before and after......

Hopefully you can tell a difference in our before and after....
the bones of the home are amazing...great finishes (rock fireplace, hand scraped wood floors, large windows, etc....) but the decor was just missing. Also...we had to work with a couple of design challenges....a wall that would split the back of a sofa...a long narrow room, a light switch that was of course in a bad spot, and a narrow space on the two sides of the windows. What we did....was work with the existing color scheme of the home and played up the neutral colors - then dropped in our red/brick accents. No real need to always be matchy matchy so we have about 3 different wood finishes...dark espresso, walnut and painted linen. We ran our 9x13 rug ling ways (rug by Candice Olsen) to create a sense of depth that otherwise would not have been as dramatic if we put an 8x10 horizontally. We sat our sofas face to face even the the brown sofa extends from the wall but used our spaced ceramic flower petals to not only create drama but to deflect the light switch and draw the attention away from the wall. We only had room for one width of panels so we went a little more bold on the pattern and then dropped in plenty of lighting to make the room even more warm and fuzzy. The upholstery is from Vanguard and Bernhardt.

Residential details in commercial spaces.....

This is a project I worked on with my friends Matty and Fox. A lot of the elements that we used for this commercial building have their roots in residential settings. The chair with heavy duty velvet is from Kincaid Furniture, the table and ottomans are from New Pacific, the bench is form Zuo Mod, the Lighting is from Trend, the mirror is from Howard Elliot, and the art is from Art Classics. Even the cabinetry that we floated on the wall is from our line ultracraft. Quartz is an approved counter top surface that works for commercial, medical and of course residential settings. We often use commercial products for residential settings (like outdoor furniture) and we use plenty of residential pieces in commercial settings - just knowing the use and wear potential leads us....as well as the aesthetic.

Warming up a commercial space...

who says commercial spaces cant be warm - I love warm colors and would probably choose warm over cold most any day. Sometimes the beauty is in the details....like the door inlays and the inset handles to the tile inlays in the hall. Even the thin ruler style floating frame on the art gives it a subtle substance. Mirrors, lights over art and benches in hallways give them life that otherwise is often times over looked.
Also...check out the ceiling details.

scratching the surface of surfaces.....

x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x....I love decorative accessories...obviously I opened a store...but I love adding treasures to a room or surface to make it more personal. A few of the shots are of my own home...you can tell I layer a lot with books and boxes...my two favorite things. I also like to layer my art and am a real sucker for Lucite stands/blocks. HOTTTT

I put some shells from recent trip in a black bowl and picked a stick out of the reptile section of the pet store that looked like drift wood...I guess it moved me at the time. Trays are also a great way of grounding a surface or creating a separate zone. Whatever you do...go bold and buy items of scale and substance. Like any other aspect of decorating....mix textures....wood, metal, paper, ceramic, and shells. (psst....half price books...1.00 a book - cant beat it....its my obsession)

cooking up a modern kitchen.....

My new modern Kitchen line is supa hot.....you can do so much with it. A frameless cabinet - it maximizes storage space. You can choose among its hundreds of laminates, wood, and veneer doors. We wanted the kitchens to be of course modern but sacrificed some of our Italian design intentions for a more traditional/functional storage layout. We strayed a bit on the lower kitchen by floating the glass lift door cabinets and throwing a punch of orange in. Function and budget are generally the two main concerns...and we have kitchens with soft close doors, dovetailed drawers and quartz counters that start well below 10k. Ask us about our various lines and we'll put the right kitchen together for you....

Cover the Wall with wall coverings

In keeping with the Master bedroom story....I love using the tried and true method of adding drama by using wall coverings behind the bed. Above we wanted to tone down the hard lines of the contemporary setting by using hide...both on the floor and the wall. The wall covering is a vinyl faux cowhide...alternating in directions. The lower is a foil wall cover that from a distance appears to be damask..but up close ...is cowboy hats, horses and oil towers - totally playful!

In the previous posting is a faux leather stitched wall covering that works perfect for a more serious masculine bedroom.

Mastering the Master Bedroom

So much to think about really when it comes to the master bedroom - but my number one complaint is using too small of lamps and too flat of pillows....STINKY! Two euros for a queen and 3 for a king bed. Also...unless your bedroom is small like the bed with the mirror above it...26 to 30" lamps are best. The small room used a mirror over the bed along with stools for nightstands. A couple of the room shots were condos Matty, Fox and I worked on so they might appear minimal....like had it been a customer.. I would have talked them into buying a coverlet just to fold over the bottom part of the bed (layering like we talked about earlier) Putting a rug under the bed defines the space and really finishes off the focal point...dont worry if you have carpet...put a rug down anyways. Small sofas, chaises, chairs, or ottomans add more drama to the bed and elevates it to a new decorating level....ahh. Mix match your night stands or go minimal on one side to have more drama/scale on the other like we did in the red bedroom. We imagined this condo for a single person so we short changed the right side...I think we actually bought a wall light fixture but ran out of time to hang it. Use your imagination :)