Organized and Fabulous

I am so excited to post After pictures of the office I recently finished!  When my client first asked for help, she told me she would shudder and close the door when she walked past the office because it was such a mess and the paint color was just plain wrong.  

You can almost tell that there is an amazing fireplace in this room with a gorgeous tile surround.  The paint color, though, was so bright that it dominated the entire space.  Instead of a file cabinet, there were 6 or 7 small file boxes and several other insufficient shelves filled the room but didn't help with the storage problems.  

This room gets so much light that with the sunlight bouncing off the walls this color was overwhelming.  My client still wanted a green color in the room and I had an idea that I thought would be great~ without detracting from the beauty of the fireplace.

The foundation of this room was organization.  Getting this closet organized and functional was incredibly important!  Thankfully with The Container Store in town, I was able to get a great closet system in place that provides plenty of storage and more than enough function.

A file cabinet now takes the place of all the small file containers that cluttered the room.  I kept 1 for the legal size documents but as you can see, there is plenty of room for it on the shelf and there is no need for it to take up floor space.  Everything is labeled and easy to find.

The fireplace in this room is gorgeous and was our color inspiration.  

I chose a much more grey version of the tiles and picked a neutral taupish grey for the lower portion of the walls.  I chose a desk with a glass top so it isn't too bulky in this small room but it does provide more than twice the amount of  surface space.

The mantle is kept simple with 1 piece of artwork, mercury glass votive holders and some personal accessories.

A cohesive color scheme keeps the room from feeling cluttered.

The fabulous cabinet from Nadeau houses cds, dvds, records and medical binders.  Who says a printer stand has to be ugly?  

A relaxing reading chair that was once covered in files and tucked in a corner now has the perfect home and I'd say the room is done!  

From Chaos and Kindergarten colors

To sleek, sophisticated and functional

To see more about the closet organization from this project, click HERE

If you've got a room that is covered in storage containers yet no organization in sight, contact me and we can transform your home into a functional beautiful space.

the nitty gritty

I absolutely LOVE decorating and organizing for clients and I really love posting the Before and After photos of projects.  What I don't usually show is the work I do that no one ever sees.  It's the work that helps the room actually function well but it's the part that is never photographed.

I'm not posting the After pictures yet because I'm not quite finished with the office yet but here are the Before and During pictures.

This is the closet before I started sorting and organizing.  I have to admit that even I feel a little bit overwhelmed the first time I see a mess.  Thankfully, my brain quickly formulates a plan and my smile is soon genuine.  :-)

Instead of spending hours and hours at my client's house sorting through all the cords, cables and wires that had taken over the office closet, I dragged it all home.  I did this so I could watch tv while I worked and also so I could ask my husband what the heck everything was!  (He's a pretty stellar guy)

After hours of holding up a cable and asking, "What's this?" I might be able to identify a power supply cable, a usb cable, an audio cable and a bunch of other stuff.  Maybe.

Everything is labeled, bagged and stored for easy access.  The closet looks great and I can't wait to show you pictures of the finished product!!

To see the completed project, click HERE

Need organizing or decorating help?  Contact me to schedule a consultation!  

My Green Door

I posted a while back about trying to decide on a color for my shutters and front door.  You can see that post Here.  I really wanted to use green but the color green I was drawn to just didn't seem right for the shutters.  SO, I painted the shutters black (paint I already had in the garage) and painted the door green.  This way, I can change the door color as the mood strikes me and the shutters stay their crisp, practical black.  
Here is a quick reminder of the Before-

Faded burgundy shutters and door, dirty gutters and windows.  The place was depressing!

I used the color Grassland from Lowe's.  Once we got up on the ladder to take the shutters down we washed the windows and gutters so the house looks squeaky clean now, which definitely needed to happen!

Now to finish off the landscaping on the left side of the house and it'll be my perfect little cottage.... until I decide to change something else!  Total cost for this makeover was $15.  

Need to make some changes but don't have much budget?  I absolutely love those kinds of projects!  Let the creativity begin....