Install of the Day !

Hey There !

Cohesive look, open concept, blank slate, loves all things shimmering - all words that come to me when I think of this project.  My client's Joe and Diane Hogg,  needed everything for their wide open, vaulted ceiling, Longview home.  From the front foyer you can see a sitting room on the right, dining room on the left, large family room straight ahead, all rooms that open to each other so creating a color palette and style that melds and flows was very important to me.

Where did we start?  A color combination.  What did we choose?  Whites, greys, blacks, metallic with a touch of teal, just a touch . . . like two pillows.  Last week I decided to do a full install.  What I mean by full is every single detail I felt these spaces needed.  Along with the chosen and signed off items, I brought everything else I would do to complete the look for a full visual.  Additional pieces, art and accessories from our showroom.  This full "reveal" was something I really wanted to do for Diane.  I wanted to show her exactly how all the accessories would truly complete the design. Accessories are important to really finish a look.  It's a ton of work, but it's my favorite part of the job.  

Funny enough, during my install,  Maggie was working on a project right across the street. The van was packed full and we were hustling.  Mekenzie met us at the end of the day to capture all the work. 

Take a look, and I'll walk you through.

The Foyer.  I kept it simple with a gorgeous, custom made round table created  by my go-to for all things artistic, original and one-of-a-kind.  Josh Utsey created this beautiful gold stick base table with greyish stained top.  The perfect size for the curve under the stairs.  I added a faux bois bowl with delicate maidenhair ferns.   Simple, clean and makes a statement right as you enter the home.

Immediate to your right, the Dining Room.  Diane and Joe chose this Restoration Hardware table and chairs themselves.  My goal was to bring in "designer" elements dress it up.  It started with the wall paper.  If you know me at all, wall paper is huge with me.  Seeing it finished,  I can't image this room without it.  Dining Rooms are the place to use it if you are considering paper.   It can create such drama and you just may linger a little longer after a dinner party.  It's also, typically, the first room you seen when you walk in a home so it creates a wow factor.

A crystal and distressed metal chandelier over the more casual table adds more interest.  The formal mixed with casual can keep a space from looking unapproachable.  

Bring in a center piece of course.  I chose white hydrangeas as they were a nod to the window treatments.  I wanted white and coincidentally Diane's favorite flowers.  

Upholstered, tall end chairs with simple nail head trim - Restoration Hardware.

This paper, I love.  Charcoal and silver with a touch of metallic shimmer.  An updated traditional pattern, by one of my favorite vendors.

Maggie created this Design board and I love seeing it come to life.

As you whip around, through the foyer, you'll see a very small "lounge."  This space is ideal for a simple "escape."  I wanted something dramatic.  Dark charcoal walls, lux fabric on the chairs and pillows with a patterned rug and the drama of unique pieces.  My inspiration for the space included this gorgeous piece of art which is being created by Natural Curiosities.  Didn't quite make it for the install - but on the way, it will be worth the wait.

We installed a huge five foot antique mirror, Stark antilocapra area rug and one chair . . no I didn't intend to just have one chair, the second, of course shipped but didn't make it for shoot, but you get the gist !

This rug was one of the first things Maggie chose actually.  I have done it now in each of the colorways,  I love that it looks completely different in each job!  Available in mushroom (here), carmel, navy (here) and now this charcoal.  It's a wow factor.  I try hard never to duplicate things.

Ok, so this piece - hello.  I found this console table and my heart skipped a beat.  Talk about something unique, something that will not be in your neighbor's house.  It's perfect.  Not too heavy, pops from the wall, the perfect depth and the first thing you see when you enter the room.  It's amazing . . .

Another unique piece, this set of two Ginko side tables.  No two are alike and can be used together or separate.  Now these I can order if any of you are dying over them as much as I am.  The metallic throughout the first floor isn't overdone and the combination of gold and silver in this piece compliments the large floor lamp with a hammered gold and silver base.

The chair (. . . chairs !!) in beautiful off white cut-velvet full of texture.

Art is so important in every space.  This piece by Donald Peeler (available at Shain Gallery here in Charlotte) is one of my favorites for the look and feel of this space and this home in general.  Art is personal and subjective.  When installing I love to bring over a piece or two for my client's to ponder.  It's is so much better to see it in the space as part of the design when making a decision, but art is ultimately up to my clients as it is quite personal.  

My thanks to the ladies at Shain for showing me all of Peeler's beautiful pieces and trying this one out in the space !!!

This room is all about texture and I had to include Diane's love of the furry .  .

Another piece I am trying in the space, or any other room in the home now that I have a cohesive color scheme going on, is one of Annette Cossentine's piece.  I came across this at Slate Interiors.  I love this piece - great size, texture and color, perfect on a dark wall.

On to the Great Room.   In this space needed everything.  Take a look at the finished product.

A couple of things that needed to happen immediately.  Aside from the fact they needed furniture both Maggie and I wanted (non-functional) window treatments to both soften the view and add a little drama.  These have a simple pattern and hung high for drama.

A pair of fireplace flanking sofas and single taller chair circle the room.  An upholstered ottoman with lucite legs.  Touches of gold and silver are throughout the space with just a touch of teal.  Two eye-catching pillows and an accessory here and there.  One of my favorite things here is an art piece Keith did for me.  I decided to "tack" it to the beaded board as oppose to your typical stretched canvas.  I see it as casual mixed with the dressy and frankly more "artistic."  One thing we are considering is stitching it to an upholstered grey linen board that covered all the beaded board, then incasing in lucite . . . hum - we're pondering all that !!

Under the back stairs, this beautiful console, lamp (nod to the fireplace in color and texture) and "art."  Remember it doesn't always have to be on a canvas or in a frame !

Bookcase styling is important and can be tricky.  I shopped for these pieces and collected them knowing I would use most of them.  The key is large scale, like colors and layered.  Love how this one turned out.

All the silver and grey was warmed up with the stone of the fireplace and all the gold accents I added.

Thrilled at the Great Room finished product . . .

Standing back at the front door and looking at each room we now have a pretty, styled visual to come home to !!!

all photos by mekenzie france

My thanks to everyone who help me pull off all these spaces in one day . . . Maggie made great choices, Bree orchestrated all the details, installers were awesome, my artists - Keith and Josh and great local go-to's Slate and Cotswold, thank you.

Install of the Day !

Hey There !

I have been really been looking forward to having Mekenzie shoot this install, every time I schedule it, I postpone because I have thought of something else to add.  We finished Thursday with all the details I imagined.   The rooms are fully accessorized and tweaked, perfect for a full shot.

The new home of Laura Ashley Brooks and Daniel Wilson in the Southpark area needed a game plan for the entire first floor.  I really love coming up with a fun, cohesive game plan for multiple rooms.  LA and Daniel were such fun to work with, very open to all my seemingly "out there" ideas.  I thank them for trusting me.  The best part of this install, right before Christmas - the decorated tree we surprised them with !

Let me take you back to our initial meeting . . .  Luckily the kitchen was good and needed next to nothing, thank goodness !  It opened right into the main living room.   Cabinets, finishes, coiffured ceiling - all good.  My starting point was the back of the house working forward. The biggest room was the kitchen and great room, an open concept area.  Starting there I spoke with LA and she told me about her love of peacock blue.  So it was game on creating boards for several rooms.

The kitchen as is, was great !  I especially loved the beams on the ceiling.  I wanted to bring them to life a little, so I chose this gorgeous paper set them off.

The fixture as well was good, now it just stands out a bit as well.  We added new Lucite bar stools and that was it.

But over the table, we did switch out what was there (and saved it for the front office).  I wanted something with a little more wow that complimented the island lighting and the living room chandelier.

Moving to the breakfast area, new dining chairs, and end hostess chairs with a back fabric in LA's choice accent color, peacock blue.  Their dining table was perfect.

I knew I wanted to keep the kitchen and great room a neutral and add pops of color, so I saved the peacock blue for the walls in her front office / lounge.  Many of the newer, bigger homes I work on have these large, 2 story great rooms with a center fireplace stretching up 2 stories.  Having your typical built ins on either side, in this space I chose to forgo and create something different.  They have a dog, a little dog, and like most of us . .  we hate the ugly dog crates that usually end up in the living room or kitchen.  I decided to make two flanking benches on either side of the fireplace, one being a custom dog crate !   Take a look at this image and tell me if you think it looks like a dog crate!  

I designed this crate to accommodate Napolean their 5 lb chihuahua.  I wanted to make it comfortable, easily accessible, warm, but most of all a piece that looked good.  

Ha, I love this !!

On either side of the fireplace, were two speakers, flush in the wall.  Awesome, but a pain to decorate around.  My thought was to have Keith create a pair of art pieces which let the sound come through !

We stretched long pieces of hand made paper in a frame and then painted it.  That was my solution kind of love it !

Two double-duty pieces.

Take a look at the entire great room and kitchen open concept!

 The furniture and fabric details are another thing I love.  

After I figured out the big room I worked on the foyer and the front office.  I wanted something dramatic in the foyer to set the tone.  When this paper came out just recently I new I was using it somewhere.. love it !  So in the foyer it went.

Don't be afraid to add art to a busy wall like this, and layer in all your accessories.  I found this piece by Jan Swanson at Slate Interiors and thought it was perfect.  The right colors and being dog lovers I thought they would really like it too.  One of my biggest pet peeves is a small runner in a large space.  Pull the trigger and have one made to fit, it just looks so much better !

The foyer leads you to the front office and dining room.  The office is where I wanted to create a little color drama.

I am sure this space was built to be a formal living room.  I wanted to make this a cozy office with a sitting area.  A room they would actually use !  I saved the strong wall color for this space and painted all the walls with a saturated, glossy peacock blue.  Eddie, my no. 1 painter used a good primer first, added a coat of semigloss, with a top coat or high gloss - brushed out to get that shine.

It's pretty wow and greets you right at the front door.

Two custom art pieces, Keith created.  This one mixes in these amazing stone and gold leaf cubes from a vendor of ours.  Love the texture and dimension.

These sleek, yet comfortable chairs pop with their chartreuse chenille fabric.

This rug has always been one of my favorites, new yet with the look of something old.  Shaggy and worn, with the perfect colors.

And these linen, ombre curtains, another favorite.  

This is the kind of "office" I could get some creative work done in.

I really wanted to show off the coffered ceiling.  We papered it with this gorgeous new Phillip Jeffries grass cloth.  Love the color, it's perfect with the ombre curtains we used in there and added that texture I wanted in the space.  This fixture was the one we moved from over the kitchen table.  I liked it much better in this room and it complimented their foyer fixture a mere 10 feet away.

The powder room, off the great room needed a little attention as well.  I pulled the orange from the pillows and rug into this space with this gorgeous paper.  Have fun with your powder room, why not.

Jan Swanson made another appearance in this space.  I fell in love with this bust when I saw it and though it would work well with the paper !

The dining room was actually a last minute addition.  We had decided to paint it, being that my painters were in there already, but all the furniture was something I got the green light on at the very end.  To keep it on the lower side cost wise, we recovered the seats of their existing chairs and painted their dining table in a gloss grey.  The curtains, rug, sideboard, lamps and mirror were all things I found and  filtered in at the bitter end... and so glad we did.  I gave LA a quick design board, but I think at this point her trust level was pretty high and she just let me do it... love that, thanks Laura Ashley.

Gloss grey walls, saving the pattern for the windows.  The rug actually pulls in the colors in the rest of the home, not expensive and the right look.  Working with her existing chandelier, I pulled the chrome details in the sideboard and lamps.  Love this quick fix.

Always trying to think of something different, centerpiece wise, I found this really pretty old punch bowl and cups.  A few flowers and votive candles did the trick.  I really can't get over how different their dining room table looks with about 8 coats of lacquer on it !  Thanks Chris Havey.

 all photos by Mekenzie France

I had such a good time with Mekenzie shooting this first floor yesterday, she has such a technique and amazing eye !  So happy with the finished product.  I think Laura Ashley might miss what I sneak in and surprise her with. . . but there's always the second floor and master !!

Happy Weekend, it's "Love" day.