those aren’t my fancy pants words, but we keep getting asked about it. i don’t have much smart to say on the topic, but i’ve been thinking about it since our brief phone interview with megan from aol. here’s her article.

lauren and i both come from families of DIYers. our parents were always decorating, revamping, personalizing. it’s the way we’ve always been. but there’s definitely been an upsurge in the amount of content around homes, homemaking, decorating, and renovating.

what do you think? why are people so into decorating these days? is it HGTV? is it blogs? it’s it the fact that there’s a recession and we all have to stay home staring at our ugly sofa pillows and it’s making us nuts? what’s the deal? why do you do it?

sexy, shimmery elegance for a prewar apartment in NYC. yum.

let it be said that gina of homegirl shop has awesome style. but she wasn’t quite thrilled with her dining room.

here’s what we did:

have you missed the moodboards? here come a whole bunch.

click on the thumbnails to view the gallery:

if you are, do not read this article in the Chicago Tribune Home section. just don’t. it’ll only make you madder.

shout out to the awesome photographer we worked with, Bill Hogan, who won our hearts when he said he’d be more comfortable in a kaftan. and many, many thanks to Lisa Cregan for penning such a kind piece.

yesterday was a grueling day here at k+o. occasionally, when we’re out, lauren and i will pop in to our local crate and barrel, or target, or restoration hardware to see the products in person that we’re recommending in our moodboards. we sit on chairs, we snuggle with pillows, we’ve even been known to flop on a sofa or two. each item must pass a strict litmus test. it must be comfy. and it must be hot. and we will not accept anything less. that is our promise to you.

so yesterday, we spent the morning doing our intense product testing while touring the new west elm and pottery barn stores in lincoln park. and let me tell you, we worked our butts off for you! it’s hard to snuggle with a pillow while trying to look cool in front of west elm’s creative director, alex bates (who was super nice and friendly, btw).

we loved the stores, both are such a pleasure to shop in, and have tons of new ideas for how to make designing your rooms a heck of a lot easier and more fun. we were totally impressed by west elm’s continued commitment to being eco-friendly, and affordable, and pb definitely had some new tricks up it’s sleeve as well. unique, artisan made products, and more smart media units that make plugging in a heck of a lot more attractive. because, let’s face it, nobody wants to see your wii.

overall, there was a lot of comfiness, and tons of hotness. and you’ll be seeing tons more of the new stuff in our moodboards, if i ever have time to get them posted.

xoxo!

our sweet new client rebecca sent this over, and we wanted to share it with you.  hope you’ll stop by.

we were on WGN this morning! if you did miss it, it’s entirely our fault. we didn’t tell you to go watch. for shame.

lucky for you, this thing called the interwebs is magic. so magic i can’t even make the stupid code embed.  but here’s one of our little segments.

thanks sooooooo much to WGN, Ana, Mary, and Terry, you guys were so much fun! and of course to Allison, our incredible client who let us raid her house and take all the credit, and to our friends at Chicago Home for hooking it up.

(cue exit music)

we wish we could have taken it all home.

the 30 dollar turquoise tweed sofabed.

the distressed leather chesterfield.

the giant, GIANT arc lamp, shining with brassy 70s glamour.

and much, much more.

if you haven’t been, you really must.