Eclectic Traditional Silver Lake Hills Home – Emily Henderson

A Refresh Of Our Favorite “Child Client’s” – Bedroom 8 Years Later

Julie Rose — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:00:52 +0000

Eight years ago I designed a bedroom for the most lovely 9-year-old – Grace (watch the ‘vintage’ video here):

For those of you who remember this makeover – THANK YOU FOR YOUR YEARS OF PATRONAGE 🙂 For those of you who don’t, welcome to the 8 years later install, because she is all grown up now and ready for the almost-adult version. I’ve remained friends with this family (Howard, the dad is actually still our real estate agent) and over the years have designed their Pinterest famous kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, main bedroom, main bathroom, guest room/office and their son graham’s bedroom. Also if you someday want to hire an interior designer (or any designer for that matter) I want Howard and Nicole to give a master class on how to be great clients, because they truly were and remain so wonderful to work with (in short – a lot of trust, respect for the craft AND THE BUSINESS, hands-off but clear communication, fast decision making, and good vision and taste). A true joy.

photos by david tsay | from: tween bedroom makeover with land of nod

So last year Nicole asked us if we would be interested in updating Grace’s bedroom now that she is 17 (16 at the time). The trick is that this bedroom will be not only hers through the rest of high school, but will become a guest room when she goes off to college. We said “yes” quickly because we love them and off Julie went leading the design. So without further ado here is the wonderful Julie to walk us through this reveal.

photos by david tsay | from: tween bedroom makeover with land of nod

Thanks Emily and hello friends! Julie here again to share with you all my last project as a full-time EHD team employee. It’s a bittersweet thing to say but not to worry, this isn’t the last you’ll see of my designs since Emily has already hired me on for an upcoming project. That was quick! haha. Plus, now that Velinda, Grace, and myself have joined forces we will be sharing a few of the many design projects we are currently working on with you all in the future (like this one).

But today is all about Grace’s sophisticated bedroom upgrade.

Overall the elements in the space remained the same but they just got an upgrade either in size or style that is more current for today. However, the one thing that remained the same was her vintage bed that has been passed down in the family for a few generations now. It’s such a beautiful piece, I was all for keeping it in the space and using it as a jumping-off point for the design. Grace was also very inspired by Liv Tyler’s living room which feels cozy and yet a bit glamorous at the same time. Pulling in a similar color palette, brass fixtures, cozy moments and a refined gallery wall to transform her room into a version that best fits Grace.

First things first, give this room a coat of white paint to start anew. Grace was desiring some neutral elements in the room to contrast the previously bright and colorful design. The walls were a great place to start but since the bed was the focal point of the space it was important for the bedding to be more textural and neutral with hints of blush and taupe. Layering these colors throughout in the linen bedskirt and sheet set mixed in with white ruffled shams, a faux fur throw, and woven pillows helps the neutral bedding from falling flat.

The new ceiling light from Circa Lighting was a game changer. The original one was a large white drum pendant that hung lower in the room so it made the ceiling feel a bit shorter which can be great for a kid’s bedroom but was now stunting this room’s height potential. Swapping it out for a semi-flush mount fixture with a mix of brass and glass elevates the room to a new height. The slight curves and clear glass take the fixture from feeling too Mid-Century Modern to a little glam without going over the top. It’s a timeless piece and can easily evolve with the room’s style over the years.

Another tried and true design trick to help keep the ceiling looking as tall as possible is to hang your curtains properly. I know. Shocker. And I bet this is the very first time we have ever mentioned this to you all. Before the curtain rod was a bit closer to the top (or header) of the window so we raised them up and Voila! What a difference it can make. As I was hanging up the curtains (masked and at a safe distance of course) Howard, Grace’s dad, passed by the room and enthusiastically commented on how much taller the ceiling felt. I love when clients are thrilled and a tad shocked at how much a design can transform the feeling of a space. The curtain’s vertical lines draw your eye up past the windows to the ceiling, it’s the best design illusion out there.

The new art addition over the bed by Elissa Barber is neutral yet the curves speak to the other pieces of the room like the bench, circle pillow, table lamp. It’s a timeless and minimalist piece of artwork that gives an elegant touch to the room right when you walk in.

Right before I was about to purchase this nightstand for them (at full retail price) I came across Tessa’s Instagram stories where she was selling the exact one at a fraction of the cost. Today’s Design Lesson: Always shop Instagram, FB Marketplace and Craigslist first for ‘big box’ furniture. It’s a bit bigger than the previous nightstand but has a mix of closed and open storage which makes it feel smaller since it’s not as visually heavy. Also, the off-white color and brass detail on the hardware pairs so well with the vintage bed frame. Meant. To. Be.

Topped it off by mixing up materials with a stone base table lamp from Lulu & Georgia and a rose quartz tray which is always an easy trick to corral all the things that typically end up on your nightstand.

But of course here, we styled it out with some florals, a few pieces of jewelry and an adorable photo of Grace and her boyfriend.

Since there wasn’t a need for another nightstand on the opposite side of the bed Grace had mentioned that she wanted to add some seating in the room when friends came over. I should state that this was a pre-pandemic request. There wasn’t ample space but enough for a small scaled chair. The trick was that it’s rattan instead of upholstered, this keeps it feeling light and airy without looking too crowded. By adding a pillow and a soft cozy throw from Pom Pom at Home for a great reading spot.

The foundation of the space is this beautiful vintage rug from Revival Rugs. It was a last-minute addition to the space since the original rug didn’t pan out. Lucky for us it had every color used in the room. Sara captured this shot to give you all a close look at its intricate pattern which feels grown up and youthful at the same time.

You may notice a few styling pieces from my own bedroom MOTO, I may have ‘shopped’ my room since we shot this a few months ago when I thought it would be best not to buy and return a bunch of product just for a shoot. Even though our styles are wildly different, the pieces I pulled work so well in her space. Like that Foot Vessel by Carmen Ellis, it’s a piece that could pair with literally any style.

Adding some open and closed storage to the room was important to Grace and the Sawyer Cabinet by Hedge House has a great cupboard size to store all her school textbooks plus those semi-circle pulls aren’t bad to look at either. 😉

The canvas art piece by Emily Keating Snyder plays on the simple and neutral with hints of color style that Grace gravitates towards.

On the opposite side, there is a velvet curved bench for additional seating when one day friends can come hang out. If you are wondering what that white ball next to the bench might be, it’s a glow lamp. A year ago when Emily and myself came over for the initial design meeting we noticed there was an LED strip along the crown moulding. It was something Nicole was ready to get rid of but Grace loved the multicolor lights at night so the Luna Lamp from Food52 was the design compromise. It still has all the multicolor options Grace wants but is more discrete looking than a LED strip.

Above it all we have a simple gallery wall with some beautiful abstract pieces by Christina Kwan, another Elissa Barber drawing on the upper left and the abstract landscape print on the upper right by Tanya Val. Anchoring it all is a mini pin board DIY where Grace can display all her personal memorabilia that is easy to change over time.

Using the same style frame as the rest of the artwork, I found a pin board that fit inside it and taped them together on the back. Add in some cute brass heart-shaped pins and let Grace do her thing to display some meaningful memories.

The wooden desk that was in the space before was so sweet and another heirloom but it was just too small for Grace to be able to sprawl out to get her homework done. She also wanted it to double as a vanity area which was easy enough by adding that tall brass arched mirror from Rejuvenation. Since it is opposite from the windows it bounces around all the natural light throughout the day. The lilac stool while very cute with the double layered fringe is not totally practical now that this is Grace’s full-time school desk. While we were shooting the room I helped Nicole pick out a proper desk chair and we found an alternative spot for the stool. Problem solved. 🙂

The sconce was kept from the original design and the brass tones of the table lamp from Lulu & Georgia were an exact match. Since there was only one sconce on the left side of the desk, adding in a table lamp will help to distribute the light evenly at night when Grace is up late studying.

And now for my favorite part, a little ‘before and afters’ to really see the design transformation!

There were a lot of changes but the biggest one was how grown up Grace is now 8 years later. Grace and her whole family were so patient with the whole design process since it got delayed a few times this year. Seeing Grace’s excitement for her new room was worth all the hard work and long masked days to install the space. Thank you to the whole family, they truly are the dream client!

And you know I’ve pulled together all the resources below just in case you saw anything you might like for your own home.

Thank you for virtually stopping by my last EHD project before going freelance, it’s been such an amazing 3 years and I am so grateful for everything, especially to Emily for the opportunity. Now let’s chat about all things design below because I already miss you all! See you there xx

**Design by Julie Rose for EHD | Photos by Sara Ligorria-Tramp

Silver Lake Hills Master Bath Reveal + Get The Look

Emily — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 10:00:22 +0000

Over the summer we began (and finished) a new bathroom for our longest (and one of our most favorite) client, The Silver Lake Hills House. Typically a designer prefers to do the whole house at once as it generally streamlines everything and likely saves the client some hours/money in the long run, but we love these guys. So over the past 5 years, we’ve done their dining room, family room, office, girls’ room, boys’ room, master bedroom … then, 3 years later, their living room, a year ago their kitchen and now we’ve added the bathroom. It’s actually been lovely to do it this way as they live close to me, and they need very little hand holding so it’s worked out swimmingly.

As you might recall the style of their house is a 1920’s classic bungalow, and their style is a mix of higher end finishes and more eclectic on-trend styles. They want a mix of classic and architecturally appropriate pieces, with a 2017 edge.

Like many older homes (including ours) this house lacked a “master suite” and the parents shared a large hall bathroom with their two almost-teenager kids (sorry, I know it’s going to kill them that they are almost-teenagers…when I started working with them their daughter was 9!! Remember this video???). They had a large-ish hall closet that backed into a hillside, meaning that there was room to expand it. Then they had a smaller closet that they could turn into a larger closet – therefore adding both a bathroom and a closet.

They put this off for years for the same reason any of us do, because of the expense and construction annoyance. But they knew that this was going to be both a life and house upgrade that they would do at some point, so why not do it now to enjoy it longer? Brian and I almost didn’t add the kids bathroom in our current house, opting originally to share with them for the rest of our lives. On a nightly basis, as they are destroying their bathroom during bath, we think how glad we are that we did it. We would have been FINE! But it’s just easier to not have four people share a bathroom. Easy to say, I realize, like of course you would put in another bathroom if it didn’t cost $30 – $50k, but it’s also AMAZING for resale. Trying to sell a house for a lot that only has 1 1/2 baths is hard … (not that we plan on ever selling our house).

So the task would be to put in a brand new master bathroom to create a master suite. This is their bedroom:

We designed this 5 years ago and we all still really like it. Their style at the time was more Hollywood Regency, but we didn’t overdo it so even though that particular style is less ‘in’ than it used to be, the particular pieces are pretty timeless (I still love those vintage teal porcelain lamps). We wanted the bathroom to work with the bedroom and as you can tell they can handle some bigger hits of color, but not a lot of it.

Ginny pulled together a mood board for inspiration.

It’s classic, with a 1920’s glam bent. We wanted some tile and some color, but not busy or colorful. We wanted a bold floor tile, simple shower tile but we didn’t want to have to tile the whole room so we loved the idea of a applied mouldings on the wall. These would give it texture, interest and depth without costing as much as tile and still remaining in the vibe of the 1920’s.

Here is where the closet was and where the bathroom will go:

It was not this crazy seamless permitting situation but it went through legally after a few weeks.

Our big jumping off point is that amazing tile from New Ravenna. It’s STUNNING. I’ve been in love with their mosaic tiles for a long time but it doesn’t work in a lot of modern homes. They are pretty decorative and ornate. It’s SO pretty but you kinda want a more traditional or higher end home to have it make sense (aka not a mid-century ranch house).

This particular pattern is black and white marble, and feels like a modern decorative pattern. They gave us a discount but this tile would be around $6500 for the amount that we needed. It’s not cheap, but it’s also not cheap if you know what I mean. It’s beautiful high-end stuff, folks and the kind of tile makes a statement without being loud. Most of their color palettes are timeless and neutral, with a lot of more dramatic black and white patterns like this one.

Ginny loves doing custom pieces for kitchens and bathrooms. It’s not that I don’t but I’m always like – isn’t it cheaper and faster to buy a readymade pretty vanity and either paint it or replace stone or both or neither? And the answer is yes, it is, but it also doesn’t look as good as a custom piece. Origially the client wanted this to be more on the budget side mostly because actually putting in the bathroom was going to be so much and also because very few people would really see it (since it was through the master bedroom). But Ginny sold them on the custom piece and I’m glad she did.

We wanted to maximize the storage while adding some decorative details (the mouldings and the feet) that would make it look/feel special. Here is a big, VERY important tip – If you are going to customize a piece please make sure you are designing something that isn’t on the market. This is your chance to do something special and just recreating something that already exists without at least tweaking it is a missed opportunity. Yes, there are times when the piece is perfect but the size just isn’t (like the anthro sofa that I recreated, but shorter and deeper) but just make sure you are open to making it slightly different/more special.

This custom piece – cost $2260 to manufacture and install (not including the stone which was an additional $1000).

A readymade (like in the plan above) would have cost around $1100 but it wouldn’t have looked built-in – with 3 1/2 inches on either side, and it would have been likely white or gray. My vanity in our master was readymade and we just got a new stone top (because we cracked ours and had left over stone from the kitchen). Do I think that the custom piece is worth it? YES. If you can afford it. But if you have to choose between an awesome tile and a custom vanity, choose an awesome tile. It’s like sofas and art for me – there are a ton of great readymade affordable sofas out there, but finding the perfect piece of art will be more expensive and do more for your room. Splurge on what creates a conversation.

We opted for a single sink because unless your counter is long we think that a double sink just takes up much needed counter-space. I get it if you have a really long big space, but if it’s not then I personally think the ‘double vanity’ obsession is a bit overblown. Do people really need separate sinks in which to spit their toothpaste?

For bathrooms we create pretty detailed drawings because measurements are of the upmost importance. Where things start and stop can be tricky and if you don’t indicate things beforehand you will likely hold up the process or make a mistake.

After a couple months (I think it was 9 weeks) and close to $50k later we finished this lovely bathroom. Now the tricky part of shooting, a room with no natural light – GOOD JOB SARA!!

When I saw it a few weeks before it was finished there wasn’t any black, the hardware was chrome and the pendants weren’t in yet. It wasn’t feeling right to me. It didn’t have the edge they needed and wanted, but adding some black in addition to the chrome really helped it.

We chose to do a large inset mirror to help the bathroom look so much bigger and bounce the light around. We looked for a vintage one for a while but nothing really felt right or was the right size. So we continued the moulding that was on the wall around the mirror so it looked more high end and intentional (remember when all of you thought the mirror in my bathroom was builder-grade and everyone hated it when it was really an antique?? 🙂 Well I think that insetting it into the moulding definitely upgrades it, while still making the room feel so big and bright.

OH heck no, we are not putting a rug down in that bathroom – look how amazing that tile is. So stunning.

We decided to do clear glass globe pendants to keep it open and not too distracting, and since these from Rejuvenation had black and chrome in the stem it helped to bring both finishes together throughout the bathroom.

Looking at it now I’m realizing we should have put prettier bulbs in them. Whoops. Will do.

We originally had this room a gray color, but once it was next to the Gray Owl in their bedroom I felt that it was too close without being the same and that it was going to look brown. So the clients chose to do Gray Owl in the bathroom instead. And sadly it just didn’t work! That color has never not worked in the history of me using it, but it just felt sad in there, perhaps without any natural light. So we went for white and we all felt really good about it. I think that since the vanity was a strong mid-tone color it just wanted to be next to white and not another neutral.

We added the moulding on the wall, mimicking the profile but in a squared off way. I was afraid that it was going to be overkill to do the same angled corner shape of the drawers, on the walls, too. Maybe it would have looked really beautiful and cohesive, but there was something that felt too ‘new and hotel’ about it to me.

We opted for a barn door instead of pocket (I don’t know why, honestly)

On the other side of the bathroom we have a shower and toilet – as you do in most bathrooms.

For a traditional home I think that is such a lovely looking toilet. Rarely do magazines EVER show toilets, it’s like an actual thing. They would NEVER print one in their magazine, which I find hilarious.

To keep it feeling open and as big as possible we opted for glass doors (similar to ours). This client didn’t splurge on the ‘crystal clear’ glass like I did at our house which is why it has a greener tint (all tempered glass has a green tint, it’s just the amount of green that can vary and the more you spend the less green you get).

All of our faucets and fixtures were from efaucets.com in a chrome finish, and they really are beautiful. They are traditional and look really high end and good quality (which they are). That shower faucet it really a show-stopper (it’s kinda what I wish I had done).

That tiny little shelf was put in last minute for leg shaving (it’s not a tiny seat for a tiny human or cat).

That’s a pretty faucet, right there. We used a undermount kohler sink below the marble that Ginny and the client chose from the stoneyard. They beveled the edge of it to work with the applied moulding.

I LOVE this bathroom. One of the reasons that I love this house and client is that they are different than a lot of others that we have had over the years. They like things to be slightly more traditional, which is so fitting to the house. They trust us, knowing that we totally get them and it makes us VERY happy, indeed. The only sad part is that I think we might be done with that house! When we returned to shoot it I showed Brady and Sara the kid’s rooms and how they are like a shrine – all the major pieces are the same as when I designed them 5 years ago, and yet they feel totally age appropriate! The toys and collectables have been switched out, but that’s about it. It makes me SO happy. But maybe when the kids are actual teenagers they’ll have us back to give them a little teen-makeover.

A huge thanks to Ginny and Mel for lead design and execution on this project (under my art direction). It turned out so well, and the client is so happy. Not only do they not have to share a bathroom with their two almost-teen kids, but they get to shower in THIS BATHROOM.

So for now, thanks Silver Lake Client. You are kinda the best.

And for those of you interested in the resources in the bathroom, here you go!

***Photos by Sara Tramp for EHD

Silver Lake Hills Master Bath Intro

Emily — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 12:00:50 +0000

Hey all, it’s Ginny here with a sneak peek intro to a bathroom project we’ve been working on at the Silver Lake Hills Home. For those who are new to the blog/this project I’ve added a few after photos (below) of what EHD has done in their house so far, to give you an idea of what the rest of the space looks like.

This is their master bedroom which Emily and Orlando worked on eons ago but still looks so good today. They’ve hardly changed a thing in here and this dresser vignette is always a go-to one of mine when styling out dressers. The new bathroom is going to be the en-suite for this room which you’ll see from the photos below. They currently have one bathroom between the family of 4 (and their kid’s are now teenagers), so they loved the idea of not having to fight for the shower first thing in the morning (and we agree).

We completed their kitchen last year and it makes me so happy looking at the photos. They love bold color and pattern so we really “went for it” in here with the floor tile.

The office turned guest room is another Emily & Orlando project starring the cutest, most sweetest puppy ever (aside from my own two of course).

The wallpaper in their dining room has been discontinued which is such a shame because we get questions about it all the time – it’s such a classic.

Their family room also got a little make-over too. It’s so bright and sunny it’s no wonder the kids like to hang out in here.

Emily & Orlando designed their boy’s bedroom and tween girl bedroom (below) and both rooms still feel age appropriate for them even 4 years later.

Around the time we were working on their kitchen we gave their formal living room a revamp to make it feel more family friendly and a place they’d want to hang out in.

Once we finish up this new bathroom and their closets we’ll have collectively done most of the rooms in this house. That actually makes me really quite sad because we have loved working with them and hope they’ll think of another project for us to work on, otherwise they might come home one day to find me on the sofa with the pups.

So to get back into the nuts and bolts of the bathroom so to speak. They wanted to add an en-suite to their master bedroom and the only way to do this was to build into their existing closet and crawl space under the house. (The house is upside-down with the bedrooms below the living spaces). So we were essentially building two new rooms completely from scratch.

Their house is late 1930’s and the bedroom has a slight regency style to it, so we wanted to fuse that with a traditional/deco vibe so that the flow would be cohesive. Our first thing was to add a really special floor tile in here so we worked with New Ravenna who have some stunning marble mosaics. The space is fairly petite (for a master bathroom) so along with the decorative floor tile we wanted to add some interesting detail to the wall and loved the idea of adding moulding. In order to get extra light in there, we proposed adding one large mirror above the vanity which will give the illusion of the room being more spacious and reflect light.

We pulled together two mood board options showing our direction. The first – our preferred – shows a custom colored vanity (the one pictured is off the shelf, I just changed the color to give a visual to the client) with the wall in a tonal grey. The marble flooring could not be more perfect for our client’s style, it’s like it was personally made for them. By doing a custom vanity it would give us the option to source beautiful stone for the countertop and backsplash. We proposed polished chrome plumbing fixtures since that’s what they have in their other bathroom and powder room. They have a slight bevel / hex shape to them which spoke to the pattern detail in the flooring.

The second option shows an off the shelf vanity in white with the walls being painted in the blue color. The upside of this is that it would be cheaper than custom, but being that most pre-made vanities come in standard sizes it would be slightly smaller than our given wall dimensions. Another downside is that they only come in certain colors, usually black, white or grey and then some do come in wood finishes. We’ve used pre-made ones before and for an affordable solution they really are great. One way to spruce them up is to switch out the hardware for a slightly more custom look. For both options we proposed a simple white subway for the shower walls, that would help to keep the costs in check and let that lovely floor tile be the star of the show.

Cost comparison:

Custom cost of the vanity $2280 (install included) plus $1065 for the stone. Total $3345. That does not include cost for fabrication and installation of the stone as that was included in the overall construction cost.
Off the shelf vanity total $1400. That does not include the cost of installation but does include the stone.

After presenting the mood boards to them they decided on a custom vanity, mainly because they would benefit from it being slightly bigger and allow them to do a custom color. They initially wanted a double sink but due to the space restrictions we opted for a larger single basin. That way they get a decent sized sink as well as a good amount of countertop space. We proposed adding moulding to the front of the drawers and doors (sneak peek below) and have the whole thing sit on legs (as opposed to a base plinth) so that it feels more like a custom piece of furniture.

This is my crude sketch that we gave them to work off. The carpenters use this as a guide to create their own working drawings that are more accurate and something for us to approve before they constructed.

I drew up some elevations to show what we are thinking for the moulding on the walls, and especially how we treat the vanity wall (in case anyone notices, this was drawn up before we decided on the custom vanity route). There is still talk of adding a window above the mirror but they want to wait and see how it feels in there before doing so. It could be a costly decision that isn’t really necessary. From an aesthetics point of view we think it will look best without, but also understand the desire for natural light in a bathroom.

The left doorway (above) was their existing master closet entrance that is now being used to access the bathroom. The mirrored door (on the right) is their original closet door that they are reusing for the new closet. We got a vintage 1920’s door for the new bathroom that is almost identical to the closet door (without the mirror). We just have to decide on hardware for that next.

Probably the most boring, unattractive progress shot but interior design isn’t always that glamourous. Side note: I actually love this part of the job. Double side note: Can you see the mistake in photo #1? Plumbing? The contractor somehow forgot we were only doing 1 sink so installed the plumbing for two. Oops, luckily an easy fix.

And this is where we’re at as of yesterday. Tile is in, vanity is in. We have the stone being installed today and the painters are on site. The plumbing and electrical will be getting installed this week too so we’re almost there. If you hadn’t already guessed it, the space left open in the wall tile is for a stone corner bench. It won’t be long until this space it finished and we can shoot and post it for your eyes to feast on. I think this on is going to be a good one!

I’m sure some of you are dying to know how much this renovation cost. Other than materials we didn’t actually get involved with estimates for the construction, that was something between the client and contractor. With our client’s permission I will gladly explain the costs in depth in the final reveal.

What do you think so far? Let us know if you have any questions about the space or the process in general.

Silver Lake Hills Living Room Reveal

Emily — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 12:00:22 +0000

Hey all it’s Ginny again with the as promised reveal of the Silver Lake Hills living room. Check the post from earlier this week to see all the before photos, the process, and our initial plans for it, but in short, we wanted to take this room from dark and heavy to bright and happy.

Some of you asked in the comments why we ended up doing a full redesign instead of the partial design we initially set out to do with the client. The short answer is that the scope changed throughout the duration of the project. Some of their existing pieces that you’ll read about below did work, so we kept them, but other pieces did start to feel out of place. It’s our job to make things better and be open and honest with our clients and if things aren’t working then it’s up to us to suggest alternatives. Granted we have budgets to work towards but the family was very open to upgrades and if we could make existing things work then great, but no love lost if not. Not only that, but some companies did reach out wanting to participate in the makeover and kindly gifted a few pieces which obviously made the changes more appealing. Anyway, back to the design itself – just wanted to give some of you commenters a bit more background on why things changed and it turned into a full redesign.

This family isn’t afraid to go bold, and they love colour and pattern, so while the previous design was pretty pulled together we wanted to create a space that felt more like them. We started off by finding the perfect rug. We wanted an old, worn, colourful Persian, for less than $3k in 9 x 12, which is harder than you’d think but we did it and this rug really brings life into the room.

They already had a pretty dope sofa, so instead of buying a completely new one we had theirs reupholstered in a blue/green linen. They have two teen kids so we brought in some playful and contrasting patterns and textures for pillows and throw blankets. It took us a long time to find the perfect lamps for in here. They needed to be organic and rounded in shape to contrast against the square side tables. They also needed some height too. Their previous vintage lamps would have worked perfectly but sadly one got broken (not by us), plus they were white and we wanted something colourful to pop off the walls. Surprisingly it’s really hard to find good, tall, colourful, none-cheesy globe-like lamps without spending a small fortune. These marblised glass ones are from Safavieh and fit perfectly what we were looking for.

We kept their existing side tables since they were already pretty cute with their brass detailing/hardware, and the size worked well for the space and sofa. With the side tables being black we decided to bring that in as an accent colour throughout the space as well. The artwork is by our friend Jaime Derringer and these two pieces are sold on Art.com. We love the energy and modern vibe that they bring to the space.

We toyed with swapping out their coffee table as that was another item contributing to the dark and heavyness of the room. But once we started to pull in other pieces and colour, the table became less of an issue. You get a real view of the rug here, it’s beautifully worn and saturated in colour without being too in your face. We kept the styling simple and fun for everyday. The white tray pops off the dark table top and is a great base for a stack of books, a vintage vase and a box to hide away unsightly items.

We really liked the idea of leather in here, and even though they already had a leather chair and ottoman we replaced it with a new, lighter feeling more modern version. I have this in my living room and love it, so I couldn’t recommend it more. We added a white garden stool side table and surrounded it by plants since that corner gets a good amount of light. The armoir is a beautiful family heirloom from Austria (I think). It’s so pretty in person and there was no way we were going to remove it.

There was talk of completely redoing the fireplace and we gave them a few different options, but the most cost effective way came down to just painting it. We like the surround as it feels traditional and speaks to the house, so we kept that and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It originally had an ornate flourish detail on the front that we removed before painting to give it a more seamless feel. The bricks were a red which really brought it down so we convinced them to paint them black which makes the fireplace feel bigger and more modern.

We styled it out with a touch of brass with these cool candle holders from Lawson Fenning, a marblised vase from Target with some flowers Emily may or may not have ‘borrowed’ from their back yard and a stack of books with a simple wood box. Layering and landscaping. The circular mirror brings in a more organic shape and bounces light around the room.

We really tried hard to make their existing side chairs work. We questioned refinishing them but with all that caning it could be tricky and expensive. We could paint them. We could reupholster the cushion. When I say we tried hard, we tried damned hard but what it came down to was the shape and the fact that they didn’t feel so cosy. We got these two side chairs from Article which sadly are no longer available on their site – but they do have a handful of similar options still available.

The rounded backs bring in a softness that the cane chairs were lacking and the colour pulls from the colours in the rug. We teamed them up with some stripes, lots and lots of black and white stripes. This adds a fun modern vibe in here and that pulls in from the other black elements around the room.

Their exiting gallery wall behind the sofa was feeling quite static and formal, so we decided to liven it up with a more organic gallery. We mixed varying sized framed and mats to give it some variation but used materials found elsewhere in the room. This area now feels more balanced and happy.

What do you think? Does it feel more fun, family and friendly to you?

And because you know we love a dramatic side by side, check out some before and after photos below:

We thought their mantle was a nice example of a simple, pulled together mantle. So it was a perfect excuse to pull together a mantle Style School episode for you all:

And if you want to recreate it then see the “Get The Look” below.

**Photography by: Zeke Ruelas

Silver Lake Hills Home Living Room Progress

Emily — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:00:52 +0000

Hey everyone it’s Ginny checking in. We’re working on some really good design projects over here and this living room makeover for the Silver Lake Hills Home is one of them. We actually posted about this many moons ago but their kitchen project really became more of a priority for them which is why we only just finished it up. I thought I’d give you bit of a progress update and intro to the reveal, which is happening next week! It was a weird situation really because the room is pretty much designed. The clients had been reluctant to have us involved because, well, they already paid for a designer to do it, 4 years ago and it is totally pulled together and functional. But as you’ll see, they didn’t really feel that it was ‘them’ and now that we’ve done the rest of the house this room feels jarringly different.

The problems were mainly that it felt heavy, dark, lacking in personality, and just not their vibe. We generally don’t like to be negative but there was just something generic about it that felt like a designer had designed it, sitting from their desk with a bunch of catalogues; no sense of person or family here. The room was rarely used because it was just so serious and not very family friendly. It looked like it had enough seating, but nobody really wanted to sit in there. All the furniture was comfortable, but not even the kids wanted to lay around and read in there. They said there was just something really off putting about the whole thing.

But, there were a lot of good things happening in there. So much so that when Emily first did the rest of the house she kept telling them ‘don’t spend money here’. In fact there isn’t anything I don’t like in here. Every single piece is good in the right environment. But all of it together feels somehow impersonal. And dark. The sofa, side tables, frames, coffee table, chairs, armoire, other chairs … EVERYTHING is dark and feels so heavy.

Our initial goal was to make it a space that people will want to spend time in, while changing as little as possible since they have already invested time/money into this room. The ask was ‘make it better, make it more us, but we don’t want to pay for a whole redesign’. Understandably so, so we proposed two options below. (As we got further into the design process some of their original pieces really weren’t working for both the and us so the scope expanded. They just wanted the space to feel as warm and inviting as the rest of their house. We were fortunate that some companies wanted to participate in the makeover by gifting some of the pieces, hence the expensive coffee table.)

The first option involved reupholstering the sofa in a brighter (but still family friendly color), keeping the rest of the dark furniture as is (with new pillows). The wall color would go lighter (maybe not that shade, but something lighter and with more of a happy tone than the purple-gray that is in there). The room doesn’t get a ton of light so we wanted to go for a tone instead of bright white (read about the mistake of painting darker rooms white here).

The second option would keep the brown velvet sofa and then refinish the side tables to be a lighter, prettier wood, and the rug would be more antique/aged to bring in some soul.

The photo of the brown sofa above is not good – it looks like the bad kinda brown not the rich luxe beautiful chocolate brown that it is (we photoshopped the color but you can’t really capture the pretty texture). Part of us wanted to keep the brown because brown velvet is rarely used so it would be a really fun challenge to make that sofa work. Plus that sofa is beautiful and new enough that we’d have loved to not put $1500 – $1800 of fabric/labor into it. But remember that if the sofa stays dark then the side tables would need to change to be refinished which is at least $300 each = $600 total – not exactly free, but less.

We loved the idea of a vintage Persian rug which would bring in some depth, warmth, color and most importantly soul that we needed. We hunted high and low to find the perfect one that didn’t cost a fortune, but finding an antique Persian that is 9×12 and light in tone (aka, not burgundy) for under $5k is virtually impossible, so we did consider buying a new rug (like in option 1). We also considered doing the overlaid look with a smaller 8 x 10 which would be cheaper and the sisal rug was still in really good condition.

We memo’d a few options from a guy we know from the flea market but none of them felt right. They either didn’t pop off the floor and the tones just didn’t feel happy enough. That, and also we just really wanted a dope 9 x 12. Although now I thinking we should have hoarded the red and blue on on the right for Emily’s new house, it’s soooo purdy and beautifully worn!

It was only when we took back these rugs that we found our gem! Worn, colourful Persian: Check. 9 x 12: Check. Price $2450: Check! Not exactly ‘cheap’ but pretty darn good.

Once we got the rug in we had to make some dramatic changes to everything else. Even though it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, the brown velvet had to go and make way for something happier and younger. And now we had our rug so we could pull colours from that for the fabric. Close up, there are lots of subtle dusty greens and dark blues in the rug so we headed in that direction.

The lighter dusty greens (bottom left) felt super pretty and calming but we really wanted to amp this room up since the rest of their house is so playful. Some of the blues tended to head in more of a purple direction which we definitely didn’t want to do. So we went with the top left. This has a good balance of green in it while staying true blue.

We also painted the walls which was an actual disaster and you can read about it here. We wanted it to have a light tone grey to it but the colour we went with ended up looking baby blue. We did a ton of swatches before and the swatch we chose looked grey but clearly had blue undertones that we just didn’t see. It was a total bummer and one of those situations where no one person that was at fault. So we knocked off a few hours time which essentially equated to having the room repainted. Nothing makes me personally more sad than disappointing a client, and I’ll be the first to hold my hand up at any mess ups. The family was unbelievable sweet and more than understanding about the situation. Fortunately it was just paint and I do still stand by that it was grey!

The next conundrum was whether to change out their chairs or not. Again, it’s not that we didn’t like them, we just didn’t love the positioning of them. They also felt like they weren’t really ‘in’ the room and not very conversational with the rest of the space. They also didn’t really have the need for the round dining table that was there before and liked the idea of bringing in a side table or smaller coffee table. Which meant that area was opened up even more. It was quite silly how long we OBSESSED over the location of the chairs and ultimately it came down to the fact they they just weren’t right. We wanted something more rounded, like a club chair, and upholstered so that it felt warmer and more cosy.

The only other major-ish changes we made were to the fireplace. We removed the decorative flourish from the surround and painted the bricks black. It took them some convincing with the colour but now it looks bigger, cleaner and more modern – a cheap upgrade that has made all the difference.

Tune in tomorrow for the full reveal but here is the finished moodboard and a sneak peek of the final photos.

**Reveal photo: Zeke Ruelas

Modern Deco Kitchen Reveal

Emily — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 13:00:08 +0000

Hey Guys, it’s me Ginny again bringing you a big reveal today. If you tuned in a week ago you’ll have seen our sneak peek intro to the Modern Deco kitchen we recently finished. Gahh, I’m insanely excited about this one because I think (hope) you are all going to go nuts for it just as we have. We all want to move in ASAP. I don’t think I need to say too much about this one because I feel like the space really does speak for itself. But, I’ll give you a run down of what we did with it and how we styled it out for the everyday use of a busy family of 4.

First off, let’s talk about the floor tile, because that really set the tone for the rest of design for the space. This Silver Lake Hills family is not afraid to bring color and pattern into their home and we wanted something that felt graphic (so it would tie-in with their dining room wallpaper), yet timeless. The color variation is subtle enough that they won’t get bored of it in a few years and they will age and beautify over time. It literally is the wow-factor in the room.

We brought in a blue-grey paint for the cabinets that ties-in with the floor. We thought about doing just a straight grey but this just felt warmer, more inviting and and happier for a young family. Since we opened up the kitchen pantry space we were presented with this slightly awkward corner (above). There was an option to make it closed storage but that meant having a blank panel to one side which I didn’t love the idea of. Then there was a thought of chamfering it off so that the corner would be an angled cabinet but that felt a little 90’s dated. So we ended up utilizing this spot as large open shelving for books and big crock pots and vessels. We did make sure that the family was happy with the fact that it would be a right angle, as some people might be concerned about banging themselves on the edge, but they didn’t mind because of the amount of circulation space to the exterior door.

We did inset cabinet doors and drawers with a frame which gives it a more custom, traditional look. We also recessed the toe-kick a few inches more than normal so that you see more of the floor tile since the tiler installed it under the cabinets.

We always wanted to bring in a neutral gray into the kitchen so we did that through the wall tiles. These are the 3 x 6 subway with the glazed edge by Fireclay in the colourway Blue Spruce. I love how matte they are and really pop with the white grout we used. I have to say that the contractor’s tiler was super meticulous when installing which was amazing. I would strongly advise spending time with your tiler checking over the spacing out of your tiles as this can really make all the difference.

We installed open shelving on either side of the windows as well to make that wall feel more open and light. One of the main concerns was losing storage space but since we were adding cabinets elsewhere in the room it wasn’t too much of an issue. We kept the shelves simple with everyday essentials on the lower shelves. We corralled these into groups so different height cups together, different height and colour glassware together and plates and bowls stacked on top of each other.

We put items on the upper shelves that don’t need constant grabbing so we put more vintage, delicate pieces like the amber glass champagne coupes, the heirloom pitcher and the collection of teapots. And no shelf is complete without a set of cook books and a cute piece of art.

The sink and faucet might be one of my favorite highlights of this room and I long for a large open farm sink like this. That faucet from Newport brass will only get better and patina with age. You do have to be careful with unlacquered metal though because it can tarnish if you don’t look after it since it’s classed as a living metal. The best thing to do is pat it dry to avoid any hard water spots and you can also clean it with a 50/50 water and white vinegar solution – just don’t let that solution sit on the faucet for too long and def don’t soak it either. It takes a bit more care than your average faucet but that’s the price you pay for an insanely beautiful piece of kitchen jewelry.

We extended the lower cabinets at the end of the room to give additional storage and countertop space. For the countertop we went with Pental Quartz for it’s durability. They initially wanted to do a white counter but we love the idea of having something with a slight vein in it. We definitely didn’t want for it to appear like a marble alternative but the solid white felt pretty stark and contemporary with the rest of the palette.

You can never have enough flowers in your life so we brought a bit of colour in here with these tulips. You also don’t always have to use a vase, this is actually a tall mug set from Food52 that we have stacked on the top shelf.

Since we have lots of gold in here the amber glass really stands out in and is reminder that we don’t always have to go with clear glass. Colourful glass can bring an extra layer as long as the tone is right with everything else.

Onto the other side of the kitchen is where the majority of the appliances are. We relocated the fridge to this new spot which sits neatly tucked away behind the wall, we also opted for a counter depth so that it didn’t protrude into the kitchen too much. Howard (the homeowner) was particularly excited about his appliance upgrade and spent quite some time sourcing these and I just love the pops of red on the stove dials.

Keeping with our everyday essentials, we styled this area out with a stack of books leant against the side of the fridge enclosure, a wood bowl of fresh tomatoes (also brings in colour) a vintage butter dish and a roll of kitchen towel. All these items are of varying heights and sizes which gives this corner some depth.

The opposite side of the stove we corralled our cooking essentials. We used a pretty vintage vase (Emily’s of course) for the wooden spoons and other utensils, added salt into a cute marble dish and decanted oil into this amazing bottle. Our rule of thought is if it ain’t pretty then pop it away. But that doesn’t mean you can’t leave out bottles of vinegar like we did, just as long as they’re cute. I’m forever popping away the spray oil that my hubs leaves out, someone needs to invent a stylist spray bottle 🙂 The wood tray and grinders really warm up the surface.

You can see at the end we added a full height pantry and additional counter space with uppers and lowers where the fridge used to be.

For the shoot we made this into a bar area using the amber glass again. It really does pull in your eye from the brass hardware from Rejuvenation.

The lights are also from Rejuvenation. Since the house was built in the 30’s we wanted to add a touch of deco in here and these fit the bill perfectly.

The kitchen leads onto the the cute dining nook in the family room that Emily designed a few years back so we added a few flower and plants on there to give it some life.

So there you have it, Modern Deco kitchen. Tell us what you think, do you like how we opened up the space?

And if you want to recreate it then see the Get The Look below.

*After photos by Zeke Ruelas

** A big thanks to our contractor, Belin from Mega Builders, and Mike & Yudah from 4Carpenters for making the whole process so seamless.

The Easiest Guest Room Makeover EVER + Get The Look

Emily — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:16:55 +0000

Welcome to the easiest bedroom makeover we’ve ever done. Seriously. The “client” is a friend of mine that had a really boring guest room that needed some freshening up (and cooling down) so when Haiku Home (the company that makes this lovely, modern, simple fan) reached out about a makeover I called her up and said, “Lady. It’s time, let’s do this.” But like most people, her guest room wasn’t where she (or we) wanted to splurge – so our goals were for it to be inviting, pretty, comfortable but affordable and fast. Eighty percent of the pieces in this room are ready-made and bought off the shelf so this room is extremely easy to duplicate, and yet, we think it still looks unique and not generic.

Here was the space before:

Typical guest room – neglected, unconsidered, and yet did the job just fine. Suzanne (my friend) likes neutrals throughout her whole house, but we still needed some contrast and personality – just not through color. The only thing that she wanted to keep (which we also liked) is that antique dresser. Otherwise she gave us carte blanche to start all over.

The reason we picked this room for the makeover was because A.) she’s a new friend and I like to be popular (I’m kidding) and B.) because it was desperate for a fan since they don’t have air conditioning and Suzanne had asked me for a recommendation of which one to buy before. I know that people struggle with this a lot, afraid that a ceiling fan will look bad and dated and they certainly can, but when they are simple, streamlined and super quiet/energy efficient then they are a VERY good thing. We have two in our home and if we could add more we would.

This room is east facing with two large windows and it didn’t have central air. Portable or window AC units are functional but also a bummer to look at and to deal with, so the obvious (and best) solution was a ceiling fan. The style of the house is 1920’s Spanish Mediterranean. I googled “mediterranean ceiling fan” and this came up which was terrifying y muy malo. My overall theory with ceiling fans is that the more “decorative” they are, the tackier they can go. I haven’t seen every single fan out there on the market, so there might be some that are better, but generally I’d say keep them simple and streamlined. Stay away from fake shiny wood, crystal, and tulip shaped glass shades (replace with simple round ones easily). There are so many options out there, but man I wish that I had known about this one when we moved in.

This new fan is virtually silent and, unlike the one we have in our bedroom (not Haiku but fine), it doesn’t shake. It’s extremely energy efficient so if you want to keep it on all day you don’t have to feel guilty. This fan also has a motion sensor built in and knows when to speed up or slow down based on the temperature in your room. If you want to adjust it manually, you can control it by remote, an app on your phone, or a finger pad/switch on the wall. Or you can just put the remote on the wall and click it there if that’s your jam. We aren’t big on loose remotes in our house (I lose them, the children want to eat them) so putting it in a holder in the wall for most of the time is a great option and then if your guest wants it even more convenient during the night they can put it in the nightstand.

We showed you both options, like so:

It’s a light switch, only it controls the quietest fan in the world. Man, I’m a ceiling fan person. Just this morning I BEGGED Brian to turn it on. He didn’t think it was stuffy and maybe it wasn’t (I was nursing Elliot), but I need airflow. When Haiku Home reached out I got so excited because I had seen their “BIG ASS FANS” in cool event spaces and I was tempted to add one to our living room. It wasn’t the best idea as our roof-line was slanted but I wanted it real bad. Of course now that I read how they can be on angled ceilings I’m having second thoughts and major regrets.

Back to the makeover at hand.

Please note that we relocated that curtain rod to its proper place – 3-4″ from the ceiling (this is flexible but it’s a good number to shoot for). Why? Bringing the rod up makes the ceiling look taller which means the room looks bigger. It’s like ankle straps – they cut your leg off, stop your eye and make you look shorter. I still wear them, but “flattering” they are not. Don’t put them on your room, though because you always want you room to look bigger and you NEVER want it to look smaller (or stubbier). In case you need a crash course head HERE.

For the art we went to Minted and picked out and chose frames for a collection that we thought looked collected, curated and natural. Since Suzanne and I are both from the Pacific NorthWest we definitely wanted that beautiful forest photograph, and we used that as our art “jumping off point” then added in the navy blue watercolor print and line drawings to make a complete collection.

My best tips on choosing art (especially prints) are:

1. Frame for the piece while keeping the room in mind: Meaning don’t frame a seascape in a red frame just because you needed another pop of red in the room. It should look good in the frame FIRST and in the room second.

2. Get a variety of mediums: A room full of photographs can look generic and bad hotel-like. We used a print of a painting, two drawings and a photograph.

3. Mix in an original painting or something vintage: Once you add that “unique-to-you” piece it elevates the whole collection. Styling is all about creating a story where you’re changing the context. Like in fashion, dressing up some cute Gap/Target/Madewell pieces with a pair of crazy vintage 70’s clogs or the perfect vintage suede jacket, can really make the outfit, so it is when it comes to dressing/styling a room. If we hadn’t mixed in that seascape the room would have looked good, but with it the room went next level.

Speaking of that piece, I was hoarding it for me because I love it. I didn’t even put it on the flea because I didn’t want to sell it. Suzanne is a lucky woman that owes me 1, 457 freshly made margaritas (a specialty of hers).

For the bedding we also did a mix. For the first time in years I chose a comforter over a duvet/duvet cover. This is due the fact that it was so attractive (Nate Berkus for Target) and while I prefer a duvet (because these jimmy legs can’t hang with a top sheet) I know there are those of you out there, including our parents, who love a top sheet and therefore can rock this comforter. She already had those sheets, then I added two parachute pillow covers and a couple decorative throw pillows on top of this awesome custom bedframe which World Market sent through.

On the other side of the room we added a pretty ladder that she already had, and tucked some pretty linens/hat and bag onto it – mostly for the photo. Look around your house – there are many a place for vertical ladders and they do strangely wonderful things for that space as well as give your guests a place to hang their hat and vintage sisal bag (which all house guests should have).

The rug is extremely awesome and totally affordable ($199). It’s from Target and just so good. For a queen bed you’ll need the 8×10 or in this case 7’6″ x 10′ size. The nightstands are also part of their new mid-century collection which is super simple and totally affordable.

The lamps on the nightstands are from Rejuvenation but we switched out the shades for a smaller one for the shoot. To be truthful we only used one and put it on both sides like there were two because it looked SOOO good but we didn’t have two. I had one left over from a different shoot. Don’t worry, we left her with two lamps.

Please note that adorable bathroom in the background. The sink is hilarious because while it is so beautiful it’s so shallow that the water drenches the front of you every time you turn on the water. Whoops.

The only piece that Suzanne had that she wanted to keep was that simple antique dresser. She’s had it since high school and it was sentimental. We switched out the handles (she had brushed nickel contemporary ones) with these simple black handles. While we could have used a new dresser and that would have looked great, we all know that a couple pieces of vintage really gives a room some soul.

I’ve been hoarding a bunch of old leather bound books for a while, so she inherited a couple of those simply because they looked so pretty in the shot – but for a guest room you could have a lamp and a jewelry box and call it a day. I’m a fan of keeping the guest room relatively empty except for the essentials, so while we styled it a bit for these shots, feel free to just have lamps and maybe a candle/flower or two for the guests.

About 1/2 way through the day I got worried that the room would look generic without enough color and with (almost) everything being from a major retailer, but it really didn’t. It’s simple, layered, interesting, beautiful and quiet.

Thanks to Haiku Home for sponsoring this makeover. Their fans are seriously good – simple, quiet, energy efficient and extremely effective – as we were styling it got stuffy in there, so we popped it on and that fan cooled us down in minutes.

We went for this for this clean white one, but there are tons of other options (bamboo, aluminum, custom colors and even fans painted by artists). Since Suzanne’s room had recessed lighting that was all on one switch we didn’t use the hard-wired switch because it would have controlled the lights, too, and then guests wouldn’t have been able to turn on the fan in the middle of the night. So if you have the same situation stick to the remote for the on/off switch. If you want one with a light (like we have in our bedroom) then this is a great option for you.

There you have it – the easiest, simplest, and almost all sourceable guest room ever. I love that you as readers could really order this whole room if you are into it and be done with your guest room.

As an extra special added bonus, Haiku Home wanted to offer you all the chance to win your very own Haiku L Series ceiling fan to jumpstart your makeover project this Spring. Follow this link to enter their giveaway contest through Friday, May 20.

So what do you think? Would you want to be a guest here?

Sources:

Art: Lupine Print | Wild Pea Print | Stone Pile Watercolor | Whispered Rain Photograph

Bedding: Two Shade Yarn Black and White Throw Pillow | Striped Throw Pillow | Quilted Navy Sham | Polka Dot Sheets | Striped Comforter and Pillow Set

If you’re craving more bedroom makeovers check out: Master Bedroom Refresh Plan, Curbly’s Makeover, Old World Meets Modern Master Bedroom, Master Bedroom Makeover, Ian’s Bedroom: A (Not-So) Bachelor Pad, Venice Bedroom Before and After.

***Photography by Tessa Neustadt

Office turned guestroom makeover …

Emily — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:45:28 +0000

… starring the best sofa bed ever.

Oh, it’s a teeny tiny little budget makeover for a tiny little office turned guest room. They didn’t need a total transformation, and we wanted to spend very little as we already had redone a girls room, boys room, master bedroom, and family room. So this room wasn’t a huge priority budget-wise, but they did need a place for guests to stay. They used the office as an office one day a week but ultimately it needed to be way more functional.

And after …

Why yes, I did gift them a puppy for their makeover. We always try to include some sort of newborn animal to really conjure up the “grateful tears.” (Kidding.)

But, first thing first: we brought in this vintage sofa bed. Let’s talk about sofa beds for a second, shall we?

Finding an attractive and comfortable sofa bed is like finding meaning in a Pauly Shore movie … WAIT, more like finding meaning in a Carrot Top prop comedy act. It’s basically magic when you do. So let me tell you a secret about sofa beds: Many sofas can be turned into sofa beds for around $1, 000 IF they are boxy enough to hold the mechanism inside. I know that’s not cheap and I don’t know the rules of sizing, but when you are desperate for an attractive pullout sofa, you’ll do anything. So here’s what we did:

Orlando and I bought this sofa at goodwill for $100 when it was HIDEOUS (read Orlando’s blog post about it). We loved the simple modern shape, with the slim arms PLUS the fact that there were sofa bed innards inside. But obviously you don’t want to sleep on a nasty 1954 mattress, so we had the mechanism and mattress totally replaced for $700. In fact, if you buy a boxy enough sofa, you can have it retrofitted and turned INTO a sofa bed, but I don’t know the rule about it or anything (and I asked my upholsterer and due to a language barrier I didn’t really get the answer). Orlando wrote about this sofa bed on his blog, HERE. I will say this, the foam that was put on top was really firm, so make sure you ask for the foam to be wrapped in feather or down (same thing? not sure) so it’s not crazy hard and you can properly cuddle with your cat.

Resources: Sconce from OneFortyThree, rug from RugsUSA, pouf is vintage, gold stool from Target, Roman shades from Country Curtains, painting from the flea market and then framed.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room we put a smaller scale desk against the wall and added a classic Bertoia desk chair. They stored the filing cabinets in the basement and added one on the other side of the sofa.

Sorry, we didn’t take more photos, Zeke and I were chasing the light (oh, such photo terms abound) and so I only had time to get in these two pics, but I think they capture how happy, fun, cozy, open, and wildly more functional it became.

Thoughts? Feelings? Inner desires?

Resources: Desk from West Elm, chair from H.D. Buttercup, lamp from H.D. Buttercup, art print from Etsy, blue tray from Crate and Barrel, yellow and white stripe from CB2.

Shoot produced/styled/art directed by me, shot by the wonderful Zeke Reulas.

Bright and airy family room makeover

Emily — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:31:55 +0000

What I wouldn’t do for this bright and airy family room, kids included. I want to get all fatal attraction on this family, sans the fatal part – and more love and appreciation than ‘attraction’. This room belongs to the family of the tween girl, adorable boy and the master bedroom that I redid and blogged about here, here and here. This room actually needed very little help when we got there, but I really wanted to do it mainly because I wanted to take credit for the bright architecture, that awesome leather sectional and the general good vibe. Its just such a happy room.

So, here’s where we started:

The sectional is awesome caramel leather goodness (I think its from Restoration Hardware), and then the dining table/chair situation is great so I had very little work to do, which I totally appreciate. They really just needed some pretty pillows, accessories, rug and a couple stools/poufs. The sofa is super deep so they didn’t need an ottoman to put their feet up on and they liked the idea of keeping it relatively open for the kids to play.

Hello, happy. Sometimes all you need is some styling. So here’s what we did:

1. We added the cowhide rug after MUCH debate on the perfect rug and size for the space. The rug they had was strangely small (you can’t tell from that photo but the rug is wayyyyy too small), bad for kids because kids, being the reckless raccoons that they are, can just really cram those crumbs into the carpet and overall just kinda awkward.We didn’t want a dark rug because the rug is dark, but we didn’t want a light rug because they have kids. We didn’t want a rectangular rug because the space inside the sectional is square (the sectional is square) and ultimately it would come out awkward underneath the sofa, but if we got it really big so the whole sectional saw on the rug then it would be really expensive with a lot of wasted square footage underneath the rug. So the sculptural cowhide was perfect.

It fills the space visually, but in a really organic way. We got this one from Ikea for $200. That’s a very well spent $200 right there.

We added color through a couple major elements:

1. Trees to break up the horizontal space of white and engage the corners of the room. Yes, i know. I like fiddle leaf figs. I’m dying, just DYING for my local nurseries to carry a different indoor tree that has the same impact as these fig trees. They are just good.

2. Colorful occasional stools (put a book/tray on it and its a table) that the kids can play on and not hurt themselves and are relatively indestructable. These are from Lawson Fenning, the worlds best local stores.

And then we wanted to address those built-ins so we styled them out with succulents naturally. My plant obsession is getting towards Angelina Jolie having children proportions – i should stop collecting them, but i really like them, I’m kinda really good at buying them, and while I know its becoming kinda trite, i just can’t stop.

But to make it look more collected I added a bunch of framed family photos in oh-so chic frames from Target and the terrariums from West Elm.

I actually really liked the pillows they had, but they were made the vintage kilim rugs and its like rubbing your face on roof shingles. They are more ‘looking at pillows’ and less ‘rubbing cheeks on sofa’ kinda pillows. I have 1 myself and I like to style it, shoot it and arrange it, but when it comes to my tv watching bearcat cuddling hours, those kilim pillows just don’t cut it. But You know what does? The mohair pillows from West Elm. The throw and the blue/white pillows i bought from my favorite store, Lawson Fenning.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room is their little breakfast table.

They have great taste and had already bought the saarinen table from DWR and the chippendale chairs from Jonathan Adler, basically all I did was add the tree and take the credit.

In fact if you or someone you know has a well decorated house and you want me to come and add a frame and a plant and take credit for it, go ahead and give me a call.

Literally the before photo of this would be the exact same photo, with an iphone camera with bad lighting, and no props, but basically the exactly the same. Its just such a pretty and simple vignette so I wanted to capture that.

So thank you, lovely clients, for already have many wonderful items in a room that I want to spend all day in.

Shoot produced/styled/art directed by me, shot by the WONDERFUL Zeke Ruelas with the help of the lovely Orlando Soria.

See the whole Silver Lake Hills home here: Tween Bedroom Makeover with Land of Nod | 5 Tips to Design a Timeless Kids Bedroom | Dining Room Makeover | Office Turned Guest Room Makeover | Master Bedroom Makeover

Master bedroom makeover

Emily — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:29:09 +0000

It’s a master bedroom before and after, and it’s one of my favorites. We had finished their kids’ rooms and it was time to move on to working with mature adults, whom strangely didn’t want any One Direction posters in their room no matter how hard I tried to sell them. This was really a case of just decorating and styling — they already had a great bed and a great high boy dresser, but they needed some style, color, and a cohesive design plan. Luckily, they have good taste and had a budget; nothing too luxury, but they knew that if they were going to hire a designer it’s best to actually give them resources to do a good job — how very refreshing, indeed.

But first, let’s start with the very first “before.” When we got the call from these new clients, the first request was paint colors, and FAST. We had just a couple days to choose, swatch, and make final decisions about the paint in all the rooms downstairs that were under construction without seeing what they already had or having a design plan. So yes, we had to be a bit on the safe side.

Luckily, after designing the 26 rooms on the show and 10 houses since, I have my go-to’s that everybody universally loves. So I chose my favorite gray, Benjamin Moore, Gray Owl for the room and they went for it. Phew.

So that is really where we started. The bed is great but other than that they needed everything. Stylistically they wanted it to go a little Hollywood regency, but still have it feel calm and quiet; nothing too insane and no busy patterns. They were open to any colors although they LOVE peacock blue and teal — it’s like I’m a magnet for people who love blue. I swear that it’s not always my idea. It’s just style fate.

The biggest challenge was where to put the bed. There were only two wall options. The first would be the wall that you see when you walk in and it would have made the bed really hug one side of the room, and then the bed looks straight at the door when you walk in and it made walking tight, which is fine if you need to but it’s definitely not ideal. The other wall is the window wall, and the bed doesn’t fit in between the two windows as is, so we had to come up with a solution. We decided to put extra curtains behind the bed so it kinda becomes the focal headboard wall and you don’t notice how the windows are small. It made the windows look bigger, and added so much softness behind the bed. We just floated the bed out a few inches to allow for the curtains to hang properly.

Resources: Beautiful blue Chadna rug, Lulu and Georgia. White shams with gray border, West Elm. Gold silk curtains, Pottery Barn. White linen duvet, Eileen Fisher for Garnet Hill (and yes, they are my favorite bedding — I’ve bought it now for 4 different clients). Blue king pillows , HD Buttercup. Bench at the end of the bed, vintage. Chandelier, West Elm.

The nightstands and lamps were too small and just didn’t have much of a design point of view.

So I found those blue lamps at the flea market and it was VERY hard to give them up, the hoarder in me was chanting, but, but, but, those are miiiiiine … , but we wanted them to take up more visual space since that king bed is big. So we added these larger scale rectangular shades that made them look more modern and were a better proportion to the bed. Also, if a lamp has a rectangular or base, I say go for a rectangular shade. It instantly makes it more modern and a little more masculine.

Nightstands, vintage $750 for the pair. Vintage lamps, flea market $200/pair. Lampshades, custom from Replacement Shades, $70 each. Blue pitcher/vase, Crate and Barrel. Gold bowl, Tom Dixon set of three $90.

Across from the bedroom is a high boy dresser that they already had, and I love. And we styled it up with a pretty white geode lamp from Lamps Plus and some of their books. The paintings were done by, I believe a mom or grandma of theirs, and we just had them framed/floated in simple walnut frames — something that felt traditional and modern at the same time (as opposed to like a modern white lacquer frames or ornate traditional frame).

Resources: Dresser, vintage. Lamp, LampsPlus $166.91, Vase, roost. 8 ball in dome, New Stone Age. Brown leather jewerly box, Pottery Barn. Huge bird Painting, Dwell Studios, $1195. Antique paintings framed at Curve Line Space.

So there you have it. A master bedroom redo that makes me jealous all over.

Shoot was produced/designed and styled by me and Orlando, shot by David Tsay.