Kitchen Reveal!

I gave you a sneak peak last Friday of my sister's kitchen remodel. Here again is the "before".

And now the "after"!

The contractors were able remove the old cabinets without destroying the tile backsplash. And luckily, they were able to get more of the same tile for behind the new Thermador stove and vent.

The island was extended from two-person seating to five. A beverage bar was added at the far end of the kitchen that was previously occupied by the large sectional. 

We'll continue to reveal more of the transformation as we decide on rugs and decor, but I think the first stage of this renovation is stunning!

A few of the details:

Cabinets are Kraftmaid Holace from Home Depot. Professionally installed by RJK Construction in Chicago, IL. The cabinet color on the island is Grayloft and the rest of the cabinets, including the beverage bar, are Dove White with Cinder Glaze. 

Kraftmaid Holace Door

Bianco Romano Granite, Home Depot

Pottery Barn Seagrass Backless Barstool

Pottery Barn Bolten Light

Remember this kitchen? . . .

Six months ago (and several bottles of wine), Laura and I convinced our sister, Jamee, and her husband, Mike, to refresh their kitchen and hearth area. Here's a look at where they started. 

It hasn't been easy living without a kitchen.

Or living with contractors!

(Yes, their contractor is also a close friend!)

And here's a sneak peak of her stunning new kitchen. I'll have the full reveal and sources next week!

Deck the Walls. . . The in-laws are coming!

In the midst of the paint revolution going on at my house, I stumbled onto two great decor finds this last week. The first is a quick and easy way to add an artistic gallery wall to your home. In July I had a post  about innovative ways to fill wall space, but now that it's November and the holidays are quickly approaching, you may just need a quick gallery solution before the in-laws show up! Artfully Walls sells pre-made, pre-laid out gallery walls. Basically, a gallery in a box! 

 Artfully Walls

Artfully Walls

Let's face it. There is an art to collage walls and hanging art in an "artistic" way. Artfully Walls does the work for you!

My other wall find is an online wallpaper company called Holden & James. They specialize in designer wallpaper, as well as fabric, pillows and home decor, at a fraction of the suggested retail price. Their pricing structure is wholesale + 25% (with the exception of Madeline Weinrib items). This includes wallpapers like Clarence House Flowering Quince and Kelly Wearstler's Imperial Trellis (two of my favorites). Both of these wallpapers are normally hundreds of dollars per roll. And although the wholesale + price is not inexpensive, it will save you almost half the price. The Flowering Quince is $89/ roll (normally $150+/roll) and the Imperial Trellis is $145/roll (normally $230/roll).

 Holden & James

 Clarence House Flowering Quince

Holden & James

Imperial Trellis by Kelly Wearstler for Schumacher

Happy decking!

Snappy-Traditional, New Client Dining Room Plan

Snappy Traditional is not really a term but if it were, this client is gettin it!! When I enter a client's room I try to take a couple pieces in their room that speak to me as my window into their style and then I try to liven it up a bit, pushing them (ever so gently, of course:) beyond their comfort level to create a direction they may have not considered on their own. 

In this room I let the fact that she had several sample shades of blue on the wall and her sea grass dining chairs be the fuel for my fire. 

A BEFORE shot of client's dining room:

I also try to really listen to what they are saying and what they are afraid of as pushing them doesn't mean making them uncomfortable. My husband is dying right now somewhere! He might use bossy and outspoken as more fitting adjectives for his bride:) 

In this case I heard her say she was slightly afraid of pattern. I love pattern but it's not for me to push on someone who doesn't! So if we aren't going to let patterns make the room interesting then we better use a cool interesting shade of blue and play up our texture!! 

Here are two blue contenders! 

 


Left: "Loyal Blue" SW
Above: "Hale Navy" BM

These rich royal blues are both stunning backdrops for playing up texture and neutral colors. And even though these tones are more adventurous than some of the more grayed colors of blue she sampled on the wall, they both can compliment her traditional style. 

Lets talk about her ceiling! Architecturally, it is the show stopper in the room. And the center of it is not textured! Yay! Bonus! It is a perfect spot to highlight just a touch of pattern in a very basic color scheme.

Image of her ceiling (not a great image but you get the effect)

So I am thinking we could do a pattern using a neutral color scheme and a fairly simple pattern. Maybe something like these options, either a stencil or a paper?!?

I mentioned that she has the sea grass chairs and she wants to keep them. She also wants to keep the table and is looking to have a leaf made for it so that it can accommodate more chairs. It is a small table for the room and she has a huge dining room. She is open to changing the finish of the table. So I am going to suggest that rather than staining or painting, it would look very cool bleached out to its more natural wood tone. Something maybe similar to this perhaps?! If this isn't a possibility then I think a gray washed painted or stained look would also look great. Then on the ends I would do the wing back white chairs to contrast with the sea grass armless side chairs.  

For the chandelier I was very excited to find this awesome beaded chandelier at World Market!! This is a popular look and it goes very well with the textured look we have going on! It is a great deal and it looks awesome! 

Another possibility would be a lantern chandelier. I love the look of these and they go with many styles. 

So now for the design boards… Below I put together two possible options with some subtle differences. In this first collage I am using the more navy version of the two blues, Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore. Because it is a more navy version I am being a little more adventurous and choosing the wine colored West Elm Stella drapes that I absolutely love!! These are such a unique color! I'm suggesting possibly a white or cream colored buffet or maybe a bar cart or glass display shelf like the one pictured for displaying bar ware. I also put the lantern style chandalier with this design board. 

A closer look at the beautiful Sugar Plum, Stella (may be slightly partial to the name too) drape panels from West Elm shown in the first collage!

The next collage below is similar but adds the bolder blue paint color from Sherwin Williams, Loyal Blue. The room shown on the collage is actually done in this blue. I think it's stunning and so rich in color. I paired this bolder color with a simpler white drape panel. For something visually unique, I also suggested a buffet painted in the same color blue against the wall with maybe some over sized dramatic hardware and cool art display above it.  Another cool possibility in a dining room with so much space is to purchase an old mantle and make a faux fireplace and hearth look in the dining room! The one in the collage is a mantle with stacked wood to fill in for the fireplace. Oh the possibilities!!

Here are a couple cool rooms done in this Loyal Blue by Sherwin Williams that I am suggesting as an option in the second collage!

So what do you think?! Which color blue and design board elements would you choose for your dining room?

Enjoy and Cheers! 
{Laura}

"Dear Laura, Need More Color!" Client Dining Room Reveal

I am excited to show off this client reveal! I have been working on several dining rooms lately and I will have to admit, they are not my most favorite room to redecorate for several reasons. People often feel trapped by their dining room furniture. It's expensive to buy but it doesn't get used that much and sometimes the furniture was given to them by family and they really don't love it or they have a bunch or fancy china and serving pieces they feel they need to display but want the feel of the dining room to be casual. And you thought people had more challenges in the bedroom!! :) 

On this project there were a mix of all the dining room challenges that I mentioned above but most importantly we were trying to incorporate more color in her main level. If you follow us on Facebook you saw my little sneak peek!

But before I show you too much I have to show you the BEFORE shots right?!? This one is a shot looking in at the wall that became our fun "mirror display" wall. 

And this shot below is looking from the opposite direction. Those windows to the left don't know it yet but they are going to get dressed in one of my all time favorite fabric finds! And in a color that is one of my favorite all time "neutrals," navy blue!!!

So lets get to it and start the AFTER tour! That's what you are all here for anyway right?! 

The feature on this big wall is obviously the mirror display. This wall was an important one in the dining room because it is the first thing you see when you enter their house and look to your right into the dining space. There is also a china cabinet in the room which I will show you next. A china cabinet gives off a certain look and sets the tone for the room. We wanted to tone down the formal feel but I felt like we still needed something on the wall that complemented the glass look of the cabinet and the traditional feel of the furniture. Because of that I decided to do mirror but instead of the traditional look of having one giant mirror, I updated the look using several small mirrors to form a large one. Did I mention these are from TARGET!?!

Yes, here is where my love affair started. Good price meets a little paint and a display vision, turning this little dinky mirror into a cool dramatic look….on a budget! Thanks to my client who believed in me when I told her I wanted her to hunt down 6 of these Target Threshold mirrors and paint the inside groove a coral color!! And excuse the bottom half of my selfie! At least you can't see my undies!

After a little paint intervention!!

The lamps on either end of the table are also Target, Nate Berkus finds and were a clearance item and are no longer available, sorry!! You do not, I repeat, do not need to pay a lot for a lamp. My first lamp searches always start at Home Goods where you can find a ton of looks knocked off for less. Target is always a great place to look also. Nate Berkus has really torn up Target with his trendy home line! I have fallen victim to many of his designs:) 

The table itself is the Tanner Long Console from Pottery Barn…. I know what you are thinking! I usually try to avoid PB as I think it is way overpriced for most things. I tried to make this $100 Overstock table work---which, by the way, is the SAME exact table as this Tanner Pottery Barn table for $400!! Point made! But I needed the longer length and Overstock only had the shorter replica. PB wins this one!

The rest of the table display items were all collected on a budget. They are from World Market, Z Gallerie, Hobby Lobby, Target and Pier 1. Nothing on this table was expense! 

Lets talk drapes!! I found this fabric at a local fabric store in Carmel! I loved the pattern. I am a sucker for all things chevron. I liked how the lines were skinny though and it was more traditional looking that the chunkier modern chevrons you see. And I said this above but navy is a great neutral. It goes with anything and yet it adds color to a room. The seamstress pleated the fabric out so you could see the design even better. She did an AMAZING job! 

I told you that there was a china cabinet hutch. These often set the tone of the room but there is no reason they can't be toned down a bit to be less formal. For this cabinet we decided to change out the hardware and to mix in some more casual pops of color on the shelves rather than just displaying only china. 

This is what it looked like BEFORE:

And here it is AFTER with new hardware and a rearrangement of the display case! Most of the pictures are taken with the doors open because I had a heck of a time with the glass and the glare when the door where shut. Not the best of photogs…I will admit:)!! 

Left side of cabinet

Right side of cabinet

New and improved hardware choices. Thank you Anthropolgie! 

Some detail shots of inside. The pine cones could be replaced with seasonal items. For Christmas she could do fancy bulbs on the plates or tiny little trees or topiary! 

In the summertime or any other non seasonal time she could do something like pears or apples (see below)

These frames were found at Hobby Lobby and we took some inexpensive World Market wrapping paper and framed it for a pop of color. It just so happened to go very very well with the Anthropologie hardware on the glass doors! Win!!

These items below were found at C Wonder which is a new store front here in Indianapolis at Keystone Mall. They have lots of great display finds that are fun and priced well!

Here is my attempt to shot the whole display with the crazy glare!! At least it gives you an idea of it all together, right?! 

OK and now for the centerpiece. I hate centerpieces truthfully and I don't like to reinvent the wheel each holiday so the apothecary jars that they sell anywhere and everywhere are a perfect centerpiece as they allow you to just swap out the contents for each season. Runners are great when you can find one that goes but we made our "runner" using a Hobby Lobby long frame we spray painted gold and our World Market wrapping paper. Did I mention the rolls were $2.99. Value!!

The only other thing I may add to the room would be a rug under the table but it is not necessary. I would probably choose a more neutral color palette for the rug but something that would help anchor the table. The chandelier also needs to be centered. I am dealing with a similar issue in my own house as I have gone from a round table to a long one in our breakfast nook. Ceiling repair can be expensive so you will see in my next couple posts how I resolve covering up a hole where you move a chandelier over. Stay tuned. Hope you enjoyed the reveal. I had fun with it and thanks to my client who took a chance on color! 

Cheers!! {Laura}