New offices finished

The new offices for the pediatric clinic are finished ...

To really appreciate it, let me remind you what we started with:

The main room was an empty box space when we started and we needed to turn it into a conference room with a small seating area. Unlike the clinic, we were not able to paint the walls in this space, so I used colorful art from Modern Digital Canvas to brighten it up and brought in some inspirational artwork as well.

 

To help the client visualize the design I put together an inspiration board. (We switched out the chairs for different ones then I had previously selected).

There wasn't much space and every inch had to be utilized. This room will be used for parent meetings and workshops. 

The first thing we did was place the furniture and hang the artwork ...

And then I came back in with a new rug and a few accessories to pull it all together (thank you HomeGoods!).

Everyone is happy and all they need are a few fresh flowers and they are all ready for their open house tomorrow.

Art ideas for an office space

The new office / conference room for the pediatric clinic is almost done. We are just waiting for everything to arrive so it can be installed. I like working with this client; we work mostly online as she is one busy doctor and I understand her price point - budget minded, but workable. I send her a few ideas, she comments back and we go from there. After we selected a few things, I sent her this inspiration board to give her an idea of what it would look like all together:

She asked if we could add some orange.

I like the color palette!

The space houses 3 offices where the psychologist and other therapists will work as well as a large front room that will be used for parents to meet, hear lectures, gain information and be able to network with other parents. We put three Ikea desks in each office and in the main room we put a couple of Bjursta dining tables from Ikea to use as "conference tables".  The client wanted a seating area in one corner and some artwork to add some color and break up the long blank walls that we were not able to paint. She also wanted to have the space be an inspiring place for the parents who will use it and also for the employees that have their offices here as well. 

Decor Black and Light Grey Lounge Chair | Overstock

These are the chairs that will go in the seating area - we will have four of them. 

Lucent Nesting Tables - CB2

We needed a table to go in the corner and I wanted a table to use as a coffee table some of the time but it needed to be lightweight enough so that it could be easily moved when they had a lot of people in the room. These nesting tables are perfect. One will go in the corner, one will be used as a coffee table in front of the chairs and the small aqua one will be placed on the side of one of the end chairs. I like that they are round to break up all of the straight lines of the room and the rectangle conference tables.  

Aqua - Modern Digital Canvas

The client wanted a modern / zen like feel that was also very inspirational. I also know she likes the ocean and I kept that in mind when I was selecting the artwork. We are using Modern Digital Canvas for some reasonably inexpensive large canvases - their motto is, "Cool, Affordable Modern Art."

Infinite - Modern Digital Canvas

Allow - Modern Digital Canvas

Dry Land - Modern Digital Canvas

Plume - Modern Digital Canvas

There will be a small console table that can be used for brochures or to serve refreshments on:

Lachlan Glossy Black Sofa Table - Overstock

We will add a few inspirational quotes on large canvases ...

Allposters.com

And some in frames:

Green Door Design | Etsy

I love when you can pick the colors you want!

I'm taking today off (well, kind of - I don't think I ever completely take a day off - there are always phone calls to return or emails to make...) but I am going to take a "more than long" lunch today to celebrate a friend's long overdue birthday. So today I will play and then the rest of the week is crazy ... this is wedding week ... I can't wait to share all that we have planned!

Happy Monday everyone!

A little of my week ...

Here is a little of what is going on in my neck of the woods this week...

The kitchen remodel (the one where my client has a bet going with her brother) is coming along great - it will be 95% completed by July 3rd. This is the kitchen where we 'broke ground' on June 4th. It looks like we are going to win the 8-week-bet.

The counters are in and so is the backsplash. The painters are finishing up this week and the appliances and cabinet pulls (and plumbing) are scheduled to be installed on Tuesday. If all goes as planned it will be a working kitchen for my client to have her family over for the 4th of July. 

I ordered the counter stools yesterday. I had fallen in love with a couple of fabrics. And they were absolutely perfect for the new kitchen. My client wanted a fun print that would make a statement but it also needed to be kid proof.  So my idea was to put the blue-ish green "vinyl" (which, by the way goes amazingly great with the backsplash) on the seat and front and the other fabric on the back. I pulled the third fabric to use in the adjoining room.

But the problem is that as much as I want it to work, it does not go with the rest of her house. I know what you are thinking ... well, kind of what I was thinking ... once you do a big remodel like a kitchen, all the old stuff kind of looks tired in comparison and ends up getting changed down the road anyway ... so I was hopeful. But it turns out their 'old' is not all that old and they like it. Darn. So we switched. And can I say that I love the new even more?

As disappointed as I was, I feel like I kind of 'won' because we are using white. Ahhh.  The back of the stools will still be the same fabric - just in a different colorway which goes nicely with the wall color (Dunn Edwards Inside Passage) and will show contrast well with the dark countertop (Caesarstone Raven).

These are the stools:

Nathan Anthony

The counter stools were our final decision to make on the kitchen so my work there is basically finished. Now I can sit back and watch it all come together!

I picked up these from the framer today - they are the beginning of a fun art wall for one of the little girl's rooms I am working on ...

And this was delivered - it will be made into some fabulous pillows for a beach house family room. It is an outdoor fabric which is always my first choice if there are kids or animals involved.

And lastly, (is lastly a word?) I stopped by to check on a living room upholstery job today and took a few photos. This chair (there are two of them) had been around for a really long time. It had been recovered at least once before and my client still loved the pink but the fabric was getting worn. So we changed it up ...

It sat too low to the ground before so I had it raised up a few inches and changed the old casters to a nice wooden leg.  We also added some new pillows to freshen up her sofas. (The carpet will be changed next).

Here is the room before we started:

living room before photo

And here it is with the new pillows. The new chairs sit to the right:

living room with new pillows

Hope you are having a great week!

Art studio mood board

Quite a few years ago I helped my sister (the one who is the illustrator) with her studio and I blogged about it here.

So when Patricia van Essche, a very talented artist and illustrator and author of the wonderful PVE design blog asked me to help her out with her new art studio it took me about 2 seconds to say, "Yes!".  It turned out she didn't need all that much help really - mostly a little encouragement. She had a good idea of what she wanted; a lot of white (yes!), clean, sleek, and organized. Right up my alley. 

We worked over the phone and via emails and I compiled it all in these mood boards. You can read about the details on her post here. 

I can't wait to see her big reveal when everything is installed and complete ... It is coming along very well! 

If you are not familiar with Patricia's work, you will definitely want to check out her custom hand drawn illustrations on her blog or in her Etsy shop here. They are suburb - her subjects range from pets, to homes, your favorite vacation spot, and even your special event. She has done some wonderful logos and even a few blog headers. Her blog is filled with inspiring posts that reflect her positive outlook and desire to capture the beauty of everyday life. 

PVE design

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I am posting late as I just got back in town myself after a very fun weekend with my family.  :D

The art of the chair

What a crazy week. I have so much to share but no time to write. One of the things I have been working on is my new logo. I have played around with many ideas and can't seem to settle on just one. The only thing I know for sure is that I want it to include a chair.

Anne Harwell

Do you know Anne Harwell? She is a very talented artist who paints a great chair ... don't you think?

The moment I saw them I knew I had to have one. The prints are only $30. You can see more on her Etsy shop. The chair to the far right is a painting of one of Anna Spiro's chairs.

This is the one that I chose. It is a glicee print of an original gouache/ink painting done for Courtney Barnes (Style Court). I loved it so much I even splurged for some postage stamps!

I have to run ... off to help my daughter with the baby for a few days. xo

What do you do when a client cancels?

I had an unexpected unscheduled day today - a client had to cancel ... and instead of trying to fill in the day with other clients I decided to take a free day. I thought it was the first day of Spring (uh no, missed that - it was the day before) and thought I would get a jump start on Spring cleaning (ie. painting, planting new flowers in the courtyard, washing the windows...).

It was a perfect day. It started with this:

Don't let the crumbled box fool you ... because this is what was inside:

I have been dying to have one of Michelle Armas' paintings. I posted about them a while back and while I was putting up the post, the painting I wanted sold right out from under me. I contacted Michelle just in case the sale didn't go through (it did) and she assured me she would be painting more in the colorway I wanted (and in the size I could afford!).

So as she suggested I basically stocked her website (she said keep checking back). They sell out very fast. Did you know they are selling her paintings at Anthropologie now? Wow. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago there was the perfect painting for me!  It is called Truth. And even that appeals to me. Have you read the Hunger Game books? I just finished all three of them and one of the things that resonated with me was when Peeta SPOILER ALERT when Peeta had his memory taken away from him and he didn't know what was real or not real. I loved that he would question everything to see if it was true or not. Real or not real. I need to do that more. Sometimes I have things inside my head that feel like they are true but they really are not.

I love it! After I picked the package up from the post office, I ran by our local nursery to pick up some spring flowers ...

And went by the paint store. Remember my post on Monday, black or white? Well, black won.

My photos came out terrible (it was too late in the day) but I did get it all painted. It is dramatic and different. I had really struggled with painting over the quote my daughter had painted on the wall when she was in high school and the room was hers. (I posted about my dilemma with painting it a couple of years ago here). But then I realized today, she is turning 28 on Saturday - which means it has been up at least 12 years. And the lavender walls - they have probably been like that for 15 years or more. I decided it was time. Now I need to work on that bed!

 It was a very productive day (even managed to wash my car and clean the house and a few windows!). It is nice to take a day and do things around your own house - especially when you are always fixing up other people's!