My First "Client"

First, let me start by clarifying my use of the word client. Jacqueline is my best friend's younger sister who I've know since she was 2 years old. Fast forward 23 years, Jacqueline is now a young professional women living in her very own home that has the potential to be really adorable. She has been asking around for some help redecorating her home now that she has a real job with a steady income. I jumped at the opportunity to help her pull her home together and luckily she trusts my taste. Even though she's a really close friend and not really a "client", it's a good oopportunity to get a feel for what it's like to work for someone else. Jacqueline is not 100% sure what her personal interior design style so it will fun to help work it out. Though she is a young professional, her budget is limited which is actually not a problem for me since part of the fun of bringing a room together is the hunt. While it seems like it would be ideal to work for clients who have infinite budget, so much of the challenge would be missing.

Jaqueline has decided that she wants to start her project with her bedroom which is an excellent idea. Your bedroom is your santuary and should look forward to slipping under the covers every evening or spending Sunday afternoon curled up on a cozy chair reading a book. With only limited guidance I started to pull together a few looks that I thought she would be interested in. To quote Jacqueline, she wants "Kind of a mix of chill & funky, I want it to be relaxed with a splash of funk." Um, okay well here's what I've come up with to match such a request: You probably don't see all too much funk when you look at this mood board but this is really showing the basics for the room. I decided to keep the pallet really subtle and neutral, the funk will come in with punctuations of a strong color like the pumpkin in pillows, window coverings, and artwork. This way Jacqueline will have the ability to change up the look with out having to change the major components of the room.

I found the center photo and Jacqueline really seemed to like so it became the inspiration for the room. I love how the wallpaper isn't hung all the way to the ceiling but instead has a picture rail and painted wall above. I would wallpaper just behind her bed with Cole and Son's Woods wallpaper and paint the picture rail, wall above and ceiling Cloud White from Benjamin Moore. The other walls in the room I would paint Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore and keep all of the trim work Cloud White. The bed, night stand and small cabinet are from Ikea. The small cabinet I really love because it opens up to become a vanity with lots of great storage for jewelry and stuff. I would use a brightly colored ceramic garden stool for seating at the vanity. Perhaps something like this though I also love those X stools that Ballard Design sells plus they provide a million different upholstery choices:

The lovely chandelier is from Ballard Designs and although it's actually supposed to be coral I think it echos the earthy feeling of the wallpaper quite nicely. The storage bench is from urban outfitters and there isn't anything much more interesting to say about except that some times you just need functional furniture. So what do you think? This is just a start of course, something to get the ideas flowing, but I would love to hear some opinions.

Jacqueline seems to like what I've put together so far though she has already through a wrench into the works. She's expressed to me the desire to do this bedroom makeover as green as possible, which I think is great. That's right up my alley because to me that means we get to scour flea markets, antique shops, ebay, craigslist, etc for furniture and accessories instead of buying new. The most important thing to learn about living more sustainably is that it does mean buying a bunch of new products that say they're green. It's about reducing waste, reusing and repurposing things you already own, and generally consuming less. This coupled with using cleaners containing less toxic ingredients and electronics that consume less power provides a more a more complete picture of green living.

So the plan is to still follow the same inspiration for the room but substitute the furniture choices with used/vintage. Or perhaps we come across something fabulous that she has to have and the whole feeling of room could change. I'll be posting some photos of what the room looks like now and possible floor plans in the near future. Stay tuned!

(For those of you who read Nicole Balch's blog makingitlovely.com and recognize the header on my mood board, you're right that's exactly where that and the pretty flowers came from. This was my first attempt at using photoshop to make a mood board so I was searching the Internet for stuff I liked to pretty it up. This was before I had a blog and knew anyone would actually see what I was working on. The thieving must stop, from now on my work will be totally original but I'm sure not as pretty as Nicole's.)

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