New Items in Shop

I have three new items in the shop!

Black Ikat Fabric - SOLD
-

Small Print Batik Fabric


Federal Glass Trays


Enjoy!

my business cards

I got my business cards yesterday from my favorite printing website, PS Print. I really liked how they turned out - nice and simple and "me". You can see I used my green burlap, navy blue and light blue which I use for all my bryn alexandra interiors branding.

front:



back:


I often get emails asking me who designed my blog, etc. For those of you who don't know, my formal background and college degree is in advertising design and I design all of my branding items. If you would like help with yours, shoot me an email, I still have a soft spot in my heart for it.

Now I just need to get my site launched! It's 99% done and will be launched soon.

Spacing

One reason I shared Vanessa's work in the post below is because I wanted to show you her gallery wall in the dining room. Let's use this opportunity to talk about small vs. large spacing on a gallery wall. Examples:

Large Spacing

Michelle Adams loves large spacing...





others...








Small Spacing











Although I've always been a fan of both, I've only done small spacing in my own home:

{ my art gallery wall in California }

Until this morning! I went big and bold with big spacing between my art. I love how it turned out.

I started with this:



And ended with this:



I completely eyeballed it and took a picture after hanging each piece. I'm going to share the progression on Monday and maybe some better quality pictures ;)

So how about you - are you a large spacing person or small spacing person or both?

Have a great weekend!

Designer Love

Vanessa De Vargas from Turquoise Design is one of my top ten favorite designers. I've admired her work for a while, so you can imagine how happy I was to see her work featured in Lonny Mag.

Anyway, it always puts a smile on my face when my favorite designers put new work up in their portfolio. Here is some new work of hers that I just discovered:

Like birds of a feather..

I'd like to first say THANK YOU to my awesome readers for supporting me. It makes me smile when I see comments saying you've been rooting for me during this crazy ride. I feel like it's only just begun (okay, Karen Carpenter).

Anyway, back to my post. I had to share this rug I'm lusting over.



It may not be everyone's style, I know. But there's just something about it that intrigues me. I'd love it for our kitchen floor which is terrible apartment linoleum.

The aesthetic is very Anthropologie, but the price is VERY not. $47 believe it or not, from one of my favorite eBay sellers.

I just bought my blue crewel fabric (seen here) from the same seller, so the rug unfortunately didn't get to make the trip over with it. All you married folks out there understand you win some and you lose some. But I hope someone else out there gets to snatch it up!

As seen on..... Design*Sponge!

Today is a very exciting day for me, as it's been a dream of mine to have my work shown on Design*Sponge, one of my all time favorite blogs. Go check it out!



















I, of course, will share more images of these rooms soon.

A big thanks to Design*Sponge for featuring me!!

Better Late Than Never

Even though it's already almost March (!!) I just now got my 2010 desk planner. My husband tells me I can use my iPhone for everything, but there is just something about writing out everything to do in your day.

I decided to go handmade this year and looked towards Etsy for my 2010 desk planner. I found this one and clicked "ADD TO CART" as soon as I could. It won me over with the light blue... as you can see light blue is one of three colors I decided to use for my new business. (dark blue and green being the other two).

Blue Geometric Planner by prettychicsf





Here's hoping this year will be the best ever... (so far it has been!)

From The Desk Of..... bryn alexandra interiors

When I originally planned to work from home, I knew I had to develop good working habits from day one. And that includes working from a desk 9-5. I was worried I'd get into the habit of lounging on the couch in my pj's eating potato chips with my laptop on my lap.

Surprisingly, I have come to really love sitting at my desk all day and working... I don't have to force myself at all! Maybe because I finally love what I do? Or maybe because I love my desk so much? or both :)

One of the biggest improvements to my desk is my mousepad I DIY'ed. Normally I don't use a mouse pad, but this apartment complex painted their counter tops with texture - boo. So a mouse pad was a must (I haven't had one since high school I think???)

The diy aspect of my new mouse pad came from the amazing mind of High Street Market. First, you must click here and check out what she did to an IKEA 99 cent mouse pad. Here, I'll post some pictures:







One of my pet peeves is having to move the mouse over to keep from falling off a mouse pad (hence why I never used one), so I decided to make a HUGE mouse pad. I don't have pictures of the "during", but the materials consisted of:

- left over cork board (from my diy corkboard project)
- fabric (small remnant left over from a client project)
- spray adhesive
- scissors

Easiest DIY ever.







Some misc. comments:

- I love my desk chair. It was a splurge but well worth it since I'm in it all day long.

- I also love my second screen. It's a left over from my husband's college years and by no means fancy, but it does the job and is PERFECT for idea boards (you can see one I'm working on now)

- See my little bird frame in the first picture, behind my lamp? I just got it on sale at Anthro... I got it because of the crown - now that I live in the Queen City and all :)

- My Inspiration Board is coming along! I love adding tear sheets and pictures to it. You'll notice I re-did it with my spray adhesive, and had to take the ribbon off. I may add it back someday when I get around to going to Hobby Lobby.

That's all. Let me know if you DIY a mousepad, too!

Thanks again for the idea, High Street Market!

EDIT - I just got a fun comment: "Looks great! I love the chair as well. What type of candle do you have burning? Also, do you work to music? What type?"

To answer the questions.. the candle I have on my desk is my favorite candle I have right now. It's called DANI in the Zante Currant scent. I only listen to music when I'm designing.. I can't have other words going on when I'm writing (emails, blog posts) or else I get too distracted (A.D.D.??) But it's almost always Regina Spektor :)

Faux Bois

This tool:



has been popping up everywhere. First, I saw it on Eddie Ross's twitter.. he used it to faux bois the top of some nesting tables for a project for The Nest.



(if you are not following Eddie Ross on Twitter, you are mad! He posts the most amazing things)


Then I saw it in my bud Jamie Meares' flickr, she faux bois-ed the top of a dresser:



Available at the fabulous Furbish Design in Raleigh, NC :)

Then when I googled faux bois, I came across Martha.. who probably invented the tool (jk). She created an amazing tray with Kenny Rogers (huh?) by faux bois-ing a plate of glass. Here are some pictures from the segment:









Click here to get the directions and watch the segment.

I'd like to do a similar project... which has me wondering. Does Home Depot or Lowe's cut plexiglass? And I wonder if plexiglass is more or less expensive than glass. I need to do some researching...

bryn alexandra interiors: Red Family Room

Today I will be sharing with you the family room I designed in my client I's home. You saw their guest bedroom not too long ago, seen here. Check out the before pictures of this room - wood paneling, track lighting and a mirrored wall!







We knew the paneling, mirrors and track lighting had to go. I presented two options to my clients for the fireplace - paint the brick white, or remove the brick to create a flat drywall finish on the fireplace. I'm so glad they went with the latter, it turned out to be the perfect canvas for our shadowbox wall (will get to that later).

THANK GOD for my client's amazing contractor, who was a family friend of theirs. He was absolutely amazing and if I was still in California I would use him for all my jobs. All I had to do was sketch out my vision and he brought it to life.

Here is a "during" shot - check out that vintage wallpaper! No wonder the home had mirrors and paneling up. (Although I sort of like it - wouldn't it be fun in a little girl's room?)



I like to create design boards for my full service design to help both the client and myself visualize the space. I usually use them for the core pieces (furniture, paint, drapery) and then add in the patterns and art later. Here is the design board:



Couch is from CB2, media cabinet is from IKEA, the pouf is from Taza Designs and the rug is from West Elm. The red silk drapery is from smartbargains.com. The pendant lights are from Bellacor.com and are for the adjoining kitchen (also seen below).

The paint color is formally from Martha Stewart at Lowe's.. it's a gorgeous blue/gray. I can't wait to see her new paint colors at Home Depot!

I blogged about finding the great Ikat fabric back in September:



Now on to the best part - the Afters!



The drum pendant is one of my favorite things in the room. It casts a candlelit like glow when on.


This chair adds great interest to the room - it's from Urban Outfitters. I like how the room is monochromactic, but there are two different reds involved - the bright red of the chair and the dark crimson of the silk drapery.






I originally got the acrylic tray from CB2 for the pouf, but it was a bit too big. It worked out, because I like it better on the media cabinet. In it, I put brown and red vintage books.






The shadow box wall is my favorite part!


Art books are the best sources for inexpensive art. These prints came from a large Van Gogh art book that was $20 at Borders. Van Gogh's portraits are so intriguing and were perfect for this space.



I helped my customers choose the wood and granite for their new kitchen.




And the stools are from homedecorators.com.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed it :)