A perfect vacation home

How was your weekend? Did you take a long weekend after the 4th or did you do what I did and work?  I had one of those boy-do-I-wish-I-was-still-in-my-30's kind of a grueling day Friday getting that vacation rental ready. You may recall I mentioned it here, that Allison my new assistant and I would be getting this home ready for the vacationers who will be arriving today. The clients live in a prime location on the water which makes the home perfect for a vacation rental, but the house needed some help with editing and styling to make it vacation ready.

The view from the front of the house

It was the first day of work for my new assistant Allison and she was amazing. She told me she was a fast learner and she was. I could never have accomplished half of what I did without her ... and we worked hard! I have been working solo for so long now, bringing in my sister once in a while to help with installations or hanging artwork but generally doing everything myself. It is a whole new ballgame for me to learn to delegate - I am so used to being a one-woman-show - but I am super excited for what I will be able to accomplish with her help.

We spent the first part of the day working outside on the upper deck arranging furniture, moving potted plants and umbrellas around, putting on seat cushions and placing pillows. Poor Allison was the one who got to run up and down the three flights of stairs to grab whatever I needed.  When we finished, we moved inside where we removed some of the client's more personal or fragile items and moved furniture around to make the house feel more spacious. I didn't take many photos because I left my phone in the car by mistake and after we were done I used Allison's phone just to get a few photos for the client so she could replicate where things were if they got moved around later.

There was an overflowing bookcase in one room that we weeded out and re-arranged. It will be accessible for the vacationers in case they want to borrow a book to read. We also removed framed family photos and fragile and irreplaceable items to pack away while the house is being rented. That left some empty spaces. 

On the dining room hutch, I used the new space to make a breakfast prep area to take the burden off of the crowded kitchen. We removed fine china and crystal and gave the hutch a more casual look filling it with some eclectic pieces that we didn't want sitting out to get accidentally broken. We took another cabinet that was full of glassware and filled it with snacks for the vacationers - their own little "mini-bar".

I made a tag for the mini-bar snack cabinet.

We moved side tables around, put down area rugs over stained carpet, rolled fluffy white towels and tried to make the house look and feel as perfect as we could make it.

I think it is refreshing that this house isn't your typical coastal style beach house. It very much reflects the style and flair of the client and is filled with things she loves and has collected over time and travels. It is colorful and whimsical and I love that. We painted her front door bright yellow and the upstairs exterior doors red. I think that anyone coming in to stay here will feel at home and comfortable. 

My goal for the client was to make her home feel welcoming and the guests feel pampered. I wanted to add some inexpensive but special touches that would make this rental feel special and unique. I made some tags to put around the house and a notebook filled with instructions for the house and places to visit in town. I thought it would be fun to make a letterhead and some stationery and note cards. 

To make the letterhead, I started with an image I found online. It was a photograph of a botanical print from a book and so I didn't think it would breach any copyrights to use it. 

This was my original image. I found it here via Pinterest

The first thing I did was take out the color and lighten it. I thought it would make a nice watermark. Next I made a heading playing around with various fonts and colors. I printed up some extras for them to use as stationery if they want and used the same image for the tags.

I played around a little more ... I could do this kind of stuff all day long!

Thankfully I had this little girl here for a visit this weekend - she makes it really easy to put work aside and play!

Happy Monday everyone!

Sunday ramblings

I believe in love and positive thinking and hope. I want to live in a world where everyone is happy and kind and people are accepted for who they are and not expected to be the people others wished or needed them to be. A world where judgment doesn't exist and understanding and forgiveness rule. 

I love inspirational quotes (if you don't believe me you should check out my Pinterest page - most of my pins are quotes). 

But I am not really seeing that world. Not in our families and not even in our churches. Oh, we might talk a good talk but in the end there are just so many hurting people. And what I have noticed is that most of the time the reason they hurt is because of people. People let us down. They don't fulfill our expectations. They hurt our feelings. They exclude us, are too busy for us, don't understand us. They say mean things. They don't love us. They don't know how to love us. Especially the ones we want to love us the most.

And I am reminded how important it is that we love ourselves first and more than we need other people to love us. That we need to understand ourselves first before we can expect others to. And that in order to do that we must be aware of what our needs and expectations, our weaknesses and our limitations are. We need to understand ourselves first before we can expect someone else to.

I think that when we value ourselves first, others will value us as well. When we love ourselves, learn to nurture ourselves, are gentle with ourselves ... others can too. And when we understand fully who we are and what our greatest needs are, we will be able to surround ourselves with the kind of people that we need to walk next to us and stop expecting things from people who can't.

We need to live and breathe love. And grace. Towards others of course, but also towards ourselves. And we must learn to forgive. We need to forgive ourselves for not being perfect and forgive others for not being perfect too (and for not giving us what we need). We have to stop judging and comparing ourselves to a standard that is self-imposed or culture / society based. And maybe focus a little more on the One whose love never fails. 

"Praise the LORD! He is good. 

God's love never fails,

Praise the God of all gods.

God's love never fails."

-Psalm 136: 1-2

images via

A great salad, some new fabrics and a new job.

Did you have a nice day off yesterday? We spent the evening with our good friends that happen to be our neighbors. We acted like kids and lit sparklers in the front yard. We had a fabulous dinner and I forgot to take photos like I had planned ...

I made this salad (I found it on Lisa Mende's blog) and it was everything I had hoped it would be. But don't believe the prep time. It says 10 minutes. It took me hours!

I also spent a little time getting some fabric selections organized. I will be having some pillows made for a couple of clients. When I am selecting fabrics there is more to consider besides the color and pattern or texture. 

Two of the clients I am selecting fabrics for right now have dogs. Dogs that live right on their upholstery. So I have to find something with a durable content like 100% polyester.

Oh yeah ... this is what I love to see - 100,000 double rubs. 

Today I will be helping a client get their house ready to rent as a vacation home. It is a lot like staging a house to sell - a lot of editing and removing the client's belongings and bringing in things to make the renters feel pampered and at home. For example, I will be setting up a breakfast station on the dining room hutch instead of the family photos that line it now, making seating areas outside with new rugs and crisp new market umbrellas, putting clean white fluffy towels in the bathrooms, and generally making sure everything looks like a five star hotel. And I am super excited to be working with my new assistant, Allison!

 One more day until the weekend! Happy Friday everyone!

Patriotism

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.  

- Erma Bombeck

{I thought I would share a few of my Pinterest pins - you can see all of my RED, WHITE & BLUE pins here.} 

Despite the imperfections, we live in a wonderful country and we should all celebrate the freedoms and opportunities we have and be ever so thankful for those who have sacrificed for us to have them. 

I couldn't say it any better than this .... so in the words of Bill Clinton, July 4,1996 (via):

"Today we are living through another period of profound and historic change: change in the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate to one another and to the rest of the world. But the truths set down in our Declaration of Independence are immutable, and they continue to light our path into the challenges and possibilities of the future. Equality, individual rights, life, freedom, opportunity: we still cherish these values, and we must continue to reaffirm them daily.

America is a work in progress, and we have strived through decades of challenge and change to become what our Founders envisioned on our first Independence Day. As we continue that endeavor, let us work together to create an America that remains the world's strongest force for peace, justice, and freedom. Let us work for an America that is not driven apart by differences but instead is united around share values and respect for our diversity. Let us work for an America in which every one of us, without regard to race or religious belief or gender or station in life, can achieve our dreams. In this way we will best pay tribute to those who, 220 years ago, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to guarantee our freedom."

Happy 4th of July everyone! 

Around town

Shannon's on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore | Photography: Rick Warren

One of the things I gained from going on the Road Trip with my daughter, was that even after I came back home, I noticed my surroundings more. Traveling down the back roads at a slow pace we noticed everything and I drove my daughter crazy constantly trying to capture what I saw with my camera. Now that I am home, I have a heightened awareness of things around me. 

Iguana Kelley's 4300 block of E. Anaheim | Photography: Rick Warren

Don's Motel. Pacific Coast Highway | Photography: Dan Haneckow, via Flickr

36/36 Club on E. Broadway | Photography: Rick Warren

Corner of Ximeno and 4th Street | Photography: Rick Warren 

The first week I was home, I was still in that "looking for signs" mode and could not believe how many cool vintage neon signs were in my own backyard. I am also trying to spend time visiting all the cool little shops and restaurants around town - so many I didn't even know existed. I am looking at this city I have lived in most of my life from a different perspective.

One of the things that Long Beach installed recently were roundabouts and traffic circles on some of the streets that I drive down frequently. I didn't really get it. Honestly, all I could think of was that they were a hazard; I could see someone running into them late at night not expecting them to be blocking the middle of the two way street.

But today, as I drove down Vista Street, I saw it differently. First I was stunned by how beautiful it was looking down the street and seeing all the yellow flowers blooming. And then the Bike Boulevard sign caught my eye. 

I am a little slow sometimes (guess I should probably read the local papers to find out more about my city too!) but I am loving Long Beach a little more today. Good job on this bike friendly project Long Beach! 

via

I had been driving back to my office after a fabulous lunch at The Attic. Again, the former converted house that was formally Lasher's went completely unnoticed by me until I saw their chef on an episode of Chopped. If you are local you should really check it out - the food was great and the atmosphere is inviting, casual and fun. They are using locally grown foods and even have their own jams which they are selling at a couple of the farmer's markets in town. Sure wish I had thought to take a few photos!

Blog loving and a few great before and after's

So today was the big day that Google Reader quit working. Honestly, I didn't even understand what Google Reader did until I started reading other blogger's remarks about the changes. I noticed that quite a few of you switched to Bloglovin' so that is what I did too. Embarrassingly, I wasn't sure why I switched until Sue asked the question, "How do you keep up/subscribe to blogs?" "Ah," I thought, "So that is what it is for!"

Dallas Shaw

I took the whole follower thing off my blog a while ago because I didn't really understand the point of that either. Until today when I got a lovely email from Bloglovin' showing me all the new posts from all the blogs that I FOLLOW.  Ha! Now I get it. I see why it was so upsetting to have this change made. I have always "followed" the blogs I wanted to read daily by putting them on my blog roll on the side of my blog. I had no idea there was an easier way.

Style @ Home via | Photography by Michel Dube

At any rate, the emailed posts I received today were fun to see and although most of the blogs I follow have made it to my sidebar - not all of them had. I read a new post from Maria Killam - a color expert and consultant that I used to read religiously when I first started blogging. In fact, her blog may have been the first blog I ever read. She had some amazing paint before and after photos of a client that she helped and since we all love a good before and after, I thought I would share a few of them. Ready?

Before

After 

The island was changed too but what a difference the painting made!

Before

After

I did not even notice the white marble before! And did you notice the light fixture changes?

Before

After

What did you think? Nice, right?
You can see Maria's entire post and more fantastic before and after photos here. All before and after images are Maria's.

Presenting ideas to a new client

 

{roses from my garden}

Friday I presented a few ideas to a new client. I had met with her once before and on our first visit she showed me around her home and we talked about the changes she wanted to make. We will be making some flooring and window treatment changes as well as new upholstery, area rugs and light fixtures in a couple of rooms. I took measurements and some before photos as well. 

our starting point

After our first meeting, I went to a couple of showrooms to look for some upholstery fabrics. Sometimes I will bring a client along with me to select fabrics but most of the time too many choices is overwhelming for them. Narrowing down the choices to just a few makes it a lot easier for a client.

One of the upholstery projects we are working on is recovering a small sofa. I had my favorite choice ready to show her and a couple of alternate ideas if she didn't like the first. (She liked the first!). The goal was to keep the existing black and white palette but to update the space and bring in some modern elements to a very traditional space. This is what we decided on for the sofa:

sofa fabric + two pillow fabrics

After the sofa fabric was determined I brought out the rest of my fabrics to coordinate with our choice. 

We also wanted to replace an existing chair that was worn out and she wanted to update her coffee table. Again, I brought out just a couple of ideas and we settled on a beautiful leather wing back chair from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and a simple travertine parsons coffee table from Crate and Barrel. I have used this coffee table before and it is an inexpensive piece ($599) that is clean and substantial and the perfect empty slate for some fun coffee table styling.

Kalinda's Leather Chair

The chair was not a terrible price at $1,895 (retail) but my salesman was able to find me a floor model for $1,125 - I love when things turn out that perfectly!

With all of our upholstery decisions made (window treatments, dining chairs, benches, ottomans, sofa and quite a few pillows) and the furniture selected, the next step is to bring out my upholsterer to take measurements and determine exactly how much yardage I need of each fabric. Because I had a clear idea of my client's likes and dislikes this project was able to move along quite quickly. Sometimes I "nail it" the first time and other times it takes another trip back to select more fabrics. It is always nice to get it right the first time!

{silver rhino I couldn't resist bringing home from the showroom for myself!}

I'm off to meet with my fabulous upholsterer ....

Happy Monday everyone ... and Happy JULY 1st (how in the world did that happen?)