7.28.2011

Hints of the Caribbean


These are some drawings I had done for a client to help her get some new ideas for how she could alter her existing KC home.  She was from Miami and missed some of her hometown colors & style.  In the front, she wanted a shaded area to sit and relax with french doors coming out from her living room.


option 1
option 2

The backyard had brick steps coming off of the family room down to a blank patio.  She wanted a new stairway to descend down to the patio with an area above to put a grill.




The drawing I created included built in seating for guests on the patio and a gradual stair since she didn't want to just open the doors and immediately have a huge staircase to look down.


 

There was a gas fireplace she actually wanted to get rid of.  Instead, she preferred to use the area for another set of french doors out to the back onto a veranda.



 [Either a wrap-around stair on one side, or no balcony and curved stairs around the whole stoop down to the ground]


7.18.2011

Baby Shower Decor

Friends and I recently threw a baby shower for our friend Melissa.  It was a Pear theme since she's having a pair of girls!  The colors were grey and yellow; her nursery colors.


The yard stakes I made with wood dowel rods wrapped in silver wrapping paper with wood painted circles on the top.  I tied multi-patterned ribbons around the base of the circle. 


A friend from college sells party paper goods and graphics on etsy, she made the banner, food labels, cupcake toppers, and cookie favor packages.


Here's the diaper cake I made.  It's way easier to use pre-formed paper taped in a circle and fill it with diapers than to try and wrap the diapers purely with ribbon.  The duck on top is an Odd Duck from boon.


The food table.  We found the yellow/gray floral material at Hancock fabrics.


BRUNCH MENU:

Mini Frittatas
Bacon Twists
Breakfast Pizza
Fruit Salad
Creme' Brulee French Toast
Cinnamon Mini Muffins
Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes
Lemon Meringe Cupcakes
Cranberry Punch
Tea/Coffee



I wrapped boxes with wrapping paper and tied ribbon around them as food display risers dispersed around the table.  Lindsey made the tissue paper pom poms hanging from the chandelier.


 The party favors!


 mmmmmm...   CUPCAKES!


I put together some willow branches and hung paper pears from them for people to write words of advice or encouragement on them for the mommy-to-be.


We played Twins Bingo while she opened her presents.  Everyone filled out their card with items they thought she'd get (with the freebie being your own gift) and you had to yell "TWINS" when you got a bingo!  The numbered pears on the left were clipped along a string with mini clothespins on top of baby pictures we all brought of ourselves.  Everyone had to guess who was who.


The lovely party-throwers & mother-to-be!!!

7.14.2011

Masterbath Update


The homeowner's bathroom was a bit outdated and ready for a sophisticated facelift.  The cabinets were kept but re-painted, and a cabinet maker installed the center piece to add more useful storage (including a laundry bin pull-out). The hardware was changed, granite countertops installed, new sinks & faucets, mirrors and lighting.

before

  hand sketched proposal                              after photo



The wallpaper was stripped off and the walls were painted a creamy bagel color.  The vertical fireplace wall was painted a warm charcoal grey to bring your eye up to the vaulted ceiling and skylights in the space as well as to break up the neutral walls.


before

 after



Here's a close-up of the backsplash around the sinks.  It's a great blend of charcoal, beige, brown and caramel glass with natural stone in a 2" length brick pattern.


7.13.2011

Mural Mural on the Wall...

My mom and I painted this African-themed mural on the walls of my cousin Tucker's room.  The lower pattern that surrounds the room was inspired by a piece of pottery that my mom had. 



my favorite elephant


I thought the hippo my mom did was so cute!



There's Simba!  I looked at a picture from the Lion King to paint him.  That green frog is 3-d and is hanging on the wall!


7.11.2011

CLUB 56



I was hired to give new life to the middle school room at our church named Club 56 [since it's mainly 5th & 6th graders].  It was more of a "catch-all" room for donated furniture and other items.  We simplified it and gave it some youthful soul!


The colorful carpet tiles were custom picked from Flor to tie all of our colors together


The beanbags are from Fatboy that I ordered through 2modern.com

before
 after


The orange, purple, white, and gray stripes were hand-painted by my mom & I (with some help from my brother Trevor) 

before
 after


The stripes were meant to "burst" from the wall decal of (a reference to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam) God & Adam's hands I got from Dezign with a Z.  A modern take on a Christian message


before

 after


This strip of galvanized metal was attached to the wall for groups of kids to post projects or artwork on with magnets






No more Princess!

My mom, Vicky, and I recently re-decorated my cousin Makenzie's bedroom for her birthday while they were on a cruise!  She picked out her bedding from JcPenney and knew we were painting the room, but it was a huge surprise at how much changed when she got home!!!



Her white modern headboard was $89 from csn.com with free shipping!

Her room has been a purple princess theme for many years now.  Her mom told her when she turned 10 she could redo her room...well, this year she turned 10!  My uncle actually airbrushed the clouds along the top of the walls with glow-in-the dark stars- which was kinda sad to paint over, but we kept the purple ceiling.  The castle & clouds on the wall were a decal that peeled off.

before
quick sketch
after




The back corner was more of an unused space before.  It just had her butterfly chair and dry-erase board, but was usually dark and wasted space.  Now it houses her built-in desk with chair and magnetic boards for her to draw & do her homework (as it will increase in the coming years!)

before


after

My husband, Matt, helped us build her desk out of mdf plywood, attach it to the wall studs, added a front lip to give it a chunky look, drilled two 2" holes in the back corners for chords to feed through, caulked edges, and painted it glossy white




Makenzie wanted to keep her pink butterfly chair in the room, so we added pink stripes to the wall
to tie in the chair and light she already had



The Hancock Shelf in chartreuse from cb2.com [assembly required]

(pardon my mom's glass of wine in the photo after a long day of hard work!)




The photos on the wall are hanging on magnetic green cables from cb2.com for $6.95 a piece


The Details:




 $5 table found at a garage sale, painted blue, and mosaiced with glass tiles on top; $5 chair found at a garage sale, painted purple, seat re-covered with new foam and fabric; $35 nightstand found at an estate sale, painted white, sprayed with gloss polyurethane; chandelier found at Urban Outfitters, lightkit with switch hand-rigged with materials from Lowe's


The Bathroom:


We painted a stripe of multicolored circles up the wall using stencil paper from Michael's that we cut our own circles in using an exacto knife.  The rugs and towels are from Target.  The frame was found at an antique store for $25 and spray painted white with hooks hung within for cute jewelry display.  Hooks and fabric letter "m" found at Anthropologie.  A hook on each side for Makenzie and her sister Morgan to have their own spot for their towels or robe to hang since they share a bathroom.