Kerry Steele is for real

Today I met up with Kerry from Design du Monde blog. She lives about an hour from me, and in our comments and emails I felt a kindred spirit to her and offered to meet her midway at Lorton Workhouse, in Lorton, VA.  It is an arts center that features studios, galleries, a theatre, workshop spaces, and an art supply store. We spent several hours together, with her adorable 3yr. old daughter, and had a lovely day.  Here are some pictures of our visit:

The Lorton Workhouse was built in 1912 as a correctional institution under the Roosevelt administration and later became a medium security prison until the 1980's when the site was too dilapidated to repair. It became an arts center in 2008.

Kerry and I conversed with some artists, admired lots of art and drooled over the studio spaces.  We both wanted to go home and start painting!  They didn't allow picture taking, so my photos are limited.

and here we are, two new friends, ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I LOVE BLOGGING!

 Have any of you initiated meet-ups with local bloggers you've met?  I'd like to do more of this, and would love to hear what you all have done!

Have a great week!

 ~Nancy

Finalized client presentation

Bethany and I just finished a presentation to a lovely couple to help them update the first floor of their beautiful home.  The plan is to update their "90's jewel tones" to a more current neutral palette with pops of color and cohesiveness throughout.  More to come later, but here are our 'boards'....

We are two very exhausted ladies, after many nights til midnight working on this. But what a rush it was, and such positive feedback! We had a blast and absolutely love what we do!

~Nancy and Bethany

small space solutions

How perfect is this?  I must have studied it for 10 minutes with my mouth open.  I love seeing creative solutions for rooms that are not so intuitive to decorate.

                                                                          Source: Uploaded by user via megan on Pinterest

TGIF, folks!


-Bethany

Sneak peek at clients design board

We are doing a presentation tonight on 7 rooms for a local client. Here is a peak at the work table last night and a drawing of a dining room created by Nancy:

The finished boards will be featured soon! Wish us luck!

~Nancy

Kitchenspiration

I know I've mentioned before that one of the projects I'd like to tackle in 2012 (are we project-crazy or what??) is my kitchen.  While there's nothing totally wrong with it, I would like to transform it from standard updated kitchen to reflect a little more of 'me' and my style (err… OUR style, sorry hubs).  I'm happy with the layout so it's just a matter of zhushing - back splash, painting lower cabinets, new uppers with glass-paned fronts and hanging the three pendants that have been sitting in my shed for months.

In keeping with my inspiration board, I aim to paint the bottom cabinets dark, like an inky navy or obsidian, and replace the top cabinets with crisp white uppers that have glass panes.  Some people like the look of wood cabinets, some like the same color on the top and the bottom.  Some like to mix it up; I think I fall into this category!  The other option would be to paint them all white (top and bottom) for uniformity.  But I like how the dark anchors the room versus a floatier feel with all white.  

What do YOU think? 

How do you feel about this trend of light on top, dark on bottom?  Do you think it's here to stay? Do you prefer all one color?  

- Bethany

A new spring issue of...

The latest Spring 2012 issue of Traditional Home magazine is amazing. I didn't know the online version is free.   It's the "Blogger Issue" and features 10 amazing, talented, elite designer/bloggers, among them Grant Gibson and Melanie Turner.

This is a home designed by Grant Gibson. No wonder I like this breakfast area, it reminds me of the ikat trim and valance I just made, and I'm crazy about navy and white!  And the styling in this white kitchen he designed is sooooooo me!

Love these dining chairs with ikat backs and patterned seats:

 

The  home designed by Atlanta's Melanie Turner is casual, cozy, neutral and fabulous. One of my favorite rooms is the family room featuring gray walls, organic textures, and a knockout wall of 8  Dog drawings, by artist Valerie Davice,all framed in white.  This is so inspiring, I just love it, and would love hang a gallery wall of pencil drawings of all our animals.

The entire house is wrapped in grays, but look at all the fantastic patterns in this bedroom by Melanie Turner:

Here is a vignette by Katie Leede that I love as well:

The issue also features articles about gardening, organization, top picks, outfit boards, and so much more. Enjoy! Have a great start to your week!

~Nancy

Myrtle topiaries?

I would like to share with you Loi Thai's lovely blog, Tone on Tone, and  have got to make a sojourn to his beautiful Swedish antiques store in Bethesda, MD soon. What caught my eye is Loi's topiaries that he has so magnificently collected and nurtured in his home and gardens.   Since  Bethany and I are slightly obsessed with topiaries,  I wanted to share some photos of Loi's with you.

You can see more about the home of Loi and Tom on Lauren Liess's Pure Style Home , since she was  there recently.  His home is a perfect blend of simplicity, exquisite styling, amazing antiques and classic garden accents, all wrapped up in neutrals and white.

In asking Loi more about his topiaries, he told me he picks up specimen plants at  Garden Shows and places like the NY Botanical Garden Antique Show.  He uses " mrytus communes compacta" variety Myrtles since they are easily shaped.  I love this look, and would love to have real topiaries inside my home.  


Do you use real topiaries or artificial, or none at all ?

~Nancy

DIYing again

Mom and daughter are at it again this weekend!  These are such fun times for us; working on business plans, discussing clients, dreaming about redecorating our rooms for the hundredth time, and knocking out some serious projects!  Here is a sneak peak of what we did Saturday!

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT WE'RE MAKING?

And then we were interrupted by this muddy turtle coming up our driveway..en route to another pond in the neighborhood-- he was huge!

Have a nice Sunday!

 We'll show you what we made in another post!

~ Nancy and Bethany

Gorgeous color

       My yard is in bloom this week. Let's see what Benjamin Moore paint colors come close to these:

The paint certainly isn't as "clear" and brilliant as the colors are in nature. Wonder if any other paint brands come closer? What is your experience with more "pure" paint color brands?

Have a great weekend friends!

~ Nancy and Bethany

A little bit of this

Thanks to our friend Charmaine, who's bathroom reveal we reposted earlier this week, we were awarded the Liebster Blog Award!  The award was passed to her by Tiffany Leigh of The Designer Lifestyle and meant to recognize the small, just starting out blogs!  We were thrilled that Charmaine recognized us and we can only hope to return the favor in the future!

A couple folks we'd like to nominate are:

Janna from Swoon! Interiors

Pam from Simple Details

Teresa from Splendid Sass

Jamie and Vashti at Like Me Some

Kerry at Design Du Monde

After styling and photographing the heck out of Mom's reveal last night, we couldn't manage much in the way of creativity tonight.  How about an iPhone summary of my week, instead?

Picked up an orchid from Ikea, thanks to Bryn's suggestion.

The upholsterer called and my curtains were done!  I had to get busy patching the wall I kept procrastinating on.

 Shopper's Food Warehouse had the most amazing hydrangeas for sale for $3.99.  Right?

My new Kevin O'Brien pillow arrived!!

I picked up my rite of passage porcelain from Middle Kingdom. 

I ordered this sweet tablecloth only to find out that it won't fit my table.  Never fear, I have awesome plans for it in the bedroom...

Mom and I stalked Target last night and found some awesome lamps.  

The one looks just like the $799 Ralph Lauren lamp it was modeled after. For real, it's only $29!

This one too.  $29 smackers beats the Arteriors price!

And Mom almost convinced me to buy two of these ($18 each!) for my guest room.  Couldn't quite commit to the bright flame color!

Happy Friday, folks!

-Bethany

THE REVEAL

When some of you suggested I bit off more than I could chew, I thought 'nah, I can do this'.  Well, I do have another day job, a huge beckoning yard AND I didn't factor in mistakes, so this was a great learning experience for me. 


Here is my breakfast room BEFORE:

Here is the AFTER:

(alright I seriously need to makeover cabinets and counters next, maybe a pendant light ASAP )

 I do want to know how to make all these things, so I took on the challenge and the deadline. (which was the hardest part!)  So many of my rooms are not 100% finished, so this made me realize all the little finishes I need in some of my other rooms, cause IT REALLY MAKES AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE! (duh)

One of the big challenges was my faux roman valance over the kitchen sink.  I watched a few online videos and researched directions, but getting those folds straight and aligned without sagging was tricky, to say the least.  AND, in my blinding effort to forge through this I accidentally cut the extra length off my shade on the width end (and made it 42" wide) not on the bottom of the shade. So I had to piece another width to the side of the valance so it would span 54" and then add another piece of lining to the back all seamlessly so no one would notice.  I think I pulled it off.  My husband helped talk me off a ledge at midnight one night 'cause I was bound and determined to get it installed in one day.  It took me one whole day to make a little valance!

                      Here area my Danish modern (MCM chairs that are 40+ years old) BEFORE:

DURING:

Here they are recovered in Primitive Stripe Navy, Natural AFTER:

Here is my light fixture  BEFORE (I upgraded 5 years ago to stainless and never was thrilled with):

and here is my new fixture, AFTER:

The  trim fabric ,Sumter Ikat Sky, was added to white panels from West Elm,  BEFORE:

    DURING:

with assistance from the cat:

                           

 AFTER:

              

My kitchen window BEFORE, sans valance:

  DURING: ( see big mistake here)

with faux roman valance AFTER:

Add the Jill Rosenwald "Fallon"  rug:

Here are some more pics from our own photo shoot:

Total cost of makeover = $406.

light fixture $89.99

Drapery panels: $40.00

2 yds. Trim fabric: $17.96

2 yds. Seat fabric: $121.45

Scotchguard $7.99

Rug $129

Thank you Linda, the founder and fellow "undaunted dozen" for joining in this challenge and pushing us to finish a project!  Can't wait for Spring Into Action, Part 2 -- no time soon, please!

Kerry at Design du Monde

Suzy at Saved by Suzy

Tiffany at  Living Savvy

Laurie at Traditional & Modern

Cathy at Room Rx

Carrie at Hazardous Design

Lisa at A Room with A View

Sam at The Junk House

Becca at from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean at Flower Hill Design

    Linda at My Crafty Home Life

xo Nancy

P.S. There is no solution for a crimped shade. Im ordering a replacement for $40.