Mi Casa es su Casa: Designer's Home

When we purchased this original mid century home in Houston, my husband and I knew what an undertaking it would be. Of course, I loved the layout and design of the house itself, but it was in dire need of my personal TLC. Though very happy with the progress, we know we have a bit further to go in order to transform it into our ideal home. Much of the major work so far has been on an intense kitchen renovation, with all other spaces in the house getting a (less intense but still major) facelift. So, without further ado, allow me to welcome you into our home!

Let's begin where most home tours begin: the living room. First, you'll notice the neutral color palette and the blues and greens that welcome you into a state of calm. To add height to the room, we used long grommet curtains with an abstract geometric pattern, which add some interest. The large window at the front of the house allows streams of light to pour in and inundate our home with glowing warmth (by the way, our dog absolutely loves to sun bathe here!). 

In keeping with a mid century designed home, bringing outside elements inside is crucial. The wooden furnishings in our living room are made of re-purposed wood, smoothed and stained to perfection. Quality wood furnishings are harder to come by these days, but their durability, strength, and style will allow them to virtually last forever! In case you're wondering, the side table (blocks) are suuuuper heavy- looks are deceiving!

Just a few pieces I want to mention before moving on: take a quick look at the glass-globe side table lamps, the varying accent pillows, low profile couch, and the archetypal mid century modern chair. If you haven't noticed, I love incorporating original art work in the homes I work on to add an even more personal, and unique touch. This piece in particular is actually my own creation! Can you guess what it is?! It's an abstract representation of a magnified hop bud (my husband and I are avid craft beer fans)! 

Before we move into the kitchen here is a little before and after of this 1950's original kitchen!

 Passing through the living room, we enter the heart of our home: the kitchen. Because we love to cook and entertain so much, we had to extend our kitchen three whole feet! We wanted a strategic, clean design with maximum storage space. Our next phase in the renovation is to gut the flooring in the entire house, which needless to say will be a huge project. So, ignore the floor and take a look at everything else! 

Since storage is of utmost importance, we removed the bulkhead (also known as a fur head) which is the useless gap between the tops of cabinets and the ceiling that is only inhabitable by dust bunnies and spiders. I don't understand why kitchens were so popularly designed with bulkheads, but I made sure to promptly remove it from my own. Now, these large cabinets flushed with the ceiling store everything we have and will acquire in the future. 

 

Next to the fridge (which was moved down for better accessed), we installed a pullout pantry cabinet that runs the height of the kitchen. Without this nifty pantry, this would have just been an empty little nook. Because the shape, size, and design of kitchens and large kitchen appliances don't always cooperate, it's important to utilize whatever leftover space there may be, especially if you want ample storage and a clean, streamlined design. 

Though you see a lot of black in this chic kitchen, we were sure to install LED lights under the cabinets to illuminate the counter work space. The recessed can light above the sink replaced the old fluorescent lights that yellow a room and damper the mood. To bring in more light, our kitchen came equipped with a pleasant little greenhouse window above the sink as well. The earthy, stacked limestone tiled back splash softens the image of our edgy black and stainless steel kitchen which helps to brighten up the space, along with chrome accents scattered throughout the kitchen. 

Now, let's shine the spotlight on our lovely composite sink, equipped with a professional-grade faucet. No nobs, no hoses, no problem: we love the simple, streamlined design of this heavy duty faucet! The sink reaches the depths we need, all in stylish black granite. This contrasts beautifully with the white quartz counters, all illuminated by the chrome industrial style pendant hung from above.

Moving on to the guest room: a space where visitors can relax in style. All furnishings are new, except the velveteen yellow tufted chair: it was an heirloom piece from my abuela! With mostly calming neutral colors, the yellow was incorporated in order to blend the chair in with the rest of the room.

Coincidentally, the yellow chair and neutral color palette also worked perfectly with this beautiful Japanese fan, which was a gift to me from my father from his travels. Coordinating colors and keeping consistency is easy to achieve by employing various patterns in throw pillows and other textiles. 

This guest room has a perfectly placed window that lets in all the sun. It's not even on the same side of the house as our front room, but there's just as much sunlight pouring in! Again, we used the elegantly elongated curtains here to shield some of the light, and offer a gorgeous glow to the room. 

Before we reach our final destination of the tour, take a look at this gray-scale hallway. This was such a fun project, and actually my husband's suggestion! On the wall, we donned custom art from the two places we've lived together: Texas and Philadelphia. 

Last stop of the tour is our master bedroom. We wanted a space that was truly ours, with bright colors calmed by gray textiles and wooden furnishings. The series of paintings above the bed are my personal creations, and combine all the colors featured in this room: the green from the walls, sunny orange from the medium toned wood, and gray from the bed spread.

Symmetry is a symbol of order, and we wanted our room to be a place where we could find balance. The bed side tables and cylinder lamps are smaller furnishings that complete this feeling of centrality. In addition, the bed frame is fashioned in a way that showcases its beautiful wood and smooth lines.

 

And with that, my home tour is concluded! I am incredibly thankful to have a place where I can always find my inner peace, and where guests can always feel welcomed and entertained: that's the beautiful balance found in mixing a calming, neutral palette with pops of color and intriguing designs.

 We have quite a bit more to do in our home, so keep checking back to see our future projects!

If you have a project in mind but just don't know where to start, we can help! Contact us! 

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Coakley Residence- Bloom Where You Are Planted

  For this jet-setting professional, finding a place she could lovingly call ‘home’ wasn’t always an option-- until she one day decided to root herself in Houston. Starting from the ground up, this home needed everything--down to a mattress! While a fresh start is always exciting and the opportunities seem endless, this new homeowner already had a vision of planting the perfect home.

 Feeling as if you can float through this home, the ocean blues and greens found in every room offer a serene continuity that is vastly welcoming and comforting. Each guest bedroom serves as a haven for all of the travelers that pass through. Comfort, charm, and ample storage create the perfect space for guests to feel at home.

  

Along with the blues and greens, gray is used throughout the home to be neutral and calming. To add a touch of depth and intrigue, try using many of the infinite shades of gray rather than trying tirelessly to match gray swatches (boring!). As seen in this living room, texture and myriad hues of the same color make this room deeply interesting yet with a calming effect. The sleek leather chair, velveteen couch, and tufted chair are large neutral pieces that allow for small bursts of color to really spark interest.

 Seating arrangements must be strategic! All chairs, sofas, and love seats need to be positioned comfortably so that all guests can socialize without leaving anyone out. This can be difficult to achieve, especially while keeping people’s seating preferences in mind. Whether in the kitchen, dining room, or living room, there is usually a visual focal point in a room for guests to be actively or passively engaged with (think cooking, watching the game on TV, playing Pictionary, looking at each other across the room, whatever!).

  

Our client longed for her home to be clutter free. As you’ll notice in her minimalist office, furniture in the center of the room is streamlined and skeletal. It fulfills its duty as a desk, chair, computer, etc. while keeping the rest of the room visible. Larger pieces of furniture are placed against the wall to keep the room appearing spacious, while concealing anything that may clutter this workspace.

 

 I never quite understood the phrase ‘the devil is in the details.’ The wooden hexagons pieced carefully together to create this beautiful desk seems rather heavenly to me. I suppose that phrase is highly interpretive, but I’d rather replace ‘devil’ with ‘beauty.’ I’d even go so far to say that this desk and wonderfully colorful rug were a match made in design heaven.

When she isn’t working from home, entertaining guests, or traveling the world, our client retreats to her home’s master bedroom to relax and rejuvenate. Soothing grays, blues, and whites seem like rolling waves that crash soft and white upon a quiet shore. All that is needed for a satisfying rest is a bed and a pair of bed-side lamps.

 Being the traveler she is, she understands the importance of having a comfortable place to touch base, and aimed to offer just that to her guests who spend a night or two (or ten!). And with that, her home bloomed where it was planted: from an empty space in Houston into a haven where all her loved ones can gather.

 

 

Not enough seating? Don’t worry- there’s another entire kitchen and dining area OUTSIDE! This is by far the most impressive feature a host can offer her guests. Outdoor hospitality in Houston is a must- Houstonians are proud to handle the heat, but from a shaded distance. Grilling, making refreshing cocktails, and keeping beer cold are just a few of the amenities offered in this outdoor kitchen.

And still, guests are able to socialize in style and comfort as the colors from inside continue outside, but with new textures. The blue hues in the slate blend the orange from the house’s brick in with the gray of the furniture. Stainless steel appliances add sophistication to this outdoor kitchen.

Urban Residence: The Dwelling of a Homo Sapiens Urbano

At the turn of the twentieth century, a novel and peculiar species of man evolved: the homo sapiens urbano. Distinct from other species of man, the homo sapiens urbano tactfully merges elements of the outside concrete jungle with the sacred space inside their home. This urban residence transforms into a serene escape from city life while keeping consistent with the neutral palette and pops of color seen in any bustling cityscape. 

 

 As a functional city requires a straightforward, streamlined layout; so does a functional home. The homo sapiens urbano has a heightened awareness of this necessity, as evidenced in the minimalist philosophy that defines the style of this clean living space.

Additionally, this species proves to be quite territorial, marking its space with unique artifacts such as the custom paintings and artwork displayed throughout the home. These offer opportunity for abstract thought, profound reflection, or simply for aesthetic admiration for the artist.  

The dwelling place of the homo sapiens urbano achieves balance between dark and light by using slightly muted tones of orange and yellow that accent the stone and light sapphire painted walls. 

Just as blooming flora and bright fauna diversify an environment, the color, shape, and texture of pillows, rugs, throws, upholstery and other accent textiles simultaneously offer diversity and comfort to this urban abode.  

If you have a project in mind but just don't know where to start, we can help! Contact us! 

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A Designers Home: Designing for Our New Nest

My husband and I have been renting for the last few years and this year finally were ready to buy our first home. Hooray! Now this is a very exciting time in our lives, but home ownership comes with different priorities than a rental. Since I am an Interior Designer my focus for the house is, well, a showcase of my work. A place for me to experiment and do "crazy" things throughout the home and make it reflect us and our lifestyle. We are young, outgoing, social and are up for trying new things! So our house should and is going to reflect that. My husband, well he is an engineer, so you can see how we balance each others ideas when deciding what order to do things in the house are. We are both problem solvers and we love that. So solving our homes problems is what we are going to do.  

Now to give you a little background on the home, its a one-story brick, built in 1958, three bedroom, 1 &1/2 bath, two-car garage. Nice little yard for our dog and our future herb garden(already planted some spinach and kale). Now think of the 1950's, its one of my favorite as far as architecture, our house is still mostly traditional looking from the street, but we have lots of plans to make it more modern and well reflect is without changing the architecture too much. I want everything we do to be a surprise, so when we complete a project that is when I will show you before and afters, for now use your imagination! :) Starting from the curb, brick front is always a great place to start and ours is a mix of orange and light grey brick, almost like a white wash in some areas, currently the garage doors, shutters and siding are a light blue, typical of the 50's for sure. That will be change when we get new garage doors, we are looking at doing a fresh light/medium grey (Sherwin Williams - 7044 Amazing Gray) and doing the door and window trim a fresh white (Sherwin Williams - 7004 Snowbound). These color changes will make a huge difference in the homes curb appeal. To finish off the front we will do our new 50's inspired front door in bold turquoise (Sherwin Williams - 6951 Cote D' Azur), large stainless steel house numbers, a new vintage modern entry light and we currently have round columns, we will convert these to square ones finished in white. 

 Something kind of like this!

Now that you are excited to come inside, let's talk about our plans for the first room you see, the living room. The first we are going to do its paint the walls (Sherwin Williams - 6471 Hazel) This color is in our drapes we selected from IKEA(yes we have to keep costs low in some areas in order to be able to splurge in others) I loved the pattern so that's why we went with them. Now another surface that has to be addressed in the flooring, we are going to do solid tiger striped bamboo throughout the entire home minus the bathrooms. Now the floors and walls have been addressed in the living room, the layout is ideal for tv watching and leaves a good flow path to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the hall to the bedrooms. There is a small coat closet that is preventing a more open floor plan and we plan to take that out so we have a 8' opening between the dining and living areas, this will make it ideal for entertaining and overall open feeling throughout the house. After that, furniture and accessories will come in, our style is what i would call, vintage modern rustic industrial. A mouthful I know, but we love natural woods, industrial pipe, clean lines, with a touch of history(vintage). Moving on to the dining area, oh the 50's full of colors we may not select today, but currently the floor is a medallion, gold colored vinyl tile, not our favorite but that will be replaced with the bamboo flooring. Now sometime between the 50's and now the dining area got some wood paneling installed(which is currently painted yellow). Sorry for those of you who love it but it has got to go! It will be replaced by new drywall and fresh paint (most likely Sherwin Williams - 7065 Argos), we have turquoise chevron drapery panels that will go on the sliding doors out to the patio. And a bold gray and turquoise area rug will sit under our new dining table, which we are going to make out of reclaimed wood with a metal and wood double pedestal base. As far chairs, we will be using clear acrylic chairs so the beauty of the table is seen and not blocked by chairs. We have a 50's walnut sideboard that will act as our bar area for entertaining and wall shelves above for bottles and glasses. A new chandelier will go above the table, we love urban chandy and previously had a chandelier made by them, but we moved and are in need of a different size.  Moving into the kitchen, for those of you who know me, I take pride in making a kitchen as efficient as possible, no need for a giant kitchen, you just need the right layout and fittings for your cabinets. A black wood grain cabinet finish will be used and fitted with modern chrome handles, the counter will be a light gray Cesar stone(similar to silestone but more monochromatic colors.  As for a sink, we cook A LOT, so the kitchen is very important, but back the sink, now most people would go with a stainless steel sink but we wanted to do a black granite composite single basin sink. This allows us to clean big pots and we have had double basin sinks and they don't seem to work for us. For the faucet, we are going to use a professional kitchen faucet, this will make it easy to clean, wash, and look great while doing it. 

Like this!

Moving on to the private spaces, the hall bath is pretty in pink tiles right now but we will soon change that to some grey, more modern tiles with stark white and black accents. A 5' vanity will be great with a large mirrored medicine cabinet over the sink with plenty of storage. new lighting and a new tile tub surround all the way to the ceiling. The other bathroom needs a little more attention, currently it is a half bath attached to the master bedroom. Back in the 50's this was common for some reason, but lucky for us we have space in the closet to make another full bathroom. Yay! We will have a frame-less shower with the flooring the same throughout, a trough sink so two people can get ready at the same time. We are going to do hex floor tiles(a little vintage for the new bath) and simple subway tiles. A few shower cubbies done in an accent tile and a rain shower-head. Going to be a great open bathroom perfect for two people to use. Since the master bathroom is taking the closet, we will be adding a wall-to-wall floor to ceiling built-in wardrobe on one wall of the room, with all the interior fittings we need to make it as efficient as possible. The guest bedroom will be crisp, clean and inviting for our guests, that will be a big surprise for everyone! Now I have to have a home office, this is my creative space. A place were I ponder ideas for my upcoming projects and dream of new innovative ways to design. So this too will be a creative, unique surprise, and it will definitely be awesome!

So those are the plans! There will be more to come as we complete these projects! Stay tuned and I hope you are inspired to work on finishing your home! 

If you have a project in mind but just don't know where to start, we can help! Contact us! 

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Welcome the sun with filtered light!

When sunlight peaks through tree branches to create rays of filtered light, I can't help but feel surrounded by absolutely mystifying beauty. However, as we approach midwinter, we don't get to see the sun as often as we'd like or witness streams of sunlight. But don't worry- the sun will come out... next season! So, when spring finally comes, welcome the sun into your home with warm, filtered light. Now is the perfect time for implementing an inundation of flowing streams of light into your home. Enjoy!

 Angled ceiling skylights allow for bright, beautiful light beams to burst in and brighten a bedroom.

 These 'floating' stairs slice the sunlight, creating streams that pour light into an otherwise dismal stair well.

 Filtered light doesn't always have to be fragmented light- the sunlight enters this home through textured, opaque windows.

All about the angles- the thick windowpanes set at drastic angles offers a a unique edge to this modern, earthy dwelling

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One Piece...Two Uses!

Not everyone lives a large and in-charge house and has abundant storage areas. Like me, and most of the city dwellers I know, we have limited space to keep the things we love, need and use throughout our everyday lives. I am always looking for multifunctional pieces of furniture to use in not only my own home but the homes of my clients as well. For those of you who need a little insight into the wonderful world of multi-use furniture....here you go! Enjoy!

 It's a shelf....not it's a desk.... it's BOTH! This is perfect for a laptop user that doesn't really need a full blown desk.  Taking up less floor space than a traditional desk and looks pretty cool too!

 Coffee Table with built in floor cushions. Brilliant! Could also store items in the middle part.

 Sit. Store. Drink Wine. What a great idea for those who love wine but don't really have a giant collection or a wine cellar. And sitting in this chair means you don't even have to leave you seat to fill your glass up!

Bookshelf turned eating area!! Store anything you want in the cubbies and when you need a place to eat just pull out a chair! This is great for any small space!

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