Commercial Design: A SOCIAL CLUB

I can't get enough of Olioboard, now!  I LOVE it.  I promise to stop cramming this blog feed with these once the contest is over in a few days.   I've been waking up extra early to create these boards because I have a million board ideas in my head ready to throw out there...and since baby is still sick, I am really hunkering down with a goal of winning this contest as well as winning a sick baby back to health.

The concept for the board below comes from just one of three or four scenarios in my head for this particular purpose.  I have had a fantasy of creating a whole town, complete with boutique hotels, event venues, outdoor recreational spaces, country clubs, restaurants, book stores, libraries, neighborhood markets, and ice cream shops, etc.  Any investors, builders, business owners out there wanna talk?   Haha.  I can do it.  BOUTIQUE style:)

One of my most favorite things to do when traveling to big cities is to visit boutique hotel lounges, restaurants and portly bars, so I've always thought it would be fun to do a spin off of the studio and create our own PICKWICK HOUSE {a modern, underground social club} for our own little small town.  Don't you think there's a market for that here in the Ozarks?  So, that brings me to the question:  Would you go to this type of boutique-social house?  Would any of you locals frequent this type of place?

When dreaming up a description for this 'Pickwick House' {a modern, underground social club}'.  I describe it as 'underground' because it's just a 'virtual-invisible' brick and mortar, 'Non-existent', hence underground.  {NOT planning a real one, any time soon.}  Anyway...

DESCRIPTION:  Drawing inspiration from Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers, this modern day social house is meant to be a place for many characters to stroll into the underground club for a regular dose of humor, advice, poetry, extravagant travel stories, historical studies, romantic love, and bizarre anecdotes, live old jazz, and five piece swing bands, all while imbibing in STRONG cocktails from a bygone bootleg era. "Cozy up to the fire, read a good tale, pour yourself a glass of something you'll never experience any where else'~Sharon Taylor. 

This version is a bit glam, but I thought the worn leather chesterfields brought down the glam factor a little bit.  I thought the gingham was fun, and an ode to old fashioned southern charm.   I've noticed a revival in largescale gingham with a couple of my fave designers trending it at the moment { i.e., Miles Redd, Tobi Fairley, Barry Dar Dixon, and Nick Olson.}  I misspelled by name in the watermark, but once it was published, it was too late to edit.  

So, what would be your choice drink be here?   Think Frank Sinatra style or, Hemingway, The Fitzgeralds, Degas, T. S. Eliot, Matisse, Josephine 

Baker to name but a few.  A mint julep, rusty nail, or an old fashioned?  

So, do you have any favorite hot spots you like to go to? Sounds like another post about REAL life boutique hotels is in order, huh?

Oh, I should mention that you can vote for me.  I've been receiving email updates directly from olioboard alerting me of the people that have voted for me.  Today, I have six.  THANK YOU!!  {I can think of nothing more wonderful than a few votes:)}  You can vote for all of my entries once a day for the next five days, I believe.  Here's the link to my latest entry to vote on. Just click the check mark inside the red heart.  Thank you, so kindly.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.  

xx

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.

{source}

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

A Really Sweet Thing

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Ending the first week of my very first commercial interior design project for a retail store, here locally. {excited} I'm in the initial stages of painting the canvas {selecting all of the flooring, lighting, and paint colors}. The fun part is just about to begin! I'm equipped with an inspiration folder about six inches thick and a floor plan of 2300 hundred square feet of space.

Next up: I'm planning a road trip to buy unique, one of a kind things.

In designing the cash wrap, I'd love to make it over the top fun/different. Classic. This one has me drooling. Clean, simple, and filled w/elegant french goodness!

image via lushlee