Friday, November 14, 2014

Project *Rustic Modern* REVEALED

I am so excited to call this project "finished." This project began at the beginning of summer and went through a very long, detailed renovation. Everything in the "before" photo of the room was ripped out (walls, ceiling, lighting, everything!) I wanted to keep the barn wood because of its uniqueness, so we salvaged all that we could and put it to good use in the new design, along with a few other items. 

Here are the "before" shots.....


You can see it feels very dark, and while cozy, it just needed some freshening up!



I kept the wine cabinet above and made it the focal point of the new bar design. The bar was moved to the wall on the right, and the bar wall became the tv wall. Behind the barn door is a powder room.  

And because I can't wait to show you any longer, here is the After!




The wine cabinet now looks so much richer now surrounded by gorgeous custom cabinetry and barn wood trim. It takes on a very tailored, sophisticated vibe. I was lucky to find cabinetry that perfectly matched the wood tones of the barn wood. The sconces at the top also turned out great!



I am completely in love with this backsplash! The geometric pattern from the tile is repeated throughout the space in the cabinetry hardware, carpet, and textiles. 



Bathroom door before and after: Again, I wanted to keep much of the barn wood character intact, without things getting too cowboy-ish. The grasscloth paper and custom chair railing really polish off the room. It's the little details like this that I love working into my projects!




Another thing that makes this room so special is that it's filled with my clients' personal memories. The postcards to the left of the door were collected over various trips to state parks. I had them framed together to add a powerful punch of color.




Most of the furniture came from either Arhaus or Restoration Hardware. Some items, like the card table and the map above, already belonged to the client. I love working my client's existing belongings into a new space. Rooms feel more natural with multiple layers of years and styles. Aged, like a good wine. The saying is true: never buy all your furniture at the same place, or in a matching set. 

These chairs really do perfectly complement the table. 



All of the items in the gallery wall also belonged to the client. Some the items we re-framed and I added the shelves to visually collect the smaller items. The family photos, antique pocket watches and school memorabilia will make great conversation pieces while entertaining.

In order to make sure all the pieces fit together, I had my client gather all the items she wanted to include. I then numbered and measured each piece. I measured the wall, the placement of windows and light switches and plugged it all into CAD. I then played around with it until I had the layout just right (I tend to geek out on stuff like this!). I filled the gaps in here and there with new frames filled with the owner's incredible photography. 


(O.k., seriously, how cool is this carpet?!)



Well, that's a wrap. I hope you'll keep me in mind for a future project you may be thinking about (or not thinking about!). Although I'm currently working full-time (and working on my MBA!), I am still taking on new clients for the spring of 2015. If you're willing to be patient with my crazy schedule, I promise the end result will be well worth it. Thanks for taking the time to check out another project of mine - I will have more to share soon. 

And as always, THANK YOU to my father, Tim Weimer and brother, John Weimer, for turning my sketches, scribbles and wild hand gestures into physical reality. Their craftsmanship and attention to detail is bar-none on all the projects we tackle. Together, I think we make a pretty fab team.

Thank you also to my husband Brian for putting up with my insanity from time to time. Oh, and for taking the awesome pics. I love that we can share this stuff together. 

xoxo, 
Laura

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Artist Spotlight: Luc

chatillon car graveyard 72 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years

 
I came across this article and wanted to share it with all of you. These images are hauntingly beautiful (my favorite combination) and the history behind them makes it even more so. The original post states:


"Around the town of Chatillon, Belgium, the end of World War II left a few creepy hallmarks of the armistice in the form of long lines of cars left abandoned by the hundreds in the woods. While one theory goes that the cars belonged to Americans who left them in a hurry on their way off the continent, no one really knows for sure. While there were initially four giant pileups with over 500 cars, only one remains rotting in the woods, a monument to the inexorable creep of entropy."


The original post can be found here. More of the artist's work can be found on flickr here.

 
chatillon car graveyard 52 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard 83 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
 
chatillon car graveyard 112 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard 35 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 2 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 4 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 5 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 6 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 7 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years
chatillon car graveyard abandoned cars cemetery belgium 11 Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years

Thursday, May 15, 2014

A project just because

It's super rare that I get to work on something just for fun, but I'm feeling inspired because of a recent purchase. I was in homegoods the other day and saw this ginormous frame on clearance....so of course I bought it. It barely even fit in my car. (Actually, it didn't fit - I had to drive home with my back door open. But I'm used to that at this point!) but the main reason I bought it is because it's the absolute perfect size for my large living room wall. It measures a total of six feet wide.



I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I have a feeling it has something to do with this...


And this


And a little bit of this


I've been working on these watercolors in between bouts of client projects, homework and (kinda) cooking dinner. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, or exactly how I'm going to construct it, but I'm playing with the idea of some sort of collage or weaving. Either way, I have a good feeling about it and creating something new is always a rush. Stay tuned!

Laura
 xoxo





Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Bittersweet

A new business has opened up in my old studio space in Dayton's historical Oregon District. I couldn't be happier for this new venture and wish them the best of luck - certainly better luck than I had! (I suppose I never really told you what happened with my studio so to make a looooong story short, I was subleasing a space with another business. I paid rent and the other business didn't. Because I was sub-leasing, we both got the boot!)

Gees, that feels like a lifetime ago and much has happened since then. I was never bitter about what happened. It all turned out for the best and better opportunities have come my way since then. Anyways, it looks like this place is going to be pretty cool. It is called the "Belle of Dayton" and will be a distillery once open.


This corner of the shop was my space....my desk literally sat right where the, for lack of a proper term, large-round-silver-thingy is sitting. 




You can read more about it here

Friday, April 25, 2014

Friday Feature: Andy Warhol

I heard about this on the radio during my morning drive to work and couldn't wait to see pictures of it. I think it's pretty excited anything new is discovered from a deceased artist no matter the medium.

In case you haven't heard, several lost works from Andy Warhol have been rediscovered... on a set of Amiga floppy disks dating from 1985. This may seem like an easy task, however,  considering the floppies are now 30 years old the tape inside may have become brittle, or the magnetically-stored data faded over time. With the help of the Carnegie Mellon University computer club and some special restoration equipment, they managed not only to extract the data of several image files (named things like "campbells.pic") but also reverse-engineer the now-obsolete file format.


Here are a few of the images found:




I think it's safe to say digital art has come a LONG way since this :) 

Check out these sources for more information:



Have a great weekend everyone!






Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Earth Day

Happy earth day everyone! I hope you'll go do something "earthy" today....I'm hoping to work in my garden later this evening if weather permits.



~Laura xo

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Could you live in just 84 square feet?

These tiny "mobile homes" have been popping up everywhere lately and are literally changing "mobile home" stereotypes. After having a heart-attack, this woman gained a whole new perspective on life. She sold her home and most of her possessions and instead built her own 84 square foot home on a small truck trailer.  I am amazed at how charming and comfortable it looks, although I admit as a furniture hoarder collector, it would be extremely difficult to get my possessions down to 305. It does make me curious as to what my "possession count" is. Maybe I should I try? I might be too embarrassed with the results....

You can read the entire article from the New York Times here.












So what do you think? Could you live in a space this small?