Babies In The Making

I've been scurrying around squeezing in last minute photo shoots to make submission deadlines.  And, that always requires bringing in the "just right" props/accessories/flowers to make the project sing and swing well when pitching it to various publications.  This week, I loaded up the van {in between meeting with clients for other projects} and inevitably, I got in a hurry and broke a vase.  I was sick about it.  I guess I should be glad it wasn't a mirror.  I tried to find a reason to make light of it and finally arrived on the notion of the phrase..."MAZEL TOV!"

Here's a project that still hasn't been photographed by a professional.  It's my baby.  Boca Baby.  I've put the photo shoot off because it overwhelms me a bit.   The reason it is overwhelming, is because there were many customized details that went into the project and I want to make sure each one gets highlighted with my stamp of approval and stylization.  SOMEDAY. Meanwhile I will work on my client's current needs.


To give you a small taste of where some of the quality details started, I should share with you that the table tops were made of disposed-of/free pallet wood.  Now, bare in mind, to see these tables in person right now, you would never in a million years believe it.  They are beautiful.  I'm in complete awe of the craftsmanship and utilitization of discarded materials.

Here's what my carpenter started with.  I love him for how his brain thinks.

And, we didn't just find things out of catalog or online to make this project unique.  We customized everything.

This job was a TON of work, antiquing, phone calls to vendors, problems, and things that had back to the drawing board.  I was nine months pregnant on installation day.  A baby in the making x's two!

Here are some of my iphone snapshots of just one side of the building.  Hopefully I'll blog about the other half someday soon.

The cafe chairs were so bad before.  It took me two and a half meetings to convince the landlord that the awful 1980's cherry-ish colored finish on the chairs needed to be painted.  You know how some people are about painting "nice wood", even if it's the worst pressed wood piece ever?  Well, I understand that with some wood pieces, but these were really bad.

Here's a before...

The landlord finally listened to me. That was the first triumph of the project.  The second one was getting to paint the ugly high chairs.  Green... "For the sweet pea babies".

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and I hope you'll visit Boca.  The food and people there are the nicest.  I'll be at the store today.  Come by and see me and baby Jack!

xx
sharon

Re-Upholstery: Why It's Worth The Wait

Happy Friday! What's new?

I've had a couple of people call me recently to ask me who I use for upholstering. My answer to that question is: I use whoever I can find that is the most readily available. I think there are three listed in the directory and I actually have had to use those three different upholsterers all on one project. Mostly because I needed to finish by a deadline date and each upholsterer could only work so fast. But, because there aren't too many upholsterers left in town, these craftsmen are always backed up. The wait time is always longer than I like it to be...but it's worth the wait. Bless their hearts, some of them work night and day to please their customers, and the two that I love and trust the most are the sweetest old men with wives as their partners in the trade. They always deliver their craftsmanship with a smile. Their work is really good. Have any of you had any pieces reupholstered lately? Was it a good experience?

To see a few examples of the upholstered pieces I commissioned for a design project, you can go to Boca Mocha to check out several upholstered pieces done quite nicely by all local craftsmen. I can't praise them enough.

Here's my reason as to why upholstery and upholsterers are worth "the wait" in gold...

Pictured below is the perfect example. It's a sofa just waiting to be reupholstered that Will and his mom found at an auction for me to resell at the shop. It has been the comfiest and most rock-solid of all sofas. Have you noticed that they don't make sofas nowadays like they used to make?

While this comfy sofa has been perfect for nursing my baby in my back room...it could be perfect for holding a slew of rambunctious kids or a really tall man who wants it all to himself for a football game. Are you in the market for a sofa like that?

I chose a soft, charcoal tweed. I'm loving menswear for furniture. I think this piece will ranscend all times once it's all done.

Here's a similar shape and styled sofa below from Oly. I love it too. It's just $6,785. A little too expensive for my taste and client's budget.

Do you need a designer to help you with just the little things...like selecting fabrics, paints, or even just to stylize your home for company coming? No job is too small for me! Let me know if I can help you. Please call 417-873-9999

Happy Friday and Have a wonderfully cozy weekend!

xx
sharon

2011 Interior Design Award: Office {Sharon Taylor of Pickwick House}

Hi All!  Could the weather be any more invigorating and inspiring?  I hope it'll put a pep in your step to come into Pickwick House today thru Saturday for our "FALL into Style" Open House.

My interns have been busy helping me ready the store while I work on more design projects outside of Pickwick House.  I'm so happy to have five interns joining me this fall!  I could still use two more art + design students to join in for our fall and winter window installations.  Qualification Must-Haves:  must be a hard worker who is passionate about hunting for the unconventional objects to weave and create a storied window.  Please email me if you are interested.

Photos by Randy Colwell

I'm so proud to share my 417 Mag's winning interior design award with you.   Here are a couple of pics from the online version of the magazine....and here's the link.   To see a better overall room image, take a peak at the September issue of 417 Home, now on newsstands {p. 70}.    I'm a little sad to say it, but...we're already moving on with this office.  It actually was recently just disassembled to become a little girls nursery.  That's the good news! I hope to share that soon.

Special Thanks to my intern, {now assistant}, Hillary Ellison and my two older sons who helped me load up a truck load of props to use for this photo shoot, on one of the very hottest days in July, I might add.  You may not realize it, but a lot of work goes into preparing a room for a photo shoot.  It took all day to get things situated just right for every angle of that lens.

Hope to see you today!  Bubba Jack will be here with me.  He's one of my best-natured babies, so be sure to come say hi.

xx
sharon

Bocha Mocha Progress

Remember the Pizza Hut-looking cubby booths + chairs I showed you at Boca Mocha?  The whole space was covered in dreadfully awful booths and cheap chairs.

At first I wanted to obliterate most all of the booths.  They were BAD.  I can't think of a person that would want to sit on those grimy, stick-to-your-thigh-skin booths in the summer {winter, spring, fall for that little matter}.  Not to mention the snag-cloth {polyester backing}. There was just not one ounce of ambiance to be had with all those booths and awful chairs.

Design is tricky though.  You have budgets and you also owe it to the earth to at least think about how to not make it suffer heaps and heaps more with piles of grody, old, used commercial furniture. So, my first question in designing were and continue to be:  How do we save costs, earth mama, and not sacrifice style?


Using what we had, I decided to cut the short backs off of the booth benches and separate them so that the cubbies were not facing each other. I had all the seats reupholstered in a warm grey, had some high-back tufted boards assembled, and made it all go flat against the wall.  Placing the tufted backs out, gave the room a softer, more elegant feel.  I kinda like it.  What do you think?

This image above is before installation.  The tufted backs are actually taller now that they are installed.

                                         Here's a close up of what the booths looked like before.

I'll be back with more.  There's been a lot of bustle going on at the shop, and with projects.  I hope you'll stop in next week for a summer soiree at the shop.  I'll post the invite soon.

Have a lovely, sunshine day.

xoxo
sharon