Revealing Redesign

Pennsylvania Interior Design Studio

getting some inspiration

Getting To The Heart Of The Matter

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OH, be still my heart!

The bleeding hearts in my garden are in full bloom right now–something that didn’t seem at all possible a couple of months ago when that very patch of earth was buried under about 14 feet of snow… 

Their sweetness and beauty always show up at this time of year–and this season it seems even more timely and poignant because I see so many around me trying to bring their own hearts back into bloom after a brutally long and hard winter–both the literal and figurative kind. 

I wonder if this is something you see around you too? Or maybe your own heart feels heavy and dull in your chest…. 

Ideally, one of the places where our hearts should feel open and free–truly blossoming–is in our homes. When we are at home, I hope we can feel at home. Even if you don’t, your house contains amazing healing abilities and wonderful elixirs that can help you to bud and blossom. Here’s what I mean:

Our house contains our stuff, and our stuff points back to our hearts. As you know, I am not a big believer in the importance of STUFF just for stuff’s sake, but we can’t deny that our stuff helps us to understand ourselves sometimes–what we value, what we treasure, what we feel worthy of, what we want to create.

Our stuff at times can symbolize not only what we adore or want more of, but sometimes it can show us where our heart aches and may need to heal. Some of the stuff we choose to hold on to points us to a deep heart-centered longing or questioning of who we are and what our place is in the world. 

To be clear, this STUFF is still just stuff. What makes it powerful and either healing or damaging is the energy and symbolism we attach to it.  Sorting through our stuff gives us the opportunity to honor things about ourselves, and shed identities, stories, and burdens that are no longer serving us or helping us to move forward. I have been there myself many times. 

So, today I invite you to look at your stuff and recognize how it makes your heart feel. Find at least one thing that makes it feel heavy, and commit to removing that item from your house in the next week. No matter what. Really. Get it gone. That heaviness has no place in your home. 

Next, find at least one thing in your house that lightens your heart and put it somewhere that you can admire it this weekend.  What about it makes your heart sing? Answer this question from the heart, and feel a world of possibility come into bloom. 

 

Your Homework For This Week….

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At the beginning of the summer, I had the opportunity to visit a delightful and inspiring place: Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, PA. Have you ever been there?
It was a beautiful, breezy day and the sun was shining…the perfect day to delight in what is known as a “Pleasure Garden”….

It is described as “a garden of pleasure and learning, relaxing yet filled with ideas to take home.” YES! And let me tell you about the idea I took home…

Chanticleer is not a garden focused on fussiness or formality. For example, botanical name tags are omitted, allowing the flow and beauty of the garden beds to just wash over the viewer.  And there are small scale vignettes within the gardens that make it feel less like a public space, and more like a personal, intimate garden. So lovely.

You see, this got me thinking about our houses…how we often spend way too little time thinking about what would delight us, and waaay too much time focusing on what will impress others.

SO, here is your assignment for this week: think of your home, inside and out, as your own pleasure garden, where you will focus on cultivating your personal enjoyment.

Don’t get too grandiose and stress yourself out trying to perfect this (that is SO not pleasureful). Just focus on small things that you can add (or take away) that will bring you joy and contentment.

Keep your goal in mind of creating personal delight and enjoyment at home each day this coming week. Perhaps put a sign on your bathroom mirror simply stating “ENJOY!”

Here’s the kicker—when we focus on creating this peace and happiness for ourselves, we can’t help but create an atmosphere in which others will feel welcomed and at home. This contentment has a magical quality to it…you will see.

So, let’s stop trying to keep up with the Jones’, and stop feeling that we need to recreate a page out of our favorite decor magazine in every room. Focus on creating contentment for yourself first, and you will see the magical quality it brings to your surroundings, and how it inspires others to just feel good when visiting your home.

Second and last photos from Chanticleer’s website….hope you will visit yourself!

The 80’s Weren’t Kind To This Room

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Intense peach, powder blue, linoleum floors….

they all seemed like good ideas at the time.

This is a master bathroom that I was hired to redesign for some dear friends.  Their house was built in the 80′s in a contemporary style–and they knew that the time had come 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, I knew that we had the opportunity to make some really dramatic changes, gaining vertical and horizontal space, to create a stunning and very functional master bath. YAY!

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.

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 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.

 


Do you have any rooms in your house that are stuck in a past decade? Perhaps a Disco Dining Room or Flashdance Family Room? 🙂 Take heart! Transformation can happen, and what used to be an eyesore can become your favorite place in the house.

The View From Here

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This week I thought it would be fun to talk about how the rooms in your house relate to one another. How does your house feel to you?  Does the flow between rooms seem seamless? Or do you feel like there are small, halting spaces that are disjointed and closed off from one another? When creating spaces in your home, it is important to remember that no room ever acts alone, but interacts and converses with the other areas around it. And what kind of dialog they have has a huge impact on how your house feels to you and everybody else.

For example, doorways can act as a kind of picture frame that creates a composition out of the view to an adjacent room…

This is important, since creating little vignettes inside of this “picture frame” makes you want to see what is around the corner.  It  invites you into the next room with its charm and sense of balance.

 

A small house can feel much larger if you create long interior sight lines, especially from the corner of one room to the adjacent room’s far corner–a long diagonal line across the interior box of the house. Nothing has changed in the dimensions of the space, but your perception of the amount of space that there is, is very, very different. This is something that can be created by widening doorways, or opening portions of walls for interior “windows.” Certainly this is more involved than just moving a few pieces of furniture, but if you are frustrated by what feels like a cramped abode, then this option is far less expensive than adding on. 

In addition, site lines that sweep through rooms and terminate with exterior views enhance the feeling of openness.

Your eye is tricked–with nothing to stop it–into including that outside space as somehow part of the interior.

Finally, having a unified palette of colors pulls things together in visual harmony and space perception. Rooms that relate closely to each other in color (rather than being great in contrast) can feel as though they are borrowing space from one another since they flow so well together.

Creating a cohesive whole out of disjointed rooms can completely change one’s perception of a house, and greatly increase your feeling of satisfaction in living there. What could be better than that??

These beautiful interior photos and their sources can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

You Know It Is Time For A Change When…..

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Things can have a way of being put in place….
and then staying that same way for a really, really long time.

The truth is that oftentimes we don’t know when the time has come for a change. Being comfortable with the way things are –and uncomfortable with change (who isn’t??)– can sometimes keep us from recognizing opportunities for improvement or updates that may be needed.  After a length of time, we no longer truly see the space, and  most importantly (especially in a place of business), don’t realize what impression it may be giving to our associates and clients.

I was honored to be asked to redesign a prominent local law firm’s reception area over the past several months–a space that had had the same furniture in it since the firm had moved to the building decades ago.  Even a large reception desk remained in the room, despite the fact that there had been no receptionist working at it for quite some time. While many exciting things happened in and all around this place of business, this particular room remained stuck, stagnant and not an accurate reflection of the firm it represented.

(I am sorry about the smeary, weird appearance of the “before” pictures. Don’t know what was on my lens that day. Let’s just pretend it is a 80’s dream sequence, okay?)

The vestibule had an old metal rack for coats and the original dusty pinch pleat draperies.

Because this is the first area that clients would see when entering the building, I knew I wanted it to be more welcoming and elegant. AND I knew with some paint and new curtains and accessories, a much better first impression could be gained.

Just inside the door, there are many new pieces–mixed with some of the old–that invite visitors to sit down and hopefully feel quite at home.

Where the unused reception desk was, there is a lovely seating grouping that is now the focal point of the room…

making room in the corner for a secondary seating area.

Are there rooms that you live or work in that have been the very same way for as long as you can remember?  Try to look at them with fresh eyes and see how they can be updated and brought to life again. Change can be a very good thing!

Why Can’t You Share??

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In 2002, PBS produced a historically accurate “reality” television series that placed three modern mall-shopping, soccer-coaching, SUV-driving American families each on their own homestead, and  took them back approximately 120 years to 1883 on the Western frontier. I was fascinated. Having watched it when it originally aired, my husband and I were curious to watch it again with our children and see what their reactions would be, since they are now the ages of some of the kids on the show….

It didn’t disappoint. Even though we watched it a few months ago now, Frontier House still comes up in family conversation probably once a week….

As stated in the Homestead Act of 1862, a person who farmed and inhabited (complete with a permanent dwelling) their 160 acre parcel of government land for five years, was able to lay claim to it at the end of the term….if you hadn’t starved to death, lost your mind, or left in frustration. Only 40 percent of the original Homesteaders were able to endure the incredible hardships, backbreaking work, and cruel ups and downs that Mother Nature dished out. Okay, so how does this help us think about our lives and households in 2012??

What really pulled me in and made me think as I watched these three families struggle (and sometimes thrive) through their five months on the prairie, was the complete reliance and responsibility they had to one another’s survival, adults and children alike. Adrienne, one of the mothers, realized one afternoon that her children had neglected to chop the necessary firewood, so dinner could not be cooked that night.

While, thankfully, the wolves aren’t at our modern day doors, and our meals are prepared without having to chop wood for hours first, it is still good practice to think about our duties to the people we live with and the house we live in–and how we can best execute them with all of the other demands on our time and attention.

How much we are able to enjoy where we live is directly related to how much we are burdened or encumbered by its upkeep, organization, and maintenance. A clean, orderly house is more pleasant to live in, but creating that takes consistent effort and energy.

Many hands make for light work! —SO, how can we share these responsibilities and make our lives better??

 

  • Sit down and seriously think about the household chores–list what needs to be done, how often it needs to be done, how you would like it done, and who is capable of doing it.  Being intentional and detailed in making this list makes it easier to plan things out and discuss things as a group. Even if you have a regular cleaning service, there are plenty of household chores that need attention and planning.
  • Which responsibilities make you crazy? Which ones barely seem like chores to you? –There are things we are good at, and hopefully like to do, and there are things we wish we never had to do again. If you live within a family, I bet there are things that you don’t like to do, that someone else in the household is particularly good at and doesn’t mind doing. For example, my son is wonderfully good at washing cars, and he loves to do it. If he washes my car once a week, I am happy to help him fold and put away his clean clothes. Talents, skills, and preferences are accounted for, and things are getting done!
  • Make a list of things you would like to throw money at and make go away– This could be a very long list, I know. However, now that you have done an honest accounting of the tasks at hand, think about which things are drudgery to all involved, or things you know you just don’t do very well. Collectively you can work at finding the funds to pay others to do those things, freeing up your time for other things. Laundry services, lawn care services, grocery delivery services, handyman services, errand services….they have those, you know.  For example, if you don’t mind cooking but loathe the time spent in your laundry room, eat out less and redistribute the funds. The $1/pound you will spend for the laundromat to clean your clothes will go a long way to lessening your load….pun intended.

Family life is about working together and sharing, making the whole thing easier….I am writing this because we have perfected this symbiosis in our house (yeah, right). Of course I still have kids that would rather watch tv than wash the dishes,  I still get the eye roll when I remind them of their chores, and how we share our household duties is still a work in progress. Seeing how much children were responsible for in 1883 opened my eyes to how little I ask of my own children, and I don’t think that that is good. What IS good is the sense of mastery, responsibility and satisfaction that comes from contributing to our family’s efforts and success–a cleaner house and improved self-esteem.

A Summer Mindset

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 Where is your mind in the summer? Mine is somewhere on the coast of Maine….ahhhh.

Maybe you already own your dream summer cottage, maybe you get to visit yours as a rental….or perhaps just driving by while dreaming, or flipping through a magazine. We all have a favorite place that comes to mind as Memorial Day  ushers in the season.

Most of us cannot spend the next three full months away on vacation, but we can capture some of its essence and bring it home to our everyday house, making the summer feel so much more …summery, you know. What are the qualities of a summer cottage??

  • simplicity–when on vacation we only have the things we need with us, and nothing else. How freeing! Start to create this simplicity by throwing away, putting away, or giving away at least 10 things in each room of your house and give yourself a vacation from all of that stress and visual clutter.
  • a slower pace–make sure you have time built in to your schedule this summer just to spend quiet time at home.
  • light and bright–put away heavier, darker fabrics and rugs (you can get them back out again come September), and put some accessories around that are colorful and airy. I bet you already have some things in your house that would qualify…no shopping needed. Think sparkly clear glass vases, white bed linens, a collection of sea shells from last year’s trip….
  • fresh flowers–a little life in their room goes a long way. Flowers are blooming and leaves are unfurling everywhere right now, so be sure to bring some indoors. The kitchen table, your nightstand, the bathroom sink are all places that can benefit from a blossom or two.
Here’s to a relaxing, peaceful, and beautiful summer at your summer cottage–wherever it may be!

“Is That A New Window??”–A Perception Changing Kitchen Re-Do

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I love the unexpected things people delight in after a room is completed.  Like the perception that there is a “new” window in this kitchen….although it isn’t new at all,  just newly appreciated!

This kitchen, new in 1991, was quite the hang out for family gatherings…but the owners couldn’t figure out why no one ever sat at the table –the place in the room with beautiful sunlight & the best view.  Everyone instead always gathered around the peninsula–crowded really–with the view of the door to the garage, of all things. They acted as though that big space behind them didn’t exist. I know this to be the truth, having squeezed in there myself on many a Christmas Eve, since this is my step-father’s kitchen.

Here was the eating area before….

You can see the old kitchen was dissected by the peninsula….

and seemingly half of the space in the room was never used. Just silly.

My family asked me if I would help them figure out how to make the kitchen work better (my favorite thing to do!) and they had lots of thoughts and questions about what might be the best solutions: Should the cooktop in the peninsula be removed so it wasn’t in the way while entertaining? Maybe a high top table would make the eating area more attractive to people?  What elements of the current kitchen could be retained/re-used?

When I sat down to work on the space on paper, I knew I wanted to stretch the room along its length, making it seem bigger, creating a better focus when looking into the room from the adjacent family room, highlighting its architectural features, and, of course, putting the existing space to its best use. I am very happy to say that now the project is done, there are rave reviews, and every inch of the kitchen is well used and loved.  Whenever someone is in the kitchen, they now find themselves sitting, relaxing, and enjoying the view out of that “new” window.

The existing tile floor was in great shape, so it was left in place and we worked the palette for the new room around it. I think the new complimentary wall, cabinet, and countertop colors give the old floor a fresh and updated feel….once again, it is hard to believe it was there all along.

The kitchen sink remains in the same spot, as does the refrigerator….

 but now with the new island, the cook has his or her own space while still being able to visit with those who sit on the other side of the counter.The separate cooktop was switched for a slide in range, creating more counter space and working more efficiently for how the family actually used their kitchen.

I hope that seeing all of these possibilities inspires you to creatively think about rooms in your own house. What features does your house have that aren’t currently being enjoyed to their fullest? What  already works well?  What can be given a whole new or new purpose?  Even if you aren’t in the market for a big renovation, small changes can bring about big results.