Home Sweet Home? Hopefully very soon!
We are hard at work in the final stages of our home renovation.
Showing posts with label interior design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interior design. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2016
Monday, November 9, 2015
Viyet
It is the most wonderful time of the year! Even though the temperatures haven't cooled off in Texas quite yet, the spirit of the upcoming holidays is already in the air! People are planning parties, starting their shopping and looking forward to welcoming guests to their homes so the Dallas Launch of Viyet couldn't come at a better time!
If you are anything like me, most of your prep work for your home or entertaining needs is done on-line at the end of the day. I wish I had more time to take a leisurely stroll through the design district but it just isn't my reality! With the combination of the One Room Challenge Living Room deadline looming and guests coming in for the holidays soon, I've made Viyet my first stop on my daily on-line browse!
You can see what I found on Viyet for the One Room Challenge when we make the big reveal right here on this blog on Wednesday but in the meantime, I want to show you the other things I have my eye on!
Here is my dining room. It was designed by Jan Showers eight years ago. I fall more and more in love with the Gracie Wallpaper every time we entertain in there but I love to change up the other elements. We have since added a new dining room table and now I have my eye on this Carlyle Mirror Console from the Jan Showers Collection which is offered at a major discount on Viyet!
It is perfect for a party right? Imagine a punch bowl, some glasses, a stunning vase of holiday flowers. I'm ready to hit "Make an Offer!"
I'm also coveting this glamorous polished brass and glass bar cart fro Edward Ferrell and Lewis Mittman. It is so versatile and could be moved to any part of the house you need! It is a hostesses dream piece!
Viyet has something for every room in your house though, like this AMAZING Pagoda Daybed from Ceylon et Cie
I'm crazy about these antique Gilt Wood Eagle Sconces too! I wish I had a place for them in the One Room Challenge!
Ohhhhh....this side chair by Bunny Williams makes my heart skip a beat! Every room needs a pop of color!
And I don't want you to miss the wonderful designer spotlights they have on their site. They are so inspiring! They ask all of the high-style designers you love all of the questions you would ask if you were meeting them for a coffee or sipping a glass of wine with them!
and the best part is that when you find something new you want, you can consign the pieces you no longer have room for!
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
One Room Challenge: Week 2 - My Inspiration
Hi there! Thanks for checking back in on our One Room Challenge Living Room Makeover!
I'm in Charleston getting ready for my book signing tomorrow but I'm still making progress at the ranch - I have to! No rest for the weary with the ORC!
The photo above is our inspiration. I am crazy about this room and, because the ranch is a space that my entire family enjoys, I felt like we needed a vote on the "look" for the space and this one won!
I love this photo too - the unpolished silver trophy cups and the black and white photo are so charming.
I found this black and white 1" check fabric marked down to $6/yard (yes - you read that right!) so I went ahead and bought tons of it! Now I just need to get work on getting it up on the windows and walls!
I've also ordered this Derby Equestrian Side Table which I hope will be the perfect place to set my glass of wine when I sit down with a book - that scenario might have to wait until my children have grown but a girl can dream right?
I've done a lot of ordering actually! I also ordered these wonderful side chairs from World Market - a pair for $399! I think they will be great on either side of the armoire that is already in the room and they are light enough that they can be picked up and moved around the room when there are more people gathered.
The other things I want in the room include a club fender (I'm on the hunt for one so please let me know if you have any resources!),
equestrian paintings (I bought a big lot of paintings in Ireland in July - can't wait for their arrival!)
and a splash of color (still trying to decide on the accent color but I'm leaning towards red.) What do you think? (loving this look with the Zebra Rug!)
I hope you will follow along for the next four weeks leading up to our big reveals!
Here are links to the other participating blogs.
By the way, I can't figure out who to credit for these inspirational photos. Does anyone know? I'd love to be able to provide the proper links and credits. I found these on Pinterest.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
One Room Challenge!
I can't even believe this but here we go again!
Seriously...what am I doing?
The One Room Challenge bug has bit again! This is kind of addictive actually and I had another room at White Oaks Ranch I really needed to tackle. So...here starts the next six weeks of panic and me begging people to help me meet my deadlines and on and on.
For those of you who are new to the ORC, I'll give you a short little summary of what you can expect. In a nutshell, twenty bloggers have been coaxed into attempting to do the impossible by an amazing lady named Linda, the blogger behind Calling It Home. Well, maybe that was a little bit dramatic? We are really just transforming a room over a six week period, sharing our progress, our inspiration, and our sources with you along the way through our regular Wednesday posts.
Last season, the dining room at White Oaks Ranch was transformed into a magical room that we all just love spending time in. My uncle had a dinner party in there just last week and he said that no one would leave because it just feels good in there!
This round I am excited to tackle the living room at White Oaks. As you can see from the "before" pictures below, It needs it. Just like the dining room, I hasn't been touched in a while....a long while...and let's just say that the fashions have changed... a lot.
But beyond our evolving tastes, there are really a few problems that we need to solve in the living room. First of all, it is just kind of boring. The colors are blah and the room doesn't excite or invite. Secondly, the rug is way way way too small and makes the room feel shrimpy. Most importantly, when we are there, we are typically a pretty big crew of family and friends and we need more seating and spaces for everyone to relax. Hopefully, this challenge will help me overcome these challenges and create a space that makes us want to gather and create memories.
Next week I will show you my inspiration. I'm so excited about the plans and I'm on my knees praying that I will be able to pull it off! I hope you will follow along with me! I couldn't have done it without you last round!
I'll end every post in this series with this list of the other participants (who are just as nutty as I am to take something like this on) that I hope you will follow along with too:
Friday, August 28, 2015
Friday Favorites
I'm packing up one of these and heading to Charlotte this weekend to speak at the Carolina Bridal Fair for Southern Living. Can't wait to meet all the brides-to-be!
Every southern gal you know needs this cookie jar! So cute!
Friday, August 7, 2015
Friday Favorites
I can't believe it is already August! I can't bear to leave these summer sunsets but I'll enjoy the last few I have.
Need paint? Want the highest quality paint from Farrow and Ball? Please don't miss this chance to win it!
Click here for a tour of one of m favorite houses in Dallas. This house is a dream!
Why do bananas wear suntan lotion? Because the peel! To make up for that silly joke I give you these 11 recipes for Banana Pudding. You're welcome!
Do you feel like you need to turn around some bad luck or vibes? Wear this cute fix for that!
Loving this scallop top - you can wear it now and then under a blazer when the weather cools off. (Is it ever going to cool off?)
If you follow my sister, Krystal Schlegel, then you know that off-the-shoulder tops are everything right now. She loves this one. I love this one.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Lake Life Mood Board and Farrow and Ball Giveaway!
We have been struggling all summer to figure out some updates that need to be done to our little summer cottage on the lake. We love it here. Our time here is spent building sandcastles on the beach with the children, reading that pile of books that collects on our bedside tables throughout the year, boating, and eating dinner on the deck with a glass of rosé and the sunset.
The last thing I want to deal with when we are here is updates to the house but another one of our dining chairs broke and the sofa is covered in stains - It's time!
Normally, a design project is the kind of thing that I take great joy in but when I arrive here, it just seems like an overwhelming and daunting project. I realized this week that part of the problem is that I don't have a vision of what the new look for the place should be?
It is currently a hodge-podge of old pieces that seemed to make their way here from other spots. I can't even bear to share a photo with you of the interior. The house was built in the 1970s with a pitched roof, open floor plan and amazing views of the lake. We love the layout but it certainly could use some TLC.
So what do I do now? Make a mood board!
It is the perfect way tool to help me make decisions when picking out paint and wallpaper and shopping for furniture. I had to jump on it because we are headed to a local Antique Fair this weekend and I want to be ready to buy!
I set to work making the mood board earlier this week and it all just started to fall together. I now feel so excited about fixing this place up and getting it ready for the rest of the summer and many more to follow.
I make mood boards for everything from home design projects to my children's birthday parties but the hardest part of it is getting started. So hard!
They always start in a different way for me. Sometimes there is an item that strikes a chord in me, it could be anything from a little plate to a piece of furniture. Other times it is a color combination, fabric swatch or wallpaper design that jumps out as my starting point. I always wait for something to resonate with me and I leap off from there.
In this case, it was this fantastic seagull motif pattern called Yukutori, a block print wallpaper from Farrow and Ball. It is perfect for here and the second I saw it I said YES! That is it! The inspiration I've been looking for!
Then I started browsing through their amazingly well edited selection of paint colors. I found three that struck me as the colors we often see in the magical sunsets (although every single sunset is different!). I took small screen-shot "swatches" of India Yellow, Drawing Room Blue, and Parma Gray and saved them to my desktop.
I browsed through our photos from this summer and picked out a few of my favorites and then started playing around on Pinterest for a little bit more inspiration. This photo really stood out.
Isn't it charming? It sums up everything I love about this place...simple, elegant, relaxed with a dose of fun!
The next step is setting up a collage format. I like to use PowerPoint because it is so simple to arrange, re-arrange, fiddle with, etc. A lot of people like to use photoshop or other programs with more bells and whistles but I like to keep mine simple and easy. This is supposed to be motivating and exciting and to me that translates to user-friendly!
Now comes the really fun part: Shopping with out spending any money! I love to visit my favorite sites and resources to pull items that would fit my dream results. I'll choose anything from any price point because, after all, this is a mood board, not a shopping list! This is a place to dream, scheme and play. This is where I'm bold and daring with colors and patterns! I always like a combination of warm and cool tones to add rich layers. I add the images to my Power Point and start playing around with them. I typically start with more items than I need and then edit down to only my favorites.
Once I have a layout I like that I feel achieves the look I am after, I always put it away for a day (or two) and then pull it back out and take a second look. Does it still portray the mood to me? Did I get the essence of it right the first time or do I need to edit? This Lake Life board got a lot of editing. It was a tricky one to put together but I tried to really keep in mind what our mornings, noons and nights were like. I tried to think of the places and spaces here that I find most relaxing and inspiring, like the row of Adirondack chairs that I like to plop down in with a throw blanket and my morning coffee. Now that I'm done with it, I feel like this:
Here is where I need your help and my friends at Farrow and Ball have generously agreed to let me reward one of you with up to 5 Litres of their incredible paint (there isn't a designer in the world who doesn't agree that Farrow and Ball makes the-best-paint-hands-down!). That is a big value and I can't wait to give it away! So, help me out here...
Leave a comment here or on my Instagram Post and let me know what you think. I'd love to know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and I'd love to see your mood boards! If you make a mood board - could be for anything - include a Farrow and Ball paint color or wallpaper, post it on your social media sites, tag me (@KimberlyWhitman) and use the hashtag #myFABmoodboard, that will count for major points!!! I want to see you be bold, experiment and play with patterns and colors to put together a dream board. Let's inspire each other!
Custom Painted Plates from Jacqueline Poirier - The Crazy Plate Lady
This post is in partnership with Farrow and Ball, a brand I love. All opinions here are my own.
This post is in partnership with Farrow and Ball, a brand I love. All opinions here are my own.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
KSW Travels - Ballyfin
Justin and I have just returned from Ireland and had the most amazing time! The highlight of the trip was our weekend at Ballyfin.
We were invited by a dear friend along with twenty others. It was such a special time with old friends and new at a magical place.
Ballyfin's story is fascinating and the staff at the house do an amazing job of making it come to life. We started our visit with a tour of the house by Lionel, a true Irish gentleman who grew up near the house and worked there as a carpenter during the renovation. He now does just about anything that is needed at the house, from the tour to the horse and carriage rides!
Ballyfin House was built for Sir Charles Coote in the 1820s by the great Irish Architects Sir Richard and William Morrison in the Palladian Style. Everything about the house is symmetrical which makes my heart skip a beat. You can click here for a brief history of the house. After serving as a boarding school for most of the Twentieth century, it is now owned by an American couple, Kay and Fred Krehbiel, who have restored it back to its original glory and maybe even beyond.
The Krehbiels have done an amazing job and the journey of the restoration is chronicled in a wonderful book called Ballyfin: The Restoration of an Irish House but we loved digging through these albums in the library too.
The Rotunda was always a gathering spot for our group. I think it was because they usually had cookies set out for us.
Isn't this cantilevered staircase amazing? This photo doesn't really do it justice.
The restored conservatory was a great place to gather to beat the chill! It captured the warmth of the sun and blocked out the wind. It originally functioned as a green house but now serves as a place to sit and read or dine.
The stunning formal dining room.
Of course, my favorite room in the house was a storage room! The collection of Flora Danica on display gave me a case of some serious china envy!
Of course, eating off a tray of blue and white china wasn't bad either!
I must say that the beauty of the gardens rivaled the interiors. Originally, the house would have been completely self sufficient and the would have grown or raised everything they ate. Today, they use as much of their own vegetables as they can. We often snacked on sliced fennel and tomatoes strait from the grounds.
The best way to take in the extensive grounds was with the horse and carriage ride. It was so charming to hear the clop-clop-clop of the horses, snuggle underneath a blanket and soak in the beauty of the Irish countryside.
We found the famous "grotto" - no, not the infamous American one but I'm sure some shenanigans went down here as well!
We climbed to the top of the tower where we could see green rolling hills for miles and miles. We started to count the steps to the top but lost track after a while.
But, enough about the house and gardens. The weekend was full of activity! From archery to fishing, it was non-stop. You could select your own activities and go at your own pace but, of course, with my energetic husband along, I didn't even get five minutes to curl up next to the fireplace with the stack of books I took!
Can you think of a more incredible spot to go fishing or ride horseback?
This "Bird House" is slated for the next phase of the renovations. Isn't it amazing? A beautiful place for the chickens and peacocks to live and stroll!
I loved exploring the grounds and Justin and I stumbled on this old row of buildings that had vines hanging down and trees growing up through the roof!
One afternoon, we hoped in the car at the suggestion of Angus Wilke and Len Morgan and went to preview an auction in a small town near by. We ended up "winning" eleven of these painted tractor seats. I'm not sure what we will do with them but I'm thinking they need a special spot at White Oaks Ranch. Any suggestions for me?
One of my favorite surprises on the trip was stumbling upon this little church on the grounds of the house. We heard music and stuck our heads in and joined a church service that had only eleven other people in attendance. It was so special and sweet.
On our last night, we arrived back at our room to find our costumes laid out so that we could dress for dinner. I hate to admit that I have always had a bad attitude about getting dressed in costume but more because of the time it takes to put the costume together! When it is laid out like this, how can you refuse?
It was a weekend I will never forget! A massive thanks to our wonderful host!
Any ideas on what kind of gift we can send as a thank you?
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