Every once in a while, a decorator is blessed with clients who are ready to go, think outside the box a little and aren’t afraid of some interesting ideas. Like pairing turquoise and zebra and owls. Yep. You read that right. And it all works. I absolutely love the way this room turned out. It is the perfect multi-tasking space for a family to work, relax and sneak in some storage.
Here are the before pictures:
This room is the first room you see when you enter this home. Previously it was used as a home office as well as the room that just got stuff set in. You know that room. We all have one, so don’t pretend like you don’t.
My client called me and asked to meet for coffee. She had an idea about her front room but wanted to discuss and design. You see, her home has no coat closet. And she needed to come up with some solution for all of the winter gear that had accumulated in the front office over the course of the season. Plus, she also wanted to move the desk out of there and make it more of a living room. I distinctly remember drawing up a plan for some built-ins on a little scrap of paper I found in my purse. And with some tweaking, a great storage solution was born. I hooked her up with my carpenter (who is very used to interpreting my odd drawings) and the rest is history.
Next was fabric shopping. My client wanted something fun but sophisticated too. She had found some chairs on her neighborhood “yard sale” Facebook page and wanted them painted and recovered. Plus, the built-ins were going to have a storage bench and we needed a cushion for that. First we stumbled upon the turquoise and chartreuse zebra pattern and it was love at first sight. We knew that was going to go on the chairs. Then we saw the owls. And after some photos to my client’s husband and some convincing, we made the purchase.
I painted the chairs a charcoal grey and sent them to the upholsterer. My client decided to do the painting herself in the rest of the room. She painted the back of the built-ins to match the chairs. We had the cushion made and found some pillows.
Now when you enter this home, you don’t see a cluttered office with winter clothes strewn about. You see a clean and sophisticated, yet fun, living room. My client’s daughter loves to read on the bench and my client loves that she can hide away clothing, papers and other items that she would rather not have on display. My client’s husband is just glad we did it on a budget.
We are still looking for the perfect rug, but I think I found it. I just love it when a plan comes together.
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