Unveiling Our New Home!!!
I am SO excited to finally share pics of my new home! The decorating process as been a long one! And one I could NOT have done without the help of my talented friend Rachel, and her mother Robin, the fabulous designers of Madison Modern Home ...and also the help of my in-laws!I hired Rachel and her mom to design and style my living room/dining room and home office. I knew I wanted to be really involved in the process and DIY a bunch of stuff, but at the same time I needed guidance and some help reigning in my ideas! Rachel did just that! She looked at my pinterest and evaluated my space and helped pull together a moodboard for me, complete with paint colors and items to buy/diy! Then the hard labor came in... me + my in-laws took on a bunch of projects from painting the walls and cabinets, to switching out light fixtures, DIYing a linear chandelier, repainting some furniture, sewing new slipcovers for our tired dining chairs (that was all my mother-in-law), DIYing new closet doors, and DIYing Chevron curtains (more on that later)! The shopping was clearly the easy part! ;) But honestly, it felt so good to put in the work to our home. It really makes it your own when you put your sweat in it! ;)With our projects and shopping complete, it was time for Rachel and Robin to come back to our place and style/decorate everything! This is the part that amazes me! It's all about the little details and the arranging of pieces. I am working on getting better at styling but honestly it can be frustrating for me. I am a person who seems to create clutter wherever I go in my home, so to really step back, streamline and rearrange is a challenge! I was VERY thankful to be able to leave the finishing touches to the experts!The other great thing is that Rachel was able to take a lot of the antique and vintage pieces that I inherited from my grandparents and put them throughout our home. It is because of my grandparents that we had the down payment for the home, for which I will always be so thankful. It feels very special to have their cherished antiques and decorative items in our own home. I know my grandma would love it!Having a home I could be proud of has been a LONG time coming. It is literally a dream come true. I have always envied other photographers who met clients in their homes, and were able to show their clients beautiful walls of canvas and print displays. I wished, hoped, and prayed that one day I could have a space that not only I'd be proud to show clients, but that my clients would find comfy, helpful and educational! I am excited to begin taking meetings in my home, and thankful I have a comfy, cozy, stylish atmosphere to really show my potential clients who I am and what I have to offer them. Having a office with a gallery wall allows me to show clients the different print options, and exactly why having your pictures live beyond the digital realm is so important! So... that was a long fancy way of explaining that from now forth all client meetings will take place in my home/home studio in Santa Barbara, CA!And now without further ado..PICTURES!
I LOVE the plate wall, which mixes plates my grandparents had collected from around the world with a few vintage pieces that Rachel brought! :) Oh, and that is also my grandparents antique banjo barometer!
There are no words to describe how in love I am with my DIY crystal chandelier and DIY chevron curtains!
On the left - our adorable sitting area with painted side table! And on the right - a detail of our bookshelves, which are from Ikea. Rachel added a faux bois wallpaper backing to give them a little more personality and add a masculine touch to the room!
I am obsessed with our chair (the Cute as a Button Erin from World Market) and the chevron pillow made by Little House Frau. Rachel added an organic touch with this real bird's nest and decorative eggs inside this glass dome!
LOVE this vignette on the coffee table (which is from World Market by the way).
The living room!
Without a doubt my favorite area of the room is my silhouette wall! My grandma had silhouettes of herself, my dad and me as a kid. I love the family tradition. I added to it by ordering some from Esty, and had one made of me, AJ and our 2 cats! It's a little family tree. Hopefully we can add to this wall some day! I also adore the lamp which is from Urban Home...and the decanter, which is vintage Baccarat, inherited from my grandparents.
The antique desk and chair were also from my grandparents...antique finds which they brought home from a trip to England! The table and chair are so meaningful to me because I remember it being in their home and the stories they'd tell me about bringing it back from London. My mother-in-law recovered the cushion though since the old fabric was worn out. Voila, so antique and so modern all at once!
Cute vignettes...
The living room couch and pillows on the couch are courtesy of my favorite store EVER... West Elm! The throws are from Ikea.
And now for my home studio!!!!! I adore the gallery wall of my work... a nice mix of matted + framed prints and canvas gallery wraps! The desk is from Target, the chair is Ikea and the lamp is an antique (again, from my grandparents)!
I LOVE this little window bench... but my cats love it even more! The curtains are West Elm!
We DIY'd those closet doors (more on that in another post) and the other wall houses all my work stuff! The best thing is that there is enough room in here to set up a back drop for shoots if need be! It truly is my mini home studio!
I totally underestimated how inspiring it is to work surrounded by my favorite photos and magazine features! It pushes me to take it to the next level!
Voila! My home! We still need to decorate the master bedroom, the guest bath and the third bedroom, but this is quite the start! I can't wait for you to come see it! :)Credits:Design - Madison Modern Home http://madisonmodernhome.com/Furniture and Accessories - Ikea, West Elm, World Market, Urban Home, Target, Pampa, Little House FrauSilhouettes - Aeryck De SadePaint Colors: Dunn Edwards: "Foil" (gray for living room), "Citron" (accent wall in living room), "Prime Pink" (home studio)Everything Else - DIY'd by me or Antique/Vintage