Olive Interior Design

I've done a few photos shoots over the last week to help the lovely ladies at Olive Interior Design document several of their most recent projects for their blog.Their projects include home design, office design, and re-modeling design.

Below is an office entry in an industrial building. Who wouldn't mind waiting in this gorgeous seating area?

I love these bottles

A fabulously decorated home.

One of my favorite details in the home: the panty. Removing the doors and using some great storage containers is such a wonderful idea. So accessible and nice to look at. If only I had a laundry room/ pantry to copy this idea!

Ireland Home Tour Part II

You may have thought I showed you the best yesterday with the great room, but the bedrooms and bathrooms in Sarah's home have incredible details as well. I love her newly re-done big girl room for her youngest daughter. Sweet without being cliche. The custom mural is such a nice unique touch and I love the bedding and upholstered headboard.

Reagan's room is bright and fun - love all the color!

As I was taking photos throughout the home I was amazed with the lack of kid clutter. Well, the Irelands are lucky enough to have a huge playroom, so this explains how the bedrooms are so neat and organized. Now I didn't take a photo of the playroom since it isn't really decorated and they actually do plan to rip it out to create a larger yard for the girls to run around in. But I can attest there is one area where kid clutter lives in this house.

In the bathrooms Sarah has used lovely wood dressers and tables as the under the sink vanity. So clever and unique.

Now this is what I call a welcoming guest room, the mirrored dresser is another of my favorite pieces.

Another gorgeous vanity cabinet in the guest bath.

And finally the master bedroom.

I've always wanted a bench at the foot of my bed, unfortunately I don't have room for one, but this one fits perfectly.

Again if you are interested in contacting Sarah her number is 562.810.6785

Ireland Home Tour Part I

My friend Sarah has a beautiful home fitting her beautiful family! She is one of those moms who seems to get so much done it amazes me, and getting a glimpse inside her home I can tell you it is not a facade. She is a patient and wonderful real estate agent (she helped another friend through the most tumultuous buying and selling process I've ever heard of with grace!) and a talented interior designer. She and her design partner Alison both work at a chic local home furnishing store; Chartruese where she has picked up many of the finds you see in her home.I'm excited to share with you some photos I took of the Ireland home.

The Entry:

The grasscloth wallpaper throughout the entry and living area is so fantastic, texture and warmth, but still a neutral so it isn't overwhelming.

Gorgeous photos of her girls decorate the home throughout.

As you know from my home tour I love a large kitchen island.

Notice how she used two different colors of cabinets: A great idea to add detail in the glass cabinets is to paint the shelving on the interior - simple yet adds interest. Dining area, two fabrics used on the chairs ties into the two colors used in the kitchen cabinetry. One of my favorite pieces in the house is this apothecary hutch - I love the variations in the wood and little circular handles.

Grey and orange, my favorite color combination!

Stay tuned for part II of the tour tomorrow featuring the bedrooms and bathrooms. If you would like to contact Sarah for an Interior Design project or Real Estate assistance her number is 562.810.6785

Our home - the rest.

Even though our home isn't very big - 1350 sq. feet I wanted to break up the home tour into two posts so as not to overwhelm you (all 2 of you that is!). So what we have left is the bedrooms, bathrooms, and hall. We haven't done anything too major to the rest of the house just simple paint and decorating.

This was my motto a couple years back when we just had our second child who was such a cranky baby. I know this print is everywhere now, but I still do like it and someday may change out the print, since I LOVE the frame.

First off the master bedroom - we updated with the wallpaper on the wall and headboard last year. I thought we may tire of the bold choice, but so far we are loving it. I looked for wallpaper for quite a while and kept being overwhelmed by the pricing, it seemed like a risk to spend a ton of money on something that you don't really know if you are going to love it until it is up on the wall. We found Graham and Brown out of the UK to be affordable enough to take the plunge.

My original vision for this acrylic table, mirror and stool was for it to be my vanity - I've always wanted one! I soon discovered that make-up and jewlery left out at this height was played with and tried on by my lovely little ones, so for now it is more of a bedside table. I want to get some shelving to house my things away from curious hands and hopefully its intended purpose will be restored. (table CB2, mirror etsy find that we painted, stool overstock)

Here is my dresser an antique passed along from my Great Aunt along with the Buddha lamp. I've never been into vintage or antique furnishings before - probably because the cool ones are super pricey. But these things have such meaning since they have been in the family. Older things seem to have such craftsmanship and quality that is so hard to find (or afford!) these days.

I have always loved these vintage Halliburton suitcases - now they store extra purses, and Bosey who's been with me since age 4.

We had this sliding door made to maximize space in our tiny master bathroom. If we ever remodel again it will be to add some closet space and a bit more to the bathroom as well.

Hallway - I know not very exciting, but might as well do the whole tour. I've been meaning to re-paint this mirror for a while now...someday.

The girls rooms are bright and fun, someday we plan to do bunkbeds and create a library in the other bedroom.

Kid clutter is so hard to contain, and the bedrooms rarely look this clean! We recently added the shelf with hooks underneath for the dress-up clothes thanks to the idea from a friend.

You may recognize the poster from this photo contest we won!

And finally the kiddo bathroom. We have learned to live with the retro 50s blue bathroom. We, meaning my husband, painted the tile to cover up the old hideous tile. It was an easy solution and after a fresh paint job the bathroom is something we can live with for a while now.

I leave you with one word

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to have more home tours soon.

Our home - the great room!

Our home is a Cliff May Rancho that was built in 1952. It is a mid-century pre-fab built for the urban sprawl going on in the 1950s. May's homes were designed to maximize the indoor/outdoor living that we are so lucky to enjoy in SoCal. Our neighborhood has around 600 homes built by Cliff May in 3 (I think) different models, more info here. I don't have as many before photos as I would like - so most of these are of our home in its' current state. We did a bit of remodeling to the kitchen and took out the fourth bedroom to create a "great room" - although ours is not that big! After moving from the loft we needed to open up the space once we moved in. The kitchen was a narrow galley kitchen with zero counter space - it had been updated in the 70s or 80s, so it didn't have any of the cool 50s original appliances. We haven't stuck as much to the "original" styling as many mid-century modern enthusiasts who live in the neighborhood try to do. We've more adapted it too meet our more modern needs. I hope you enjoy the tour!

Our living area - this is what you see when you enter our home. One of my challenges and something I would like to create is more of an entry to the house.

Here is the kitchen before

Kitchen now. We used Henrybuilt cabinets - and changed the location of the sink to under the window - added the huge island to compensate for the lack of counter space before. We widened the kitchen by closing off the original entrance to the hallway which is where the fridge is now.

Before back of kitchen and the pink wall on the right was the fourth bedroom we removed - now where our dining area is.

The dining area now, you can also see we moved the entrance to the hall to the right.

The owner before us did plaster work and practiced around the home plastering random walls and the fireplace - it was so awful - a light brown suede type texture. It had to go so we found gypsum board tiles from modular arts to cover up the ugly.

Mason lounging in part of the remaining lounge from the loft. As you can tell we are not afraid of color! Our house has a TON of windows and the white pitched ceiling allows for us to use lots of color. We have used Flor tiles throughout since we haven't been ready to invest in flooring. These tiles have been great - they hold up to the kids as you can literally pick one square up take it outside and hose it down then let it dry and bring it back in. After some get really grimy we just replace those ones and at $13/each it is cheap. Eventually we may go with the re-surfaced concrete with sisal rugs (I love those!) or potentially a grey wood - random blog post about my flooring obsessions here.

And now for a few detail shots - always my fav!

My father-in-law, yes the owner of this fabulous Naples home, brought us this juicer home from Europe a few years ago - our style without a doubt! Note to self - move one of favorite items away from electrical outlet for pictures next time!

Did you know you can cut a little off your succulent - put it in a vase in your home, let it grow some roots and then re-plant it somewhere? I love to do this!

Jonathan Adler fruit bowl

A nod to the mid-century roots we have used some mid-century mod fabric - this Alexander Girard Quatrefoil, you can see a George Nelson fabric wall hanging peeking out from the hall as well.

Thanks for taking part 1 of the tour, I'll post the rest of the house later in the week. I've recently become addicted to 9 by Design which has me really wanting to do some fun decorating - I LOVE their style! I'll keep you posted on any re-decorating as well.

Loft #212

In searching for the before photos of our current home for a post I'll do later in the week I came across these photos of our old loft. This was our first home together as a married couple and we moved in right when we returned to from our honeymoon. We lucked out in being able to afford the cheapest and smallest of the lofts in the Walker Building in downtown Long Beach just after it was renovated and turned into lofts. All the tenants moved in around the same time and it was totally like an adult dorm with tons of parties and social gatherings. We met so many interesting people and new friends. These are some photos of the loft when we finally completed the furnishing/decorating - about 2 months before we ended up selling. We will forever remember our days and late nights in the Walker building!

Here is the reading lounge we had custom built - so cool!

View from the entry way to the dining area.

The units on the second floor got to keep original wood flooring from the old Walker Department store - it had such character. Also you can see the much of the original architecture.

At the time I had no idea how spoiled I was that this was my first kitchen!

The couch in its intended location - this is why it is so big. It looked a lot nicer pre-kids! The original fire escape from the exterior was attached to the inside of the loft. A little loft within a loft- we used it as an office.

Greg and a couple other friends were nearly injured beyond repair hanging this plexi-glass divider we had made to separate the bedroom area. You can see fabric wall hangings throughout - my last business venture.

Our same bed pre-wallpaper.

Ah the memories! We were pretty hip in 2004 if I do say so myself!

A Naples home tour

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The view from these parts"][/caption]

This gorgeous Naples home belongs to my in-laws, the "serial remodelers" as my husband likes to refer to them. Just over two years ago they sold their sprawling home in Rolling Hills and bought a retro modern home in Naples. With all 5 kids off to college and out of the house they opted for a smaller home in a more social neighborhood. When they first bought the house I really thought I liked it, now looking at the before photos I'm not as sure. One thing I know for sure the finished (well almost) house is stunning. There is still some decorating to complete, an indoor fountain to get built, and a few other finishing touches to be finalized.

Prior to the remodel the kitchen, dining room, and main living area were upstairs which maximized the view, but did not allow for the indoor/outdoor living that is so nice on the canals. The master was upstairs in the back of the home and the smaller bedrooms and a tiny living room were located downstairs. Now the living, dining and kitchen areas are downstairs, along with a raised patio with better access and improved view. The master bedroom remains upstairs but now faces the canals with a balcony to really enjoy the view.

These before and afters are pretty dramatic - enjoy!

Exterior before

Exterior - after

Amazingly the youngest of the Stratford siblings designed the facade and the outdoor firepit - not bad for a college kid!

Downstairs living room area - before

Downstairs living room - after

The sliding glass doors

Custom entertainment center and display

Throughout the home, they included shelving to highlight works done by the artists in the family.

Kitchen - before (upstairs)

Kitchen - after

View from kitchen out with automatic shade down, we can see out, but they can't see in.

Dining room before

** An important disclaimer: these before photos were taken with the previous owners furniture, pretty sure it had been there since the Sixties!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="398" caption="Dining area after"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The stairs - before"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Stairs after"][/caption]

The only recognizable part of the interior! These stairs were gorgeous as is. Under the stairwell is where the fountain will go, yet again designed by Katie (she goes to UCLA, which is probably why she is so talented!)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Stair detail"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Upstairs living area before"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Master bedroom, now in the front upstairs"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="399" caption="Master bath before"][/caption]

The above wallpaper, was very cool and kitschy, but not quite their style.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Master bath after"][/caption]

Oh, yes I believe I could live in this bathroom, so spacious and filled with light, like heaven!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="399" caption="Other side of the bathroom, there is a huge jacuzzi tub too."][/caption]

I know, I know this is the longest blog post ever, but I do need to include a few detail shots, since these are my favorites.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="398" caption="Artwork by Jeff (top) & Katie (bottom)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="398" caption="More of Jeff's art"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Fire pit - yes, it makes a yummy s'more!"][/caption]

Now to complete the lovely home tour I take you down to the dock where you'll find the Duffy - no home on the canal is complete without one!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Duffy!"][/caption]

The Mather Home

My friend Olivia let me take photos of her fabulously remodeled home last week. There are so many great modern details throughout the house - enjoy the tour.

First up the dining room banquet:

And the light filled kitchen:

And onto the bathroom, I literally squealed the first time I saw her tile - so playful, yet tasteful. I love this big, bathroom for her boys with tons of storage space.

Now I didn't really ever think a hallway could be beautiful - but this one certainly is! Notice how the tree outside is framed in the window. The light and architectural details are perfect.

At the end of the hallway a fun playroom for the boys.

And I just have to share a photo of the bread Olivia's husband made - and yes of course I tasted it, so YUMMY!

Vendor List:

Re-model design: Cameron Cooper

Kitchen & Banquet design: Cameron Cooper & Elaina Sherrill

Cabinets: Cliff Spencer

Contractor: Outten Construction

Now in addition to living in this beautiful home and getting to eat delicious bread Olivia has a cloth diaper business. Thank you for sharing your home!