Recap of My Cali Trip With Zephyr

Our #nwdprojectsevenvotes with a Zephyr hood insert

Last fall I was invited by Zephyr, a leading maker of kitchen ventilation hoods and wine refrigerators, to spend a few days in San Francisco to visit their showroom and learn about their products. 

Oh there was more. We would stay at the beautiful Proper Hotel, designed by Kelly Wearstler aka design maven, tour select showrooms in the design district, attend the renown antique fair and spend a day touring a few wineries in Napa. Ummm yes freaking please! With that, I over-packed - because a girl needs options - and jetted my way to San Fran.

While I knew of a few of the other invited designers/bloggers from social media, we’d never met, so this would also be a time to connect with other creatives in real life, real time! No damn DMs.

After devouring every inch of Proper’s design details - Jesus it was sooo damn good! We all met for cocktails on the hotels rooftop restaurant..

So good to connect with these ladies. 

We then shuttled over in a party bus to have dinner at Ayesha Curry’s restaurant - International Smoke. 

Oh, the things you share with strangers when you have a cocktail or two!

Let’s just say, we shared a lot - makeup remover techniques, Doodle dogs, online dating and so much more...

The next day it was time to learn all things Zephyr and man the renovation geek in me soaked up all the details.

We learned what’s new: Black stainless steel hoods are here to stay. Oversized hoods like their new Titan With Power Wave, for a commercial look continue to be on trend. There are hoods for outdoor ventilation and that there's a new app to control the functions of their hoods including a reminder to clean your filters.

The innovator of cement countertops and so much more, Fu-Tung Cheng of Cheng Designs. He also designed a few range hoods for Zephyr. Yes that's my messy hair atop this leather chair. 

Love this seamless ceiling venting option for clients who want an unobstructed views!

But my most exciting offering from Zephyr is there expansion to wine and beverage coolers, the Presrv Collection.. This was especially thrilling for a wine head like moi with loads of clients now requesting dedicated wine rooms.

All the smiles because we all love wine!

The beauty of this trip was zephyrs commitment to introducing us to other local brands, all run by entrepreneurs like ourselves, who’d dared to dream and take a risk. We toured other showrooms including Nido Living, Coup D'Etat and Fire Clay. Since they’re now in the wine cooler game, we also visited two wineries in Napa Jospeh Phelps and Rutherford Wineries where we sampled amazing wine and learned a ton - including what type of glassware to use for whites versus reds.

As designers running small businesses, we spend so much time alone, honing our own craft that it can be lonely as hell. 

These sponsored events are an amazing blessing to shift us out of solitude for a few days, learn more about a product we already use to better serve our clients, and to meet and share new ideas with other creatives. Kudos again to Zephyr for bringing us all together to learn the details of a product we all use for our clients. 

I'm Going Back To Cali! With Zephyr

Hey loves. When it rains, it definitely pours. I've lived in this country for 26 years and had never visited the west coast. I finally made it to Napa in May for my birthday, and this week I'm headed back to San Francisco and Napa joining nine other designers for three days of a fun design/food/wine/art experience courtesy of Zephyr, among the leaders in the kitchen ventilation industry. 

We've used Zephyr hoods in a few projects over the years so I'm pretty excited to get a first hand tour of their showroom and get some behind the scenes details of whats new and trending to make our upcoming kitchen projects as amazing as ever.
Some deets on this brand: For more than 20 years, Zephyr has been transforming the ventilation industry with design, discovery and care, and has played an integral role in kitchen design trends. The company has challenged the perception of what ventilation means in kitchen design and created a new awareness of the importance of a high performing ventilation system.

This year Zephyr introduced its first collection of Wine and Beverage Coolers - PresrvTM - and the wine lover in me cannot wait to check that out 😋

So here's the skinny on what will I be doing while in San Francisco:

For starters I live for a well designed hotel and scour them always for design inspiration and drum roll please! We will be staying at the Proper Hotel designed by Kelly Wearstler which means a smorgasbord of design inspiration will be around every corner.

The Proper Hotel Designed by Kelly Wearstler 

In addition to touring the Zephyr showroom, we'll also check out FireClay Tiles, another fave. We recently ordered this from their collection for a project we are doing in Hawaii.

And of course, Napa!

Please follow along with the other designers as well.

Anissa Zajac (@housesevendesign)

Jana Bek (@janabekdesign) 

Jean Stoffer (@jeanstofferdesign)

Kate Lester (@klinteriors)

Kirsten Grove (@simplygrove) 

Lauren Bradshaw (@laurenabradshaw)

Natalie Myers (@nataliemyers)

Nicole White (@livelaughdecorate)

Sarah Gibson (@roomfortuesday)

Sarah Sherman Samuel (@sarahshermansamuel)

Sarah Stewart (@lifeonvirginiastreet)

Vanessa Francis (@decorhappy)

I'll also be sharing all the amazing tour details on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so be sure to follow along. Bon Voyage my loves! Chat soon!

A Much Needed Patio Refresh via The Home Depot Patio Style Challenge? Yes Please!

* This post is sponsored by The Home Depot 

It's been two years since we first transformed our very bland backyard to a true outdoor oasis for the Home Depot Patio Style Challenge. So I was thrilled when they asked me to participate in yet another outdoor project. 

We whipped up this design plan. 

Which was kinda inspired by this very dress, featured here in a recent blog post. And voila, our patio is once again looking like the outdoor oasis it deserves to be. All the step by step details are shared over on The Home Depot Blog so please go forth and read!

Photos by Ricardo of   RMS Studio. 

 As for moi, I'll be out back sipping wine every evening. Cheers. 

*I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with me to participate in this patio challenge program. As part of the program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services for promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. My post also complies with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Trade Commission Guidelines.    

Xavier Gets a Big Boy Bedroom Via City Furniture

The little man turns six this weekend - cue my bucket of tears!
So how fitting it is that I was able to revamp his bedroom as an early birthday present in partnership with the folks from City Furniture
I've used City Furniture for many projects over the years including this and this because they have insanely good collections at an affordable price.
However I'd never used anything from their kid's collection so was excited to learn they'd revamped their kids offerings, with some insanely stylish options.

I chose the full size bed from the Ryder collection and the grey dresser from the same collection. Mixing colors from the same collection is always a fun option, and one you can easily get away with especially when designing for kids. 

Be sure to infuse your child's personality throughout his or her space. All of Xavier's favorite things are on display here: bowling, travel, Roblox, reading, soccer, saving, personal art and his love of fashion via hats and ties etc 

The beauty of this room makeover is that his bedroom had seemingly been made for this collection. I painted his room myself when we purchased this home in 2014. 

These store bought curtains in white and navy inspired my choice of the Ryder bed in Navy.

This before photo shows his old bed with Teenage Mutant Ninja bedding. It is a  is a cherished memory since it's the day he decided to carry out his very own science experiment - with powder ! God bless that memory but he's happy as punch with his newly updated bedroom. 

His new headboard allows him to sit up in bed and practice his reading, plus snuggle with his favorites - Fluffy, Mr. Sonic and Mickey. PS, I tried to give these away since I thought he was now such a big boy, but he was mortified and placed them on the bed himself. 

The brass hardware on the Ryder dresser is a surprisingly stylish feature for a kids collection and one of my favorite elements in the room. This is his first dresser and he's been excited to have drawers for all his clothing. And there you have it, a stylish yet playful bedroom for my growing little man and a room that's both fun and functional and one he'll enjoy growing up in.

I acknowledge that City Furniture is partnering with me to participate in this bedroom makeover. As part of the program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services for promoting City Furniture. However all expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. My post also complies with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Trade Commission Guidelines.    

My Laundry Room - With Purple Drywall

Earlier this year I was invited to spend a few days touring and getting some expert knowledge on the business of drywall. PURPLE® drywall to be exact by the amazing people at  National Gypsum®

Renovations are my specialty, so the geek in me was happy to soak up all the knowledge of this industry along with four other design bloggers. You can read all the fun deets here.   

As part of the campaign, we were offered some drywall to use as we saw fit. I decided to finally build a laundry room. Laundry is my most hated chore, so anything to make me somehow fall in love with it was welcome. Like most homeowners, my washing machine and dryer are on a raised platform in the garage, not the sexiest location, since this often means your neighbors can watch as you air your dirty laundry - literally - if you happen to have the garage door open. 

So yes, definitely time to end all that. I'd make it large enough (11ft. x 6 ft.) to install cabinets and a pantry for bulk items, brooms etc. Yes! This was beginning to make me excited. To calculate how much drywall we would need I simply entered my measurements here:

We selected the PURPLE® XP® because it's moisture and mold resistant , a great fit for a laundry room.

With materials finally on hand, we set out to frame in the space with metal studs. I decided on a 36' door opening to make it easier to install the washer/dryer. I had pesky popcorn ceiling in my garage, which we decided to remove, a messy ordeal but always, always worth it. 

With framing all done, we moved on to the good stuff. Drywall installation. 

Huge thanks to Angel and his brother Gabriel of North Florida Drywall for whipping this all together in just one weekend. 

Shockingly, I behaved just like all my clients! Constantly hovering around as they installed and asking a million questions! And since my drywall installation skills are very questionable - translation: I finished last in the installation competition during my National Gypsum® tour, I eventually hushed and let the experts handle the installation. 

Alert: If your drywall skills are questionable, hire a pro! Your walls will thank ya.

  

All done. Well, not the fully completed and designed space. I'll tackle that over the next few months. But what a joy it is to have the space all built, and I'm sure my neighbors are happy to see one less pile of dirty laundry being done. 

And  guess what? To motivate you to tackle a small project around your own home, we're be giving away a $100 Visa gift card and a Purple tool bag all from the good folks at National Gypsum®    
Just follow the rules below to enter to win. And good luck! The winner will be announced next week.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huge shoutout to the DIY bloggers who I met on this campaign - Daniel of Manhattan Nest, Kim of Yellow Brick Home, Justin of Remodelaholic and Sandra of Sawdust Girl and Anitra Mecadon, coolest designer/DIY chick on any network.

*While this post was sponsored by National Gypsum®, all words and details of this laundry room project are by yours truly.