Happy Valentine's Day!

Design by Sarah Coleman

Holidays seem to make us all hungry for sweet treats, don't they? Well, feast your eyes on these delicious images this Valentine's Day.





Images and yumminess by Bakerella


Luxury Love Cake by Sweetapolita

With or without a significant other, we can all enjoy red, pink or gold snacks. Have a great one! xoxo

Contributing to Ehow.com

I've been a lean, mean writing machine lately, although I'll admit, I could write more for the blog, but a girl's gotta get paid. Contributions will not be turned down :) My first article as an ehow.com contributor was recently published! Check out the full article, Ideas for Folding Wedding Napkins, by clicking on the link!

In other news, have a wonderful weekend! xoxo

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Sunnyside Bathroom on Apartment Therapy!

Thank you to Aaron Able at Apartment Therapy for publishing a bathroom renovation I completed for a client in Sunnyside, Queens! Check out the full post.

I had a wonderful client who, as is often the case, became a friend over the course of the project. She came to me initially because there was a serious mold problem in her bathroom caused by a perpetual leak from a neighbor's bathroom upstairs. We toyed with saving certain elements of the original bathroom, but ultimately, we decided a gut renovation would provide her with the new, bright, clean bathroom she wanted, and would dispel all remnants of mold and mildew lurking behind the tiles and under the tub.

As I mentioned in the Apartment Therapy blurb, we worked on a tight budget, but my client was flexible with things that were important to her; she loved the glass tiles and wanted a pocket door to open up the room a bit, so she splurged a little there, but the floor and penny tiles were extremely affordable, she kept her sink/vanity and we took advantage of my trade discount on all the finishes.

Comments from Apartment Therapy readers certainly run the gamut! Most think the bathroom is a wonderful improvement (thank you!) while a few are a little more...critical. Don't get me wrong, I'm open to constructive criticism, but comments like, "this really didn't need that ribbon of penny rounds" are entirely subjective and opinion-based. Of course, everyone has a right to express their voice, but at the end of the day, the final design was a result of the choices and compromises  between my client, the contractor and myself.

Some Apartment Therapy readers protested against ripping out the original tiles. As I wrote in my response to some of the comments, I highly value historic preservation, but it can be quite costly. In this case, the fact that the tiles were old/original did not make them better. Not only were they moldy, but they had seen better days. Additionally, the ceiling and walls were puckered from years of leaking from above, so in order to fully repair the damages, the walls had to be demolished. More importantly, my client wanted a new bathroom, and since it is her house, she has the right to change what she wants! She fell in love with the penny rounds and glass tiles, which made the whole design feel serene and clean. It is her opinion that matters most in this situation.

Here's what the tub area looked like before – does this look worth saving to you? It doesn't to me.


The rest of the bathroom, before:


My client's father, who visits from time to time, has a physical disability that makes small spaces difficult and uncomfortable for him to use. We increased the size of the bathroom slightly widening the door opening and by replacing the traditional swinging door with a pocket door. The addition of the larger door required demolition of one wall, further making the preservation of wall tiles moot.


The quality of workmanship on the tile installation, specifically where the penny tiles changed direction at the corners, caused quite a bit of controversy among AT readers! As I wrote in my brief response, penny tiles are challenging when it comes to changing directions (in this case going from a horizontal border to a vertical one that wrapped around the shower while maintaining the same width for the band). By changing the band to a vertical application, we hit a roadblock at the corners, as they do not come together cleanly.

The offending photo:


If you look closely at the photo below, perhaps it is clear that there is only one direction in which to install the mesh-backed tiles in order to achieve a clean, straight edge. It is even clear in the photo above that the natural tile angle is not at 45 degrees and the two edges just don't meet in the corner!

I spent a couple of hours laying out the different options with the contractor and we came to what we considered to be the best solution. Perhaps there were others, but we decided to cut some of the tiles in order to avoid large areas of tile-free grout. As one of the AT commenters wrote, "nothing is perfect," and while we strive for it, budgets, time and all sorts of other constraints are contributing factors to the final result of a project.

At the end of the day, I was very pleased with the overall transformation, as was my client and her family. It was a successful project and I'm proud of it!



Click on images to see larger versions, or hop over to our website!

I'm Blue Dabadee Dabba Daaa...

Does anyone actually know the lyrics to that song?

I'm not blue at all, but there's now a blue room in my house, featuring a special paint treatment! I grew up in a room with pale, pastel-y, powdery light blue walls, so in my adult life, I've tended to avoid the lighter blues, preferring richer, darker and more velvet-y blues. For our home office, Oliver and I chose a rich, but much lighter "Labrador Blue" from Benjamin Moore. It's a lovely color.

But, I couldn't just leave it at that, could I? No siree, I needed to make it more complicated. I wanted to paint clear coat stripes over the blue to create a monochromatic pattern. All this sounds like a great idea until you have to get to it. As you know, we've painted stripes before (ifyou haven't already, read about it here and here), and once it's all done and it looks great, you forget how annoying it was to get there. The same is true for this round of stripes, but I'm glad we're done with taping and painting stripes!

We bought 3M Edge Lock (delicate painter's tape) in bulk this time, because that stuff is not cheap, but it's the best. Buying it in bulk makes it a little more affordable, and we actually used it all.

Because we were painting clear lines this time, we couldn't use pencil markings to guide us, so we had to come up with another solution. Oliver found the niftiest Air Grip Compact Laser Level that sticks to the wall.

It makes a buzzing sound because it's suctioned to the wall by a vacuum, but it's totally worth the noise. Find a flat wall surface – the suction doesn't work if the wall is too bumpy. And if you have to rest the little gadget half on tape and half on wall, like we did at times, someone should hold it in place, as it struggles to suction to two materials at once. We slapped it on the wall, then taped our lines as it buzzed away:

Here she is, all taped off:


For the stripes, we used Minwax Polycryclic in clear gloss, which needed two hours to dry between coats. During breaks, we sat outside on the deck (!!!), where it was sunny and bright, and where we caught some lovely sunsets:

But don't think we were unproductive the whole time! On breaks, we also managed to hang my grandmother's beautiful mirror in the dining area:

Like the bare bulb? This is a work in progress, friends

We installed our chrome and glass shelving doo-hickey to a wall in the living room, unpacked some milk glass and unfurled a rug:

We still have the garbage bag roman shades...one thing at a time...

And we hung our headboard:

We have a lot of wall space to fill up, huh? Not to worry, we have a lot of art.

The directions on the polycrylic container recommend painting a coat, letting it dry for at least two hours, then sanding it lightly with 220 grit sand paper. But we learned the hard way that omitting the sanding part is appropriate here. I'm sure it's right to sand between coats when refinishing furniture or doing other projects, but in our case, the sand paper took off some blue paint, so we had to retouch one area before going over it with clear coat. Luckily, the area we messed up was behind the door, so it's less visible. I always try to test new products in inconspicuous places, both in our DIY projects, and when I'm working with contractors for professional projects. Anyway, we decided to just paint clear coat layers over un-sanded layers. Not having to sand certainly made the job go quicker, but it was still pretty tedious. Howevah, it looks FABULOUS (if I do say so myself)!


Now, we just need some cute desks (we left the one we built attached to the wall in our last apartment) and a pull out sofa to accommodate overnight guests!

Burning Wood

Ok ya'll, as many of you know, we moved to Texas in part because of the weather; we were sick and tired of winter on the East Coast and wanted milder winter months. For the most part, we've certainly gotten what we were looking for: While our friends and family have been dumped on in the north, we've had so many days when we could spend time outside in the sun. However, in early January, we were (un)lucky enough to get about an inch and a half of snow while staying at Oliver's parents' house and this last week in Austin has been BRUTAL for our what has quickly become our very thin skin! It even snowed last night here. It's supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow, but....WHAT?

Oliver's parents' backyard in the snow:

Note the boar skull I found nearby. I've aptly named him Boris (or Boar-is? You decide). He now resides in Austin, TX.

Lucky for us, Oliver's parents have a wood stove. We had that thing roaring for three days and nights:

COZY!!

Back to the present: after a weekend of jogging in shorts (SHORTS!) and bragging to Northerners about our mild winter, the temperatures haven't crept above freezing for a few days. We now live in a pier and beam home, which means the pipes are somewhat exposed. When temperatures are below freezing, we have to drip the faucets (inside and out) to prevent them from freezing and bursting - let's hope the water bill isn't in the four bazillions this month!

Our living room – ain't it grand?

Totally not our living room: 18th century fireplace at the MET

I know, my sad little complaints are falling on the deaf ears of friends and family in the North and Southeast, who have been pummeled by blizzards this year. Snowfall, especially when it's rare, makes kids happy; it makes cranky winter-haters like me sulky and unmotivated. The warmth of the wood stove made the cold bearable and it got me thinking about wood stoves as a design element. We've seen a million fire place and "winter interiors" images circling the 'net, but what about wood stoves? They are said to be more efficient at heating than fireplaces because they are closed and controlled, making for less heat loss. Wood stoves – especially antiques – have seen a resurgence of late. We don't have a fire source in our new house, but lets virtually warm my soul by taking a look at some deliciously cozy interiors with gorgeously chic wood stoves, shall we?

I can't get over this stunning wood stove in the home of Robin Petravic and Katherine Bailey, owners of  of Heath Ceramics:

Maybe we look at it from another angle for a sec:

Photos courtesy Heath Ceramics, via Design Sponge

Loving this antique!

Via Home-Shabby-Home

Achieve a more modern look with one of these fancy hanging wood stoves – it rotates, too!

Via lyring.com

The decor in this place is a total mess (plaid drap-y curtains? Flimsy wrought-iron chairs in the background? Randomly place seating?) and you'd need a lot of space for this bad boy, but it looks warm, so here you go:

Via Hometone

Forest fire, anyone?

Camino Steel tree by Paul Grassilli

I've secretly always loved fire orbs:

By Fireorb



Available through Focus

Woodstove in the fireplace? Sounds weird, but apparently it increases the efficiency of the stove.

By Charnwood

Neat-o porcelain wood stove:

Image via Between Spaces

Kind of beachy but probably warm:

Via Country Living

I like this one because storage was built right in, keeping everything neat and tidy – and chic!

Source unknown

Look at this little cutey-patooty chimney-free indoor stove with the glammy brass reflector! It burns ethanol, not wood, meaning no smoke and no soot. It's purdy.

Piet Indoor Stove by Fredrik Hylten-Cavallius

These are really more for use outdoors, when it's warm, but there's fire, it's compact, and right now anything with fire looks warm to me, so I'm including it:

Mini River Rock Fire Bowl, available at Restoration Hardware

Examiner.com & Austin Modern Home Tour

I'm proud to announce that I am officially the newest "Austin Interior Decorating Examiner" for examiner.com, and my first article has been published! Check out my little story about this Saturday's Fourth Annual Modern Home Tour taking place at snazzy homes, designed by hot Austin architects and designers throughout the city. A preview of the homes is viewable here, and a handy map can be downloaded for your directional pleasure!

If you're in the area, check it out – I'll be there! And don't forget to hit up the cocktail reception at BoConcept after the tour.

3903 Berry Hill Way
Photo by Patrick Y Wong/AtelierWong.com


Look for more articles on Examiner.com in the near future! My stories can be found in my profile on the website. 

Guest Blogger: Denise Fasanello

For a while now I have wanted to bring in some guest bloggers – designers, artists, artisans, crafters, and all-around creative people (whether their passion is a full-time job or a hobby) to write about what makes them tick. How did they get started? Was it a straight path to doing the work they do, or was it meandering and something that came along on the second round of careers (like mine)? Have they sacrificed to stay on the creative path, or did it come easy? I am especially interested in those who started out practicing one craft, kept exploring and wound up taking on a whole new medium or added new interest(s) to the roster of old ones.

I am elated to introduce my very first guest blogger today, the unbelievably talented Denise Fasanello, a Brooklyn-based floral designer. We hired Denise to create the flowers for our 2008 wedding and she truly brought an artist's eye and perspective to floral designs, which really set the tone for the whole affair. Not surprisingly, it turned out she began her creative career as a fine artist. Her floral designs are full of graphic elements and some of the most interesting, complex combinations of plant life I have ever seen. I figured her fine art background must inform her floral work somehow, and I wanted to know how. I also wanted to know more about the path she took from fine artist to working at an architectural design firm and finally to taking on flowers full-time, since so many of us start out doing one thing, but later realize our passions lie elsewhere. It's a tough decision to stop, re-evaluate, maybe go back to school, change your life and start over again, so I love hearing about successful people who made gutsy career changes. 

In addition to running her highly sought after business and being a wife and a mom, Denise also writes her own wonderful blog, Little Pheasant, full of whimsical commentary, spot-on observations and amazing images of her work. Without further ado, Denise's guest post. Thank you, Denise! xoxo

First, I need to start out by thanking Killy for inviting me as a guest blogger. I am so very honored to be asked! I've been a fan of The Studiolo from the beginning.

Floral design by Denise Fasanello

Here's a little background on me and how I got into floral design. It may seem like long convoluted story but then that's how life works sometimes, no? Many moons ago I needed a day job to support my art making habit.

Guinnea Hen, collage by Denise Fasanello

I found one at a little flower shop in the West Village. I had no experience working with flowers nor did I have a background in horticulture. But New York being New York I knew someone who got me the gig and I was a quick learn.

Web Bouquet, collage by Denise Fasanello

At the same time I was working part time for a famous female artist I greatly admired. Both jobs offered me more hours and I found myself at a real crossroads. At the time I was pretty keen on pursuing my fine art career so I chose to work as an artist assistant. 

Years pass and I am working diligently on my artwork but in truth I am feeling fatigued by the art world. By now I'm also running the daily operations of a successful architecture/art studio.

Web Bird Green, collage on paper by Denise Fasanello

After about six years of honing my fine art and eight years managing the architectural office, I start to think about that little flower shop. I dream about starting my own business. I start to design friend's wedding flowers.

Bouquet by Denise Fasanello

I slowly build a portfolio of images. I talk A LOT about it to anyone who will listen. I read how-to books on small businesses. I seek any and all stories of people, particularly woman who change careers. I even quit the firm to work for a fancy flower shop to gain experience. I get lured back to the firm. I make money and pay off all my debt. I continue to dream. I have a baby. I build a website. I design my business cards. I take the leap. That was 3 years ago and here I am. The hardest part of forging a new path is taking the first step. So true.

How has my art training influenced my flower work? Well, in very real ways. The use of scale, shape and color all come into play when making an arrangement. For me, working with flowers is the most liberating art expression. You do not have to wait for the paint to dry, the film to develop, the glue to set. It is instant gratification. I see it as a form of ephemeral sculpture.

Bouquet by Denise Fasanello

More interestingly how has floral design influenced my art making? How beauty is represented, manipulated and defined has always been at the root of my artistic creation. But it was not until I started working with natural materials that I truly understood our obsession with beauty. I begin to manipulate flowers and photograph them.

Orchid Sleeve by Denise Fasanello



Thorned by Denise Fasanello

Beauty is a fleeting experience. This is the conflict we all share. Beauty fades. Flowers wilt. To me it’s a very natural and human conflict - the desire to preserve beauty and the recognition that it is a futile pursuit. We make art to preserve the fading experience of beauty. Even the conscience decision to look at the ugly in life is a reaction to the beauty that exists. I am constantly reminded of this when I work with flowers. This is my attempt when being creative regardless of material or medium.

Bouquets by Denise Fasanello

Now what will the next step will be? Sky’s the limit!

Floral design by Denise Fasanello

To view more of Denise's work, click on her website. And don't forget to check out her blog!