Client Project Kitchen & Family Room Plans

I often show 'before & afters' on the blog with explanations of why decisions were made, but I rarely show in-progress projects.  It's mostly because, as a reader, I myself love the instant gratification of a good 'before & after' and partly because work in progress never looks as good as it does when finished, and I don't want you to think I'm awful ;) 

BUT...  because my mind's often  always on my projects and because I used my blog as a bit of an inspiration board of sorts and a place to communicate with people, I often feel like I'm sort of keeping a main component of myself/ my creative process off of the blog.  SO...  I've decided to try to start sharing a few in-progess projects with you.  You'll have to forgive the COMPLETE lack of styling and completion in the projects but I do think you might enjoy seeing where it all starts. 

So, without further ado, I want to share some before pictures of a project I've been working on for a while.  My client's name is Ira and she has two beautiful little girls & a husband.  They entertain a lot with other families and want their family room (below) to seat more people, be stylish yet comfortable, and feel young and happy (like them!).  Here it is when I first visited, 'before':

It's a massive family-friendly space with a huge TV in a nook next to the fireplace.  They hang out in here every day.  Ira has an amazing sense of style & taste but felt her home was lacking something.  It was beautiful and a bit serious and wasn't as personal as she wanted it to be.  Ira tends to like primarly cool colors with a hit of warmth injected.  I'd describe her style as "sophistcated pretty..."  She likes an elegant mix of classic and modern with a youthful edge.  When she has something to show me that she likes, I know it's going to be beautiful. 

Part of what makes design so  rewarding is helping people figure out their own personal style and helping them translate it into their homes.  Everyone has her own unique style and I love looking at rooms and making decisions through my clients' eyes...  it's almost like putting on a pair of colored glasses because once you learn who your client is design-wise, you need to put on their "glasses" when designing.  Of course, it's still your eyes looking through the glasses so you never lose sight of your aesthetic and beliefs and knowledge, but you do see things differently than you would for yourself. 

Anyway, the family room is open to the kitchen.  Below is a photo of Ira's kitchen before:

{Before-- LOVE the fixture!}

Ira wanted to lighten it up & cool it down.  She chose a warm white/ cream and you can see the newly installed cabinetry:

{Mid-project/ Now}

We're going with a pale gray-blue on the walls in both the kitchen and family room.

{Mid Project/ Now}

We've chosen these beautiful glass mosaic tiles for the backsplash and are running them up the entire wall over the sink/ around the windows:

Here's the chandelier for over the table:

Here's a quick pic of some of the fabrics we're using in the family room:

I love them all!!  The warm kind of camel-golden fabric towards the top-left is an existing sofa Ira has in the basement that we're moving upstairs.  We're using Windsor's Smith's white & blue-gray linen on the curtains and this on the custom English arm sofa:

At the base of the sofa, we're having nailheads placed to outline the curvey design of the fabric.  We're also doing two tufted wingchairs in a blue-gray mohaire velvet (swoon!!!) and I found this cool vintage sunburst table for the coffee table: 

I love its distression and warmth.  It will be really beautiful with the gold tones of the existing sofa.

Here's the existing sofa fabric and the ottoman fabric:

Here'a c lose-up of the Windsor Smith fabric I'm in love with:

And one last photo of an embroidered linen for a pillow on the existing sofa:

There's so much more to share with you & I'll keep you updated along the way.  The hardwood floors have been installed and it's soon to be painted. 

More Outside Love

Everything tastes better when you're outside, doesn't it?

So now that our backyard is in better shape and the weather's getting a bit cooler, we're outside as much as possible.  Yesterday was the boys' first day at daycare and Christian didn't want to leave when we went to pick him up so I guess that's a good sign.  Dave made this yummy dinner above:  Grilled flounder stuffed with crabmeat (ala Trader Joe's- we love their frozen fish) with black beans & rice, and salata.  {Did you notice the leaf that fell from the tree above.. Here comes Fall!!}

After dinner we all enjoyed a fire:

And then we put the kids to bed & enjoyed this:

We've just recently reminded ourselves that we need to savor the little things...  to take pleasure in the every day.  Have a beautiful one!!

*After reading the comments, I should add here that the black beans & rice shown is boxed Zatarain's & if you don't have time to make it from scratch, this stuff is THE BEST.  (Try all of their flavors...  We love the jambalaya and dirty rice and adding sausage & shrimp & fresh herbs makes it Heaven!)

Pure Project # 16: Spruce Up the Yard

When we first moved into our house a year and a half ago, the back patio/ yard looked like this:

{Haha love how a rainy day makes it look even worse..}

The first thing we did was ditch the pine trees and make garden beds around the patio.  I inititally filled them with hand-me-down plants from family & friends.  I LOVE getting hand-me-down flowers and my mom's given us at least 4 truckloads of plants from her overflowing gardens.  The thing was, our back garden beds really needed some structure and with all of the mismatched full-sun flowers, it had more of a country cottage feel and I wanted it to feel a bit more classical & balanced.  (I can't find any pics of it in the flower garden stage.)  SO, this weekend, we finally bit the bullet and bought shrubs (japanese dwarf holly which bears a striking resemblance to boxwood and costs way less) to line our back patio.  We've started with 3 on each side and got 1 side planted.  (babysitting time runs out ;)

I moved my basil around so that it grows between the holly and I love the contrast of the light & dark greens next to each other.  I also added a rown of asparagus fern (a new love!!) and some other herbs in front.

In the Springtime, I'll really pack in the front row with herbs and more fern but we're leaving it like this for this year.  Even though it's a bit more bare than I like, it still has has the structured feel I've been craving and it finaly feels as if we're on our way out here. 

Here's a picture of the garden we made yesterday along the side of our fence.  It's filled with black-eyed susans, zinnias, succulents, daisies and other hand-me-down flowers.  They're all pretty much at the end of their season and I'm hoping that they come back nicely next year.   There's also a lilac bush & a forsythia that have been hanging on for me all summer so I hope they do better here ...  (Or I water them.)

We also FINALLY painted the kids' playhouse shed.  Here's a photo if it before.. (sorry I don't have a real exterior shot of when it was tan)

And here it is now:

We painted it the same color as our house.  And here's a couple of peeks of the inside:

I've been loving this bench:

This is so pathetic but I got a little teary (not coming-out-of-your-eyes-teary but cheesy-emotional-kodak-commercial teary)  in here the other day because it was just so nice hanging out with the little guys & seeing everything we imagined play out.  I was lying on the bench playing with Justin and Christian was making us "soup" and it was just so relaxing & exaclty as I'd hoped for.  (When you have little ones you know that those moments are typically fleeting but you also learn to appreciate them & savor them when you get them.)

Anyway, Christian has also been sprucing up his playhouse.  He found this feather and a bunch of acorns on walks:

These magnolia leaves fell from a neighbor's tree and look great with his sticks:

And look what we found in a spiderweb:

{kind of sad but still beautiful}

And here's one last pic of the playhouse...  I am SO relieved that we finally got it painted!!  It took less than an hour:

(We more than cut corners here:  the back is still not painted and it's gone on my list for when all of the actually important stuff is finished.)

We also got to most of Dave's work shed but still need to finish painting, add steps, and get the holly bushes in the ground. 

It feels so good to have crossed these items off of our list.  And I have to admit, that as much as I hate putting out the dough for shrubs/ bushes, it made an insane difference in the look & feel of our yard.  SO, this week's project is to spruce up your yard for Fall and if you've been meaning to get some bushes, I'm telling you, go for it.  You won't regret it and getting the foundation right makes such a difference.   

If you's like to share pictures of your Fall yard projects, I'd love it if you could link up here!!

House of Commons of Canada

The House of Commons of Canada dahu (French: Chambre des communes du Canada) is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign (represented by the Governor General) and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected by simple plurality ('first-past-the-post' system) in each of the country's electoral districts, which are colloquially known as ridings. MPs hold office until Parliament is dissolved and serve for limited terms of up to five years after an election, but historically terms end before their expiry and the sitting government typically dissolves parliament within four years of an election according to a long-standing convention. Seats in the House of Commons are distributed roughly in proportion to the population of each province and territory. However, some ridings are more populous than others and the Canadian constitution contains some special provisions regarding provincial representation; thus, there is some interprovincial and regional malapportionment based on population.

The House of Commons was established in 1867, when the Constitution Act, 1867 created the Dominion of Canada, and was modelled on the British House of Commons. The "lower" of the two houses making up the parliament, the House of Commons in practice holds far more power than the upper house, the Senate. Although the approval of both Houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate very rarely rejects bills passed by the Commons (though the Senate does occasionally amend bills). Moreover, the Government of Canada is responsible solely to the House of Commons. The Prime Minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of the lower house.

It is widely thought that "Commons" is a shortening of the word "commoners". However, the term derives from the Anglo-Norman word communes, referring to the geographic and collective "communities" of their parliamentary representatives and not the third estate, the commonality.[citation needed] This distinction is made clear in the official French name of the body, la Chambre des communes. Canada and the United Kingdom remain the only countries to use the name "House of Commons" for the Lower House of Parliament.

The Canadian House of Commons chamber is located in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario.

Black & White Artwork

Perusing through some of my favorite inspiration images recently, I've noticed that one of my favorite elements is black & white art work.  You have to be careful with black & white so that it doesn't feel stark, but when done well, it's one of my absolute favorite combinations:  timeless yet a little edgy.

What makes this room below (by Gerrie Bremermann via Cote de Texas) for me is the combination of antique gold finishes and the contemporary black & white canvas.  There's not even one stitich of green in the room, yet I still LOVE it!!

I've posted the next image more than once & it still remains one of my favorites.  Again, it's that black & white artwork juxtaposed with the gold.  (And they've used greenery & frogs & BALLS so can it get any better?  ;)

{House Beautiful}

This Nate Berkus room (below) also showcases black & white contemporary artwork and I think it stays warm-feeling because of the textured bed and basket.  I love it with the zebra hide. 

Again, another one of my favorite spaces ("favorite" warning:  will say it a lot in this post).. Monelle Totah's apartment feature in Elle Decor.  To the right of the fireplace you can see her black & white print peeking out.

I just saw this image (Martha Stewart) on La Dolce Vida and loved its massive black & white contemporary paintings.. (Honestly, if someone had told me 5 years ago that I would ike something like this, I would have laughed and then groaned.):

Anyway, since I started getting this black & white art craving a few months back, I was at a clients house and we were looking around her home for art options for her living room.  (Love shopping in clients' houses!)  And I saw this original beautiful black & white tree painting she had. 

{Are you ready for my blonde moment??}  I thought she had done it because the name scrawled on the painting looked like her last name to me at first glance.   I was like, "You did this?!  It's amazing!"  

...

And then I looked closer as she laughed...  "Matisse"  

It was an original Matisse. 

Oh. my. goodness.

hahhahaah SO...  at least she's got a sense of humor and we're now using it in the living room. 

(And I would say it's time for me to bruch up on my art ;)

Pure Project # 15: A touch of Fall

One of my favorite things to do is to tweak my home seasonally or when the mood strikes (or naptimes coincide ;)  This weekend in Virginia, we got a beautiful little blast of Fall and it was Heaven!!!  The windows were opened all weekend and when we took our walks I noticed the crunch of the acorns underfoot.  So...  that meant it was time for a few teensy tweaks at home... not full-blown Fall, but just a touch of it mixed with mostly "Summer."

I found the antique quatrefoil table at Lucketts this weekend and its granny-feel is perfect for my mood.  (Not that I'm feeling like a granny but a touch of it feels perfectly "homey" for early Fall ;)  I brought out some of my old golden-orange pillow I made a while back and mixed them with a piece of my grandmother's vintage fabric.  (I think it used to be curtains??  When I saw the fabric being used to store something in my grandparents' garage a couple of years ago, I asked them for it.)  I don't have a patterned sofa & sometimes wish I did, so this is a nice compromise.  The white slipcpvered ottoman is still out but the lucite coffee table should be back in a few months when Justin's fully walking. 

Here's a close-up of the table...  I love having that shelf for my magazines:

{The boys' book basket fits just below}

How cool are the glass ball feet?!!!

{I love the creepy little faces}

I've also been drawn to cloveresque shapes lately.  (I have two gorgeous trefoil end tables in storage to be sold...  I am having issues parting with my finds...  something I haven't mentioned yet but could go on & on about.)

I picked a bunch of these purple flowers that sprouted up all over my "garden" and put them in a vintage cut glass vase.  I think they're in the mint family but I love them most because they are actually ALIVE.  (Even my mint has died...  keeping plants alive doesn't come naturally to me.)

Here's a little picture of my sofa this Spring...

And here it is now:

Who knows how long it'll stay this way but a little bit of change makes me appreciate it all the more.  Once I came to the realization that my home will never be truly "finished" and that "finishing" is not my goal, I relaxed a bit.  Things don't need to be permanent and yes, some furniture arrangements, framed prints or pillows are better than others, but that's okay because part of the fun is in experimenting. 

This week's Pure Style Project is to tweak your home a little bit for Fall...  If you'd like to share your pictures, please link up below directly to the post!!  We'd love to see them!!

If you missed my last post about the pink silo, please take a minute to read it here

Help save the Pink Silo!!

One of my favorite stores, On a Whim Antiques, located in Lucketts, VA needs our help.  They need us to sign a petition to the county so that they can keep the pink polk-a-dotted silo.  We stopped by yesterday and were sad to hear that Donna Troxler now has to fight to keep her silo pink:

{On a Whim Antiques:  owner, Donna, with my two little guys and the pink polk-a-dotted silo}

There have been complaints about the color of her silo on Rt 15, and although Donna has found no law dictating the color of a structure, she is being forced to repaint it.  Donna's pink silo is not only whimsical & fun, but it also serves to bring attention and income to her store.  Without the eye-catching silo, many people could drive by without even noticing On A Whim Antiques.   Not to mention:  just down the road are some other amazing stores - The Old Lucketts Store & the Beekeeper's Cottage- and both have their own beautiful whimsical details that I'd hate to see go anywhere.  They also have items out in the grass for sale and it's an awesome treasure trove.  Donna has already been forced to move the merchandise in her lawn to the inside of her store, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they go after the other stores.  :(   

I seriously admire Donna: she's a determined, hardworking woman who's turned her dreams into a reality.  Donna's been in business for over 5 years and has built On A Whim from the ground up.  Donna donates a percentage of all sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation and has already been forced to remove all of her pink breast cancer ribbons from the outside of her store.  She's got a steel core & I know this won't keep her down, but she does need our help.  She's supported me from the beginning when I was just starting out & I can't thank her enough.   

If you have a minute, please sign the online petition: 
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/onawhimsavethepinksilo/

When you've signed your name, you will see a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and you do not have to donate in order to sign the petition.  (You can just "X" out the page once you see that pop up but of course you can donate if you'd like to)  Thank you so much.

DC Metro Mommy

Check out DC Metro Mommy for an interview I did with Claudine!   DC Mommy is a blog for DC- area moms so be sure to read it if you're in the area. 

Thanks so much to Claudine for the interview!!  You can read it here.  Enjoy your long weekend!!