Auburn 'bound!

WAR EAGLE!!

I am excited about going to Auburn this weekend for the game! Sad to say, but we still have not made it to a home game this year. We have been in Auburn for several of the games, but never made it to the stadium (because we are poor, not sloppy :) ). On a whim, and a reason to get to see one of my best friends, we found tickets and went to the Ole Miss game. It was a blast. The stadium was not the best I've been to, but the atmosphere was electrifying! My favorite part was how many Auburn fans were in the stadium and stayed-put even way after the game was over!






 We had great seats, right between the goal-post. This is the only picture I took, my camera died shortly after.







As for this weekend, it is going to be a rush to the game. Greg has to work until noon and then it's a 3 hour drive there. His family lives in Auburn, so we will mad-dash to their house to watch the game.  We didn't buy tickets this time and I wish we could be there for this incredible game, but we aren't millionaires and can't afford the outrageously priced tickets!

On Cam Newton:
I have had a hard time dealing with all of the bad press about Auburn and Cam Newton. As a former student athlete recruiter, I know how Auburn works and the morals and ethics that we stand for and I find it VERY difficult to see these allegations being true. I have paid close attention to everything going on in the media, but have tried to bite my tongue until I hear the whole story. Yes Cam has had a rough past, but who hasn't messed up, especially in college? Who would come up squeaky-clean if a microscope was focused on his/her past? And once you made that 'big mistake', did you not learn your lesson and clean your act up? Why do most people in the media seem to think a person can't change and redeem themself?

I believe in Gene Chizik. When I recruited, he was an assistant coach and he was as he is now: a gentleman that lifts people up, expects the best out of everyone, upholds his morals and values, and is an all around great man. If he says everything is 'pure garbage', then it is garbage.























Until proven otherwise, I stand with Cam, Auburn, and all of the coaches. To this point, nothing I have seen or heard makes me believe otherwise. We are innocent until proven guilty, unlike most people in the media believe that it is 'guilty until proven innocent'. Just because it happened at USC with Pete Carroll means nothing to me. With that logic, if a high-profile man in Oklahoma cheated on his wife, then a high-profile man in Mississippi did too. It simply means nothing!  I believe in Auburn and love it!

P.S. I can't wait to hear the news that stems from this quote yesterday. It is supposed to surface sometime today.

"Sleep well tonight, Auburn. 

They have taken their best shot, and it is a misfire. 

Starting tomorrow, it's our turn. And all Hell is coming with us." - Will Collier

Reflection on Veteran's Day

I am so thankful for all of the veterans and those fighting today for keeping our country safe and free. I thank and pray for the family and friends of these soldiers, as they are sacrificing just as much as the men on the battlefront.

May you stay safe, strong, and come home soon!

In honor of Veteran's Day, I wanted to look at military/campaign inspired furniture. Fashion has channeled the military look for several fall seasons and the look has become popular in furnishings. 

As seen in the NY Shopping in 2005.

Still going strong in 2009 as seen with CAbicanary.

Military and campaign furniture have been around for ages, but it is becoming very popular to have a few pieces around the home. Campaign furniture was used overseas during the wars to allow for quick dis-assembly to move to the next location. Most things folded down flat, had removable tops, and could be linked together to make larger surfaces when needed. Many current furniture designers have pieces in their lines that reference the military/campaign style furniture used by our troops today and during the wars of the past.

 

Military inspired chest via Theodore Alexander

Military surplus desk in Campaign style.

Campaign furniture style via Richard Wrightman.

Restoration Hardware's homage to aviators.

Everyone that knows me knows that I love antiques and old furniture. I found this wonderful chest at an antique booth shop in East Ridge and for $100 dollars, could not pass it up! It was a little 50's style chest that had great bones, but just needed a face-lift. My fabulous husband, sturdied-up the legs and helped me paint this darling! 

This isn't mine, I didn't think to get a "before" picture, but it looked similar to this.

Inspired by the military interiors movement, I painted the chest with a metallic paint in a faux-finish. This is what it looks like now. I plan to paint the edges with a a darker metallic paint to give emphasis and depth like the other military pieces that are so popular now.

Color me Longwood!

Here are some photos of the room along the way... Tile work is supposed to begin sometime this week and I will post more pictures after they start tile work.

WEEK 2:

The Hallway into the bath with doors and walls removed.

Tub and the vanity wall removed.

New shower cavity and toilet niche.

Toilet Niche

 WEEK 3:

Tub surround and bench installed. Quartz countertops installed and tub in place.

New half-wall installed and new counter tops installed.

Shower cavity and toilet niche. Plumbing being installed.

Now the fun stuff~

One thing that I love to do for clients is to draw a color rendering of the space. This allows them to see everything together and understand the overall feel of the room. My first rendering I did for these clients allowed us to start a dialogue and adjust the design to better fit their needs. Here is the final color rendering of the new design.

Our design process began through looking through millions upon millions of magazines for inspiration. We narrowed our inspiration pictures and began building a design. Tons of ideas were rolling around and the client had a hard time committing to a design scheme, so we started looking at tiles. On the first day, we found the absolute perfect accent tile for the room and our inspiration for the room was born. It was a gorgeous glass tile with many color variations and a glaze over it that made more a transitional than modern feel.

Glass accent tile.

After this selection, everything fell into place. We found a wall tile that we LOVED for the shower and tub front. It had great movement while subtle color variations to keep the style "spa-like" and airy.

Shower Wall and Tub Front Tile.

With so much color being in the accent tile and having a very neutral shower tile, we decided to go bold on the floor and bring the design together with the color. The porcelain tile that we found was perfect! It was full color and life and even had the same glazed look as the accent tile.

Bathroom and Shower Flooring.

Our biggest obstacle was finding the counter top. We first looked at granites and natural stones. The client loved the look of marble and limestone, but did not want the up-keep of a natural stone. Our next stop was quartz. After several trips and options, we found one that was beautiful and fit the design of the room perfectly!

Champagne Limestone Quartz

Picking out lighting was so much fun. There are so many finishes and options out there these days! We ended up finding a great line that had the best shapes and finish options that was a blend of the transitional feel of the bathroom and the traditional feel of the rest of the home.

Chandelier and Vanity Lights ( Will be a dark brushed nickel finish)

The room is coming together fast! Check back in a couple of days and I hope to have new progress pictures up for you to see!

Longwood Designs

In my previous post, you were introduced to Longwood, the master bath remodeling job. Demolition started almost a month ago and we are deep in the process.

Here are the drawings for the new floorplan design:

 

The floorplan design's main purpose was to enlarge their shower, take out the over-sized tub and replace it with a smaller drop-in water-jet tub, and relocate the toilet niche. In order to accomplish this, the right closet's length had to be shortened. (Click here to see original floorplan)

The shower design has changed throughout the process and it has turned out to be a beautiful design! The tub surround was continued across the back of the room into the shower to create a bench inside the shower. There are two long, rectangular cubbies inside the shower that are of our beautiful accent tile. This accent tile is also used as accent bands around the shower and on the tub front.  

The luxurious shower has two regular shower heads, one on each side,  one hand-held fixture between the cubbies, and an over-sized rain head in the center. The front of the shower will be solid, seamless glass wall as shown in the drawing below.

With one of the closets being shortened, it required a closet system "to have a place for everything" to keep it organized and functional. The closet system is being installed today and tomorrow and I hope to post pictures soon. These are the conceptual sketches of the closets.

HER's (the one that is being shortened):

  

Her closet has open shelving, four drawers of different sizes, shoe cubbies, and purse cubbies. It has short and long hanging areas as well as large storage above. They have 10'-0" ceilings and we were determined to use all of it!

HIS:

 His closet is extremely shallow and the design had to be very functional. There are shoe cubbies on the left wall and open shelving and drawers on the other end of the closet. The main portion of the closet is a double stack of short hanging. The back corner is an awkward space because of the angled wall and it was utilized for housing guns and other over-sized items. We also utilized the tall ceilings and added the extra storage above, just as we did in her closet.

Check back tomorrow to see the current progress of the room and the design details of the room!

Longwood Remodel..Before

I am excited to say that one of my current jobs is smoothly trucking along, with the execption of the lighting being back-ordered, and are finally back on schedule! 

Just a little background to fill you in: Once I decided to venture out on my own, my first job came along pretty quickly and is my biggest job to this day. The homeowners built their beautiful home in the late 1980's. Although they have done minor updates over the years, they were ready for a big change. They wanted to take their bathroom down to the studs, enlarge the shower, and remove some walls to allow more natural lighting.  Once we got into designing, they also committed to installing wooden closet systems in each closet and updating the closet doors.

After several months of deliberation, we finally worked up the perfect floorplan and began the search for finishes, tiles, and lighting.

This is the original floorplan before we began construction. This drawing includes the closets and hallway into the bathroom. The dotted lines represent the objects to be removed.

 

These are pictures of the bathroom just before demolition began:

 

This is the vanity section. The husband's brother built these cabinets and are still in great condition. The plan is to refinish them and change the countertops and cabinet pulls. Also the wall between the tub and vanity is being partially removed to allow more light into the room.

 The original custom leaded glass windows had pink borders around the edges and needed repairs, so the clients decided to replace them with new windows. After several weeks of sketching, our new window design is cohesive with the rest of the room's design and allows views into the woods behind the home. The drawing depicts the new design for the bay window and a peek at the new bathroom design.

 

This is the right side of the bathroom. As you can see, they had a corner shower that was fully enclosed and a small toilet niche next to it.  The angled wall and mirror shown in the above picture will be removed to make room for the enlarged shower.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress of the bathroom!