Thursday, May 31, 2012

Stretching your dollar--before and after!

One of my close friends asked us to help create a special space for her daughter who also happens to be one of my daughter's closest friends.  It was important that we use as much of the existing furniture, bedding, and window coverings as our budget was limited.  We hoped to be able to stay within a budget of $500, and here are our before pics:
It's sort of difficult to see, because as I've shared before, my pictures are always awful, but the bed was pushed to the back right corner of the room,the desk was on the diagonal in the other corner and the tabbed panel curtains were not correctly sized.
The Pottery Barn comforter was a Christmas gift for the teen owner of this bedroom and she loves the vibrant paisley swatches on the black and grey background.
Mom checking her list

So we began the planning process and the shopping process.  We had to plan carefully and shop smart in order to stay reasonably within our $500 budget.  After many days of sketching, searching, shopping and painting, we were able to make our sweet girl's new room a reality, please take a look then we will go thru the elements and see how close to budget we came.

We lucked into a couple of wonderful finds on craigslist--the green velvet desk chair we used to replace the old blue one, and the iron piece we used above the platform bed.  I love to -scan craigslist for treasures and was certainly lucky to get both pieces for $75.  We painted the iron piece and used the green velvet chair in its original condition, adorned by a simple oblong floral accent pillow with a price tag of $30.

We had a couple of shams custom made, white linen with green banding, we re-upped the client's body pillow at a cost of $129.  The forms are all feather-filled--a little more expensive but very important in terms of the richness of the look you are trying to achieve!

We removed the curtain panels and had a seamstress band the bottoms of the panels with white, repeating our bed treatment and our apple green primary accent color. The extra fabric made our curtain panels the correct size to cover the floor to ceiling space.  We replaced the rod, choosing a black cafe rod and hung it close to the ceiling.  The seamstress charged us $40, the new rod was $18.

Lamps and wall hangings, really cool black and white photography with a glossy finish, came to about $200, so yes, I busted the budget.  Oh yes, and a rug.  We ordinarily would not do rug on carpet, but my clients really do not like the carpet and replacing it is not an option, so we did a 5x7 to provide as much coverage as possible.  I think it was a success. We got a lot of change for not a lot of change!  Get it, change, change?  The girll who sleeps in this room deserves my best effort, she is an angel and I hope she lives well in this space!






Monday, May 28, 2012

Upholstered Headboards

Mom and I have enjoyed using upholstered headboards for the past few years, they are so pretty, can be created in virtually any style (we have an upholstered who can do ANYTHING!), can be covered in any fabric, and they are comfy when you lean up against them!  Another plus, is depending on the cost of the fabric and the complexity of the design, they can be very easy on the budget.  Here are a couple of my favorites that we have recently created for clients
Shallow tufted velvet in charcoal
Add shams
Add Flambeau, a tween room in progress!
This beauty is a little more detailed--our upholsterer is a genius and we were able to simply draw what we wanted the finished product to look like, a clean, modern design made extra sleek by the houndstooth fabric in sky blue



Friday, May 25, 2012

Safari Room Elements


Adding personal touches to children's rooms makes them extra special!  We used a super cool Fathead of this beautiful boy, along with a personalized Jeep CJ7 door.  We found the door in salvage and had signage created at a local sign shop!

Pic of Door Before Signage





One of my favorite projects in the past few months was a Safari themed boy's room!  We used all of the above along with the homeowner's existing furniture to create a super space with some serious game! 

Easy on the Eyes

A plan and a grid add order and continuity to a gallery wall.  Using one color for frames and mattes is also very helpful!!

A cool, gray color plan with a small infusion of yellow-green makes for a great teen retreat.  Clean, cool and edited replaces the hot pink boa of the tween years!


I really don't know how to blog, please don't judge

We added a little bling to some crazy styrofoam skulls to use in an Extreme Sports Boys' Room, but how cool would they be for Halloween decor??
 

I really have no idea what I'm doing, I have lots of technical difficulties and if you have looked at any of my pics, it's obvious I can't take good ones.  Just bear with me, I might get better, or I might not, but still bear with me.

More Christmas in the Summer!

The King
And one tired sock monkey

a little Christmas in May!!

All Santa's helpers showed up to deck the halls!  The homeowner wanted a small tree for the baby in the kitchen!  How fun and festive!!
We added the children's names in gold wooden letters to the 12-foot tree in the entryway
Charming vintage Saint Nick ornament adds holiday interest and nostalgia to the buffet in the formal dining room.
So much going on in her head!  We brought the garden statuary into the breakfast room and added only what we had in our yard!!  Magnolia, holly, and beautiful red berries made a gorgeous holiday arrangement,  Inexpensive and long-lasting!
Vintage Tartan plaid runner and Lenox holiday china, combined with seasonal greenery (again only what was in our yard), traditional red and green ornaments and velvet ribbon creates a beautiful holiday table, ready for Christmas dinner!
I love to showcase the girls' Christmas cookie creations!
 

Playing Catch-up!


T
Trash to treasure!  Legs not so lovely?  Skirt it to the floor!  OR Show a little leg!


Thursday, May 24, 2012

How do people find time to blog?  I can barely keep up, here are some random pictures from the last several months of design, decorating, and dreaming in color!!