Giggle-Room - Austin Interior Designer of Childrens Rooms and More

Lieve Saether is the Austin based designer behind Giggle-room. She takes a fresh, pragmatic approach to designing children's room... no icky sticky pink tulle and Disney princess themes here. Only cool, inspiring, inviting rooms that truly capture the child's individuality and spirit. What child wouldn't want to call this home?

Unique color combinations and practical furniture selections that show off this little girl's most prized possessions while keeping books and artwork neatly tucked away.

A display of sweet wooden birdhouses with colorful birds to greet baby every morning and a dangling Moorish-style light fixture... an unexpected yet lovely element in a nursery.

THIS is my favorite. I have always wanted to incorporate a world map into my home but I could never figure out quite how to do it other than tacking it up with thumb tacks. ! I love this.

Girls really go for purple... but most grown ups don't. However, this shade of aubergine is welcome in my home... especially with the rest of the room's accents in turquoise, blues, and brown.

The wall on the left reads "Sparkle & Spin" in gold glitter against the alabaster wall. So chic yet so FUN.

Giggle-room offers their clients everything from a quick fix to full redesign and her services are extremely affordable. ...and of course, Lieve also does grown up rooms too. !

giggle-room.com

Introducing Our New Hyde Park Renovation Project

Where did I leave off? For the past 3 months my husband and I have been working on acquiring this little house in Hyde Park, one of Austin's oldest and most historic neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this particular real estate saga was high on drama and incredibly time consuming... not to mention my kids, my husband, my day-to-day real estate clients, and, oh right... the holidays...sigh. Needless to say, my blog was neglected.


I was out for a run one September morning in Hyde Park and I noticed that this little house - which I had jogged past MANY times... had a "For Sale" sign posted out front. This house, I should mention, has had a "For Sale By Owner" sign posted for probably over a year...but the sellers wanted an unreasonable amount of money given the property's compromised condition.

Turned out that the house was up for foreclosure and the sellers were now trying to do a short sale. My husband and I immediately wrote up an offer (for what we thought was market value) and submitted it. Apparently in the nick of time, saving the house from foreclosure. (Interesting to note - a bank cannot foreclose on a house if there is a written offer to purchase...no matter what the purchase price)

Now, 4 months later, and much drama... it's all ours. ! We have big plans for the house that we will renovate for ourselves to live in - hopefully for many years to come. The renovations will begin next month - pending city of Austin building permits. The house is actually located in a historical preservation district... which presents many fun hoops to jump through. Luckily, we have a great builder, Urban Nature, Inc. to help us through the process.

I am looking forward to telling the story of our renovation project this year as it progresses, along with keeping everyone informed of Austin things to do, to see, and of course... Austin real estate.

Happy 2011.