It’s Dana here, in the middle of a workday….Marc gets a little bored around the office and in meetings, but he finds things to do. He took painter’s tape off my desk and created his own fashionable version of press-on nails. I turned to ask him a question and this is how I found him. It’s never dull here at Renovation Conversation.
Check out our new venture. Listen to this clip of our radio show “Renovation Conversation” and let us know what you think!
Click on the audio file to listen… renovation conversation pilot
Check out my designHop club on TV! This gives you an excellent idea for how to organize a designHop makeover. I had a few people call to ask how they can get involved!
http://www.kmov.com/v/?i=120631234
Thank you to Virginia Kerr and her team. They did a great job telling our story. I could learn a few editing tricks from them. I need to learn how to tell my stories in shorter sound bites. Next, I need to try voice overs. I am in the midst of changing over to imovie and just haven’t had the time to learn it…but I will!
See our design club in action at Emily’s home. Emily had planned for months before she moved into their new home to host the club. She shared with us her collections and bought a few new items for the group to use. Watch what the group does with table cloths, you’ll be amazed. At the end of the clip you see a glimpse of the reveal. Stay tuned…I’ll post part 2 showing the final results of both the living room and dining room… in just a day or two.
And see the group on Great Day St. Louis tomorrow, channel 4 at 10 am. Virginia Kerr interviewed the team at Maggie’s place and watched us transform three bedrooms.
Here you go, Ned and Hillary’s kitchen revealed! Let me know what you think.
It’s great when friends step in to film me. I get a little tired of hold the camera myself. Brenda of Metro Lighting in St. Louis was great to help me. It was the first time she used a flip camera. She kept holding it at an angle, but this created some artsy filming if you ask me. I kinda like it. You’ll see at one point I teased her a bit.
Thank you Brenda! It is always more fun when I have someone I can really talk to behind the lens.
Here is my “design-on-a-dime” makeover! For just under two hundred dollars I made over my guest bedroom. Because my son may move back in at some point, I didn’t want to break the bank on this space. I hope you agree that I did a lot for the money.
Watch our journey to remodel Ned and Hillary’s kitchen. This video is part one. It’s the people and the craftsmanship behind the scenes. This kitchen was featured last weekend in the Junior League of St. Louis Kitchen tour called “A Gathering Place”.
Here is a teaser for the big reveal:
Ned and Hillary’s kitchen bridges the periods since the home was built in 1905. And for that reason I call it eclectic vintage. Inspiration for our design came not only from the home’s character, but also from Hillary’s antique food tins she has collected for years. Here was the starting point from which it unfolded.
Art deco lighting, yet to be revealed, draws you in and sets the stage for the vintage charmer. John at “A Light Above” salvaged antique shades in three different shapes, for pendants over the peninsula. He strung them on cloth cord for a contemporary feel.
The decorations and the lights remind you of a time before. Yet a more permanent and original feature uncovered a poignant story — a story that, if walls could talk, would have so much to say.
It started with a shallow bump-out that perplexed us. We wondered what to do with it. Work around it, with it? What the heck is it?
Hillary stared at it during dinner one night and wondered if it was an old brick chimney that we could perhaps expose. We chipped at the old plaster and, sure enough, there was brick and a hole where the old stovepipe once was.
Coincidently, here was where we planned to put our new modern stove top. Joe, of Joe Bennett Construction, cleaned the bricks and then vented the new hood out of the same hole.
The once mysterious bump-out is now revealed to not only create a stunning focal point to the room, but also provides a striking historical contrast. In my mind I travel back in time to observe a woman in a long dress cooking before a wood-burning stovepipe stove. Then flash forward to Hillary in her jeans who gathers her family while she cooks beside the modern cook top with its sleek hood.
Many things have changed over the years, but one thing remains the same: the human need to gather one’s family around the hearth.
And so I believe the Junior League kitchen tour is aptly named: A Gathering Place.
Kitchens speak to the core of why I do what I do. Its not about me or my design. Rather, it’s about family. And if I can help make a difference to a family, then that’s the spice in my cake, the ice in my soda and the butter on my bun!
I wish the Junior League a successful launch of the kitchen tours to celebrate hearth and home. And to Ned and Hillary, a special thank you for sharing with us. May you gather many and love much in your new kitchen!
I had fun again on the Great Day St. Louis show. Want to know what design trends are hot for 2011? Click on the photo below to view the segment. It is about half way through at the 4:30 mark.
Watch me share trans-seasonal decorating tips on Great Day St. Louis. The segment starts at 13:30 and goes for five minutes. And if you like steak, keep watching to learn about the best steakhouses in St. Louis :
click here click here click here click here click here
And now the final segment showing Joi’s living room. This is her favorite living space and readers of St. Louis Magazine’s voted it as their Living Space of the Year! This is the room that caught Nate Berkus’s attention too.
Joi and the designers at Phillips Furniture — that includes me! — will share decorating tips in a FREE seminar this Thursday night starting at 7 pm at the Phillips Furniture store in Kirkwood, Missouri. You will also learn cleaning tips from Woodard Cleaning and Restoration. And there will be prizes and take-aways! You are invited to bring or email photos to be included in the presentation to gain specific tips for your space. To participate in the evening, RSVP to Phillips Furniture 314-966-0047. Tell them you want to register for the Winning Spaces event.
seedanado.wordpress.com 