Living Room Sneak Peek

OK so this is pretty much the final sneak peek after the Woman's Day photo shoot.  WD also shot the kitchen but you guys have seen that in its full glory a number of times, so no need to rehash.  In the bathroom sneak peek I showed you the "before" photo from before we moved in.  I like that it really shows how far we've come.  So here is the living room in its "before" state (the fish eye lens makes the room look deceptively large).

To recap the work we've done to date: we've refinished the floors, painted, removed a door to the kitchen, removed a coat closet, put in new built-ins with O'verlays, put in a new door to the deck and done all sorts of fun decor work.  Last time you saw the living room progress was after my DIY chair reupholstery project.  Since then, I also got my wing chair back with it's amazing spoonflower fabric. It is SUCH a statement piece and I love how it greets you as soon as you enter the front door.

I've added a few accessories like the black and white IKEA throw, Target tray and turqoise box from Home Goods (perfect place to hide the remotes from those toddler fingers!).

Maybe one of these days I will add a cushion on the window seat - and maybe some smaller speakers on the bookshelves. But I'd say all in all, the room is pretty much complete. 

Bathroom Sneak Peek

On to the next space of our Woman's Day photo shoot sneak peek.  So it turns out WD didn't photograph our bathroom, but nevertheless it was motivation to complete the room, organize and accessorize.  Not sure if I've ever showed you guys what the room looked like before we moved in and did any sort of renovation.

A gross single vanity and lots of extra space on one side of the room. The only redeeming factor was the retro cool tile. Unfortunately it couldn't be saved so we replicated the look with new product.  We relocated the toilet which allowed us to add a double vanity. The mirror was salvaged from Bryan's room.

Got a fun ram's head from Homegoods that adds a little playfulness and a few mis-matched containers that pick up the colors in the roman shade and in the rest of the house (so much better than my old stainless IKEA canisters).

What do you think?

Dining Room Sneak Peek

The area that I think has changed the most in the past couple of weeks prior to our Woman's Day shoot has been the dining room.  At the last minute we managed to install drapery and hardware and get my table painted a nice subtle minty green. Also added a bar cart from Ballard Designs for good measure.  Here is  the table in progress between coats (I sanded, primed, sanded, painted, sanded, and painted again).

I used a high gloss alkyd oil based paint from Ben Moore. Granted the brush strokes show a little still and there was some necessary scraping post shoot to make sure the leaves didn't stick together, but it seems like it's holding up and the color really brightens up the room.

Don't you love the new doggie drapes that my friend Meredith and I designed on spoonflower?  I'd found a Dwell Studio fabric I liked but the colors and animals and scale were wrong for the room so we did our own version. Bryan loves dogs and has had a great time barking at the new drapes.

And here is the fabulous Ballard bar cart under my snuff bottles (I think the Pooh Bear wet wipes really up the ante as far as styling goes)

The Shoot - Behind the Scenes

As I mentioned in my last post, our house is going to be in the November issue of Women's Day Magazine - due out on newstands in October.  So excited about this!  The shoot happened this past Thursday and it was great fun. Everyone from the crew was amazing and I really enjoyed seeing how everything works behind the scenes (also, still making our way through the mounds of food that the caterers left). Unfortunately I can't post photos that reveal anything about the spaces in their fully styled glory, but I thought I'd show you a couple of fun shots.

Here is the crazy bazaar that was our back deck after the stylist showed up.  Sort of like being at a sample sale. Of course, I wanted half of these items for my already over-accessorized home and also wanted Ed the stylist's job (although I don't imagine waking up at 4 to go the flower district to be something that would work well with a toddler's schedule).

Here is the crew (stylist, assistant, editor, photographer) convening about the bedroom shoot.  Note that the photographer is wedged into the closet next to my shoes - I only hope that they didn't stink!

I have to give props to the photographer David Land as well since not just because he lived in my closet for close to an our but also because he did such an amazing job capturing Bryan in our spaces and also making me laugh (which is hard to do and even harder to capture on film).  Also worth mentioning is the amazing hair and makeup artist Aki Maekubo who made me look like a domestic diva.  Aki, can you please come over and do my hair and makeup every day?  And of course my lovely mother for keeping Bryan occupied and out of my hair for the very long day.

That said, it's nice that the shoot is done and that so many house projects are done as a result.  I'll certainly be taking a hiatus from any large projects for a while.   I think focusing on watering my sunflowers is more my speed for the rest of the summer (and of course completing a few client projects).  But don't fret; I'm sure I'll be back at it, getting the office and basement all primped and ready-to-go before you know it.  In the meantime, more sneak peeks at what I accomplished prior to the shoot. 

Bedroom Sneak Peek

Tomorrow our house is being shot for the November issue of Woman's Day Magazine. It's hard to believe that there will be a whole crew of people here - photographer, editor, stylist, even hair and makeup! - focusing on us and our home.  Over the next few days I'll give you a few sneak peeks of the final product (well, pre-stylist which I think will make all the difference).  There have been a number of big changes that have happened over the course of the last week or two.

First up is the bedroom. Yesterday (yes, I know... down to the wire) I got these fabulous Serena & Lily bar carts to use as nightstands. I love how light they are. Of course, we now have to use some strategic boxes (thanks IKEA) for storage on the shelves but it's so nice to see the wallcovering panels through the back.

So much better than these black voids that we had before, don't you think?

And a couple shots of the very minimal styling I have done so far to the rest of the room (I think the jewelry box needs to be removed and maybe we need to add a lamp).

On the Drawing Boards

Well, some of you might be wondering what I am up to aside from all my DIY projects and selling a few pieces of hardware here and there. I've been working with a few residential clients as well and thought I'd share what I've been working on.  This is a home in Short Hills that I'm doing some work on.  We've completely redesigned the living room with a serene sophisticated feel.  It's not done yet but I wanted to show you the progress.  Here are some before photos.

And our final concept board.

And where we are so far - of course missing a few key pieces of furniture.

Isn't it amazing how much taller the draperies make the ceiling look in the photos below which show the space slightly further along?  The greek key trim from Lewis and Sheron really dresses up the simple linen drapes from Gray Line Linen (best linen source ever!).

I think it's a dramatic improvement and can't wait to see the final product!

Hardware Install Shots

I know I haven't given you guys a proper update in a while on the hardware line. Well, there are a few fun developments.  First off, if you check out our Showrooms page you will see that we've added Katonah Architectural Hardware in Chicago, New York, and upstate NY.  We are very excited to welcome them to the Nest Studio family. Stay tuned for more showrooms picking up the line.
I also wanted to share some photos with you of the hardware installed. It's so nice to see the pieces in a space with some sort of scale as opposed to just on a white background.  In this home designer Rachel Halvorson re-did a bathroom and bedroom in preparation for the arrival of a new baby. She mixed my F-02 knobs in with some antique pulls in the bathroom and used me F-03 hinged pulls for the bookcases' pull out toy bin. Here is the before and the dramatic transformation:

This other one is in a client's bath and kitchen.  I love the way the acrylic T-01 pulls looks all lined up!

If you have any install photos you'd like to share, please forward them on.

I Swear I'm Done With Roman Shades

But there was one final thing in the bathroom.  When I did those roman shades I had mentioned adding a contrasting band to tie in with the shower curtain on the opposite side. Well, while I was in the city selecting my awesome minty trim for the chair reupholstery project I picked up a nice charcoal flat trim for the shades. After doing the living room shades, I knew not to use too much glue - even though Fabritac is my new best friend.  So on this shade I actually glued the trim on with the shade hanging in place (since it was already installed). I only glued in a few key places to tack it down and allow it to fold better.  And used some paper clips to hold it up to dry. Here it is in progress.

I think it looks pretty nice for a 15 minute job!  Really makes it look more tailored and gives it a pop.

The Deck

Remember way back in the winter when I posted about our deck. Here is what it looked like way back when.

And my sketch of what I hoped it would look like.

Well, after what seemed like several months of construction (mind you, my GC estimated a 1.5 week time frame to complete the deck), it is pretty much done.

In this pic you can see my dining table project taking place in the background.

Our sod has been planted in the back yard so we no longer have a forest of poison ivy and I've even managed to plant a little container herb garden outside the kitchen door. Yay for summer barbeques!

Weekend Reupholstery Project

I've been thinking about reupholstering my cane back chairs pretty much since I got them back at the Pasadena Antiques Mall. Of course, the pink sort of worked with the color scheme in our LA living room, but here in NJ they were just popping in the wrong way.  After spending hours perusing Spoonflower I found this fabulous fabric (sort of an abstracted quartz pattern) that I thought was the perfect scale for these chairs. I got this amazing fabric for the wing chair so there will be a nice contrast.  I'd primed my dining room table on Saturday but Sunday was just too wet and humid to do any painting.  So it seemed like the perfect time to get out the staple gun and fabric.  I followed Jenny from LGN's DIY turtorial for reupholstering a chair and I have to say it was SO much easier than the roman shade project.  Here I am all set up (including the requisite coffee) on the porch.

I started by pulling off the old self-welt. 

Then I removed the fabric and staples and used the original fabric as a guide for cutting.

Per Jenny's instructions I started stapling the hardest parts first which for me were around the arms.  I used a hammer to make sure the staples were in securely. I also found that a light duty staple gun worked better than a heavy duty gun with longer staples.

Once all the stapling and tacking was complete I trimmed my fabric and used a single staple and then fabritac to glue on the trim starting on the arms and then going around the base from the back.  

I love how this minty trim dresses up the abstract fabric and also ties into the mint touches now appearing throughout the living room.  I also love how the new Kelly Wearstler Pillow from Spark Modern works on the chair.