PROJECT | BE OUR GUEST

The Inspiration for Project | Be Our Guest - ' The Green Mile'. I painted this piece back in 2008. It is my favorite piece of art. I have received many offers for it, but could never part with it because of how much I love it. I knew that this piece would be hung in the guest room. Shades of cream, red, pink, green, orange - the perfect color palette for this space. It added such a face lift to the room and makes me happy to see it finally hung. Let's take a look at the before...

Boy oh boy have we come a mighty long way and it has taking a while to get here. Oddly enough, I thought I blogged about the sad beginnings of this room, but it appears that I never mumbled a word. So, now I have to give you the scoop on it's evolution. Here is where we began.

This room did it's duty as being a functional space, basically a place for our guests to sleep. But it definitely wasn't fresh feeling or had any style.

What we needed to do to up the anty:

1. Clearly there was no design plan. Yikes and Sigh...as a designer, of course I know better. But sometimes projects fall on the back burner around here because I am doing other things.
2. As you can see, we kinda needed everything but the kitchen sink - well everything except a bed. We were on a tight budget for this room. So everything had to be super cost efficient.
3. Bed side tables were desperately needed. Fortunately I found side tables a few years back that I knew I would eventually use in this space. Details about how I overhauled those will be coming up in the next few posts.
4. We needed storage. A dresser, a chest of drawers, something.
5. Drapes were needed too. The harsh lines of the window trim kind of drives me crazy at times. And this is one of those times.
6. A custom headboard to eat up some of the vertical space was also a must.

The good news:

1. The room was like a blank slate. The walls were a rich creamy, antique white. So any colors could work.
2. We had my favorite art piece of all times as the launching pad for the color scheme. And I knew exactly where I wanted to use it in this space.
3. The layout of the room was super easy to work with it.
4. The room offers an amazing amount of natural light so I knew exactly what color drapes I wanted to use and where to purchase them.
5. I also already had the drapery hardware from at least a year prior. I think I found it on sale at HomeGoods for like $10 or $15. Score!!

After all was said and done - The Results!

There is nothing more that I love than a calm, neutral backdrop to bold punches of color. And that is exactly what we did here. Keeping the wall neutral allowed for warm grays to be used on the headboard, console, and side tables, and bold mustard and shades of orange to be used in the bedding. See how well the art plays with all the other colors in the room? I just love it!

I have to admit, right now it's one of my favorite rooms in the house. It combines my husband's style (which is clean lined and minimal) with mine (clean lined with a mix of old and new).

There are quite a few KMC Creatives projects in here. I will be sharing them with you over the next few weeks. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out!

Making Home, Home!

Kathleen

Small Space, Big Style: ATL Bachelor's Pad Reveal

Our Little Story

I was elated to hear from one of my former clients (Ken B.) telling me that he was relocating from North Carolina to Atlanta. While in North Carolina I helped him decorate his single-family home and also painted some custom art pieces. In the middle of his project, we received word of an opportunity for my husband to relocate to Atlanta for his job and after much thought we decided to take it. After sharing the news with Ken and discussing how to keep his project moving along, he said those three little magic words every decorator wants to hear...I TRUST YOU!! So to keep his project on track, I assisted him via telephone, text, email, FaceTime - however we could communicate to make sure the job would get finished. It wasn't easy, but we got it done. PHEW!!

Because of how great our relationship has grown and how great that project turned out,I was secretly hoping that he would ask me to help him out again...I mean why wouldn't he, right??? Well guess what? He did and I happily accepted.

Side Note Ken has an excellent eye so I am recruiting him as my design assistant. I have made him well aware of this, but I think he thinks I'm kidding. Ummm sir...NOT!! And I'm trying to get him to be my personal stylist because these days my attire is really lacking. I can't seem to pull things together for the life of me. When I tell you this man has an eye for fashion!! He is really working in the wrong line of work...but I digress!! =))) Ken if you are reading this, you my dear are awesome!

Back to the current room Now unlike before (1650 sq.ft of space in the single-family home), Ken decided to downgrade into a 800 square foot apartment - YIKES - and he sold just about all his stuff from his previous home which was full of great things...SIGH!!! I was slightly devastated to because had I known about this (I think he kept me in the dark on purpose so he wouldn't have to hear my mouth about it) I would have hit him up for some stuff!! So the hunt was on for new and maybe old, functional, and fresh items that would work double duty in this small space.

His Needs  Urban, Fresh, and a Pop of Color. He stated the budget and said I trust you, do your thing - and that is exactly what I did!!

So here is what I had to work with initially: 1. Low profile bookcases he kept from the old home that we could use as the television/media console 2. Single lonely lamp 3. And the custom art I painted for his previous home (which I didn't want to use at first, but he insisted and now I'm glad we used them)

Major Purchases 1. A low profile sofa that wouldn't intrude to much into the space, but provide ample seating 2. More lighting 3. Side chairs 4. Ottomans (recovered to look great) 5. Window panels 6. Some accessories (he had some things I thought I could use)

The Room The creamy palette lended itself to be the perfect backdrop for what I wanted to do. For some reason here lately I am loving cream or white walls. I feel it gives me extra room to play a little more with color in the textiles and accessories.

Check out the space before...drab, drab, drab...

Before Pics (After the Purchase of the Sofa)

But the after is look WHOAAAAA!!!!!! So different and so much better. Don't you agree?! =))

After Pics (KMC Customs - Art, Pillows, Ottomans)

Remember He Said  Urban, Fresh, and a Pop of Color. So to make this happen:

1. Urban - Clean lined furnishings, low profile on everything - gives it a more modern, urban flare 2. Fresh - Not cluttered with furniture - just enough to provide the right amount of seating, accessories do not over power the room, and similar color story in rug and big furniture items 3. Pop of Color - Taken from the golden yellows in the art work - the ottomans and pillows add that element of pop

There is nothing like seeing everything come together the way you envisioned it and your client loving it just as much as you do. I absolutely love the way this space turned out and seeing Ken's face at the reveal was priceless.

Have an awesome day y'all and thanks for stopping by!

Making Home, Home! Kathleen

The Reveal, Project: Children's Playroom

Part 3 So I've yapped about the beginning and the middle of this project. Now it's time for the reveal! Just to bring you up to speed in case you've missed out on the happenings - the space lacked everything - color, organization, style, extra seating, and storage. You name it, it was missing. So after interviewing my young clients I came up with a plan to dramatically change the look, feel, and storage issues this space had.

The End

When I tell you I absolutely love and adore this space. I love the neutral vanilla cream walls around the space anchored by the charcoal chalkboard wall. I love the crispness of the white media console and bookshelf directly across from the gallery wall filled with wonderful art created by the kiddies. The bright white lamps and white side tables also help to keep things light and fresh. I love how the room is filled with color from top, to bottom, to the middle, but balanced with the creamy walls and tan carpet. And the light...let there be light in a space that was dark and dreary.This space is happy, creative, bright, airy, organized, comfortable...just plain ol' fun!! And I must tell you, the kiddies absolutely loved it!! The chalkboard wall stole the show. They LOVED seeing all their art displayed and loved all the color. They even said it makes them feel happy being in there!

It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I design a space that's right on and everybody loves it not only because of it's beauty, but it's function!! It makes making home, home - just right!!

I hope you all love the space just as much as we all do...so...here you go!!

Before & After: TV Wall - Besta bookshelf and media console (removed doors) to create open storage, and added baskets for easy to reach games, videos, remotes, legos, and a few other everyday play items. Custom storage ottomans also helps to hide clutter, toys, and even a kid!! =))

Added custom box sofa backs, an orange and white mini-chevron fleece sheet draped across the back, orange throw, and a ton of custom pillows to break up the color of the massive brown sofa and add some visual interest.

Gallery wall displaying the most beautiful artwork ever! Helps to fill up the massive wall space and add much needed interest, color, and fun!

Around the room

Lerberg bookshelf to display books. Added acrylic magazine holders to store books. Used clear acrylic to keep open, airy feel on bookshelf. Yarn letters above.

Need design help? Please email me at kaydehimdesign@gmail.com. To my readers, Thanks so much for stopping by to check out the reveal. I would love for you to leave a message, a question, or share something you've done to spruce up a kid's space in the comments section below. Again, thank you and have an awesome day!!

Making Home, Home

Kathleen