Charish Style Challenge: Balance is Key

Hi friends!  Ever heard of the company Chairish?  They are an online store that sells vintage furniture, decor, jewelry and other accessories.  I came across their website a while back and found myself sucked into the virtual vortex of beautiful objects.  So when they contacted me about participating in their "Style Challenge" I was absolutely up for the game!

I love mixing furnishings of different styles and time periods. And Chairish is the perfect source to create an eclectic curated look.  I put together a style board for a Cool Eclectic Blue Bedroom.  All the items I've selected are from the Chairish website except the Anthropology bedding, and West Elm curtains. The key to combining all the beautiful unique pieces you might find at Chairish is balance...

(1) Corbeille Cane Bed, (2) Labyrinth Embroidered Duvet, (3) Claude Medallion Flocked Curtains, (4) Spanish Revival Gothic Double Pendant, (5) Teal & Green Pottery Vase, (6) Danish Teak Nightstands, (6) Persian Overdyed Rug, (8) Rocking Chaise Lounge, (9) Vintage Blue & White Garden Stool, (10) Brass Giraffes, (11) Vintage French Glass Box, (12) Bamboo Campaign Chest, (13) Gilt Wood Mirror, (14) Regina Andrew Aqua Lamp

This design was inspired by the beautiful blue Persian Overdyed Rug. I just love the texture and intensity of it, while still feeling tranquil and calm.  To tone down and balance the intensity, I brought in some more traditional pieces in lighter colors, like the Corbeille Cane Bed and the Faux Bamboo Campaign Chest.  Next I mixed in a more contemporary mid-century modern Adrian Pearshall Rocking Chaise Lounge.  To balance that out, the Danish Teak Nightstands which would be located across the room are also a mid-century style and have similar wood tone to the rocker's legs. then I found a Spanish Revival Gothic Double Pendant that I absolutely love and had to use. Something about a draping chain pendant gets me every time.  Even though it is a completely different style from anything else, by balancing it with other gold items, like the Gilt Wood Mirror, it doesn't seem out of place. The curve of the top of the mirror even echos the line of the headboard! The remaining accessories carry the colors of the rug throughout the design.

So remember balance and don't be afraid to mix that awesome mid-century chair you found with an ornate table!

A Mid-century Remodel in Aqua

Hi ya'll!  Today I wanted to share with you a project we've been working on at my office.  This awesome mid-century house is currently under construction.  It's getting a brand new open kitchen, a reinvented master bath, and glistening new tile in beachy shades of aqua and white in every bathroom. Here are some of the samples we were considering as it all came together...

The tile, stone slabs, and wood flooring are almost completely installed, so hopefully I'll get to share finished photos with you soon.  But for now, here are some of the drawings I did as well as some photos of the project underway.

Kitchen Elevations and Inspiration Images

New Kitchen Cabinets!

One of the Guest Bathrooms

Tiled wall before grout in the Guest Bath

A Hall Closet gets new built-in cabinetry

Powder Bath gets some pretty aqua tile also!

More to come soon!

Final Residential Design Boards

Woo Hoo!  The last class of the semester was last Thursday so I'm a free woman now! I absolutely love school, but after obsessing over a project for 12 weeks, I'm exhausted and ready for a break.  Hopefully I'll learn to better balance things when I'm actually working in the field. :/   We'll see.

I spent a week or so before finding the final pillow and drapery trims, working on renderings of each spaces, putting together digital boards, and mounting fabric samples. Last Thursday we had to do our final presentation of our projects, which went really well. We had a really talented class and it was so interesting to see everyone's final product.  

Here are some photos of my labor of love...

And yippy skippy, my project got chosen for the hall of fame! There should be photos up of my boards along with two other projects from my class up on our school's Facebook page at some point.

Pillow Trim and Pink Chairs

Hi ya'll. Sorry for my absence. Don't really have an excuse, but here I am getting back into it (blogging I mean).  Isn't life just like that sometimes?  Sometimes you're on fire, other times you're not.  So it goes.

Anyway, I've been telling myself to get back up to speed on blogging, so a month ago... hahaha... yes, a month ago... I went to Joann's to try to find some fabric for a little project I wanted to do and share on the blog. And to my surprise, the location was closing!  Everything was 75% off, but they were only selling fabric by the bolts and I didn't want to purchase that much.  So I didn't end up getting anything for that project, BUT I found something else exciting...

A plethora of pretty trim. I picked up a bunch that works with my mom's living room fabric, which we plan on using to make pillows.  You may remember, I shared our plan for the room here.  Well, I've updated the design board...

The scheme is the same, but after all the searching for the right chaise fabric, we still are leaning toward a small blue and white stripe.  My mom wants something a little more formal than a typical ticking stripe, perhaps with a sheen to it, so we're still on the hunt. And I'm still scouring craigslist for peach/pink chairs.  I found this one, which certainly works, color-wise, but it isn't quite as saturated as we would like. If it had been comfortable, I definitely would have grabbed it, but alas... it was not. :(

Although I'm not sure if I'm up for reupholstering a chair myself, I looked through some peachy-pink fabric at work the other day...

Aren't they lovely!

Next up we'll start discussing a new fire place mantel, which I think will really have an impact on the space.  Can't wait to share more as we go along!

Mom's TV Room - Part 2 {How we kept it Under $500}

Today I'm going to give you a break down of what we did in Mom's TV Room and how much each thing cost to create this lovely budget-friendly space.  While this cost break down will give you creative DIYers an idea of what you can do on a budget, it excludes the cost of the design services which brought ideas and items together and as well as the labor it took to get it done (since we did it ourselves).

We started off by doing some major organizing which I talked about here.  In order to get everything organized into the closet, I found a filing cabinet on craigslist for $60.  Craigslist is one of the first places I look when I'm on a budget.

Next, we painted the room.  We chose the color "Toasted Wheat" by Behr as a neutral backdrop that would make the space feel warm and cozy and coordinate with mom's rug.  2 gallons - $60

When we brought furniture back in the room, we utilized some of mom's existing furniture from other rooms.  Shopping your house is a great way to stay under budget, so keep an open mind when looking at the items in your house. They may find a new use you never thought of before!  The mirror and Asian cabinet were the perfect pieces to fit where the bookcase used to be and the mirror brightens up the room by reflecting light into the space.  Mom's furniture - Free

Then we brought in an Ikea Ektorp sofa that I found on craigslist for $120.  Since a lot of Ikea stuff has been available for quite a while, it seems that you can often find items like this from people who have moved or upgraded and are making changes.  Simply search craigslist for the Ikea name of the piece you're looking for. (This is also how I found Dad's rug which I showed you here.)

Next we brought a bunch of mom's art collection into the room to create a gallery wall. We determined a layout on the floor and then used paper cut to the size of the frames to locate their position on the wall.  Gallery wall - Free

I picked up two throw pillows for the sofa from a local fabric store ($75)...

...and white Ikea tab top curtain panels (LENDA), which we customized with a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. Since we couldn't find any ready made curtains that we wanted and custom drapes are quite expensive, this was the perfect way to get the look we wanted for less.  Read more about that project here.  Curtains $20; Stencil $40; Paint, fabric medium, and foam rollers - $13; Total = $73.  Drapery rod (Target) - $10.

Mom bought these lamps from JCPenney online for $90 (which are now look to be on sale for $70).  Great deal right!  They seem to have quite a nice lighting selection. I discovered this when I bought my bedroom lamps there a while back.

Finally, for Christmas I made my mom the ever-so-popular Ikea Lack Side Table ottomans to work as a coffee table and a place to put your feet up.
     2 Lack Side Tables - $16 ($8 each)
     2 yards (I think) Ikea Sofia Fabric - $16
     Foam Camping Pad (Home Depot) - $20
     Batting - $10
     Total = $62

That finishing touch pulled the room together to what it is today...

So how does that tally up?

We completed the whole room for under $500!

If you haven't already, check out the rest of the photos from yesterday's post.

Mom's TV Room

Today's the day, guys (or mostly gals actually)! As promised (here and here) I'm finally going to show you mom's TV room that I designed.   The goal was to create a comfortable, organized, and, of course, pretty space on a budget for mom to watch TV, go through mail, fold laundry, play with kitties, and generally hang out. A lot of living happens in here! So I wanted to give her a place she could really enjoy. And the project was a success!

Two of my most popular posts were a result of this project: the Lack Side Tables Turned Ottomans and Organizing Mom's Den.  But that's not all that went into this space.  Here it is before the transformation...

This is actually part way through the organization process because I'm super bad about taking before photos. I just get so excited I start doing stuff before snapping a pic!  And there's my beautiful mother. She's the best!  Anyway... as you can see, the old sofa was way to big for the room, paint color was off, and some serious organization was needed.  Tomorrow I'll tell you more about what went into designing this space. But for now... pictures!

Dad Decor {Quick Bedroom Makeover}

Hope everyone logged in some good dad time yesterday on Fathers Day. Or at least got to have a nice chat with the father figure. I'm so blessed to have an awesome dad who's armed with an arsenal of nick names, ran 7 miles of my first marathon with me (after completing TONS of his own), sings his own lyrics to rap songs, helped me purchase my first car, and continues to be amazingly supportive of my life goals with just the right amount of goofy (which in my opinion is VERY).  I got to spend a nice weekend with him and my mom relaxing, eating, and doing a little design work!  I helped give his bedroom a quick little makeover.

We've still got a few more changes to make (like curtains and a night stand) for the room to be complete, but I thought I'd show you the quick transformation.  Here it is before...

We simply got this Ikea rug (off craigslist) and these Ikea wall lamps and did some minor rearranging.  I also got him yellow pillow cases from West Elm that have since been discontinued.  I love how the pillows and yellow rug bring out the yellow in his painting.

Chester obviously likes it! Although I think he was always happy with his spot on the bed.  We plan on getting some white drapes and probably changing out the drapery hardware.  And I'd love to find or DIY a wood slice table like the one below to use as a nightstand instead of the chair.

Source: Etsy

But for now, Dad's happy with the improvement.

Mom's Living Room Design Begins!

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend and a happy memorial day!  I went up to my mom's this weekend and she's pretty awesome so I definitely did.  Not only did I go for a nice visit, but I also went so that we could look at fabrics for her living room that I'm designing.  I mentioned her vintage fabric way back when that has become the inspiration for the color palate.

She had custom drapes out of this fabric about 20 years ago and we haven't seen it in probably 13 years since we moved into her current house.  So she was ecstatic when she discovered she still had and loved the fabric!  

We've been talking about what she wanted in the living room for quite a while and the ideas keep changing (remember the red idea), so I got fired up when she seemed more firm on this idea.  I started gathering ideas on a Pinterest board and created this mood board...

She currently has a lot of warm colors in the living room, so I wanted to balance this warmth out with blue drapes and also coordinate with the blue in her art, crystal, and teacup collections.  Unfortunately for the pocketbook, she has a lot of windows, which means a lot of fabric, and a lot of $$$$ for custom draperies!  I scoured the internet for affordable blue patterened drapes for a while without much success until just recently. You can imagine my excitement when I checked out Ikea again (the best deal for drapes) and found these!

EMMIE KVIST

And even more excited when Mom confirmed that she really liked them.  So while I was up visiting I put them up for her and then we searched for the right fabric to reupholster her settee. Here's a little peek of the room and some possible fabrics.  

The left fabric is the drapery, the right will be pillows, and the two middle area possibilities for the settee.  There are actually two settees at the moment, but only one will be recovered. The other will be replaced by two chairs, so I'm on the hunt for some pretty and hopefully inexpensive warm pink/peach chairs.  We also did decide that we'll repaint a neutral beige color pulled out of the floral fabric.  We have a ways to go, but its actually begun, and I'm really excited about it! I think its really going to be lovely once we're done.  So I'll have updates for you as we move along.

I also meant to photograph her TV room, which I designed, but forgot my camera.  Oopsies!  I'll have pictures of that after my next visit so stay tuned.  For now, here's a teaser you've seen before.  ;)