Thursday, October 29, 2009

Behind the Scenes


Primarily because of the insanity of my life (I know, join the club, right?), I am not as good as I should be about documenting my design projects--a goal for the New Year is to create an online portfolio of professional project shots--but I have a nice (though not yet complete) visual story of one to share.

This project began, in a sense, about a year ago, when a husband...let's call him "Chris" (since, well, that's his name) bought my favorite table ever for his wife as a Christmas table. Wouldn't you like to find this beauty under the tree?




Now, with a new fabulous table, a new and equally fabulous set of chairs was needed, which led to a need for some other new and fabulous items, and thus, a project was born.

The first matter of business? Selecting a new exterior paint scheme. I drew up some options (most traditional, a few more outlandish) using Benjamin Moore's great Color Preview program (incidentally, a great way to lose at least 4 hours of your life). Here were a few of my favorites options:








Here's the winning scheme, a combination of a few suggestions:




Classic and timeless, as well as a great representation of the schemes being incorporated inside. I put together some concept boards for various rooms; here's a peek at the Dining and Living Room inspirations:



Here's a peek at what made the cut in the Dining Room:


Most of the final selections are represented here--the Jonathan Adler greek key rug in the Dining Room (being made as I write), paired with affordable red-lacquer chairs from Pottery Barn sassed up with some colorful indoor/outdoor fabric on the seat cushions, and the stunning chandelier from Arteriors.

Compare the new light to the old (unelectrified!) fixture:



What an improvement. And now they can see what they're eating, too! (When I cook, dim lighting works in my favor.)

A few pieces, like this graphic bookcase from a local design showroom, were happy surprises:

And I unexpectedly scored a great (and gigantic) piece of art, a print made with a steamroller (!) by one of my favorite local artists, Tina Randolph.

We're still awaiting the arrival of a number of pieces, and there remains more work to be done, but I thought I'd share our progress thus far. Stay tuned!

*First image from the fabulous Conde Nast archives, a vintage House & Garden photograph by Herbert Matter

6 comments:

Monica said...

Hello
I follow your blog for a long time and must tell you that your posts always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.

furniture in Toronto said...

Hello. I work s a home stager in Canada, so I like everything connected with both interior and exterior design. I really liked your pictures, epecially the one of the dining room, the light made such a great difference!
Wishing you all the best,
Sara

gatherings home said...

What they said!

xo,
Carol

ArchitectDesign™ said...

wow -it look superb! I love the exterior paint color -very sophisticated! And the dining room is just charming!

England Furniture said...

It looks like you put a lot of thought into the plans of all these rooms. Thanks for sharing your process.

Lazy Boy Furniture said...

It seems like you picked up some really great pieces along the way. Thanks for sharing.

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