Dianne’s Design Dilemma
When Dianne came to us with her almost completely overhauled eat-in kitchen, we were overcome with excitement and serious space envy. We couldn’t wait to pull out all the stops to finish her space with style to spare. And although many of our clients need to repurpose items and work within a limited budget (and boy do we love sniffing down deals) Dianne had actually set aside some money to finish her kitchen with a few serious splurge items (and boy do we love a good splurge). Here’s her letter:
Hello, I am so excited that I found your services on the web. I know that the two of you will do an EXCELLENT job since you also have an all white kitchen (I love what you did to your space - I especially like your rug). We like a clean mid-century modern look with sleek lines and we also like mixing in something from nature (rattan, rustic style woods) along with something used or vintage. We’ve started to add accessories in soft green, some hits of red, and chrome and would like to continue (although we’d like to maintain the wall and cabinet/trim colors). We’re looking for the following: a dining table, chairs, a rug, window treatments, and some items to put on top of the built-in base cabinets in the eating area. It’s just the two of us- no kids or pets, so our thought was to have 2 chairs with an appropriate sized table. The fireplace is in progress. The marble will be installed next week and then a flat screen TV is being installed above. Should we leave the mantle empty (it’s only 5″ wide)? I realize that sending links for vintage/ethnic items may not be feasible so if you can describe the kind of item that you recommend, I can scour ebay/local shops for something similar. THANKS and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! -Dianne
I know, I know… it already looks like an after. So we worked even harder to come up with a few finishing touches to take this already stunning kitchen the extra mile with Dianne’s generous budget. Here’s what we dug up:
And now for the mood board breakdown. Click here for more »
Light Up Your Life
With Hanukkah just days away, we trolled the internet for some festive and fabulous holiday inspiration. Of course Martha didn’t let us down. Here are some of her chic and crafty ideas. Gotta love that gleaming silver and robin’s egg blue:
And we couldn’t help but covet the clean lines and sleek design of this Column Menorah from Crate & Barrel:
One of our favorite things about living in New York was peering out the window of various buildings (my apartment, our office building, etc) to see the Empire State Building illuminated in different colors depending on the occasion. The red and green version on Christmas is pretty cute but the stunning blue and white Hanukkah version is one of my favorites.
And for every holiday there is a cheesy t-shirt to be found. We couldn’t help but crack a smile when we dug up this hee-larious dreidel tee.
That concludes our tour of Martha, Flickr, and Google. Do you guys have any great Hanukkah decorating ideas to share? Do tell. And happy Hannukah to you and yours!
Behind The Scenes On Rate My Space
So last night we thoroughly enjoyed our 15 minutes (well, more like 15 seconds) of fame on HGTV’s Rate My Space (after enduring thirty minutes of nail biting nerves leading up to the big event). Did you catch it? What’d you think? Sherry and I are mainly relieved that we were reasonably coherent (we were, right?) and didn’t look all that weird (although Sherry swears that her voice was crazy the whole time). Oh and thanks so much to those of you who’ve already dropped us a line about catching the show. We’re so glad you guys were able to tune in!
But enough chit chat. On to the behind the scenes scoop about how it all went down (with some high-tech screen shots- i.e. photos of our paused TV screen to help tell the story).
Before this experience, we had always taken the show’s premise that homeowners hand-picked their three inspiration rooms with a grain of salt (figuring producers or the designer really offered the makeover recipients a few prescreened rooms to choose from). Not true! C.V. and Noel, the super-friendly homeowners in our episode, actually had their pick of the whole RateMySpace.com universe. So once C.V. and Noel chose our bedroom as one of their favorites, the (extremely friendly) producers contacted us to let us know and requested a video tour of our room and a little video interview (this is probably where people get screened to ensure that they’re not babbling weirdos- unbelievably we got through!). Once we learned that our room and our interview passed the screening test, a crew was suddenly scheduled to fly out to Richmond just two short weeks later. Needless to say we pinched ourselves (and cleaned) for 14 days straight.
We say “crew” generously, as it was actually a one man show. They’ve got one guy (Dan, also totally nice- we’re even Facebook friends now) who shoots all the inspiration rooms for the show, no matter where they are (he had just returned from a shoot in Hawaii, so Richmond must’ve been a bit less exotic by comparison). You can see him below filming some B-roll of Sherry doing bedroom-y things like contemplating her wardrobe. This footage ended up on the cutting room floor along with a lots of other bedroom scenarios: us reading on the bed, Burger attacking the camera, me blogging in the chair, Sherry admiring her shoe collection, a lengthy interview, etc. Dan was actually here filming for about 6 hours, so clearly a lot had to be whittled down to squeeze us into the 90 seconds-ish time slot that we had on the show. Lucky for me they cut out the spot where I accidentally called Angelo “Anthony”. I blanked under pressure, sorry Angelo (he’s also our Facebook friend so I hope I’m forgiven).
Our conversation with homeowner C.V. and designer Angelo Surmelis was probably the highlight of our filming experience. And it was actually the very first thing we filmed, a mere 15 minutes after Dan arrived. It all happened just as you saw it, no funny editing or camera tricks. They were really mid-makeover when we spoke and C.V. was all giddy with excitement (btw, how good was she on camera? Sherry and I were so impressed by her effortless delivery). Using the crew’s laptops we were connected via Skype and had a 15-ish-minute conversation about lots of things: where her husband was, what other inspiration rooms they were using, Angelo’s vision for the room, and why we put up the curtains on either side of the bed (they didn’t realize there was storage back there and Angelo actually really liked that detail). And although only our ramblings about paint color and spa-like fabrics and textures made the cut, we’re just thankful we appeared to have strung together full sentences with nouns and verbs in the right place.
We probably annoyed Dan with lots of questions about how they cobble the show together (inquiring minds want to know!), but a few of our favorite tidbits were about what it’s like to be the makeover recipient. For now, they only pick homeowners in California so that they can keep production local to their HQ. Interesting, right? We also learned that the production company pays for all of the makeover costs. But that doesn’t mean C.V. scored her $12,000 makeover totally free- apparently the homeowner still has to pay taxes on the improvements. Still a pretty good deal though, eh?
So that’s the scoop on our little peek behind the Rate My Space curtain. It was a great experience and we’re totally happy with the result. Other than my wife declaring that she wants a voice transplant we couldn’t be more excited about our 15 seconds of fame.
What’d you guys think of the final makeover? Wasn’t that layout to die for? Go ahead, rate that space. And feel free to ask any and all behind the scenes questions that we may have forgotten to cover in our HGTV afterglow. Oh and stay tuned for repeat airdates and a live link to the entire episode coming soon…
Alissa’s Triple Design Dilemma
When Alissa hired us to help her transform not one, not two, but three rooms in her new home (!) we jumped at the chance to add three times the swank-factor to her Northern California ranch. Here’s her letter:
We just moved in to our Northern California ranch. We plan to make this our forever-house, so we’re ready to pull out all the stops! We prefer a traditional style, but nothing fussy. I can follow any plan and am excited and thrilled that you’ll build one for our living room, dining room and family room all at once!
As for what must stay in the living room: nothing. The TV should be relocated to the family room and I need great window treatments. The fireplace mantel is fine, but the green & black marble is not my favorite. The room is in an L shape and the area near the dining room (see Christmas tree) was used as additional dining but because we can set up appropriate seating in the dining room, we’ve considered using this space for something else.
When it comes to what must stay in the dining room: again, nothing. I’d like a table that can comfortably seat 8 – 10 people. Perhaps you can even recommend some kind of tablecloth/protective padding to help keep this new table beautiful during our days of silverware-banging kids. PLEASE help with the light fixture. We have a very large chandelier that was in the living room that we can place here if you think it would work.
And as for the family room, this is where we spend family time. The TV, computer, and toys (kids are ages 3 & 1) all need to live here. All furniture that exists in the living room can be relocated here if it makes sense. The computer desk is built in and may be difficult to change. Also, the TV could sit on the cable ready cabinets where the build-ins are. Oh and we need help managing coats/shoes- we can put them IN the abundant closet space, we just need a system! Thanks a million! - Alissa
And now for three mood boards to bring on three major transformations.
The Living Room:
The Dining Room:
The Family Room:
Here are the mood board breakdowns. Click here for more »
Reminder: TYH On Your TV TONIGHT!
Just a quick reminder (or newsflash if you missed Monday’s post) that the episode of HGTV’s Rate My Space featuring a brief appearance by Sherry, me and hopefully Burger (!) premieres tonight at 9pm e/p.
If you can’t catch it then, see below for some re-run times (or here for even more). Plus, we’ll follow up with a link once it’s posted online for all of you who don’t get HGTV at home. Happy viewing!
Track Star Freebie Winner!
We came. We saw. We witnessed 500+ people go bonkers for this DeWalt TrackSaw.
But really, can we blame you? No way. That’s one purdy piece of powertool.
I should emphasize “one” because, unfortunately, there’s only one person who can take home the prize in our latest giveaway. And that person is someone who came, who saw and who, as one of the many who predicted their win (”I won?”), is apparently a little bit psychic. Yep, our winner is…Elise!
Congrats on your new tool, Elise. We hope you have lots of fun making lots of sawdust (word on the street is that you’ve got a bathroom remodel in your future). And to everyone who entered, thanks so much for your incredible enthusiasm for this giveaway, not to mention the hilarious comments- some of you definitely deserve your own sitcom. This was a pretty cool high note to end on for our 2008 giveaways. And though the bar for 2009 is set intimidatingly high, we can’t wait to dish out more cool prizes next year.
PS: You still want a shot at snagging a free TrackSaw? Enter the giveaway on DeWalt’s site for another shot at the prize. Drawing ends January 7th.
Reader Redesign: Afraid Of The Dark
When Melissa sent us some pretty dramatic before and afters, we just had to share the eye candy. It’s amazing what a can of paint (and some primer in this case) can do. Here’s her letter:
Could these living room colors have been any more dark and pukey?!
Primer, three coats of paint and some wobbly ladder-climbing later, the dark and dreary was gone. Now, fresh, crisp aqua walls flood the space with light! Beechwood laminate floors gave the room a modern, clean feel and were well worth the investment! Then, I was browsing in Cary Street in Richmond (maybe we crossed paths and didn’t even know it!) one weekend and fell in love with EQ3!!! I ordered the sofa, loveseat and fun/funky lounge chair from there. The tables, fan, screen-curtains, art & floating shelves came from Ikea. The rugs, lamp and accessories are from Target. I’ve since updated the pillows with some dupioni silk in neutral shades and added some pops of hot pink that give the room some lively fun. The room has skylights so lots of natural light makes the color on the walls transform throughout the day. It’s a fun room and always gets the wow-factor when friends come over for the first time. We’re always dreaming up new ideas, but maybe our wallets will thank us if we take some money-saving advice and just swap things out from other rooms when we need a quick change!- Melissa
What a difference, eh? We love the lighter and brighter wall color. Bravo Melissa- and thanks so much for sending your before and afters our way!
