My Latest Project

I've got lots going on these days, but this project has by far taken precedence! Actually, I'm not even the lead designer on this project!

This new client has, well, completely taken over.

Frank and I are so very excited to begin this new chapter in our lives. This photo is an old one, our very first photo actually. I am 16 weeks now :-) Only 4 more to go to find out if our little blessing is going to be a son or a daughter!

Our world is about to change in more ways than we can even fathom right now. We are feeling very blessed, excited, happy, scared...you name it!

Since God's design is the only perfect one, we are excited to be a part of this project and look forward to watching it come together :-)

If you think of us, say a little prayer, we would be so grateful!

Living Room Before & After

Hello my lovely readers! As promised last week, I bring you another recent living room project that I've been working on.

This home already had some groundwork laid in the form of beautiful, some antique, pieces of furniture inherited from their grandmother. Most of what we did for their transformation was update the upholstery on many of the pieces that were inherited and this, naturally, made the biggest impact in the space.
In this image below, you can see how the room looked before I was brought in. Lots of gorgeous furniture and upholstery frames in mismatched fabrics. You might remember the sofa from my sneak peek a couple of weeks ago.

In the image below you can see our updates.

We reupholstered all of the pieces in the room with bright, fresh fabrics. We added drapes to, not only, soften the hard lines of the plantation shutters, but bring a little color on to the walls. The drapes are Vintage Plumes in Birch from the DwellStudio collection for Robert Allen. The fabric is stunning!
The clients have this beautiful custom seagrass rug in the space and I wanted to soften and break up the expanse of it, which I did with a white cowhide. It is super soft under bare feet.
In this image, you can see another angle of the room.
Those little slipper chairs were so cute, they just needed a little face lift. We reupholstered those in another DwellStudio for Robert Allen fabric, Dotted Trellis in Dove.
Here is the sofa that you might remember from last week's sneak peek. The frame of the sofa is absolutely timeless, the fabric however, not so much. The sofa is by Century or Henredon, I can't remember which.

We reupholstered it in a fabulous textured fabric from Threads by Lee Jofa. I had the throw pillows done in a soft, snow leopard chenille by Waverly and a plush, high performance velvet by Robert Allen. We also had the sofa treated with a stain protectant to help maintain that beautiful white color with her little guy running around :-)


Here is a closeup of the nailhead detail on the arm. I love this detail and how the nailheads are horizontal instead of vertical, it's unique.

The sweet, little bergere chairs by the fireplace got a little update as well.

We reupholstered those in the same plush snow leopard chenille that is on the sofa pillows. It is really, really soft.

This classic lyre back desk chair received some new duds as well. Boteh Camel, also DwellStudio for Robert Allen :-)...We really liked that new collection!

Here is another detail of the great texture on the sofa, my favorite, nailheads, and the fabulous colors in the new drapery panels.

Our new fabrics gave their inherited furniture a whole new life in a happy and fresh new space.

A very sincere thank you to the Himoffs for trusting me with your home.

Your living room is beautiful!

My Art & A Fun Space

I am not a big do-it-yourselfer when it comes to work projects, around my own house yes, but not for work. This isn't because I don't feel like I can do it, I just really appreciate the quality of work from people who have perfected their craft and that is what I like to provide for my clients. This little space, however, belongs to a family member, my sister to be exact, and well, you know family gets special treatment ;-)

My sister is a hair stylist and has her own space inside of a large spa/ salon building. Because this is a leased space, we were very limited with what we could do with it and also how much she wanted to spend on it. We needed to do 2 rooms for under $500, yikes! So, that budget equals quite a bit of DIY!

My sister is young and hip and I really wanted the colors and vibe of her space to reflect that. I opted for a fresh and vibrant color scheme with trendy patterns and fabrics. The space, again, is a leased space so we weren't looking for longevity. The new design feels very Tory Burch.

I upholstered the wall, behind where she stands, in a cool, acid green greek key graphic. I then made a center panel out of orange faux leather and piped it in midnight blue grosgrain ribbon. The orange faux leather has the texture of a handbag and gives you the idea of Hermes.
I then centered a Hollywood Regency style sunburst mirror in the center. When you are in the space, this mirror and the mirror that the clients are sitting in front of are parallel to each other and produce that interesting eternity effect.
We painted the walls an intriguing high gloss midnight blue. They are sleek, inky and very now. I accented with gold touches throughout the space. The gold on the deep blue is timeless.
I painted the sides of the custom art gold.

So, that brings me to the art. I don't know why but I was inspired by this Duralee bag that is sitting in my sample closet and I thought "that would look awesome on that wall that I don't know what to do with!". Something about the colors just made me think this would be fun. With our budget, a new piece of art would have been hard to find, not impossible, but hard. I decided to just paint a canvas. I really love to paint and wish that I had time to do it more often. It is cathartic for me. My husband knows this and has always encouraged me to create more art. One Christmas he bought me all of these wonderful art supplies...paints, pastels, canvases, a wooden easel.

Using the Duralee octopus as sort of a guideline, I free-handed my interpretation on the canvas in pencil.

See all those paints below, that was part of my Christmas gift. It makes me happy.

I painted over my sketch with an inky midnight blue acrylic that looks blue in some light and black in others.

I think that it works great with the space and my sister likes that I made something for her :-) She is always asking me to paint something for her.

The panel on the back wall was a little DIY too.

I, first, drew out the pattern in AutoCAD to get the dimesions and scale accurate.

I glued the grosgrain ribbon to the faux leather.

I mitered the corners of the ribbon to get an exact 90 degree angle on the pattern and to make it look more custom.

Ta-da!

I think the space turned out fun, updated and fresh...and most importantly, we made it work with our budget.

I'll be back next week with another fun living room project.

Have a great weekend!

Living Room Before & After

I recently gave you a little sneak peek of this project and am now ready to show you the living portion of it. As you can see in the before image above, the space was basically a blank canvas. My clients didn't know where to start in the space and in turn the space became a resting place for unmatched furniture and no commitments on the walls. Here is the space today after I got my hands on it...

Not only was the furniture mismatched before, the scale was wrong for the height of the room. We placed a large distressed cabinet on the largest wall to fill in the huge void that was there before. Not only is it proportional to the space, it also provides storage for books and family photos. I flanked the sides of the cabinet with vintage garden prints that I found at a gallery in Manhattan and had custom framed. The historic green is echoed in the silk sofa pillows.
In the before image, you can see another angle and a little more of the space.
We added plenty of seating, that is not only proportional to the space but really comfortable as well. My clients actually sit in this room now. You catch a glimpse of the dining room in the below image. We did that space along with the living but the lanterns over the dining table weren't hung yet and there were a few final touches yet to be installed.

We used an inexpensive seagrass underfoot and layered it with a zebra pattern dyed cow hide. This creates interest and a bold graphic for the room...plus, the hide is super soft under bare feet. This is one of my favorite flooring treatments.

In the before image below, you can see how grand the scale of the room is. The ceilings are really tall and so is the window. This calls for custom drapery treatments to achieve the appropriate height.

I took the drapery panels almost to the ceiling which is dramatic and softens the hard lines of the wall and the plantation shutters.

Another image of the comfy new chairs and the vintage garden prints in the background.

...and a few images for you looky-loos that like the details like I do.
A detail of the cremone lock on the distressed cabinet. Love.

Nailheads and tufting. Love, love.

I simply adore these mercury glass mushrooms I placed under a cloche. I've previously talked about using mercury glass here.

The accessories on the cocktail table. I found this sweet little shadow box and filled it with faux mossy rocks and some shells from one of the family's beach vacations.

I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my client's home and one of my projects.

A very big thank you to the Jacksons. You are lovely, gracious and a joy to work with. I can't wait to work on the next space we've got lined up :-)

Happy Hump-Day!

Sofa Makeover

Today I've got a little sneak peek into a small project I've been working on.

This is a gorgeous sofa that was upholstered in some not-so-gorgeous fabric. This sofa is part of a dining room and living room makeover.

Look at how beautiful she is now! I upholstered her in a wonderfully textured fabric from Threads by Lee Jofa.

Please pardon the camera phone snaps...I'll use my good camera for the final before & after :-)
I hope you are having a great start to the week!