HOUSE UPDATES: Wainscoting, Stairs, Hallway

Hi All!  I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.  We sure did!  Will's mom made an incredible meal as always and we had good times with both sides of the family.  Here's an update on the house.  A before and after.  I'll start with the 'after' first, because it just feels SO good:)

80's style brass fixtures before.  This picture comes nowhere close to letting you see the muck that was on the walls and floors.  Dark, dark, nicotine stained walls and ceilings.

Notice the cut out in the left wall.  That was for the door bell system and gongs.  We took that system out and drywalled over the cut out.  

This is right after Will ripped out the nasty hunter green carpet that ran the length of the hallway and stairs.  I'm sure Will has a nastier 'before' pic somewhere.  I'll have to dig for more of those yucky befores.  Anway, I'm laughing at the tensed hands in this pic, {those are Will's hands}.  I'm sure he was giving a house tour to someone, here, and he's explaining the severity of the grossness of the house.  Haha!  See those dark spots on the floor in the background and also the one in the foreground.  Those are just some of the dog pee stains.  The dogs were mostly holed up in the background hallway.  The owner had the dogs mostly barricaded back there, which is one of the main reasons we chose to go with darker floors. 

Justin getting started on the wainscoting.  

This pic was taken from the back hallway looking toward the front door.  

All the baseboards were ripped off, but we saved them and re-used them.  

First coat of paint on the risers and the wainscoting.  

After the floors were stained and the most of the paint touch ups are done!

Sorry this pic is so blurry.  It was evening time.  Notice the baby waterfall chandeliers.  Will found those.  I think they are perfect!  Also notice we painted the front french door black.  We have a matching baby chandelier in the little foyer just beyond that door that didn't turn on.  That's why it looks so dark.  

Anyway, I hope to have pics up soon on the blog.  I hope you enjoy seeing the progress we're making.  

Have a wonderful springy week!

xx

sharon

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

Design Obsession and Crushes: Black and White + Girl Designers

It's no secret that I'm a fan of black and white.  

When I first saw Jenna Lyon's apartment seven years ago in Domino Mag, I was totally awe struck.  By her.  By her style.  Everything about her.  Especially by her daring black rooms and trim color.

This bathroom got a bajillion repins on my pinterest page.  I can see why.  The old school subway tile meets noir black trim.  Totally digging it.  Not sure who the designer is.  Let me know if you know:)  Plus the David Hicks pendant that is all over the web right now, is one that I'm really coveting for our kitchen, butler's pantry, and nook.

 And my new design crush:  really falling hard for designer Bailey McCarthy.  I just discovered her this week, and I must have been living under a rock to not know who she is as a designer.  I love that she's from Chicago too.  {Midwest designer!} But all I can say about her is she's rocking it with her latest.  What about this bathroom above?!  Classic, COOL, black-to-brass bath that I am just utterly dying over!

Here's my shop exterior with nothing but...black and white of course.   That's my little guy running off in the foreground.  One of these days I hope to do a post about the before and after of this building renovation and reface.  You wouldn't recognize the before as the same building.  

Here's the kitchen progress this week.  We decided to paint all the trim black in this room to break up the all white cabinetry and appliances.  Our walls will be all subway tile with grey grout.   Our honed marble countertops and drawers, brass hardware are all going to be installed today!  By next week, our kitchen should be complete, minus the banquette, and refinished ebony floors.  Boy, this has been fun!

Happy Friday!  What are you all doing this weekend?

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 full service and consultation 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

xx
sharon