Style+Kitchen: The BIG REVEAL

I can't say this enough.. Paint goes a loooong way! Don't underestimate the power of paint, it can totally change the look of your home. A few gallons can save you a lot of stress. Sure it's a bit stressful and chaotic for 3-5 days while repainting, but the days and years after that will be a lot more cheerful and happy.

That's what mostly went on in this makeover -spraying and rolling of different shades of paint color. They hated the existing marble counter top, but replacing those wouldn't be practical since they are just renting. So instead, we changed everything around those marble making the counter top less of an eyesore and part of the overall design.

AFTER

What did I tell you about paint? :) 

All the paint colors had a bit of yellow undertone to be cohesive with the counter top. Dark charcoal for the lower cabinets, and a milky white for the upper storage. The walls are a shade of taupy grey. These linoleum tiles were laid over the existing tile to cover up the muddish always-dirty-looking tiles. To add chicness to the floors, little black diamonds were incorporated to create that pattern (which resonates with the backsplash). Oh and for the lighting, we spray painted this chandelier (used to be bronze), and added counter lights.

AFTER

See the big upper cabinet on the right part of the before photos? That houses all the electrical box for their unit. You can see them exposed here. I don't want to build another massive cabinet that cuts out a lot of counter space, so we devised this shelving contraption. 

The shelves up to the tiles below can be removed from opening the silver thingy locking thing. (Obviously I don't know what it is really called.. haha) You can see a gap on the right wall, and a little gap on the backsplash tile (left) on where the contraption ends. The upper storage opens to reveal fuse boxes. I'm not even sure if you understand what's going on there, but I tell you, that's one challenging spot to tackle! haha.. Just glad that it works! Oh, and I'm in love with the backsplash. The pattern and the color is spot on!

So that's the simplest yet complex makeover ever. Lots of paint and a contraption. Haha...

To my client, thank you so much for trusting me with your kitchen. I know it's one of the most important part of your house 'cause you all love to cook, and I'm happy to be part of this. And thanks to your hubby for this amazing photos!

This is Style+Kitchen a.k.a. The Kitchen That Fashion Built (as coined by my client). 'Til my next kitchen makeover. :)

Style+Kitchen: Project Update

Today, my inbox got a little more exciting when I received a professionally taken photographed of the "after" shot of this project. It is taken by no other than the hubby of my client, THE Tom Epperson. Yay! But that post is for another day. Probably tomorrow. I'm such a tease. hahaha

These are little snapshots of what went on. Of course, all makeover has its chaotic moments that is worth sharing. This is to show you the reality that making over your space takes patience. It doesn't happen overnight. But as always, it's worth it.

See the before photo and moodboard here.

These are the painted cabinets, white for the upper cabinets, and dark charcoal for the lower units.

Here are all the electrical box for their house. You have to watch out for what we did to cover this up. It's not your ordinary closet or artwork cover-up. There's some sort of experimental contraption going on. Watch out for the after photos to understand what I mean. 

Since this is a rental, affordable tiles is a must. That limits the choices for the backsplash. But you got to work with the budget. Splurging for a rental is really not practical especially with tiles since you can't bring them with you. That's where I got lucky. I found this tiles for a reasonable price.

You can see sample of their existing marble on the lower part of this photo. It so happened that this tile with a very cute pattern has the same shade and tone with their existing marble. Jackpot!

Now here they are already installed.

I hate grout lines in backsplash, but that's a great compromise for a reasonably priced tile with a cute pattern. 

Have you seen the "before" of the floors? Here it is now. The diamond pattern resonates that of the backsplash. 

The old muddy greenish mustard color just won't work. And they're so tired of it that it MUST be part of the makeover. To stay on budget, we used linoleum tile instead of the usual, and just manually cut out the diamonds to achieve that look. This floor had met its ups and downs. Having a white linoleum tile means you should have a proper top coat for durability. Searching for the right one is one heck of a ride. They know what I mean. Haha.. But it all worked out and I'm so happy. 

Next post will be the Big Reveal. Stay tuned!

Fashion Designer's Lounge Pad: Very Mini Bathroom Makeover

After the bathroom post yesterday, I realized I haven't shared this yet. This is in no way comparable to yesterday's makeover since we didn't change anything major here, just some minor spruce-up. 

For this unit, the major reno went into doing the main room (here) and the client just wanted to update this space a bit. We started with this....

All I did was added a shower curtain, changed the mirror, and put up some very affordable (100php) art.

That was it. Told you it was "mini." haha... The point is you can update any room with just minor changes. If you want to go bolder, choose a colorful patterned shower curtain, bright mirror,  and graphic art. Bathrooms should get some attention too.

This reminds me of my very own, very cheap bathroom makeover. If you haven't seen it yet.. click here.

Teenage Dream: Bathroom Before & After

This is the bathroom post for teenage dream. It's a bonus project actually. Originally, they weren't planning to renovate the bathroom, but after a lot of contemplating and soul-searching, they decided to go for it. Haha fine that's too dramatic, they probably just thought "What the heck, we're doing the bedroom, lets just go all in."

Ordinary looking tiles with ordinary looking fixtures. 

AFTER

The only thing we changed here are the tiles and the mirror.  By updating the tiles, it somewhat made the fixtures look better.  That, my friend, is called optical illusion. Haha

We used three different tiles. Two glossy white ones for the wall, and a matte grey for the floors. And I'm so happy I found the mirror, it totally glam up this bathroom.

Here's the two different tiles side by side. One is streaks/grain design, while the other is marble-like.

By using those two, they added a bit of detail to the walls, but still kept everything simple and classic. As colorful and wild I can get in terms of other rooms, I always want to keep it timeless when it comes to bathrooms. Paint color is easy to change, but tiles are a totally different story. You'd want a longer shelf-life for your bathroom design by using timeless and classic tiles. Don't get something that you'll get tired of in a year or two. 

My brain is shutting down right about now and I can't think of a proper closing statement. So there you go.  kbye goodnight.

Teenage Dream: THE BIG REVEAL

I love big reveals! It's the moment where my moodboards and ideas translate into reality and I have the photos to show. hahaha..  Welcome to the reveal of Teenage Dream! This might actually be MY Teenage Dream Bedroom. At least I've got to live it through this girl's space. 

These are the moodboards. Neutral walls with burst of colors everywhere.

Now onto the Reveal!

AFTER

Welcome to my room! hahaha.. Fine, welcome to the Teenage Dream. :)

Everything is new except for the bed. We left the door as is since they are planning to replace all doors in their house, but it would be ideal to have it in white. 

Portraits above the bed. To keep it young, they had a pop art looking portrait. I chose pink and purple for that to compliment the teal tables.

New lights -the very girly white chandelier, and the yellow lamps. I actually can't find any yellow lamps, so I, together with the BF, spray painted these lamps from SM dept store. I searched for the cheapest lamp with great silhouette.

I found these cute floral fabric and had them as accent pillows. 

 Black drawer pulls to match the bed.

The closet with mirrored doors. 

AFTER

The main colors of the room is teal with yellow and pink accents. I wanted an unconventional tv stand so I had it painted in yellow. 

They requested for a sofa bed to sleep more people if needed. Instead of using white (like in the moodboard), I ended up using black to pull from the bed color. 

I love the curtains! The perfect dark teal with a very cute pattern. Also had that storage cabinet made. 

I had two sets of curtains made. The teal one, and the other is in this hot pink fabric (throw pillow). When they switched to the pink curtains, the teal pattern will then be used for the throw pillow.

The gallery wall. I love it when client requested for one since its one of favorite wall treatment. Haha.. 

To break things up a bit, I made this custom art of the girl's name.

View from the door

We used flat molding to frame the cabinet, and had a smaller one frame the doors.

AFTER

I haven't found the perfect chair for now, so she's temporarily using a stool they had.

Vanity / work desk

Can't find a great white mirror (most of them are plain and doesn't have frame details) so I had one painted white. You don't have to be limited to what's available out there, paint goes a long way!

Decorative glass bottles

My favorite shot. 

I'm super happy with how this room turned out. Aside from the fact that these colors are making me happy, I'm thrilled with the fact that it's a very close match with the moodboard I made. I'm lucky I found that curtain fabric!

There'll be a bathroom reveal as well. It's the complete opposite of this, clean white, and a bit mature, since bathroom tiles should be more timeless. But that's for another post. Until then, lets all live our teenage dream through this bedroom. Haha.. I'm sure I'm just speaking for myself.

HO of the day: Quirky Paris

This is the wackiest yet chicest table decor I've seen. That Eiffel tower (cork?) sculpture is too cute. But since this is HO of the day, lets talk about the space. Real simple, organic, with a touch of color and quirkiness.  Love the different wood tones going on here: the raw grayish floor, the natural shade on the chair and storage closet, and the bleach blonde table legs. The lamp is the perfect shiny industrial touch that completes the look. Plain, simple, lovely.

decor8

Teenage Dream: Almost there

Eeeehhh!! This bedroom is almost done! Just a few final touches here and there, and I'll be making one teenager happy. (I hope so!!) By the way, that eeeeehh is my online rendition of shrieking in excitement. Believe me, online is way better than real life. Me shrieking ain't a pretty sight. Haha

So here's the space all painted and freshened up. The chandelier is in there too waiting for her grand reveal.

After fixing up the space, the furniture came in. The old bed stayed but the rest are all new. Here's the custom L-shape vanity slash desk slask storage. Love how the color turned out!

Here's another custom piece: TV stand. Yellow with purple knobs. I'm really thrilled about the new curtains too! I found the perfect shade of teal with that amazing pattern. I'll post a close-up shot on the reveal. I had two sets of curtains made. One is this teal, and the other one is hot pink! This way, you never get tired of the pattern, and look forward to every curtain wash day.

Here you'll see the room coming together. The closet doors was yet to be installed. Think mirrors, mirrors, and mirrors! Yes, all closet doors will have mirrors in them.

Can't wait for reveal day. I had so much fun doing this bedroom. They practically gave me free reign on what to do to the space. They nod and agreed to throwing in all sorts of colors in there -I'm one happy girl.

Room iCandy & HO of the day: Color Fabulousity

This space is too sweet for words that it deserves two title: HO of the Day and Room iCandy. If I can have my own office now, this is how I want it to look like. 

Though I would need to collect more books to achieve this! I seriously can't get enough of this room. I was browsing then and I kept coming back to these photos, as in looking at it every few minutes. I think I left that window open for 2 straight hours just so I can sneak a peek once in a while. Haha... 

Pattern, color, lush, fun. Check out more photos of this space at Life in Grace. 

Teenage Dream: New project. The moodboard.

My bedroom as a teenager was all pink. I got tired of it and painted the walls blue! I thought I was cool and all for hating the girly pinkiness. Haha... I also had a too matchy-matchy furniture. Those cheap mdf ones. None of them survived by the way. 

I was really excited to do this project for this 15 year old. She loves all sorts of color and I just have to use them all. You're only young once, so go crazy with colors until the time you can't pull it off. Haha

This is the very blank bedroom she had. The room is pretty big but it doesn't have much to it. We're keeping the bed but that was it.

Here's the plan. 

They wanted a very neutral wall so we're going with a very pale grayish blue.  But everything else will have color. :) A custom side table and an L-shape table as a vanity and work desk. Since we're keeping the bed, we need to have a dose of black throughout the space. A very bold graphic drapery will complete the whole look.

This is the other side of the room.

They wanted a sofa bed somewhere so we'll place it by the window. Again, colors everywhere! 

If I could recreate my bedroom as a teen. I would do it exactly like this. :)