Brass is Back

You may expect to see a pig sprout wings and fly across the sky before you believe a statement like this, but it's true - brass is back! I know a lot of you are thinking you JUST got the dreaded brass out of your house, but fear not, today's brass is anything but drab, overdone and shiny shiny. As we've talked about in previous posts, brass got its bad wrap due to its overuse in the 90's. Overuse and pairing with lots and lots of white. If every house one visited over the course of a decade didn't have this blahhhh combination, maybe we'd think differently, but unfortunately this is the ugly truth. So, brass' reputation has been one that has been hard to shake for many people, but it appears the time has come when the possibilities are many for doing brass right!

We've seen this kitchen a thousand times; white perimeter cabinetry paired with a darker contrasting island. Most of the time you see this look paired with polished chrome, satin nickel or black hardware. While I love that look the addition of the brass hardware, faucet and light fixtures gives this kitchen an edge, something different that maintains the timeless look with addition of some elegance.

This is a bathroom I worked on in 2010 and is one of my favorites to date. This space is very tranquil and elegant. My client is the one who initially wanted to use the polished brass. My first reaction was, "really??" Especially because the cabinetry was going to be a painted white color, hello 1994, I thought. But as the selections for the space came together it became clear the brass added to the richness and warmth of the space.  Plus, today's plumbing, lighting and hardware options have so much more detail than they had years ago, so the brass finish can really enhance the pieces.

For example:

Both of these knobs are from Top Knobs. Notice how the detailing in these knobs is really highlighted with the brass finish. They look heavy and substantial and much more stylish than the brass knobs from the past which had a tendency to be smooth with very little detail.

To me, this is where brass is really cool right now - used with the popular gray cabinetry. It's such a cool contrast, mixing both cool and warm tones. I especially love how the brass hardware in the first picture is almost an exact match to the gold veining in the marble countertop.

Here we are again with the white kitchen! Brass hardware was used in this space, but what I'm really digging in this kitchen is the brass light fixtures and pot filer you can see wayyyy back on the back wall, I think they go really nicely with the funky black and white flooring.

My two cents: One thing I'm not loving about this photo, the sink appears to be stainless. In my opinion you should try to keep all finishes the same. Or, if you are going to mix, you should do so in a way that makes sense. For example, your island hardware is one finish and your perimeter hardware is another. I do not like the idea of having your apron front sink or faucet be a different finish from the hardware and light fixtures that surround it. While there are not many options for brass apron front sinks, I would of gone with a white sink in this space, but that's just me - to each their own!

So, there you have it - brass is making its modernized debut! Good news is, if you are still too scarred by the brass of the past to take the plunge, other finishes such as polished nickel, satin nickel, black and oil rubbed bronze are still relevant and kicking. So, as always go with what you love!

Unless otherwise noted all photos came from google search.

At Home with Tory Burch

Tory Burch is no stranger to Vogue magazine, but this month I was BEYOND excited to find, not only Tory Burch, but Tory's HOUSE featured in the March issue on stands now.  

This is Tory in her dining room. Look at those fabulous walls - A Paris based wallpaper designer created custom panels based on Persian Iznik tiles.

I am a true lover of fashion and interiors, so it's not surprising that I found this article fascinating to say the least.  As I've mentioned before, I believe the similarities between fashion and interiors are many. I believe that our homes and our personal style are the canvases in our life we have the opportunity to define. Coco Chanel said, " An interior is the natural projection of the soul;" isn't that such a true statement? If you think about it, you can really tell a lot about  a person by spending time inside their home. So many characteristics including personality, temperament and style are recognizable through how one chooses to live in their private, inner world.

So, with that being said, what a cool opportunity to see how an admired fashion designer chooses to design, furnish and decorate their home. Not sure how familiar you all are with Tory Burch and her fashion designs, but "knowing her"(I wish!) as I flipped through the magazine to her feature, I was half expecting to see bright orange front doors with shiny gold trim. Turns out, I could not of been more off...

The house was built in 1929 and is located in South Hampton. The magazine states, "Not wanting it to look shiny and new, Burch trawled the auction houses and local estate sales for antique furnishings, which she mixed with pieces from her Long Island and Pennsylvania houses and well-loved treasures from her parents. Burch worked with two old friends to blend these elements harmoniously."

This is a shot of the main hallway. Isn't it so clean, crisp and elegant? I'm loving the black and white flooring which, to me, is a little bit of the retro Tory coming out.

This is my favorite room - it's elegant and fun at the same time. I love how she successfully mixed funky elements such as the white lamps, flanking bright colored bird statues and tangerine tango - ish curtains with traditional style furniture and a mixture of traditional and contemporary art work. She inter-twines several different fabric patterns in this room, from solids to birds to florals.  With the walls being very neutral she lets all of the decorative elements bring the room to life, and lets the paneling and moulding serve as architectural anchors to the space.  This is definitely an eclectic look, but it works.

This is the Solarium (fancy room for sun room). 

I'm really loving the color scheme of this space. Very neutral with pops of blues and greens. I especially love the choice of wallpaper over paint in this room. It's hard to believe wallpaper is coming back, but like all things - if done right it can really work. And here, it works.

The article touches on the fact that Tory Burch is a mother to three sons, twin boys age 14 and an 11 year old son. She said, "I wanted to embrace the house's grandeur but make it much more casual and relaxed and a little offbeat...and nothing off limits for my kids." I think a lot of us can relate to this, you never want your house to be like a museum. You want people, especially those living in the house to feel comfortable and "at home" no matter if the home is big or small, or in this case, gigantic.

I really like the fact that Tory didn't just go out and buy brand new items just because she could. In fact , her architect suggested she "camp out" for  the first summer to establish how she wanted to live in the space. She took her time and collected pieces as she came upon them; mixing the new with the old, the traditional with the antique and modernized elements. This type of decorating, to me, makes for a much more interesting final product with depth and usually some good stories attached.


All photos are from google search.

Ta Da - Facelift Series Reveal

Over the past few weeks we have explored the various components used in this bathroom facelift; but, no matter how awesome one or two of those elements are, the true mark of an aesthetically pleasing space is how well all of the elements in the room come together to compliment each other.

So, here we go! It's time to wipe our brows, take a step back and look at the finished product. This is the best part of the design process, looking on with excitement, pride and admiration at the project you have just put so much of yourself into. So, without further adieu.....

( .....................Insert Angels singing................................)

As always, it's all about the details. While a lot of the big details have been covered in previous posts(here, here, here & here), it's the small details (the jewelry to the outfit) that finish off the space.

Purchased Details:

We will start with what may of been the luckiest find of the whole project (well, second to the hole in the wall) - the countertop...

 The countertop is Calcutta Gold marble from Atlanta Kitchens in Decatur. Atlanta Kitchens has a huge sale twice a year, we found out about the sale on the fly and just decided to check it out "for the fun of it."  As we perused the slab yard we came across this beautiful remnant piece, and would you believe it was literally the perfect size for this vanity?! It was meant to be and really adds so much to the room!

The shower curtain is from West Elm and was one of the first items purchased for the space. I liked the addition of  the "wall of fabric" in a room full of tile. The faucet is a single lever Delta faucet in Satin Nickel and came from PDI here in Atlanta (great source for plumbing). Because of the limited amount of counterspace, I felt the single lever was the best choice and offered a cleaner look. The hardware is from Restoration Hardware and is also in Satin Nickel. All of the towels and the shower curtain rod came from Target.

Details brought to life by Homemade Creativity:

The framed photograph you see was taken by Lori Foster. The photograph is of an outhouse at the country home of Jack & Mary Andrews, located in Carnesville, GA. The outhouse is over 100 years old!! I thought it was beautifully ironic to have an antique "bathroom" framed in a modernized bathroom.

And finally, you may have noticed the door knob and backplate in the first picture. For those of you just tuning it, this bathroom is in a 1930's bungalow here in Atlanta. The crystal door knob and backplate are original to the house. I've always loved the elegance the crystal knob and back plate brought to the home, but this love was intensified when I decided to paint the backplate Sherwin William's Caviar to match the vanity. The crystal knob just pops against the dark color adding the final pizazz to the space.

We packed a lot of punch into this little bathroom, but I'm so pleased with how peaceful, clean and dramatic the space turned out to be. It's times like this that I REALLY wish I had taken a before picture so you could truly appreciate how far this little space as come. But, I didn't so you will just have to imagine it, in all of its apple/lime green, white-on-white-on-white with a touch of blah glory! :)

Thanks for taking the journey with me!

For The Love of Storage - Facelift Series Part Four

I love beautiful bathrooms as do my clients but, let's face it, when it's your bathroom, being pretty is just not good enough, it has to be functional. No matter what size your bathroom is, I'd say most people would agree that second to toilet paper, storage is the most important element. This bathroom was no different, and the concept of storage was more important than ever, considering this was the ONLY bathroom in the house. This bathroom was marginally functional before, but it seemed like all functional elements came with an aesthetic price.

This is the cabinet that once sat over the toilet and in front of the window. While it's looking pretty grungy now it wasn't all bad. As you can see, it provided closed door storage in the upper part as well as an open shelf below. With all of that being said, it took up a lot of room, making the bathroom seem smaller AND it blocked the only natural light in the space. As we toyed with the idea of getting rid of it, we realized as unappealing as it was, it actually offered a good amount of storage and we knew unless we could come up with another form of storage this cabinet or something like it would have to stay.

That's when we discovered this...

I never thought I could be so excited about a hole in the wall! As the painting was being done the wall mirror was taken down and THIS hole was behind it. The wheels started turning and my ultra handy partner in crime came up with the idea to turn this  hole into a recessed medicine cabinet.

As you can see, the hole was framed in and painted white. The antique mirror came all the way from Albany, Georgia. The artist who provided the stain glass window and light fixture found this mirror in her attic. It was painted black and Brent (ultra handy partner in crime mentioned above...) added cabinet guides to the back of the mirror and the front of the medicine cabinet frame, which allows the mirror to be opened by pulling it to the right.

Here's another view of the mirror opened and you can see that a shelf was added which increased the storage space. Virtually everything that was once stored in the upper portion of the over the toilet piece of furniture is now stored in this recessed medicine cabinet.

This hole was like the gift that just kept on giving, not only did it provide us the space to incorporate the medicine cabinet shown above (closed.) But it also allowed for the addition of an outlet. This was a HUGE deal considering the ONLY outlet in this bathroom was WAY up under the light fixture.

The final storage piece was this new vanity. The vanity is from Inspirations Kitchen & Bath (the company I work for!) and is custom made Bell Cabinetry. It is a frameless cabinet with a shaker style door and drawer. The cabinet was constructed in paint maple and painted in Sherwin William's Caviar SW6990. The cabinet height is 34 1/2" high plus the countertop.

As is the case with most sink base cabinets, this one is a cave cabinet because of the space required for the plumbing. So, to add an extra layer of storage we opted to make the false drawer front operable by having a tilt out tray installed. This is the perfect place to put toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc..

We squeeeeezed all the storage we could out of this little bathroom and this time the aesthetics were not compromised they were enhanced!

Stay tuned, the moment you've all been waiting for.....THE REVEAL is next!

Spotted - Design Blogger's Hall of Fame Nominee

EXCITING NEWS!!

I JUST found out that I'm a finalist in the, "Best New Design Blog" category for the Design-Blogger's Hall of Fame! How cool is this? I had no idea! I found out the top five finalist in each category were announced in early January, and voting was open to the public from January 9th - February 10th. Each category winner will be chosen based on 50% of the input coming from judges and 50% coming from the public vote. Because I had NO idea I was even nominated, let alone a finalist, I wasn't able to encourage beg people to vote :).  Regardless, I am so beyond honored and excited to be a finalist!

The awards will be presented live at the Design Bloggers Conference in Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel on February 27, 2012. I SO wish I could go, I'm sure it would be so interesting and informative....maybe next year!

Wish me luck! :)

The Perfect Gray - Facelift Series Part Three

Benjamin Moore - Stonington Gray HC-170

With allll the work that went into this bathroom remodel I can honestly say that the most challenging component was the paint. OH. MY. GOSH...As crazy as this may seem I am dead serious. Not only was the act of painting very time consuming but the selection process was actually painful.

Let me start from the beginning....

When this project began the walls were a shade of green somewhere between apple and lime. As I mentioned in my last post, the light fixture directed the color palette of the space and those green walls were just not going to work. I wanted the bathroom to be light and tranquil, so I knew I wanted a neutral earthy tone that would compliment the elements in the room - not fight them. The first color that popped into my mind was gray. Gray has been an intriguing color to me for sometime, in fact I had tried gray walls in a den and quickly found that picking the perfect gray was complicated.

In my first gray paint attempt a few years ago I used gray paint over a light yellow/beige existing wall color without priming. So, when the color came out light purple-ish my first thought was...I should of primed the walls (DUH).  So, I did. I primed the walls and then painted them AGAIN and AGAIN the color came out purple. This time I blamed a large red couch that was in the room thinking that maybe the red couch brought out the purple tones in the paint. So, I ended up going in a completely different direction and closed the door on gray paint all together...until recently...

This time, I was more seasoned, I've got this I thought. So, I primed the walls in the bathroom. I went to Ace Hardware and selected a light gray that I thought would be perfect and began the process of painting the walls. As I painted I realized this paint was turning out light purple too! AHHH! NOT AGAIN I thought. Always a little optimistic I thought maybe the paint would dry less purple so, when I went back to check on it the next day I was disappointed to see it was periwinkle-purple just as it was the night before. Blast! What to do?! I was not willing to give up on my gray walls this time so I began to research, and this is what I found...

There are a lot of grays out there and their undertones can be red, purple, blue, brown and green. When looking at a paint swatch look at the top color, if it has a lot of blue or purple tones than the light shades down from it will too. From everything I could find the best grays are those with brown tones. So, I went to Benjamin Moore and looked at paint swatches. Still not 100% sure of my paint picking abilities, I googled the names of those I liked to see what others had to say about them- this was really helpful, because a lot of people showed pictures of their rooms painted in certain colors. After a few days I had decided on the color you see at the top - Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray HC-170 AND it is perfect! THANK GOODNESS!

Please share any experiences you all have had with paint colors. We can all use all the help we can get with some of these tricky colors!

Stay tuned, with the paint on the walls we are getting closer to the final reveal!

Defining Elements & Focal Pieces - Facelift Series Part Two

A well designed space has two key players - a defining element and a focal piece. Each of these elements are important, but their roles are very different; however in this bath remodel they had one thing in common - both were stained glass. Before meeting Cindy Shearer of Cindy's Glasswork Designs, I really didn't know a lot about stained glass. To be honest, hearing the phrase "stained glass" evoked visions of churches and Gothic castles. But I quickly learned that stained glass is truly an art form. Not only does a vision have to be clearly defined before beginning a project, but all of the different cuts, textures and colors must be carefully considered by the artist to really bring the piece to life.

 Piece one - the defining element...

 Every space tells a story and most begin with one defining element. This element is not necessarily the star of the show, but  it  steers the look of the space and heavily influences the selections of the other pieces that surround it.  For this project the light fixture is undoubtedly this piece; it not only initiated the project but  truly set the stage for the feel of the space.

This stain glass light was created by Cindy Shearer of  Cindy's Glasswork Designs.

This light is so fun! From its boxy shape to the funky swirl of the glass, it instantly added a fun pop to the space. The cool toned colors used in this light became the color palette for the bathroom and as soon as it was installed, it became apparent that every other element in the room would need to compliment this unique fixture.

Piece two - the focal piece...

Focal pieces ARE the star of the show. These pieces can vary from room to room. For example, focal pieces can come in the form of a large piece of art in a foyer, a beautiful, bold fabric on a couch, a grand piano in a formal living room or a mantle hood in the kitchen. Focal pieces MAKE a room. They make it unforgettable, they make it inspiring, they make it one of a kind.

This stain glass light was created by Cindy Shearer of Cindy's Glasswork Designs.

SIGH...is this not THE most breathtaking thing? This window was also created by Cindy Shearer of Cindy's Glasswork Designs, and wow, does she have talent! The glass used in this piece is subtle but powerful. With its mixtures of different variations of clear, white and light colored glass it is dramatic without trying too hard. And the movement! Oooooh the movement!!!! It is so bold, unique and captivating!

Cindy got her Feng Shui on by adding five candle holders that extend from the window.

In bathrooms with little surface area this was a creative way to incorporate candles, while adding an additional layer of depth to the window.

Not only does the window serve as the aesthetic anchor to the space, but it also adds that one little thing we all prefer when in the bathroom... privacy! The obscured glass allows light in, while blocking views into the bathroom from the outside. Windows like this are a creative alternative to boring mini-blinds or drab curtains so often seen in bathrooms.  The window is everything a focal piece should be. It is the first thing you see when you enter the room and the piece of the room you will remember the most when you leave.

Check out Cindy's other work on her page to see how she creatively incorporated stain glass into door panels, jewelry boxes and windows.

Stay tuned as the rest of this project unfolds in upcoming posts....!