An Interview + A Pretty Room

One of my favorite places to find inexpensive tile and flooring is Floor & Décor Outlet here in Atlanta.  They have some of the same tiles that you may find at high end stores but the prices are extremely affordable.  I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already.  They have locations in multiple states so hopefully there will be one near you.  If not, you can always purchase online.

I was thrilled when Malika, editor of their online blog, emailed me and wanted to do an interview.  You can check out the my interview HERE.

Thanks a bunch Malika!

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A Pretty Room

Chango & Co.

Have you ever heard of the design firm Chango & Co.?  I hadn’t until I saw this pin on pinterest the other day.  I fell in love with this space.  I love everything about it from the goldenrod throw to the royal blue, vintage-looking, “Lunch” sign, to the light brick on the fireplace, to the chrome industrial pendants.  Something about it looks warm and inviting while still being bright and invigorating.  I had to check out their portfolio after seeing this image.  I wasn’t disappointed.  If you want to see some more pretty images you should check out their portfolio too!  Click on the image be low to go to their site.

Technorati Tags: Floor and Decor,Chango and co.,portfolio,atlanta,interview

{Powder room redo}

I met with a new client the other day. She has a great a house, but it needs a little pop.
So, I got started in her powder room. I added some simple touches that will make a big impact.
These tiny spaces are sometimes the most fun to work with.
Here's what the room looks like now.

I put together this design board for her, so she could get the feel of the items I'm adding to the room all together.

1. Wallpaper

2. White shelves

3. Faux succulents

4. Rug
5. Light Fixture

6. Ceiling color

7. Faucet

8. Miss Mustard Seed vanity inspiration color

I can't wait to see the whole room pulled together!
Wanna redo a room in your house?
Let me help you - click here

Brizo Fashion Week

A few weeks ago I got a little email in my inbox letting me know that the people from Brizo, a faucet and bathroom accessories company, wanted to invite me (along with a select group of interior designers and bloggers) to New York City for Fashion Week.  I was thrilled at the opportunity and graciously accepted.  So off to NYC I went to meet up with the group. 

Brizo put us up in total style at the Eventi hotel in Chelsea.  They also gave us a really cool tote filled with goodies.  The first night I flew in late because of my filming schedule.  I made it into the city just in time to meet a few of my fellow Brizo Blogger 19 friends before turning it in for the evening. 

The next morning we all met again for an informative and interactive session about Brizo’s brand, their design processes and trend forecasts for the upcoming year. It was so interesting to see how their faucets are created and where the Brizo team gets their inspiration from.

We even got to see a few prototypes that will be coming out next year.  Can’t show those to you yet but you will definitely want to watch for them in 2014.  It was amazing to see the full like of products in person in multiple finishes.  I’m used to mostly seeing them online. 

From there we went to a brief session with Elle Décor on the 42nd floor of the Hearst Tower.  Then we got a tour of the whole building.  The views were breathtaking.

After the Hearst tour we went around the corner to a cooking class at Sur La Table.  This was the highlight of the trip for me.  I had never been to a cooking class before.  It was so much fun.  Definitely something I’ll be doing again.

We made 3 pasta dishes and I had some amazing cooking mates.

From Left to Right – Me, Laura Bielecki, Yvonne Blacker, and Donna Hall.

Now for the sad part of the trip.  Unfortunately, due to the blizzard that hit the East coast, I had to cut my trip short.  I was sad to go and especially sad to miss the Jason Wu fashion show and cocktail party.  From reading all the tweets and blogs I know that all of my Brizo friends had a blast at both of the events. Although I missed the last day of the trip, I still was so thrilled to be able to spend the first part of the trip with all of the wonderful people from the Brizo brand. 

Disclaimer: As a guest of the Brizo brand, my airfare and travel expenses have been comp'd.

{Upcycled Dining Room Reveal}

I have finally slept more than 6 hours in a row and I'm ready to re-visit my upcycled room at the Philly Home Show.

If you're new here, and I haven't been beaten you over the head with my home show posts (yet), let me fill you in. The Home Show happens once a year at the Philadelphia Convention Center and it seems to lasat forever. (9 days with 4 days set up). This year I have been asked to create and upcycled room. So I created the dining room below.

It starts with 3 simple walls. And when I say simple, I mean really flimsy and seems every 4 feet.

On the first day we had the custom made reclaimed floor brought in by fork-lifts.

(Thanks to J.C. Woodworking)

I decided to wallpaper most of the walls in the room.

And thanks to Skip from Decker Wallcovering it went up in a flash.

Sherwin Williams of Springhouse, PA supplied the wallpaper (which I am dying to use in my own dining room now)

The side wall was painted with flat black paint so I could use chalk on it (more on that later).

Since there are seems in the drywall every 4 feet, I needed to do something about that.

I use burlap ribbon and hot glue to solve that.

Below the wallpaper we used metal that had a former life as a roof on a barn.

Looking good so far.

Dash & Albert supplied this gorgeous spring green rug for under the table.

Fast forward about 45 hours, and you get this...

Let me break it down for you. From left to right
Favorite corner - vent from the side of a barn used as a dish rack
vintage shutter, and a fire bell retro fitted onto a vintage metal stool. priceless.

I forgot to mention that I used rope as a chair rail between the wallpaper and the sharp edge of the metal "wainscoting".

Danny's antler collection came in handy as well as reclaimed floor board wood from a construction site I passed.

Another favorite was this railroad cart turned buffet.

Need I say more?

The genius and unfiltered mind and mouth behind all these great finds is Jay. Jay has a show called Abandoned on the NatGeo Channel and several business, J.C.Woodworking and Reclaimed Relics. I could have never put this room together without Jay. A few months ago Jay gave me a tour of all his treasures. I was speechless. And with his carpentry skills and my love of vintage goodies, we were the perfect match to create this dining room.

If you haven't seen Jay in action, check out some of the videos of previous episodes on the NatGeo channel. And, if you like what you see email NatGeo and tell them you're sick of Honey BooBoo and you want more Abandoned!

(he's very shy)

The table Jay made was gorgeous and I'm pretty sure the star of the room. The wood on top is over 200 years old.

The base of the table had a former life as a pommel horse from the Scranton Lace factory.

The table raises and lowers, just like the original pommel would.

It can be table height, counter height, or bar height.

The padded part of the pommel horse became a bench at the side of the table.

Once the padded portion was removed from the base, these gears were exposed.
Jay wanted to keep the integrity of the piece, so he kept the gears and created a lazy Susan to sit on top of the gears.

Gorgeous,  right? There's so much more I could tell you about the table. But, I'll leave that for another post.

As a total bonus, Shawna Robinson, of Happy Chair sent me 2 chairs from North Carolina to feature in my room.

They were the perfect head chairs at the table. If you haven't seen Shawna's work yet, be sure to head over there and check out her chairs. You will want them all!

We added a faux fireplace with this awesome 100+ year old mantel. And with a little chalk, we had a roaring fire in no time.

These vintage thrift store botanicals were just the thing to perch in my gutter above the mantel.

Impact Thrift Stores are a local to Philly Suburd thrift store that has quickly become my go-to store.

I have purchased everything there from wool sweaters, to brass beds, knick knacks and furniture.

They kindly let me shop their stores to accessories my dining room.

My favorite is the miss matched set of dishes I used on the table.

On each side of the fireplace I used vintage windows to simulate, well. windows. ha!
I used plumbing pipes for curtain rods and hung handmade curtain panels made by
Paige Sullivan of Christine Shirley.

These gorgeous panels are made of vintage scarves and hankies. Paige makes them in curtain panels, or shower curtains. Hello! need one of those!

A last minute thought were these shutter yardstick combos that we constructed to hold all our pamphlets and business cards throughout the show.

This little number is our photo booth. While I realize you wouldn't really have a photo booth in your dining room, we made it so we could have interaction with the attendees of the show.

Last year's room was photographed so often, that we decided to add a photo element to the room.

it was a blast and a real hit with visitors.

 

So there ya' have it. Home Show 2013. I hope you enjoyed seeing how it was put together.
We met so many great people and new friends.
And, if you invited us over for a scrapple fest, we haven't forgotten.

If' you have any questions about any of the products shown here, please comment and let me know.

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