Before and After

I love before and after posts, when you are in the midst of a project its often easy to forget what a transformation you can make in peoples homes. This is a project that I finished recently, the picture on the right is the before shot, its what the Bedroom looked like when my clients bought the house, nice enough. I decided that the window was the perfect spot for a little sitting area, and to help proportion the windows a bit better I layered drapery with matchstick shades.

The area really needed a big light fixture, but I went with a very inexpensive Chinese paper shade instead of a chandelier, the effect is to just lighten the look and stop it from being too serious.

I hope you enjoy

Before and After: Guest Room

Today I am headed out to one of my favorite projects to do an installation. These are always exciting days because in the matter of a few hours a room or a house is transformed from a shell with some great ideas into a finished home. It usually represents months of work on behalf of our team, but days like today is when the payoff really comes. I will be sure to snap some pictures.

In the meantime however, I wanted to illustrate the point with a couple of shots of a different project. This is a Guest Room that we did, you can see where we started from and where we finished up. The bed is obviously the biggest thing, but also adding the chandelier and artwork helped as well. You will notice that the doors changed too from white to a faux wood. This is because when we designed the room we thought that the white would pick up the color of the bedding etc. After installing it felt a little weak, I think it looks a lot more substantial finished like this. What do you think?

Before and After: Fireplace

I don't do a lot of Before and After posts, and I am thinking that I will try and do more. I like them because a lot of what I do as a designer is really pretty simple, it just relies on a good idea that is well implemented, and I think today's posting is a prime example of that.

This is a house that I worked on in Montecito, in Southern California. It had been renovated once before, only a few years ago, but the fireplace in the Family Room, still felt a little bland to me. It's a big room that required something of this scale, but all the plain drywall felt like a missed opportunity. I suggested that we case the top part in a nice stained wood and revisit all the bleached wood that was there already. Ultimately we stained the travertine a little as well, so that it would look a bit richer, but that's just me being a little obsessive. But I think the overall effect was terrific, and I am very happy with the results.

Here are some things to consider when starting a renovation of a room:

• Look around and try to determine the things that you like about the room. Whether it's the scale of the windows, the fireplace or even just the shape of the room.
• Once you have determined what you like, you need to find ways of accentuating that, whether its covering it in wood, painting it a color, facing the furniture arrangement to see it etc.
• On the other hand, determine what you do not like about the room, then do what you can to disguise it. Poorly proportioned windows can be helped by window treatments, color on the walls can really change the way you feel about a space. The same can be said about lighting.
• Do not go overboard, a few simple changes is often all you need to bring a space to life.
• Take your time, if at all possible do not rush in and start pulling things out. It took a couple of weeks to really work out what to do with this place, the first few ideas got presented then changed, and i think the design is better for it.

The important thing, is have fun with your room, and remember to play up the strengths, you will be amazed the changes you can make.

Resource Day-Before and After

I was going through some old photo's the other day and I came across some shots I had taken in a house, before we started work, and you can see beside it, the completed picture of the new Dining Room. So I thought today, for resource day I would let you in on the resources I used to make this project come to life. Let me walk you through some of the things I did to create more warmth and detail in the space.

• I decided that the old fireplace needed to go. The mirrored overmantle was serving no real purpose (in my mind a mirror should always give you something to see, and a reflection of the Entry didn't justify it being there). So I removed the mantle and replaced it with a new one, that had more architectural detail. (www.kernswilcheck.com)
• The next thing was the walls. I decided that wall paper would give me another layer of detail, so I went with this handpainted paper by Cowtan and Tout.
• In a lot of my projects I custom design pieces to create a unique look, and this was no exception, the chandelier is a custom piece, based on several antiques that I had found. It was made for me by the guys at Paul Ferrante (www.paulferrante.com)
• The chairs too, were made especially for me, based on some photograph's of some antiques that I had seen. This is not an unusual request, sometimes antiques are too small in scale or too delicate to use in situations where they will get a lot of use, so reproducing them is always a good option. Just make sure that you find someone who works in that style, and Richard Mulligan specialises in early American, so was the perfect choice (www.richardmulligan.com) .
• The table is a design by Formations in Los Angeles, they are part of the Dennis and Leen group, and unfortunately do not have a web presence, but if you are in Los Angeles a trip to their Melrose Ave showroom is not to be missed.
• Now for some of the other pieces in the room. The white wrought iron console on the right, is actually an old balcony that I purchased and repurposed from a terrific Architectural Salvage yard that I frequent, Scavengers Paradise (www.scavengersparadise.com) . And the stunning metal sconces on either side of the fireplace come from Mecox Gardens (www.mecoxgardens.com ) one of my favorite stores in L.A. and with stores on the East Coast too.

Well, that gives you an insight into who I use, I know it's a bit out of the ordinary for Resource Day, but I thought it might be helpful.