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!

Guest Blogger on Summery Living Rooms

Check out my first guest blogger for Pretty Inspirational.  Joanna has picked out some great summery rooms for you to enjoy. We would love to hear which room is your favorite by adding a comment at the end! 

Greetings! I'm Joanna, an interior design writer with Arcadian Lighting, a terrific source for lighting fixtures of every style and finish. I adore my job, especially when I get to research and write on topics such as summery living rooms. Daily, I spend my time collecting the most beautiful interior design ideas and images from around the web. I then get to share them with blog readers like you. I hope you enjoy today's topic! Be sure to let us know which of the following spaces is your favorite.

Rosy reds and pinks adorn this traditional living room beautifully. The lemon-lime hues on the walls add to its summery glow.

Brilliant shades of greens, pinks, oranges and yellows decorate a contemporary living room. The artwork on the far wall acts as a focal point, bringing the room's elements together.

I adore this cheery pink and white living room, it has summer written all over it! The wall color is especially pleasing. I can definitely picture a lovely crystal lighting fixture hanging down from the tall ceiling.

Nothing says summer quite like pure white slip-covered furnishings and this living room certainly gets it right. The pillows in vintage fabrics are a pretty touch and bring summerís colors indoors.

A hot pink wicker sofa gives a summery feel to this color-filled living space. The sofa is a bit more relaxed then the room's other furnishings creating an eclectic decor.

There's no denying yellow is the it color of summer and this living room is a perfect example of how the hue brightens a room even in its palest shade.

This living space is so exciting with its boldly hued rug, pillows and accessories. I would adore living here, wouldn't you?

More yellow adorns another living room in its brilliantly-colored artwork and accessories. There is a very interesting light fixture peeking in from the left corner. Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 I hope you found these living rooms inspiring and found a lighting solution for your own home! Let us know in the comments! And be sure to stop by Arcadian Lighting for the perfect lighting fixture for your home†here!

Fifty Shades of Grey For Your Home

Is Fifty Shades of Grey a racy romance novel or design book?  Who can tell by the title?  Actually the spelling of "grey" in the US may be a clue since we tend to spell the color "gray" but in Great Britain, it's more common to spell it "grey".  Whether you like, love, dislike or ambivalent about the controversial books, now is the time to consider bringing some "shades of grey" into your home.

The color gray has been a trend for several years now.  Beige walls like these...

are being replaced with grey walls like these...

 

 Instead of opting for white kitchen cabinets like these...




Some are choosing grey stained cabinets like these...

Or, dark grey cabinets like these...

Why gray?  It's sophisticated, classic, refined, dignified, authoritative, elegant, cool, futuristic.  But some would say it's unsettling, depressing and probably a sign of our financial times.  Others feel it's the color of intellect, knowledge, power, wisdom and victory.  Whatever you think, the color grey is going to be around a while so why not embrace it...

What exactly is the color gray?  Basically, it's a series of colors ranging between black and white.  We made gray by mixing black and white together in grade school.  Some would argue it's not a color at all.  Probably true if you strictly mixing black and white together but most greys in your home have another color added to it.

There are different types of grays such as green-grays, blue-grays, true gray, etc.  Basically each color can have black and white, or gray,  added to it.   Any color that has been "grayed" is called a tone.  It's probably not proper color theory language, but for my paint consultations, you'll often hear me say "this is a toned blue or toned green".  If you don't want a minty looking green on your walls, then add some gray.  If you don't want a cold looking blue on the walls, add either orange or gray (adding a color's compliment on the color wheel (orange is blue's compliment) does the same thing as adding grey).  Basically, gray can solve lots of color issues.

This Munsell diagram below shows how the pure hues change as more grey is added the closer you get to the core.

Grey can also be either cool or warm.  Add some blue and you have a cool grey like the dining room below.  Dark wood tones and blues are common in cool gray rooms.

Add some yellow and you have a warm grey like the dining room below.   Notice they paired yellow dining chairs and table with the warmer grey.

I'm sure many women are dreaming of having Christian "Grey" in their home.  But since we can't have that "Grey" would you consider doing the other "Gray" in your home?