A Black, White and Gold Reveal

Hello peeps. Soooooooooo sorry to start the year off with so much radio silence, but things continue to be insanely busy around these parts. No complaints, for sure. We had an amazing 2013, and want to keep the momentum going. We are already tackling some fun projects and trying to see how we can do it even bigger and better in 2014.
If you have come to know me at all, you should know that I don't do grand resolutions for the new year. I'm a serial keeper of daily, weekly and monthly To-Do lists so I tackle most of my goals that way. The one goal I will set is to be more present and in the moment when I'm home with Xavier and the hubs, i.e. not be on my IPAD, laptop or on Instagram doing work and being nosy. So hard to do when you're a small business owner and want to keep your clients happy, but oh so necessary.
Anywho, we're starting the year of with this project reveal, one of the last projects we wrapped in 2013.
This is home belongs to our favorite Instagram stalker turned client fave, Meagan, her hubby Dwayne and adorable toddler, Dylan. We transformed their family room/kitchenette here.
When Meagan and I first met, we hit it off immediately and we agreed to design their home in phases.  They decided to tackle the living and dining room for the holidays as a Christmas gift to themselves.
Now to be clear, Meagan is a style diva and has amazing tastes in fashion (er, I kinda wanna move into her closet actually, it's that damn fabulous) and decor so had already collected some pretty fab pieces. Her trouble, like most clients, is puling it all together.

Great furniture right? We would reuse it all, but with some re-purposing. In keeping with her tres glam personality, I had visions of black, white and gold and pitched the following concept. The rendering is by the insanely talented Jane Gianarelli, who I met on social media - don't you just love how we can all meet and support fellow business owners via the web?

Now, Meagan loves me (or so she says, hehe) and how we transformed the family room but she was a tad nervous about this concept, especially painting the white shaker style wainscoting her hubby had tackled himself from white to black.  But again, since she loves and trusts me, she handed over the keys and said go ahead lady, do your thing. Music to my ears.

This is the end result. I wanted to brighten up with the walls but not with a stark white as we'd done in the family room. We settled on Dover White, from the HGTV collection for Sherwin Williams next to this black high gloss paint. Also, another alternative is this chandelier from LampsPlus.com

Meagan had always wanted a mirrored buffet but couldn't figure out how/where to incorporate one. By placing the sofa against this wall, instead of having it divide the two spaces, we freed up the extra space needed to accommodate the buffet. 

I have to say, her budget was hella tight and I warned her that we may not have enough funds to get a buffet. But with her luck, I scored this one on a crazy sale. In fact, we stayed on budget and gave her everything on her wish list because we scored a lot of items on sale. This rug was a steal from the clearance bin at Target. Marked from $199 to $73. Again, hella savings.

We initially planned to place these chairs directly in front of the sectional but decided instead to create a cozy seating area in this long entryway. 

Custom panels in black and gold, with sheers for added privacy, now means Meagan's neighbors can no longer peek inside and witness her shennanigans. See that light fixture? Well both light fixtures had slight damages when we opened the boxes on installation day, causing the most stress I think I've ever faced on installation. But thank goodness for a great electrician who fixed the issue with the foyer light and for a nearby Z Gallerie that had one remaining dining table fixture to exchange for our damaged light. Whew.

Meagan's existing coffee and end tables were refinished from a dark brown to the same glossy black finish as the molding around the rooms. We added splashes of gold and blue to accessorize and highlight her great coffee table book collection, which included this book about the late Nelson Mandela.           

      

Meagan also had this mirror and again, had no clue what to do with it. We painted it gold and it was the perfect fit above the buffet. We struggled to find the perfect lamps but eventually scored these from Target. 

        

                

Every stylish girl needs a bar cart and this one is perfect to roll around as they entertain (yes, Meagan will switch out the glass and bottles so little Dylan doesn't get his hands on these breakables).

You can style a bar cart with much more than liquor and glassware. Here we added a lamp (Meagan's original lamp updated with a new lampshade), and a few accessories.

For art, we simply used Meagan and Dwayne's wedding photos which were so filled with movement and joy that they added the perfect personal touch to the space. They are avid music lovers so we added a few black and white photos of some of their favorite artists and of some jazz musicians above the sectional.  

In the entryway, we again reused Meagan's entry table and just added a few personal items i.e. the Jackson family art they ordered from Etsy to celebrate their union, some leopard print boxes (my homage to Meagan's house keys which are also in a leopard print), an Ikea print of I Love You from a vintage typewriter and of course, a framed copy of the rendering that guided us along this design. 
Huge thanks to Meagan and Dwayne for being such great clients to work for and with, and for always popping a bottle of wine with moi to celebrate their newly designed spaces. 

P.S.
So honored to have this post receive the ATG Bright Idea Award.