Recent Projects: Design Plans, Updated Bathroom, and My New Office

Wow, it's been a busy summer so far.  Hard to believe June is almost over!  The kids are busy with swim team, track, field hockey and other various camps plus lots of hang out time with friends and cousins.  

I've also been busy with lots of exciting projects to work on.  I'm currently helping three families with major home renovations.  All three renovations started this past spring and all of them are finishing up very soon.  Please stay tuned for pictures of these fun projects.  

Below are other projects that have been in the works...designs plans for a pretty country home, a master bathroom update, plus my new office is almost done!!  

I'm also very much looking forward to my brother and his family visiting next week.  It's going to be a relaxing "staycation" that will include lots of boating, swimming and good eating.

Completed Design Boards

When you hire me for a full design services you receive a digital design plan and/or something that looks like the boards below.  The design boards are completed after several meetings with a client to fine tune the project scope and client's style and functional needs, plus share initial design ideas.  After many hours of searching for just the right furniture and fabric, both online and in vendor showrooms, the design board is completed.  The boards include space plans with furniture layout, pictures of furniture, fabrics for upholstered pieces, pillows and drapery treatments, finish samples, and suggested paint colors.  It's so much fun to pull together an entire look.  

This design board is for a client's great room that includes a dining area, a seating area in front of the fireplace, and a second seating area for watching television.  My client loves the Ralph Lauren look...classic, fresh with a touch of rustic.  

In a recent post on selecting rugs for a client...Oriental Rugs I highlighted this client's rug which you can see a small picture of in the middle of the board above.  Two of these rugs will cover a majority of the wood floors in this space and provide lots of color and pattern.  There were lots of colors to work with in the rugs but I chose a navy blue because it provided "pop" against rugs.   Adding texture and pattern being very important to complete the look.

Here's another board for the client's living room.  A little more formal and feminine but still very livable and inviting.  Patterns such as animal prints and chevron add a ton of personality.  This room will have an eclectic feel and will be grounded with some black accents used throughout the room.  

Here's the rug that will be used in this room with the above fabrics...

Master Bathroom Update

This was a fun little project.  It's a amazing how just paint color, new lighting, and a window treatment can transform a space.  

Here's a BEFORE picture of a client's bathroom.  She wanted to add blue or green to her bathroom but it just wasn't working with the tile.  So she asked for my help.

Here's the AFTER picture.  I suggested we use a similar color in the tile for the walls.   This paint color created a more tranquil spa like feel for the bathroom.   We added crisp white towels, a decorative chandelier over the tub and a pretty window treatment with a touch of blue.  Artwork will be added to each side wall soon.

Here's another view of the window treatment and chandelier...

New organic towels from Pottery Barn are embroidered with the client's initial so they don't get mixed up...

My New Office

Basement renovations make for the best before and after shots because basements look awful to start with and mine is no exception.  Here's a BEFORE  picture of my stairwell.  Couldn't wait to get rid of the yellow linoleum flooring and rubber/metal threshold...yuck!

Here's an AFTER picture.  

Here's an embarrassing BEFORE picture of my basement.  Yes, it was the dumping ground for everything.  Basically what I couldn't see, didn't really bother me too much.  It's amazing how much you can accumulate in ten years!

 After a grueling weekend of clean up it was ready for Dave, my super contractor, to get to work...

Here's Dave in the midst of the a dusty mess.

He transformed the space into this...

Here's another BEFORE picture...

Here you can see we put up a wall to create two rooms in our basement.  One for my office and one for Reid's workshop.

Another BEFORE...

Here's the AFTER with a semi transparent door that leads to the workshop.  I didn't want my office to feel closed in so wanted the door to appear window-like.  

A BEFORE of the stair well...

And the AFTER.  A cabinet maker is installing shelving and doors for storage under the stairs.  The stair railing is going up soon too.

I'm going a bit nautical for the railing by using hemp rope, the type of rope used by boats for hundreds of years before the manmade ones replaced them.  Below you can also see a close up of the super durable sisal-like carpet I selected.

Dave's hard work is almost done and now mine begins.  We just moved everything into the office but still waiting on furniture to arrive.  What a crazy mess with fabric books and vendor samples everywhere.   I cannot to wait till it's all in it's place!

Here's the digital design board I put together for my office.  I decided to mix contemporary items with rustic ones.  I'm keeping everything simple so the fabrics and finishes stand out.  I'm most excited to get the tack boards on my wall so I can add all my inspiration pictures for client projects.  I'll share more pictures later.

Have a great weekend!