A Wonderful Day in Montecito and Summerland

I  drove up the coast to Summerland and Montecito to do a little antiquing with my friend, Shelly.

 We had a blast!

 We had a special treat and visited a beautiful Houston designer who gave us a tour of her newly renovated home in Montecito...

It was gorgeous....Yes, just pinch me!


I will share with you in a later post who this delightful, talented designer is......


 I know I am being a little bit of a brat! 

In  Montecito we visited William Laman Home, Garden and Antiques. They had great pieces and they were artistically displayed.
Simple, but elegant.

 I loved this light blue cabinet and the bamboo style chair. 

 They had sea grass carpet through out the store with white wood on the walls. 

 How can you go wrong!

 One of our favorite styles. 

One of our favorite stores to visit in Summerland is the  Rue De Lillie Antiques. 
We have shown you images from their store before, here.

They always have creative displays. 

 

 

Its always fun to get away with friends and have a special day. Learning to balance family, friends, clients and life is always a challenge. 
We finished up with a few projects and are taking some time to get our own homes in order.
 Boy, that is always a challenge for me.
 I have so many ideas and not enough time to implement them.
 Does that happen to you? 
I wish there were two of me. One of me would tell the other one what to do!

 Danni is taking a little break and spending time with family. She is having fun living near her daughter. She has been able to have dinners with them and she appreciates that time. Going through a divorce, family is what has helped her through this passage of her life.
She is still  unpacking boxes and getting settled in.
 She will be back soon......
We would love to here from you!

 Thanks for visiting, Julie and Danni

Kate Singer

A true artist........

After seeing the Hampton design house and loving the living room that Kate Singer designed, we had to see more of Kate's work. 

She graciously let us post some of her work from her portfolio.

We loved how Kate designed this vignette for the design house. 
A perfect mix.

Hampton Design House


The art work is fabulous!

 Love how she layers fabrics to create a living space that is  inviting. 

Hampton design House

Love the purple.

Love the shells stacked in this urn.

 OK we know, to much love here.

 There is know other way to explain it, but Love it!

                                 We hope your enjoying your summer. We are
                                    Indeed!  It has been so hot in California. It was                                      101 degrees in our little city.

                                     Thank God for air conditioning.                  
                                     
                          All photography was wonderfully photographed by    
                                                   John Bessler      

North Ranch, Before and After

This is the before picture.

A couple of weeks ago we did a post on brick. We had mentioned that we had put brick on the stairs of a client's home, you can see it here. Our clients were getting a divorce and we never got pictures. We actually couldn't finish everything that we had planned to do. 

But....lucky us, we just got pictures of our client's home from the realtor. Now remember realtors take pictures to sell  homes and to make the rooms look bigger. Designers take pictures so you can see their work and focus on the details. 

This is the after picture.
 We added the stone on the fireplace and  the eating area. We also added the iron chandelier, beam and walnut hard wood flooring.

We had to keep the amoire and the pine table that the client's Grandfather had made in the dining room. We had panels on the windows in our design plan, but because of the divorce we had to scrap it. 

Here is the living room with the stone on the fireplace and new wood floors.

Dinning room Before

We added the banquette seating to open up the flow of the room and the stone on the wall. We were going to buy another chair, but we couldn't get the new chair because of the divorce. Wouldn't it look great to have a mirror above the banquette.

This is the close up of the fabric. Sorry it is hard to see. The brown pillows were an animal print and coordinated with the sofa pillows.

 Moral of the story is, get pictures of everything you do.....Even though that isn't always so easy. Most clients will work with you, but sometimes they don't want to go through the hassle.


We also wish both of these clients happiness in the future. It is always hard to go through a divorce. It brings so much sadness for all. We hope they both can look forward to the future and pray that they both can come to a place of peace for the children. We send hugs and love to both....




Don't forget to join our Linky connect. Google connect will be phasing out and we don't want to loose you in the process. 

Thanks, Julie and Danni

The Eloquence of White pottery

The eloquence of a simple white pot. Traditional, contemporary, country or modern it can be used in so many design styles.
Designer Pam Pierce

Here it is used with an industrial table amidst a very natural setting. 
Designer Vincente wolf

Designer Dan Marty, Have you seen his designs? Love his style. 

Love the pots displayed against the green hutch. 
(Eclectric Revisited blog)
Do you miss Maureen? We do!

One of our favorite images.
Designer Thad Hayes

In this Traditional setting the pots play a role at center stage. 
Designer Suzanne Kasler

Love, love this...a little more rustic than the others, but still so interesting. 
Sergreto finishes

The little details of a room makes it or breaks it. Think about how you display your treasures. Sometimes it helps to take a picture of what you have done. It gives you another way of viewing it. It is different than the eye because it narrows in on how a certain point of view will look.
Image- Brown Dress With White Dots

A great collection of different patterns and styles yet unified by their color.
Country Living

These pots take your attention up and over the armoire to fill the space in an otherwise empty and maybe boring corner.
Chic Coles

As artist/designers, when displaying items we always approach it as an art piece. We want the viewer to be entertained visually. When you add something new to your home do you ever think about that? What do I want the viewer to see and feel?  Is it balanced?  How am I entertaining the viewer?  
Image Lillia Blanka Blog