I’m totally elated right now. This is due entirely to the fact that I recently finished the most fun design project ever. If you follow Emily Henderson’s blog or Oh Joy!, then you know about Joy’s awesome new studio space. It was a collaboration between Emily and Joy and the end result is so gorgeous. The part I’m pinching myself over is the fact that I got to work on this amazing project!

Let me back up momentarily. How, you might ask, did my involvement come to pass? Well, it started a few months ago when Emily ran a nightstand styling contest on her blog. To my delight, Emily chose my nightstand as the winner of the contest! As busy as she is, she not only ran this contest, culled through the hundreds of entries and wrote a huge post about it, but she also contacted me herself to congratulate me on winning and thank me for entering. Much respect to her. Here’s what my “winning” nightstand looked like.

Anyway, that was how we got to talking, I sent her my resume, interviewed and ultimately wound up helping with the design on Joy’s amazing studio space!!

I’ll admit, when I drove up to LA to meet Emily and Joy for the first time to discuss the project, I was totally nervous. I just have so much respect for these creative ladies and did NOT want disappoint them! Plus, they’re both so cool and LA, whereas I feel like McLovin most of the time.

That is to say, a huge dork hoping to pass for cool. I was relieved to find, however, that I had nothing to fear. Emily is just as hilarious and friendly as you would expect from reading her blog and so crazy talented/creative. And Joy is totally friendly, warm and hardworking (she has EARNED this amazing studio space for her expanding business!). And Ruby, well, she dresses cooler than I do.

There will be more posts coming up from Emily and Joy detailing the design process, sources, and how we DIY’d several areas of the space, so stay tuned for those. I’m so insanely jealous of this office space!

 

Above photos of studio designed/styled and Emily Henderson and me. Photographed by Zeke Ruelas.

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I’ve started this blog as a way to chronicle and share not only my work, but all the little things that inspire me.  I thought the best way to start would be to invite you into my world (well, my house anyway).

You see, my husband and I bought our first house, a duplex, just over a year ago that needed a lot of TLC and design rehab.

The front unit was in good condition (pictures not shown) and we were able to get some really great tenants in there quickly.  However, the back unit, where we live, was another story entirely.   Here are some shots of what it looked like when we closed escrow.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

It was such a mess!  Just looking at pictures of that green shag carpet makes me nauseous.

In hindsight, I wish I had started this blog earlier, so I could have chronicled the remodel process, but with the house so torn apart and us crammed into one room with no kitchen for much of it, I guess I just didn’t think to add it to my plate at the time!  I’ll be going back room by room to explain the process, and what changes we made, etc.  But OF COURSE my house is never really done as far as I’m concerned!  I know I’ll keep changing, adding and updating.  I just can’t help myself.

Below are some lovely after shots of our house.  It took a lot of vision, time, hard work (we did the majority of the work ourselves) and of course money to get it to where it is now.  But after all that, it is finally done and I got to enjoy all our efforts during the photo shoot at our house recently.

The whole experience of the photo shoot held extra meaning for me since exactly three years prior, my mom passed away.  Home and family meant everything to her and I miss her constantly.  When she passed, she left a little something to my brothers and me as an inheritance.  It wasn’t a fortune, but it was a little boost that enabled my husband and I to put a down payment on our first house and fix it up.  This house is now our home, and it is likely where we will start our own family.  So exactly three years after my mom moved to Heaven, I was photographing the home that she helped create, and would have been so proud of.

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