Before & AFTER!

Most times a renovation starts with one thing you know drives you nuts…it just HAS to go!  For my clients that thing was the original countertops that were put in when they built their house.

They found them to be drab, along with the tile floor and all of its hard to clean grout lines.

As we talked, it seemed that other things were bugging them too–like the kitchen felt cramped, even though it was far from small–and their old kitchen table that they had owned for decades owed them nothing. It was time for that to go, too. 

And what about making it easier to entertain?–something they love to do and do often.  You can see in the above picture that a console table was used for a bar on such occasions, and I knew that that wall would be the perfect place to incorporate more storage and counter space for a more permanent party solution. 

The adjacent family room’s carpeting was worn, but my clients’  sectional and custom window treatments were still in good shape, and they wanted them to stay put.  I knew that with some added accessories and the new paint  and flooring that was part of the upcoming renovation,  the kitchen and family room could be pulled together visually into one stunning space. 

For the expert craftsmanship needed to make all of the physical changes and updates to the rooms, our favorite contractor Victor Burgos was called in for the renovation.

SO, let’s look at how the rooms look now that it is completed :)….

New hardwood floors throughout both rooms unifies the spaces, and along with the new granite countertops, create a much more upscale feel.  You may also notice that the shelf/raised piece of countertop between the eating area and main kitchen has been leveled off, contributing to the spaces feeling less chopped up and giving a more open feel.  Nothing like adding the feeling of additional square footage without having to build one more inch on!

The new bar area gives added storage and function, and beautiful new lighting (recessed, under-cabinet lighting,  as well as dramatic decorative pendants) makes everything sparkle…

A change in the upper cabinetry allowed for the microwave to be elevated and free up valuable counter space…. 

And a new table and chairs, as well as a neat-o new rug beautify the eating area. The original sideboard remains but looks completely different now with its new surrounding accents. 

In the family room area, I wanted to create a resonance with the kitchen’s decorative elements.  A new rug, lamps, pillows, and artwork pull everything together and create a welcoming place to spend time and put your feet up…

It is always fun to find the little things that are such a delight and add so much to the finished product. Things like the perfect mugs…

or the most lovely plates to adorn the table…

I think Cisco approves of all of the changes.  We based the color palette off of his handsome good-looks after all!

Rules are important, right? I mean, they help us to maintain order, keep things running smoothly, and know what is expected.

However, a lot of times we all have “rules” that we live by that are unconscious assumptions–beliefs that we don’t question that can greatly limit our ability to try new things and realize potential and possibility.

Maybe like the rule that a used, little old green couch found at a consignment shop has to be ugly and could never work to beautify a room…like. ever.

Or better yet, what about TWO ugly, used, old green couches?!?

SCORE! Time to challenge some rules…including my own. (*I cannot pretend that I did not question my sanity as we loaded these slipcovered 1960-era babies onto the truck….*).

SO, you may be asking why I would want to purchase two ugly couches, and the answer is this:

I was asked to help my clients get their house ready to go on the market. The room above is the living space/kitchenette of their house’s in-law suite–a feature that is very desirable to buyers.

However, the room as pictured above, with an over-sized couch dominating everything and treadmill looming large, does not convey how the space can be used to its best potential. A buyer could possibly walk in…and walk right back out, thinking “ugh, I don’t have a treadmill. I was really hoping for a place for mom to live.” Really…this kind of thing happens all the of the time.

With a very limited budget, I needed to find a diminutive piece of furniture to signify a seating area, and create an eating/dining area in this space as well.

Enter our little green sofa pair stage right…

I was able to get an AHH-MAAAAZING deal on these settees, and I hoped that when I got them home, cleaned them up, and removed the 1986 slipcovers, maybe between the two of them we would have a working, attractive loveseat. Hmmmmmmmmmmm…..

Underneath, it turns out they were even more green. *Who knew that was even possible?* And had more kitschy mod details, like a tufted back cushion.

As I stood in my garage regarding my purchase, I texted my cousin pictures of my find…secretly hoping she would give me words of encouragement. Instead she asked me if I was now designing houses for leprechauns.

Very funny.

*Okay. Don’t panic. Remember, there are no hard and fast rules. Let’s forge ahead. *

Because the room’s color was a deep rose, and the color of my sofa was green (don’t know if you picked up on that already), I needed to find something to bridge the two colors, and make the two choices seem intentional. (Don’t worry we can DO THIS!)

On clearance at Target (yes Target! yay!), I found the perfect plates, tablecloth and dishtowel that just made the whole thing come alive.

Sha-POW!

Now it was time to put everything in place.

Using a small tilt-top table and two chairs my clients already had, complimented by the accessories I had gathered, we now had a sweet little spot to eat by the window…

and, with the addition of a throw, a throw pillow, new lighting, side table, a cute little mirror, and the owner’s own coffee table…

we have an adorable place to sit and read or watch tv.

So satisfying. And so easy for potential buyers to see all the possibilities that are there for them!

In my line of work I often bump up against “the way things have to be” and have to soften the friction that is created when certain “rules” are questioned. This is a very good thing. When I gently encourage my clients to think about whether their rules are based in truth–things like “I don’t like yellow,” or “Everything in this room has to match,” or “Those kind of things are too expensive”–all kinds of new ideas can emerge, both for them and for me.

SO, as you live in your house, don’t let your rules keep you from trying new things, being a little bold–and becoming a lot more free. Be open to how you honestly feel about something, rather than reverting to a learned knee-jerk reaction that has nothing to do with the present moment.

Always living by unconscious rules cuts us off at the knees. As author Wayne Muller says, “like a bulldozer paving a straight path through the lush convolutions of the rainforest, we miss endless opportunities for learning, for surprise, for awe, for wonder, and for the exhilaration of discovery. Simply put, we play out the curse of a decided life.“

So, don’t decide…yet. Be open and be free.

Ideally a master bedroom should be a serene, relaxing place, a space that puts you at ease. However, if the room only puts you to sleep, something isn’t right.

The room pictured here was doing just that…and my clients weren’t sure where they had gone wrong. (Even their dog, Nicky, seems to be leaving the room in disgust. ha! 🙂

The paint color they loved on the swatch had become too “pinky” when put on every wall of the room, the furniture looked like it was all mashed in (how could this be–it seems like a large room??), and their attempts to make it more welcoming with a new bedspread had fallen flat.

But the paint was new! And they liked their furniture! And needed each of the pieces for storage!

SO, their question to me was “Can we re-do this room without re-doing this room??”

*My answer: Absolutely!! *

Instead of a re-do, how about a redesign?

First, it was most important to get the furniture in the right place. No more crowding, and no more things feeling out-of-whack. *You can’t get that feeling of “ahhhh” when things are bunched together and there is no sense of balance. *

With the long dresser alone on the far wall, it now balances the weight of the bed. Very important.

More symmetry is added by flanking the bed withmatching lamps. A lovely, inexpensive print hung over the headboard gives the bed wall the presence it deserves. Ahhhh….more beauty and balance.

It is important to remember that one’s perception of a color can TOTALLY change based on what the color is paired with. For this room, to take away the “pink” feeling, I concentrated on bringing out the terra-cotta/ruby undertones of the paint, so that the room felt warmer and more sophisticated. The pillow above is one example of this, and the russet throw across the foot of the bed is another…

Also, calming down the bedding by bringing in a simple coverlet that is a solid, warm neutral (no busy prints needed here) continued to add layers of texture as well as give the room an upscale hotel feel.

Long panel curtains in a simple linen add softness and warmth, and additional art & accessories bring home the earth tones we were trying to accentuate.

So you see, it is possible to add balance and beauty without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Creating balance and finding the right elements to bring beauty can totally change everything in how a room feels and functions!

It is easy to feel boxed in when rooms don’t flow or function like we would like them to for modern life. A bit of creative thinking–thinking outside of the box–is often what is needed to marry the past with the present in a meaningful and functional way…

The kitchen pictured here is one that I was asked to redesign as a part of a whole house renovation a couple of years ago. The house, originally built in 1950, had been lovingly designed by its original owner, an architect himself, for his family. The house was conceived during a time when the kitchen was for those who worked in the house, not for the lady of the house –and the kitchen was not the hub for family gathering that it is today.

The kitchen had an awkward L-shape to it, and on one end was an exterior entrance which had always been used as the main way to enter and exit by the family. You can see it at the far end of this picture below….

When I proposed converting this door into a window (allowing for countertop and cabinetry to run underneath, since it was at the heart of where the functional kitchen workspace was to be) the response from my clients was a polite but firm  “Hell No.”

So, we were temporarily at an impasse.

Because I didn’t want the owners to go through a costly renovation that would result in a pretty kitchen– a pretty kitchen with a totally dysfunctional layout–I went back to the drawing board.

In our conversations about the house, I had learned that while the kitchen door had not been intended to be the front door of the house, visitors interpreted it to be just that. If they had not visited before, or weren’t instructed to do otherwise, they often came here to knock, since it was the most visible door when you approached the house. The true front door was hidden from this angle, and therefore very seldom used.  (In the picture below you can see the kitchen door as seen from the driveway….it is the one on the right, propped open in this picture taken during construction….)

When the layout of a house isn’t working, it is helpful to envision the building as a large rigid box, with many smaller somewhat flexible boxes inside that can be shifted around and fit back together inside, creating a more cohesive whole.

SO, since it was unthinkable to have the door above not be a door (for functional and sentimental reasons), then why couldn’t we then solve two problems at once and create an entry/foyer to be just inside of this opening, and then shift the kitchen down the front wall of the house, so that it would absorb the space that was once the entry hall?? The kitchen could then encompass a much larger and more functional space….

The answer I got this time was a resounding “YES!”

So, a seldom used and hidden entryway…

became part of a beautiful, updated kitchen:

(The curtained window above in the “before” is the very same window pictured below in the upper left of the frame.)

What was once the “front” door to the house is now a beautiful kitchen door, complete with a new light cut in it (asymmetrically placed to be true to the vintage of the house) to allow more natural light to enter the space.

And the staircase, which wasn’t able to be fully appreciated before in the dark front hall, now adds so much architectural interest to the kitchen.

The house now has an entryway where people most naturally enter the house (those photos will have to be for another newsletter :), and a functional, beautiful kitchen as well.

Sometimes it is fun to look back and remember— 
The pictures here are of one of my favorite projects of the past few years, which started with an immersion into the 80’s —with all of its intense peach color, powder blue formica counters, grainy oak cabinetry, and miles of linoleum floors….

This is a master bathroom that I was hired to redesign for some dear friends. Their house was, of course, built during the 1980’s in a contemporary style–and while I am sure that all of these design elements had seemed great when they first built their house,  my clients called me because they knew that now it was time for a big change.

The existing bathroom was long, low-ceilinged, and narrow, with a single tall window at the far end. 

Knowing that the adjacent space was a walk-in closet featuring the same type of window, and that the room was in the front gable of the house, my hope was that we could gain vertical and horizontal space by removing the wall separating the two rooms, and also vault the ceiling (what an amazing transformation that could be). Fingers crossed…. 

Having a trusted and highly-skilled contractor to work with is such a blessing and makes all the difference.  Victor Burgos, the contractor that I work with all the time, met with us, went over the design plans, and confirmed that it was indeed possible to make these big changes a reality. A short time later, construction began…

It is hard to believe that the images below are of the same room…but I know they are.  I was there for each step of the transformation. 

Now with a vaulted ceiling and expanded footprint, the bathroom has a luxurious and relaxing feel, just as my clients had wanted.

One of the things I found to be so satisfying and fun with this project was the opportunity to use many interesting and high-quality materials. From the gable end wall highlighted with clear cedar planks (further accenting its vertical lines and feeling so at home in the house’s wooded setting), to the beautiful limestone floor…

to a Mid-Century styled ceiling fixture,

to the antique botanical print framed especially for the space– the marriage of traditional and contemporary elements into a funky, eclectic mix, reflects the style of the house and its occupants.

The pinky peach and cramped footprint of this bathroom is now a distant memory, and a lovely, serene space now has taken its place.