Photoshop, my love....

Since I have moved to Oklahoma, I have found myself doing most of my work long-distance.  Luckily I know just enough to be dangerous with Photoshop, which has turned out to be my best e-design friend!  With the woosh of an email I am able to communicate with out of town clients, who are also leading super busy lives and it just makes it easy for everyone.  Don't get me wrong, good old fashioned face to face meetings are invaluable... but my computer definitely has a special place in my design practice!  Take a look and see what I mean...

For a client in Dallas, I was able to create this bedroom design based off of our conversations regarding their needs and preferences.  I sent a few tweaks along the way and we were able to paint a broad picture of what the finished room will feel like.  Then comes the tricky part...

I'm not going to lie, I would much rather be able to present all materials together in-person for the client to see and feel.  I did have the client run by the Peacock Alley showroom in Dallas to check out some of the bedding and make sure they were happy with the "hand" (i.e. way it feels).  Bedding is such a personal thing and you should always feel it in person if possible!  In this case, we are going to do a custom bolster pillow that picks up on the super cool hand painted porcelain lamps we are ordering.  After ordering about 30 samples from fabric houses in Dallas, I narrowed it down to the two above (I have learned to never give client's more than 3 choices or they often get overwhelmed).  This is where you need a good scanner and a client who is decisive. The colors are only a subtle difference, but it's the details that matter! 

Which one would you chose?

Heritage Hills Home Tour

The Ferris' Heritage Hills English Cottage

This weekend is the annual Heritage Hills Home Tour in Oklahoma City, and you don't want to miss it!  I always enjoy a good home tour and looking forward to this one in particular, because it features the beautiful home of our longtime "friends slash clients" David and Merideth Ferris.  Their charming 1907 english cottage is sure to be a darling of the tour and you won't want to miss it.  It is the perfect blend of historic architecture and pretty period pieces, punctuated with lots of personality... making it uniquely their own!  See the living room featured in Slice Magazine.

The Ferris' home featured in Slice Magazine || photos: Carli Wentworth || styling: Brie Dorr

The Ferris' moved into their new OKC home not long before we moved to Norman and I was so excited when Merideth asked me to help her with design work in the powder bath and kitchen.  Let me start by saying that Merideth knows her own style and has some major decorating chops to begin with! She just needed help turning her vision into a reality.

When working with a registered historic home that is over 100 years old, I knew it was important to honor the architecture of the home, so the pre-design phase started with a little architectural history homework.

After establishing some basic design ground-rules, the first order of business was to address the powder bath, since it is the only downstairs bath and was already gutted!

Step one is always to identify design challenges: low ceilings, lack of character, funky mirror set into what used to be a window.

Then comes the fun part... creatively coming up with design solutions!  In this case they were: to embrace the low ceilings with an interesting wallpaper we had imported from England, add architectural interest with wainscoting and crown molding, and to remove the existing window/mirror in order to re-orient the focus of the room.

We were also able to salvage a fabulous antique sunburst light fixture from another part of the house.  It was in a big open hallway upstairs and was swallowed up due to it's petite scale, which was perfect for the small powder bath.

After a pricey bid from a trim carpenter, Dave decided to tackle the wainscoting himself, leaving more budget for the "fun stuff" i.e. fixtures, mirror and wallpaper!

To make sure the wainscoting height was perfect, I drew the room out with everything exactly drawn to scale... I wanted to make sure it hit above the pedestal, but below the mirror.

And good thing Dave is a perfectionist / engineer, because it turned out beautifully!  Let's just say if my gifted-in-other-areas hubby attempted this job there would not be a home tour going on in our house (love you honey).

mirror: Restoration Hardware  ||  faucet: Rohl  ||  toilet and pedestal: Kohler  || wallcovering: Cole & Sons

I am happy to report that the powder bath has officially transformed into a stunner, and is now a feature point of the house.  And Merideth, who has a serious knack for art walls (seriously she should go into business), finished off the room with a cool collection of wall art that will get her guests talking.

"Sneak Peak" of the art that fills the powder bath walls, including a historic black and white photo of the home. 

To see the finished powder bath, you'll just have to venture out to the home tour!  You can buy tickets here.  It should be a great time complete with food trucks, live music, OKC ballet performance and pop-up shops at the Overholser Mansion.  And for a unique way to view the neighborhood, you can even ride the trolley!  See you there!