Upholestery Project

Over the weekend, I visited my parents' home and was assigned the lovely task of re-upholestering my mother's breakfast chairs.  Since this wasn't my first time re-upholestering the chairs I wasn't too surprised by the request, seems like every season my mother wants me to change out all the upholestery/drapery in the house.  I guess she gets bored easily.  Nevertheless, the whole job (including selecting the new fabric, removing the old fabric and covering the 5 chairs) took a little less than four hours.  See before and after pics below.

Before

After

Flower Power

It's quite dreary today here in the District of Columbia, so I thought I might cheer myself up by posting a few photos of delightfully lovely floral arrangements I spotted online today.  Coming home to lovely flowers, whether fresh from the garden, supermarket, or faux from your local design store can truly turn a rough day around and make your heart happy.  Well, it does mine and simply put, that's what I like to call, flower power. 

 ***Note:  I found these lovelies while browsing the Horchow site.

Napkin Holders

I do enjoy having dinner at a well dressed table.  I understand the importance of small touches and how they can enhance any experience making it all the more memorable.  One thing that makes me quite happy is having dinner at home (alone or with friends) with cloth napkins.  It can turn even a boring, mundane meal into a relaxing yet satisfying dining treat.  And we all know, no cloth napkin is complete without a napkin ring, which brings me to my latest find.  I stumbled upon these cute little rings at a local home furnishings shop in Adams Morgan, called Skynear.  I love that these rings have sparkle yet are quite whimsical! 

Bathroom Envy

I saw this bathroom from the Kips Bay Showhouse and died a thousand love-deaths. Oh My Goodness!

Pillow Talk

Throw pillows I love.

West Elm Pillow Cover $34

Z Gallerie $69.95

West Elm Pillow Cover $34

Quotes I Love

Two quotes from my latest reality TV guilty pleasure, Work of Art:

"Art is a way of showing the outside world what your inside world is like."

"A professional may have an idea of the way something should be done but to an amateur the possibilities are endless."

Tuft Love

I've never met a tufted piece of furniture that I didn't like or at the very least, I've never met a tufted piece that I couldn't find some redemptive quality in (go figure).  Anywho...while shopping for knobs online yesterday at Anthropologie, I took a look around the rest of the website and stumbled across a lovely flaxen colored leather tufted sofa.  It was lust at first sight but wanting to make sure I was aware of all my options, I took a leap over to Horchow to see what they had in the way of tufted sofas.  And wouldn't you know, they were running a promotion on "Furniture Trends" with "Tuft Love" as one of the trends!  Wooohooo! Since I'm sharing, I must say, Horchow can do no wrong in my book.  If I could, I would buy their entire inventory!  I really LOVE their design/buying team, like really, really, really LOVE.  So needless to say I was lost in tuft heaven but I didn't stop there, I then went on to google images of tufted sofas and found several more that gave me cause for pause.  I've posted them here for your viewing pleasure. 

Posh Knobs

If there's one thing I love most about interior design, it's channeling my inner magician and turning a drab space into something unique and wonderful.  Of course, it's a lot easier to channel said magician with a large budget but I've found that a smaller budget makes me a bit more resourceful.  When working with clients with a smaller budget I've learned that sprucing up what they already have works wonders and allows me to redistribute money that I may have spent on a new piece of furniture to a new rug or a new piece of art or sculpture.  "Sprucing" can entail stripping and re-staining, painting, or adding new hardware to an existing casegood.  Adding new hardware is the least labor intensive and usually inexpensive method of giving an old piece of furniture new life.  In my own home when I start to get the itch to buy new furniture, I exercise self-control by taking a trip to the nearest Anthropologie to search for decorative hardware.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

Spotlight on Eric Roth - Interior Photographer

Not to beat a dead horse (well, that's a bit graphic for this early in the morning) but to continue with the photography theme, I thought I would do a post on one of my favorite interior photographers, Eric Roth.  I have yet to work with Eric or any of his staff but I have long been an admirer of their work.  They've worked with every major interior design publication out there, as well as every major designer.  The company's portfolio is amazing!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...Please?

If you're in the design industry you know that having photos of your work is probably one of the single most important steps you can take to growing your business.  You can be an awesome designer but if you don't have photos of your work, there's no way to prove it.  A lot of designers just starting out tend to overlook or minimize the importance of photography in interior design.  They are so excited about the project, they forget to include clauses in their contracts that stipulate the necessity of having the project photographed or they get caught up in another project and forget to take pictures. 
I consider my projects to occur in three phases  Design, Demolition, and Delivery, with Delivery being the most exciting as well as the longest of the three phases.  During the Delivery phase, the project begins to come together to create the big picture.  This phase can take the most time because of all the little painstaking details required to make the project perfect, i.e. touching up paint, moldings, any gilt or plaster work, detailed tilings or mosaics, etc.  Sometimes you find that you are not able to take pictures as soon as the last laborer finishes and that you may have to wait for the homeowner to move back in, i.e. take art, family heirlooms, etc out of storage or maybe the family has really moved out of the home during this time due to the extensive nature of the project or maybe the designer's services were retained before the homeowner ever moved in, whatever the case may be, it is these such circumstances that cause designer's to often times neglect to take pictures of their work. 
Over the years, I've developed the habit of taking pictures throughout the process and using them as a "Before" and "After" pictorial.  I've found that doing so lends credibility when trying to establish yourself in this industry.  If a prospective client can see that you've turned something from "this to that", it gives them confidence that you should be able to handle their job just as well.  Starting out you  may not be able to hire an Interior Photographer to shoot your projects as their fees can be upwards of a couple thousand dollars but taking the pictures yourself can serve you just as well.  Try to take pictures that are artistic in nature, a close up of a wall sconce, a stack of books piled on a side table, a throw draped casually over a chair. Sometimes it may be hard to get a good picture of a room without the proper lighting or extra staging elements. In these instances, focus on the decorative details.  You want to be able to show your scope of work but even the smallest projects give you credibility and add another stone to your foundation. 

Exit Minky, Enter Posh...

I created this blog as a spinoff to my other blog, Minky Betancourt and All Things Posh, because I wanted to focus more on Interior Design related topics.  Most of my days are spent either working on a design project or doing research for future projects. With that in mind, I thought it might be beneficial to do a blog about my experiences, ideas, tips, and suggestions for anyone looking to improve the aesthetic of their home.  If I post something that requires more of an explanation, please leave a comment and I'll try to clarify.