Shall we continue? if you've been following my posts, you know the details: crazy big house in Las Vegas, furnish in two months, and surprise a new mom who also happens to be one of my closest friends with a fully furnished new home. And if you're like, "what? I'm lost," please rewind, read P art 1 and come back!

On to the most used areas of the home: family room, kitchen dining area and kitchen. These areas are the heart of every home, and in most modern homes or renovated homes, they are the areas where families spend 90% of their time. These spaces need to be warm and functional, but should still be stylish. If you're going to spend most of the time in one area of the house, it should be a pleasant experience. Don't you agree?

Here is the before of the family room and kitchen eating area.

I know there are moving boxes but that doesn't take any shine and sparkle from that brand new kitchen and appliances. I love old houses. I'm lucky to live in one that was built in the 1930's, and the charm can't be replicated, but I have to say, an absolutely never used kitchen?! Amazing. I've even cooked in this kitchen and it's so much fun.

Here is the new kitchen dining area!

You can see how even the sun loves this new arrangement as it casts some sunbeams on this beautiful trestle table. I knew the clients had a strong preference for white coastal-style furniture. However, since the kitchen cabinets were so dark, I thought bringing anything too stark white would look slightly odd. Instead, I chose a dark wood trestle table to match the kitchen cabinets while opting for a ivory linen chairs to bring some lightness in. This table is not only beautiful but durable and the perfect height for a high chair on either end. The evergreen garland was leftover from the night before when I arranged some snacks for the mini surprise party. See below!

Quick Tip - Do you see the cake stand being used as a veggie platter?  Great way to use your cake stand more than once a year and not purchase additional serve ware.  And how does this relate to being more organized? Less stuff = less… — Quick Tip - Do you see the cake stand being used as a veggie platter? Great way to use your cake stand more than once a year and not purchase additional serve ware. And how does this relate to being more organized? Less stuff = less clutter!

Marching onwards to the adjacent family room. Here is the before.

Beautiful foundation to work with. It's a blank slate. The clients love watching college sports, so I knew the seating in this room had to be comfortable, but since the rest of the house was furnished a touch on the more formal side, I didn't want the family room to deviate too far from that. Objective achieved I think.

It's cozy but classy. The throw pillows add color but can be quickly changed out if the clients want to go in a different direction. Since this was a surprise and I had no client input, I went safe with whites, grays and blues for the accent pillows. Having different sizes and textures brings a curated look to the room.

The coffee table is the perfect size and the glass top brings the visual lightness you need here because of all the furniture in this room. The clients just had a baby so for future childproofing purposes, I recommended that they either temporarily store the table for a while when the baby becomes a toddler and starts walking or use these nifty things called corner bumpers which will protect their adorable baby boy from those sharper corners.

And you're thinking, wait, Clara, isn't there a piece missing in the sectional? Good eye. Due to the time constraints, the corner piece did not arrive in time, but the clients generously forwarded me a photo of the completed sectional. See below!

Sectionals are hard. They are so comfortable, but it's often difficult to find one that looks tailored and streamlined. I love this one. It's modern but not too much so and would work in a number of different type of styles. And it's really, really comfortable. Promise.

Wait, don't forget the kitchen counter stools. You can kind of spot the kitchen counter stools in the above photos but here is a closer look.

The counter stools echo the look of the kitchen dining room chairs but are not identical. No one likes being their furniture too matchy. So instead, we have sister chairs here, which provides a cohesive look throughout the entire space.

And my favorite part of this area of the house? The walk-in kitchen pantry. Truth. I see them on House Hunters and I'm always thinking if I had a walk in pantry the things I could do! I don't foresee one in my future, but it was fun pretending this was my pantry while I shopped to fill it up for the clients.

It's like having your own general store. So much space. I just can't get over it. The baskets with chalkboard labels are great for labeling and corralling the smaller items to keep things organized. And the large airtight glass canisters are perfect for storing dry goods you use often so you don't have to deal with the mess associated with opening and closing paper bags of flour, sugar, and salt.

Last tip? Dish soap advice. Yup, you heard right. Pour and use your dish soap using a bathroom soap dispenser as seen below. First, it's practical, it's easier than picking up your dish soap with every use to apply to your sponge. You can now apply soap with one hand! Second, yes, it's prettier. Please don't downplay this second benefit. I am a firm believer that when things are arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way, there's more of an incentive to maintain better organization in the house. Every little bit counts, and no detail should be too small. And this is something that takes almost no effort!

And that's it folks. I hope you enjoyed this second installation. This family room/kitchen area has the perfect balance of sophistication and comfort, a solid foundation for both entertaining and everyday living. Stay tuned for the final installation which will be published next week!

This past November I decided to mastermind a surprise birthday party for my husband. I patted myself on the back. I was one upped BIG TIME. One of my closest friend's husband decided to surprise his wife by fully furnishing their new home without her knowledge, and he hired me to implement this crazy plan!!! Whaa.....????? Yup. Totally true.

This couple just had a newborn baby and this client knew that furnishing and making a new home in another state would be just a touch too much to handle for his lovely but sleep deprived wife. So he hired me to surprise the heck out of her by presenting her with a move-in-ready home right before the holidays. And before you say it, I know, decorating 101, you should live in a space and slowly furnish things over time. But you know what? Sometimes life doesn't work that way. Sometimes life moves quickly, you have a new job, you have to furnish a new home, AND you have a new born. I was happy to take on this project to help ease any stresses due to all these wonderful life changes.

To accommodate some career changes, this couple would now be splitting their time between their home in Southern California and Las Vegas. As they were going to maintain their California home, they would not be moving a single stick of furniture into this gigantic Las Vegas home. Not only that, they needed everything, from trashcans, cookware, Tupperware, pantry items, etc. You get the point, I can only imagine how I looked filling over four carts at Target. Have you ever tried buying bathroom accessories for 4 bathrooms at one time?!

He asked me if I thought I could accomplish it, and I said, sure no problem. The challenges? To name a few: a house in another state; a 4,000 square foot house; a 2 month deadline; unpacking and organizing all of their things so it would be move in ready; starting from scratch as they were not bringing any furniture with them; reading the mind of the actual client, his wife, in terms of style and interior design. It was a daunting task. Truly. When I went for a site visit after I was hired, I realized how big the challenge was. Living in the Bay Area for so long, even large homes in SF paled in comparison to this newly constructed 4,000 square foot home. It was huge, and I knew I needed large scale furniture to furnish this home.

I actually pulled it off! I needed a week to recover but I'm so excited to share this project, it's absolutely amazing. Due to the number of rooms that I furnished, I'll share the living room, dining room, entryway and office for now. On to the fun stuff.

The living room and dining room before. A sad, unfurnished empty house. It's yelling "please furnish me"

In new homes, open concept living spaces dominate. On the one hand, that's great, because open spaces in a home allow family members to do a vast number of different activities while still sharing their time together in one large space. But open concept living can be difficult to style and furnish. All the different spaces that serve different purposes should remain cohesive, and that can be a significant challenge. Here, there were three areas: living room, dining room and entryway, all in one large space. To keep the spaces cohesive, I kept things classically neutral.

Here is the absolutely fabulous new dining room. Most dining rooms center around a rectangular dining table but this space was perfect for the most elegant circular dining table. And I'm always a fan of keeping this casual, but knowing these clients, I knew that an upscale, more formal dining area would be perfect for them. Below is the fully furnished formal living room.

I never have the opportunity to use large scale furniture when working in the Bay Area so I went a little nuts here.  The chairs?  You can literally curl up and read in that chair and feel like you're on a cloud.  And its the perfect … — I never have the opportunity to use large scale furniture when working in the Bay Area so I went a little nuts here. The chairs? You can literally curl up and read in that chair and feel like you're on a cloud. And its the perfect neutral gray brown to tie in with the rest of the furniture in the room. Here is another vantage point below.

So I was able to get 95% of the furniture delivered on time. Sadly, the living room couch was delayed and you can see the empty space under the wall art. Did I pester the client, also a sleep-deprived new dad, to take a photo for me after the sofa arrived? Yes, I did. And I'm eternally grateful to him. The neutral linen couch is the perfect piece to complete the living room set. Having two different but complementary upholstered furniture pieces makes it feel like you just didn't purchase a set off the showroom floor but that pieces were purchased and arranged in a thoughtful and curated manner. I can imagine many very sophisticated adult conversations occurring in this sitting area.

On to the adjacent entryway area, it shared a space with the living and dining room.

I knew I wanted to make a large impact and take advantage of the very tall and majestic ceilings.  And that's what I did. — I knew I wanted to make a large impact and take advantage of the very tall and majestic ceilings. And that's what I did.

Mission accomplished! Oddly, the entryway doesn't receive a lot of natural light. As a solution, I hung two huge mirrors to bounce around light that actually came through the windows. The beautiful entryway table is the perfect scale for such a large space and a great place for mail, keys, baby gear, etc. For accessories, I tried to stay classic and neutral so the clients wouldn't feel the need to change anything out. It's hard to truly appreciate the size of this entry table so I took a photo with me in it so that you can see the scale of the furniture. It's really one of my favorite spaces in the house.

Entryways are often overlooked in most homes but they are so important. They set the tone of the rest of your home for your guests, and this entryway clearly says, welcome to this fabulous and sophisticated home!

Last but not least, the home office. The client wanted it to make it special for his wife. Knowing that she loves the color pink, I tried to infuse the office with all different shades of pink, but in a subtle way. Here is the before.

It's a plain, beige room. I knew it also had to double as a guest room so I ordered a sofa sleeper to provide additional seating for when it was used as an office and could double as a bedroom when necessary.

And here is the after!

Perfection. The client wife is a high powered attorney. She is one of the smartest people I know and I absolutely love that she is confident enough to fully embrace her femininity which includes her love for the color pink. I added touches of pink through the storage boxes and wall art. I wanted the room to remain flexible for them so that they could easily change it into a guest room full time if necessary. The upholstered gray desk chair is comfortable and the perfect home office chair. The office is clean, fun and holds all the necessary work tools but isn't cluttered which is the balance you're aiming for in a home office.

I was lucky enough to be there when she walked in, she was absolutely and utterly shocked to walk into a fully-furnished home when she expected to be met with an empty house full of moving boxes. It was the most amazing surprise ever, such a special moment. I loved it. Did we cry?! Of course! And lucky for me, she loved everything!

Stay tuned for before and afters for the rest of this house in the upcoming weeks! I pinky swear it's going to be just as amazing and worth your time.