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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear Laundry Lovers, One of my very favorite things on earth is freshly cleaned laundry. I love snuggling into bed on freshly laundered linens, thinking about how clean everything is. But for most people, the laundry room is an afterthought. It’s not a room that most people think to spend a lot of time designing. But for people who like doing laundry as much as I do, having a well-designed laundry room is a bonus that can make everyday life more enjoyable. It’s like a little added treat every time you do a load of laundry….

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Photography by Carly Rudd courtesy Parachute Dear Diary, It’s been a while since I lived in New York, but it’s always fun to head back and waddle around to reconnect with the city I grew up dreaming of. So when Parachute told me they wanted to film the next installment of our makeover series in the City That Never Sleeps, my head exploded with glee. Our first two installments of the series were so much fun to shoot and the third video was basically like taking those first few experiences and mixing them with the iconic film, New York Minute…

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Photography Courtesy James Hardie® Dear Renovation Diary, As you know, I’m currently in the process of renovating my parents’ kitchen and doing a house full of makeover projects for them. Their house is currently a big construction zone and will be so for a few more months. This isn’t the house I grew up in, my parents moved to this area five years ago after retiring and leaving my childhood home in Yosemite. One of the first things I noticed about the area they moved to is that there is a ton of weird siding on houses up there. On…

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Source Dear Construction Diary, It’s become increasingly clear that my parents’ kitchen renovation project has ballooned and is now basically an entire home makeover. One element that I’ve been itching to change on their house since they moved in is the deck the sits outside the kitchen. An interesting thing about their house is that it’s very vertical. There are three levels because it’s on a hillside and the kitchen is on the top level. In order to make sure there’s easily accessible outdoor space, a deck off the kitchen is essential. We’re expanding the new kitchen out onto an…

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Photography by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolish Dear Design Diary, After you’ve lived in LA for a while you start to dread meeting actors, especially ones on popular TV shows who are famous. Normally, they are crazy high-maintenance, attention-hungry, and completely insane (like not in a fun way, in a way that makes them irritating and unrelatable). These are vast generalizations, but I’ve made friends with enough COMPLETELY BONKERS actors to know that you should approach them the way you’d approach a mountain lion in the wild, with caution, fear, and a thoroughly-planned escape route. You can imagine my surprise when…

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Photographs by Zeke Ruelas & Tessa Neustadt Dear Makeover Diary, Firstly, let’s discuss the fact that I’ve named my parents’ house Casa Soria. I did this for a few reasons. Firstly, I love naming things (Orcondo, Châteaulando, orMOMdo, orlanDAD, etc). Second, I’m working on a fair amount of projects there (kitchen, sitting room, family room, foyer, and so on) so I thought it would just be easier if it had a name. Casa Soria is where my family tends to get together. I’m making it nice because I think after working hard their whole lives and saving forever so they…

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Pretty Photograph by Zeke Ruelas Gross Ugly Photographs by Orlando Soria Dear Fireplace Diary, There is a time honored question literally every single person who has a decorative (nonfunctioning) fireplace must ask themselves at some point. “WHAT SHOULD I PUT IN THE FIREPLACE???” It is a question I get from clients all the time. And there are about a million answers. None of them are totally satisfying to be fully honest. Because what you really want in a fireplace is – wait for it – A FIRE. When I stopped by (read: basically broke in) to check out Chateaulando, the first…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear Color Diary, As you may or may not know already, I decided to paint my bedroom blush pink at the beginning of this year. I’ve loved that color, but as a designer I’m constantly using my home to try out new ideas. So when Pratt & Lambert® Paints, the paint company who have been combining quality and beautiful color for over 150 years, reached out to me and wanted to collaborate, I jumped at the chance to re-envision my bedroom. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what the bedroom looked like before. I’ve always wanted…

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Photography by Zeke Ruelas Dear People Unsure About Whether to Decorate for the Holidays, If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, it’s not major news that I like decorating for Christmas (read posts from last year, 2015, and 2014 for evidence). I’m not sure why, but I’ve maintained the enthusiasm orMOMdo instilled in me for holiday decorating well into my adult life. Growing up, we went totally crazy decorating the cabin/house I grew up in in Yosemite. To this day, I see winter as a fun time of the year when you get to re-imagine your home and…

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Photography by Carley Rudd Dear Diary, One of my favorite current projects is the web series I’m working on with Parachute. The videos are a chance to do a fun makeover and play while we shoot the video. I had so much fun on the first one, where I designed a nursery for Foujan. When I got the chance to work with Jen Gotch (founder of Bando) I was stoked because she is A) a friend of mine B) one of my favorite people to follow on Insta and C) my actual friend from real life. It helps that Jen…

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Photography by Nicole Lamotte, Video by Propeller Media Dear Diary, There’s been all sorts of fun developments in my career lately. Work with clients is plugging along (I have about eight right now, including some regular people clients and some celeb/press projects). And all sorts of fun partnerships and brand collaborations have been coming to me. One of the most exciting is my current partnership with Parachute . We’ve started a super fun web series and for the first episode I did an incredibly fun/cute makeover for couple (pictured below) who are about to have a baby. Foujan and Jeremy…

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Dear Design Diary, Literally the best thing ever is happening! Since my parents moved into their house I’ve been itching to redo their kitchen and now it’s finally happening. A little backstory: my parents moved out of my childhood home in Yosemite about three years ago and relocated to an area on the outskirts of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. They found a great house where we can all hang out. An added bonus: my brother, his wife, and their kids live in a neighboring wine town called Windsor. It’s very cute up here and my parents love it. They…

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Photograph by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolish You guys! I’ve started a new series for Architectural Digest! Here’s my first story for them! I just counted on my fingers and I’ve moved 19 times in the 13 years since I graduated from college. I never really thought about it, but I guess I have a thing for moving. Most of my moves were brought on by job changes, going to grad school, because I was staying with friends and family while I had no job, or because I simply was over the place I was living and decided to move. Sometimes…

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Dear Design Diary, Since we last gabbed, there have been some MAJOR updates in the Haus of Orlando. My master bedroom is done and ready to chat with you guys about what I chose and why. It’s only been a few days since I blabbed about my plans, but if you need to refresh your memory check out my intro post AND check out my even blabbier post on Hommemaker which has before pics and my plan for the space. CONTINUE READING >>>

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Photograph by Zeke Ruelas Dear Self, I kind of freaked out when I finally saw my guest bedroom in its fully finished state. Which was insane, because I’d literately been there the whole time putting it together, sweating my face off and screaming at the ceiling. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s Orlando and today I am revealing my guest bedroom, which I intro’ed last week on the blog. But.. back to the room. It wasn’t until everything was in place that was like “HI WHAT IS THIS CAN I LIVE IN HERE?” Since I moved into Chateaulando, this room…

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Photography by Tessa Neustadt and Orlando Soria Dear Design Diary, You Guys! So much is happening you are going to FREAK OUT when I tell you. If you haven’t been following my shenanigans on Instagram, you have to start because my life is RIDICULOUS right now. To make a long story short, I’ve skipped town for a few months and am currently living at my parents’ house, writing my book, and running my design business remotely from Sonoma County (about an hour north of San Francisco, think wine, vineyards, and redwoods). I have a strict deadline for my book (which is…

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