the wardrobe

i found this beauty in an old home downtown, she was sitting there waiting for someone to come along and give her a fresh, much needed new image:) she was in pretty bad shape and needed a lot of tlc, i was up for the challenge.

before

after

she has made herself at home in my bedroom. i have purple walls with little light in my bedroom so i wasnt able to get a good picture. i had to take the picture in a different room. the purple contrasts beautifully with the white, grey and the little surprise of peach.

i didnt repair everything on the wardrobe. i wanted a bit of her past to shine through. i left the top corner curled up and some of the existing teal that was not removed faintly shows through in a place or two. i added new door hardware and a damask grey wallcovering. the damask pattern is made with animal silhouettes....the main reason why i fell in love it. to get a better view of the wallcovering go here.

welp, on to the next project.
 hope you have a wonderful weekend!

♥.

simple elegance

i'm in love with carolyn quartermaine's home and studio in south france. apparently i'm the last person on earth to learn about her amazing work. the articles below are from vogue living and elle decoration uk, published in 08', geezzz! i discovered carolyn quatermaine yesterday through a blog i read called sfgirlbybay.

"it's best to want less but more refined, more beautiful. you have to be serious about beauty."

"nothing in this house is chosen at random."

-carolyn quartermaine.

oooolala...i couldnt agree more! i've always believed that design has to have emotion. i struggle with the type of design i do because there is no emotion, yeah, yeah, yeah....i wont go into that right now. i stay happy by pouring my time and energy into my home. ok back to carolyn.

carolyn is a textile designer, painter and stylist among many other things. she knows the perfect formula for mixing antique pieces with her textiles that are full of modern colors. i adore the combination of white with "acid bright" colors, this contract makes her patterns come to life. her home/studio is very dreamy and elegant.

these 1920's louis xv-style chairs reminds me of  my dinning room chairs. ahh, got to love that knoll tulip table.

 french and italian pieces scattered about <3.

 the white cement floors had me at hello.

i could see myself dreaming in this room.

check out her website for the newest textile patterns she has designed.

♥.

movember

november is now known as movember. movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men's health by growing a mustache to raise awareness and funds for cancers that affect men.

my coworker (kris) and myself enter a contest called tricked out treats. the goal was to design a mask with candy. after giving her a history lesson on how trendy mustaches and beards are (before knowing about movember), we decide to make a mustache and beard mask out of old fashioned shoestring licorice. well, the next day kris emails me an article about movember and somehow the idea seemed so perfect and meant to be that we had to do it. and with november only a few days away, it just worked. we allowed ourselves three hours before the event to create these masterpieces....pretty good for only three hours!

these masks hold very speical meaning. i think kris's husband tom was looking down on us laughing :) i mean, we do look pretty goofy!

♥.