Client Project Reveal: Polished Piano Room Before & After

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a glorious weekend. We had a weekend full of family and fun as we celebrated my oldest daughter's 10th Birthday and our 14th Wedding Anniversary. Both of these served as a great reminder that time seems to be passing much to quickly and to slowdown and enjoy each and every moment. I am certainly trying to be better that!

Today I am back with a rather dramatic before and after. For this project, I  was asked to tackle the piano room in my client's home. When I saw the space, the only thing I could focus on was the big red painted fireplace. In order to achieve the elegant and updated look my clients desired, I knew we would have to change it. I wanted to modernize the fireplace by getting rid of the tapered design of the fireplace breast (that is the technical term for the area above the mantel). I had my finish carpenter build a rectangular wood box, accented with wainscot, to fit over it. The entire fireplace was then painted white. The walls also received a fresh, new coat of paint. Finally, new furniture accessories and drapery panels were brought into the space.

Here is what the room looked like before:

And now...

It's amazing what a little paint can do! I think the new fireplace breast also makes the room feel so much more elegant. I think this is the perfect space my clients' to sit and listen to their talented kids tickle the ivories. It also make me want a Baby Grand Piano of my own!

Local Client Family Room Reveal

Hello Everyone! It is Spring Break in our part of Utah, so my family and I are headed South to bask in the sunlight of some warmer weather and have some fun. Before we head out, I wanted to take a minute to share a local client project with you that I have been working on for the past few months. You may remember the makeover I gave my client's entry last year. After that was complete, she wanted to move onto her family room and give it an update. Our goal was to lighten and brighten the room, while still keeping many of the existing furnishings and maintaing my client's traditional style. Here is what the family room looked like the first time I saw it. As you can see, I had a great foundation to work with. :)

We accomplished bringing the freshness into this room in a variety of ways. We replaced the bronze sconces with some beautiful chrome fixtures. We also brought in an airy art piece to rest on the fireplace mantle. We then added a pair of urns with a lovely iridescent finish to the mantle. The biggest impact was made by reupholstering the round ottoman in a pretty new fabric and replacing the dark, traditional rug with something more transitional like this gray number from Pottery Barn.

We added new pillows to the leather chairs and sofas. The heavy wood accent table were replaced by two tables with a polished nickel finish. A pair of new table lamps helps create more symmetry in the space.  

Here's another "before" shot from a different angle...

Paint and woodwork played a major role in this makeover as well. We had the media unit painted a light gray and we added a floor to ceiling wood treatment to the wall behind the media center, which was then painted a soft white.

 I chose an ivory linen embroidered with a gray trellis pattern for new drapes which were fabricated for the family room. Finally, the kitchen table, which was black, was painted an off white and given two gray upholstered captains chairs.

The console behind the sofa will soon be replaced with a sleeker option that has a chrome finish and we are still waiting on one more set of pillows for the sofas from the fabricator. I think this room is a great example of how you don't have to replace everything in a room to update it and make it fresh. My clients loves it and so do I. I hope you like it too. ;)

Christa, if your are reading this, you know I adore you and your family. We may have met because you hired me as your designer, but in the end I gained a great friend! Thank you for inviting me into your home and trusting me with it!

Local Client Project: A Neutral Family Room

A few weeks ago I showed you a sneak peak of a local family room project I have been working on. I am happy to say that the room is almost complete. We just have a few more accessories to add, and then the space will be ready for professional photographers. I snapped a quick picture while I was at my client's home yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you.  Here is what the room looked like when I saw it for the first time...

BEFORE

and here is what it looks like now...

AFTER

The largest impact in this room was made by the floor to ceiling V-Board we had installed on two of the walls. Painting it a bright white helped create the perfect background for a calming neutral room. I used one of my favorite fabrics, Celerie Kemble's Hot House Flowers in Mineral, to bring in a subtle touch of blue. I also added a bit of soft color through artwork and accessories. I have long said that I will never tire of a beautiful neutral room. My clients are thrilled with the transformation and so am I. I adore the sweet family that resides here. They were a dream to work with. I am so blessed to have such amazing clients. I will share more pictures of this home, including the Dining area and Entry, which I also had the opportunity to design, as soon as I get images back from my photographer. 

I hope you are all having a fabulous week!

Family Room Wall Reveal

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and weekend. My Thanksgiving was lovely. My mother-in-law hosted this year and we had a wonderful time eating delicious food and visiting with our loved ones. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy stuffing my face and chatting away!  To make up for it, I'm happy to share a couple of pictures of my completed family room/kitchen wall! As I mentioned in my last post, I have always felt like this wall needed a little something to add interest to it. I finally settled on wrapping it in the same board and batten mill work that I had my carpenter do on this wall, which is located across the room from it.

Here is what the wall looked like before...

And now...

I am so pleased with the way it turned out. My carpenter had to work around light switches, outlets, and our intercom and iPod docking station. He did a great job and my fabulous painter did an equally wonderful job prepping and painting the wall. This small change has tremendous impact in the space. You'll get to see just how much impact, when I post my 2012 Holiday Home for all of you to see! :)

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my Master Bedroom Fireplace reveal with you!

I hope you are all off to a great start of your week!

Around Here...

There is pretty much no excuse for not publishing a new post for you all in almost two weeks, so I wont try to give you one. All I can say is that, like many other people, I am trying to put as many professional and personal projects to bed as possible in the next week. Speaking of personal projects...I'm at it again...adding more mill work to my home. You all know I can't get enough of it. :)
Here's a peak for you, with pictures taken using my iPhone...

I mentioned my plans for my Master Bedroom fireplace in this post. I'm so excited to finally be having it done!

This angled wall is part of my family room/kitchen. I just felt it needed a bit more oomph! I toyed around with wallpapering it, but for me, adding mill work and painting it white was the sure way to go.

As you can see everything is prepped and ready to be painted. My painter will be here later today to get it all painted. Pictures of the finished products to come! 

By the way, if you live in the Salt Lake City area, my tradesmen for mill work and painting are second to none. They do all of my client projects for me and they have never disappointed me or my clients. If you would like their information, feel free to send me an email. They are awesome!

Local Client Progress - Walls of Wood

I have the opportunity to work with some local clients who just moved into their newly built home. This has been a dream project for me.  When my clients contacted me to help them with the design of multiple rooms in their home, they mentioned that I would be working from a clean slate. They are using almost nothing from their previous house to furnish and decorate the main floor of their new two-story home. I might have done a little happy dance when I heard that! :)  We have already selected the fabrics, furniture, artwork and accessories for the spaces, but the first order of business was to add some drama to the family room area. You all know about my love affair with white woodwork. Specifically, walls full of woodwork, like this board and batten wall in my own home. So naturally, we added some to the space...in a BIG way! We had two walls covered in floor to ceiling tongue and groove wood panels! Once again, the picture below will demonstrate exactly why I am such a huge fan of woodwork.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Ah-mazing! Right? Without adding any furniture or anything else to the room, the woodwork makes the room feel so much more light and bright. I'm so happy my clients decided to take the plunge and add this element to their family room. The space is now ready to be further transformed! I'll definitely be sharing more pictures of this project after the install is complete.

Design Destination: Trim Work

Wood work, Trim Work, Wainscoting, it is called many different things, and I love it no matter what name it goes by. If you couldn't figure out what that picture in my previous post was (I can't blame you if you were stumped, it was a horrible picture), it was a picture of the chalk lines our finish carpenters put up to guide them on a project they are doing in our family room. We have decided to add some additional wood work to our home. While our home does have some wood work in it, my love of pretty painted white trim left me longing for more. Besides adding some board and batten to the family room, we are also adding 6 inch crown moulding to all of the bedrooms and the office, as well as adding some trim treatments to the kids' rooms. Don't get me wrong, some of the most beautifully decorated rooms I have ever seen have had almost no trim work in them at all. I don't think that wood work is necessary to create a fabulous space, but for me, in my own home, it is a must. If you follow me on Pinterest, this fact will come as no surprise to you. Many of the rooms in my Lovely Spaces board reflect my love of painted trim. Here are a few of my favorites...

Katie Rosenfeld Dining Room

via Traditional Home

via VT Interiors

via Scull and Oars

via

And just to illustrate my point, here is a stunning room by the incredibly talented Sarah Richardson. Notice the lack of any trim work...and yet...just as lovely as the rest.

Sarah Richardson

So, do you prefer trim work in your own home, or would you rather live without it? You know where I stand! I can't wait for all of the wainscot to go up and get painted, so I can show you the end result!