Master Retreat: 70's Sidesplit

Since the end of August I've started on so many new projects, a few of which I'll be working on over the next 6 months to a year - and will tell you more about them in future posts.  Since before the end of August I've wrapped up a lot of projects so I'd like to get some of these after pics off my plate so to speak before I move on to posting about the more recent stuff I'm working on.   The 70's suburban sidesplit I furnished for a single mom and her daughter was completed earlier this year, for me it was the first time I took on a project that didn't involve any renovating whatsoever - that had all been done before I came on board.  You can read more about the background story of this project here, and see after photos of the Daughter's room here and the Guest Bedroom here.

Like the other bedrooms in the house the master bedroom was on the small side but typical for a sideplit, it had a small walk-in closet and a tiny 3 pc ensuite and no redeeming architectural features at all.  It had brand new hardwood floors and a fresh paint job when I first 'met' this room.  My task was the same for this space as it was for the entire house, furnish it from top to bottom from scratch and have it completed and move-in ready in less than 3 months.  Although she invested in a designer, her spending budget was modest so every splurge would need to be balanced with a few great finds. 

The Before: this is what the room looked like the first day I saw it, the painters were just finishing up (talk about bad timing!).  Once again I would have to work with ICI's Bavarian Cream. : /   My client has a love for all things feminine and glamourous and traditional and elegant and french inspired and she wanted her new room to be all those things, but she's also young, professional and stylish so it had to be done in a way that looked modern and fresh (and by modern I mean current).

The After:  I had a custom diamond tufted headboard and end of bed bench made, added an elegant crystal chandelier, a luxurious wool area carpet and glamorous mirrored chests on either side of the bed.  The ruffled bed skirt, damask duvet cover and shams are from Au Lit.

Ready-made lined cream linen drapes with inverted pleat top and full length sheers dress up the not so fabulous looking window.  I found an antique walnut dressing table with 4 big drawers and after contemplating several options for new chairs, my client found this antique chair stored in her mother's basement, it belonged to her much loved aunt.  I thought it worked perfectly with the vanity and loved the fact that it had sentimental value.  This chair and one pair of antique lamps were the only things that my client brought with her into this house.  She does plan on reupholstering the seat or adding a slipcovered seat with 3/4 skirt.  The etched mirror accessories are vintage from Chatelet Home.  The knobs on the vanity were replaced with crystal ones since this pic was taken.

I had originally purchased a potted orchid for the dressing table but by the time I had returned and taken most of these photos,,,,all the potted orchids in the house had died, she's now replaced them with artificial.  This is a bad Iphone pic, for some reason I have no decent after photos of this area of the room,,,I think its because from every angle I tried to shoot it I was getting a bad reflection in the mirror.. 

When it comes to designing spaces or furnishing a room, I'm most particular about lighting more than anything.  Sometimes its to my detrement because I can get really hung up on finding something that I feel works just right,,,,,,,style, size, function,,,if its not just right,,the entire room falls short.  These lamps are one of my favorites and are from Crate & Barrel.  I like the simple form of the base and the drum shade which adds a modern touch to the space, it has a subtle crackle glaze, the soft curves and silk shade are so elegant.  I think their simplicity pairs well with the traditional crystal chandelier. It was near impossible to find a pair of these in stock but after much begging, pleading and phoning I did manage to score a pair at the 11th hour.

The wool area carpet had a traditional feel to it, it had a taupey cream coloured border with a grey/blue main field.  The end of bed bench wasn't ready in time for move-in (the day this shot was taken) but was delivered only a couple of weeks later....

Diamond pique lace edged coverlet & euro shams, and lace edged pillow cases were great finds from HomeSense as was the sunburst mirror.

The bench was delivered a couple weeks after move-in...

When I delivered the bench I also brought along one more finishing touch (which is now my most favorite thing in the room), a cream coloured velvet pillow with feather trim.  My client was completely in love with her new room already and this little find sent her over the moon. : )

Feather pillow, HomeSense.

Even though everything in this room is new to my client except her aunts chair, I'm happy that all things in the room aren't brand new - it was important for me to mix in a few antique pieces so the end result is a mix of new and old, splurges and saves, ready-made and custom made, feminine and tailored,,,,, but best of all I think we achieved traditional without looking dated.

All Photos:  Carol Reed

Guest Bedroom: 70's Sidesplit

Earlier this year I completed a project for a single mom and her young daughter which involved furnishing an entire house for them, from scratch, in only 3 months and on a tight budget.  This was a bit of a departure for me as far as projects go because there was actually no renovation work involved at all, not even a paint job.  To see some of the 'before', 'during' and 'preliminary after' photos of the project you can check out some earlier posts here and here.  You can also have a look at some after photos of the little girl's bedroom here.

My favorite room in this house was the guest bedroom,,,,,,which seems to always be the case with me! Since this particular clients has a love of all things french country, I had envisioned a simple, understated french inspired room.  The total spending budget for the room was $3,500 incl. taxes but not including the mattresses, design fees or mark-ups (note: reality of small budgets like this is that design fees can often be as much or more than what you spend in the room).  Because I didn't have much time for sourcing this also meant no time for refurbishing, refinishing, reupholstering or getting crafty with DIY projects either - I had to be fast and resourceful with ready to use finds.  I also had to work with the paint colour she had already chosen for the room, ICI's Bavarian Cream.  To be honest I wasn't a fan of this colour choice at all, in fact I really dislike any colour that resembles peach and these walls screamed peach.  Since repainting wasn't an option my approach was to play it down and ignore it.  I avoided putting anything in this room that had more of this colour,,,or enhanced this colour in any way - I find the best way to do that is with black and white.  This classic b&w scheme did such a fantastic job of neutralizing the peachiness of the wall colour that my client thought I had repainted the walls.    

I took these photos back in early June and the room is photographed exactly as it looked when I arrived, except for the fresh roses which I picked up at the grocery store on my way there!  I really make an effort not to prop-up rooms for a photo with things that don't belong in the room or aren't owned by the client - I prefer to keep it real.   In this case, I literally had a few dollars left over for a couple of accessories so I purchased a small bud vase at Pottery Barn and a bedside clock at Loblaws, the books are from the clearance table at Chapters.

I started my sourcing by searching for a pair of antique iron twin beds, not an easy task.  Its challenging to find a pair of anything and even harder to find a pair of antique anything.  A short road trip to one of the largest antique iron bed suppliers in Canada scored me this stunning pair of twins which I blogged about in an earlier post here.

At $600 a piece they were definitely the splurge for the room but worth every penny! They had been restored and modified to suit modern day mattress sizes so they were ready to use.  Seasonal hypo-allergenic duvets and egyptian cotton tone on tone striped duvet covers from Bed Bath & Beyond are folded back at the ends of the beds.  I tried to find duvet covers in a twin size that had a bit of black stitching or banding,,,but no luck.

A couple of days after buying the beds I experienced one of those rare ocassions of being in the right place at the right time when i came across a pair of twin matalisse bed sets at Elte for 60% off.  Two matalisse shams and two coverlets with beautiful scalloped edges for less than $130!  They were perfect for the antique beds.  Then on top of this I added a lace trimmed pillow case from Pottery Barn, and a lace-up accent pillow from HomeSense to each bed.

  I found a pair of ready-made gorgeous black and white toile style drapery panels from Invu and scored a black chest of drawers and milky glass gourd lamp from HomeSense. What doesn't show in the photos is the antique brass tear drop style pulls I installed on the chest - so pretty!!

A moravian star fixture (from Home Depot) was definitely the highlight of the room.  Wicker trunks from Ikea are placed at the foot of each bed.  The framed prints on the wall are in keeping with the french theme, they're copies of handwritten 'travel memoires' from Paris.

The only thing missing from the room on move-in day was a dresser.  I wanted an old painted dresser and though not expensive these things can take some luck to find so I held off until the spring antique season arrived.  A couple of months later and on my first trip of the season I found a vintage dresser at the Aberfoyle Antique Market. The size was perfect, it was only 17.5" deep and had 5 drawers so it worked perfectly with the room and the budget, it was a steal!

I added a vintage style oval mirror from Home Depot (handyman was there to hang it) and on the wall to the right of this photo is a series of decorative black iron hooks.  

Overall I loved the way the room came together - its luxuriously comfortable and beautiful.... and on full view everytime you walk up the stairs in this house, so inviting you actually want to just stop and stare at it!  My client and her daughter love the room so much they've had sleepovers in there themselves several times....

All Photos:  Carol Reed

On The Side

Things are pretty hectic right now with client work and vacation planning so I don't have too much time to spend blogging.....but I just had the urge to post a pretty picture!!  You can see in these photos one of my favorite side tables - I've used it on two different projects in the last year.  It has simple and elegant lines, has a warm patinaed metal finish and best of all its usually in stock..... and not crazy expensive! Its available in two different sizes which can be used singularly or nested.  I particularly love the antiqued mirror top.  Jules accent table by Crate & Barrel.

The photos above are from the living room of the 70's sidesplit I recently furnished for a single mom.  More photos of this room coming soon......

All Photos:  Carol Reed

Before & After: Little Girl's Room

You may remember a few of my earlier posts this year about the 70's sidesplit I furnished for a single mom and her young daughter.  I was tasked with furnishing this newly renovated (but not by me) home with 3 bedrooms, Living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, mud room and front entry, complete with accessories, window coverings and light fixtures - all to be completed within a 3 month time period and a very modest budget.  To say this was a challenge would be an understatement,,,,in fact I did all of this while simultaneously, also furnishing Brian's condo from top to bottom.  Yes I admit I went a little bit cuckoo there for a couple of  months while sourcing with a split personality,,,,,all girly and curvy and traditional and french for one place,,,,,,,,all masculine and modern and simple for the other.

So today I thought I'd share some of the after photos of the 70's sidesplit by starting with the little girl's room.  The little girls room and the guest bedroom were the smallest rooms in the house and also had the smallest amount of the budget allocated to them.  The little girl's requirements were pretty simple,,,she wanted pink, ruffles, and sparkle.  Her mother insisted nothing trendy and nothing too modern, it had to be classic and preferably with some french style.   Aside from the budget challenges the timeline meant that there was little if any time to order custom pieces or special order items, and forget about time consuming treasure hunts for antiques or vintage pieces, we needed things instock or quick ship! 

Here's an After photo of the girl's bedroom.......

Here's what it looked like Before

The room had new floors and newly painted walls when I came on board, neither of which were to be changed, so new paint or wallpaper wasn't an option.  I had to learn to love ICI's 'Bavarian Cream'.

This was the second edition of the concept plan, and a loose one at that,,,,,originally I had planned a series of low dressers with knee space for a desk to go along the window wall but that plan changed early in the buying stage and they're no longer shown here.  Instead you see an antique vanity : ).

One of the first decision made in the planning stage was to splurge on a custom upholstered headboard, ruffle bedskirt and roman shade.  So the first thing I did was select some fabric and then sketch up a design for a headboard so I could get the order in production asap.  I designed the headboard to have an exagerrated height and a contrast biased cut piping detail. I chose a solid colour fabric that would give her more flexibility in pairing patterns with it in the future.

While I was in a consignment shop looking for other things for the house, I spotted this vintage vanity table.  It has french style legs and the paint finish on it looked as if it was custom made for the girls' room, it was in great condition and a great price. It was perfect and I bought it on the spot. Except this meant I had to change the plan, we'd no longer have room for the combined low long desk/dresser combo under the window wall and this.......

Unfortunately the vanity table didn't come with a chair and I was having a really hard time finding something that would work with it and that was a affordable.  Just when I was losing hope, I walked into HomeSense one day and bam, there was this perfect painted Louis style chair with cane back, and it was only $150.  Wow, twice lucky with this one room!  I took some of the wall paint from the room and drybrushed the chair frame with it so it would blend in more with the vanity.  Then I took a minwax stain marker and applied it to the carved details to give it more of an aged look.  

Because of the change in plan due to the vanity purchase, I decided to purchase 3 drawer dressers to be placed on either side of the bed that would also be night tables.  In total, this gave her 6 drawers which is what I had originally planned for along the window wall.  I chose the Koppang dresser from Ikea because it had simple lines that wouldn't clash with the vanity and because they were an incredible price.  I replaced the knobs with crystal ones and had the drawer fronts painted a shade of pink found in the striped fabric.

Here's a glimpse of the dresser with the new paint colour and knobs.  This was taken on move-in day, we still had some art prints to hang and accent pillows to buy for the bed. 

I purchased a series of six botanical prints at the Sherway antique show in January then took them to my framers where I selected matts and a simple antique looking frame.  I had the Bavarian Cream paint sample on hand for reference.

We added a simple french line around the matts,,,, in pink of course!

The prints were ready to hang and here you can see the deep pile shag area carpet I placed under her bed, its one of the softest plushest shag carpets I've ever felt, velvety soft.

The homeowner's mother had these antique lamps in her basement storage room and I was crazy for them when she asked me if I thought they could work on the vanity.  They were purchased in Paris in the 1940's or 50's by her aunt.  The shades are hand painted silk and the bases are solid brass.  Gorgeous!  Still to come for this corner is a fabric and ribbon memo board.

Beautiful detail......

I opted for a bookcase on the wall at the foot of the bed, its another Ikea unit called the Liatorp chosen for its traditional styling.  I had the beadboard backpanel painted the same pink as the dresser drawer fronts.  There are only 3 Ikea items in the entire house,,,,,2 of them happen to be in this room!  This was taken just a few weeks after they had moved in and they hadn't yet filled up the shelves. 

The botanicals finally got hung.....

I contemplated whether to hang two bontanicals on either side of the bed or just one,,,,I decided just one at the time but I think I'll add 2 more in the coming months.  You can see a bit of the painted chandelier in this photo,,it has clear beads with pink drops.

I love swing arm lamps beside a bed, in this room I thought that these ones added a bit of contemporary freshness to the vintage vanity lamps and traditional chandelier.  For the summer the duvet cover was removed, normally its folded at the foot of the bed but I took this photo about 2 weeks ago and I like the lighter look of just the matalese coverlet at this time of year.

Since move-in date at the end of February, we've added the botanical prints, a new euro sham and a vintage look floral accent pillow.

The eyelit lace trim pillows were from Pottery Barn.  You can see the biased cut contrast piping detail of the headboard,,,like a candy stripe.

The pink bordered eurosham is from Pottery Barn and the feather filled floral pillow is from HomeSense.

It really is such a small room I wasn't able to capture the entire room or overall view in one image.  The other side of the room has the bookcase unit which still needs some filling up,, so next time I visit I'll get some more shots of that side.

I think the key to this room is that we avoided themey type bedding or accessories, the pieces we chose are all classic and can grow with her into her teen years and beyond.  The solid fabric headboard and multi toned striped skirt can be mixed with other solids and textures as well as florals, geometrics or checks so there's lots of potential to easily layer and change things up.  There's lots of room for her to display her personal things on the bookcase and on her vanity top and room on the bed and her dressers for more stuffed toys or dolls.  I was able to give her pink and flowers and sparkles and even some ruffles without it looking too granny or too babyish .........I have to say I don't even mind the Bavarian Cream so much anymore.   

All Photos:   Carol Reed

A Lucky Find!

I don't make a lot of purchases at HomeSense,,,,,,,but I do visit regularly to check out the bedding and bathroom  and kitchen accessories dept. - every once in a while I make a great find.  Typically I don't bother to look thru all the other areas of the store and get tempted to fill up a cart with chatchkas that I'll inevitably regret buying.  I prefer to find small accessories at antique shops or vintage stores,,,,,,or collect them from travels.  Nevertheless, when I'm short for time and money its a must visit.  I do recommend if you ever see anything that strikes your interest, buy it right then on the spot (you can always return it later)...........if you think you can go away and ponder it for a while and then come back, you'll be out of luck.   I know from experience the stuff in this store flies out the door as fast as it comes in.   Decorators, Stagers, Editors and Stylists frequent this store daily, I've even gone back same-day for something..... and its gone.

Tonight, after a not so successful day of shopping I decided to stop in at HomeSense while it was still open.  I spotted this french style chair and knew instantly it could work in the Girl's room of the 70's sidesplit I'm furnishing, priced at only $149 it was really a steal.  Last month I was lucky enough to find a lovely painted french style vanity in a consignment shop that works beautifully in her room, the painted glaze finish on it looks like it was custom made for us, but the vanity didn't come with a chair or stool.  

Since then, I havn't come across much that could work with this vanity and that was affordable.  So when I saw this beautiful cane back chair tonight,,,,,,,I thought it could be a perfect match.  It has a white paint finish but I think I can easily do a simple dry brushing or glaze over top of the white in the same peachy colour glaze on the vanity (which happens to be the same as the wall colour).  I know Mom won't be too thrilled with the white canvas upholstery, but for this price.....its worth living with for a while!

So I'll see how it works with the vanity tomorrow,,if it doesn't work in the girl's room, I can think of a couple other areas in the house where it could work!

All Photos:  Carol Reed