Easter Blessings...

Happy Easter Everyone.
Here's to new beginnings on this day of resurrection.
May the months ahead be filled with boundless joy, love and hope.

Source: brit.co via Krystelle on Pinterest

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Source: hercampus.com via Her Campus on Pinterest

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Source: Uploaded by user via Trending Mom on Pinterest

Cheers to the Weekend

Hooray, it's the freaking weekend!

So happy for that because man, have I been exhausted this week.

I get to sleep in late - aka not be up at 5 a.m. - but it'll be busy as always.

Here's a snapshot of the weekend To-Do List:

• A consult with a potential new client that has me insanely excited.
• Work up a punch list for this kitchen renovation project which we'll start next week.

• Update the punch lists for the bathroom and living/dining projects that are ongoing.
• Pack for a business trip to St. Maarten. Don't roll your eyes here. Trust me when I say I have zero fun on these trips. It is ALL work. But of course I'll squeeze in a mojito, or two. Hehe.
• Attend the 25th wedding anniversary celebration dinner for these awesome clients.
• And guess what? We'll finally be squeezing in some fun with a fab girls day out to this amazing musical.

• And of course hang out with the amazing hubs and Xavier!

Can't wait.

Have a safe and fab weekend guys. What do y'all have planned?

The Lil Man, Aka Our Resident Celebrity

 

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a celebrity in our midst! The lil man landed his first commercial last week. Yep, earned his first pay check at just 16 months - definitely will be adding that tidbit to the baby book.
The commercial is for a local hospital and will air only in South Florida, but thanks to You Tube, I'm sure I can share it someday with y'all.
Some background: Xavier has been signed to an agent since birth. Believe me, I'm no stage mom so have no clue about this world, but the hubby has been doing commercials for years and so they are with the same agency. The hubby and he chase around town on the occasional casting calls. My role? Mommy support and mommy stylist.

 

 

There was no casting call for this job, which happens on occassion. The hubs got a call that evening saying Xavier was selected by the client and needed to be on set at noon the next day. Of course I squealed when he told me this, I mean like pulled my car off the road and squealed. He'd been on a few castings before and had not been chosen, so this was major! My task: assemble an assortment of outfits, which of course I was happy to oblige.

This acting life is hard work. He had to seriously pretend to care about playing with toys. Trust me, he practiced that role all day and night, hehe. 



His favorite word these days is apple, which he says promptly everytime the phone rings because many of the learning Apps we use on the phone begin with, you guessed it, apple! There is also a chance that he called that ball an apple. I kid you not, he loves that word. 

 

Ok, seriously dude, how much longer do you need to hold that camera in front of me? Can a baby just play? I wanna focus on these toys man!

And it's a wrap! A huge hug from the director who marvelled at his charm.
p.s. guess who played his daddy when the actor who should have played daddy was a no show? Xavier's daddy! So proud of my two men! Can't wait 'til it airs. Trust me I'll squeal all sorts of noise, because you know, that's my little man.

One Room Challenge - Reveal Day!

Okay, I'm not participating in the One Room Challenge, the amazing 6 week design frenzy fest organized by my blogger bestie, Linda of Calling it Home.

But it's been my weekly design reality show, design crack, similar to my Red Bull addiction. Call it what you will, but all I know is that every Wednesday I saunter all over the Internet checking in on the progress made by all the participants and guess what? Today is reveal day! Head on over to Linda's blog to see her reveal and for links to everyone else's big reveal moment. I believe it will all leave you speechless, in a good way of course.  

A Master Bathroom Gets a Wacking

So we're in the midst of many projects, among them the master bathroom renovation for the amazing client, Doris. She's one of my long term clients whose home I've been renovating slowly over the years. We featured her kitchen, son's bedroom, and kids bathroom.
Here's what's cooking now.
Last week, we gave her bathroom a good ass-whooping. It was demo madness in full effect. Can you tell I love demo day? Definitely a great way to relieve some stress. Hehe.
 

Then we settled on this swoon-worthy vanity.

It is to die for! I first sourced it online and then stumbled across it when I happened into one of my favorite vanity shops The Home Design Outlet Center.  And guess what? It was $500 cheaper than what I'd found it for online. Winning.
This weekend we need to select the tiles. Here are the three options:

Lord, this is a tough one. We're definitely using a large white tile as the main tile, but we're a bit stumped on the accent tile. I'm loving all things Greek Key these days so option 1 is looking good. Such a classic. But you know I love me a contemporary glass tile, and a back shower wall in that glass mosaic would be a jaw-dropper for sure. But that last combo makes my heart skip a beat. Just seems timeless and seems like it was made to have that vanity in its midst.
Which would you pick? Help us out here peeps. A decision must be made.
And oh, TGIF! Here's to a fab weekend.

Link Up Paaarty - Working With What You have

In our never ending quest to achieve great decor, even with clients on a very tight budget, we've been doing more and more DIY projects. So today I'm participating in the Emily A. Clark's amazing linkup soiree:
 

Remember this amazing black and gold coffee table revealed here last week here?

 

Well, ideally I wanted to splurge and get a glass table with gold legs for this project. But it was definitely NOT in the budget so this little coffee table rehab is a great example of working with what you have. It used to be a sad, sad, looking table. All dark and brown and clunky looking.

But it was in great shape and just needed a little love and affection. The amazing Shaggy, one of my lead guys on projects, handled this for us. You'll need some basic tools of course.

If you wanna be all fancy then you can use a power sander like this one.

Or if you're afraid that thing will launch you into space, then stay on earth and use the good old fashioned paper sander in a fine or medium grade.

For the gold knobs we used this metallic paint from Valspar via Lowes. Our dear friend Linda at Calling it Home strongly suggests that we all wear some super duper face masks before spray painting. Sadly, I've yet to order one but it's on my list. Pinky swear.

He sanded then rolled on black glossy paint.
 

And just like that a new table was born!  The tray we used here to style the table, also got some gold love action. Can you tell I'm mildly fascinated with gold these days?

 

Let's go forth and see what the other folks on the link up are up to. Happy Hump Day guys. 

Signature Style Magazine Feature

In my one year foray into the world of social media, I've come across some amazing designers, bloggers, design enthusiasts, clients etc..
Among them is the talented Houston based interior designer/event planner Shandra Ward. Shandra launched her style magazine last year and in addition to some amazing design tips, does a feature called Designing Women.
I'm happy, honored and blessed to be the featured designer this week.
Check it out here and learn a tad bit more about moi. Be sure to visit Shandra's work as well on her gazillion social media platforms. This lady is blazing trails. Seriously so.

Happy Women's Day!

I celebrate being a woman each and every day. But in honor of today's official acknowledgement, I've had Helen Reddy's "I am Woman Hear Me Roar" running through my head all morning.

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

CHORUS
Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

 

 

If you've never heard that song, well you've missed out an a classic, so please do check it out. Two hands in the air for all my fabulous, strong and amazing sisters out there. And yes, TGIF!

Vintage Glam Part Deux

So here we are. Our client Janeka's home is finally complete and we finally have some pictures to prove it. 

We dished about her amazing master bedroom/bath here and man, has that room been the belle of the ball, becoming our most popular room ever, even getting a feature on Apartment Therapy. 
This is where we started back in December with the living and dining rooms:





The walls had been painted in Coastal Fog by Benjamin Moore before we got hired. A soothing color that I loved, but y'all know that I loves me some color so I knew right away that we needed a splash of something bold so added the orange accent wall. She had already painted the main stairway wall in orange so this would connect the two areas. Now, I did this without her knowledge.  But my clients place a lot of faith in me so I hoped she'd let me get away with it. Thankfully she was happy as punch that I pulled that caper so whew. No drama there.

 

 



 



Before I meet with a client, they complete a detailed questionnaire about their likes and dislikes, their wish list for their home. From her questionnaire, I learned that Janeka loved old Hollywood and fashionable women so I thought it would be fitting to feature some icons in her space. Black and white images of Audrey Hepburn, Eartha Kitt and Dorothy Dandridge did the trick, holding court in this glam space.

Does the sofa seem familiar? I hinted about it here a few weeks ago? We selected this very budget-friendly and comfortable one from Macys. I jazzed it up with some custom designed pillows made with some very budget-friendly fabric finds. The orange/white fabric was on the pricier so I got just enough for the front and did the back using fabric that was a whopping $2 a yard! Tricks of the trade. 

We sanded and painted her old coffee table and sprayed the knobs in gold. We then dressed it up even more with a gold tray (also painted) and added some other fun candle holders, the orchid and leather storage box.



 

I turned Janeka into a lover of vintage furniture. She scored these side chairs while thrifting for clothes (among her favorite past-times). I picked them up - in Palm Beach no less - which is an hour away! Then had them reupholstered with that black and herringbone fabric combo. The legs too got a facelift with some gold paint.

Every room needs a cozy corner to snuggle up to. Her dog Pepper certainly agrees and has officially claimed this as his little zone. The chaise is from Target and we added the nail head details to give it a custom look.

 

Man, finding this foyer table was a doozy. I definitely wanted to do some repurposing on this project for budget reasons and to keep in line with her wish for a vintage vibe. After weeks of searching thrift stores from Palm Beach to Miami, we finally found this battered and bruised one for $40 bucks at one of my faves, Faith Farm. It was an old credenza and at first I thought it was way  too low but we then realized it has adjustable legs. You CANNOT imagine the hallelujah dance I did when we discovered it. Fitting it inside my SUV was no easy feat but man that truck can hold its own! We then sanded and painted and voila. I'll share details on all the DIY projects next week. 

The mirrored side tables add just the perfect touch of glamor, topped off with fun accessories for a bit of whimsy and those lamps, what a statement! I also wanted the side tables and lamps to silver to help balance out some of the gold we had on other items. Yep, it's definitely okay to mix metals.

 

The stairway was a perfect place for a gallery wall. Inexpensive frames from Ikea and Target did the trick here. The pendant is another amazing find from Overstock.com, I think I'm officially obsessed with that store. The beautiful thing about a gallery wall is that you can make it grow with you so I've encouraged her to continue to add more framed photos of other milestone moments.  



Now, let's eat. And drink. Let's check out the dining room.

 

We repurposed her original glass dining table, but spray painted the base in gold as well. Those black and white silk drapes we scored on Overstock as well. They made me swoon. Literally. They make such a statement. As does that chandelier from Eurostyle Lighting. 

 

Ohhh, these cane chairs! Talk about scouring the thrift stores once again. These I found early one Sunday morning at ChabadThrift in Fort Lauderdale. The owner was kind enough to let me have the chairs without the matching dining table. Another steal at just $75 for the four. Again, sanded and painted then adorned with that amazing fabric from another fabric store fave, Designer Discount Fabric. The base is from her original table which we reused here. 

 

No vintage inspired dining room is complete withouth a bar cart. But finding an affordable cart aint no joke - even on Craigslist! I searched for weeks and finally found this one at Home Goods at the 11th hour! Divine intervention? Did I mention that I had to ward off two other women who spotted it at the same time I did? My days of running track and field definitely paid off that night.  

 

Last but not least, her amazing pup Pepper needed to leave his stamp in this home. He received his own gallery wall on the wall facing the sofa. Love that pup, as did Xavier who tried to hug and kiss him to pieces. Priceless. That's all folks. As always, please share your thoughts, feedback. Could you live with an orange wall? What furniture have you repurposed recently and was it worth all the hard work? Holla.



Let There Be Light and Some Stalking?

This dark and dreary room is no place for a young mom to raise her kids and entertain friends and family.
 

The feathers, heavy valance, dark wood furniture have been vanquished. In the next few weeks, our goal is to turn it into the feminine glam space of her dreams. I'll post an update each week so stay tuned as we transform the dining rooms and main floor of her home.

Some background on this client, Samantha. She is one of four clients I've consulted with, and or signed this year who first found me via the Internet. In previous years, all my clients, with the exception of the amazing Doris, had been referrals. Not only did these clients Google local designers to get to me, they then read the blog, followed via Houzz, Twitter, Pinterest etc...to make sure they felt comfortable enough to invite me into their home.
Now, it may seem as if you're being stalked just a tad, but I like to think of it as clients doing their research aka due diligence. I have had a bit of Facebook stalking recently but that's a whole other post!
If you're in business, and still not comfortable with social media or understand its importance, I think I've made a case here for why it's so critical. Get on the train folks, get on the train.
P.S.
Happy Hump Day!