The apartment is clean again and there is more to come!

It official. I finished. How can you tell? Walk in my apartment. It's so nice to have our floor and dining table back and not covered by drafting boards, mat boards, and fabrics.

I had two final projects and presentations that I recently finished up.

They were a lot of fun to do, quite time consuming, and probably my favorite boards that I've done. I will be posting them soon :)

While looking back at some old projects that I posted, I noticed the pictures aren't that great so I am going to try and get some better photos of my past boards to post on here.

With the time that's freed up I've found that I can now catch up with friends, read some of of my favorite blogs, and organize my photos. For example, here's a picture of a flower I took at the Getty back in April. I love that it's so soft and delicate with a majestic metal structure for the background. I've had some requests that I blog more often so I think I'll try that out. I just looked through a bunch of my photos of fun Interior Design finds and experiences that I look forward to sharing over the next week months. So please check back :)

Rocking Chair Revival?

Let me start off by saying I love chairs.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about rocking chairs. It could be a great marketing push by Crate and Barrel, the lovely California weather, or maybe just the thought of relaxing. I think it’s a combination.

I used to think of rocking chairs as always traditional, bulky, usually done in wood (example: Windsor or Adirondack styles) and mainly used in nurseries.

Lately, they seem to be popping up in all kinds of materials like stainless steel, wicker, and more. The use of line in the design is also more exciting and simple.

In particular, I love these two rocking chairs that found their way to my email inbox.

CB2 – Julep Rocker www.cb2.com

Crate & Barrel - Summerlin Rocking Chair www.crateandbarrel.com

I stumbled across this one and thought it was noteworthy since it uses stainless steal, leather, and it’s tufted. I love this rocking chair. Posted by ArchUpdate.com from ModernLineFurniture http://archupdate.com/modern-rocking-chair-2

Apartment Contentment

I'm one of those people that move the furniture, change out the accent pillows and accessories with different color pillows and accessories every couple months. I'm never really content with my decor.

We moved in to our little apartment about 2 months ago. At first I didn't like it at all. It was a bit of a sudden move but it is right by the water so it did have that going for it regardless of it's size. It's pretty small but already had character from the moment we moved in. The kitchen counters are tiled in yellow and black and the bathroom shower is also tiled in yellow. It was pretty clear that we should embrace the yellow already given to us.

I really love how accented neutrals look in a room so I used yellow as my accent with gray,black, white, and cream. I added a floral fabrics over the side tables and then framed the same fabric on the wall. Since the apartment is so small we kept the furniture against the walls and used furniture with legs to show more floor space. Lastly, we added a large scale mirror above the sofa to add depth to the room.

Overall, I don't think I've ever been happier with the living room space of any of our apartments. This is our smallest apartment so far and it almost feels like our largest one.

We are content with our living space and I can now put the other color accent pillows and accessories in storage......at least for now ;)

and yes, that's my husband's surfboard in the corner, it had to go somewhere :)

Color Theory Final Project: Savonnerie

I have a lot of pride in this particular project. It has a lot of little aspects that do not appear to the common eye.

Our project was to choose a city in France, other than Paris, that we would be designing a Hotel Check-in/Lobby area for. The hotel was to be an old chateau that is now a boutique hotel. I choose the beautiful city of Grenoble. We were to research the city and find out as much about it as we could....agriculture, political history, landscape, architecture.

We were also told to choose a time period, Baroque, Rococo, or Neoclassical. We were suppose to find furniture and motifs that would be associated with the time period of choice. Along with that includes colors and textiles, from patterns and textures.

With all of this information gathered, we were suppose to design a French Savonnerie rug and also design a wall elevation cordinating with the rug. We choose time period appropriate antique furniture.

Grenoble is world known for it's export of Walnuts, has the amazing French Alps, and great architectural features found all around. The cathedral, the bridge, the Lion Fountain....just to name a few. There are so many great aspects of the city and some of these are displayed on my rug. If you were traveling to this boutique hotel in a gorgeous ch extensive ateau you would fall in love with the Neoclassical paneled walls, furniture with marble tops, a rug with a story, drapery, and rich textiles including velvets, silks, damasks, and toile. This city may look small on a map but is overflowing with intrigue and history making it an absolute treasure to anyone lucky enough to visit.

There are a tons of hours/days invested into the project so I hope you enjoy it. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Just a little update... I received a perfect score!

Timing is everything!

Kelly Laplante has become one of my favorite designers. I love how she can make a room completely eco-friendly and beautiful at the same time. She is amazingly resourceful and creative. In fact, for a drafting assignment I am currently working on, I am writing about her.

I found out about her from my husband. He was doing some searching online a few months back and stumbled across a video for the Lexus Hybrid Living Suite at Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco. He sent me the video which then lead me to click around her website. I highly recommend you check her out and see what she’s up to.

Lexus Hybird Suite video

Organic Design - Kelly LaPlante

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend a few seminars at the Pacific Design Center for Fall Market 2009. One of the ones I went called “The Preservation for Passion: Finding Inspiration in Design with Lori Weitzner”. Lori is absolutely adorable and the presentation was great! http://www.loriweitzner.com/  I was waiting for a friend and saw a glimpse of a familiar looking face. While I had my doubts I was 98% sure I saw Kelly LaPlante walking around the showroom. I finally had enough courage to go up and ask her name and it was her.

She was very kind and friendly and I couldn’t believe that I was actually meeting the girl of whom I had been admiring her work for so long and currently writing about. Of course, I wasn’t able to tell her all of this because I was so surprised that the whole thing even happened. Regardless, she was an absolute delight and I’m excited to have met her.

 

Like Seen on TV....kind of

Yesterday I was given an opportunity to design a Living Room and Dining Room like it was an HGTV style project without the many design teams you don't see in your screen behind the cameras. 

I was presented with the idea of this project last Wednesday and decided to go for it.

The project: Design and furnish a fraternity house. They got the keys Saturday afternoon and it had to be 

ready for Rush on Monday.

How it went down: We drive over Saturday around 2:30 pm and saw the house for the first time. It definitely needed help

they were going to try and get new pledges.

Here area few "Before" pictures taken that morning.

I think I counted at least 3 or 4 shades of orange used in these pictures. If it isn't showing through the pictures, this place was dated!

My wonderful husband went with me and immediately after went to shop out some furnishing ideas. We did that for about 3 - 4 hours and then to the paint store for another hour.

Sunday morning came along and we started working at the house at 8:00 am and it was already hot outside. We went shopping while a few people started painting. We came back to a freshly painted interior and started getting the furniture assembled. We hung all the new light fixtures and window coverings, put all the furniture in and finally finished everything 12 hours later at 8:00 pm. It was a long day but a lot of fun.

Here are a few pictures of the end result that night.

Special thanks to the Tiger guys that helped and the fraternity guys willing to work that day, now they can move in themselves :)

IDI Certificertificate Project

Here are a few pics of my final project for the Interior Designer's Institute. Now a small, much awaited, summer break! Special thanks to my "client" Hayley.