More News From Dallas Winter Market

More News From Dallas Winter Market

When I visited market in January I checked in on some friends from the Houston area, Doni Langlois and Phyllis Palmer, both wonderful faux finishers I have used before on projects. They have branched out and now both have product lines they are selling through a showroom in the World Trade Center, Doris Sanders, Ltd., Ste. 631, http://www.dsandersltd.com/.

Doni, photo on top, makes beautiful tapestries. I photographed her with one of her favorites. Phyllis makes stunning trumeau mirrors with all kinds of finishes, even patterns in the antiqued mirror. Phyllis is going to be doing a mirror with a scene of a client's home painted at the top. Anything is possible. Both will do custom work, and have some standard pieces offered. They are very talented and have a wonderful attention to detail that really makes or breaks a finish. I hope to use some of their art pieces in my projects in the future. Check out their websites below for more images.

Doni Langlois, Artful Life, http://www.itsanartfullife.com/

Phyllis Palmer, Transformations by Phyllis, http://www.tfbyp.com/

Dallas Market Winter 2010

Dallas Market Winter 2010

I attended market in Dallas in January and had a really special experience while I was there. I had received an invitation for a luncheon on the top floor of the World Trade Center for the Friday of market and RSVP'd last minute, thinking I might or might not be able to get up there. There's lots to see in such a short period of time!

At about 15 till 12:00 I started thinking about my aching feet and how I'd love to sit for awhile. When I realized it was almost lunchtime, I made my way up the top floor for my luncheon. What a lovely surprise! A beautiful 3 course meal was laid out with gift bags and interesting designers to talk to at my table. Joe Ruggiero was the guest speaker, discussing his inspirations for his designs for Sunbrella fabrics. What a lovely respite. If you've ever been to market at lunchtime, you know that if you get to sit at the "cafeteria" on the first floor, you crowd in with everyone else and as soon as you get through eating, people with their food trays are standing there staring at you to get up so they can have your seat.

Joe Ruggiero looked just like he does on tv. Having hosted a show on HGTV for 16 years, he definitely has charm and charisma. He has travelled all over the world and draws from those experiences to come up with colors, textures, and patterns for the incredible Sunbrella fabric line. Sunbrella fabrics are not just for outdoors anymore! They are plush, soft, and have a wonderful hand. I particularly liked the velvet and the sheers, you would never know they were indoor/outdoor fabrics. The best thing about them is that they are practically indestructible and really easy to clean. You can spill red wine, bleach, just about anything and they clean right up. These fabrics are perfect for families with children, pets, and even husbands who like to eat on the sofa. Many fabric lines are coming out with these type fabrics now. There are just so many lovely choices, there is no need to sacrifice style for durability.

I had a lovely day at market this year. With this great respite in the middle of the day, meeting some new people including Joe Ruggiero, and learning all about Sunbrella fabrics, it made coping with the crowds and all that walking much more enjoyable.

No More Pink Toilets!

No More Pink Toilets!

This powder bath had a color problem. Pink fixtures! Nothing dates a bathroom faster than colored plumbing fixtures. I almost always do white or bisquit, unless it is a special sink that makes a statement. Black toilets are particularly bad for me. Okay, I'm gagging right now.

In this powder room remodel, the color had to go and a neutral, classic style was put in it's place. The homeowner wanted the look of a beautiful, boutique hotel. We had a very tall, narrow space at the vanity and I chose to accent that by locating two sconces beside a slender mirror. The walls were painted a dark neutral and then the vanity, countertop, and wall behind the mirror were a contrasting light neutral. This served to highlight the tall, narrow, dramatic space. I pushed for the expense of having the marble tile all the way up the back of that wall, I felt it just gave a sense of quality we needed in there. Extending the countertop material up the wall again just emphasized the tall, narrow space and added a sense of drama and elegance.

Another Powder Room Remodel

Another Powder Room Remodel

Here is another powder room remodel (before photo is at the bottom!) where existing cabinets were reused but all other finishes and fixtures were changed. The homeowner desired a more stylish and upgraded look and wanted to paint the walls her favorite color, purple. The main problem was the tall cabinet that you walked right in to when you entered the room. The homeowner wanted to keep the storage, but you don't often have tall storage like that in a powder bath, much less having it the first thing you see.

I minimized the tall cabinet by painting it the color of the walls and highlighting the vanity area with a little glitz on the mirror, lighting, and vessel sink. Your focus goes straight to the bowl and mirror and you totally miss the tall cabinet. Having all the other elements in the room a warm neutral made the purple color appear dramatic and purposeful. The room is all about the glitz at the vanity, while the wall color provides a rich backdrop.

Powder Rooms

Powder Rooms

I do lots of powder room remodels. It’s a smaller project and easy to include with a kitchen or master bath remodel. If you are going to have all those trades in your house, you might as well get this small room done while they’re around! I’ve only done one powder room as a separate project and it takes just as long to do as any other project because you go through the same process and same consecutive steps in construction. You might as well select the plumbing fixtures for the powder room while you are doing the master bath or the kitchen faucet.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be showing a few powder room remodels. Most are pretty simple. The basic rule for designing a powder room is to keep the focus on one element in the space. These are small rooms and too much going on will look busy and be unsettling. I like to have some wow factor in there, after all you have a captive audience in the powder room, you might as well make an impression.

The powder room before and after above is a dramatic change. This was an older house, with dated wallpaper and fixtures. The homeowner liked dark, rich colors and traditional style, kind of a Ralph Lauren look. We kept the base cabinet, painted, added a new remnant granite countertop with a vessel sink, changed out the wall sconces and mirror and got a brand new powder room! I think the wow here is the mirror and the vessel sink and sconces play a supporting role.

Updated Window Treatments

Updated Window Treatments

The photos above are "after" and then "before" of the window treatments I did in the kitchen remodel shown in my previous blog post. I thought that the old valance cut the room in half and didn't involve the volume of space above it. I tried to create a more open breakfast room and accentuate the height of the ceiling by adding a chandelier and doing vertical panels alongside the windows. The trellis pattern in the fabric relates to the garden outside and the dark bronze hardware speaks to the kitchen color scheme.

A Recently Completed Kitchen Remodel

Here are "after" and then "before" photos of a kitchen remodel I recently completed. We kept some of the cabinets, replacing the doors, and did a new island and new wall of cabinetry along the frig wall. The homeowner didn’t like the white cabinets and the color scheme was very dated. A fresher, cleaner look was desired with a softer color palette. Existing floor tile remained to keep budget costs down.

I like the way it turned out with the contrast in the island, countertop, and glass front cabinet interiors. It’s a much slicker look and has a more updated appeal. I would have preferred a new darker floor, something halfway between the light and dark values to ground the space, but the homeowner preferred to keep their existing tile. It is a nice new kitchen that has added much value to the home and is much more enjoyable for the homeowners....and it doesn't look just like every other house next door! I'll post the window treatments we did in this space later in the week.