Designing from a Distance -Ohio Remodel

It was about this time last year when we received a call from a young guy in Austin who needed help renovating an investment property.  Budget was very important since the house would be resold after the renovations were completed.  We talked in detail about what the project entailed and decided that we were a good fit for one another.  It sounded like a great opportunity and I was super excited about the challenge ahead.

There was one catch....the property was in Ohio.  

The entire project was done over the phone or by email.  Internet consultations for one room are very common these days, but the whole house is a different story.  The client sent me photos of the home along with a floor plan.  It was like piecing a puzzle together as I tried to make sense of the photos that he sent me.  

Here is all I had to work with.

The client and I only had one face to face meeting.  He was probably the easiest person I have ever worked with!  He was completely open to all of my suggestions and pretty much gave me free reign on the design plan.  

Once I (I mean we...) decided on a direction, I went to work on selecting the actual materials that we would use.  The plan was to brighten things up with bright white trim, nice cool colors along with chrome and stainless accents.   

Here are a few inspiration boards that I sent to the client to communicate my vision.

 Kitchen

Entry

Guest Bath

Through out the renovation process, I only got a few sneak peeks of the progress.  The client would send pictures occasionally which only left me wanting to see more!  I finally got to see the final outcome a few weeks ago when he sent me the photos from the real estate listing.

Here is how the home looks now....

It is really like a breath of fresh air!  I am so happy with the outcome and more importantly, so is the client and the new homeowner.  The home sold in 1 day!!!  

The client is back in Austin and has recently purchased another property (in Austin this time).   He has asked for my help once again.  I can't wait to get started!  

Boy's Basketball Room

Designing for kids (especially older kids) can be challenging.  Sometimes what they want in a room (lime green walls, monkey bars or everything to be zebra print) isn't always attractive practical.  At Nine Design Group, we recently got a call from a mom who wanted to make her 10 year old son's room a place he would not only love now, but one that he could easily grow into.

During the initial phone call with Mom, I uncovered some of the boy's wants and "needs".  One thing she told us was that he loved basketball.   In fact, he actually had a basketball goal in his room. 

With that information, the challenge became to make a basketball themed room that was sophisticated enough to carry him through his teenage years and would also be appealing to Mom.  The answer....keep the main walls a neutral gray (for Mom) and I would paint a feature wall to look like a giant basketball (for him).  

Together, we selected just the right color of orange for the basketball and carried it around the room with athletic inspired stripes.  (Sorry, I don't have pictures of the rest of the room.)  The thick black stripe is actually chalkboard paint (kids love it) where he and his friends can draw or write notes.   

I would love to act like I just whipped out this painting without much effort, but that was not the case.  It turned out to be one of those projects that once I started, I wondered if I had bit off more than I could chew.  It was MUCH more time consuming than I anticipated.  Mainly, because I am super picky about cutting in the lines.  There was no way to tape this one off because of all of the curves.  It was all by hand.  I spent HOURS touching up the edges with a tiny artists brush. 

My client and I laughed that I was like Eldin, the painter on Murphy Brown that came to paint and never left!

Well, I finally did finish just in time for the boy to get home from school....

(and do his homework, play some basketball, eat dinner and watch some TV).

The room was a big hit. His reaction when he saw the basketball wall..... "AWESOME!"  Mom was happy too!

Accessorizing!!!

One of my favorite parts of designing a space is accessorizing! After the paint is up and furniture is in, accessorizing is where you really start to see the room come together. This week, I was lucky enough to accessorize the home of Wade and Kimberly and their three sweet children. They had a plethora of awesome accessories for me to choose from.It was an ideal situation.

The first area of business was the the living room. The client had an inspiration picture of yellow metal bookcases similar to these that they found at CB2.

I started with the books. Once they were grouped by color on the various shelves, I added in the accessories. 

If you notice the bottom shelf in the middle changed a bit from the first picture, I had to "borrow" all of the silver pieces for my next project below.
Moving on to the family room, we needed to add some pizazz to this dark cabinet.

I started by placing some of the clients silver pieces in the cabinet. They looked great with the doors open, but kind of disappeared once the doors were closed. We borrowed some platters and plates from the kitchen to serve (no pun intended...get it? You "serve" food on plates and platters. Ha! I crack me up.) as a backdrop for the silver. This is where I had to steal the bowls from the yellow bookshelves. Grouping like items together makes more of an impact than spreading them throughout the house.



Now on to the rest of the room. Here is what you saw when you walked into the room before.



And here is how it looks now.



The clients are very happy and Kimberly sent me the nicest email after I left that day.

"So....Wade loves it. I knew he would. It totally looks amazing and feels like home. I like because you gave our stuff a different feel than we've ever had. Thanks so much.
It feels so warm in our house...love it!"
I love my job!

We are waiting for the draperies to be finished for the room. It just so happens that many of the accessories the homeowners had work perfectly with the drapery fabric that we selected. It wasn't intentional (other than coordinating with the sofa).

Here is a sneak peek of the drapery fabric. I will be sure to post a pic once they are hung so you can see how the whole room came together.



We finished up the day by finding places to hang art and family photos. We also accessorized the master bedroom. It was a very productive day and I enjoyed every minute of it:) Thanks to Kimberly and Wade for being so great!