A living room before and after

I thought you would love seeing some great before and after photos. Even though this living room re-design is not compete and still needs some finishing touches, (we still need to add lighting, artwork and a coffee table ottoman) it is a dramatic change already. What is the best part about it is that everything, except for a few HomeGoods purchases, already belonged to the client. We just changed things around a bit.

Here is what the living room looked like on our first meeting:

The client wanted to bring in some (much needed) color and so she showed me the pillow on the chair to the left (next to the cat!) to give me an idea of the colors she liked. Now that makes it easy!

The first thing we needed to do was decide what was staying and what was not. I had a couple of furniture pieces re-located either out of the room or in other places in the room to either "de-clutter" the space or to give the furniture more "presence". We also decided a smaller sofa was needed partly because the room is small and the piano cannot be moved, and also because the need to add lighting (they have no overhead lights) required some room on either the side of the sofa for a reading lamp and general lighting.

After we selected the sofa, we went shopping for fabrics. You can read my post about that here. The furniture was sent out for reupholstery and the results were stunning:

With the "new" furniture in place, the client and I spent about an hour in her local HomeGoods picking up a few new accessories to freshen things up a bit. The room isn't completely finished but it has come a long way:

The Bergere chairs were upholstered in a beautiful outdoor fabric that will hold up well to the UV light and their pets.

The new smaller sofa allows a side table (and a table lamp) and a floor lamp to go on either side.

My favorite is that old wingback chair!

The previous 'coffee table' works nicely for a side table and we will place a small leather ottoman in front of the sofa. 

This piece was relocated from across the room and I think it is perfect here. I love the black and white box we found at HomeGoods. The lamp was the client's.

And this piece was put where the other cabinet stood before. It is featured much nicer here. 

Even the dining chairs were re-covered to go with the new living room colors.

One last time ...

Before

And after ...

Amazing what a little color can do, isn't it?

It's wrapping paper time!

Tradition in my house is that as soon as Halloween is over it is time to shop for Christmas wrapping paper. I know it sounds backwards - shopping for the outside of the gift before the gifts are purchased but that is what I do - it is how I get motivated and excited to start thinking about Christmas. As they do every year, The Container Store puts out their holiday wrapping paper right around Halloween. I look forward to seeing their selection and they are the first place I look.

Christmas 2010 wrapping paper

Christmas gifts 2010

I used turquoise, the color of the year for 2010 as my inspiration last year and also because I had purchased so much turquoise ribbon it was practical to be able to use it! You can read my post about last year's wrapping here.

I know you are dying to know what I chose this year ...

Adeline - 5 weeks old

So, in keeping with my color of the year ... this is what I chose:

 I fell in love with the reindeer paper first. I kind of have a thing for reindeers at Christmas. And look what I found while I was shopping with a client at HomeGoods the other day:

I have a rule that when I am shopping with a client I will not purchase anything for me even if I have to go back later. Today I broke that rule! I did offer it to her first though ;)

Were you on time today?

I have a thing about being on time. I set my clocks at least five minutes ahead of time just to make sure that I am not late. And I like to have a lot of clocks around. Especially in the bathroom.

But having a lot of clocks makes it a chore when it comes to that time of year where we move our clocks backwards or forwards.

So I had to laugh this morning while I was taking a shower and glanced over at the clock in the cabinet across the room ...

Because I had never switched it when we sprung forward last spring ... 

So I had one less clock to switch and one that was the correct time. I guess sometimes procrastination pays off!

Did you remember to re-set yours?

Simple words of wisdom

{Hard to remember when you are in the middle of it.}

{Sadly I need to be reminded of this sometimes.

I wish it was always my first response.}

images via pinterest

Fall foliage

It took me a while to get on the "it's Fall" bandwagon. Maybe it's because the traditional colors of Fall aren't really my favorite or maybe it is because I have been distracted with the new baby in our house ... but Monday it hit me hard when I realized it was Halloween and I was completely unprepared. When my kids were little, Halloween was a really big deal - it always included a trip to the local pumpkin patch, we always carved pumpkins, had friends over for dinner and costumes were thought about for weeks. I woke up Monday realizing I hadn't even bought a single pumpkin yet.

How convenient is it that I could run into Ralph's and pick up pumpkins, candy and a couple of potted mums all in 15 minutes!

I lit a few candles, pulled out the skeleton and made it just in time for the night to begin. 

But it wasn't until this morning that I really embraced the fact that it was 'Fall'. I woke up to a lovely rain (a light rain but rain nevertheless) and the feeling of cool in the air. I remembered that yesterday when I was in the garden looking for roses for my neighbor's guest room my bushes were in bloom with lovely white flowers. So I went out and clipped a few branches and placed them in the house for a little Fall foliage. Well, my kind of Fall foliage anyway.

I think the new pillows I just had made work great for Fall as well in my ever-changing living room (pillows get moved around about as often as I clean - which is often!).

I just posted about my living room  here but it already looks different. We moved a few chairs around to make our TV room more comfortable for the new mommy so I brought that white leather chair I found in Marshalls in here for now. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

It all started with a lamp ...

One of my favorite kinds of projects is a 'do it in a day' re-styling. I love going into some one's home and moving things around, using what they already have and making it look like new. I did that last weekend with a new client who has a beautifully re-done Victorian house. It was not my usual design style but was a ton of fun and I loved the way it came out. I am kicking myself for not taking any photos. But yesterday I had a chance to work with my dear friend whose house I showed you a couple of months ago when we re-designed her living room and dining room and this time I did take a few photos. To remind you here is an updated photo of the living room with the new rug in place.

A funny story about the rug ... I had found the perfect carpet - a gorgeous creamy white wool with a fun graphic pattern in it in a slightly darker color and ordered it in a custom size with the edges surged. It came in and had a weird petroleum odor to it. The vendor checked the entire stock in the U.S. and it all smelled the same and the earliest they could get another roll was going to be December. This was back in August. It was a very, very expensive carpet to start with and with the edges surged it was going to be even more. You know how it is when you are done with a project and your budget is shot? Well, my client started thinking maybe the rug was a little too extravagant and unnecessary anyway. So she cancelled. I found a decent rug at Cost Plus World Market for $399 and it worked just fine. I love when that happens.

I also love the new dish on the coffee table. It was a gift from a friend of hers who brought over cookies and told her the dish was hers to keep. Ahhh... I love that! I think it is the perfect touch and she can use it as coaster for her iced tea when she sits here and reads.

So today we worked on the downstair's guest bedroom and put some finishing touches in other rooms in her house. It all started with this bad boy:

She called me a couple of days ago and said she found a lamp at TJ Maxx and had bought it but just wasn't sure. Could I come over, she asked, and give my opinion and maybe help her pull the unfinished guest room together?  When I saw the lamp I was floored! She only paid $99 for it and I was tempted to tell her it was all wrong and then buy it off her. What a great find! So here is where I started this morning:

The room was painted last summer in Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue HC-144.  The daybed / trundle was purchased online and was a huge bargain as was the beautiful armoire that we found at HomeGoods. The room had sat unfinished through the living / dining room remodel.

The first thing I did was try out some pillows that I had made a while back and thought they just might work in the room. They did! The client had the white quilt and pillows (also from Homegoods) and the pillows were perfect. The artwork above the bed was a leftover piece from her previous living room and was about $30 from HomeGoods. When we purchased fabrics for the living room we ordered a yard of the aqua fabric that is on the bed. We didn't have a plan for it but liked it. It will be made up as a long back pillow.

The next thing we did was drag a chair from her master bedroom to see if we could use it in the guest room. The chair was purchased years and years ago the first time we did her living room. It was "okay" but never really looked all that great. This summer we moved the chair in her master bedroom and it was nice but too big for the space. So we dragged it and squeezed it though the narrow guest room door (had to take off the door to fit it in) and put it in the corner. It is not what I would choose if I could pick anything, but I have to say it works and I am very happy with the feel it gives the room.

We borrow a couple of things from other rooms (the blue vase and frame) and picked some roses from her garden to finish off the table. I would like to add a mirror on the wall behind the chair and we have a print that is being re-framed to go next to the armoire. Something like this would be fun:

{pinterest}

So that is how we spent the first hour.

Then I went around the house and hung artwork that had been previously used in other rooms ...

I love how this pulls in the colors from the living room and also the new guest bedroom.

We moved to the upstairs guest room and added the print above the bed and then moved some things around the master bedroom (which I will share later) ...

I love how repurposing old things can bring new life to a room.