As I prepare for another NYC work trip, I thought now would be a good time to give a quick update. Although it's been a little quiet on the blog for before and afters that doesn't mean I haven't been busily working! Right now, I'm in the middle of three different projects in New York, and I thought it would be fun to give you a little peek into these projects.
Riverdale Project
These clients recently purchased their first home in Riverdale, NY. I'm really excited for them. Purchasing a home is such a milestone, especially in a market like New York! Their flat is located inside a building that was built in the early 20th century and has all the classic features you'd expect in a turn of the century building: high ceilings, original wood floors, arched entryways, etc. At the same time, this flat still needs a little love and updating. Below are some before photos.
It was clear that the plaster walls and molding had been neglected and needed some replastering as well as repainting. Due to some unusual circumstances, I had to confer with the clients and we had to choose all the paint colors for the entire apartment in a span of a couple of hours. So I went to my list of never fail paint colors and, throwing caution to the wind, we just handed our color choices to the contractor and went from there! The colors turned out beautifully. Adhering to the clients' desire to update the flat and affinity for cool colors, we mostly chose a palette of grays. See below for some afters with the new paint colors.
The paint has already made such a huge difference in updating the spaces. We've started the design phase of the process, beginning with the dining room. See below for the mood board.
Sophisticated and modern. We painted the dining room Nocturnal Gray by Benjamin Moore. The clients were somewhat skeptical of the notion of a darker wall color, but ended up being blown away when all the walls were painted and done. The dark wall colors will provide the perfect canvas for this dining room, allowing everything else to simply pop. Stay tuned for more updates!
Brooklyn heights project
This client is one of my first official e-design clients. She also purchased her first home, New homeowners are one of my favorite type of clients, since their enthusiasm and passion for their newfound space is often infectious.
The major challenge for this space was fitting everything the client wanted into a common area with a smaller footprint - around an 11' x 18' room, which also includes the kitchen. Since she loves entertaining,a full sized dining table with the appropriate seating was a must have. We also wanted to integrate some of her existing furniture, inherited from her grandmother, with the mid-century furniture we planned on purchasing. Below is a photo of the space right after moving in.
I created a mood board and that was the starting point for the collaboration.
The first item (the couch) has already arrived! A life changing development for my client, because after a long day at work, nothing feels better than plopping down on the couch and putting your feet up. In the midst of our collaboration, there have been a couple of edits to the above mood board after some measuring and other considerations. I strongly believe that creating the perfect room is always a joint effort between the designer and the clients, but that's even more true when the design process is done entirely through e-mail and images. I'm really excited to see how this is all going to turn out. We are eagerly anticipating future furniture deliveries including a Saarinen Tulip table!
Brooklyn Project
This is a project I've been working on for several months now and will be traveling next week to New York to finally install it. I've blogged about it before here and here. Wallpaper will be going up next week, a reminder of that lovely wallpaper below.
To be quite honest, this home is lovely as is, but could benefit from just a dose of some color and fun. And hopefully that's what I will bring. Here is a before of the living room.
Installation days/weeks are like sprints. They are usually very long days of shopping, editing and installing, but they are usually the best part of my job, and I can't wait to visit New York (again!) and install this project.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for future updates on all of these projects.