Ran by Kassie Hunsgate's the other day with Mekenzie to shoot her family room. We installed it just before Christmas but recently stopped by take a few pictures. Having Mekenzie working with me has not only spoiled me but help built such a good looking portfolio. Good photography is everything and while I would love to do more of it, I will be the first one to let the professionals do their thing. This project also included my new design assistant Maggie. With such confidence in her, it was so nice to just send her over for a little bookcase styling for me and not have to worry, I knew she would do fine and she did. With all the multiple installs we did the week before Christmas, we were all scattered, Bree included, another one I have complete trust and confidence in.. so thankful for such a great team to help me pull off 7 installs in 10 days !!
So back to Kassie . . . she came to me in need of a sectional not too long ago and if you know me at all, I didn't really want to leave it at that. Yes, a sectional was a great idea for that space, but I really wanted to help her tweak the rest of the space. That new sectional not only was custom to give her the perfect style and size for the space, it pulled the area together. But I wanted a few more things to really tie it all together - accent pillows, maybe a console behind it, and her existing chairs a little recovering action. She was game.
Kassie's colors are very tone-on-tone, neutral, shades of tan, brown, and cream. I stayed with that but decided to layer in more patterns and textures. Neutrals don't have to be boring.
I worked around shades of hazel, coffee, sepia, mahogany, umber, beige, buff, fawn, cafe au lait, chestnut and camel - had fun with the thesaurus .. sorry, but all sounding so much prettier than "brown."
Kept her existing wall color, window treatments and area rug, but filtered in shades of grey and a little warm gold paint color on the back of the bookcases.
I worked on a quick design board for Kassie to give her a visual of what I was proposing . . it helped her see it.
With the new sectional, the room looks more encompassing and cozy. The neutral color allows for layering of patterned pillows.
I recovered her existing club chairs in a grey graphic and added yet another pattern for those pillows.
Her built-ins needed some styling. I sent Maggie over to give it a stab. She did a great job, wouldn't have changed a thing. I knew I had a keeper when she #1 stayed on budget, #2 took it upon herself to hand paint a few of the accessories the night before, that is so something I would have done.. love that.
The key to styling shelves, in our opinion, larger items. A few tips on styling these bookcases in this particular style room:
The key to styling shelves, in our opinion, larger items. A few tips on styling these bookcases in this particular style room:
> Books in both horizontal and vertical positions
> Try turning them backwards for a cleaner look
> Larger frames
> Keep the amount of pictures at half of what you want to do
> Mix in art
> Stagger the shelves
> Add a contrasting back paint color
> Similar vases, pots and boxes
Meet Maggie (with Izzy), filled with enthusiasm, eager to help and has a great eye.
When doing a tone on tone room, remember that patterns are the key and layer then a lot !!
Meet Maggie (with Izzy), filled with enthusiasm, eager to help and has a great eye.
When doing a tone on tone room, remember that patterns are the key and layer then a lot !!
Happy to get all pieces in prior to Christmas for them to enjoy and loved this email I received on Christmas. It made my day and loved she stopped for a minute during all the craziness to glance around and say thanks. I appreciated that so much.
