Spanish House – Emily Henderson

The Spanish Home Re-REVEAL + Some Important Design Lessons I Learned From It

Emily — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 09:00:29 +0000

For those of you who have been around since the beginning (I LOVE YOU) you’ll recognize this project, but for those who are new in the last 8 years you might not remember this lady. This was a house I designed over 10 years ago (I think even before I had Charlie and he’s 11 now). It was for a friend of a friend (who became my friend), two filmmakers in LA in the Los Feliz neighborhood (fun fact, it’s now owned by a super famous podcaster who was also a friend of a friend – LA is wild, folks). I recently re-discovered this project and I thought it would be fun to repost it with fresh commentary.

Now Shana, the client, is a massive antiques collector so a lot of pieces were hers already (that she sourced at Big Daddy’s or deKor). I came in to help with the kitchen and to finish decorating/styling. Some of these shots were styled by a stylist for a magazine (I think Country Living? Shana wrote Country Strong so I think that was the feature title). I remember thinking that I didn’t love how the rugs were layered because the bottom one was pretty small, but we loved the colors and we were done spending money so we made it work.

This is some classic 2013 Emily Henderson styling right there. It’s a lot 🙂 There is nothing I don’t like, but it’s borderline too much and I think could look a bit messy. But it’s also eclectic and fun 🙂

Shout out to the white and gold ceramic cowboy hat – I do love some quirk!! I still love that chair by the window. The coffee table was from Santiago’s – I’m not sure it’s still there, but it was part of a strip of vintage stores in the Valley that I shopped at weekly when we lived in LA. Never not into fig trees – I know they got a bit played out for a while, but boy do they pack a powerful punch.

This was the famously controversial “art under the window” move which I don’t think I would do now, but I applaud past Emily for doing the weird thing! I mean, I still like the idea (and recently hung our dog painting in front of the window in our kids’ bath so I’m clearly still into putting art in unexpected places). But certainly, weigh in 🙂

Design Lesson: Opening Shelving

If I remember correctly (which I do) this house was bought mid-flip and the contractor had already ordered the cabinets. We couldn’t change them so we painted them instead (which at the time was a $3k upgrade). We canceled the upper cabinets in favor of these shelves which made the kitchen look a lot bigger (and more charming). But hot tip that I’ve had to learn many times – you HAVE to know that you are putting shelving before you drywall because you need it to be re-inforced to hold heavy dishes. Also, an additional hot tip, you have to put that in writing to the contractor because otherwise, they will frame things normally.

Design Lesson: Cement Tiles In Kitchens

The only regret here is not upgrading the fridge to panel-ready (especially because you see it immediately from the living room). I think the plan was to do that later, but we never did. I LOVE this cement tile floor, but remember that cement is porous so it has to be sealed and resealed or it gets stained so easily. I wouldn’t do it again in a kitchen unless it was a darker tone and could hide more.

Boy do I LOVE that blue antique credenza. That color is perfection!! I wish I could take credit for it but I think that Shana collected it before me. I will take credit for the brass knight helmet (???) and the biggest wicker bowl of apples ever 🙂

I LOVE this dining room so much. I think had we had the budget this would be a perfect room for a built-in nook on all three sides, but it’s so pretty as-is. Also, I think wrapping the beams with wood would be prettier, but it didn’t bother me at the time and it’s still such a pretty room.

I LOVE that cow painting so much. Shana had the most incredible eye for antique art.

This was their out building that they turned into a writing studio. I don’t believe I really helped with this beyond styling – I think full credit goes to Shana and Isabelle from deKor (I can’t believe how little I remember of the process). But it’s just so pretty!

I believe it was a garage. I love how bare-bones they kept it – adding to the charm (I even love how the ceiling fixture is on the brackets and all the cracks of the wood show).

Back inside, this is their primary bedroom, finished off with some antique movie seats (which were just for charm). The lamps were planters! OMG, I totally forgot all of this. Next time I’d add a beautiful big worn Persian rug, but again at a certain point we stopped spending money 🙂

Look at us taking a photo of a normal “non-Frame” TV. Truly shows the era that we shot this in 🙂

Design Lesson: Thick White Grout

This is where I learned the lesson of the dangers of thick white grout – I’m assuming they didn’t use the right kind (or maybe it didn’t exist 12 years ago) or they didn’t seal it properly. That would drive me nuts now. I love how we put the vanity in front of the window with just one mirror in the middle. Less practical but way prettier.

Design Lesson: Plumbing Placement

This is also where I learned the lesson that unless you indicate higher, plumbing contractors (at least 12 years ago) did a very low “standard” height for shower fixtures. This fixture was so low that Brian (Shana’s husband) had to duck his head under it. I believe they ended up changing the fixture to be a gooseneck (or at least that was the intent once we realized it was so low and the tile was already installed). Also how pretty is that pink antique mirror over the tub?

I love this bathroom but it’s always driven me nuts that I allowed only one foot of that towel holder to be on the mat – very poor styling by me.

The guest room was a color departure – so fun and a bit more whimsical.

The nursery was tiny but so sweet. The wallpaper was hand-drawn ships (I forget where we bought it from, but this is the only place we could find it now).

This blue wall color (Hague Blue, I still remember!) is still one of my favorites and we almost used it at the river house in the guest room. I think I would have liked it more here if there wasn’t a skylight, leaning into the moody vibe more. We exposed the bookshelves during framing (if there isn’t electric behind it they can often utilize the wall space to add more storage and shelves are the least expensive type of storage). Actually, this is basically what Jess wrote about a couple of days ago!

I wanted to show you the outdoor space again, but I didn’t do this – this is 100% Isabelle from deKor. She is so talented and has an incredible store that sells really beautiful antiques, vintage, and newer pieces (and we stayed at her house in Mexico last year that you can rent out in Todo Santos – INCREDIBLE).

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane 🙂 xx

*Design by Emily Henderson Design, Isabelle Dahlin, and Shana Fest
**Photos by Tessa Neustadt and David Tsay

Rustic Spanish House Overall

Emily — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 15:15:21 +0000

Well, the Spanish Rustic California Modern house is all finished and we’ve certainly documented the heck out of it. So I figured we’d do one big recap post of it so you’d have the whole house in one post. We are real thorough like that.

Click on the individual rooms for all the resources and the full breakdown of the design process and ask any other questions at the end.

See the full Living Room post here. Photos courtesy of Country Living and taken by Max Kim Bee.

See the full Guest Room post here.

See the full Master Bedroom post here.

See the full Reading Nook post here.

See the full Dining Nook post here.

See the full Kitchen post here.

See the full Nursery post here.

See the full Master Bathroom post here.

Let me know if you have any questions, at all. Thanks for following along on this one.

*All photos (with the exception of the Living Room) by the lovely Tessa Neustadt.

Modern Old-World Master Bathroom

Emily — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:39:02 +0000

As I’m looking at this and writing it I’m having serious master bathroom envy. We are starting ours now and even if after we are done the sheer square footage issue makes our master never really a master, but this bathroom? It’s just so big, with a separate tub and shower and two beautiful windows that literally look onto a house covered in bouganvillea and ivy.

Click through to see the whole post.

But that’s how we first met this bathroom (above). When I started the project the bathroom plan was already very under way – the layout had been finalized with all the plumbing moved, and the tub had been purchased.

As you might remember the contractor (who was working for the investor that was flipping the house) was working hard and fast to finish the project before the timeline and under budget. We were in escrow when all this was happening, and it just seemed INSANE for the new homeowner not to be able to choose the finishes for the bathroom (and as their designer I was to help them) but we had to do it fast and if we spent more than their dictated budget we had to pay the overage.

So we went shopping for tile ASAP. To see a lot of tile in person I like to go to Imperial Tile in the valley – but there are a million tile places out there.

We found this cement scallop tile in dark charcoal that we both fell in love with. It’s kinda deco and since it’s in cement it feels old world and has a really pretty patina. Had it been ceramic it might have been a little too feminine and modern, but in this cement it felt so pretty.

When we started the project the contractor had already purchased the tub (probably left over from another job). It was a drop-in large spa-style tub. It was totally fine. I think in a perfect world we would have put an antique clawfoot in here – there are just so few bathrooms that have the space to have one, and this one did. FYI drop-in tubs might be cheaper to purchase but then you have to frame out and tile the surround so they end up being much more expensive. I know this because we just had this debate for our master. We have serious space issues so we aren’t going to the drop-in tub as it adds square footage surrounding it, but I really do like the built-in look of them.

Building and tiling the surround also gives you a ledge to put shampoo, fancy body lotions and of course a vintage oil painting or two.

We chose a simple subway tile to work with the black scallop floor tile but you can’t tell how beautiful this subway tile is. Its handmade and it has a ton of variation and a lot of texture – the photos aren’t doing it justice. For the other two bathrooms (which I’m not blogging about because they are just so simple and barebones) we chose the regular inexpensive subway tile, but for this one we splurged. I knew it wouldn’t pay off in the photos but in real life it adds a lot of texture and it just looks old and pretty.

For the shower floor we chose a different tile – these little black cement squares for a few reasons: 1. the tile would have to slope down into the drain and it couldn’t be large-scale or else some would be sticking up on the sides and cut bare feet, and b. the large-scale in a small space wouldn’t look as good, and adding in a third simple tile added interest without having a weird shower surround border or anything.

You might remember from this post, how the vanity was already “purchased” when we started the job. It was basically left over from another job and it was a nouveau riche monster. Like picture the cheapest, most ornate vanity that screams ‘look how fancy I am’. Luckily they let us trade it in at the company they bought it at for a 30% restocking fee but it was worth every penny. This one (above) was sold there and it is totally pretty and simple. Of course had we had time we would have loved to have to have found an antique dresser and retro fit it to be a vanity, but we didn’t have the time. They were breathing down our neck to choose everything and so we picked this one that we both liked (I believe it was $1995) and just switched out the nickel knobs to simple black ones.

The wall looks blue there, it’s not. It’s a gray (Benjamin Moore, Classic Gray) that has blue in it but it’s not really blue at all. We picked up the chandelier at an antique store (I believe, I’m starting to forget since this job was over a year and a half ago), and that antique black mirror is just perfect, although I also forget where we got it (flea market or antique store).

Ready for the after?

We used Brizo for all the faucets (the Jason Wu collection) and they are pretty beautiful and since they are matte black they still feel a little old world. We had a company come out and do all the window treatments in the house so those Roman’s are custom and beautiful. Photo tip – shoot with at least one window open; it always makes the space more inviting.

You might be wondering where the toilet is. It is behind the door – which generally is a VERY good place for it – near the tub. Sorry we didn’t get that angle!

The antique rose mirror is original to the house – but not from the bathroom. I believe it was in the dining room (not the dining nook). We found it leaning up against the dumpster, ready to get destroyed and saved it from its fate. Shana had it installed here above the bath by a mirror dude (with intense glue and what not).

Man, I love that mirror in there. It pulls in the chandelier and the rose gold mirror and just adds so much age/integrity to a renovated bathroom. We decided to not put a sconce above it because we didn’t really feel that we needed it.

There you have it – a modern old world master bathroom. For all of you who are about to design or renovate their bathrooms, here is a little ‘get the look and look for less’:

Get the Look:

Look for Less:

*After photos by the always lovely, Tessa Neustadt

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the house here: Living Room, Reading Nook, Guest Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen.

A Rustic California Home Nursery + Shop the Look

Emily — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:14:41 +0000

It’s a neutral, Texas-inspired baby room, and I’m pretty into it.

I have a theory that in a lot of ways nurseries are just our own ‘kid’ fantasy rooms – it’s the room that we would have wanted as kids had we known it. I know Charlie’s is – which you will finally get to see in a couple of weeks as its finally coming out in a magazine. And I’m pretty sure Brian has plans for his room ‘kid’ room in a couple of years that involves Star Wars and/or Comic Books (Batman, obviously). We live vicariously through our children so obviously we must force on them any and all secret desires of ours – especially if that includes a life-sized batmobile as a bed.

Well Shana grew up in Texas and they both love good classic music (think ‘The Stones’, and ‘Beastie Boys’ not Mozart necessarily) so this nursery is reflection of that, while at the same time still working with the style of the rest of the rooms. Of course you don’t need to have your kids room be the same, but its nice when rooms are jarringly different.

The first thing was choosing fantastic wallpaper – it’s a bunch of hand drawn ships by the designer’s son (who is 8 years old). You know those art skeptics that are constantly saying ‘My kid coulda done that!’. Well, her kid did and it worked. It is so sweet and magical, and yet since it’s in this color-way (cream and black) there is a sophistication about it.

The finished result is this very happy, yet very neutral Texas inspired nursery:

We decided to then accent the room in more masculine finishes – the dark gray blackout drapes (custom) and different dark woods (the crib and dresser-turned-changing table). And then to soften the whole look we brought in this intensely soft mongolian sheepskin rug in there – plus a big white rug on the floor makes it all look and feel so much bigger. We once again tried that leather chair but Shana wanted a glider so we splurged on that Restoration Hardware one that is so pretty.

The dresser is vintage, purchased in LA for $700 I believe and it had the most beautiful raw finish already on it. We decided to not stain it and just leave as is. We simply bought a wooden changing tray and screwed it to the back of the dresser with brackets that came with it.

You might notice how the color of the wallpaper changed from the before/process photos to the after and that is just because of the amount of light a good camera can capture. The wallpaper is definitely more on the ‘beige’ side than the ‘white’ side so if you are thinking about splurging on it, get a sample sent to you first.

Once we brought in some whites it was easy to make them look good in the space, even though its beige wallpaper. The mattes of the frames, the white wood of the shelves and all the books/bedding/and toys help keep it looking fresh and modern.

It’s a little room, as nurseries tend to be, but man it’s so cute and happy when you are in there.

The nursery is so different from mine, Joy’s, Joanna’s or the beach loft nursery I did, and yet I love it as much if not more.

What y’all think? Could you have this Texan neutral nursery?

Look for Less:

Get The Look:

Photos by Tessa Neustadt

See the rest of the project here: Living Room, Reading Nook, Guest Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen, and Master Bathroom.

Spanish California Home: Kitchen + Get The Look

Emily — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:33:25 +0000

Before I got involved with this kitchen, it was about to get RHONJ’d. In case you don’t speak ‘Bravo’, that means ‘Real housewives of New Jersey”d where faux Tuscan shiny wood and tumbled tile reign suprem-o. They had just installed the cabinets and in FACT it was even worse than this. I didn’t take photos of the kitchen when the top cabinets were installed, too but trust me that it felt dark, small and dated. As you know (back story here) we were on a massive time and budget crunch so we couldn’t start all over and get new cabinets (especially since they were brand new – chosen by the contractor that was flipping it). This kitchen is in a 1916 Spanish Style home and it needed some old world charm with some modern amenities/technology.

We only had a few days to be able to pick out the finishes – the tile, flooring, etc. So we went to the valley, where all the tile places are, and found some that we both really liked that weren’t out of control expensive. I spoke about the flooring in the dining nook post, but they really weren’t expensive and if you have an old world style house these cement tiles are kinda perfect (just make sure you seal them properly which will add a bit of a sheen but its worth it).

Shana wanted open shelving on top for a few reasons: a. it looks good, b. she had lots of pretty dishes to show off and c. the kitchen was smallish and we didn’t want to open it up and make it open concept because based on the layout of the house it wouldn’t have really worked and we would have lost a lot of the beautiful architecture. I was ALL FOR IT. Open shelving is a bit controversial because yes, you have to keep it neat and nice in order for your kitchen not to look like total chaos daily. She knew the risks and she accepted them. (I was at the house yesterday for a playdate with our kids and I’m happy to report that they still look really pretty).

We chose this black and white handmade tile that was really going to be the focal point, the big splurge. The floating shelves were made just from simple wood and then lacquered the same wall color (BM Swiss Coffee). The brackets were found on overstock I believe for $6 each.Not bad. Same with the farm sink – I think it was around $600 on either Overstock or Wayfair. I’m always surprised at how expensive farm sinks are but this one was not a bad price for it.

One of the things we knew we were going to do was paint the cabinets a dark tealy-blue. We tested out some greens (above in the samples) but they were too bright and it needed to recede a little more than that. You guys are going to KILL me though because we made the decision verbally and there is no record to show what color this is. I should hire a detective to comb through all my emails and paperwork to see if they can find it because I’ve spent what feels like hours looking – it was just 2 years ago, before we moved, I was pregnant, the contractor was constantly rushing us for decisions, so I a lot went undocumented. I’m so sorry.

But what I’m not sorry about is how this kitchen turned out. It’s a modern Spanish kitchen, with an edge, that is so fun to walk into every single time:

I love this color palette – the blues, warm grays, black white and then some color to make it feel more collected and welcoming. A lot of people think that old world color palettes have to be all warm tones – taupes, creams, beiges, browns, burgandies, etc, but as long as the materials ‘feel’ old world the color palette can feel more updated and fresh. And I don’t even mind the detailing on the cabinets. I might not have been our first choice but once painted out, it’s totally works, especially with the addition of the black hardware (which I think was just from Home Depot – it was a great place to not spend too much money).

Here is how Country Living shot/styled it. They replaced all the Heath Ceramics with Vintage Ironstone on the shelves, which I do like, but who doesn’t love Heath Ceramics? Nobody. The color of the tiles are also a bit warmer, the outlets magically disappeared and the rug was replaced with that pretty blue/white kilim (which I believe is from Loloi).

I really love this kitchen, every time I walk in it I feel so happy with how it turned out. So just in case you all want to recreate this look – here is a ‘get the look’ and a ‘look for less’/

Get the Look:

Look for Less:

*All photos EXCEPT the Country Living shot (by Max Kim Bee) , by Tessa Neustadt.

See the rest of the project here: Living Room, Reading Nook, Guest Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Nursery, and Master Bathroom.

The Reading Nook + Get The Look

Emily — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:55:25 +0000

Have you ever dreamt of having a cozy little reading nook in the middle of your house? Have you ever dreamt of curling up in it and reading Sydney Shelton books back to back whilst pretending that your screaming children are tended to in the next room? Backtrack question: Have you ever even read a Sydney Shelton book? Fun fact about me: I have read EVERY SINGLE ONE that was written by the time I was 18. And Danielle Steele. And V.C. Andrews. In fact, I know in my heart and brain that I will someday write a romance novel. It’s actually not a joke; I’ve talked about it for 15 years now. Ironically, I got my degree in English. As in literature. Kill me.

When I’m done with my novel, I will knock on this house’s door and invite myself to sit in this reading nook and read said novel. Where else should one read an epic love triangle/forbidden love story?

Until then, I’ll keep on designing and shooting makeovers. So lets get on with it:

When we started this house it was under construction, which made my job easier (read the back story here). All the contractors were in place and the schedule was dictated. This room was particularily easy as far as construction – the built-ins were happening, then we’d paint and refinish the floor (which we did, throughout the house).

We painted it my favorite blue – Hague Blue from Farrow and Ball. Those sconces were temporary. We had to have sconces in for inspections but our sconces hadn’t arrived yet so I picked up these piece of garbage sconces for like $12 from Home Depot. The electrician put white plates on the outlets, when they still need to be traded out for darker ones.

Then it was time to play with furniture.

I really like the theater seats that they bought in there because its an appropriate space for them – its a hallway, and these seats were more sculptural than functional. They just kinda fit. That little green dresser in there was so cute, for sure (and now lives in the dining room), but once they decided they wanted it to be a reading nook/library we changed it up and put that leather chair in there.

Here she is now. They switched out the leather chairs. They sold me back my vintage 70’s leather one because they already had this bad boy that was originally downstairs and it looked pretty good up here. So to save some dough we switched it out. And no, I don’t make it a habit of ‘buying things back from clients’, but I actually LOVED that chair and knew I could sell it. I think I bought it originally for $350 from a vintage store, sold it to them for $800 (I sell things based on how much its worth not any formula from purchase price) and then I sold it for $1200 at the end (I think the OKL sale). Not a bad profit. Although I secretly still wish I had it.

Anyway, thats how it looks now, and its just this jewel of a room in the middle of the house. This room opens to the kitchen, master bedroom, nursery, dining room and the guest bathroom. So its the perfect pass through with that awesome navy blue. They have tones of this going throughout the house so its not jarring, its just kinda wonderful.

Yes, that is my side table up there that I’d had for years, but it just looked really good here so I sold it to them. I forget how much I charged them but probably around $200 because I’m a terrible business person and when I want a project to look good I somehow come down in price at the last minute.

I wish I could take credit for that family photo wall, but she actually did it without me. I told you she had good taste. We moved some around so it felt more balanced. She used a variety of frame finishes and colors, but all white, black or wood, so it looks cohesive and totally home-y, homey.

The shots above are from a couple weeks ago. We reshot it because Country Living only shot/published one photo, and that didn’t seem like a complete makeover for the blog (magazines tend to run few photos because of page space). But this is how they shot it (below), not too different but so fun to see:

You might be thinking that they de-saturated the colors in the rug (or that we saturated them) but i’m pretty sure they just used the rug from the living room. It’s hard to tell. I like the other rug more here because, as you know, I love color. Since they wanted to shoot from that angle they moved the side table which makes sense for the shot, but less sense for the space (because it ended up being basically in front of the chair).

Wall color – Farrow & Ball Hague Blue

For those of you who want to recreate this look, get to it:

Get the Look:

Get the Look for Less:

We shot a video in there over a year ago (I think I was 3 months pregnant here) so you can see the space, although the propping is way different. xx

All before photos by my terrible iphone, the Country Living photo by Max Kim Bee, and all my after photos by Tessa Neustadt. Video by Sharkpig.

Check out the Living Room, Guest Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen, Nursery, and Master Bathroom.

Old world meets modern; The Master Bedroom

Emily — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 15:46:56 +0000

There are bedrooms and then there are MASTER bedrooms. This is one of those. Maybe its the size, the amount of windows/light or maybe its the beauty of each antique piece – I don’t know. Maybe its the fact that once it’s obsessively styled and beautifully shot it is forever clean and just so perfect in my mind. I’m sure they don’t style the bed each morning and they probably have clothes laying on the bench at times, etc, but in my mind this bedroom always just feels like a pretty boutique hotel room in the South of France. And I want to go to there.

Shana, my client, has great taste and already had some pretty amazing pieces to work with. We just helped with the execution and pulled it all together (check out their living room and guest room)

When we met this room it looked like this:

Could be worse, obviously, but it was just big, blue and intense like 1997 prom dress, with less cleavage. We didn’t have to do anything structural to it – it needed to be painted, the floors need to be refinished and that was pretty much it.

We painted the walls ‘Swiss Coffee’ (a pretty warm white, that goes beige if you aren’t careful), and we painted the window frames that dark gray called ‘Deep Space’ (by Benjamin Moore). You might be surprised that I did that because generally I’m more of a fan of white frames and often painting window frames just creates big squares in the room. but these frames and mullions were wood and metal, and there were other dark wrought iron accents in the house (namely the living room and the upcoming dining nook) that simply wanted to be dark gray. I actually love how it broke up the space, accentuated the architecture and added drama.

We started decorating, by bringing in the pieces that she already had and supplementing with some new pieces. She makes me look VERY good because in this room in particular she had a lot of these pieces already. The bed is from Restoration hardware, and it is big and soft and jut so incredibly inviting, and the rug is a huge sisal that honestly I don’t remember where we purchased (maybe she already had it?). But everything else here is vintage or antique. So we started playing and playing.

Ready for a really sunny, bright new master bedroom? I rarely gush about my own work, but we just shot this last friday and going back into that room gave me a such a rush of calmness and pride. It’s just so big, warm, high-end and yet totally comfortable and laid back. It’s not the current style in my house but man, there is a huge part of me that wants to buy an old Hollywood Spanish-style house and get my old world on. Next house. Next house.

Click through to see the after …

There she is. It’s hard to go wrong with a room with 6 double windows, right? I think it works on a few different levels: The finishes are all warm and worn in, so while it is this beautiful high-end bedroom it doesn’t feel crazy luxe and pretentious. There is a good mix of warm tones – the light taupe walls, the wood flooring, the bedding, the theater seats, and cooler tones – the blues on the bed, the gray of the windows and the dark steel of the dresser. The french night stands are really delicate and feminine, and the dark dresser and the theater seats shake it up and keep it from going to girly.

Really this room is all about a simple neutral palette, with a healthy dose of darker tones and more modern things layered on top of it. Last time we shot it (for the book) it was completely neutral and I kinda loved that, too, but when we came back she had added those beautiful blue linens and I was obviously really happy. For a neutral room it has a lot of soul – probably because the dresser, chair, side tables and theatre seating are all really worn and aged.

I found those lamps at Inheritance and man, I love them. Yes, they are planters. She admittedly (accidentally) kills them every couple of months but just replants them, and they add a lot of life to the room. And they are weird and every room needs a bit of weird.

I don’t know too much about French antiques but those nightstands are so ornate and beautiful, what with their caning and all. It’s just refreshing to work with people who are young and hip, but embrace old world antiques. Sure those pillows are clearly hip right now (I sound like a mom, so ‘hip’!), as is the industrial furniture, but the nightstand and the chair take everything into such an interesting direction and I think make this space look really unique, and still modern.

The dresser is from Big Daddy’s and it makes a pretty good case for aged steel. It’s just so indestructible and has so much character.

The theater seats were purchased off One Kings Lane. We played with them in a few different locations before deciding that this bedroom needed something to shake it up and add some edge. These speak to the industrial style of the dresser and media unit, and add warmth with the dark brown tone.

Plus clearly this massive tv needed some theater seats.

The old Emily wouldn’t have taken (or posted) this shot, but the new Emily (since I’ve had a home) is obsessed with showing all sides of the room because that’s what I want to see in magazines or other blogs. I think it bums photographers out because obviously this would never be in anyones portfolio, but its such good information. Tessa is always an amazing sport and she does a great job of capturing the whole room, tv wall and all.

In case you are thinking, ‘Why is there a huge TV in their bedroom?’, I’d like to remind you of two things: 1.they are both filmmakers, and 2. they chose to not have a TV in their formal living room. They have one in their basement, which is a playroom/family room, but this is where they hang and watch movies at night.

Meanwhile on the last side of the room you’ll see the entrance into the master bathroom, which I’ll get to later, but i’d like to be in there right now taking a bath.

That chair in the corner is funny because during the process there were days where I really wanted to recover it in a simple pretty linen – like a ticking stripe or a solid cream, but other days when I loved how original and old it was. This is one of those days. I think it adds a lot of age and soul into this room. I think when you have a beautiful bed, perfect drapery, matching side tables, etc, the room starts rushing towards ‘perfect’ really fast, and this quirky antique piece just does something really beautiful to the room.

Those linens!!! Just so pretty. The bedding is from Nickey Kehoe and the pillows are from Dekor – two of my favorite stores in LA.

Again, most of the pieces in the room are one of a kind, but there are a few items that are new and purchasable (in the ‘get the look’). Remember if you are going to for this look (especially the look for less) that anything too faux aged can be tricky and needs to be mixed with some actual antiques. I think that Wisteria, Restoration hardware and Pottery Barn all do ‘old world’ just fine, especially for large retailers, but getting an old world feel with only new pieces can be tricky (and can look tacky) to say the least so make sure you are mixing in a lot of antiques. They don’t have to literally be 19th century french, but even if they are just more rustic pretty American antique pieces, it will help the room feel more authentic, and give it more integrity and soul. And that’s my lecture for the day.

The only thing I would change is the ceiling fan. This was the one that the contractor already had purchased (probably left over from another job) and they installed it. We had intentions of upgrading it, but just kinda ran out of time (baby came) and will. Do I wish it was a beautiful ceiling fan? Sure, but its so not bad.

We pulled together a couple get the look boards for your viewing and shopping pleasure.

So, there’s the master bedroom – one of my favorites in all of the land. I’m still working on our bedroom (we’ve had some hiccups) and there are days when I just want to pack it up, crawl into this bed, slowly nudge them off of the bed, roll them down the hallway and put them to sleep in their guest room. I suppose I’d have to drug them first, but then that bedroom will be mine and I will sleep like a little french angel.

See the rest of the project here: Living Room, Reading Nook, Guest Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen, Nursery, and Master Bathroom.

*All those beautiful photos are by the lovely Tessa Neustadt

A Simple, Eclectic Guest Bedroom

Emily — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 16:29:03 +0000

Nothing hurts my soul more than not being able to find a ‘before’ photo. Can you imagine watching The Biggest Loser and the contestant saying ‘Sorry, we forgot to take photos or weigh me at the beginning but trust me, I was a lot bigger!!’

Its just devastating. But I’ve looked through two old computers and 2 old phones and I’m now convinced that I didn’t even take before photos, in fact I’m wondering if this room actually existed before. Did my imagination dream up this room? Did I use The Secret and produce this room with my brain? Maybe. My brain be very powerful. As I’m writing this my powerful brain is renovating my disgusting bathroom. Finally, I found a (mental) contractor that is in tune with me. (Meanwhile this was all before DropBox, which I realize every single day saves my career).

Luckily this room makeover is the fastest and least dramatic of the whole house (which is why I’m posting it so fast after the living room) so a lot of process photos aren’t totally necessary. It is the guest room and you know how most guest rooms go – no splurging; just pretty and simple. Lets get into it:

After the reno was complete we just needed to get this room to be functional and ready for Shana’s family to come and visit her and her newborn (read this post if you don’t know the back story of this situation). She wanted us to focus on the other rooms first to make sure that we weren’t inspired to spend like 15K in this room. Instead we used a rug she already had (I mean, who just has these rugs just lying around in their garage?) and we custom-made a bed, changed out some sconces, dressed the bed and thats pretty much it.

Unfortunately there is really only one angle that Country Living shot, because the rest of the room was just simple – a wardrobe, a bench and that’s kinda it. We are shooting the other rooms in the house tomorrow and if we have time we’ll shoot a pulled back shot of the rest of the room for you, but honestly it wasn’t totally designed so there might not be much to see.

We ordered the bed from Dekor (like the sofas) and chose this more classic, and slightly deco shape to work with the house. We pulled the color from the rug and wanted it to feel seamless with the rest of the house, so that blue was a no brainer.

Shana bought these french antique sconces from a dealer, but as you can see, when Orlando held them up we thought they just didn’t portray the french beauty that they had and went kinda ‘wanna be’ really fast, even though they were the real deal. They were candle sconces and would have had to be rewired to function so we decided that the effort and expense wouldn’t give the result that we wanted. So we nixed those and decided to do something slightly more modern with the sconces seen on the right. They still felt old world (they are aged bronze) but had a simpler shape. We kept her side tables and lamps because they were pretty great. Ready to see it transformed?

Welcome to the new guest room:

Yeah. I’d move in. We styled it pretty differently for the style book (I can’t wait to show you) but I love how they styled it, too. Here’s a secret – there is only one of those brass lamps – they must have photoshopped the other one in. How do they do that? They have the camera on a tripod and they take one photo with the lamp on the left, then they move the lamp to the right and take another with the lamp on the right and then they put the two photos together in Photoshop. I would say they were cheating except that for the book we actually made that painting larger over the bed – it’s a bit dinky as is. Magazines are full of lies. Beautiful, wonderful, eye-candy lies.

Don’t you agree that the painting should be about 10″ bigger? And how do you feel about those shades? I still kinda want to modernize them with drum shades but at the same time I think that traditional bell shades like these are coming back in so maybe in a year I’ll feel differently (but maybe not pleated?)

Right outside the guest room is the backyard and the view/light in here is just beautiful. It’s such a happy room which is why we didn’t put too much money or effort into it. It kinda looks good all the time because the light is just so beautiful.

That tassel bedding is just incredibly adorable if not perfect. It’s from Anthropologie and its expensive but you could DIY that pretty easily.

Its simple, happy and totally guest friendly.

Some quick questions answered: The wall paint is Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore and the window frame color is Deep Space, by Benjamin Moore.

Regardless of the lack of ‘totally before’ photos, this transformation is still pretty satisfying, no?

Here’s a ‘get the look’. (And I read all the love for the ‘look for less’ in yesterdays post so don’t worry more of those will be coming, we just didn’t do one for this because it was just so few things).

Happy Friday. Now go get your guest room ready because Tailor Swift and I are on our way over. We hang like that. xx

*photos c/o Country living Magazine. Photographer Max Kim Bee and stylist Elizabeth Beeler

Check out the Living Room, Reading Nook, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen, Nursery, and Master Bathroom.

A Spanish Living Room

Emily — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:51:23 +0000

Sometimes, just when you start to feel pigeonholed the right project comes along and pulls you right out of it. A year and a half ago I had finished a lot of mid-century eclectic projects in a row, which I LOVE, but I also love every other style (the good versions) so I was jones-ing for a change. Luckily Shana came along with her french-antique/spanish/industrial/country dreams, and a beautiful house that was a total blank canvas and I was as excited as a rider-less rodeo bull in a fence-less field. That’s pretty happy.

The only problem? They bought it mid-flip – meaning that the ‘flip’ was already under way and couldn’t be stopped (its complicated). It was going REALLY fast with what you can imagine to be not so beautiful builder grade choices. This house was a BEAUTIFUL 1916 Spanish style house and they were going to turn it into a faux Tuscan RHONJ monster. It’s the stuff you have nightmares about. The buyers (Shana and Brian) had very good taste and wanted an authentic spanish house with modern amenities (how novel, right?) and they didn’t want BS faux aged stone, and in fact, like most of us, were pretty offended by it.

The problem is that (traditional) investors don’t really want the new potential homeowners to really slow down the process of their flip by having opinions. But they did agreed to let them have some say if they hired a designer to help them make good, timely and on-budget decisions. Basically the investor already had a contract with this General Contractor, so they had to finish the house under the original budget and time. By the way this whole thing happened inside of Escrow so it was shaky and weird in general.

So here’s how it went down: they would show us the faux tumbled tile that they were planning on installing in the kitchen, and after we swallowed the bile in our collective mouths, we would say gingerly, ‘Well, maybe we could pick out some comparable tile?’. For the most part they agreed and if we did it fast enough and just covered the budget then they would install our choices. There were many things that weren’t purchased yet but what we wanted went way beyond their budget so we went out-of-pocket. It got tricky at times, for sure, but we all wanted the same thing – a beautiful house and fast.

Meanwhile the situation was even trickier – Shana was in Atlanta directing a feature film while pregnant almost the entire time we were under construction and designing. She wasn’t returning until the film was over, only weeks before her due date. So her house needed to be move-in ready by then. It was a pretty hard out. In a lot of ways this was amazing – she trusted me and I had a lot of freedom, but then of course it was hard to do some things just from pictures and emails so we didn’t finish everything before she got back.

Six months later it was finished and it now looks pretty darn beautiful if I do say so myself. It was a case of the right client, with the right house, with the right budget with the right designer. The bones of the house are BEAUTIFUL, the layout is so great and open. There is so much character in this old house but now its all modernized with 2015 amenities.

So that’s the general background of the project. Geez, that was a post already. Lets get into it, shall we? First up … The Living Room:

When I came in the walls were painted this insane avocado green, probably from the 60’s. The flooring was old, scratched and hadn’t been taken care of, but the wood was good. The living room was easy – just updates on the walls/flooring, add some lighting and we were done. That beautiful window with the stained glass crest was insane, and the beams, not to mention the doorway that you can see in the above grid of photos. But the green made it feel really dark and well, nightmare inducing. Oh that crazy double vanity up there? That was what they were going to put in the master bathroom (because it was left over from another house). Luckily we stopped that.

First things first: picking a paint color. Now, unfortunately this was before my current phase of ‘obsessively take photos of every second of the design process’, so I don’t have the photos of the paint samples. But we tried 8 different colors on top of the primer (not this green) and had some conflicting ideas but ultimately chose the same thing.

We chose Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore, which I was frankly SHOCKED by. Swiss Coffee is the color that so many flippers or landlords use because it’s basically a light beige. But in here it just looked so pretty and light, maybe because we refinished and stained the floors really dark. After painting and refinishing the flooring we got to work on, oh, just everything else.

So as a reminder, when Shana left town it was a big green torn up mess, and when she returned it looked like this – brought to you by my iPhone and NO THESE ARE NOT THE AFTER PHOTOS PLEASE KEEP SCROLLING!!!

This room was to be the more formal living room. We didn’t have any tv’s to deal with this time, thank god. And because of the way it was laid out, we had a great opportunity to do two facing sofas, and we rarely have that opportunity to do that because how often are rooms that big? These two sofas she purchased from Dekor (an LA store that had them made DTLA), they were custom-made but I’m pretty sure they were actually on the more affordable side (like $2K – $2500 each). Shana chose this blue performance velvet because she has two dogs, 2 cats and a toddler (now), so they needed something crazy durable. I actually would have gotten this fabric for myself if I hadn’t already had so many pieces of furniture in velvet.

Shana was an antiques dealer before she got into filmmaking (which makes her sound old but she isn’t – she’s almost my age) so she knew exactly what she wanted and where to get it and didn’t mind splurging on a few things. The Italian chandelier she bought from her friend, an antique dealer Janet Wiebe. And the big shelving unit was from Big Daddy’s.

So, the living room was live-able but not fully styled out. A lot of the accessories were hers, but we supplemented with antiques from the flea market and vintage stores.

We threw in this rug (because I had hoarded it before it was in The Fig House) and we wanted to put something in here for her to come home to. So we kinda just staged this rug for now, knowing it wasn’t exactly right. We looked and looked for an antique rug for her but there were none that we could pull triggers on from afar (because every 10×14 antique beautiful Oushak rug is like $14, 000).

As you can tell Shana had an extensive collection of antique french nudes that were STUNNING. The magazine nixed them as most magazines do because apparently some people in America think that this is pornography (but it isn’t) so just in case they leave it out. But you can see some of them up here and they are pretty darn pretty.

We certainly hadn’t worked out the pillow situation yet. Shana didn’t want to splurge on any pillows because she was afraid that her animals would just ruin them, so in these shots (the progress shots) it’s definitely not ready. The window treatments were by a company similar to Decorview – where they come to you, bring samples, make them and install. We did the whole house (which was probably 10K, but I don’t totally remember) and they are stunning. We chose to do nothing on that beautiful main window because there just didn’t seem like any real solution. They didn’t feel like the privacy was worth the window treatment, especially since this was more of a formal room, not their cozy tv room.

We kept shopping for a rug and ultimately decided to just go for a 10×14 jute rug (I believe this one is from Restoration Hardware). In case you don’t know too much about sisal or jute here’s their deal; they are relatively inexpensive and can go with a ton different styles (I’m not sure which one we got but it could be this one and its $1995). Still a lot for a rug but try to find a nice 10×14 rug for under $3k and I’ll congratulate you. If you find a BEAUTIFUL one for under 5k I’ll hire you. Of course the random beautiful inexpensive antique rugs exist out there, stuffed into thrift stores, antique malls and on Craigslist but if you don’t have years to search then you need to compromise or spend, unfortunately. It looked wildly better than the deco rug. Just lighter, less heavy, more modern, etc.

But we still weren’t done with the project, it was just good enough for them to move into. Shana had her baby, we took a break to let her live in her house, spend time with her newborn and figure out what worked and what didn’t.

Months later, we came in and finished all the loose ends and styled it. We shot it for the book and we took some pretty beautiful shots (these are NOT from the book – those are still top-secret). After shooting I sent the shots from the book to my friend Jami Supsic who was the new style editor at Country Living, and she said that she would LOVE to publish the house, but they’d have to re-shoot because they can’t have the photos of the book. So a few weeks later Country Living came in with their crew and styled and shot these beautiful photos.

P.S. I know that sounds confusing and you are probably asking ‘why didn’t you style it’? The answer is two-fold: a. I was way too busy shooting/styling the book the week of this shoot, but that could have gotten moved I suppose, and b. I had just finished designing the house and then had just styled the whole thing for the book over two days, so styling it again 3 weeks later was hard. I didn’t want to make it better or worse than the book and it couldn’t be exactly the same as the book, obviously. It would be like finally being finished writing a novel and then being asked to write the last two chapters again and make it different without changing it too much. It just felt weird. So I figured that someone else should take over that one.

I wasn’t even able to stop by set, but I got the pictures the next week and was VERY relived at how pretty they were. They were different from how we styled it but not so different that It didn’t look like my work. I even liked a few things more. Once the book comes out I’ll do a side by side so you can see the difference.

Since it’s for a magazine they only took 3 photo of the living room I just cropped in on these photos to show you more information. When I reveal it in the book you’ll get multiple angles, I promise.

Here we are, the French, Spanish, Country Rustic living room of Shana Feste (and her family:)):

Boom. Lets get into it:

We found that kilim and while it isn’t the perfect size for the room, with the sisal underneath grounding the whole seating area. These chesterfields are tricky when it comes to pillows. Part of me things they don’t want pillows or just 2 huge ones and a throw. Elizabeth styled them with a lot of pillows and I really like the one on the right (below). That little drum normally lives somewhere else, but its so darn cute (flea market). The coffee table we purchased at a store in the valley for something pretty cheap, like $250 or something. Shana wasn’t into the cement cowhead thing above the mantel so we put this painting instead, but I kinda think that the cow had the right presence. She’s from Texas and she has some cowgirl in her for sure. Meanwhile you can see that they got rid of the nudes. In the book version that you’ll see in 9 months, you’ll see the difference. The rug behind the sofa must have been something that they brought in for the shoot, but i like it! the coffee table styling is very similar to what we did – with the vase and the tray.

Those huge industrial shelves are legit (aka, not repro industrial) and she purchased them at Big Daddy’s in LA (a beautiful store worth the visit if you are into the whole modern farmhouse vibe. I think we got the horse lamp there as well. She already had the collection of globes, vintage bowling pins and juggling pins, so we just supplemented here and there. But this was definitely more of a case of designing with what they already had, not just buying a bunch of random accessories.

I found that ladder at a vintage store for $90 and I’ve kinda always regretting not keeping it for myself. Its black iron and just so simple and pretty. Its one of those objects that you can just lean anywhere, throw some vintage textiles on it and you are good to go. And yes, we hung a painting under a window, and we all love it. It was one of the first things that Shana commented on, in a good way.

We toyed around with updating the fireplace brick with some handmade Spanish tile but it wasn’t something that the contractors were interested in doing so it would have had to happen after they were done and logistically it didn’t make sense to put time and money there this time.

There you have it. We have many more rooms to reveal – the kitchen, the dining room, the breakfast nook, the guest room, the master suite and the nursery. We are actually shooting more at the house this week so that we have more to show you than what was just in the magazine, but stay tuned …

If you want a sneak peek into the rest of the house and a timelapse video of how this one came together you can watch this video we did around the time of the install.

As far as resources go there really is very little that is new in here so its hard to really credit. The sofas were custom-made from Dekor, the rug was Restoration Hardware and the drapery was from a company similar to DecorView (sadly I don’t remember the name of the company). In case you want to get the look yourself we put together two boards – 1 high end for you fancier folk, and another more affordable one for everybody else.

Look for Less Sources:

Get the Look Sources:

*All ‘before/process’ shots by me. All ‘after shots’ taken by Max Kim Bee (but cropped by me for more detailed shots!). Designed by me, with the photo styling for the magazine by Elizabeth Beeler. Video by SharkPig

Check out the Reading Nook, Guest Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Dining Nook, Kitchen, Nursery, and Master Bathroom.