Let There Be Light

This week I am helping my oldest sister out in Portland, OR. She had surgery so I get to be her nurse for a week and I am having a great time. Really. She has started calling me Baby Jane, though I have no idea why. I have only abused her and ignored her minimally. Oh, and used her prescription medication money for lotsa snacks at Target. What is so wrong about that?

The cage that I keep her in is much fancier than this.

Instead of getting my sister more flowers to help with her recovery, I found a really cheesy fiber optic Christmas tree at Target that was PERFECT!

My sister fell in LOVE with this stupid little tree. I mean, it was 5 bucks and has fiber optic branches. She wouldn't stop telling everyone who called her about this great tree I had given her. I was making fun of her, telling her that she had taken one too many Percocets, but she explained that the light changing color was very soothing. Later that night, we turned off all of the lights so she could prove to me how soothing it was. And once I started watching it, I realized that she was right! So in this roundabout way, I wanted to discuss Chromatherapy with you.

Chromatherapy is generally defined as using light to promote relaxation. For designers, we have the opportunity to introduce this relatively unknown concept to our clients - especially in the bathroom. Kohler has some amazing products that utilize this concept. Check it out:

image courtesy of Kohler.com

image courtesy of kohler.com

It is said that Chromatherapy can be used to treat sleeping disorders, can reduce stress and promote relaxation.

You can even get sinks that employ the Chromatherapy theory

image courtesy of www.trendir.com

For an easy dose of chromatherapy in your home, you can always get the $5 Target fiber optic tree, or what about this faucet? It's only $19 and a great party trick:

Or, at Gizmodo.com, you can get a stick-on bath light - kind of similar to a pool light - and have a $20 version of the Kohler bathtub in your own home. Look!

This must be why everyone loves fireworks and Christmas lights so much - it's therapy!

OOOOhhhhhh

AAAAAAAhhhhhh

You're welcome for all of that free therapy. Now I've got to get back to torturing my sister and shove prunes down her throat. Yippee!!!!!!

Mwah mwah mwah......

Oh no you di-in't!!!

So let's have a little chat about bathroom mats. These are NOT o.k. It's time to let them go. I understand wanting to feel something soft underfoot, but what about when strangers come into your home? And step on them with their dirty shoes? What about when...well, ahem..when a male uses the facilities and has aiming problems? These little mats are outdated and harbor germs and just gotta go.

The only thing that is o.k. is a white bath mat. Hang it over the tub (white, so that it blends in) and throw it down before you are ready to step on it. It's much cleaner, tidier and a more modern approach to traditional bathroom rugs.

Just say no to the fuzzy carpeted ones. Try these:

These lovely little ladies are from Restoration Hardware

West Elm has some lovely WHITE ones, don't be tempted by that baby blue

This one, from Vita Futura works as well

Please, for me, don't do this:

or this:

And this is never ok:

My eyes are burning right now from these hideous pictures. Take this info and run with it, don't be offended, just get updated! Trust me, people have wanted to tell you this before, but didn't want to offend you.

The Beauty is in the Details

This weekend I finally got around to doing one or two things that have been on my to do list for what seems like FOREVER. One of those things was ordering a new bedskirt for my bed. I previously had a cheapo version from Target that I dyed a custom color to match some of the fabrics in our bedroom. I definitely got what I paid for and once I ripped the carpet out of our bedroom, the bedskirt really looked like a bad pair of flood pants!

Cut to today when I put the new and improved version of my bedskirt on the bed, with the help of my husband. As soon as he saw it, he remarked that I was definitely going to like the old one better. "WHAT?" I yelled incredulously, "THAT PIECE OF CRAP?" while the mattress was precariously balanced on my head as I draped the new bedskirt onto the box spring. He then made some comment about a dark brown bedskirt with blonde dog and cat hairs all over it. And at that moment, the mattress dropped, the new skirt was on and beautiful and...ALREADY COVERED IN BLONDE ANIMAL HAIR!!!!!

Why does my husband have to tell me these things? I am an INTERIOR DESIGNER, for Pete's sake! I should know all and above everything else, I should definitely think of these things for myself, (the perfect client) right? Wrong. It's like everything else, the shoemaker's children with no shoes, blah blah blah.

So the point of this blog is this: The details are EVERYTHING. Many of you don't have an interior designer, but you have me to tell you; think about these things before you make your home interior purchases.

Do you have pets with black hair? You might want to re-think that white rug/carpet/light colored wood flooring.

Does your baby like to spit up or drool on every available surface? Then make all of those surfaces easy to clean. Crypton, Ultra-Suede and Scotchgard are your friends, my friend.

Do you love those gorgeous mirrored furniture pieces that are everywhere these days?

Think twice or even three times, before purchasing these pieces. The fingerprints are irritating and everywhere. If you do choose one of these pieces, make it something that is more of a decorative piece and out of the way. Not your cocktail table. Unless you have someone cleaning for you - then you can have 25 mirrored pieces! Who cares!?!

Do you love dark brown furniture and wood finishes? Las Vegas is a very dusty area. I bought ebony stained furniture for my master bedroom and between the pet hair and Las Vegas dust and construction residue, I have to dust 3-4 times PER WEEK! Perhaps more of a walnut toned furniture piece will work a bit better for you.

Modern chrome faucets are amazing

but if people are actually using them and touching them all the time, the fingerprint issue is out of control. Sorry, I know I'm totally Debbie Downer at this point, but you will thank me in the long run.

We don't want to be slaves to our interiors. Our homes need to be a place where we are comforted and can relax. Not where we look around and are irritated or dismayed by the wear and tear of everything around us. Do yourself a favor and be somewhat practical when making your interior purchases.

"From Crate...to Great"

Gigi, all grown up courtesy of Kelley Lynne Photography

So we are back again with another animal related post. I think I am starting to turn into one of those weird people that doesn't have any kids and talks about their pets as if they are children. I also think the stories about my pets are hilarious and I'm usually met with a sigh and a blank stare from Heather at this point. And that makes me love telling her THAT much more. Bahahahaha....

I was going through my ginormous stack of magazines and catalogs tonight and came across In the Company of Dogs. Have you seen this catalog, my dear readers? Pet accessories have come a long way; I was so impressed that I had to share.

Look at these crates:

Seriously? The crate that I have is basically a dog jail. This is beautiful!

What about these fancy gates:

How about these fabulous bowls?

Or for our more traditional clients:

And we cannot forget our clients who love modernism and clean lines:

What? Topiaries? O.K., now maybe they've gone too far

I could go on and on forever, but even I realize I'm beginning to cross the line. You have to admit, pet accessories have come a LONG way from the cardboard box in the garage. And I promise the next blog will have nothing pet related. Did I tell you what Gigi did last night.....???

Happy Haute Haunting

As mentioned in our last post, Halloween is one of our favorite times of year.

Sadly, we are swamped this year so we're not able to do the full-on Halloween decorating that we usually love to do. This year it's going to be some pumpkins and a wreath on the door. Sounds boring? Check these images out:

image courtesy of Country Living magazine

I love to decorate with pumpkins, gourds and basically any type of squash. The shapes and colors are so perfectly imperfect.

image courtesy of http://goodhousekeeping.com

image courtesy of countryliving.com

image courtesy of designmom.net

My favorite: Cinderella pumpkins

Wreaths are a great way to show that you are in the spirit of the season, with minimal effort.

halloween-online.com

www.zedomax.com

hgtv.com

hgtv.com

martha stewart

The queen of all things Halloween, Martha Stewart, has a great website that has pumpkin and wreath projects galore. Country Living Magazine also has a wonderful website with some interesting projects.

If you're swamped like us, but still love the idea of decorating your home for Halloween, hire us! We will come out, provide the decor and will even come back to clean it up.

We can't contain ourselves!

Our favorite time of year is just around the corner...

Check out this image and more here

We're baaaack!!!

So we're finally back from our long blog holiday. We decided to take the months of August and September off, just as they do in Europe. We needed to get back to basics, to refresh, and really - well, to catch up on all of our work. And actually, I think they only take the month of August off in Europe, but it sounded like I knew what I was talking about, right? Anyway....back to blogging.

The beautiful Madison skyline

Some of you have heard us talking about our wonderful trip to Madison, WI in August. We were invited by the lovely ladies at Ferguson Kitchen and Bath and we cannot thank them enough. We have to admit, traveling to Wisconsin in the middle of August to learn about refrigeration and ovens did not sound too sexy. Our workload was getting to be pretty demanding and we started with the "what were we thinking, we don't have time," blah blah blah.

Look at what we saw on our morning walk around the lake!

WOW were we wrong. We were treated to first-class accommodations, met numerous lovely designers from all over the southwest and partied like rock stars in downtown Madison.

Heather pointing out the capitol building - just prior to partying like rock stars.

The best part really was the 2 days where we learned about Sub Zero and Wolf. And I am not brown nosing here - I am FOR REAL! The Jim Bakke Center was where we were headquartered for most of the time that we were there. This place was designed with gorgeous finishes and by fabulous designers. What a treat for us! So here are the pictures and the proof.

Look at this beautiful wall - just when Heather and I were just about to write a blog about our hatred for Venetian plaster - we were treated to this. What a great, modern use of Venetian plaster. The Venetian plaster you see in Vegas never looks like this. It just looks Tuscan. In the desert. Blech.

The artwork was A-MAZING! Do you recognize anything in this painting?

The Jim Bakke Center, basically the educational and entertaining headquarters for SubZero/Wolf, has areas designed by Jamie Drake - as pictured above. Stay tuned for another blog on him in the future. There are a few demonstration kitchens, a large amphitheater and a couple of dining areas/bars. The people at the center were wonderful - really everyone we came into contact with was great. They fed us fabulous food, carted us around town and gave us super-fancy factory tours. They even gave us a souvenir picture book of the center to take with us.

Flowers that we can only dream of growing in Vegas - just sitting around outside the Bakke Center. JEALOUS.

Chihuly EVERYWHERE!

Seriously, I told you it was everywhere. Apparently, Chihuly first learned to blow glass in Madison. Crazy, right?

Again, we can't say enough about our wonderful trip and we are so lucky to be able to take trips like this - and it's our job! If you are in the market for a kitchen redesign, SubZero/Wolf really are the Mercedes of kitchen appliances. Beautiful. Superbly designed. Long lasting. Did I say gorgeous? And most of all, supremely functional. That's it for my non-paid endorsement. But now we are believers.