Archive for the ‘before’ Category

DEN

Monday, March 28th, 2011

That’s a new coffee table and a new chair. Let’s just get that out of the way.

Well, technically it’s a pair of new chairs, but I can only fit one in the tiny oddly laid out den. Everyone made it quite clear (and I concurred) that the new chesterfield destroyed the Eames lounger and mushed its face into the cement. This I knew when I brought in the chester amd I really wanted something to replace Mr. 670 with something like a Milo Baughman rocker (which surprisingly Emily just used on SFAS for Joy’s place and I was CRAZY JEALOUS). Since I don’t have a gazillion dollars to buy a Baughman, I went the old ebay route to look for something loosely “inspired by” and stumbled on this pair of cantilevered chrome tubular sling chairs. It had the wide 1970’s loungy vibe I was hoping for, so I made a ‘best offer’ which totally low balled the seller therefore I assumed it’d get rejected – but then they surprisingly accepted. Suddenly sh*t got real and I was obligated to arrange for local pick-up in Los Angeles, which turned into a bit of a disaster, but that’s another dumb story and blah blah blah.

Here’s the other half of the chair pair. Look at that nasty and ugly brown town upholstery. Blech.

But…I’m getting this thing redone. Navy. Leather. Sling. Or perhaps heavy duty canvas?

No cushions, no fussy crap, just a simple sling attached to the cantilever frame. Modern it up and make it super duper sex-a-fied.

Then there’s this beast. It’s new, it’s driftwood, it came from a stuffy antique store and was cheap-o until I discovered it was also an additional 40% off which means super SOLD to me. Even though, I have an army of these type of tables, none are driftwood or lightweight or have an awesome shaped top.

I love the shape of the glass but I HATE glass coffee table tops in high use areas. My big plan is to have a piece of marble cut in the same shape and size as the glass and make a crazy Saarinen tulip coffee table driftwood hybrid that I assure you, will rock your entire head off once it’s all done. At least, that’s the plan, but we all know that sometimes plans go awry.

We finally hung the Bumling lamp that I bought a long while ago off Stephanie. It totally still needs a diffuser, but those crazy Euro mm are freaking me out. I’m not quite sure what size I need.

I also need a new floating media unit to  mount under our TV. Been thinking a lot about Anna’s fauxdenza and modifying the idea to be longer and leaner and have sliding media doors. Check back in a few years, because that project is like at the bottom of my huge list.

Ines Colmorgen + André Wyst. So moody. So cool. I bet they eat fancy cheese plates and smell exquisite.

Completely still in love with the Prouvé Potence Lamp. Going to have some sweet stuff to show you soon. Let’s just say, I would like something like this to add to the den as I continue to shift and change things up and I may actually be able to…

BTW:

This is my little quick mock-up of the changes I’d like to make for DEN 2011.

+ Larger Gray/White cowhide rug. Good lord I’ve been searching for an affordable one for forever.
+ Marble coffee table top.
+ Navy leather and chrome sling chair.
+ Smallish Danish cabinet instead of the tension rod shelving unit
+ Potence-ish light
+ Horizontal modernist stain painting? Frankenthaler or Rothko? HA! YEAH RIGHT – but I do know how to oil paint.
+ BM Bear Creek paint? Maybe stop fighting the wainscoting and just go for it? Still considering…
+ The elusive fiddle leaf fig tree or a giant cactus?
+ Accessories, but dudes, that can wait.

Still a long ways to go with the den, but I see where it wants to be. More sophisticated for sure, but also a place to be comfy and eat dinner – yeah, we are coffee table eaters most of the time – so classy. I also spend about 80% of my day hanging out in here, either working at the computer or watching Deadwood so it needs to stop making my brain ache with what I don’t like.

FILED UNDER: before, decorating, den, vintage

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SOFA

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Super fresh sofa. Still steaming.

I’ve been working with some fabulous clients and helping put together their incredible desert home. Just thought I’d preview a recent sofa project since its roots are quite thrifty, and frankly, I’m obsessed with sofas.

BEFORE:

The sofa came from a local thrift store and with its original grungy/filthy crushed velvet upholstery it looked a hot mess…

…but it had curves and comfort and was the perfect scale and shape for the intended living room…

AFTER:

Shazamm.

Reborn as a red hybrid baby of a Toga and a Chesterfield, this thang is all modern and all comfortable – a bona fide TV viewing hang out snuggle up and down sofa.

For some reason my pics are making it look like super crazy neon red, but it’s actually a more toned down rusty red-orange in person. That desert sun, it’s bright – I’m telling you.

Total cost wise it was commensurate with a nice Ikea sofa and cheaper than the big decor stores like West Elm or Room&Board. Plus, this thing is built like a freaking tank, is totally unique and the hardwood frame will last forever. I just thought this idea was something to mention when folks pass on vintage sofas because the upholstery is a gross mess. It might be worth investing a few hundred extra dollars to get it recovered so that you can incorporate something totally unique into your pad.

Things are chugging along with the design projects and I can’t wait to show off more completed spaces as they get finalized. Trust me, it will blow up your face – that’s how good this stuff is coming along.

FILED UNDER: after, before, brick house design, consulting, thrifty

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Enough Already

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

A long while ago I mentioned that I was working with fancy set decorator and all around super star Laure Joliet on a TV makeover show. Well, it’s finally started airing on that new Oprah network and is called Enough Already with Peter Walsh. Laure already wrote a pretty awesome post explaining the whole shindig and the great folks involved like art director Mike, Heather, Barry and the whole crew. Laure also so kindly let me use her images below (did I mention she is also a killer photographer? I know, she is annoyingly good at everything) since with the madness of the schedule I never did get a decent shot.

When I say madness, I mean utter and complete madness.

Did I also mention that the show was about organizing and designing spaces for people with “extreme clutter” issues? Not quite hoarding, but teetering on the edge of the bell curve. Above is the “before” image of the dining room that Laure grabbed with her iPhone while they scouted the home.

How it worked was that in four days we had to remove everything, sort through it all, shop for essentials, install flooring and wall treatments and then makeover two to three rooms. During that time they are also filming things as well, so logistically it was nuts.

They were long – very very very long – and exhausting days but also incredibly exciting and fun. It seriously takes a huge bunch of folks to make these sort of transformations happen that quickly and everyone was surprisingly chipper and helpful and so well organized. It was a great team to be apart of.

Boom. Check out that blue grass cloth.

Look that’s a dining set! It was totally buried in that pile before, but now you can sit down and use it. Whenever possible we tried to reuse the owners original possessions and incorporate them in the new design. I liked that it wasn’t just about gutting everything and starting over, but that we truly did attempt to show how they could use their existing pieces to create a more cohesive and “designed” room.

See where that clock is and that little bit of credenza poking out under that big lamp? That’s this fireplace and this credenza (to the right) after we finished:

We also reused their existing chairs and added a rug and coffee table and lots of fancy pillows.

I’m proud of my fireplace vignetting – totally taking credit for that – but Laure found that really cool driftwood mirror!

With all the art we tried to take family pictures and enlarge them at Kinkos as well as reuse pieces they already had. Did you know that Kinkos can be kind of weird about that? Yeah. Seriously. I may have gotten into a bit of a tussle one late night with a Kinkos manager about enlarging a baby picture. Just be forewarned if you want to try to enlarge some family or personal photos, if the photo looks too “pro” they might freak out.

We got them this great sofa (which was a floor model from Blueprint) and a fancy new bubble lamp. Styling.

The other major room we tackled was their master bedroom. Don’t be fooled, Elmo is terrified.

Here’s the after.

So nice right? We installed hardwood floors and obviously had a major hook-up with a grass cloth company since there’s more nice grass cloth on the walls. I think it came out pretty well. Simple, relaxing and clutter free. Not like a scary pea green dungeon.

Thanks again to Laure for letting me use her images and for letting me join the crew. It was super awesome fun crazy exhausting, but ultimately warmed the cold little modernist cockles of my heart. It was incredible to see how utterly transformed these homes could be in just a few short days.

If you guys want to check it out on the TV – Enough Already airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Mondays at 8pm.

FILED UNDER: after, before, consulting, decorating, travel, tv

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