Santa's Helper- Big Girl Room

A client of mine asked me a few months back if I could help her and Santa out with a little project. She wanted to gift her daughter a new big girl room for Christmas. So fun! So I went over, took measurements and pictures, talked with my client about what she wanted, and got to work. 

Here's where the room started- it was basically a blank slate. She hadn't done anything in here since moving in recently. Blank slates are of course the easiest to design. You can do anything! This client was so trusting of me too so it was a breeze. Love that! 

My client wanted a room that felt light and airy, but her daughter loves unicorns, glam, gold, glitter, turquoise, and black & white. Creating a space for a child that they can grow with is KEY. I never want to design a kid space that feels kidish. Have fun and whimsical elements, sure, but not be overall themey or childish. That's not the way I roll. The other specific requests my client had were a homework area, a chandelier, and nothing too busy.  When I design for others, I always say let your walls breath. You need some empty spaces so your eyes have a spot to rest in a room. If you hang something everywhere, no one thing is going to shine, everything gets lost. So to me sometimes, less is more. Especially when you are after light and airy.

So, after a little brainstorming here's the design I came up with.  I wanted to paint the walls white so that everything we brought into the room would be the stars rather than the paint color. To add to the light and airy look, I suggested painting the ceiling a blue/green to suggest a sense of the outdoors. There's something calming about a blue ceiling that mimics the sky.  

A crystal chandelier, gilded mirrors and capiz shell art bring in the bling without being over the top or tacky. 

To add a touch of whimsy, a unicorn head is displayed on a small wall next to the bed. This is something that can easily be removed when little miss grows out of the unicorn phase. All of the furniture can grow with her as well. 

I suggested moving the bed in front of the windows. The windows look out to the neighboring yard, so it wasn't as if we'd be blocking an important view. To create the feeling of a larger window, we ran a 140" double curtain rod out from the windows, and hung both black out curtains for light control, and patterned sheers for added privacy. 

My client painted the ceiling and room about a month ago, and then my team of elves, Santa, and I got to work on the rest on Christmas-eve-eve. What a fun project this was! 

The little bench I found discount, recovered in Thibaut herringbone velvet 

Target accessories 

Home Depot mirror- demijohns from Tuesday Morning

My client's desk and chair from her childhood, passing down to her daughter.  Large bulletin board for all the things...

unicorn robe, obviously.

the chandelier is vintage from a local consignment shop. still works, shoo! 

capiz shell art, love the way the light bounces around 

Nightstands are also vintage.. which I had my client purchase from another client. LOL.  

updated bling knobs

Unicorn and mirror from Hobby Lobby 

The reveal on Christmas morning was PRICELESS. 

Thank you to my clients for trusting me from the start with this design and letting me execute it. I said paint that ceiling blue, and cover up the windows, and they didn't bat an eye. THE BEST CLIENTS!! 

Anyone using a designer, this is the best advice I can give you (and I think all designers would agree with me). TRUST THEM!! You hired them for a reason. Trust that they can deliver! And not to mention, you hired them for their FIRST choice, not their third or fourth. That's where an initial design starts to fall away. Don't let yourself down that slippery slope. :)  

OK- off to tackle the Christmas decor take down. Ooooph. Will I get it all organized this year? HA. Jury is still out! 

~Ashley 

Girls' Bedroom

A little glimpse at my kiddos' room today. They still share a room and still love to do so, we'll see what the future will hold. For now they like the each other's company. My five year old still insists the three year old walk her to the bathroom in the  middle of the night. Hilarious.

Back in May the girls got queen beds! MC has been out of the crib for some time, but started outgrowing her toddler bed (falling off the sides, ha). The upholstered headboards are by CR LAINE and are upholstered in a performance fabric.

I've updated the bedskirts since taking these pictures, still need to iron those and photograph. They are a coral toile from Ballard Designs. TBC..

I had Thibaut paper installed on the back wall and LOVE IT. The girls love it, too. They each have a "favorite bird" haha. Cuties. This wallpaper can be wiped down if needed. We've had the DO NOT COLOR ON THE WALL OR YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR LIFE talk a lot. 

Happy Friday (the 13th) friends!

Living Room Change Up

Is anyone else wishing fall to get here already?! It's my favorite time of year. Yes I love the lake, and the beach, the boat, swimming, all the things that come with summer. But FALL is by far my favorite. Comfortable clothes, the weather rocks, the things to do, the COZINESS! All of it! Anyway, I haven't full on decorated for fall because, hello, it's still 100 degrees here! Arg. I'm over summer, can you tell?

We recently changed up a few things in the living room and kitchen, because that's what I do! Aint nothing safe around here. :) I've taken it back to warmer tones.

One thing that helped warm it up was by adding brick to the fireplace. Before it was a dark black hole. I love this brick from Home Depot! We added a wall of brick to the kitchen as well. 

I can't wait for pumpkins. 

Here's the brick in our kitchen. I absolutely love the new view looking into our dining room! 

My dad helped me on this project. By helped I meant did 99 percent of it. I glued pieces down, but he was the real know-how expert. I did arrange the color patterns. And cleaned the grout. Does that count? 

And I love this new view from our front door. So welcoming to see that brick looking through! 

Back to the living room. I rearranged the furniture a little. By pulling out the couch from the wall and turning the gray chairs at an angle, I think the room just feels a bit more open and adds for a better "conversation" area. If that makes sense. Before it felt very office waiting room-like. 

I swapped out the wool patterned tribal rug for a simple natural rug in a larger size. Previously we had a 9x12, and it just didn't house the furniture the way I wanted it to. This one is a 10x14. I like for at least the front legs of furniture to be touching the area rug if at all possible. 

I swapped out the navy baskets for natural ones, continuing that texture and color scheme. This is where my kids keep their toys that are downstairs. 

And I hope you weren't attached to the spots, because they gone :) HA! It's only paint. Live a little. 

I am not sure what this color is. I mixed together two paint samples I had (SW Silvermist and SW Grounded) and this is how that combo looks. 

I still need to paint the return and hem my curtains, but who has that kind of time, right? 

PSA::Did you know Sherwin Williams can make any paint color into a spray paint? My mind was recently blown at this information!!! How handy is that? 

And that's a wrap on recent changes! Next up is the powder room. To be continued...