Hello. It's Me.

Lordy, lordy, lordy, where have I been? Why has there been so much silence on this blog and the year has just begun?
I've missed chatting with you all more frequently in this space but most of you know you can follow me over on Instagram where I'm a bit of a busy bee. 
So here's the tea - for the uninitiated, tea means dish, scoop, the gossip. 
We are busier than we've ever been. Ironic right? Especially when I agonized so much last year about taking a leap of faith and leaving my full-time job as a writer for a medical school. The lesson in all this? Sometimes you have to be available to embrace your blessing. I've become 100% available to be present and accountable for my business and in turn, have been blessed to be available to reconnect with old clients, and embrace the the new clients who have found me via Houzz, Pinterest, Instagram and more. 
So what projects are we working on? The design above is for the model unit of an apartment complex. We've been hired to design the 2/2 bathroom unit and to say I was excited is a bit of an understatement. Designing a model has been a dream of mine so definitely happy to check this one off the bucket list. 
It's come with challenges though. For starters, we had three weeks to get it all done. Lord, the stress. These are also rental units which means we were not able to paint the walls or change any light fixtures. Since y'all know how much I love color, not being able to paint beige walls made my head explode but we'll have bold splashes of color throughout the unit. Stay tuned. 

We're also working on this project, the winter home for an amazing couple who also found me online.

Things have definitely evolved since our presentation so stay tuned for that reveal. We are on a tight deadline with this one as well as they are having lots of friends and family in town for the very fabulous Jazz in the Gardens event.

This nursery is underway for a young couple whose living room we designed last year (that reveal is coming up). In the midst of that project they announced they were pregnant and asked me to add a nursery to my design checklist. Asked and done. We also planned the baby shower, which we revealed a bit over on Instagram. P.S. our talented Shaggy painted those stripes without using any painters tape. He's kinda talented like that. 
Today is the final installation day of this project for my client Renee and her adorable family. Her kids came home from school yesterday and squealed, "Is this our house?" Melted my design heart. 
We are in the home stretch of completing this kitchen. Yes, that was my client Natasha, who was a tad too excited to smash those cabinets on demolition day. The new cabinets were installed this week. 

Noticed a theme or two? I'm definitely smitten with blues and purple this year. With the exception of Natasha, all of these clients found me online. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, show your best work and hints of your personality on your various social media platforms. Potential clients are paying close attention so reconsider the abundance of selfies. Showcase your work and sprinkle in some personal moments here and there so they get to know you a little but don't over share i.e. woeful tales of why you broke up with your significant other, the hate you feel for him and his new chick should be kept to a minimum. My two cents.
Any who, looking forward to checking in more often and sharing all these project updates. What have y'all been up to?

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A-Efendy before and after, Business, designs, Inspiration to Reality, Personal Musings

A Black, White and Gold Reveal

Hello peeps. Soooooooooo sorry to start the year off with so much radio silence, but things continue to be insanely busy around these parts. No complaints, for sure. We had an amazing 2013, and want to keep the momentum going. We are already tackling some fun projects and trying to see how we can do it even bigger and better in 2014.
If you have come to know me at all, you should know that I don't do grand resolutions for the new year. I'm a serial keeper of daily, weekly and monthly To-Do lists so I tackle most of my goals that way. The one goal I will set is to be more present and in the moment when I'm home with Xavier and the hubs, i.e. not be on my IPAD, laptop or on Instagram doing work and being nosy. So hard to do when you're a small business owner and want to keep your clients happy, but oh so necessary.
Anywho, we're starting the year of with this project reveal, one of the last projects we wrapped in 2013.
This is home belongs to our favorite Instagram stalker turned client fave, Meagan, her hubby Dwayne and adorable toddler, Dylan. We transformed their family room/kitchenette here.
When Meagan and I first met, we hit it off immediately and we agreed to design their home in phases.  They decided to tackle the living and dining room for the holidays as a Christmas gift to themselves.
Now to be clear, Meagan is a style diva and has amazing tastes in fashion (er, I kinda wanna move into her closet actually, it's that damn fabulous) and decor so had already collected some pretty fab pieces. Her trouble, like most clients, is puling it all together.

Great furniture right? We would reuse it all, but with some re-purposing. In keeping with her tres glam personality, I had visions of black, white and gold and pitched the following concept. The rendering is by the insanely talented Jane Gianarelli, who I met on social media - don't you just love how we can all meet and support fellow business owners via the web?

Now, Meagan loves me (or so she says, hehe) and how we transformed the family room but she was a tad nervous about this concept, especially painting the white shaker style wainscoting her hubby had tackled himself from white to black.  But again, since she loves and trusts me, she handed over the keys and said go ahead lady, do your thing. Music to my ears.

This is the end result. I wanted to brighten up with the walls but not with a stark white as we'd done in the family room. We settled on Dover White, from the HGTV collection for Sherwin Williams next to this black high gloss paint.

Meagan had always wanted a mirrored buffet but couldn't figure out how/where to incorporate one. By placing the sofa against this wall, instead of having it divide the two spaces, we freed up the extra space needed to accommodate the buffet. 

I have to say, her budget was hella tight and I warned her that we may not have enough funds to get a buffet. But with her luck, I scored this one on a crazy sale. In fact, we stayed on budget and gave her everything on her wish list because we scored a lot of items on sale. This rug was a steal from the clearance bin at Target. Marked from $199 to $73. Again, hella savings.

We initially planned to place these chairs directly in front of the sectional but decided instead to create a cozy seating area in this long entryway. 

Custom panels in black and gold, with sheers for added privacy, now means Meagan's neighbors can no longer peek inside and witness her shennanigans. See that light fixture? Well both light fixtures had slight damages when we opened the boxes on installation day, causing the most stress I think I've ever faced on installation. But thank goodness for a great electrician who fixed the issue with the foyer light and for a nearby Z Gallerie that had one remaining dining table fixture to exchange for our damaged light. Whew.

Meagan's existing coffee and end tables were refinished from a dark brown to the same glossy black finish as the molding around the rooms. We added splashes of gold and blue to accessorize and highlight her great coffee table book collection, which included this book about the late Nelson Mandela.           

      

Meagan also had this mirror and again, had no clue what to do with it. We painted it gold and it was the perfect fit above the buffet. We struggled to find the perfect lamps but eventually scored these from Target. 

        

                

Every stylish girl needs a bar cart and this one is perfect to roll around as they entertain (yes, Meagan will switch out the glass and bottles so little Dylan doesn't get his hands on these breakables).

You can style a bar cart with much more than liquor and glassware. Here we added a lamp (Meagan's original lamp updated with a new lampshade), and a few accessories.

For art, we simply used Meagan and Dwayne's wedding photos which were so filled with movement and joy that they added the perfect personal touch to the space. They are avid music lovers so we added a few black and white photos of some of their favorite artists and of some jazz musicians above the sectional.  

In the entryway, we again reused Meagan's entry table and just added a few personal items i.e. the Jackson family art they ordered from Etsy to celebrate their union, some leopard print boxes (my homage to Meagan's house keys which are also in a leopard print), an Ikea print of I Love You from a vintage typewriter and of course, a framed copy of the rendering that guided us along this design. 
Huge thanks to Meagan and Dwayne for being such great clients to work for and with, and for always popping a bottle of wine with moi to celebrate their newly designed spaces. 

P.S.
So honored to have this post receive the ATG Bright Idea Award. 

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A-Efendy before and after, black and white, Dining Rooms, Living Rooms, Metallic

Another Bachelor, Another Reveal

This light-filled apartment with a killer view of Miami, belongs to my second bachelor client of the year, Mr. B. 
Well, he does have an amazing girlfriend, so technically, he's not a true bachelor. Anyway, I digress. Mr. B owns a home in Spain but works, lives in Miami and travels the globe for work. Renting, not owning a place here was his best option. 
This little cave of an apartment on Miami's Brickell Key is a prime location, but oh, the apartment was so gloomy it felt mildly depressing.
Since it's a rental, we couldn't knock down walls, change light fixtures or gut bathrooms, but we could surely purchase some solid pieces of furniture that will transition well to his next home, add some fresh paint colors to the walls (we'll paint it back to the original color when his lease is up), and give the space some gosh damn style. Here's where we started:

Yes, yes, when will I learn to remove handbags from my before photos? Anyway, handbags aside, pretty gloomy looking no?

Mr. B wanted the grey wall gone and some more fun colors introduced. Once we'd settled on the large items like this very comfy sectional from Z Gallerie, he left me to my own devices to purchase other items. I scored this rug from Home Goods and thought it's rust tones added color and warmth to the space. 

As always, I try to mix high tickets items with more budget friendly options so scored these end tables from Overstock. 

He swooned for this swing arm lamp from Crate and Barrel. Can you blame him?

He is an avid reader, so his book collection served as great accessories on this Overstock coffee table and throughout the condo.

This little nook needed some special love and attention.

This Ikea table is a favorite of mine because it's so versatile. It fit perfectly here. The Target lamps add extra lighting and the Nate Berkus baskets serve as both extra storage and seating for additional guests, and I love their amazing texture.

Y'all know I loves me some grey paint, but it admittedly made this apartment feel exceedingly gloomy and he hated it so much that it had to go. 

Since this is a rental, we only painted accent walls, and not the entire apartment. Here we added a warm beige with a brown banding, which added some visual detail on the wall in lieu on spending loads of money on art to add to this very long wall.

The accent wall is also the perfect backdrop for this walnut and white media console which we all fell in love with, but lost out to another buyer who'd purchased the last two! I cannot tell you the anguish I had over that, but luckily the buyer decided she only needed one and now voila, this splendid piece now sits very pretty in this space.

Around the corner from the living room is the first of two bedrooms, a tad smaller than the second bedroom but since it had an en suite bathroom he preferred to have it serve as the master.

Mr. B entrusted all paint choices to me (love those clients!) so I decided to use the color of the living room rug as inspiration for the accent wall color in  the master bedroom. We splurged a bit on this bed from Crate and Barrel. I loved the mid century modern lines of the nightstands from West Elm and our

Our Instagram followers voted on the lamp shades (so glad y'all picked the one I wanted!!!) 

He already had this amazing duvet from Pottery Barn and it was the perfect finish for the bed.

A very longggggggggg hallway connects the rooms to the living room, so to add some interest without breaking the bank, we framed inexpensive prints of some of his favorite cities and used the water view he sees from the apartment as inspiration for the striped detail on the wall. 

We carried that blue into the second bedroom which he does double duty as his office and guest room. 

 

An inexpensive day bed from Ikea takes up minimal real estate in the room while providing seating and a comfy place for guests to sleep.

He fell in love with this desk from West Elm and we paired it with this a stylish yet comfortable chair from Modani. A gallery wall of maps of his hometown and other cities that he loves offers a sense of connection to Spain and Europe, even as he now calls Miami home.

A huge thanks to Mr. B whose emails kept me royally entertained. We often got lost in translation, as English is his second language. We had a blast sending photos, emails and text messages back and forth, since he was not here for much of the project, and we needed to make sure he understood all that was happening. A bigger thank you to his amazing girlfriend Paula, who trusted me enough to recommend to Mr. B that I take over the reigns of this design project, so he could live in style.

 

Source Guide

Living Room:

Zgallerie - Sectional

KMP Furniture - Media Unit

Overstook - Coffee Table, End Tables

Crate and Barrel - Floor Lamp

Home Goods - Area Rug

Curtain panels - Ikea but customized by Titan Decor.

Sheer panels - Titan Decor 

Bedroom: 

Crate and Barrel - Bed

Overstock - Rug

West Elm - nightstands

Lamps - Target

Guest Room/Office:

Home Goods - Rug

West Elm - Desk

Ikea - Daybed

All Artwork: Art.com and Allposters.com

Chair - Modani

Pillows - Target, Ikea and Home Goods

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A-Efendy accent walls, Bedrooms, before and after, Living Rooms, master bedroom