Fun in Florida

I have a client who wanted her Naples condo redone with bright, fun colors that would showcase her needle work and her collection of colorful bird and fish sculptures. She also wanted the redo to provide more sleeping and seating space than the old arrangement had provided. I think I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Exterior Gratification

Finally! Memorial Day this past weekend ushered in summer. And Man! Have we been waiting a long time for this. The winter of 2009 was the worst in a long time and it is a distinct pleasure to be able to get out to our backyards and porches. Here are just a couple of relaxing and inviting exterior spaces to be enjoyed for the next few months. If you have something like this, enjoy! If not, get out there and create one for yourself.

The Original "My Space"

Nobody really likes hearing stories that begin with "When I was a kid....", but here goes anyway. When I was a kid 'my space' (though we didn't exactly use that term) meant your bedroom. And if you were lucky, your bedroom was truly your bedroom-meaning not having to share it with a sibling.

Recently a favorite client of mine came to me hoping I could help her surprise her daughter with a room redo. She wanted to give her daughter a space that was designed just for her and she wanted to put some mom sweat-equity into the space by making the drapery and some of the bedding with her own two loving hands. That struck me as very special ( it's been a long time since I've run across anyone doing their own sewing) and I couldn't wait to get going on the space.

First off Mom picked the main drapery fabric and began sewing away. In the meantime, we chose a coordinating paint color and decided to paint walls and ceiling all the same-enveloping her daughter in a really soft sea of green. We skirted a niche to create a vanity space. Then we did a bit of furniture rearranging-placing the bed in front of the window and using the drapery to softly frame it.

Finally, we hung some antique looking mirrors and pictures around the room to play up the refinished white antique furniture. The result is a really cozy space that her daughter can truly call her own.

I wasn't there for the unveiling, but I heard it was a huge success and beyond her daughters' wildest dreams and her special space has now become the local hangout.

I'm So Pretty

I just have to say that I am one lucky designer. All of my clients are really great and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Recently I finished a project that just wants to scream for itself "I'm So PRETTY!" And it makes me happy to

visit my client and see how much she loves her house.

I am by no means taking all of the credit here. It was a complete collaboration of tastes and style. My client and I bounced a lot of ideas back and forth and spent a lot of time deliberating fabrics and colors and, in the end, came up with a look that is classic, comfy and elegant-something her husband really wanted to convey.

You might want to take a minute or two and click on these photos to enlarge them. Look around the room and notice the elements that give it the qualities I mentioned before: large comfy furniture and 'sink in and cuddle up' fabrics and fillings, dramatic windows and window treatments, large scaled lighting fixtures, antiqued moldings and beams, patterned carpeting and little 'pops' of that dreamy aqua here and there.

No doubt the room has a lot of built in drama with it's vaulted ceilings and arched openings, but sometimes those features can make a room feel sterile and cold. Many times I've found that when folks buy a home with those kind of details, they want to decorate around them-letting those details keep the focus of attention. In this room, I feel like we've done a good job of spreading the attention all around the room -end to end, top to bottom and everything in between-it's all fun to look at. I hope you think so too.

Before /After

I recently had the privilege of working with a really great couple who have a vacation home on one of our city's great streets near the lake. They spend very little time in Chicago-a few weeks in the summer-yet when they are here they love it. And why not? They are in a great location in a great city at the greatest time of the year...remember how nice summer is in the city? (sigh!).....but anyway...

Initially they were looking to replace the living room sofas and possibly the window treatments. The Mrs. dearly loved the window treatment fabric and was not going to easily part with it. However, despite the fact that it was a lovely Clarence House fabric, it was over 25 yrs old and was showing it's age. We began the fabric search thinking to replace the beloved fabric with, if not the identical fabric, then a close relative.

Showroom after showroom failed to produce an acceptable facsimile of the original Clarence House fabric and it was with a great leap of faith that my client decided that if she couldn't have the original, she would go with something entirely different. For my part I was hoping that she would cross that line as I really feel strongly that if you're replacing, why not REPLACE!!? Change the look, the feel and the mood of the room. Don't be scared now.....I know, when you're comfortable with something it's hard to picture anything different, but OH! it's so fun to get that whole new look while still keeping some treasured pieces.

As you can see from the photos, the drapery is new in both fabric and style, as is the layout of the room and we added not only new sofas but also 2 new chairs and an ottoman. We've also added quite a sizable mirror, but they did keep some pretty impressive pieces that they love-the grand mirrored coffee table and Stickley grandfather clock to mention a couple.

So when you are inclined to think you'd like a change but are afraid that involves changing everything and spending a great deal of money, remember you can keep most everything if you are willing to make one MAJOR change that will affect the entire look of your room.

Vignettisizing

I'm pretty sure that I made up that word-vignettisizing-many years ago when attempting to describe to a client what we were going to do with a niche of shelves in a wall in her entry. I wanted to make the niche interesting and pretty and not just a catch-all for stuff she didn't know what else to do with.

I think that display areas are a tricky thing for a lot of homeowners, which is too bad because they can really make or break the overall appeal of a room. There are a few tricks to making bookshelves look great. In general you want to follow these few simple rules:

-use the '3' rule-place 3 exact items on one shelf-i.e.

3 potted plants, 3 glass apples, 3 carved boxes-you get the idea.

-stagger the shelves. for instance if you are using mostly books and you do not have enough books to completely fill all shelves (an interesting look all on it's own), then place most books at one end of one shelf, at the opposite end on the next shelf, on their sides on some shelves and standing upright on others.

-add at least a little bit of greenery: ivy works well as does philodendron.

-vary the size of objects you place on the shelves.

-add a few family photos, if possible in varying size frames.

The thing about interest in these spaces is to play for a while with what you have. Putting things in and then moving them around is the way to figure out what is going to be most pleasing to you-and that's the important thing: that you like what you're looking at and that it has some meaning to you. For instance, my fiance has his shelves filled with only books and family photos. It's meaningful to him because he loves to read (and believe me, he will NOT put a book on the treasured shelves if he didn't enjoy reading it!) and he loves his family.

So take some time to fill your shelves with things you love in a way you love looking at them-and if it doesn't work the first time, don't be afraid to play some more.