Shoes, shoes & MORE shoes!

Ohmigosh!  I was flipping through the pages of Ballard Designs and ran across this beauty.  This storage piece is a shoe & handbag lover’s dream!  The best part is that you can add on to it.  When you hit up the Memorial Day shoe sales this weekend, just keep enough room in the budget for this baby and you’ll be good to go!

Happy shopping!!

Office Space

Do you remember that movie, Office Space?  That crazy guy in suspenders would always ask for the TPS reports.  The guy that wore the glasses was obsessed with his stapler and nobody would ever tell him he was fired.  Jennifer Aniston worked at a Friday's knock-off.  I'm sure there are a lot of us that would love to change something about our office space.  The colors are drab.  The furniture is held together with duct tape.  Your cubicle feels too institutional.  The carpet is from 1972.  Sadly, if the problem is your boss, your co-workers, or your desire to date Jennifer Aniston I'm not going to be of any help.  But if a cosmetic makeover is in order, I'm your gal!

Recently, I wrapped up a total transformation of a local office space.  The business had been in the same space for 10 years.  When faced with some challenges, the options were to move or to renovate.  They chose to renovate.  Enter me.

When we began there was a small room blocked out in the main area that chopped up the poorly lit office.  On top of that, everything- carpet, desks, walls and ceiling were beige.  So as you can imagine, it left a lot to be desired for the business owner and her employees.  They took this opportunity to update the style of furniture, blinds and art that was housed in the space.  The result was a sleek and colorful new office with an open floor plan!

Every employee received an ergonomic desk chair with a stylish fabric on the seat.  Streamlining the back work stations and opening up the wall to the kitchen area makes the space feel larger.

What once was a private office, has now become an intimate conference room for office meetings and private discussions with customers. 

 A major problem with afternoon sun bouncing off the cars outside was solved with some new window shades that also added to the office's sleek new aesthetic.

 
The warm color scheme (Sherwin William's Harvester, Folksy Gold, Marshmallow & Concord Buff), rich wood tones and extra details like the crown molding now invite employees and customers alike into the space.

Pssst....Be sure and tell your boss that under section 179 you can write off all furniture purchases made for an office space this year (instead of over 7 years, like in the past).  That's a sure-fire way to get that office makeover you are dying for!

Better late than never!

Whew!  Life has been a whirlwind lately!  My busy season is in full swing and I am overjoyed with the amount of work pouring in.  That said, I HATE that I have slowed my blogging efforts.  I want to share some of the things I have been doing so you can get a glimpse into my world.  The next few blog posts will be about some of those projects.  I hope you like!

In honor of Derby, here is a custom lawn jockey I painted for a client.  

 

What fun this was to take the statue from bland, roughed up concrete to the finished product! I hope to add more of these to my portfolio because the project was so much fun!

 I'm already prone to selecting my Derby horse according to the silk their jockey is wearing.  Now I will likely dissect the silk in my mind as to how it would layout on one of these lawn statues.  Weird, I know! 

Happy belated Derby!

Magnetism

Few things excite me more than finding a unique solution to a challenge. Sometimes the answer comes right away and sometimes I have to think on my presented obstacle awhile.  One of my favorite challenges of late was deciding what to do with this door.  

This space had to go from a home office to a toddler's bedroom, thus an outside door wasn't a positive feature.  At our first meeting, the clients proposed having their handyman fill in the door and seal it off.  What they needed my help with was hiding it.  We decided an armoire would be a good solution.  Easier said than done.  No furniture piece was tall enough to completely cover the former door opening.  A custom piece really didn't make sense in this instance, so I was back at square one.

As someone who is in love with my profession and an avid reader, my head is always buried in magazines and websites to learn about new products and ideas.  So, I started to think back to some of the pages I pulled from decorating magazines as inspiration.  I went to the file where I store those tattered edge pages and started digging.  Aha!  There it was.  The answer to my conundrum.   I didn't have to hide the sealed doorway, I could use it to our advantage.

I reconvened with my clients and presented the option of either turning the old doorway into a chalkboard OR a magnet board.  A women after my own heart, the idea of cleaning up chalk dust did not appeal to the mother of the toddler so we went with the magnetic option.  We kept the doorway framed out and painted it to match the rest of the woodwork.  The door received a coat of RustOleum's magnetic primer and then the wall color- Sherwin William's Resolute Blue overtop of it.  The result was a place for creativity to ensue.

In the Navy

If you haven't noticed, navy is making a big splash these days.  Navy, black and brown are always colors that are used by designers to ground a space.  None of these ever go out of style, but there is always one shade that is a little more popular than the others.  This year it is definitely navy!  Everywhere I look- from Ballard Design catalogs to House Beautiful magazine spreads to product in local shops- navy is front and center.  What I love about the color is it offers a softer contrast to other colors.  

When paired with white it is a crisp look, but not harsh to the eyes. 

There are beautiful fabrics that utilize navy.

Lampshades are adorned with the color.

 

Area rugs are showcasing the shade.  

 Join the NAVY!