Outlet Shopping and a College Apt.

I went outlet shopping this weekend, looking for some miscellaneous items for photo shoots and a new rug for my daughter's college apartment.  She goes to school in the hill country area of Texas and the San Marcos outlet mall is a rather famous destination.  Shoppers from all over head there for some real deals.  One of the best stores there is the Pottery Barn Outlet, full of furniture and home goods from their stores, PB,  PB Kids, William Sonoma, and West Elm.  You can't go there with anything too particular in mind because you never know what you will find.  Crate and Barrel and Restoration Hardware are there too, but RH's goods always seem to be heavily damaged.  It sort of turns you off from the products there.  Crate and Barrel is more dishes, storage, and misc., not much furniture. 

I scooped up these items for some upcoming photo shoots.

There's always lots of great baskets.

A couple of French chairs for $299 ea.

Zebra printed cowhide rug for $399.

Cashmere throw for $79.  Tangerine Tango???  I had to really resist this one!

Then after digging through the stacks of rugs rolled up in the back, I found this one.

Perfect color and size from West Elm....for $150! 

It looks great in my daughter's apartment, filled with the furnishings from my Showhouse I did last April.  It was a mix of high and low, old and new, in some bright fun colors with a white envelope.  Click HERE for more about some of the specific items. I knew it would transfer well to my daughter so I designed it with her in mind.

The Ikea sofa and vintage coffee table were purchased for the apartment, the rest came from the Showhouse.  Doesn't the rug look great?  We're looking for a deal on a parson's style coffee table.  She gives her furniture lots of abuse so I'm looking for something very durable.  I'm thinking of having it made in laminate!

Her apartment, like most, is completely devoid of color and personality.  The rug really gives it some life.

She has some shelving built-in, but no room for a tv.  We did an Ikea tv stand, kind of matches the built-ins.  She has some of her art projects displayed.  The wicker chair was used on the balcony in my showhouse room.  I bought it at market in Dallas last year.

The desk is actually an old Ikea pine table that my son used in his college apt.  I had it painted and had a glass top cut so she could use it for a desk or a table if she wanted.

(Another art project on the desk!)

The table before.  It actually cost me more to paint it than the table was itself, but then it wouldn't have had the perfect color, would it?

She used the art I had for the Showhouse room all over her apartment.  The three vintage fashion ads in their Target frames look great there on the wall to the bedroom.  We amped up some storage in her little kitchen with a Target storage cart.  Gee that was tedious to put together. She did it all herself.



She was able to use the dresser and tackboard in the bedroom.

The bed and leaning mirror all worked in the bedroom.  A turquoise paint color on two walls would be great in here.  If she stays in the apt. next year, she might do it.  She would have to paint it back when she left.

We changed from the white duvet cover to a subtle pattern for this apartment.  It is easier for her to keep it looking nice.  She loves the bed!

The bed, furniture painting (I took the wood pieces to a professional finisher), and custom pillows were the "high" part of the project. Everything else was from Ikea, Target, outlet stores, flea markets and antique shops. Now if I can just see the rug when I go back to visit, underneath the clothes and art projects!


Linking to:

Simply Klassic Sundays

Metamorphosis Mondays at Between Naps on the Porch

Design Plan for Modern Bathroom

Although I'm doing a lot of bathrooms lately, they don't all look the same.  I practice client driven design and this project and the one in my previous post definitely show the wide range of styles on the boards right now.  (By the way, client driven design doesn't mean client dictates and I do exactly as they ask, it means that I try to achieve the end result that they desire whatever the style, with my methods, tools, and creativity.)

This fun bathroom is for a young couple who wanted something fresh and modern.  She wanted a rectangular tub and a spa-like ambience.  He wanted a bigger shower and they both wanted to update this tired space.  This project is about to start construction and it should be a dramatic change.

Here's the view of the bathroom from the master bedroom now.

This is her side.  She doesn't use a stool, so we'll be doing away with that feature.

His vanity and the adjacent small shower.  We'll be expanding it a bit and taking some space from his vanity area.

Yes, definitely ready for a remodel.



I decided to play up the rectangular shape and do a strie, 12 x 24 porcelain tile floor that goes up the walls with a band of glass and marble mosaic to get some interest and detail.  I like the banding up where you can see it with the modern sconces on top to really show it off.  Satin nickel cabinet pulls and plumbing fixtures add some gleam and more linear style.  Stained wood cabinets will add some warmth to the tiled space with the modern edge of a quartz countertop.  A little soft color will create a spa-like ambience.

Finish selections



We'll also be doing some new bedding in the master bedroom with a matelasse bed covering and pillows in that nice geometric from Kravet.  The Emerald Green slate from Thorntree in Houston will be the fireplace surround. Soft gray paint colors will continue the scheme from the bathroom.

I'm so happy to get this modern bathroom into my portfolio......in a couple of months!

Design Plan for a Bath Remodel

I'm working on several bathroom remodels currently, two have started construction just this past week.. I thought I'd share a peek at one of the designs.

CAD drawing above, we do those so that revisions are really fast and easy.  Well, I don't do them, my intern does them.  I don't know how and have no desire to learn.  I'm just glad these young designers know their way around this software!

Before

At first, the homeowner just wanted to paint the existing cabinets, build a higher one on the left, change out counter and backsplash and do something special with the mirror.  Well, you know how projects have a way of growing! I encouraged them to take out the furr down and do a larger mirror to go up to their 10 ft. ceilings.   As you can see, the mirror reflects a lot of light into the bathroom..  They wanted to keep a large mirror too, so if you're going to go big, you should really go oversized!

The homeowner was really tired of painted cabinets and decided to go with stained wood.  While I love a painted cabinet, I do think the contrast will be very rich in this bathroom.  We will pick up the color of the wood floors in the master bedroom to use on the cabinets.

Master bathrooms should always blend well with the adjacent master bedroom.  The homeowner has dark wood furniture in the bedroom and a beautiful yellow/gold color on the walls in there that they love.  That was the jumping off point for the finish selections for the bathroom.

We selected new bedding for their dark framed wood bed.  That colorful floral linen is from Kravet and will cover three 24" sq. down pillows on the bed.  They'll be piped with that dark purple velvet from Brentano.   We'll also do a small acent pillow in the velvet.  The gold matelasse will be the plain base on the duvet cover. 

This seagrass rug will be under the dark wood frame bed.

Bathroom finishes - the flooring is Zin limestone 18 x 18 tiles from MCA Systems in a brushed finish, laid on the diagonal.  It feels fabulous on your bare feet and has such interesting fossils and shells imbedded in it.  We'll do it in the polished finish in slabs for the counters, then add some detail with an onyx and glass mosaic backsplash that will travel all the way around the gold finished mirror frame. That gold finish is just a sample of a technique, the color will be tweaked to fit our scheme on top of a more curvy moulding.

The shower area will be remodeled to take the tile to the ceiling with a rainshower head. 

We're adding crown moulding so we're dropping the ceiling 6" at the shower for the crown to run in front of the wet enclosure.

Before  - Tub

Here's what I'm hoping will happen with the tub.  They were going to keep the tub when we started and change out the surround to tile.  Again, projects have a tendency to grow!  They're thinking about this freestanding option.  I'm kind of liking a big wood framed mirror on this wall to reflect the light and add some of the dark wood element to this side of the bathroom. 

 I love freestanding tubs and I think this one would be beautiful there.

Should be all finished in about 6 to 8 weeks.  Check back to see how it turns out!

How Do You Hang Your Art?

Randomly? 

Elle Decor

Gwynn Griffith - Elle Decor

Tom Scheerer - Elle Decor

Richard Lambertson, John Truex - Architectural Digest

William F. Rawley - Elle Decor

More of a casual, eclectic, collected kind of vibe.  Add one at any time.  Take one away and only you would miss it. It's definitely about the collection.  You're saying that you like this subject matter or color or artist or whatever so much that you've bought it over and over again in many sizes, shapes, forms.  Almost as research..... or obsession?  Definitely passion.  It says something about YOU. That is what your interiors should do by the way.



Or do you prefer your art all in a row?

Jay and Yvonne Fielden - Elle Decor

Phoebe Howard

Dransfield and Ross - Elle Decor

Jacqueline Derry Segura - House Beautiful

Elaine Griffin - Elle Decor



Barry Dixon - Traditional Home



More formal, more controlled, more purposeful.  You've thought very hard about the overall look rather than the individual pieces.  Take one away and and the rest are nothing.  It's really kind of about the grid or mass the collection creates on the wall rather than the individual pieces of art.

The wonderful thing about design is that there are very, very few rules. (Don't let anyone tell you the opposite!)  It all depends on the look you want to create! 

And that's where the fun lies.

Pick Something

Some of the most successful interiors are developed by selecting one major element in a space and making it the star.  Everything else in the room plays a supporting role, remaining visually quiet. Like a choir with a soloist, a cast of actors in a movie with it's lead character, or a ballet troupe with a prima ballerina, not everyone or everything can shine all at once.  The more quiet the supporting parts, the more dramatic the outcome will be.

Ceiling - no showstopping, sculptural furnishings or colorful fabrics here....just that amazing ceiling.

Color - so rich you want to just wrap yourself up in it.

Pattern - the bed is almost non-existent, everything else plain.

Art - so dramatic, nothing else competes.

Vessel sink - with support from vanity top and walls.

Wall finish - the banquette is so neutral and unassuming by comparison.

Marble - details and cabinetry are all so simple.

Wallpaper - nothing else pretends to compete.

Sometimes it's best not to overwork everything in a space.  Let one thing stand alone and appreciate the plain-ness of the rest.

Image credits:  Robin Bell - House Beautiful, Eric Lysdahl - House Beautiful, Windsor Smith - House Beautiful, Alberto Pinto - Architectural Digest, Carla Aston - Aston Design Studio, Alessandra Branca - Southern Accents, David Kleinberg - Architectural Digest, Amanda Nesbit - House Beautiful

A Little Brass In The Kitchen

Architectural Digest  - Genevieve Faure

I'm loving a bit of brass in interiors these days.  It had such a bad turn for awhile there.  We're seeing it more and more and I love the warmth it brings to a space.  

Carole Lalli - House Beautiful

Mark Badgley - Elle Decor

Nancy Bozhardt - House Beautiful

Aerin Lauder-Zinterhofer - Elle Decor

Susan Dossetter - House Beautiful



So what do you think?  Would you do some brass in your kitchen?