Recent Redesign - Pre-teen Bedroom

 Pre-Teen Bedroom Redesign:

 This was a "weekend" project commanded, er, I mean, commissioned by a close friend for her daughter. It started as a quick consult and snowballed into a one week whirlwind surprise with me doing my best drill sergeant "cut the clutter" routine.  (She'll have my head for saying that if she's reading this). Much of the changes to the room came from space planning, color coordinating and layout and since turnaround was fast, there were a few well-intentioned ideas that went unfinished like roman shades. The room has a steep roof-line and boxed out vent shafts to work around, so I played with the layout a bit. By moving the bed to the wall it's on, we gave the funky spaces on either side of the bedroom more purpose. The area with the mirror (where the bed used to be) is now a dressing area with a large bureau (off camera) and a small bookcase for accessories.

 On the opposite side of the room under the roofline, we added low shelves with easy-to-access bins of different colors for clothing and smaller storage needs. To the right of and perpendicular to the low under-eave shelves is a hanging rod making that entire under eave area one big open closet.

Just outside of the bedroom was a makeshift work and play area. The ledge under the window was used as a storage shelf and a small table in front of it doubled for a desk. Since she wanted a new desk for the space anyway and her daughter loves crafts, I suggested making the area a designated craft table with use of the ledge as a windowseat. I love big desks for working. I like to spread out and craft projects need that kind of workable space. The desk is Ikea as are the pink acrylic scoop chairs (which I love). 

 More than workable space, though, pre-teens and teens need "hang-outs", so the alcove facing the craft table got some low zebra chairs, a fuzzy pink rug and a newly painted white gloss side table.

Due to time constraints and the impending arrival of the daughter, we had to leave some of the "polishing" for a later date. I'd have tweaked the bookshelves within an inch of their life had I time and we'd have cleared out more around the craft table given days and nights of "do I really need all 50 shades of that blue paper?" conversation. (She'll have my head for sure after that comment).

Check back in soon. I hope to be posting more shortly. In between orchestrating my 4 kid's extra-curriculars, resolving homework headaches and working on some new and very exciting design projects,  I will be updating our blog.

Recent Redesigns- Home Office and Guest Room

So much has happened since the last post, it's hard to know where to begin. Many of my projects are still under construction, but here's a sneak-peak at some of my recent redesigns that are close if not ready to seeing the light of day:

Home Office Redesign:

Office After

Office Before

This room was always meant to be an office, but rarely got used for that purpose. The family was transitioning in and out of spaces as their needs changed.










For color punch, I added an accent stripe on the east wall over the desk in the same cinnamon as the drapes. I had it out-lined in a simple picture frame molding that we painted gloss black. We went through several furniture options for this room, but ultimately landed on this one due, oddly enough, to the narrow 28" width of the office door. Many desks ship fully assembled and in order to make the tight turn into the office from the 3' wide hallway outside, we needed a desk that came or could be un-assembled and then could be re-assembled once through the door. After confirming the specifics of their shipping methods, we ultimately chose the Ballard Tuscan Desk set. The additional appeal of this set was the coordinating media cabinet, which, in this space, faces the side of the desk (you can see it's front left corner on the bottom right of the photo). It has 2 glass cabinet doors which allow for all wi-fi equipment to work un-interrupted behind closed doors.

Guest Room Redesign:

In addition to the office, the homeowners asked for the "costco overflow" room to be re-envisioned as a usable guest room and retreat for the wife. Over the daybed (with trundle), I added a conversion kit pendant light to soften the space and add intimacy. I wish you could see the bed fabric a little better, It's a light blue base with a white elongated hex print. I will post better quality photos on our website when the room's are finished.

Guest Room Before

Guest Room After

To the right of the bed is a Pottery Barn drop-down writing desk with smart technology. It has two electrical receptacles, a telephone jack, a data jack and one USB port.

The Finished Product!

It's been a whirlwind.  There's been a little blood, a good amount of sweat, more than a few tears and lots and lots of laughs, but we are proud to present you with...

The Reader's Retreat!

I will talk you through this as if you were coming on the Showcase tour. (And if you're in the Pasadena area, I highly recommend you take the tour! It is open through May 19th.)

We added the built-ins to make the best use of the space under the eaves, which cut quite low and tend to be impractical space to access. By adding the built ins, we not only gave the homeowners ample storage (honestly, check out how much storage that is!), but the light paint also brightens the room. The built ins also eliminate the need for a bulky dresser or armoire, so even though they remove some of the floor's square footage, the room appears much larger and is more efficient. Yes, those are drawers under the window seat, too! And that beautiful painting, painted by Southern California native Janet Bothne, hides a TV on a swing arm, easily pulled out to be viewed from the bed, then tucked away when you don't want to see it anymore. (It is the Reader's Retreat; we don't want anyone to know you've been cheating!) The arch in the sculpture niche reflects the arch on both the headboard and the valance over the window. And speaking of sculpture, this bronze by Monica Wyatt (also a Southern Californian) is called "Learning to Fly". It's pretty perfect for our mother-daughter design team!

Because the room is east facing, it receives a lot of light in the early morning. But as the day goes on, the room can get quite dark. Because of this, we wanted to play up the light in the room as much as possible. Most of the fabrics and finishes in the room were selected for their reflective quality. The panels flanking the bed are actually an abalone shell wallpaper we backed with gator board and framed as art! They are extremely light-weight, add texture to the room and reflect the light differently during different times of the day. The grass cloth wallpaper is backed on a silver paper, so it also adds shimmer to the room. The vinyl window seat cushion is practical as well as reflective. One of the biggest hits in the room is the organic vine stencil on the ceiling. Artist Michael Sullivan added a bit of silver metallic paint to our cabinet color to create the iridescent champagne finish on the ceiling. It looks different depending on the time of day and on the light source. It was gorgeous this week with the cloudy skies outside.

The custom bed was created using the ikat (apparently pronounced ee-kot) fabric we showed you in our inspiration board. We pulled the citron, plum and silver tones from it to use throughout the room. In the corner, you can see the art deco chaise that was also one of the original inspirations for the room. Actually this is the first thing you see as you enter the room. (I'll post a closer picture of it in another post.) We designed a C table specifically for the chaise. It will swivel so that the reader (or napper, as the case may be) can easily get into and out of the chaise. Above the chaise are two more paintings (a diptych), which, unlike its corresponding mate on the other side of the window, does not open to reveal a hidden TV or the cocktail bar we wish, at this point, we'd thought to include. They are just a beautiful "Lavender Haze" also painted by Janet Bothne. The Feiss chandelier, though new, seems to fit with the era of the chaise.

We will also add a closer picture of the beautiful antique jacobian tortoise shell dressing table. It took some fancy footwork to get it in, but it fits like a glove in the space! The cross-leg chair also shares the ikat fabric. Looking to the right of the dressing table is the closet (filled with plum, citron and silver clothes belonging to members of our team!) and to the left is the bathroom...

We wanted to create the most efficient use of space in this small bathroom. We removed a tub, linen closet and a 24" deep vanity that visually consumed the small room. We replaced the tub and linen closet with a wall-to-wall walk-in shower so that you see both back corners of the bathroom when you walk in. The lack of a shower door also eliminates visual barriers. (And, yes, it does work. We did demonstrate to the homeowners that water would not splash all over the bathroom!) Michael Sullivan worked his magic on our custom designed, now-only-18"-deep vanity as well, creating a multiple-layer striae finish. The Kohler "Spun Glass" undermount sink adds more sparkle and surprise. The mirrored panels reflect the light and add a sense of space and all elements of the vanity (even the panels above the vanity mirror and in front of the sink) open up for storage. The Walker Zanger tiles are a beautiful warm grey that add light and interest to this small space without overpowering it.

Please come visit us at the Pasadena Showcase House now through May 19th. We'd love to have you see the room in person. You, too, will wish to be curled up on the chaise, relaxing in the Reader's Retreat!

Our Fabulous Subs - Part 2

So, we have to back-track a bit. Photography was this morning. The room is done, but I want to go back to last week's progress when every day was chock full of changes.  Here's where we were a week ago today: After Richard Stewart's painting team finished the cabinets and ceiling, our specialty artist, Michael Sullivan of Michael Sullivan Art started on the ceiling stencil (picture below) which will be replicated on the bathroom walls. He'll also work his magic on the bathroom vanity which he is painting in an iridescent silver striae pattern.

 The bathroom has been tiled. Jim Nasra of G. N. Custom Tile has brought the vision to life. He installed a floating marble bench, marble vanity counter and marble shower curb today to complete the look (not yet pictured). Here's an early photo of the shower wall tile with the white ceramic penny round shower floor:

During move-in week we saw some of our custom pieces arrive: the fabric bed in the Pindler Ikat, our Belgian oak nightstands, our abalone wall panels framed in a painted sterling silver frame from Roma through Fast Frame La Canada and our alabaster table lamps from Schumacher.

The next few days will see even more changes: Bathroom trim installed, drum chandelier and bathroom sconces hung, bedding arranged, accessories placed and final artwork hung. To be continued.. 

Our Fabulous Subs- Part 1

We’ve been moving full steam on our Reader’s Retreat space at Showcase and are less than 2 weeks out from completion. This is when vision meets actuality. In the next week and a half, we will be installing tile, a custom bathroom vanity, final lighting, plumbing trim , shower glass doors, wallpaper, abalone shell panels, all furniture and accessories, draperies and bedding. This week so far has seen the brazilian cherry color of the floor turn ebony, drywall patching cover exposed lighting runs and lath and scratch coat cover the walls of the shower stall.  Our master schedule is updated continuously throughout the day as we adjust for  labor availability and unforeseen delays. It is a juggling act to say the least and we have hit our far share of drama. What project undergoing a change this massive this fast wouldn’t? we will try to cover all the steps to come, but first, I want to go back 2 weeks when our bedroom built-ins were installed. We have been incredibly lucky. We have had some wonderful craftsmen working alongside us throughout this process, often donating their time, labor and materials. Our cabinets were built in sections by two different woodworkers who needed to work together to make them look seemless:

The East wall (windowseat wall) was built by Richard Kolarik of Kolarik Cabinetry in Sunland. He is also building a custom zebrawood trey table we designed to reach across the plum chaise we’ll be installing in next week. This is his wall:

The South wall (display cabinet wall) was built by Gary Hagen of Hagen’s Woodworks out of Glendora. He is also in the process of building our bathroom vanity.

We cannot say enough wonderful things about both woodworkers. As designers, we look for craftsmen who make it easy for us to dream big. Richard and Gary are  positive thinkers, can-doers. They might rein us when the creative urge exceeds the project budget, but they are always solution oriented.  We highly recommend them both. This project is only as good as the people who have generously leant us their time, materials and skills. We think their work speaks for itself.

In the days to follow the cabinet installation, we had our painters, Richard Stewart Painting (Sunland) prime them and paint them in Dunn Edward’s Limestone with an eggshell finish. Take a look at their meticulous work:  

We have so much more to come and it will come fast in the next 10 days:

Flooring refinishing updates and pictures, the Kravet abalone shell wallcovering will be backed and framed for wall panels, bathroom tile from Walker Zanger and plumbing fixtures from Kohler’s Purist line and their new Flipside handheld will be installed. Stay tuned….

Master Bedroom Redesign

When we are caught up in lengthy interior design projects, we love to get the immediate gratification of a redesign or staging job. With interior design, we wait months, sometimes years, to see the final outcome of our efforts, but a redesign or staging can take just days to see the light. Here's a redesign project we just finished. Our client asked that it be a surprise for her husband's birthday and after several months of planning, we installed everything in the last 2 days while they were out of town.

The room has wonderful south/western exposure. It's a large room with all day light, a feature the client wanted to maintain through soft, light-filtering window treatments.

Two of the client's requests were that a writing desk be included in the new layout and that the balloon roman shade over the window-seat be replaced with something less formal.

Working with the mint green of the walls and the camel color of the window-seat cushion proved more difficult than I expected. Neither color is well-represented in most home decor stores at the moment. Aqua is everywhere. Mint, not so much. So, we looked for complimentary colors. I came across the bedspread first. It became our inspiration for the space. It combined mints, camels, celadon green and a purple silver. I leaned heavily on those colors for accent items: pillows, desk lamp, dresser decor.

Finding a King headboard in stock or getting one made and delivered within a few week turnaround was another challenge.

 Here is the desk we found for her at an auction. It's Italian made and amazingly fit in our budget. I love using antiques when I can. They add an air of formality and history to a room.

   

The dresser and side table have been with our client since college. Since they had cedar-box drawers and could eliminate buying costly new pieces, I decided to explore their growth potential with paint and an updated look.

 

Before

After

The side tables got 4" furniture feet to give them some elegance. They got painted silver with purple undertones to coordinate with the bedspread and I changed out the hardware on all 3 pieces from the wood knobs to antique bronze pull rings that coordinate with the drapery hardware. 

When we talked about drapery options, keeping the windows light and airy was of top priority. I suggested a sheer drape which would be whimsical and light, but with a natural fiber roman shade to give the smaller sized windows weight and the illusion of greater width.

 

Before

 

After

The chest the client had at the foot of the bed is beautifully made. It has bird's eye maple panels and is cedar lined. I could not, in good conscience, have painted it and since I also felt it was disproportionately sized for a king bed, we changed it out for an open-legged bench.

For an unexpected pop of color against the mint walls and the blue/green of the headboard, I put celadon sheets on the bed and added a grouping of 3 green glass vases to the dresser.

Inspiration

When we found out that we would be designing a room at the Showcase House, we dove in headfirst. The Showcase committee gives all the designers a broad series of color palettes from which we can choose. Initially, we tended towards browns with pops of orange and cinnamon. And then, after a trip to the Design Center, we mixed things up and did a 180. 

This beautiful ikat fabric turned our heads immediately.  It changed our color palette and the whole direction for the room.

As you can see, browns went the way of silver.  We love the rich plums and the golden citron color.  The silver tones create a cool and calming contrast to the more lively plum and yellow-green.

The fabric became our jumping off point.  A Queen size, fabric bed will be covered in it.  Bold, we know.  But right away we knew we were heading somewhere exciting.  If we’d had any doubts about this more vivid color scheme, they soon dispersed.  The next day we found this beauty…

The chaise is a 1920's art deco piece covered in plum velvet. It became our other major inspiration in the room.  Its color helped direct the space and its purpose as a "place to lounge" encouraged our reading room theme.  We are having the legs of the piece re-stained to blend into the newly re-finished dark wood floors.  We love that the piece has that vintage, retro, glamorous feel while its color gives it a modern pop.

The combination of classic and modern is an aesthetic we really love at Strong Studio Designs.  This ikat fabric is a current, formal take on its ethnic origins while the chaise is a nod to a time gone by.  We definitely wanted to incorporate more art deco elements in the room.  Remember this little nook? 

In between the bathroom and the closet in a small hallway, it could easily be wasted space.  But you know we like to use every nook and cranny we can.   We found this gorgeous table, which was so meant to be.  It fits perfectly!

The tortoise shell vanity table is also art deco.  It is French art deco and will anchor the dressing hall space.  It features a glass top, turned legs and tortoise shell facing.  We are currently on the hunt for the perfect vanity table chair to offset the tortoise shell table veneer.

We have so many incredible elements in the room.  We can’t wait to show you more!