A small changes before & after

I've showed you in progress glimpses of this client project before, but here's a before and after. I love the quirkiness of the floors, the baseboards that stop and start, the wonky plaster, and the overall feeling of cozy imperfection.

 Some of the apartment dates back to the 1700s! But the new kitchen, functional though it is, detracted from the historic charm. There is a lot more that could be done, but I think even just changing out the lighting and hardware made all the difference.

 BEFORE:

 AFTER:

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

those floors kill me

 And my lovely interns posing :)... but you have to use your imagination with this photo and pretend the mirrors are hanging, ok?:

State of Affairs

I really really hope to share some client pictures soon. The past few months have been packed with fantastic projects. Each totally different! I really feel blessed to have an awesome group of clients right now.

And the rest of life....it's looked kind of like this....

Happy, with a lot of singing and a little bit of blur :)

A Before & After Peaceful Bedroom Makeover

I've been wanting to share this bedroom makeover for months, because it was for one of the loveliest couples I've met. Their house feels fresh and happy as soon as you walk in the front door. 

And the structure of the master bedroom was awesome--high ceilings, a little loft area, and great light. 

But the window placement was tricky, and the dark furniture made the room feel heavy and choppy. Plus, they wanted to move from a queen to a king bed, without making the room feel cramped. We also wanted to distract from the off center windows....so we placed ivory linen drapes across the entire length of the bed wall, and chose a light upholstered bed, with some curve, and some light colored side tables...

 BEFORE:

AFTER:

Facing the bed, there's a 3/4 height wall that needed something lighter, but with just as much storage as this big guy:

BEFORE:

I liked the idea of this french Wisteria chest, but the dimensions weren't quite right, and it would have killed the budget....

So I searched around a bit, and came across this awesome chest from Old Lucketts for less than a third of the Wisteria one--cha-ching. The color was fine, but not airy enough, and the hardware looked chintzy in person

So I painted the insets of the top drawers, and created faux insets on the remainder, and added some hardware similar to the those of the nightstands...

AFTER:

I like that the mirror creates a nice backdrop for my clients collection of silver frames and old family photos, and also picks up in the nailhead of the bed.

Decorating A Winter Williamsburg Inspired Wedding

The weekend after Christmas, I helped a very lovely couple decorate the reception hall for their wedding.  It was my first wedding design....and I learned a lot. A LOT! 

When we first met, the bride said that ideally her reception would be really rustic and be in a barn, but as it turned out the reception would be in this hall....

BEFORE:

Not totally awful, but definitely not a barn. And not the least bit rustic either. And althought the wedding was just after Christmas and the colors of the hall were red and green, the bride was adamantly opposed to playing up the Christmas theme. So we started brainstorming. She had a whole binder full of ideas already, and we narrowed the feel down to Williamsburg during the winter--perfect!  The wedding was in Virginia, but Williamsburg also has special significance for them since it was the place where they were engaged. And the groom went to William & Mary. 

Plus it was a great way to marry the traditional details of the reception hall with the rustic vibe she wanted since Williamsburg decorations, even the elaborate ones, are always made of natural materials. And we could make good use of the feeling of the Christmas season without having it feel overtly Christmasy. 

The challenge was doing it on a modest budget. If you've been to Williamsburg or searched around for Williamsburg decorations, you know"inexpensive" is not one of the words you'll find among the descriptions. So we focused more on getting the feel down than actually imitating anything specifically Williamsburg. This meant all natural materials with a little bit of a refined edge.

After that weekend, I think it's safe to say that boxwood is my new favorite green! It came to the rescue many times, and was a great link between the rustic/colonial hybrid feeling we were after, the existing traditional decoration of the hall, and the budget. We ordered the beautiful wreaths from a local nursery, and raided the grooms' parents bushes for everything else.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We made the centerpieces by slicing birch branches (the bride found a fallen birch tree on craigslist, and she and the groom brought tons of logs over to my house to use my favorite tool (chop saw! Thanks team Fleurir!) to cut the logs into disks. Then I layered the disks with twine wrapped mason jars holding tea lights, placed sprigs of cut boxwood around the disks and in a large jar in the center. And then to add a little sparkle, we sprinkled around gold-dusted pine cones and a few gold branches. We used mini chalkboards to mark the tables:

Like any project, there were some unexpected moments...like getting a band last minute and needing to use the stage...which meant needing to decorate the stage...very last minute. It turned out to be one of my favorite parts. We draped white Christmas lights over some room dividers, covered it with burlap, then placed boxwood wreaths on top, which mimicked the arrangements on the windows. Then we placed lit trees to frame the sides of the stage.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

The bride made the cake. It was a Williamsburg orange cake, and probably on the best looking and best tasting wedding cakes ever made. The "cake stand" was another last minute, unanticipated project.... the original one never materialized, so this was done up just before the cake was sent out to be displayed....dI wish I could go into more detail, but suffice it say that I consider this gold burlap and boxwood wrapped piece of styrofoam to be a minor miracle. What I love about using natural materials and natural themes, is that imperfection is a given, and so it's hard for anything to look out of place.

The reception started just as sunset was beginning and the lighting was so beautiful!

it made my gold branches look particularly pretty against the burlap...

And then once it was dark, the centerpieces looked even more lovely....

but, obviously, the best part about it, was seeing the bride look so happy!

Where to begin? Let's start here...

since it's still officially Christmas season, I'll begin with MERRY Christmas! I hope yours has been bright and blessed!

{better than mistletoe}

This year was very different for us. Not just Christmas, but all of 2012. I would say that it's because we've finally hit our stride as a family, but I don't think that's really the truth. It's been a very blessed and providential transformation for our family, and I don't think we can pretend to take credit for half of it.  It's been a time, the first time maybe, that I've felt that our priorities have been straight. The path hasn't always been so straight or painless or pretty, but now that we are on it, there's no hesitation or doubts that it's the right one.

As for Christmas, commercialism took back seat. That wasn't totally intentional. A few weeks before Christmas my parish priest asked if I could find some fabric to dress up the back altar of our less-than-beautiful 60s church. "Sure!" I said, thinking it would be a matter of an hour or so selecting and ordering just the right one. He's been awesome to our family--a huge part of why this year has been transformative and incredible for us--and I was excited to help in a small way. However, selecting fabric turned into creating an entire plan for the Christmas decorations. And...it was awesome. The whole thing! The installation was by far the most fun I've had during any project. There were so many hilarious moments,  and the people who volunteered from our parish were super competent and good-humored...even when they saw bossy Leah in action :) We finished up around midnight just in time to welcome Christmas eve, and when it was all done and we turned out the lights to admire our work, we all kind of gasped.

You may not be able to tell from the blurry photo...but trust me, it looks pretty sweet.

One silver lining to the extra and unexpected busyness of taking on that project was that the things that usually stress me out during the weeks leading up to Christmas, didn't. I just didn't have time to think about them. And they still got done. And as a result, the time we spent with family and friends was more blessed and more meaningful than in the past...because I was able to just be...present....something I've heard about forever, but don't think I actually experienced fully until this year.

When Christmas did hit our house, it was all the sweeter. We didn't go all out on presents...we used ugly wrapping paper...and made shortcut versions of our usual Christmas morning treats. And the kids were just as happy, maybe happier...

 (this last one kills me...there was a funny unplanned "survivor" theme to the presents this year, so I told my nephews and little bro to look hardcore for the camera...but I think it looks more like a j crew add...so way to go, hardcore handsomes :)

Cheers to 2013!

Advent Wreath

It's hard to believe Sunday is Gaudete Sunday, the third of advent! 

Each year, I've come to love advent more and more as we've tried to focus more on things geared towards reflection and less towards consumption. Of course our social commitments are in full holiday swing, but I like to keep our home stays simple until the third Sunday of advent. The advent wreath is one of the only things we put out, and it's pretty awesome to see our kids take an interest in it. I'm sure if it were buried in the rest of of Christmas gear, it wouldn't cause so much of a stir. 

The idea is that you light one candle for each week of advent....a purple (a color of solemnity and preparation) candle the first and second Sundays of advent, then a pink (color of joy and anticipation) candle the 3rd Sunday of advent, and then the final purple candle the fourth Sunday of Advent. Each year, we've done something slightly different for the actual wreath, but this year's is my favorite. We clipped boxwood and lavender from the backyard and attached them in bunches to a metal ring (which at one point had ben part of a lamp shade...) and then placed the advent candle holder inside. Boxwood and lavender dry nicely, so now, almost three weeks in, it;s drying out and looking lovely and a little wild, which I like. And it smells awesome. Advent candles are hard to find though. Stores often pack up the nice purple and pink candles in order to sell advent sets, which are rarely as nice. These Root candles are actually from last year, and they are the best I've found. I love how natural they look, and they burn forever. 

Kitchen Design

Image: RUE (I'm using this slab wrap idea in our kitchen design---eeek, so beautiful!)

Today I'm being featured as part of Apartment Therapy & Kohler's Easy Kitchen Refresh interview series. It was a lot of fun...you know, sometimes you don't even realize your advice patterns until you have to spell them out. Which is why I'm grateful for my time with Apartment Therapy. All my articles there are advice driven, whereas here I just share.

I have several kitchen overhauls in the works right now, so they've been very much on my mind.

You can check out the link here. ....the intro sounds a little fancy. My life, however, is not so fancy these days, which I love. Because it involves this ridiculous character, who is so.freaking.full.of.trouble :)

Before & After: Simple Paint Job Magic

Not too long ago I was asked to do a simple makeover for a corporate space. The lease agreement was such that the only thing that could be changed was the paint. That meant that all the features including the lighting that had been customized for the previous tenants (very traditional and somewhat over the top) had to be adjusted to accommodate my streamlined financial tech client solely with the use of color and a few accessories.

Their other offices are pretty modern, so this was a bit of a challenge. If we ignored all the existing traditional details and went super modern with the accessories, it would have looked weird especially because the whole rest of the building including the lobby is super ornate (think huge chandeliers and marbled wallpaper).  I think we found a happy balance. The transition from lobby to office isn't jarring, but we still managed to sneak in the clean vibe that we were after.

The pictures are completely un-styled and waiting on more art and greenery, but here's the switch...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE: 

 AFTER:

Main walls are Benjamin Moore Gray Owl 2137-60 (my favorite strict light gray that doesn't change much with the light, and that never swings too blue, too beige, or too green like many other grays)

Accent wall is Duron Gulf Coast

Doors and reception desk are Benjamin Moore Storm AF 700

Wall baseboards are Benjamin Moore Simply White 

PS- Just got word that our home was one of Apartment Therapy's Readers Choice top 100 house tours of 2012. You can check out voting details for making the top 10 here. This thrills me and cracks me up because it took me 3 years to build up the confidence to post it. Our readers are not known for their gentle ways :), but it was very well received.