Our first design project!

As we start to get our feet wet in our design business (Mom a former interior designer, me an aspiring decorator dying to get some experience under my belt), we decided to offer our friends and family and the blogosphere some free design plans to practice our craft.  We started out offering a free design board and execution plan to the first five folks to express interest.  And with a little luck and a whole lot of excitement, we've successfully reached capacity…  

Powell Brower Home has accepted our first five official clients!

So last night, Mom and I completed our first design presentation, showing our prospective clients two different visions for their master bedroom reno.  We dove head-first into the project, spending hours perusing fabrics online and at upholstery stores.  We poured over inspiration pictures and ideas and came up with two 'takes' on one room.

Some background on our client:

This lovely couple just embarked on a renovation for their master bedroom, adding custom closets to an entire wall in a dark mahogany color and a charging-station and custom valet for the husband's side of the room (all custom built by Closets By Design).  They had used a metallic paint on their kitchen renovation the year prior and loved the finish so much that they decided to find a metallic shade for their bedroom.  They chose a gold color for their walls and got to work putting it up. 

Then they got stuck.

One of their obstacles was including a quilt, made by a family member, in Christmas colors.  They thought the gold walls would work well with the quilt but couldn't visualize how to move forward from there.  The gold actually turned out to look like a bronze or urbane gold against the low light of the afternoon and finding a corresponding color scheme was proving a bit challenging.  All in addition to an off-center window on the main wall of the bedroom.

Enter Mom and I.

We met them in their space and discussed our questionnaire (that they filled out prior to meeting) to get a feel for their likes and dislikes.  We talked to each party to understand what they cared about and tried to blend their two styles.  They wanted their room to feel bold and make a statement.  Much the opposite of the spa-like retreat that a lot of bedroomers yearn for.  The wife preferred floral prints and liked birds and natural scenes in fabrics.  They wanted to 'center' their bed in front of the off-center window, and based on the layout of the room, was the logical choice.

My inspiration picture came from a page from a magazine (wish I could remember which one) I was reading in the doctor's office.  I loved the bold turquoise paint color that is trending this year and wanted to incorporate their gold walls with accents of peacock/turquoise and lime green.  

And as much as the sky's the limit as far as creativity goes, there was a budget to keep in mind.  They had spent quite a lot of money already on their custom cabinetry and needed to pull the remainder of the room together in a money-savvy way.  Mom and I stuck to affordable non-trade fabrics and gave high and low-end options for most pieces.  We found a lot of the items at big-box stores, which were much more economical than the trade-only sources that we all die over in the mags.

My Design Board:

My Sensory Board:

My vision used turquoise as the 'removable' element in the design plan to allow for the use of their Christmas quilt during the winter months.  The items that would stay year-round, like the foot bench, the drapery panels and the accents, would be lime green, so as to blend with the Christmas quilt when it was out.  The pillow shams and the bed scarf or throw would be turquoise. 


They have an old dresser that they considered upcycling and I recommended painting it in Behr's Billiard Table Green (or Duron option shown) with new playful hardware.  That would be the only turquoise that would stay year-round.  We would position that on the wall opposite of the window-wall and put a large mirror above to reflect back the light of the window.  I also wanted to include a gallery wall of fun family photos that they were hoping to display.

Here's to our first go of it, we sure had a lot of fun.  The practice was really good for us when trying to put our vision in 3-D.


Lookout for a post by Mom on her board and plan.  Here was her sneak-peek!

Hope you have a wonderful start to the week!

-Bethany