The Home Is Our New Sanctuary - Two Sisters Have New Bedrooms That Show Why

I know most of us have been going stir crazy because we've been forced to stay indoors until this virus gets under control. Damn you coronavirus! But here's the bright side: having a home that is functional, beautiful, calming and truly reflective of our personalities is a great side effect of this madness. Just ask sisters Nia and Sania, whose parents reached out to us last year to finally separate the sisters who had always shared a room. 
They have very different personalities and their new spaces needed to highlight that. Sanai, the tween, is an adventurous lover of the outdoors. Nia, her teenage big sister, is the quieter of the two and wanted a soft and soothing space reflective of Paris where she's long dreamed of traveling to. The two now share this new swankified bathroom so of course their bedrooms had to level up and be in the same league. 
We'll start with big sis Nia's reveal, who's happy as punch to have the soft and serene sanctuary she's longed for. Here's where we started: 

You can see a video of the bedroom before here. 

Da Plan

Progress pic of the space as we layered with the molding detail. 

Okay. Enough chatter! Here's the full reveal because that's what you're here for.

And there ya have it folks. The space where Nia has been confined to during this virus scare. Not a bad place to be right? Do you have a favorite element in this space? Please post a comment below and let us know what it is. We'll share little sis Sanai's bedroom this weekend. We are also praying for their parents who are both first responders on the front lines of dealing with this virus crisis. Stay safe everyone. 

A tiny peek into our areas of Zen

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For the last couple of years we have designed an eclectic mix of bedrooms from a coral accented fashionista retreat, a neutral based master bedroom to showcase a model apartment unit, to a room that play up the earth tones for a one our favorite bachelors.....just to name a few. 

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So when I recently found this bedding company, Parachute Home while sourcing online items for a client, I realized that along the way we have inadvertently included some our personal preferences to our bedroom designs. Nicole's starting point for each bedroom design has always been that it must be a place that provides our clients with their own view on what they feel provides elements of calm, no matter how the remainder of the house was designed. That philosophy might stem from Nicole's own bedroom which shows her daring side, featuring a black wall and mirrored nightstands.That might also explain why she can't sleep in an unmade bed even if she has to make it up right before taking a nap with her adorable son or finally hitting the sack after long day.

On the other hand I'm the total opposite, it's an unmade bed for me all the way. But I might change my mind after lusting after this duvet set from Parachute Home. For me, my bedroom is where I binge on David Baldacci novels, old episodes of Games of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy and The Golden Girls. I think a television was banned from Nikki's bedroom....I didn't believe either until I saw it for myself....LOL. But that all changed when she got married and they realized a shared love for Reality TV.   In contrast, Nicole actually designed my current master bedroom years ago in a soothing sage color. That's after she blew me away with the design she did for my home office that had been empty for about 4 years aside from a lone storage unit I bought from Crate and Barrel. We have been partners in crime ever since. 

However, despite polar opposite views on our personal bedroom designs we equally agree that each space must provide us with moments of Zen where we can refocus and plot our world domination just like Pinky and The Brain. 

We would love to hear how your bedroom reflects your personal style and preferences.

Inspired to recreate these bedrooms?:

Coral Fashionista: Similar beds here or here; Mirrored chest from City Furniture no longer available similar here, here or here; Chandelier here  or here; Lamps similar here or here

Bachelor's Room: Bed, Similar beds here; Night Stands here, similar here or here; Lamps here, here or here  ; Rug: Overstock, similar here  

Rental Apartment Model: Similar beds here, here or here; Nightstands here or here ; Desk Lamps here, here or here ; Area Rug here, here or here

* This post was inspired by Parachute Home

Reveal Day: A Model Unit Design = Dream Realized

One of my dreams as a designer, has been to design a model home. Every developer I ever approached to live out this dream, already had a designer they were working with so I pushed that dream to back burner. So, imagine my surprise earlier this year when I received an email from a developer in Colorado, asking if I'd be interested in designing the model unit of an apartment complex they owned in Miami. Hmmm, lemme check my schedule...."OF COURSE!" 
They were on a tight deadline and were interviewing several local designers, so I needed to see the unit promptly to submit a proposal and design plan. The apartments are close to the University of Miami and attracts students, young professionals and young families alike, so we went for a colorful and youthful space. With the help of my trusty assistant Debbie, we cranked out the design plan in a few days and sent it over.  
The owners flew in to meet with the potential designers and then the wait game began. The email came late Friday night, a week after that meeting.
"We loved your use of color and would love to have you design the unit." 
I kinda squealed, which annoyed the heck outa Debbie (hmm, why the heck was Debbie at my house on a Friday night?) and the hubs as I couldn't muster up the words to explain why the heck I was squealing. 
The budget was fixed with no room for an increase - a huge yikes for any designer since going a tad over budget happens on occasion - insert shocked face here. Lol. The deadline was three weeks, no easy feat for a 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment that came with ZERO furnishings, but we were up for the challenge. 
Here's how it all went down. We'll start with the bedrooms:
 

Beige walls people! Beige walls! Yep. Everywhere. And here's the one downside to designing a model unit for a rental community - you cannot paint the walls or change any light fixtures. A challenge for a girl like me who likes her can of paint and swanky light fixtures. No stress, we'd need to bring in color in other ways. 

Ooh, let's start with that headboard. So bold, so fab but lord, we almost had to replace it. See, this room is upstairs, a very, very narrow stairway I might add and let's just say we had to dismantle the lower half of the headboard it so it could clear the stairs.

More intel: So, we kinda pitched a turquoise blue in the design plan and even ordered a rug with said colors. But I've been slightly obsessed with indigo blue this year, and after falling in love with this duvet cover with that amazing indigo trim detail, well, things kinda changed. I then snagged the rug at Home Goods and the rest as they say, was history. The pattern play continued with the grey chevron print for the curtains from my favorite fabric store Design Discount Fabric.   

 

We wanted to offer loads of storage in this design, including in the nightstands. After much back and forth and coin tossing, we settled on these storage consoles from Target.

These throw pillows from Target were the icing on the cake for the bed. 

To again cater to the apartment's demographic, we needed to add a desk/workzone. This Ikea console is always a winner. We paired it with a ghost chair and styled it with fun accessories from Target, Home Goods and that fun print from Art.com.

Let's head downstairs to the smaller bedroom in the unit. 

 We started with another blank canvas of beige walls and vertical blinds (oh the tears I shed).                              

These yellow nightstands from Target inspired the design for this space. Smaller than the ones upstairs, but still have lots of storage. PS, a  huge shout out to Target who has perhaps the speediest shipping of all online retailers. I placed my order late one night and everything shipped the very next day. That is bananas.

 Since we couldn't paint the walls, not even for an accent color, I chose dramatic headboards in both rooms to double as a focal point in each space. The graphic detail of the black and white rug added interest to the floors and served as a great foil for the yellow accent pieces.

 Ooohh, that lamp from HomeGoods! Snatched it up and ran outa that store!

 

I'm a huge believer of extra seating in a bedroom (no one should be sitting on your bed!). These stools from Target also do double-duty as end tables. 

I don't usually do cornice boards, but we needed all the curtains to be on a track system for easy open and close without having a million hands continually touching them. Since I'm completely smitten with this greek key designed cornice board, I may become a believer.

All photos by Circle Ten Media

 Miami residents love their dogs, so we had to include a cozy corner for them as well. And that's all peeps. It was a marathon of a race to complete on schedule, and on budget, but we did it. We'll reveal the rest of the unit on Thursday. Now let me go see what y'all have been up to.

 
Sources:
Bedroom #1
Bed: City Furniture
Nightstands: Target
Lamps: HomeGoods
Bedding: JcPenny
Desk: Ikea
Ghost Chair: Lexington Modern
Desk Lamp: Home Goods
Rug: HomeGoods
Throw Pillows: Target
Art: Art.com and Target; Custom Framing - Frame Art Miami
Custom Curtains: Fabric - Designer Discount Fabric; Workroom - Titan Decor

Bedroom #2
Bed: City Furniture
Nightstands: Target
Lamps: HomeGoods and West Elm
Bedding: Target
Rug: Home Goods
Gold Stool/Table: Target
Throw Pillows: Home Goods and Target
Art: Art.com; Custom Framing - Frame Art Miami
Dog Bed: HomeGoods
Dog Bowl:Target
Custom Curtains: Fabric - Designer Discount Fabric; Workroom - Titan Decor

Another Bachelor, Another Reveal

This light-filled apartment with a killer view of Miami, belongs to my second bachelor client of the year, Mr. B. 
Well, he does have an amazing girlfriend, so technically, he's not a true bachelor. Anyway, I digress. Mr. B owns a home in Spain but works, lives in Miami and travels the globe for work. Renting, not owning a place here was his best option. 
This little cave of an apartment on Miami's Brickell Key is a prime location, but oh, the apartment was so gloomy it felt mildly depressing.
Since it's a rental, we couldn't knock down walls, change light fixtures or gut bathrooms, but we could surely purchase some solid pieces of furniture that will transition well to his next home, add some fresh paint colors to the walls (we'll paint it back to the original color when his lease is up), and give the space some gosh damn style. Here's where we started:

Yes, yes, when will I learn to remove handbags from my before photos? Anyway, handbags aside, pretty gloomy looking no?

Mr. B wanted the grey wall gone and some more fun colors introduced. Once we'd settled on the large items like this very comfy sectional from Z Gallerie, he left me to my own devices to purchase other items. I scored this rug from Home Goods and thought it's rust tones added color and warmth to the space. 

As always, I try to mix high tickets items with more budget friendly options so scored these end tables from Overstock. 

He swooned for this swing arm lamp from Crate and Barrel. Can you blame him?

He is an avid reader, so his book collection served as great accessories on this Overstock coffee table and throughout the condo.

This little nook needed some special love and attention.

This Ikea table is a favorite of mine because it's so versatile. It fit perfectly here. The Target lamps add extra lighting and the Nate Berkus baskets serve as both extra storage and seating for additional guests, and I love their amazing texture.

Y'all know I loves me some grey paint, but it admittedly made this apartment feel exceedingly gloomy and he hated it so much that it had to go. 

Since this is a rental, we only painted accent walls, and not the entire apartment. Here we added a warm beige with a brown banding, which added some visual detail on the wall in lieu on spending loads of money on art to add to this very long wall.

The accent wall is also the perfect backdrop for this walnut and white media console which we all fell in love with, but lost out to another buyer who'd purchased the last two! I cannot tell you the anguish I had over that, but luckily the buyer decided she only needed one and now voila, this splendid piece now sits very pretty in this space.

Around the corner from the living room is the first of two bedrooms, a tad smaller than the second bedroom but since it had an en suite bathroom he preferred to have it serve as the master.

Mr. B entrusted all paint choices to me (love those clients!) so I decided to use the color of the living room rug as inspiration for the accent wall color in  the master bedroom. We splurged a bit on this bed from Crate and Barrel. I loved the mid century modern lines of the nightstands from West Elm and our

Our Instagram followers voted on the lamp shades (so glad y'all picked the one I wanted!!!) 

He already had this amazing duvet from Pottery Barn and it was the perfect finish for the bed.

A very longggggggggg hallway connects the rooms to the living room, so to add some interest without breaking the bank, we framed inexpensive prints of some of his favorite cities and used the water view he sees from the apartment as inspiration for the striped detail on the wall. 

We carried that blue into the second bedroom which he does double duty as his office and guest room. 

 

An inexpensive day bed from Ikea takes up minimal real estate in the room while providing seating and a comfy place for guests to sleep.

He fell in love with this desk from West Elm and we paired it with this a stylish yet comfortable chair from Modani. A gallery wall of maps of his hometown and other cities that he loves offers a sense of connection to Spain and Europe, even as he now calls Miami home.

A huge thanks to Mr. B whose emails kept me royally entertained. We often got lost in translation, as English is his second language. We had a blast sending photos, emails and text messages back and forth, since he was not here for much of the project, and we needed to make sure he understood all that was happening. A bigger thank you to his amazing girlfriend Paula, who trusted me enough to recommend to Mr. B that I take over the reigns of this design project, so he could live in style.

 

Source Guide

Living Room:

Zgallerie - Sectional

KMP Furniture - Media Unit

Overstook - Coffee Table, End Tables

Crate and Barrel - Floor Lamp

Home Goods - Area Rug

Curtain panels - Ikea but customized by Titan Decor.

Sheer panels - Titan Decor 

Bedroom: 

Crate and Barrel - Bed

Overstock - Rug

West Elm - nightstands

Lamps - Target

Guest Room/Office:

Home Goods - Rug

West Elm - Desk

Ikea - Daybed

All Artwork: Art.com and Allposters.com

Chair - Modani

Pillows - Target, Ikea and Home Goods