Client Project

 Lately I've been working on a living room, dining room, and entryway plan for an e-design client. She wanted a leather sectional for the living room, storage space, lots of seating, and a dining table that seats 8.  She also wanted the furniture items that she already has incorporated into my design and space plan. Those pieces are a wood tv cabinet, wood end tables and a wood sofa table. She has a huge open space for her entry, living room, dining room and kitchen so I tried to lay things out so that each area is clearly defined (especially the entry area) but they also flow really smoothly into each other. 

Entry plan:

Entry table area:

She has a wooden sofa table that's too small to go behind her new couch so I put it next to the front door as a drop zone for mail and keys, and a spot for checking your hair before going out the door. Always gotta have that. In place of the bird art that I had in the initial plan, I ended up choosing this awesome lion art that is now on my "must get for myself" list: 

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Living room plan.

This room is big so it needs a big rug. But this souk rug that I liked for it was too pricey for the budget when it was at the needed 9x12 size. So instead I suggested a 9x12 jute rug that was almost $1000 less than the souk. Then she can get the souk rug in a smaller, more affordable size and layer it on top of the jute rug. 

I also came up with a very easy way to diy the wall art that I have in the moodboard, using this and other similar photographs from Etsy: 

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I needed 4 pieces of art like this, and although I love the ones I put in the living room moodboard (find them here) using prints from Etsy and framing them in Ikea frames will give a similar look and save around $500. 

Behind sectional: 

When you walk in the front door, the back of the couch is to your left. I planned for two chests of drawers to go there for storage (she has a toddler so this gives her a place for toys, games, blankets, diapers, etc.)

Dining room plan: 

I love this indoor/outdoor rug.  It can literally be taken outside and sprayed with the hose, making it perfect for an eating area where there is a small child. And the color looks pretty with the curtains that I chose for the living room: 

They are from Pottery Barn and you can find them here. 

Something else I fell in love with while shopping for her house was this light fixture from Pottery Barn:

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I love it for the entryway; it looks so vintage and pretty. It's now on my list of things to get myself, right along with that lion art. 

So is this art from Urban Outfitters:

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I love it paired with this cheap butterfly poster from Ikea; I planned for both of them to be propped together on the mantel that's in the dining room. 

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I love this poster too because it not only has tiny bits of blue that tie in with the dining rug and living room curtains, but if you look really closely at the lion art that I chose for the entryway table, it has a couple butterflies in it, and the mantel where this poster goes is directly across the house from that art. 

The last several days have been busy with getting this project done- she and her family just moved into their house this past weekend and needed a layout plan and furniture ideas quickly. But I'm like 98% done now and it's been really fun to put together! 

Rug Tips

 Today I'm over at GoldenageUSA's blog with tips for choosing rugs.

I think some of the biggest mistakes that people make in their houses happen with the rugs, so I wanted to address some of the things that bug me the most and talk about simple ways to avoid them. Read it here. 

A Family Room Makeover

 I am absolutely loving the new look that Brandi of Don't Disturb This Groove gave to her family room. 

Here's a before, with orange paint and movie posters galore: 

And here is an after- still with the movie posters, only now they look super cool against the white walls and new color scheme!

You MUST go check out this makeover- it will astound you. And have you convinced that you need movie posters on every wall of your family room. 

Fabulous job, Brandi!!

By the way, today I'm contributing to the blog for a lighting site called Chandelier Warehouse. I recently watched "The Great Gatsby" and it had me swooning over a particular look...come read my post to see what it was! 

Look Who Came Home From Target With Me...

This guy.

Every time I go there lately I see it, and yesterday I finally decided I was tired of going home without it. 

My daughter LOVES elephants. So one reason I wanted it (besides the fact that it's just adorable) was that it reminds me of her. But there is a tiny complication....when I put the elephant in our cart she thought I was getting it for her. She kept squealing "Thank you Mommy! Baby elephant!" She got pretty angry every time I told her the elephant was for me. Now she keeps creeping into the foyer to look at it and, when she thinks I'm not looking, pet it. If it goes missing from it's table I'll know to go check her menagerie of toy elephants. 

Why Lighting Is So Important

 Today I'm talking light fixtures over at the blog for GoldenageUSA. 

Specifically, why they are my favorite part about a room's design. 

Find out here. 

A DIY Ottoman

Check out this gorgeous ottoman made from an old coffee table:

This fabulous re-do was done by Alaina of 

Fabtastic Eats

I love her fabric choice- you know how I love zebra, and I think it might be the same fabric I have on the pillows on our couch...which, by the way, is the same one as hers! 

Alaina used my coffee table-to-ottoman tutorial when she and her hubs did this one. It's so awesome to see a project that was inspired by something I did, and even better to see how great it turned out- my tutorial must not suck! haha. 

Go check out Alaina's post about this project HERE.

Spruced Up Foyer

 I'm so happy that our entryway doesn't look like this anymore:

After the addition of a table, and a bit of pattern from the little bowl sitting on it (both of which I already had) plus a couple new purchases, the room now looks like this: 

I love that it feels like an actual room now instead of looking completely neglected. I feel like the entryway is actually the most important room in the whole house. It's the first room to welcome you home everyday, and it's also where people visiting get their first impression of your home. And up until a few days ago, our entryway had nothing good to say to us or anyone else. But it feels a lot better in there now!

I loooove that I FINALLY have a fiddle leaf fig. 

I've wanted one ever since they started popping up in every single design magazine a couple years ago. At the peak of their craze I was seeing people getting fully grown ones for over a hundred dollars, which I know is pretty typical for a tree, but that's just way too much for me to spend on something that has a high probability of my killing it. 

But this little one was only $8.88 at Wal-Mart, which is so affordable that I can keep replacing it if I continually fail to keep it alive. I guess you'll be tipped off that something's not right if my tree never seems to be growing. 

But I'm crossing my fingers that this one thrives. It's so pretty now that I can't wait to see how much more beautiful it is at 6ft tall. 

I still can't get over this table's new look. I love it so much. 

The rug is from Overstock and I am really happy with it so far. 

Like the plant I got for in here, this rug was super affordable- only $46 for a 4x6 ft size.

It's a natural fiber and really thin, which is what I wanted because I didn't want there to be any annoying drag with the door when it was opened over the rug. 

This rug has no traction whatsoever on the floor; it slides around like crazy if you don't have a rug pad under it- which I don't. But I wanted to save us the extra $20 or so that a rug pad would have cost, especially since my entire budget for a rug was only $50 so the cost of the pad would have had to come from that. So instead I used a picture hanging command strip at each corner of the rug to hold it down to the floor and so far it's working great to keep in in place. 

The rug is still in that awkward, new-rug phase where it's got fold lines everywhere and doesn't lay quite flat yet. But with how often it gets walked over it should be smoothed out pretty soon.

I would love to be able to do more with this room- painting the front door a dark gray or black, switching out the light fixture, and doing some kind of board and batten to the walls would be first on my list. But since we are renting those things aren't options. (except for the light- but even then I'd have to get the deal of a lifetime on a fixture I loved in order to make it worth the trouble.) 

I would like to add some art in here eventually, despite the very limited wall space. 

But I'm really happy with this little update for now. It makes the view from everywhere else in the house look a million times better. 

*Rug Update*- it was going well with just using the command strips to hold the rug in place, until our yard guys showed up outside and our two dogs made a beeline for the door to bark at them. By the time the frenzy was over the rug was in a wad against the door. I've since broken down and bought a rug pad and it works amazingly.