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Monday, January 26, 2015

My Home Tour {Updated}

It seems my home decor never really stays the same.  I am constantly rearranging my decor within my house -- room to room.  But I had to finally update my HOME TOUR here on my blog because it seemed SO outdated.

Since my last home tour pictures, we have added a back splash in our kitchen.  New pillows were changed out on the living room sofa.  I finally got around to decorating the guest bedroom.  A fun little gallery wall was added to our master bathroom.  And some new decor here and there.


so go check it out!!  




Friday, January 23, 2015

Designing an Entire House-Part 2 {Client Design}

Yesterday I talked about my design process of designing an entire home during new construction.  For additional spaces the clients wanted me to design but they wanted to tackle the shopping and installation themselves, I created similar Design Boards with a specific shopping list for them to easily create my proposed designs.


When it comes to hiring an Interior Designer, even though I work really hard to give my client's a high end design at an affordable price tag, it can get pricey.  Especially when you are trying to do everything at once.  My suggestion would be to work through the house one room at a time.  It is a little less stressful, for everyone.  A little easier on the wallet,  But will take a little more time to get to a completely decorated home that you can enjoy.

But if you really don't have the time to work through the house at a slower pace, and are ready to finish the house right away, there is another option.  For those that are willing to put in a little time and decorate the rooms themselves, we can work together on an E-Design.  Working through e-mail.  Whether you are down the street from me or across the country, I can offer you an E-Design.

Here are a few examples of how I completed some designs my clients could then take and create themselves!

The main pieces for this Dining Room were purchased with my help -- table, chairs, and curtains.  But with accessories not top priority right this minute, I held off on purchasing those items for my client.  Instead, I gave them a Design Board with options and ideas of what I thought they should purchase to complete the Dining Room and Kitchen.  


Each Design Board also comes with a specified "shopping list" of all of the items I show and where they can purchased.


I like to give people options when it comes to purchasing larger items such as these bar stools.  I love these upholstered bar stools.  But I know they can be a scary purchase because most people are usually worried about food stains in the kitchen.  I get it.  I understand.  I have all wood bar stools for the same reason.  So I included an all wood option as well that I love just as much!



A lot of people don't think of putting a rug under their dining room table.  Me, on the other hand, could put a rug under everything!!  I love rugs!  So I had to give them a few rug options as well.  Did you see the prices on these?!?  That's a steal!  If there are chances of future food stains, don't spend an arm and a leg on the rug.  This way, if you decide to switch out the rug in 2-3 years, you won't feel so bad.


I can't assume people are in my head and know what I am thinking if I just show them a shelf and a wine rack.  So I like to take the guess work out of it and help them visualize exactly how I would hang the four items together.


I love this new trend of creating the word "EAT" in your kitchen.  When I saw these huge galvanized metal letters at Hobby Lobby, I thought they would look awesome in this open wall space in their kitchen.  I don't think design has to be so serious.  People tend to over think it.  Have some fun with it!



Some simple additions to the entry way.  It is not a very big space, so no room for an entry way table, but a mirror will bring more light into the space and give you a place for a quick make-up check before heading out the door.  The yellow rug is a fun pop of color to coordinate with the yellow accents in the living room.



We chose to paint the Guest Bedroom the same Dutch Tile Blue as the Master Bathroom.  It is too beautiful of a color to just use in one room!  The homeowner loved some of the blue and coral combinations she was seeing on Pinterest so we went with that color scheme.  I fell in love with this muted coral duvet cover from West Elm (and thankfully, so did she), so the room was created around that.  How perfect is this wood slatted artwork for a guest bedroom?!?


Bathrooms are pretty easy to decorate because they don't need a lot.  Shower curtain, a couple of cute hand towels, one or two small pieces of artwork for the wall, and some greenery to bring a little life into the space.  I found the minty colored prints with gray frames at Hobby Lobby for under $10 each.  I loved them so much, I went ahead and bought 3 of the same prints for them and just hung them all together. 3 prints will definitely make a bigger impact than just one.



Sometimes the best way to coordinate bath items is to buy them all from the same place (Target here) and lay it all together in the store to make sure it matches!!  :)




I never think you have to buy every single specific piece I suggest in these Design Boards of an E-Design.  Of course there are other items out there that would look just as great.  But for those who don't want to spend extra time shopping around, I would rather just give them as much detail as possible ahead of time to complete the room. 

Like me, most people are very visual when it comes to decorating their home.  It is much easier for me to translate my design ideas with these Design Boards and with pictures of similar items in real homes.  Thanks to Pinterst and Houzz, this makes it a lot easier for me to show my clients my ideas. 

This is a great way to work within your budget when hiring me as an Interior Designer.  If you are handy enough and have the time to do the labor yourself, I can easily take on the creative and design side for you, giving you all the direction you need to create a beautiful space.  



Thursday, January 22, 2015

Designing an Entire House {Client Design}



It's a challenge for most to take on one room to design and decorate at a time, let alone an entire house all at once!  But when you decide to go the route of new construction, trying to design the entire home all at once will with out a doubt, become overwhelming!

So, when a good friend came to me about designing her brand new home, I was so excited to help.  Not only do I love to design spaces that are blank slates because I can basically do anything with the room, but with this being a new construction home, I could really get in on the decision making process of the home early!  A designer's dream!

I first showed you a sneak peek of this space back in October in this High or Low Post.  The design of the living room hasn't changed much, but we have come a long way since then.  The house is completed and I am sharing my design process with you before I show the completed spaces.

Once the layout of the house was decided and the basics were taken care of to get the building process going, the first thing I thought about were the paint colors of the home.


Now, usually I pick out a fabric or shower curtain or something to match the paint colors to, but in new construction, they usually need paint colors chosen quite quickly.  Before I have time to pull together color boards and design boards for the home.  So I chose four paint colors that work together to create a cohesive look throughout the home.

I usually use Sherwin Williams paints.  They are great colors, great quality, and the paint decks are easy to work with knowing you can choose a color and then go darker or lighter on the paint strip to get the perfect paint shade.

These are the four colors I chose for their home.

I use Amazing Gray over and over in client's homes.  And it always looks great in everyone's home.  It is the perfect shade of greige!  Most people are choosing dark hardwood floors these days, like this client, but still want to work in grays throughout the home in decor.  This color is a great balance of gray with warm tones that work really well with browns as well.

Without going crazy and picking too many different colors for each room, I chose some additional colors that would work well for both bedrooms and bathrooms.

You can see that I chose to use the Amazing Gray in all of the main or common areas.  The Comfort Gray is a shade darker than one of my favorite colors Sea Salt, which I have used in my home.  It has a slight blue/green undertone to it with some gray undertones.  Dutch Tile Blue was a new color for me, but I loved the warm blue color and not so bright tones of it.  Dovetail is a great darker gray that is still warm with some brown undertones.  If you are looking to go dark gray but afraid of it getting too dark, Dovetail is a great balance to keep the space warm and not too dark.

From there, I started putting together Design Boards for my client.  I always do this first for my clients before I buy anything, so they get a sense of what I have in mind for their space and so I know they like and are ready to commit to my designs.



When purchasing large pieces of furniture, I like to start a design board with a Furniture Layout and Space Planning.  This gives me an idea of what items I will need to buy (sofa, accent chair, console table, rug, floor lamp,etc.) and how they will fit in the space.

From there, I put together specific Design Boards for each area of the home.  This is really the most time consuming part of my design process because I am doing all of the pre-shopping.  I am searching all of my sources for specific pieces I want to use in the home.  Once I know the client likes the direction of my design, I can start shopping for each specific piece.

First up is the Living Room.   This is usually the most important room of the house.  The room that gets used the most often, so it was on top of our priority list.


Overall, the space is fairly neutral even though it looks like there is a lot of color in this Design Board.  But most of the color comes from the accent pieces.

I knew the new sofa we chose came with standard pillows, so it was just about finding new pillow covers for the existing pillows.  Etsy is a great place to search hundreds of fabrics for pillow covers that can be ordered in any size.




Part of the way to create a really special area in your home with memories is to create a gallery wall.  And I knew they would have the perfect wall in their new home for something like this.  I also knew this was something my client really wanted in the home, so I made sure to pay special attention to this area and really try to show them what it would look like in the end.


A lot of people wait to decorate the Master Bedroom until last, but I think it really needs to be a space that is also on the top of your priority list.  You need a nice place to lay your head and relax every night!


The client requested a darker gray on the walls, so I chose the Dovetail gray.  And relaxing colors for the rest of the room, maybe with blue.  The room all came together once I found this gorgeous, Pottery Barn look-a-like Duvet Cover from Home Goods with the perfect shade of blue.


A peek into the Master Bedroom as progress was happening.

If you have an adjoining bathroom to any bedroom, I think it is really important to keep the color scheme the same in both rooms.  In the Master Bathroom I chose to use a coordinating blue on the walls with gray and cream/white accents, where in the Master Bedroom I just did the opposite and chose the gray on the walls and the blue as the accent.  This way, each room is different, but has the exact same color palette.


Since, these three areas were really the most important to the homeowner's, these were the rooms where I put most of my focus.  I was able to create these Design Boards for them as the house was being completed.  Shop, order, and organize installation of materials the week of the final walk thru.  And completely decorate the rooms without the homeowner having to lift a finger.  It is nice to know the stress of building a home doesn't have to carry into the stress of then decorating that home, as I took care of that.

I also created similar Design Boards with specific shopping lists for all of the other rooms in the home, but left it up to them to purchase the items and decorate the rooms, with help and direction from me.

This is a great way to work within your budget when hiring me as an Interior Designer.  If you are handy enough and have the time to do the labor yourself, I can easily take on the creative and design side for you, giving you all the direction you need to create a beautiful space.  

Tomorrow, I will be showing you the remainder of the design boards for this home and will have all of the photos of the finished rooms (hopefully) next week!!


Friday, January 16, 2015

Personal Shopper {Trend Spotting}

Today -- let me be your personal shopper!  If you haven't been out home decor shopping this month, then you haven't seen all of the new items hitting the shelves for Spring!  I see bright colors, flowers, gold details, and neutral textures in our near future for Spring.

Sometimes, when I feel stuck creatively in a project, the best thing for me to do to get inspiration is to just go shopping.  And that is what I did this week.  With SO many different projects going on right now, I had to just get out there and see, in person, what my favorite stores have available for Spring.



I don't know what I would do without Nate Berkus and Threshold items at Target!  If you are debating about whether or not something from Target will look good in your home and it is either the Nate Berkus or Threshold line, chances are, it will.  So just buy it!!  Their home decor is that good.

Here are some of my TOP FAVORITES right now!

I am noticing a lot of PEACH colored items from Nate Berkus.  Neutrals are still very hot and trendy and will always fit your home decor for years to come.  And navy is still really popular right now as well.

I am really happy to see Target step outside the box and offer some amazing items such as these fringed wall hangings!  




I think I first fell in love with this style of tapestry hanging on the wall after watching Genevieve Gorder on HGTV.  If you know Gen, then you know she loves her Moroccan Wedding Blankets.  She used one here, in this design.

"Soaring Living & Dining Space" by Genevieve Gorder via HGTV

This style tapestry from Target is very similar.  It comes in two different sizes and styles.  The larger of the two is shown below in a space designed by another one of my favorites -- Emily Henderson.


I know this style isn't for everyone -- but I think they are really cute!  I could imagine this in a sweet little nursery (boy or girl) or above a headboard in a bedroom as a focal point.

I love everything Emily did with this space using some of my new favorite Target pieces.



You can see the entire room design on Emily Henderson's blog here.

I think I could go on...and on...and on...about all the new items I love at Target.  But instead, just go here and see all the new home decor for yourself.  Don't forget to shop on store's websites too.  Because sometimes, they have "online only" items that are even better than what you can find in the store.

My next favorite place to shop for more unique, worldly items is Cost Plus World Market.  And here are some things I am crushing on at the moment.

I can't get enough of this mirror from World Market.  I saw it from a distance as I was shopping and I was like a deer in headlights!  I immediately made a b-line towards it to get a closer look.



It has that soft, raw wood look that World Market does so well with so many of their items.  It just has such gorgeous detail to it that makes it unlike most mirrors I find.

If you didn't know -- in the last couple of years, World Market has started offering pendant lighting and chandeliers.  The designs are reminiscent of high end lighting and the prices are amazing!!  Here is one of my new favorites.



It reminded me of some I saw last summer in the M/I home at the Indianapolis Home-A-Rama.  See my post here.  


This is a much more expensive version in the show home.  World Market's version does not have the glass panels which saves on cost to be able to sell a much less expensive version of the same light.

And another pillow because I am a sucker for pillows, fringe, and ticking stripes!



I mean, who doesn't need a huge black & white watercolor buffalo on their wall?!?  It's very chic!



Sign up for their FREE membership to get special deals and coupons AND a free $10 on your birthday, as well as FREE $10 after you spend so much money there.  


Hobby Lobby was my next stop of my shopping trip this week.  Most people think of Hobby Lobby just as a craft store, but it is SO much more.  It is really another one of my favorite places to shop for unique home decor.  They always have items 50% off and if it isn't on sale, wait until the next week and it will be 50% off then.  Or you can always search online for a 40% off coupon.  I always just pull one up on my phone while I am in line to check out if I need to.

They have had some awesome artwork lately at my local Hobby Lobby.  And the prices on these large canvas or framed art pieces are unbeatable!  Here are some of my favorites.....



This framed art is by a very talented lady Lindsay Letters.  She has one of those styles that when you see a piece of her work, you just know it is Lindsay Letters.  There are lots of fun prints by her.  We used this same framed print in my niece's playroom.  Follow Lindsay on Instagram -- you won't be disappointed.  She was also the calligrapher of one of my all time favorite design books -- The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith.


Other favorites.....


 Hipster Arrows Framed Wall Art  //  Be Strong and Courageous Canvas Wall Art  //  Brown & White Let's Be Adventurers Framed Wall Art 

You can now shop online at Hobby Lobby's website.  But I must say, their website is quite challenging to navigate.  It is almost impossible to find what you are looking for sometimes, so you do have to have some patience if that is the route you are going.


Pottery Barn has really "upped their game" in the last couple of years, adding in some more modern prints and furniture among all of the heavily traditional pieces.

via Pottery Barn
Some really beautiful pillows in those striking orange and navy colors again!


I love all of their wooden beads!  Especially the White Beads Vase Filler.  

Some new modern, global inspired rugs, starting at $250 up to $1000.  



I never purchase items for my clients from just one place.  That's boring!!  I know which stores have he best deals and how to stretch the dollar as far as possible.  Besides, a grouping of items from different stores makes a space much more interesting.  As I see more Spring "must-haves" on my shopping adventures, I will be sure to share them all with you.  But for now, I don't want to get too carried away!

If you really want me to be your personal shopper, you can hire me by the hour to find a few new items to spruce up your home for Spring.  Visit my Design Services page for more info on a la cart services and how to contact me.







Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Herringbone Designer Inspired Vest!

It's Back....but only for 1 more day! 

I ordered this vest a few months ago and have to stop myself from wearing it all the time.  I love this vest!  And it is back on GroopDealz but only for a limited time!!  


Did you miss your chance to purchase this vest before the holidays?  Now it is yours again if you act quick and buy now!!  

from: GroopDealz

Most of the time if someone asks me where I bought my shirt, my necklace, my anything....it seems it is coming from GroopDealz!  With such amazing prices, it is hard to pass up these great deals.  Sign up for GroopDealz today get daily emails about all of their special sales.  They only last for a couple of days so you have to act fast!



{this is a paid sponsored post. however i do adore this vest and this site}




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