The Blog

Fine Dining

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:09:25 -0600

This red dining room is an extension of the red living room. The color just doesn’t work. Even if the owner were not selling the property I would have advised painting this room. The furniture, art work, even the light fixture, all get lost with the saturated wall color. Everything blends together and you don’t notice a thing. All of this furniture was moved to a secondary dining area.

World Travelers

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:33:28 -0600

Red White and Blue all Over!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:21:30 -0600

Played Out

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 09:53:00 -0600

This second floor area was originally devoted to the children, with their bedrooms opening onto the playroom landing. The largest bedroom in the home should always be the master bedroom. In this case, it was a child’s bedroom so the entire second floor was staged as a master sanctuary and the kid’s rooms were moved downstairs. The landing was just what you’d expect from active children, a mess! We repainted the chalkboard wall and using only furniture already existing in the home, turned the landing into a home office/media area. It’s a great place to drop the briefcase, watch the news and unwind!

After

Hail to the Chief!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:42:11 -0500

The Dallas Mayor’s office is finished! This was an interesting challenge as there was absolutely no budget. Everyone wanted the Mayor to have a nice office space, after all, his office is a reflection of our city. Often it is the first impression a foreign visitor or dignitary have when they arrive in Dallas. The furniture was circa 1970’s and had a lot of wear and tear.

How would we manage to spend no money ( or very very little) and completely overhaul the room? The first “shopping trip” was around city hall to scour every nook and cranny for potentially suitable items. No luck, although now I can find my way around the labyrinth of this amazing I.M Pei designed building!

The next field trip was to the Mayor’s former offices at Turner Construction where we were able to score his “old” office furnishings.

The paint color was challenging as the building is made of concrete and stone. We were replacing a pretty nasty looking shade I can only describe as “flesh”. Really horrible! I settled on one for the office and another for the conference with a bold request to have the exterior doors of the conference room painted cobalt blue. Amazingly enough no one had a negative reaction and the “portal” to the conference room is now a regal and dramatic blue. It serves double duty as it provides a terrific backdrop for photo opportunities.

Artwork was another challenge. Fortunately the city has a terrific photographer Miguel Casanova. We took existing images and cropped in, enlarged and Voila we had our very graphic images of Dallas that are perfect for the setting.

New plants, with a bit more dramatic flair, were installed and we were done. The office now has a more dignified, organized, uncluttered look and better reflects the city as well as the Mayor.

After

The original positioning of the desk was on an angle and it made for difficult maneuvering between desk and computer, not to mention all the furniture was crammed into the corner! The city skyline was divided into three distinct pieces to add an air of modernity and provide a focal point. The personal photos and memorabilia were neatly stored in the glass fronted credenza.

Not your typical staging job but the same basic staging principals were utilized, to make the room more universally appealing! Bottom line, the client was happy!

Kitchen Kitsch

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 10:59:50 -0500

This is a great kitchen but a typical case of not seeing the forest for the trees! When the real estate agent emailed me this photo my first thought was will the homeowner want to “let go”? So many owners collect and then become prisoners of their collections. Fortunately this owner was more than ready for a change and highly motivated to sell. A perfect client! We started by ripping out the bookshelves on the left hand side of the room to create more space and light. A coat of paint and a lot of editing out accessories and a terrific kitchen emerged!

After