eat. pray. work.

May 21, 2012 By

 I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but we are still here  :)  We, being Donna, my new clone design buddy,  who loves to shop more than I do and is an absolutely AWESOME person - she is counted among the most sincere, hard-working and honest people I’ve ever had working with me.  Not to mention, she has beautiful taste AND talent!  God definitely blessed me with her coming into my life at the right time.

 

The last six weeks have been crazy busy, not only are we still doing great work for great clients, but we’ve FINALLY found a perfect spot in Stafford for our new design studio and shop.     After five years of a growing business which was overwhelming my own home, I finally found the perfect space.  So for all those folks who drive to my home only to find me in curlers and a robe, you’ll now have a place to visit – and be inspired.   It’s not open yet, as we are super-duper busy doing renovations, getting all the necessary services installed, purchasing some really cool stuff from around the country .    Once we are open, we will be posting specials and giveaways on our Facebook page, so if you haven’t already “liked” our page, please do so!  Simply Beautiful Spaces
me – the day I got the keys!

This post will be a montage of most of the work we’ve done in the last couple of  months.  Don’t worry, it will be mostly pictures and not so many words  ;)    In between redesign projects and renovations,  I did some renderings for upcoming projects.  I find doing these renderings help the clients see what’s inside my head.  Here are some sneak peeks.

Tammy's sunroom now

 

Tammy's rendering - a few proposed ideas for the sunroom

 

 

Faye's living room now

 

Proposed ideas for Faye's family room

And here are some photos of projects we’ve completed.  First is the upcycling of an old table and chairs.

Sue's table before

 

poor old chair :(

 

stenciling the canvas

My first idea for the chairs

 

Sue's table during

The table and chairs - Take 1

 They were nice, but, I wasn’t IN LOVE with them.  I wanted the chairs to coordinate a bit more with the owner’s kitchen.

Sue's table after - the final upcycling :)

 

Not only did we upcycle Sue’s table, but we redesigned her home as well.   Here are some before and after photos

Sue's Family room before

 

Sue's family room after

 

Sue's family room before

 

Sue's family room after

 

Sue's living room before

 

Sue's living room after

 

Sue's dining room before

 

Sue's dining room after

 

Sue's crystal vase becomes the centerpiece

 

We also had a very similar home 60 miles away - fun project!

 

centerpiece made for Margaret

 

New chandelier and valances make a huge change

 

Margaret's family room before

Margaret's family room after

 

Margaret's Living room before

 

Margaret's living room after

foyer before

Foyer after

These are some of my favorite redesigns – mainly because it was Donna’s first project – I tossed her right in to the fray – letting her select the paint colors, accessories, and pulling the final designs all together - by herself!  I think she did awesome!

powder room before

 

Powder room after - new light fixture and mirror

 

powder room after

 

girl's bath before

 

Girl's bath after

 

porch before

 

porch after

Hope you enjoy !

 

Filed Under: chandelier, dining room, family room, kitchen, painting, Uncategorized, upcycle Tagged With: , , , , ,

What is a rendering?

April 16, 2012 By 1 Comment

There is a service we offer to help clients visualize changes in their home or workplace which really helps to  make the decision process easier.  It takes me a few days or weeks (depending on what is required) to do renderings.  I wanted to show you what renderings can look like and when I recommend doing a rendering, help you understand what you can expect.

Sometimes it’s as simple as “painting” and “decorating.”

current layout

ideas

 

Foot and Ankle Center before

 

the rendering

 

Final

 Sometimes it requires space planning

Craft room before
the floorplan
final

Sometimes it requires layouts for tilework

bath before
the design
final

 And sometimes it is very involved, especially when presenting the concept to a group of decision-makers and  working with subcontractors

Marine Corps Association before
floorplan
the rendering
design board
final

So, whether you are remodeling or creating a great workplace, renderings are a great way to see the possibilities.   There are costs involved with renderings, ours start at $50 per sheet/set – a great investment if you’re looking for DIY ideas and resources or want to work with your own contractor.

If you’re looking for ideas and live far away, you can request “virtual makeovers” by sending an email to info@simplybeautifulspaces.com

Filed Under: design, painting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

about those shoes…

April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My 15-year-old  son has a thing for shoes.  I don’t know where he gets it (really, not from me ;) ) but he seems to be obsessed with shoe releases and keeping up with who has what on their feet.  I guess it’s a thing I won’t understand, but he is a great kid, does well in school and has a great big heart that makes him one of those kids the we all  love.    When he told me he wanted to paint his room black, it was a big “What?!?   No way, the room was already dark and near depressing  from when his brother was the owner.  Then he showed me photos of what inspired his desire.

the inspiration

I knew it would take a bit to move things out, get supplies and do the room in a way we both would be happy, so we spent this past week working on it.   Here’s what it looked like before.

formally known as the Colonial Forge/Big brother's room

And here is what it looks like now

Jumpman man

 

shoes...

 

more shoes

 

aaaand more shoes

 

I may just leave it black and white, after all, in a few years when Alex has his own home to play with, I may just do something like this:

McCroskey Interiors

 

Anyways, Alex loved it so much, this was my thank you … this and lots of help!

 

Dear Mom, Thank you so much for redoing my room! I love it! It is very awesome and I can't wait to show my friends. love, Alex

Filed Under: bedroom, kids rooms, painting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

my new favorite – Annie Sloan

April 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

my new medium

About a year and a half ago, I saw a ceiling medallion painted in chalk paint.

Not chalk-board paint, but “chalk paint.”

Savvy Southern Style

 

Then I noticed in blog-land how very popular chalk paint was becoming and all sorts of neat and crafty up-cycling and repurposing was going on all around  me.   If you know me, you know I love to repurpose and upcycle – and have been doing it for many years for friends and clients.

Intrigued about the Annie Sloan chalk paint, I set out to find out more.  One lead led to another and this past Saturday, I got to meet Annie Sloan herself as she was touring our country and showing us how crazy-easy her products are to use and how BEAUTIFUL anything can become in a few short steps.   Needless to say, I am hooked.  Here are some highlights of the tour.

 

Annie showing her beautiful color book

great mix of styles - Budget ReDesigns LLC

 

details....love the details

 

<3 these nesting tables - BB Home

 

so many fun ways to play with the paint!

 

time to practice!

 

I did it!

I had so much fun, met wonderful women from all over who traveled from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and all around Virginia.  I am sure there were many other states represented, the conference center was FULL of fun and creative women.   After the workshop, am sure it wasn’t just the paints and products Annie created that drew so many people -  she is truly a genuine woman with a warm and “bohemian-chic” nature about her.    So very gracious.

I really am cheeky! Like a chipmunk!

Just a few of the many wonderful women I met:

Rachel Pugliese, Brocante Home

Barb Skinvington, Faux Works

Cookie Hanson, Tour De Faux

Ellen Shevella – Old Dominion Horse Show

Cari Lin of Cari Lin Creations/Repurposed and Refined

Marjorie O’Brien

Barb inspired me too!

 

Filed Under: painting, repurposing artwork, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

The Writing Desk

March 4, 2012 By 6 Comments

Sometimes I like to play with old furniture and give it a new look.  A woman in Fredericksburg had an old writing desk she wanted re-done for her home, and of course, I love up-cycling!   I took the desk home and worked on it, wanting to give it a charming, yet old appearance.  I was inspired by a credenza she had in her home, black with gold highlights, worn corners and stained panels.

Here’s the desk, let me know what you think!

 

before

after

 

before

 

after

In case you’re wondering how I refinished the desk.  I gave it a quick sanding and cleaning, used black paint and gel stain, then finished it with a satin polyurethane.   So easy.

before

 

after - maintained the inlay :)

 

I love the details

 

My favorite part is the look of years of use

She loves it and I can’t wait to see it when it’s all purtied up!

Filed Under: painting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Inspired

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
 A beautiful home in Stafford, the owner wanted to update the look and asked us to help!  We were pleased,  as Cathy already had great style and taste!  With a fresh coat of paint, and a few changes, we helped her update the style.  I am going to show my favorite room first ;)

Dining room before

The dining room had these beautiful drapes Cathy and her mom made and those were the inspiration for the room.

Dining room after

By adding woven blinds and artwork, and changing the paint color and installing wood flooring, the room took on a whole new style.

before

 

after

In the foyer, changing the stairs and spindles made a wonderful transformation.  Cathy hired Stairways by Clarence R. Rogers to do the beautiful job.

before

Then we added our touches …

after

found that awesome arm chair tucked away in another room.

after

The family room just needed a few touches here and there.  New paint makes a huge difference, details make it complete :)

before

after

 

before

 

after

Hope you enjoy!

Kate

Filed Under: design, dining room, family room, foyer, mantle, painting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Miss Jackie’s Home

February 28, 2012 By 1 Comment
Miss Jackie is a jewel of a woman, I think I mentioned that when we did our first project for her. Well, that first project got her hooked and she invited us back to do her entire home and over the course of three days, we had it painted by Medias, organized and decorated.

As a special project, Nicole, Jackie’s daughter, sent some family photos for me to crop, re-color and create artwork:

a collage of family photos creates art!

In her living room, Jackie had a bit of a challenge with the television components and didn’t think the chair worked well because it was so tall. I asked her to let me work some magic.

Here are some other before and after photos of our work:

before

 

 

living room after - console chests fit perfectly!

 

 

.

 

.

 

Living room after

 

Dining room before

 

 

Dining room after

 

In Jackie’s bedroom, I kept getting drawn to aviary art and accessories. I couldn’t tell you why I kept seeing birds belonging in her bedroom, but while out treasure hunting for Jackie, I found some beautiful pieces of art and accessories to use.    On the day we were scheduled to complete her redesign, she had not seen what I brought (I like to suprise my clients) and as part of her homework, Jackie had brought in a box of bird music boxes she brought in from storage.     It turns out that her late husband had given her a new one each year during their marriage.    I don’t know how to explain how well our minds worked together – but I placed those beautiful music boxes everywhere I could!

Master bedroom before

 

 

Master bedroom after

 

before

 

after

 

.

 

master bath

 

A beautiful redesign for a beautiful woman!  Hope you enjoy!

Kate

Filed Under: bedding, bedroom, fireplace, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

The Guest Room

August 31, 2011 By 1 Comment

When a child grows up and moves out of the house, there’s gonna be a spare room to play with.  I wanted to turn the extra room into a GINORMOUS walk in closet just for me.  THAT didn’t happen.  Oh well.   Then we thought about making it a library but couldn’t get a huge and heavy oak cabinet up the stairs without taking out stair rails.   My youngest son had his eye on the room, so he took it over and we re-did his old room.  Which is fine with me, I get to turn the spare room into another guest room.   I’ve been falling in love with neutrals and light blues.  Plus, there’s this color I love called Taos Taupe by Benjamin Moore.  It’s not quite gray, not quite taupe – but somewhere in between.

Here’s the room before

Alex's bedroom before

Of course, since Alex was getting to move into the biggest bedroom, he was more than happy to help mom get this room did-up

painting...

Of course, if you know me, I like painting ceilings.  Usually not this dark, but wanted to give it a try…

more painting

I’ve always wanted to try this trim, just to see if it’s easy to install and just as good as cutting trim piece by piece.

easy trim :)

Yup!  Easier than cutting, cursing, and installing wood trim and when done right, looks just as good.

caulk makes trim look SOOO much better

forget about nice manicures

 

almost there

I found the quilt I liked, but was stuck on putting something on the wall between the two shelves.   Over the weekend we had a hurricane and it blew branches EVERYWHERE.   So I picked up a few I liked and made some “art.”

making use of branches

I also just happened to have some spare curtains which matched the wall color and I used the tie backs to cover the rod.

using tie-backs for a rod cover

…and here is how it looks today!

all done :)

 

add some drawer knobs to that artwork!

books and nooks

 

simple

What do you think?

Filed Under: bedding, bedroom, gray, Uncategorized

Hurricane Lamp

August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well, now that the power is restored, I can finish this post!  This weekend, I was supposed to be back in my hometown, having lunch with my sister and nieces and getting ready for my high school reunion.  I cancelled the trip so I could spend time with Irene.  Not by choice of course.  If I had taken the trip, with  the way my imagination runs,  the hurricane would have demolished my home, leaving  me feeling guilty about leaving my family behind.  Instead, I stayed to ride out the storm with everyone.

Of course, Irene wasn’t as bad  as predicted.  In fact, it was anti-climatic.   We lost a tree and had a mess to clean up, lost power for almost three days,  but in light of what could have happened, we were very fortunate.

Anyways, so what does one do when I have a day of nothing planned?  I could have painted a closet, worked on a guest room, or just watched the weather channel all day.  Instead, I decided to work on a lamp a friend gave to me to play with and see what kind of fun I could have.

 

Here’s the lamp.  I guess you would call it a tobacco jar lamp, or a ginger jar lamp.  I’m gonna call it a hurricane lamp since I worked on it before the hurricane blew the  lights out.

a tobacco jar lamp

I wasn’t sure how I would make it look different aside from just spray painting it another color.   I knew I wanted it to have an aged effect, and I want it to coordinate with a room I will be re-doing for my friend,  so I picked up a bunch of different things from the local arts and crafts store and ordered some Tatouage.     I’ve not played with Tatouage before, but found it while I was looking for ceramic transfers.   I am now a big fan of Tatouage.  After toweling the lamp with brown acryllic, I added the leaves…

"painted" leaves

After applying the “painted on” leaves, I liked the effect, but wanted to give the lamp a little more character…

adding an aged effect

can't forget the base :)

I’m a blender when it comes to paint finishes – can’t just have one color.  Below are the materials I worked with on this little project – including the used papertowels – a simple way to add some texture.

the materials

and finally – the finished lamp!  It’s not staying here, so I may just have to go thrifting for a lamp just for me ;)

a "new" old lamp

What do you think?  How have you repurposed a lamp before?   Check back in and I’ll show you what I’ve done with some branches which blew off a tree ;)
-Kate
Filed Under: painting, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Elegantly Casual …

August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
 

 …or casually elegant?  A new home on the river deserves a little dressing up!  We’ve been working with Kathy and Ev on and off for a couple of years now and I got to see the home go from foundation and studs to finished and then finished!   Such a fun couple to work with – they wanted the décor to reflect their personality – warm and welcoming, and wanted it to be somewhere between casual and elegant.   I think we nailed it. 

Here is the living room before:

living room before
before

and after:

living room after

Another after view -  I added lights to the entertainment center, just to give it a bit more oomph.   We also found this great antique trunk in the old house and I wanted to put something behind the sofa so it didn’t look so plain – it works so well!

living room after

Top of the entertainment center

duck, duck, trunks :)

 

Sammy Candleholder

 

Isn’t this a cool candle holder for the cocktail table? I ordered the Sammy Candleholder from Uttermost :) … and now to other rooms in the house.    I have a theory that some rooms need  something black.  Aside from the granite counter tops, I added a little bit more to Kathy and Ev’s mix -

Kitchen before

 …some black valances I found at Lowes.  Simple, but adding some visual  balance and coordinating well with the artwork.

 

Kitchen After

 one of many floral arrangements I made for the homeowners…

a nice table needs some fun too

 

Dining room before

 

Dining room after

 Oh – did I mention I love painted ceilings?  For the dining room and piano room, we used the same color on the ceilings as we did on the walls.  The lighting makes the color look different – how cool is that?

piano room before

Piano room after

 

alternate view

 

 

Love the double tiered lamp and peacock

 

 Next is the Master bedroom – we didn’t have to do too much – just add a little reading area and of course, paint to make it really look wonderful.  Again – with the ceiling… yup, especially tray ceilings with great trim work.  You can’t see it here – but keep scrolling down – you’ll see what I mean.

before

 
master bed and bath after

 

before

 

Master bed after

 And one last room – the office..

 

office before

Oh just look how those custom built-in cabinets stand out! 

Office after

 

 

love, love, love painted ceilings!

 

I am ALWAYS inspired by the people who live in the homes we “play” in.  Getting to know their personalities helps me translate decorating designs specific to them and their home, and mixing in what  Kathy already had with what I made or purchased makes the design truly theirs.    We ordered many of the artwork pieces from Propac Images, decorative items came from Uttermost, Kirklands, Pier1 or Homegoods.  Florals were made by yours truly, and the paint colors are Benjamin Moore. 

2144-40   soft fern   Family room  
2148-40   light khaki   Kitchen/Morning Room  
HC-45   shaker beige   Foyer, Hallways  
2122-40   smoke   Office walls  
2122-30   cloudy sky   Office ceiling  
HC-44   lenox tan   Piano room and Dining room, walls and ceilings  
           
HC-44   lenox tan   Master Bedroom walls and ceiling (horizontal)  
HC-43   tyler taupe   Master Bedroom ceiling (slope)  
HC-44   lenox tan   Master Bath

,

Filed Under: Uncategorized
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