C.B.I.D. HOME DECOR and DESIGN: REFRESH

the blue house

I just had to share this beautiful transformation with you. It was so fun to design, and to see to its completion. The homeowner is wonderfully creative and knows exactly what she likes. My amazing friend, Shawna Henrie (bleudog fotography), provided the photography - which is why this post is going to be full of lots of wonderful pictures! Enjoy!

I will put the before and after photos at the bottom of this post... they are great!

I designed new custom mantels for the fireplaces and a built-in unit for the family room - and we got to work with the help of Aldon Thompson, of Thompson Construction. He is magic with fine carpentry.

Its easy to see that the homeowner loves blue. Blue and white make her happy. She loves its freshness. She loves how it makes her feel.

My job was to help her update and refresh her home. So we painted walls in the living and dining areas Whisper Gray (Dunn Edwards/California Paints) and all the woodwork in fresh clean white. We added a lot of details - like beadboard wainscot and paneled walls and trimmed out windows and doorways. Both fireplaces got a huge remake. The family room fireplace was expanded, faced with beautiful stacked stone and customized with built-ins.

The living room fireplace was small and encased in heavily grained oak mantle and surround. We expanded the fireplace to include the whole wall, using the same stacked stone and topped it with a substantial mantel. We accessorized the room with the homeowner's vast collection of blue and white porcelain pieces, her collection of artwork and other items, creating lovely little vignettes about the house.

I could go on, but a picture is worth a thousand words....