Window Wednesday: First Update

So you  know how when you're a kid, and you see your teacher in the store, and you can't wrap your head around it because your teacher doesn't have a real life...she's your teacher?  Well, that's sort of what it felt like stopping by to visit with Steve from An Urban Cottage.  Blogger and husband meet Blogger.  And see the house.  Fun, I tell you.  It wasn't weird-out-of-context, but  more like hanging with an old friend.

Steve was the first reader to send me pictures for my Window Wednesday series last year (see the post on Steve's dilemma here).    I've  loved doing the series, and hopefully, it's been helpful.  Steve sent me pictures last week of his guest room progress, which looked like this when he wrote to me that he needed to solve the gap problem between casing and ceiling on his very low windows.

Remember his windows...

I suggested doing something like this, perhaps with a woven blind  (I used color for highlighting purposes, not as color suggestion)...

Now, here's Steve's progress.  After clearing out the room, he glazed over the wallpaper to soften it (read about that here), then he installed and painted new windows, then the window treatments, and, like usual, took an artful shot of a bit of the room as it is now...

Don't you love it?  He never ceases to amaze me with his creativity or his photography!  And believe me, the house is just as cool in person as it looks on his blog.

I hope you've enjoyed this update.  I'm looking forward to doing more Window Wednesdays, so...

If you would like me to solve a window issue, suggest a treatment, critique what you have, or anything window related, please send me an email and picture to SofasandSage@gmail.com. The only requirements are that you 1. Become a Follower in the right hand column, or let me know that you already are, and 2. Leave a comment on this post.


Talk to you soon,
Carol

For professional help with your home, please email me at SofasandSage@gmail.com

Hello, Headboard...

This queen headboard was ordered from Highpoint as a sample for the showroom (Perfect Touch Interiors, which I talked about here).  When a client with a 7 year-old daughter saw it, however, well, can you say "sold" in a matter of a day?  She's now having this little lady's room done in a raspberry and chartreuse toile wallpaper and fabrics to match.  Lucky little one!

Check out the corner detail.  Fantastic upholstering, gorgeous green velvet and Swarovski crystals...

I'd want to have sleepovers at her house if I were 7!

Do you favor upholstered headboards, or would you rather have wood?

Talk to you soon,
Carol


Contact me about design services through SofasandSage@gmail.com.

Family Room Done!

Ready to begin.  Open to ideas.  Fun to work with.  That's how I would describe the clients whose room is below.  I stopped over today to measure for some dining room window treatments and took a quick snapshot of a bit of their family room.  

When I first came to look at this room, it was completely torn up.  No molding, a massive dark stone fireplace, no furniture or wall color.  Watching a room evolve is a great joy for me.  Weird, but true.    The color is a bit off in this image.  The sectional to the right is much warmer in color than it appears.  The chairs have a subtle pattern that relates.

I measured the windows and went on my way.

Do you ever feel like you don't know where to begin sometimes?  Whether it's decorating, dieting (where I'm at right now!),  making a career change or studying for an exam, you have to start somewhere.

"If we wait for the moment when everything is ready, we shall never begin."

– Ivan Turgenev, 19th cent. Russian novelist

Begin something today... decorating, perhaps?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

I'd love to help you with your home.  Contact me through SofasandSage@gmail.com.

The Charming House that Held the Party

I like to look at everything in my environment as my own personal on-going education in design.  There is always something to be learned.  This past weekend, at my neice's college graduation party, I was as enthralled with the house, the yard and its design as I was with the occassion.  

It was an enchanting Victorian row house in a town south of Philly.  The party hosts owned the main house we were in as well as the next two houses in the row (the hosts were lovely people from the college).  The yard was rather large as it was one yard made from the three.

 " It's more interesting to have just a picture of a small detail,

 then you can dream all the rest around it. Because when you see 

the whole thing, what is there to imagine? " ~Dries Van Noten

The image above was a small guest house, I believe.  I loved the details and thought they would be great to share with you.  Lovely, yes?  Below is a bit of the back of the house, the whole of which had been bumped out with great detail (but I only photographed this section as I didn't want to show party-goers on the blog -- privacy, you know?).

The door below looked to be the entrance to the back of the middle house (or the attached shed, I really couldn't tell).

Then there was the beautiful pool and hot tub....

And the oh-so-charming gate to exit the yard to the driveway...

The landscaping throughout the yard was nothing short of gorgeous.  Again, limited photos for the sake of privacy...

It was a great house.  I wish I could show you the fantastic inside!  Instead, I'll end with this photo of me with the graduate (on my left -- I'm a proud Aunt), my other neice to her left, and my girls (in the hat and stripes.)  Though you can't see it, we were sitting in the fantastic pool house.

Do you see design in everything around you?

Talk to you soon,

Carol

PS  I took the quopte above from the blog LenoreEverMore.  It's charming -- check it out!

I'd love to help you with your home.  Contact me through SofasandSage@gmail.com. 

This House I Visited Today

So I was on day three of the new job today at Perfect Touch Interiors, which I talked about in this post, and I had the great luck of driving down to the ocean with Lori, who designed every inch of this home.  I thought you might like to see a glimpse of her work.  This is not a vacation home, but a year-round residence occupied by a family with four active boys.


This home is warm, elegant, and full of gorgeous details.  Let's start in the entrance to the kitchen...

 Up on the third floor is the mom's office.

 Is this kid's playroom cool or what?

 The kid's areas have some beautiful hand-painted murals.  Here's their bathroom.

 

 Down the hall in one of the boys rooms is this fantastic ceiling...

 Things are more serene in the parent's retreat...

And then, back downstairs, you get a glimpse into this lovely little den that seats two, where a television is on a lift system inside this beautiful cabinet.

I hope you enjoyed a peak into this home.

Since posting here about joining Perfect Touch Interiors, I've had a few emails asking why I just didn't go back out on my own after leaving the world of retail design.  Well, I'll put it to you this way.  I've been on my own.  It's not always fun to work in a vacuum.  And when I talked with Lori on a whim and it turned into a discussion about a job, well, it was pretty much a no-brainer.  I felt like that big old hand of fate was telling me something.  And after three days, I feel like I have known these women for years.  Let the fun begin, I say.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

PS  Thank you to the gracious client who let me photograph her home.

I'd love to help you with your home.  Contact me through SofasandSage@gmail.com. 

Happy Mother's Day and the Magic of Duct Tape

First, Happy Mother's Day to all of you women out there who have shared the joys and tears of raising a child.  There truly isn't anything to compare it to, is there?  Even when I have been exhausted or have beaten my head against the wall for the hundredth time over moral lessons or picking up clothes off the floor, I would do it all again in the blink of an eye, wouldn't you?

Now for the duct tape...I'm sure you've seen the new patterned duct tape in stores or on the web, used to make everything from handbags to wallets.  But my girlfriend's daughter, wanting to get rid of her "babyish" Disney princess waste basket in her new zebra-inspired bedroom, came up with this...

I'm thinking she's a decorator in the making!  She's all about style, this kid :)  She made her mother, my friend Ginny, pretty proud (especially as she always says her daughter must really be mine with the creativity thing hee-hee!)

Hope your Sunday was a lovely one.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Come on In...

This is where you can find me...

Okay, see all that fabric back there hanging on the wall?  And here...

And here, too, behind these gorgeous window treatments....

If that's not enough, well, there's this wall, too...

I've died and gone to heaven!  (You know what  a fabric nut I am!)  So, what's up, you ask? 

I am joining the amazing design firm of  Perfect Touch Interiors in Rhode Island.  This is the showroom.  I popped in to take some pictures before I officially join them on Monday of next week.  There were some projects in progress, so I'm giving you a peak at some of the things that go on here every day.

Can you stand it?  The fabrics, the rugs, wallpaper,  (and the most beautiful lines of furniture, accessories and lighting, too) all took my breath away.  Kid in a candy shop.  That's me here.  I've been in design a long time and this is the only to-die-for private shop I've been in along my travels. 

 Here's a bit more of the showroom...

The accent table below is just wild, isn't it?  When I saw it, I new I belonged here. :)   Every design style is accessible here, waiting to be created.

I will have so much more to share as time goes on.  I am thrilled and privileged to join Lori DelSesto, Founder and Designer, and Designer Robin Garceau.  They have been making homes beautiful for 29 years (with absolutely no advertising, I might add!) in Rhode Island and the greater Chicago area.  Perfect Touch is an ASID affiliated firm.

Talk to you soon,
Carol


You can reach me at
Perfect Touch Interiors at PerfectTouch@cox.net. You can also reach me at
SofasandSage@gmail.com.