Design Board - Whimsical Modern

Here is the latest design for a client who has 4 very active and creative kids.  They had recently finished out their basement when I came on board to help make the plain-ole-nothing-to-talk-about-basement into a fun, and engaging spot for the kids to hang out as well as the whole family.   The basement is devoid of any furntiture except the children's IKEA red and blue barrel chairs.   My client also loves a casual, whimsical look in general, so that was a win-win between the kids and parents.  However, I wanted inject some clean lined furniture pieces and a crisp contrast with black and white to give an air of sophisitication as well.


Stay tuned for the final after shots.......

Kids Basement by MRShadrick featuring tops

Spring in near.....Staging advice

With the spring real estate season approaching, I thought I would share a little staging vs non staging advice.   Sometimes the hardest part about being a stager is convincing a client that they should follow through with most if not all of my recommendations.   I can't blame them entirely since I am asking them to spend even more money on a home they are about to leave.   I wish I could show them the future just as Ebeneezer Scrooge saw his future of doom.   


Well, as is happenend I can show you almost that very scenario.  The condo right above our place was put on the market last September. It was renovated extensively about 7 years ago and is a 4 bdrm/2bath.  List price: $475,000.  Exactly one week later,  another 2nd floor condo one street over was also put on the market. This house had just been gutted and renovated by a builder.  Its a 3 bdrm/2 bath. List price: $489,000.  


As it turned out, I did not stage the property above us even though my landlord did ask my advice.  Advice was given, but unfortunately advice was not taken.  One of the items I suggested doing was repainting in more neutral colors as they were strong colors that wouldn't appeal to a broad market. The colors also made the rooms look smaller.    The other condo one street over used very "of the moment" neutrals. 
I also suggested staging some furniture, particularly in the open living room/dining room/ kitchen area.


Here are pictures of the two condos:

The verdict?  The condo one street over sold 2 months later, November 1st.  The condo upstairs from us lowered the asking price to $440,000 and finally took it off the market January 1st without any buyers.


There you have it folks. There are many factors involved in getting a house sold, but staging can play a very important part!

Matchbook Magazine

Always on the hunt for a great new read, I just heard about another new online magazine via Design Sponge that launched this month called Matchbook Mag. Its a lifestyle magazine for women and is chalkfull of fun stuff like fashion, interiors, travel, art and culture. Check it out here.   
Perhaps with yet another snowstorm coming our way tonight, I will have cancelled appointments tomorrow, and I MIGHT get to peruse this mag in more detail over a hot cup of morning coffee..... (long pause) but I'm not counting on it with the kiddos: )

Photographing Cora's first year

In honor of Cora going for her 6 month check up tomorrow, I thought I would show a photo project I am in the middle of doing.  I've taken a picture of Cora each month since she was born, and after her 12 month photo I am going to make a photo collage of all the months combined.  I always think its a nice way of documenting a child first year without plastering pictures all over the wall.  Originally I had the intention of buying a 12 month size white onesie and taking a picture of her in it each month until she turned one, but I never made it out to grab said onesie.  Instead, I used her birth announcement picture as my guide.  Each month I have taken a picture of Cora in the same position and same spot on our sofa.

Here is the original shot when she was 3 weeks old.

Here are the subsequent shots from month one to six:

1 mo.

2 mo.

3 mo.

4 mo.

5 mo.

6 mo.

Now that I've put them together like that I notice an unintentional trend of red, white, and blue clothing going on.....hmm, well she was born on July 2nd.   Ironically, this is what my living room looks like:

I see a color pattern going on.  Well, people often decorate in the same colors they wear, so guilty as charged! Stay tuned for the final collage in 6 months.    

Wednesday snowstorm

We had quite the snowstorm today.....somewhere in 15"-20" range!  It was a good day to stay inside and catch up on home "to do's" after the holidays.  As much as I love decorating for Christmas, I love taking everything down as well. It just feels refreshing, and uncluttered.  As I was putting things away on my desk I looked out the window and saw this:

Now, I don't know if you see it as instantly as I do, but the way the snow piled on the car looks remarkably like a face, right!  I thinks it is a Snow God chuckling at the new tenants from San Francisco that moved in above us a few days ago.  Welcome to Boston!

Client Dining Room

A couple weeks ago I posted about a dining room I was working on.  We designed a custom console table to fill in a very large blank wall.  So large in fact, that if I selected a table to fit the wall proportionate to the size, it would have dwarfed the dining table by comparison.  The solution was adding some architecture to the room to fill in the space by way of picture frame molding and crown molding.

In every design,  there is a jumping off point.  For my client, it was the fabric I selected to reupholster her dining chair seats (and two new upholstered dining end chairs which will carry the fabric at eye level for more visibility, but they are still being made as we speak).  The fabric is from Calico Corners called Kaiya Shiki.  I'm not sure I've ever had so many people comment on how much they love this fabric.  Everytime I pulled the swatch out at a store, someone would say "oh, love that fabric".   

From there we selected the paint color using the fabric swatch as guidance.  We ended up going with a saturated clay color call Sienna Clay from Benjamin Moore.  

This dining room connects directly to the kitchen which we are also in the middle of updating and redesigning.  In the kitchen we selected bold blue and white damask window treatments, along with a gray/aqua/dark-blue glass backsplash. To tie the two rooms together, I choose a rich azure blue as the accent color for the dining room.  

The draperies are a solid bronze color so they don't compete too much with the kitchen fabric, but I did throw in a hint of pattern with the blue greek key banding on the edges of the drapes. (squint hard and you might see the color and pattern in the picture!)

 Here are the before pics, although the room was painted Sienna Clay by this point, so I don't have the original yellow walls to show you. 

Here are the after shots:

Upcycling

One of my current jobs, a dining room,  has had my creative side working overtime.  It should have been such a simple thing- add some window treatments, a console table, rug and a few pictures to the room and call it a day.  Well, sometimes the most simple project turns into a brain teaser.  I could not find the right table - at the right price ANYWHERE!  I started researching possiblities months ago, and it finally dawned on me one night lying in bed. A) It wasn't as simple as it seemed b/c B) the room is actually bigger than many living rooms, so it really needed more than just a table and pictures, and C)  we needed to custom make a table.   I did an about face and suggested we really need to added architecture to the room instead of just filling the wall with "stuff".  We worked out a elevation plan to add picture frame molding to all the walls to bring down the scale of the room and cozy it up a bit.    


And the custom table.....I wanted something rich, with history and patina, and I found it at an architectural salvage store. Restoration Resources came to my rescue when I came upon these pedestals:

According to the store owner they are from the old State House in Boston, but since my client is in RI, that won't mean much to her! Nontheless, they have the patina I had been searching for.

I came up with a sketch to add a tabletop and with a crown molding style profile, and handed it off to my furniture maker to work his woodworking magic.


Here it is almost done- we will be painting the top in a high gloss warm white with subtle gray undertones, Ben Moore Monterey White, to finish it off.  Stay tuned for the final pics in my clients home!