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One Room Challenge Fall 2015 :: The Reveal

November 11, 2015 · Comments { 47 }

It’s here and all I can think of is how quickly the past six weeks have flown by! Today’s the big reveal of my Foyer for the One Room Challenge and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. It’s such a happy space and am thrilled with the result!

formal foyer // one room challenge // @simplifiedbee

As you may know, for the past several weeks I’ve been sharing the whole design process (including all the ups and downs!). In case you’ve miss any and need to catch up, here are the links:

Week One – Foyer Before // Week Two – Wallpaper & Paint // Week Three – Furnishings // Week Four – Lighting // Week Five – Art & Accessories

To refresh your memory and to appreciate the transformation, I’ve included a few before images in combination with the reveal images.

ENTRY BEFORE ::

ENTRY AFTER ::

I love the new black door painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pitch Black. It makes such stately entrance to our home. The handsome hanging lantern via Lowes was also a terrific addition. And isn’t the antler doormat by Mark & Graham just perfect?

FOYER & STAIRCASE BEFORE ::

FOYER & STAIRCASE AFTER ::

This is really a happy space. I’m in love with it all. The large-scale feather bloom wallpaper by Celerie Kemble for Schumacher sets the tone immediately. The gorgeous navy lacquer console by oomph is the perfect compliment. I’m also so pleased with the chinoserie chic touches in the fabulous x benches in Clarence Houses Tibet Print, gilded faux bamboo mirror, pair of elegant table lamps and vintage blue & white porcelain bowl housing the cacti & succulents.

As I mentioned in this post, the stair-runner got held up in customs. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t arrived. I’m so bummed not to be able to show you a finished project, but the reality is that sometimes we have no control over these things. It’s a great lesson in patience in this need to have it now society. When it is installed, I will be sure to share it with you! I still love this image because it showcases the lovely scalloped pendant from Bellacor and high-gloss painted ceiling in Farrow & Ball’s Borrowed Light so beautifully!

I also love how the staircase landing turned out. The dyptich artwork through Minted compliments the original door chimes which we modernized by adding a clean-lined teak cover. For texture and to balance the space, I added a small bench covered in a cozy sheepskin rug.

At the top of the stairs, I left the original vintage chandelier – it is so timeless that it didn’t need to be changed out. However, I updated the window valance and have it covered in a beautiful hand-blocked textile from Galbraith & Paul. It’s layered it with a matchstick woven roman shade in white. The adjacent gallery wall filled with Michelle Morin’s whimsical birds and bees is another spot that makes me smile.

One Room Challenge :: Week 2

October 14, 2015 · Comments { 33 }

The vignette by JK Kling Associates above is fresh and inviting – just the way I want our Foyer to feel. The existing 1970s textured wallpaper not only covered the walls in the Foyer, but extended down the hall, up the stairs and then down a very long hallway. It was way too much pattern and 70s flair for me, so it had to go.

There is always a big unknown when you start removing wallpaper in an older house. How easily will it come off? Will the walls be in good shape? In our case, there were three layers of wallpaper. The first (hard to see in the above image) was a true paper wallpaper and had a subtle toile pattern from the 1940s. The second (my favorite) had a beautiful teal and steely blue leaf pattern. Really stunning. The third of course was the textured 1970s damask pattern in an faded olive green.

Once the layers of wallpaper was removed from the foyer and hallways, we were blessed with gorgeous plaster walls. Yes, the original plaster walls were in perfect condition and smooth as silk. After a coat of primer, they were ready for the next phase. Paint or wallpaper? From the start I knew I wanted to hang new wallpaper in the foyer, so that’s the first material I sourced. Here are a few that made my short list:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

In the end, I selected Celerie Kemble’s Feather Bloom for Schumacher. It’s an embellished grasscloth that features a hand printed over-scaled floral motif in shades of China blue. The choice is a bold one and I’m definitely taking a risk on this!

The blue color scheme was a great one as well because it coordinates with the palettes in the adjacent living room, library and dining room. It’s my opinion that color palettes in side-by-side rooms should coordinate to create flow and bridge a story from one room to the next.

For this reason, it was important to select paint for the hallway walls in a color that would compliment the cool wallpaper tones, yet still be neutral and contemporary. With the help of Farrow & Ball (a fabulous ORC sponsor), I narrowed down the wall color to Blackened No. 2011. It is the coolest of their whites and changes in intensity depending on the light. A perfect color to let the beautiful architecture of the is home take center stage.

In the Foyer, I decided to add a little drama and glam by having the ceiling painted in a shade of blue. After going back and forth on Parma Gray No. 27 or Borrowed Light No. 235, I selected the lighter shade of Borrowed Light. The light blue picks up hints of gray and in a high gloss reflects light beautifully.

The Front Door was all white like the rest of the outside of the house, so to add contrast and to create a more stately entrance, I had the front door, screen and transom window painted black – an accent already used on the shutters throughout the house. I selected Farrow & Ball’s Pitch Black No. 256 in a high gloss. Classic. Timeless. Love it!

Here’s a breakdown of the Farrow & Ball paint colors used for my One Room Challenge. Also, be sure to check out their amazing new wallpaper collection that launched this fall!

Please check back next Wednesday – I’ll be breaking down furniture selection!

Don’t forget to check out the progress of the other One Room Challenge participates… there’s lots of magic happening!

Apartment 34 | Arianna Belle | Because It’s Awesome | Coco+Kelley | Design Darling

Design Indulgence | Design Manifest | Christine Dovey | The English Room | Vanessa Frances

Hi Sugarplum | Honey We’re Home | Jojotastic | The Pink Clutch | The Pink Pagoda

Style Your Senses | A Thoughtful Place | Kimberly Whitman | The Zhush

The One Room Challenge is Trademarked by Calling it Home. Huge thank you to Farrow & Ball for providing paint for the Foyer!

Read full story By Cristin on October 14, 2015 in color, foyers, interior design, Interiors, simplified bee portfolio, vintage, wallpaper

One Room Challenge Fall 2015 :: My Foyer

October 7, 2015 · Comments { 29 }

For the past few months I’ve been keeping a few secrets. The first is we’ve moved! You may have seen glimpses of our beloved ranch style home on the San Francisco Peninsula featured in Rue Magazine. We have so many fond memories of the house, neighborhood and community. It was a very difficult decision to move outside the San Francisco Bay Area and away for dear friends, but we were longing for a slower pace and to be closer to Lake Tahoe where I grew up. We were blessed to find a wonderful 1940s traditional style house in the Reno / Tahoe area that we fell in love with. The only catch is it needs a ~~gut job~~ ton of work. It’s ~~the money pit~~ an adventure! So when Linda of Calling it Home offered me a spot in her One Room Challenge (aka ORC) this fall, I jumped at the chance (that’s the 2nd big secret I’ve been keeping!). For those that don’t know, the ORC is a collection of 20 bloggers that take on the challenge of making over one room in six weeks.

The first challenge for me in the process was determining which room would get the face-lift. The 1970s kitchen? The dis-functional laundry room? Our pink master bath? Every inch of this home and property is vintage and needs some TLC! I ended up deciding that the Foyer was a great place to start for several reasons. One, it welcomes our guests and is a great space to set the tone of the home. It is also a room that will not have any walls, windows or doors changed out or moved at a later date.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing my design, the process and many of the sources used throughout. Each Wednesday, there will be a new blog post as well as Instagrams, Tweets and Facebook posts. I hope you will follow along!

Here’s a look at the space before – starting from the front door and leading up to the upstairs landing.

I’m thrilled and honored to be among the following bloggers chosen for the One Room Challenge Fall 2015 edition!

Apartment 34 | Arianna Belle | Because It’s Awesome | Coco+Kelley | Design Darling

Design Indulgence | Design Manifest | Christine Dovey | The English Room | Vanessa Frances

Hi Sugarplum | Honey We’re Home | Jojotastic | The Pink Clutch | The Pink Pagoda

Style Your Senses | A Thoughtful Place | Kimberly Whitman | The Zhush

ORC would like you to join in the fun too! Tomorrow, Thursday, October 8th, it’s the return of the One Room Challenge™ Linking Event. For six consecutive Thursday’s you show off your transformed room as well.

*all photos by Cristin Priest of Simplified Bee

**The One Room Challenge is Trademarked by Calling it Home

Read full story By Cristin on October 7, 2015 in foyers, interior design, Interiors, simplified bee portfolio, traditional, wallpaper

Walls with a Wow Factor

September 8, 2015 · Comments { 1 }

Let’s talk wallcoverings. They are a critical part of setting the mood in any space. Walls are a great place to add color, pattern and texture. Glam them up or tone them down using paint (typically the least expensive route), wallpaper (more expensive, but great way to incorporate pattern) or fabric (typically the most expensive). From vintage to modern, I’ve rounded up a rooms that have walls with a wow factor: