Exterior Paint Selection: Cabrera Residence

One of the contractors I work with has decided that he's going to do a smooth stucco treatment to the exterior of his house. I was honored when he asked me to pick out a couple of paint color options! Here's what I came up with.
This is what his home looks like now, sans stucco. He's applying stucco this weekend. I came up with three options for him. He is reshingling right now, and his entire roof is going to be black.



This is the neutral option. The color is called Open Space.

This is the blue option, the color is called Renovation. It's highlighted by the white trim and dark grey foundation.

This is the yellow-toned option, again with white trim and a dark grey foundation. this one is my favorite, but I'm totally biased, as yellow is my favorite color:)

Just some quick photoshop work, but I think it really gives you the overall idea. Hope you like it!

What are you up to this weekend?

Rachel May

Lonny Magazine: 2 Year Anniversary

I received a healthy dose of eye candy in my email inbox today:

Image found here.

The Sept/Oct issue of Lonny Mag is out today! If you haven't already, you should check it out (at www.lonnymag.com). They're celebrating two years of being in digital print. That's quite a feat for a shelter mag these days.

Keep up the good work, folks at Lonny! Your magazine is awesome.

Rachel May

Skills: Perspective and Rendering

Remember when you first learned a certain skill? You dedicated time to it, effort, a lot of energy, etc. Well, that's how I was with sketching when I was in school. I loved it! But since I've graduated college, I've fallen off the wagon. I'm trying to work on that (and rendering too). I think it's great for getting an idea across to a client.

Sometimes you find something that totally inspires you. I was totally inspired on Friday when I found this blog: A Schematic Life. It's filled with beautiful renderings by a talented interior designer named Michelle Morelan. Here is what I came up with, after looking at her archives for longer than I care to admit:

This is NOT my design, it's a rip-off of one of her renderings that I used for practice, located here. I drew the picture by hand, using her perspective and rendering as reference. I highly suggest you check out her work. She's so skilled, so inspiring!

Rachel May

IKEA does not disappoint

Ikea is opening here in CO (Centennial, CO to be exact) on July 27th. I may be geeking out about it A LOT. I can just see all of my money going to this place in about one trip there. So many things to love! In preparation for my shopping trip (which I'm treating like a vacation, because I've only been to IKEA once before), I'm going virtual shopping.

It's always interesting to see how different companies style their products. I would LOVE to stage for IKEA. In exchange for free furniture and textiles, please.

I started perusing their website, and really liked this room:


Then I saw something...something that I've been virtual-shopping for a while. The perfect loungy-chair. And the perfect price (69.99). I might need two.


Hello, HULTO. I've been looking for you for a while. Sure, it doesn't look like much now, pretty much just a wicker chair. But the shape and size is perfect (our couch is really low to the ground) and the texture is much needed in our space. All it needs is a little color, like some throw pillows:

Maybe not these particular pillows, but colorful ones for sure. I think I know what my first IKEA purchases will be!:) (all pictures are from IKEA's website, here)

Have a great weekend!

Rachel May

My House: Living Room Seating

So, I'm kind of totally in love with this chair. I think it would look amazing in our living room. And the price is right. But I really need to work on an entire design scheme/plan before I buy more furniture. This is going on the wish list though.

You can find it here.

I always go back and forth. Do I want a cute and comfortable chair with arms? Or a sleek, stylish chair without? What do you think? I would probably add an ottoman to this, and definitely a bright colored pillow. The reviews on this piece are hit-and-miss, but I suppose that's to be expected for a chair this cheap.

What do you think?

Rachel May

Rug Inspiration

I try not to "want" for things, but this rug is just lovely. I would like it for my living room, please.

Big Garden Printed Rug via Urban Outfitters

Look at all of those beautiful colors! And at $68, not a bad price tag.

This is one of those pieces that you could design an entire room around, or at least I would like to (and if it's a room in my own house, even better).

Enjoy!
Rachel May

My Job: Staging and Design

My day job keeps getting cooler. I work for a fix-and-flip company as the Office Coordinator. However, my boss has been cool enough to alter my position toward something that appeals to my interior design background, which means that now I can get out of the office and go select tile, carpet, paint and lots of other stuff.

Lately, I've got to work on finish selections for the remodels-picking out tile, paint, carpet, kitchen layouts, etc. Then I get to stage them. Here's one of our finished homes, already under contract:

Front

Back

Living Room

Kitchen

Hall Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Basement Bathroom

This home is higher end than our usual fix-up,

What do you think?

Rachel May

Guest Bedroom After

Finally, I'm ready to present to you the finished (well, nothing's ever really finished)Guest Bedroom! Don't be one of those people that skips to the end. Check out the before pictures here.


And now, the after pictures of the Guest Bedroom/My Studio!


I painted the walls Amber Yellow, which was a lot LESS yellow that it ended up being once it was on the wall. Jury is still out on whether or not I like it.


I also added new sheets and a new pillow from Tarjay (that blue rectangular one). Most of the other stuff I had at home already.

The overall budget breakdown is something like this:
Paint and supplies: $30
New Bedding: $40
Total: $70. Everything else was reused/repurposed.

I have big plans for more changes this space, and the wall color may or may not be one of them (we shall see). I'll keep you posted.

There's also a few adjustments to be made. This window will be getting a much smaller, lighter curtain, but this was a temporary replacement. This has got to be the smallest window I've ever seen in a main floor bedroom.

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Guest Bedroom Before

We were expecting company a couple of weeks ago (the Boyfriend's father, as a matter of fact) and I was determined to turn our guest bedroom/my studio into a space that he might actually want to stay in. It started out looking like this:

All pictures were taken post-spackling and pre-new paint.


I don't know how I was ever productive with my desk like this.

A purple accent wall? Why not!

Don't let that little closet fool you...it hides my craft supply inventory! LOTS of stuff in there.

I have way too much junk.

Now you know what our house looked like after we moved in, before we made changes. After pictures to come soon!

Enjoy!

Rachel May

House Tour: The Basement

Sorry for the delay, I got sidetracked yesterday. Here's the last bit of the tour from our new home: The Basement.

When you walk downstairs, there's a landing with awesome built-ins and a closet.

Basement Landing

The studio is at the bottom of the stairs, along with the hallway to the laundry room

Studio (with major closet space)

Laundry Room (nothing too exciting except for that awesome yellow paint)

...and our bedroom and bathroomOur Bedroom (The Boyfriend and I)

Our Bedroom

The bathroom next to our bedroom is (to me) the worst room in the house. It really doesn't NEED anything (if we're going to be like that), I mean, everything works-the shower, toilet tub etc, but it's an eyesore (like that open toilet seat is-classy).

Our Bathroom

That's it! It can only get better from here (I hope). Can't wait to start working on this:)

Enjoy!
Rachel May

House Tour: Upstairs Hall and Bedrooms

We'll start this tour backwards, as in...with the backyard (mostly because I'm blogger photo upload inept).

Backyard

Isn't it beautiful? There's already an arbor next to the garage that leads to a flower garden, a built in sprinkler system, a one car garage and a concrete pad to the right of the garage (other side of the fence) for added car storage.

Basement Stairwell

Here's the stairwell to the basement-you can see that it's open to the living room. It makes it really open over there.

Roomie's Room

This is our roommate's room, and probably the only picture you'll ever see of it, unless he lets me design it:) No offense to you, but a few reasons why we like our roommate is because he's awesome, he was willing to move from our rental to our new home even though that included a rent raise, and he's just very considerate. So to be considerate to him, I'll only show you the before pictures of his bedroom-a man's gotta have his privacy!

Upstairs Bathroom

This is the bathroom upstairs that's in between the two bedrooms. It's actually kinda cool, but there's definitely some design stuff to be done in there.

Upstairs Bathroom

Ignore the toilet....I had Boyfriend take the pictures and he doesn't understand necessary presentation necessities. Instead, focus on that cool curved shower curtain rod. Pretty sweet, right?

Craft Space!

This is THE CRAFT SPACE. Do you know how nice it is to have an entire room dedicated to crafts? Well I don't, because this is also the guest bedroom. But it's close enough and I'm certainly not complaining!

Craft Space

Here's the view of the entry. Look at that tiny window on the left...sad. But it's good enough for me (once again-I get a craft space! Not complaining).

There's still so much more to share: the basement studio, laundry room, other bathroom, and mine and the Boyfriend's bedroom!

Enjoy!

Rachel May

House Tour: Main Spaces

FINALLY! Here is the start of a tour of our home in pictures, as promised. This post shows you the exterior, the entry, living room, dining area and kitchen of our new home.

Exterior

Dining area

This is what you see as you walk in-dining area in front of you, living room to the direct right and kitchen.

Kitchen/Living

This is a good shot of the main area upstairs, taken from the dining room. You can see the kitchen, living room and front door.

Kitchen

This shot was taken from the living room, facing the kitchen. The doorway on the left is to the hall and the banister on the right overlooks the stairs to the basement.

Kitchen

We use our kitchen A LOT. It's nice to have a space that's open to the living and dining areas. It's nice for all of us to be able to chat (there's 4 people living here now-two couples) and for whoever is cooking to be able to get involved in the conversation as well.

I'm so happy with our new house! I have lots more to share, I just didn't want to overwhelm you in one post:)

Enjoy!
Rachel May