A Quick Makeover

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a client who brought back the most amazing wood furniture from her travels living in Indonesia.  After moving back to Canada and into a new house she wanted some help with her guest bedroom which was located in the basement.  We completed the project last week.

The room was sitting empty except for this beautiful king size four poster bed and the accompanying furniture which is all baliese in style. 

Her request was simply to make this a room that my guests will love to sleep in.

"I would really like them to feel like they are in a luxurious hotel suite".

For a little inspiration I looked to this luxury hotel in Bali.  The resort is The Matahari Beach Resort and Spa.  The hotel rate starts at $312 USD for a garden suite, breakfast not included.

As a jumping off point for the colour scheme I choose to work with the green tones in her area rug at the foot of the bed.   The rug is a gorgeous silk and worthy of inspiration.  Primarily a deep forest green I chose to go with it and use softer tones of green  Afterall forest green is so yesterday... way yesterday.  Except for green gemstones, they are always in style.

 And the kitty cat is a lovely snowfooted siamese, adorable.

Design Challenge 1.  A single window with a view of a basement water well catcher aka No View.  And then I noted an electric heat radiator below the window.  This meant no floor length draperies due to the fire hazard risk. 

If I can not do drapes to floor length I do not do them.  Period.  No exceptions.

I decided that a hobbled style roman shade would work as a window treatment.  This would add texture, colour and hide the view.

  And then I thought... what if I had two of them made for either side of the bed faking a second window and creating symmetry. I had to double check the spelling of symmetry and while I was at it thought I would share the definition;

Symmetry; balanced proportions; also: beauty of form arising from balanced proportions

Design Challenge 2. Situated in the basement I had to make this room feel chic and cozy.

The finished room. 

A beautiful sheer treatment on the head of the bed, over the bed and then draping softly to the sides adds softness and a feeling of luxury.  As you can see with the window treatments mirroring each other on both sides of the bed we tricked the eye into thinking there are 2 windows.  This is something you can do if faced with a similar situation.

We topped the bed with a cream duvet cover set, added new side lamps and a coordinated toss cushion.

I hope her guests enjoy staying in this new bedroom suite.  On my personal bucket list a 3 week or more vacay to Bali.  I am inspired.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week.

Susan

Where pretty stuff comes from

For todays post I am inspired to post on all the new arrivals at Moving Designz Home & Cottage. 

 Myself and Anita recently attended our spring buying show in January.  The goods are coming in on a daily basis.  It's very exciting as you tend to forget what you have bought and then cross your fingers that your orders will be filled.  It takes major planning to bring a store together and alot of hard work to lay out a new merchandising plan but we love every minute of it.

  Pretty colourful things always inspire us.... spring is on the way!

When new merchandise arrives it is like Christmas except there are no pretty boxes or decorative ribbons to unwrap.  This is a typical shot of one corner of the storeroom.  Plain brown cardboard boxes and boxes and more boxes just waiting to be opened, unpacked, checked off the shipping list, priced and then displayed.

The best part of this task (and there is alot of work and time involved) is being pleasantly surprised at what comes out of the boxes.  Typically theres alot of ohhhh look, "how pretty" "oh love it" "come see" going on.  The worst part is shipping damages which inevidentably occur.  Not only does it mean you're not going to get what you paid for but you have already paid freight and... it means more paperwork.  Luckily so far we have only had minimal issues.

As it turned out our first shipment included items for our personal accessory section aka the "girlie section".  Scarves and pashimas in springs prettiest colours and patterns.  Polka dot heaven :)

Bling-a-licious. Expandable bracelets to add sparkle to any outfit.  A steal at

only $5.99, a great BFF or gift to self gift! 

And this just in as I look more carefully at the price card ... Anita's internal spell check is broken again - see wrong spelling above.  Note to self:  correct tomorrow, have chuckle :)

Next up, these pretty hand towels embroidered in fresh spring colours.  

This year we decided to bring in these brightly coloured indoor/ourdoor designer graphic fabrics to purchase by the yardage.  What can you do with a yard of fabric?  If you sew yourself or want custom made, think table runners, placemats, napkins, or toss cushions in the colour and pattern of your choice. 

Speaking of toss cushions...

The colour of the year is tangerine according to Pantones colour experts.  I couldn't resist it either, I've always loved orange.  I also think coral is a big trend.  See artwork, whiteware  and coral motif on fabric in image.  Pun intended.

More coral motifs.  Is navy the new black?  Perhaps...

In my world I still absolutely love the classic combination of navy and yellow.  Cushion covers $28.99 and feather down inserts $17.50.

I recently received my copy of this months Canadian House and Home Magazine... hmmm this picture looks vaguely familiar.

Moving Designz shop version.  Spring 2012 room vignette.

It actually makes me feel pretty good when we've already put together a look and then open a magazine and see we're right on trend, with subtle changes.  It's funny how design works sometimes.  However, I don't feel there is anything old about this look. 

Still very much in love with white.  We have lots of lovely white accessories and whiteware to mix up with colourful accents.

Soft chenille throws to add accent colour.

Our shop display window.  A lovely white laquered console table, pretty turquoise gourd shaped ceramic accent lamps paired with orange and silver polar bear figurines.  Love it all! 

We're still very much in love with turquoise.  We hope you are too

... and birds.  We love birds!

A lovely little flock of mercury glass robins.  We have them in blue, sea green and gold.

 "Song Birds"

Liking the whimsy of silver owls.  What a hoot!

The bedding section.  Pairing lots of colour together.  Why not dress you bed with lots of colour, texture and pattern?

Frames for those special memories and moments in soft colours.  White, blue and yellow

laquered frames to fit 4 X 4 and 4 X 6 photos.

For our customers who want a more muted up-country look this sofa with it's classic lines is currently on sale.  In this vignette old is the new "new" with this contemporary rustic cocktail table.  Solid wood top on a distressed iron base.

On the other side of this room vignette we paired up a classic armchair with a colourful embroidered toss cushion. 

Close up of this gorgeous toss cushion.  Orange, green, yellow, cream, purple and teal blue.  It's a great accent cushion.

Since I showed a close up of the pillow I thought it appropriate to show the ceramic inspirational spheres.  The wording on them carries lovely messages "smile" "cherish" "give"

We're close to the end of unpacking, just a few more things to share.

A new fabic book from Kravet.

Orange and silver cubes.    

Cream ceramic flower power platters.

A couple of artwork canvases still to open.

Inside...

And inside the wrapping this very pretty extra large picture.  Window box with fuschia pink petunias.

Since there are two I think one must come home with me :)

At the end of the week, the leftovers.  This is a small portion of the empty and broken down cardboard boxes waiting for pick up and recycling.



This is my first post of 2012.  I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of the shop. 

Over the past 12 months I've been super busy getting the shop established running here in Charlottetown after moving from Summerside.  I have found writing and posting to the blog hard to find the time for on top of everything else.  I love writing and sharing and will be posting much more often. 

Besides running the shop I had many projects on the go over the past year.  I've been taking pictures and have lots of inspiration to share.  Recently we relaunched the Moving Designz website.

www.movingdesignz.com

I have been posting more regularly to our facebook site you can visit and like us at our facebook site

Moving Designz Home and Cottage

http://www.facebook.com/movingdesignz#!/movingdesignz

I've love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Susan



Christmas at Moving Designz

It's hard to believe that December is here already.  This year has flown by so quickly.  My Christmas planning started in early November when I was a guest speaker for a design series in Charlottetown. 

Sneak peek at Moving Designz at Confederation Library

early November  

It has occured to me (and so has guilt) that I should have blogged long before now.  Within the last week 3 people have asked me to start blogging again.  Thank you Jen, Melva and Bev for the reminder and encouragement.

And sooooo....

For todays post I'm going to share a look inside Moving Designz Home & Cottage.  We've been busy for weeks and months buying, planning and getting ready to deck out the store with yummy Christmas merhandise and inspiring store displays.

Welcome Christmas 2011 - The shop display window today.  

We haven't taken on one theme, we've taken on several... from pinks, to blues, to white, to cream, to reds and greens and let's not forget purple.  The shop is packed with punch and texture and very very pretty things this year.

Always loving bling... 

Silver Starfish, white birds nest with silver eggs and pink glass hearts = LOVE!

Pretty candles displays and scented candles to bring Energy, Serenity and Relaxation.

This is our newest sofa the Mika, with tufted foam backs and brushed chrome legs.  We've been waiting for this baby for a month hoping it would make it for Christmas.  Paired up with apple green side chairs and graphic pillows and artwork.  Charcoal grey, green, blue and white, what's not to love?

We've got lots of colourful glassware, vases and balls in shades of blue and purple.

Do you have summer lanterns?  We had a few left from the summer so we filled them up with Christmas balls for a festive look.  You can too!

These candle holders were simply magnificent and sold out almost immediately earlier this week.

 One sofa two looks.  Look #1, pale grey sofa paired with turquoise, yellow and graphic zebra printed pillows.

Look #2, pale grey sofa paired with yellow, purple, silver and lots of crystal glassware.

Inspiration straight out of the pages of my favorite read, Style at Home Magazine.  We have these Chinoisery bowls in green and cream and also orange and cream.  More on SAH below :)

This year in August one of my design projects made the cover of Style at Home Magazine.  It was by far one of my biggest career accomplishments to date. 

I was also invited to contribute seasonal articles for all of Occasions Magazine issues this year.  So for me, Christmas started in July when we did this pretty bedroom photo shoot.

Back to the shop.... and more Christmas ideas...

We try to decorate the floating shelves behind the cash desk with a different theme every year.  This year we chose greenery, gold seashells, red magnolia blooms and pillar candles. 

Time for some chair love...

This chair has such beautiful lines.   

Pretty chairs with shiny chrome stud detail. 

Button tufted chair in a soft grey fabric paired with hot pink.

Although not entirely Christmasy, this sofa display with its purple accents and pink orchid arrangement makes me very happy :)

 This fire burner is just amazing... burns either candles, tealights or clean burning ethanol fuel. 

It's a perfect piece for setting the mood and placing inside a wood burning fireplace. 

Set the tone for your entry with this classic holiday idea vignette.  A vase with some epsom salts and sparkly Christmas blooms.  Add a charger plate, top with pine cones, candles and some pine sprigs.

Thanks for reading.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Susan