VINE & Banquettes

Heard of vine?  Banquettes?  Both words conjured up french wine/grapes  + french entertaining seating style for me today.  Haha.

Join me on VINE and let me know where I can find you!  Here's a loop from a meeting we had at the new house yesterday to discuss the breakfast nook and banquette design with the finish carpenter.    vine.co/v/b1libbTYDVW

Now onto banquette talk:  Having a breakfast nook is something I've always wanted.  Having a dining room is great, but nooks with banquette seating are just so cozy and relaxed seeming for breakfast and lunch.  Here are a few inspiration pics from Pinterest that I'm loving.  I'm collecting and morphing a few of all these design details together for my sketch up design for our custom built banquette.  Follow my little thought bubbles below to see just what I've come up with so far.

LOVE the deep tufted backs.  Ours will be short-angled-tufted back like this.  The height will come just under our window sill.  

The tufting on this looks like perfection.  Loving the massive amounts of buttons!  The ledge on the top of this is something we're incorporating with our design.  It will be great to set plants and coffee cups on.  

LOVE this one so much!  The two toned color on the banquette mixed with different side chairs is so cheery, wouldn't you agree?  Can you imagine the breakfasts eaten on this one?  It seems to beg for friends to stop in for a morning cup of coffee a newspaper read, followed up with a friendly neighborhood walk!

Here we are with tufting again.  LOVE it.  We are however, purposefully not going to be tufting the seats.  Food would definitely get caked into the tufted seats.  Haha.  

Ours will curve and wrap around the square room.  We are going to be boxing in the bottom as seen above.  The boxes will have sliding door panels for easy storage access for the littles craft supplies.  I think it'll be great for storing crayons and art supplies in basket cubbies, so that the kids can have them easily accessible.

You might wonder why I'm posting this trunk.  I wanted to show you an example of furnishings with tacks.  I'm loving tacked furnishings so much.  Especially leather.  So, I hope to also incorporate tacks into the design of the booth.  LOTS of brass tacks.  We'll see.  I'm sure they are expensive.  

Here is a rough sketch up of my design.   Wish us luck as we choose our fabrics for the upholsterer today!  Thinking of using a recycled leather seat for the easy to clean factor , and an indoor/outdoor fabric for the banquette-backed tufting.  

Talk of these booths/banquettes brings back memories of the Boca Mocha booths I designed not too long ago.  To see that post, go here.

Also reminds me of a lot of the pieces of old furniture that we've revamped to become new again.  Pictured below are some 1960's club chairs that we completely revamped by painting and reupholstering with indoor/outdoor fabric. The idea of using indoor/outdoor fabric was so that it would wear well and hold up to the test of time for anyone with animals or small children.  We had six of these chairs done in several different styles of mix and match black and white.  We showcased them in Pickwick House almost two years ago for our store opening.   That was two years ago, and even still, I am in love with their design and miss them being in my possession:)

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I sure do love customizing furnishings to be one of a kind like this.  The satisfaction it brings is so rewarding!

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.

 417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com

Happy Tuesday!

xx

sharon

Summer Dreaming + Scheming

Hi there.  Believe it or not, I'm back to being a somewhat narrative decorator again {for today anyway}.  My posts have been occasional and few lately because frankly, I'm swamped with work and managing all the things that come along with the biz.   I don't know where to begin on updates.  It hurts to think about the amounts of things we have under our belt.

We do have three new interns at Pickwick House that I'm thrilled to have this summer.   They've been extremely helpful in helping me update Pickwick House internally and externally.  I will be introducing them to you soon.

Things I am loving right now...

Sun drenched light and a good, cold frappe from Boca Mocha.  I'm SOOO happy to say we found the time to shoot that great little coffee/cafe shop #commercial space that we designed over a year ago.  Scott Cotton Photography

While it's hot out there, I really do dream of days where I can lounge by the pool and read a leisurely good book without the interruptions.  In the mean time, while my business is taking baby steps and strides forward, I am taking small bites out of this book below....

The Business of Design book by Keith Granet.  It's teaching me much-much about balancing creativity and profitability.  

Relief to The Abused

Front Side of Relief Effort.  Back Side still unfinished and waiting for brushed nickel tacks.

Remember these chairs?  I got these from a place called STD's.  Of course, I WOULD be attracted to a place with a name like that.  Funny little thing... after I licensed my business name a few years ago, I realized the initials of Sharon Taylor Designs actually match up with this place.  Probly a good indicator for why I fall for and want to rescue things that are abused, germy, bruised and overlooked.

These chairs had mouse droppings caked into the the crevices of all the seats.  No worries, they have been relieved, disinfected and stripped to the wood.  I did not touch them!  Only purchased them.

What are you all doing for the fourth?  We're making it a stay-cation in our back yard.  I want to see the fireworks at Hammons Field.  Glad there is something going on in town.  Don't forget Boca Mocha Opening.  Let me know what you think of it.  I'm pretty proud of it.  Also, happy that I worked with amazing owners who had great input, ideas, and trust.  Thanks Trimbles and Kellys~!

xoxo
sharon

Shade Under a Walnut Tree

Happy Wednesday!  Because it's so hot out, and because I enjoy treating myself and this little human inside me....baby J, I've stocked up on popsicles, lemonade, and, ice.  I picked some fresh mint from Will's mom's house this morning to put in the lemonade for the KY3 tv entertaining segment I had today.  It smelled so good.

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Summertime is my favorite.  It is about being a kid at heart and catching fireflies, drippy popsicles, lemonade stands, inch by inch garden growing, portable radios in a field, golden night skies,  tree-climbing, patio umbrellas, zinnias, roller skating in the driveway, backyard picnics, tee-pee building, rock collecting, creek floats, blowing electric fans, charades, outdoor parties, mean croquet matches, country drives, badmitton.

Our yard has a towering walnut tree that shades our whole back yard.  The stock tank is going to be filled today and I plan on dunking in it for a bit this evening with my Sylvie after a big day at Boca Mocha cafe.  The cafe opens day after tomorrow and we're in the midst of crazy faze of everything going wrong that could possibly go wrong.  It will all get ironed out though.

I'm giddy for the owners.

Don't forget the soiree tomorrow night! It's getting all fluffed at the store today and tomorrow.  Smiles and Summertime Shade to you today!

xo
sharon

Fist Pump

I've notice that designers are enamored with the Pedro Friedeberg Chair.  Who has one?  Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler, and now, me.  Except mine aren't solid-gold-chic. They are the "Wanna-be-Pedro's" {knock-offs} to be used in Boca Mocha. When I'm done with mine, these chairs will be joining all the cool people.   

{Ever seen the cool people dance with their hands pushing up and down?  That's what these chairs look like...Cool dancers, fist pumpers, and really impressive, fabulous hand-shakers.}

Here's one of Jonathan Adler's client's homes with a pair.  

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Kelly Wearstler in her foyer.  Posing in her usual rad way with her rad skateboarding boys.

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More golden goodness in Kelly Wearstler's home office, featured in her newer book, HUE {which I sell at the store.

In need of a good manicure and hand massage.

I'll be priming it and then using a high gloss brush-on gold from Benjamin Moore.

So excited to share these DIY's and a few more that I've got going to the shop.

Hope you're staying cool, with this debilitating heat were having here.  If I had it my way, I'd be near some cold water today....Splashing away to a wildly wet Wednesday.   

xo

sharon

Boca Baby

Need a smile to brighten your day? Go here.  Hope you enjoy!!

In other bright news: I had my first "Tony Braxton"{non-real contractions that cause drama reactions} moment today {with little guy} and Sylvie also got a new cousin on her Papa's side of the fam today.  Welcome to the World, Sophie Ellen Lampe!  Congrats, Callie and Tom!!

Speaking of kids, the Boca Mocha cafe will have a sweet little loft upstairs devoted fully to:
kids, moms, dads, creative playspace, a cozy cafe, a quiet hideaway, an art oasis, and a neighborhood meeting spot.

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Here are some inspiration pics.

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Hope you all have a wonderful Friday.  I hope to share some renderings tomorrow.

xo
sharon

Boca Mocha

The owners papered and taped up the windows today at 320 Park Central West.  They painted a cute little temporary logo on the window too.  The two couples' excitement is so evident and really cute. The girls are here, while the boys are on a coffee buying trip in South America. Getting ready for the latest coffee shop/cafe to open.  Boca Mocha.  

I've been drawing up inspiration boards, and renderings with my assistant, Danielle. It's so fun.  But it's also work.  We're crunching numbers, re-drawing bids, making changes and trying to stay under budget. All in an effort to say "Buh-Bye" to a 1980's Pizza Hut-looking-space.

What do you think of the before picture?  It's a lovely old building, huh? {The old Randy Bacon Studio}.   I'm hard-pressed on this project because there are an awful lot of pressed wood chairs, laminate top tables, cheap cherry wood carpentry, sage green walls, rust-colored accents, and hunter green duct-work.  

Lighting a match to the wood, would be my first instinct, but I think we can achieve a really rich look for less with a little paint.

the one up top is "right white"

"gravel" is the bottom right

For starters, Restoration Hardware's "right white" for the walls, and "gravel" paint for the wood.  It took some time to convince the landlord that I know what I'm doing.

This is a big generalization, but do a lot of men have a hard time painting wood? What is up with that?  Even if it's cheap.  I love wood, don't get me wrong, but it's all wrong, here.

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Here's what I want to go for:  A rich-warm-grey wood cabinetry with white walls.  I want to weave in concrete, woven rattans, reclaimed wood table-tops, industrial metals, lacquered chairs, and soft feathery cushions.

More to come on this later this week.  I hope you're having a great week and that your past weekend was wonderful!!

xo
sharon