ll notice that in addition to the search bar on the righthand side, we also added some additional search functionality on the daily finds and room redo pages. You can now search for finds by item and retailer. And you can also find room redos by specific rooms and styles. Pretty cool huh?
If you’re an email subscriber you also noticed a format change. Instead of showing the whole post, you now see only the featured image. The change was a mandatory one, unfortunately. The reasoning? The emails you receive are automated and affiliate linking in emails is prohibited by most advertisers. My blog is mostly supported by affiliate sales, so in order to be able to keep the blog running it’s a necessary evil. As a result, I had to stop all links from being sent out in my newsletters. The easiest way to guarantee that, was to cut text all-together. Hence the new email format.
I personally like the look of the new newsletter much, much better. But a bunch of you are unhappy with the new look. You guys miss seeing the comparisons in email format, without having to click over. I totally understand. So what I’m thinking is this…instead of the featured image or inspirational image shown in the newsletter, I’ll show the product comparison image. What do you guys think? A better compromise? That way you can see the products and click over only if you want more info. Sounds good?
And while I’m at it, I figured it was the perfect time to do a reader survey! Yay! It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of these and I’d love some feedback from you all! So go ahead, weigh in:
Our Home Trends series is new for 2017 and it’s quickly become one of our more popular post series on the blog. Here are your favorite trends for the 2017!
Would you like to be a part of the Copy Cat Chic blog team? Would love to have you! We’ve expanded pretty fast this last year and are looking for some more help in 2018!
Last weekend, the Mr and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary with a little staycation at what I’ve considered one of the most iconic hotels in California, the Claremont hotel. The Claremont has been around since 1915 and it’s like a white beacon on the Oakland/Berkeley border. It’s always inspiring to see its bright, white facade in contrast to the lush green trees and hills it’s nestled in. Growing up I had always wanted to stay there, but until last weekend that dream hadn’t come true. Spending a couple of days there was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. And after seeing its amazing architectural details and decor, I knew it was going to be my next Designer Destination. Just check out that pool house and deck done in all white and black, could that be any more perfect?
[Read more…] about Designer Destination | The Claremont Hotel Berkeley
I’ve been getting so many messages, requests and emails to re-open our client work. So…it’s happening! Hope you guys are excited as I am! Audrey S. and Jessica will be helping me with all of your designs and together we make a great team as you all know 🙂 Here’s more info! Let me know if you have any questions! We’re using a new design questionnaire, so let me know if you have any issues with it!
You can find the information you need in the top menu under “Room Designs” or right here:
Excited to work with you!
Last month I started this new blog/YouTube series with Coby O’Sullivan’s sitting room, and this month I took on Sarah Eisler‘s great room! I’ve followed Sarah on Instagram for awhile now, being a equestrian lover and her being in the horse world. So when I saw her design dilemma submission come through, I knew I wanted to help a fellow horse-lover out 🙂 Sarah moved into her new home not too long ago and needed some help with her combined living and dining room. AND she needed it all on a pretty tight budget…for around $3,000. So I put together a design for her that covers the main pieces that she’ll need to outfit the space and she can fill it all in with accessories as needed. Take a look and let me know  what you think!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on a link.
TOTALÂ |Â $3,198
sofa options | farlov | Halle | colton | chesterfield
armchair options | herald | nora | nucla | expat
coffee table options | modern | wood | bellagio | rustic
living room rug options | herringbone | vintage | paddle
dining room rug options | taragon | oriental | valencia
options for above fireplace | mirror | montclair | horse eye | sir edward
dining room art options | comforting | set of 4 | diptych | colored horse | abstract water
side table options | modern | drum | hammered | marble top | nartina
dining table options | donnovan | brooklynn | gulianna | althea | emmerson
dining chair options | stafford | windsor | bench
host chair options | skirted | swoop | james
dining room chandelier options | morely | agnes | wire
lumbar pillow | indigo | madera | maricela
greenery options | live olive tree | faux olive | philodendron
accessories | throw | bust | black bowl | trophy | ladder | staghorn | gold platter | brass horseshoe
I have to admit it was hard furnishing what was basically a dining room AND a living room for $3,000. So I decided to show you what $5,300 will get you 😉 Links to the products are above!
Here is Sarah’s before picture of the room. This is the sale listing photo, so not her furniture. She’s also painted it Sherwin Williams Tree Swallow and Requisite Grey.
And the inspiration images that Sarah gave me were all client work that I did in the past! You can check them out here:Â Naomi’s living room, Julie’s dining room, Dani’s living/dining room and Anne’s dining room.
Let me know if you liked the video! Stay tuned for more and if you have a design dilemma, feel free to submit it here:
This post is in partnership with Delta®  Brand.
A couple of weeks ago I took a little trip to Chicago. Most of you probably followed along on my Instagram. The reason? A Day of Design with Delta and John and Sherry from Young House Love. Such a great concept, right? The plan? An architectural tour around Chicago to gather up inspiration for a design board we were to create using Delta and She She products. I love me some good inspiration AND a good design challenge! Sign me up.
