The Project Room

Here is a very interesting project I did a few months ago. It is called The Project Room. My client converted an empty bedroom into a space for homework, gift wrapping and other "projects". This was your typical bedroom, with a side window and a back window. She used cabinets on three walls that allowed for desk space and a window seat. In the middle of the room she had a custom made island that was great for storage. She has all of her gift wrap organized in it.

The window treatments consisted of Stagecoach Valances, which look a bit like stationary Roman shades. Under the valances, she put honeycomb pleated shades with the top/down-bottom/up option.
You can see that we had a custom cushion made for the window seat and dressed it up with some pillows in coordinating fabrics. All fabrics by Duralee.

What empty space in you home could you make more useful?

Atlanta Gift Show

I have never been to the Atlanta Gift Show before. Here are some superlatives: Gigantic, Crazy, Overwhelming, Colorful, Inspiring.
I should have taken more pictures, particularly from the escalator in Building 3 to give you a rough idea, but here are a few things(a very few things) that caught my eye.

Gotta love big flowers.

A floor that I assume is removeable and looked like an interesting do it yourself project. I saw several variations of this, and had seen it before at High Point Market, but I still find it fascinating and beautifully rustic and elegant at the same time. I think this was at Barreveld.

Also at Barreveld, this vignette with the tall iron stags balancing on iron balls. Had to have them so I bought them. Everyone who has seen this picture wants to know what I am going to do with them. Patience, dear friend, patience. (Perhaps I should say, Deer Friend - hee hee.)


Colorful rug at Surya. Might use it in a project.

This was a wonderful bar/buffet with slide out trays and room for wine bottles. I'm not positive, but I think it was at Guild Master.


Last but not least, a little cottage chic. This was a great piece for storage and came in lots of colors. I'm thinking about using it in a child's room.

Yummy Green Velvet

This is the name my client gave it. The Yummy Green Velvet Chair. She found it in an antique store and loved it's shape, but didn't love the fabric or the wierd sound it made when she sat in it. I quickly decided it must be stuffed with horse hair, a fact my upholsterer later confirmed. He redid the "stuffing" and upholstered it this beautiful green velvet from Duralee.
The chair sits like a piece of sculpture on the far side of a long master bedroom. That was our intent as you can see by the extra long windows, that this room was all about drawing you to the outdoors. My client is a fabulous gardner so it gives her great pleasure to curl up in that chair with a book and gaze out at the lovely fruits of her labor.

Field Trip Friday 4/29/11

This past Field Trip Friday sent us on the hunt for beautiful fabrics. And when I say HUNT, I mean HUNT. That picture of me amidst bolts and bolts of textiles is but one room in this place.
I shared this adventure with my friend Susan from SheMakesDrapes. Susan failed to get photographed mostly because she was too busy pole-vaulting over the 10 feet deep piles of fabric.
Neither of us had a project in mind; we were just there for the thrill of the hunt, but if you put 2 designers in a room full of beautiful things, they start to make up projects. Great projects! It seemed that every sentence out of our mouths began with, "You know what you could do with that...." or "Wouldn't that look great if you...." You get the picture.
What I came home with was 10 yards of this velvet border trim and 4 yards of Beacon Hill silk velvet.
The border trim would look pretty fab as the hem of some drapes, but I'm thinking of banding it and making a sort of vest (as opposed to a full slipcover) for my dining room Parsons chairs. But, now I am thinking I want this piece to be reversible, so I have to turn the idea over to my right brain for a little longer.
The silk velvet (sigh!) matches my living room walls perfectly, so I know it can go anywhere in the house. Still deciding what to do. It would make a really lovely chair - but I say that about EVERY fabric.

Color of the Year!

You might have noticed a lot of pink around town these days. Honeysuckle has been elected by Pantone as their color of the year! We're seeing it everywhere - from home furnishings to clothing to makeup.
I was putting away some sample books in my studio and these two happened to be sitting next to each other. One is full of fabric samples from Kravet and the other is a wallpaper book from Cole & Son. They made me happy just looking at them! I think I'd like to wallpaper a room and then fill it with the coordinating fabrics on the furniture and draperies and they could all live happily ever after!

French Chateau Kitchen

I realize I have two "French" posts in a row, but when I was going through some old pictures in my file, I found this one. It is just so.....interesting. I have no idea where I got it, but I had to share it.
I love the idea of taking a room into Fantasyland. I love the chalkboards on the ends of the cabinets and wouldn't be surprised if one of them was actually a door front. Instead of a crown molding on the top, they added a ROOFLINE! So theatrical! Who says you have to have things designed just like everyone else? Speaking of the molding, my neighbor has a 7" stainless steel band up there - in her very contemporary kitchen. She didn't change her white cabinets during a remodel, she just took the crown molding off and added the band (or her contractor did!)
If you take away the "roof", the decorative painting and the chalkboards, this is a pretty typical kitchen.
Wouldn't you love to have a party in here!

French Doors

I saw this window treatment several years ago and for some reason, lately, I cannot get it out of my mind. It operates in a slightly similar way to a Roman shade, only there are no cords, and only one setting. Still, it seems like a very elegant way to dress a door or window. And so simple to operate. You need only one set of brackets for the center rod, which you use when the shade is in the "up" position. There must be endless ways to embellish this with combinations of fabric, trim and hardware. These particular doors were in a master bedroom that opened out to a patio. Charming!