Narrowing it down

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.The green light is on for Christmas. Bethany and I both put up our trees this weekend; we are so excited for the holidays. The journey is the best part!

Here's an update on our latest design job.  We are currently working with a wonderful couple on a new living room for their remodeled townhouse.  Here are a few boards we presented with the vision of a "casual spa"neutral palette. Everything will be new, but of course our job is to make it look like it has been 'collected' over time, so we will add lots of layers, punctuated with a lot of texture.

They ended up selecting a combined look with a small sectional and the leather recliner. I love it when the client approves a unique light fixture like the Jeffan Sienna Rattan light (bottom middle).  It will add a note of unpredictability.

We'll be sure to show you more later! Have a great week.

come see us over at The Pink Pagoda's Party!

Flights of Fancy

We were asked by my cousin, Ashley, to come up with a plan for her living room that she could execute slowly over time.  She has four kids so a livable living room combined with filling her grande space was a must!  They recently built a lovely large home in Tennesee and she's done a great job planning it.  The features speak for themselves and custom detail can be seen throughout.  But she needs help pulling it all together

We had to use the furniture she already has and lucky for us her, the sofa is fantastic and it works so well with a large rug she had placed in her entry that she picked up in Turkey during a family trip. We picked an accent color out of her rug and used grasscloth wallpaper to accentuate it, along with the addition of two slipper chairs, a bench and some accessories.  We found an old picture of my uncle in Germany (where she also lived for a few years) for her to have blown up and hung on the wall.  Since Ashley (and her dad) are pilots, we incorporated some flight-y elements like the coffee table.

We love challenges where we have to utilize some pieces that are already there.  Really makes you think!

Hope you had a great holiday!!!

-Bethany

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Nancy's design presentation....

Our first client yielded boards from both Bethany and I. We wanted the experience and 2 different 'takes' on what we took away from our client interview. I'm sure in the future we will collaborate on boards, but this is too much fun!   Plus, I need more Olioboard experience. I'm not loving the flat computer dimension (yet), versus drawing it out like I did for my business in the 80's and 90's.

Here is the board I came up with based on the clients love of a dark and rich themed room.

Here is my inspiration picture which was intended to update the "jewel tones" they had in the early 90's.

Here is the drawing I made of the room with fabric suggestions ( golds, tourmalines; apple greens, magenta ).

During a follow-up call with the client today, she told us she wants to hire us to begin the transformation with lighting and furniture placement , followed by draperies and the bed dressing!  She didn't say yet whether she likes Bethany's color selections or mine, but we've got her envisioning her new room...... we'll keep you posted!

~Nancy

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

bite me and new items for sale!

NEW Floor Lamp offered for sale in our Tag Sale! section.  Arc floor lamp from Pottery Barn for local pick-up.  Check 'er out.

My aunt gave me some cotton candy for Christmas. 

She always remembers that I love that shiz. 

It got me thinkin. 

What if you could sit on poufs of cotton candy? 

And lounge with your head on a pillow of sugar? 

Wouldn't a whole cotton candy room just kill your sweet tooth??

Yep. 

But a good exercise in craziness.

Follow your dreams, girls.  

Even if you dream in technicolor cotton candy…

-Bethany

reflections

I had the best Christmas I've ever had. I sure hope you did too! I think mine was so magical because, for the first time in my life, I wasn't hung up on presents and caught in the ebb and flow of anxiety, disappointment and over-joy all rolled into one.    And because it wasn't an emotional roller coaster, it just so happened I got the surprise of my life.. diamond studs 2.0 from my stud!  I was so moved by that grand gesture that I am looking at him with a new found wonderment and certainly brimming with love.

The holidays are so refreshing for so many reasons.  One of the things I look most forward to is spending time with my distant and somewhat aloof brother.  At least once a year I can take comfort [and joy] in his quiet and uplifting presence around the house.  I love him fiercely.  I feel protective of him like a mother tiger.  Odd, considering I compartmentalized most of his early years to an area far back in my brain that takes some searching to dig up.  Our six years difference barely feels like anything now.  Now, as I understand the importance of family and of the delicate balance and difference between of siblings.  The exact same makeup gone so differently in each direction.

He doesn't want.  At least not like I do.  He is content with how his life is.  He understands sacrifice.  And he embraces the imperfect when others would feel like digging their hands in their pockets, turning their toes inward and dropping their head down to hide.  He's not like me. He's a bigger thinker.  He's OK that it means that he lives modestly so long as he doesn't have to compromise his ideals.  I hate to think how that will inevitably and uncontrollably change the farther removed from college and the promotion of free-thinking he gets.  I hope he carries his spirit of ingenuity long after he's old and married.  It's people like him who change the world slowly.  And though his impact will most likely only greatly affect those closest to him, it will be one that leaves a very deep and scaring mark.  A nice one, not an ugly one.  Nothing about his nature is ugly.


If I've learned one thing from him this holiday it's 'to thine own self be true.'  I started reflecting on that for all aspects of my life and one of the best ways to do that is through creative expression.  It holds true for just about anything.  If you are doing 'you', there are no imitations and it comes through as authentic because IT IS.  So as I evolve in designing my spaces, they can't be wrong as long as they are 'me.'  Not phony.  Not trendy.  Just things I love.


So with that, I give you my living room 2.0 board.  (Another idea sprung from dear brother is to try to do a few design boards a week to get my ideas to gel and to understand what I like and don't like).  Still looking for that wall color idea.  But first up on the list is to take down the shade, replace with long neutral drapes and to paint my window sills dark navy.  This is a good start and feels a bit more relaxing without the 'white mint' paint on the walls.  

Any ideas on a suitable neutral wall color?


-Bethany