It’s a master bedroom redo in my 5th (and final installment) of this Studio City house series (that was featured in HGTV Magazine). It’s like “Breaking Dawn, Part 2, ” except without stupid names like Renesme and weird CGI children. Or maybe it’s more like “Empire Strikes Back, ” although I’m pretty sure that was 3rd not 5th in the series. Maybe I should stop trying to make metaphors and wikepedia-ing “How many sequels are in the Star Wars series” and just show the makeover.

They had a great bed, but kinda needed everything else. Here we were before:

Decent start, just blank. They had an usual case of not being able to make any decisions after six months of renovations. So they bought the bed, but everything else was empty.  After:

Oh hey there, happy room. I definitely want to hang out in you. The goal was color and personality. So easy. We decided to not even paint, which we could have, but decided that we would decorate and then paint last if the room needed it. It seems strange, I know, but they had just painted everything freshly white and having each room painted would have added up to a lot (think $400 a room, if not more) so we decided to save that money at first, then if at the end we felt that any room needed it we would address it then.

Rachna wanted to be really excited and happy to go to bed — a very reasonable request.  It’s a big room so while she didn’t want it to be busy, she wanted it to be fun when she woke up. And she wanted a fun chandelier somewhere in the house, and you know I love a swagged chandelier. So this one we found at the flea market for $80 and had it rewired with a very long cord and chain, and then spray painted it a masculine color.

Resources from above: Long blue bench ($60), black steamer trunk ($120), side table (mine, like $80), woven rug ($60), brass bird ($60), chandelier ($80), telephone (don’t remember), gold lamp ($150, I think) = all vintage from flea market or Etsy. The long quilt over the king bed was from Bed Bath and Beyond, as was the black and white pillow (from Diane Keaton’s collection, I’m not kidding, and it’s totally good). The black and white throw is from Ikea. The “Smile” print (limited edition) from Keep Calm Gallery. 

Rachna and Dave both love typography and they had the “For Like Ever, ” “Let me count the ways, ” “Mr. Mrs, ” and “This is the start …” prints. But we all agreed that they needed more paintings or drawings or photographs — just a different medium.

First up was that original Lisa Congdon, which I love VERY MUCH. Lisa’s pieces are just so weird and interesting and her colors are so saturated. You can see it better below. Then I brought in polaroids by Jen Gotch (right lower corner) and used an Ikea Ribba frame ($20) with a custom mat (that cost $30) to make it look all custom and fancy.

The only pieces I can’t remember are the graphic sweatshirt drawing prints. They were limited edition and probably gone by now as this was over a year ago, but I’ll keep looking to see if I can find a resource for them. We had everything framed by Dana at Hotel De Ville  which has moved downtown and is more by appointment now, but just as amazing as she’s always been.

Eric Olsen, the architect, built in this dresser units with the same reclaimed wood from the rest of the house. Totally genius.

But then I styled them, because that’s what I do.

I added that amazing LOVE mirror (that I can’t believe didn’t sell on my OKL sale, although, I think I priced it too high … sorry :(). Then a collection of pretty plants and succulents, books, and vessels. We kept the color palette quieter here and more masculine with just blacks/whites and greens. In this case they kept the books (because they were their’s) but didn’t buy anything else from the shoot because they didn’t mind these dressers being less styled for everyday.

Speaking of everyday …

This is how the room looks more everyday — just a few plants and books in the window. That angle is tricky. Shooting king-sized beds is so hard — they are just so big and they come at you so the bottom of the bed just looks even more enormous, which is why you don’t see them shot straight and pulled back, unless it’s in a massive room. But this angle does show you more information and tells you more about the space.

And there you have it folks. That wraps up The Studio City house tour. Thanks to Eric Olsen for his amazing architecture skills. Rachna and Dave for having such good taste, an imagination, and patience with my schedule. Orlando, of course, for all his help and making me laugh every day, HGTV Magazine for shooting it with Victoria Pearson, and Bethany Nauert for taking all the amazing scouting shots.

Want more of this project? Check it out here: Part 4 | Part 3 | Part 2 | Part 1

I told you I was going to spread this house out. I’m really milking it. We are on post number four (out of five) of the studio city house and today’s makeover is totally exclusive to this blog, since the office didn’t make it into the magazine. (See post 1, 2 and 3.) We didn’t have a huge budget for the office; it was definitely not a priority, but that weird niche below was really a waste of space that needed to get addressed.

So I did what any shelf styling lover would do — added some wallpaper and some shelving.

We had our contractor install those shelves for $600 (I believe) and we made them really chunky and modern to fit the clean lines of all the molding in the house. Generally when we do custom shelves we like to do them about 16″ apart so they are tall enough to be able to add art, but not so tall that novels look tiny and messy. 12″ is too short, and 18″ becomes a little “store display” so 14″ – 16″ is the sweet spot.

The blue chair is from West Elm, although they don’t sell it in the vintage indigo fabric anymore. That crate/table was a last minute desperate styling maneuver that I regret (we didn’t plan on this shot), although I love that lamp that is on top (vintage).

We used mainly their real stuff with the addition of the stack of books on the bottom, porcelain owl, and the gold clock that they liked — but not for the $150 price tag. And yes, the typewriters were already their’s (as they are both writers), same with the vintage camera, and leather medicine bag.

I think we all know what makes this shot/room: Oh Joy’s Petal Pusher Wallpaper. This is the gold and gray version and I swear to God, Rachna requested it; I’m not constantly trying to push my friends’ goods on my clients, but yes, I’m always happy to support my friends whilst making my clients happy. Dave went along with it because the color palette was fairly masculine for what looks like it could be a floral wallpaper (although it is succulents, just so you know). It adds such great contrast into the space. I love it.

Meanwhile up the stairs we created a family photo wall full of tons of photos spanning decades, with both family and friends. But we shot it twice, two different ways. (Again, once for the scouting shots to get the magazine to shoot it and once during the actual magazine shoot).

Bethany Nauert shot this and I love the angle, but we had to reshoot it because as you’ll notice the middle painting isn’t exactly a family photo. They had just had their family photos taken by the amazing Max Wanger, but they hadn’t received them back yet so this painting held its place while we were waiting for the big prints to arrive.

Ah, that is much cuter. If you ever have the luck to book Max for family photos, DO IT. He’s incredible. This was one of many that turned out so beautiful and artistic, and yet captured the family’s energy, sense of humor, and personalities perfectly. Rachna says every time she walks up the stairs, she gets so happy (and she might have even admitted she cried the first time, which pretty much made my year, nay, life).

… Although I want to take that photo and move it to the left 1 1/2 inch. Aghh, that is why you have to stare at every single photo in the camera or computer and obsess over every detail or else you’ll miss something. There was nothing really to style in this shot so I was in the master bedroom steaming sheets while they were shooting it, and now and forever more that placement of that photo will drive me crazy. Not that big of a deal, but I wanted to point it out before I got a ton of negative comments. Ultimately, the wall is incredibly happy. She wanted it to feel really collected over time so we went with the “let’s get a bunch of frames in the color palette and just go for it” method. It doesn’t look perfect, but it looks like an organic collection of memories that she can continue to add to without having to obsess over placement.

 Check out Post #1, Post #2,  Post #3 and Post #5, and don’t forget to watch the behind-the-scenes video that Tessa made for me, and thanks again Bethany Nauert for all the pretty photos.

It’s part three of the Studio City house that I decorated. I say “decorated” instead of designed in this post because their architect, Eric Olsen is responsible for all of the reclaimed wood, the design of the kitchen, and basically everything except for the furniture and accessories. So please credit him and hire him. He’s awesome — so talented, fast, and amazing to work with.

Meanwhile I’ll show you what styling can do to a space. Here is the breakfast nook before:

Sorry. We didn’t take great ‘before’ photos so you get the occasional vacuum in there. The space was great, just needed some accessories and life:

Pow. And it comes with a free breakfast. Every magazine is different and the general direction they gave me was to bring in color and life (like a family was just there) to every shot. So while flowers or a bowl of fruit would have sufficed for everyday living, the scones and coffee say to readers, “Oh yeah, that’s where they eat scones and coffee — and I can, too.” It makes it approachable and inviting.

We didn’t do much design-wise here, just added these Country Curtains Roman Shades (what we’ve found to be the cheapest that are still decent quality, around $120 a piece), and some pillows. You’ll notice the black and white stripe pillow from Proud Mary and the rest are from H.D. Buttercup.

Here’s how we styled it for the scouting shots, which are the shots (by Bethany Nauert) that we used to show the magazine to get published:

Those branches are way too tall and crazy. Whoops. But I like the colorful pillows in the HGTV shot more. Which shot do you like more?

Oh, this gorgeous kitchen THAT ERIC OLSEN, the architect, designed — not me. So consider this just a house tour that I styled. He chose Tom Dixon pendants (the real ones, not the knock offs).

For the scouting shots, I styled it really simply with just some cutting boards and branches. Enough to make it feel not empty but not much beyond that.  (Photos by Bethany Nauert)

Then for HGTV Magazine they wanted more “life” so we added more pops of color (the pots in the back, the teal bowl, blue vessel, and bowl of lemons that we cut from their backyard). Then we added the spices/oils on the ledge, some cookbooks, and you know, a lemon in mid-cut on the left.

It’s definitely better with more color. I always ask myself before I confirm a shot, Do I want to be in that world? and the answer has to be “Yes.” It could be a tabletop shoot with just plates and spoons but I ask myself, Would I be excited to be at this dinner party? or Do I want to be on that bed? So I think that while there are unnecessary props, I definitely want to be in this kitchen more than the less propped one. And that’s what you want to sell to the readers so they can relate to it as well.

We (HGTV with Victoria Pearson) shot it with Rachna and without her, and when she is in it, the lemons (and scones/coffee) make way more sense

Look how cute she is with her big pop of pink. Now for the dining room, which is directly across from the kitchen.

The only thing I did in here was bring in the piece of art. Eric gets all the credit for the walls and beams/lights, etc.

Rachna and I really want to strip that table and make it prettier wood that doesn’t clash with the walls. It was Dave’s (her husband’s) table as a child so it’s a keeper in a lot of ways, but it could use a new finish. They are probably replacing those chairs, too, but hadn’t gotten to it yet and they are totally good anyway. (I think they are interested in selling them so if anybody is interested in buying, leave a comment and she can contact you). For styling I kept it simple and cheap — a weird lion planter with a fern in it, and added something personal at the end.

Regarding personal props: They are controversial, indeed. There are times when I think it looks incredibly stupid if it’s not done right, and there are times when I haven’t done it right or pushed it too far with a sweater along the foot of the bed and then I want rent a DeLorean and go back to the day of the shoot and take off that stupid sweater. But in the right media and done beautifully, adding “personal props” makes it look more inviting and people can picture a life there, and therefore themselves more, and then yes, you are selling the photograph (and the product) so much more. You just have to keep your audience in mind.

Meanwhile, here is the exterior of the house — it’s totally beautiful and I want to put it in my mouth.

It’s a farmhouse style, and Eric used a modern color palette (white and a really warm dark gray) to keep it looking current and classic. Please notice the dutch doors (aka the top half opens inwards so you can have it bring in light and fresh air without having your front door wide open.

As soon as you walk in you see this:

All reclaimed wood clad walls, with a barn door device to hide their closets. I brought in the bench which was a vintage find that we DIY’d with new upholstery (please note the brass legs), and I wanted to put a mirror above the bench, but Rachna and Dave really wanted the wood to be the highlight of the space and to stand out. (photos by Bethany Nauert)

There you have it, friends. Check out the first and second post here and here, and expect two more before I’m done with this.  Thank you so much for all the nice things you have said about this project. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me.

Want more of this project? Check it out here: Part 5 | Part 4 | Part 2 | Part 1

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments on Monday’s post. After reading them all I made Orlando tell me how untalented, ugly, and annoying I was, over and over again, in order for my head to get back to a normal size. It’s almost like he enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, let’s go into the living room, shall we? This is where they do the majority of their hanging out — TV watching, cuddling, reading, sudoku-ing, etc., as you do. It’s attached to the dining room and kitchen and Eli’s playroom; it’s the central hub of the house.

We continued the color palette from the other rooms (as you should with an open floor-plan) and added this indigo Madeline Weinrib indigo rug that clearly I can’t get enough of. For the record, this rug was not my idea, they saw it in Joy’s house, loved it, and couldn’t get it out of their heads. It’s honestly one of my favorite rugs in the world and everyday I wish I owned it. It has so much color variance because it’s vegetable dyed, and it’s strangely neutral even though it’s indigo blue. Plus, it’s kid-friendly since it’s dark. I have to stop myself from buying it for myself and last week another client asked for it WITHOUT ME SUGGESTING IT. It’s so hard, friends. It’s just that good. (Not getting paid, barely get a discount, my comments are a genuine love of a product.)

The sofa/ottoman they had was from Cisco Home and is crazy comfortable, but was hard at times to incorporate because it was so neutral and big. The white chair was CB2 and the teal chair from Jonathan Adler. Those fig branches are from HUGE BIG BRANCH WORLD and I totally regret how big I made them. Whoops. Oh hindsight, you annoying self-righteous beast.

Yes, we move branches around for shots. None of these were in the magazine, though. This whole room didn’t make it in — so these are more behind-the-scenes shots that Bethany Nauert shot for me.

Such a happy little corner.

Wanna see the same vignette styled two different ways? This is how we styled it for the scouting shots for the shoot:

I can’t tell which one I like more … thoughts? I can’t tell if the globe and the hanging thing look kinda forced. But I like both a lot for different reasons. The stool was a flea market find but I like how it mimics a Platner side table. The painting behind the chair is Michelle Armas,  which I love. I’d like to officially announce that that is the last time I’ll use that West Elm pillow — it’s just so god damn easy to use because it’s texture and color, but doesn’t have a pattern or is too busy. But I’ve realized I’ve used it too much. Lo siento and adios, mi pilletto.

Meanwhile, the back view toward the kitchen…

We kept the books coordinated by color because they looked the least busy. Rachna loves some whimsy so we had a lot of animal sculptures (yes, also because I do love an animal sculpture as much as Kim Kardashian loves mascara). But you can see how much the accessories and sculptures break up the uniformity of the books in the shelves. (Note the sneak peek into the kitchen.) The weird three prong footed bowl is from A + R, the Italian lamp was sold in my last OKL sale, and the gold paper bowl is from Up In The Air Somewhere.

Meanwhile, this was our corner vignette:

Oh hey, adorable niche. I got that chair for $30 then reupholstered it for $70. Not bad, my friends, not bad. The photographs above are from 20×200 and the custom heart paper art piece is Sara and Bendrix. The sequin chevron pillow was Urban Outfitters, for like 10 bones, but certainly that style has had it’s day since then, and while it photoraphs nicely, it’s 100 percent the most uncomfortable pillow ever. Plus, Dave hated it.

So that’s the living room. I still have the dining room, entry, breakfast nook, kitchen, office, and master bedroom to go.

Meanwhile, for sneak peeks into all of those spaces, watch this behind-the-scenes video that Tessa Neustadt made that shows me sans makeup, and captures all the chaos and laughter that surrounds a photo shoot.

Want more of this project? Check it out here: Part 5 | Part 4 | Part 3 | Part 1

Hello. I’d like to officially welcome you to the longest (and most full of information and general design porn) post I’ve ever done. I can finally reveal a house I worked on for a year last year that I’m so proud of. It’s featured in this month’s HGTV Magazine so I’ll no longer get digitally tarred and feathered for posting the photos.

This job was a total dream job. Rachna and Dave were young, cool, stylish, had great taste, good imagination, and were flexible with my crazy schedule (aka, patient as hell). Plus, they had very inappropriate senses of humor and a very cute child, which is a prerequisite. I think from beginning to end it took a year, but that included a ton of travel on my part so it was slow to finish … but totally fun every single second. I’m not kidding.

I mean, look at them. I only have attractive clients. Let’s get to some before and afters, shall we?

The living room … BEFORE:

Hopefully Rachna doesn’t kill me for posting that. They had spent six months with an incredible architect, Eric Olsen, renovating this house, and it looks beautiful. It’s part of the reason we took the job — the budget wasn’t huge, but we knew that we would get amazing portfolio pics out of it (you’ll see what I mean later).

The sectional was super comfortable, but it wasn’t actually their TV room/lounging area, so it really cut off the flow of the whole main floor without being that functional. Eli’s play room is where the camera is therefore no one could sit there and watch him at the same time. So we sold the sectional (from Cisco home, which was awesome) to another client of ours (which was a friend of theirs, strangely) and bought this sofa from Room and Board instead.

AHHHH. Indeed. Bright, airy, vintage, kid-friendly. I love it. Here’s what we did: Instead of a sectional, we did the old “sofa facing almost matching chairs” trick (flea market chairs + upholstery = $600 for both) and stuck a very kid-friendly (brass doesn’t damage, round is safe) Moroccan coffee table in between. They already had that console in another room but we stuck it behind the sofa with some matching lamps on it and engaged that space, which would have been left empty and totally awkward. (Yes, think about floating your sofa and putting a sofa table behind it; it’s a fabulous underrated trick).

In case you are asking, “Why are all the props different in this photo?, ” the answer is that I had it shot (by Bethany Nauert) when I finished the house (eight months ago) to pitch it to HGTV mag. Then HGTV normally has their own photographers (like Victoria Pearson) who come in to shoot it for the magazine. In that three months we shifted some things around styled it differently for each photo. But I figured just having this perspective would help you understand the space.

The pouf was theirs already (always kid friendly, Garnet Hill sells that color) and the drum table was bought at a vintage store. The only two things we brought in for the shoot, but weren’t left were the West elm yellow lamp (because it was low and breakable, so instead they put it in their guest room), and the painting on the mantel (it’s not his style so much so they are currently still in search of that piece — and meanwhile it’s on my mantel).

Next up is Eli’s playroom, otherwise known as the coolest playroom on the West coast.

But here it is BEFORE:

Obviously a VERY good place to start. The architect (Eric Olsen) had helped them make the decision to paint the back wall with chalkboard, bought them that awesome pendant light and the vintage store shelving unit. You can see some of the rustic wood cladding he did all over the house, which is sadly kinda edited from the story … don’t worry I’m doing a separate post of the missing rooms where you’ll see a lot of that.

The challenges: Mainly just lack of color, furniture, fun, and figuring out what to do with that shelving unit.

And now …

I now regret my childhood for I wasn’t playing in such a room. Kidding, Ma and Pa. We knew we needed color, so color is what we went for. They had that teal chest that was in their closet and we unearthed it, and put it on that wall. As much as we loved the chalkboard wall, it was a big black box. Eli is turning three this year so he is still little and can’t really draw on the top half so we knew we had to engage it somehow. We figured it would be a great place to display his other art and it could rotate as they saw fit.

The frames you ask? We bought them (new, shiny, and bad, but good shape and scale) from Aaron Brothers during their buy one get one for one cent sale and then painted them gold and white. We figured it was a good opportunity to make a statement instead of just painting them all white or getting all wood — this pops off the wall, and really elevated the amateurism (sorry, Eli!) of the artwork.

The rug is a Dwell Studio classic — the Draper Rug and it’s awesome. (I can’t find the yellow one on the site, but I found this yellow one instead.)  The white poufs you can get, well, a lot of places now and that gold lamp was a boring orange lamp that we spray-painted gold and put a fresh shade on.

But what about that monster of an amazing shelving unit. What do you put in that thing that is A. inexpensive, B. functional, and C. looks good. Nothing. There is nothing functional that looks good that we had the budget for. All the pockets are different sizes, and before you say “A collection of … vintage cameras/spools of thread/stuffed animals/wooden blocks, ” I harken you to think of anything that is cool, that is worth collecting, and less than $10 a piece. We needed 65 of these bad boys. Someday it will be wine storage, but for now it’s in the playroom, so obviously that would be strange.

Drum-roll please … the AFTER:

Yep. Painted the inside of standard mason jars. About $1 – $2 a piece. The whole job costs $500 in materials (and yes, while we did spend around 15 hours on it, it was before our hourly business model so it was included in the original design fee + we enjoyed doing it :))

There were a million different ways to do this — stripes, random pattern, but we ultimately settled on shades of the same color and just took this Benjamin Moore paint deck, and had a quart of each color on that page of the fan deck mixed.  We started with dark on the bottom so it didn’t feel top heavy. Like ma body.

Oh hey, Landy. I love how your shirt matches the task at hand. Now that’s a good, properly brainwashed, employee.

It’s common house paint; water-based. Nothing special. Swirl it around with a cheap brush, let it dry, do two coats … at least.

After the first coat.

We didn’t even clean off the brushed in between colors — we liked how they kinda mixed and marbled around.

DUDE. I just searched for about an hour in my files for the drawing I made to determine all the sizing of the jars for each pocket because you know what I had to do to figure it out?? F&@KING MATH!!!! that’s what. It took me hours to figure out that the bottom row needed to be quarts (or whatever they are), then pints, then pints stacked on top of each other, then 1/2 quarts, etc. Wait. I just noticed one is missing the top right corner. I swear it was being touched up when we shot this (not for the magazine, but for scouting shots with Bethany).

Anyway, it was a very inexpensive (relatively) project that anybody could do — we didn’t have to hire anyone, we didn’t have to spend a ton of money, and it brought color but also reflection into the shelves (and reflection  = light and life). If we had just a piece of color (we thought about doing colored paper boxes) it would have still left it feeling dead. The glass reflected so much light (which is why we chose to paint the inside and not the outside of the jars).

Whew. Up next, the family room …

Except I just realized that I literally have ten more rooms to go, which would make this officially the longest post in the history of long blog posts. Yes, longer than most Young House Love posts (which I read every word of:)). So I’m going to spread this house out over a few posts, a couple rooms at a time so your eyes don’t glaze over, and I’m not spending 16 hours on one post.

Come back tomorrow for the family room and some cute vignettes, then later the kitchen, dining nook, and dining room, and lastly, the master bedroom, bathroom, and office. I already posted the guest room, so check that out HERE.  

It’s a house tour, but the old fashioned way. Meanwhile ask any and all questions you have in the comments about the spaces above, and I’ll get to them and answer all your questions after my 19 meetings tomorrow.  🙂

Want more of this project? Check it out here: Part 5 | Part 4 | Part 3 | Part 2

Run, don’t walk to your local grocer (or drug store or book store) because right now I have a big ‘ole feature in HGTV Magazine of a house I decorated in L.A. last year.

Its 9 pages of a house that was crazy fun to decorate on with one of the most fun clients in the world.  I’m going to post the whole spread, but that takes some scanning time and i simply must watch The Bachelor Finale right now which requires me to plant myself in front of my TV, so for now i’m going to show a couple of the rooms that didn’t make it into the spread.

When i first started the project the guest room looked like this:

The space was bright and airy, but everything was just not considered and not decorated yet.  They had just totally gut renovated the house, and totally transformed it beautifully with help by architect Eric Olsen, and as many of you know that takes a lot out of you.  So Rachna was just done making decisions and she needed someone to come in and just finish it, which is  my favorite part

This was Rachna’s mom’s room and she really wanted her to have a really happy place to stay when she came to visit. She wanted it to be bright, happy, cheerful and full of vintage but still feeling fresh.

AFTER:

Hell yes, I would visit that bedroom so hard. We decided that the white paint was pretty and fresh, and instead brought color in with everything else. I found the vintage indigo fabric from Tortoise in Venice and wrapped it around a headboard I already had. I wish i had a better picture of it that showed how beautiful that fabric is.  The striped bedding is from West Elm, Ikat bedding from Bed Bath and Beyond, the throw pillow is from Anthropologie, the artwork in the back from Castle in Australia, called Bronze Pop, lamp from H.D. Buttercup, accordion lamp is vintage from Etsy, curtains are from ModCloth, although discontinued, sadly. The Vintage Laurel lamp in the foreground is from Etsy, vintage side table, alarm clock from West Elm.

I love navy and yellow together. They are totally opposite on the color wheel, therefore making them oh so complimentary. You have a really bright happy color mixed with the dark masculine grounding color, which keeps it balanced. The curtains have a lot of hot pink in them, so i peppered it around the room and it became this fun little poppy accent color.

The patterns work well together because the Ikat is large scale and the stripes are small scale. And then on the opposite side of the room, the curtains are more of a large and airy scale, so all three are wildly different and therefore they work together so happily.

The mid-century chair from Amsterdam modern for $70, but of course I reupholstered it for $100 in simple white linen. Black and white chevron pillow from Urban Outfitters, glass jug from the flea market, and leaf from god’s green, green world.

And there you have it, friends. A guest room before and after. I’ll be leaking more of the story, all next week, but meanwhile definitely pick up the magazine and read the spread for yourself.