OK, I took this photo in a mall. I loved the irony of it. What does your summer 2015 look like?
Showing posts with label Instagram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Instagram. Show all posts
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Summer on the North Shore
OK, I took this photo in a mall. I loved the irony of it. What does your summer 2015 look like?
Thursday, July 17, 2014
My Bassett Makeover: Before + After
After sneak peek ... a favorite of mine from Bassett, the “Pippa”
Before: great architectural details, lots of natural light, plenty of room to entertain
THE CHALLENGE: with post-teenage children about to leave the nest, this family had outgrown the existing furnishings and were ready for a fresh update. The homeowners, a very nice local couple, came to Bassett to look for a new sofa and we ended up scheduling a room makeover in order to accomplish their goals of working with what they had. A number of pieces with sentimental value and some lovely decorative items were staying in the room. The wall color, a warm tone faux finish, plus the custom window treatments (which I discovered by coincidence were made by a very talented friend of mine!) were used as a starting point in choosing the color palette and traditional design direction for this family room makeover.
After visiting the clients home, I used the measurements that I took while there to create a revised floor plan with Room Planner which is a free design tool available to anyone who visits the Bassett website. Most of the furniture and accessory pieces from the extensive Bassett collections are loaded into this easy to navigate program, allowing them to be efficiently dropped into place to check that a layout works best for desired function while keeping traffic flow in mind.
THE BIG REVEAL: to accomplish this makeover, we selected the very comfortable New American Living chair in a crisp striped fabric, a tight back Custom Classics sofa in a warm olive green with two sets of designer pillows, a pair of Pippa classic spindle chairs in a richly woven gold fabric accented with leopard print kidney pillows, a tufted chocolate brown leather ottoman with storage shelf, then anchored this updated sitting area with a more appropriate sized hand tufted wool carpet in a colorful, bold print.
THE KEY: choosing patterns and colors that would complement the existing fabrics and finishes in this open floor plan.
THE BONUS FEATURE: all Bassett makeovers are delivered in around 30 days. For the custom furniture industry, this is quite a feat. How does Bassett do it? The majority of the custom manufacturing takes place in North Carolina. Beautiful on-trend fabrics plus strong built-to-last frames are at the ready. A highly-trained custom upholstery team is in place. The delivery process is streamlined. Customer service experts are in house to ensure complete satisfaction. Design consultants like myself follow each project, from beginning to end, as we would if running our own individual businesses. As a group, we just happen to have the support of the Bassett/HGTV Design Studio behind us : )
What did my Bassett clients think of their makeover? “It looks absolutely beautiful. We are so happy!”
Are you ready for a custom makeover? Email me at Bassett in Burlington to schedule a home visit, or stop by our showroom to see what we have to offer. This weekend, starting on Friday, July 18th, we are having a 3-day Summer Sale with one item offered at 30% off original price. Bassett is also hosting a “Pin It To Win It” event on Pinterest. Click here to find out how you can enter to win a $5,000 Gift Card to Bassett!
Follow me on Houzz to see the Bassett makeover above, plus lots more to come ...
And watch for my regular posts on Instagram to see what’s new in our Bassett showroom and elsewhere in the world of design.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
By Invitation: Passport to Design Blog Tour
With our design bloggers: Erin Greene, Michelle Cortizo, Linda Holt, Megan Meyers,
John Kelsey, Kristina Crestin, Linda Merrill, Katherine Hawkins, Danika Herrick
John Kelsey, Kristina Crestin, Linda Merrill, Katherine Hawkins, Danika Herrick
I had heard so much on twitter, etc. about how fun blog tours are – the Brizo sponsored Fashion Week blog tour was my main inspiration even before they had put me on their current guest list – that I recently decided to put one together to help promote the Boston Magazine Passport to Design Sweepstakes. With five gorgeous design showrooms located within a short driving distance from each other here on the North shore, I knew it would be a worthwhile trip even for a group of busy designers. Transportation was provided to each showroom, refreshments were served, bloggers had their sweepstakes passports stamped and were each entered to win the $20,000 Home Makeover giveaway. Not a bad way to spend a day out of the office!
In case you haven’t heard me blogging or tweeting about the Passport Sweepstakes before (please say you have – promoting it is part of my full-time job at Designer Bath after all!) one lucky winner will receive five gift certificates in the amount of $4,000 each to Circle Furniture, Tile by Design, Designer Bath, Landry and Arcari, and Lucia Lighting to spend however they wish. When we invited our bloggers, we suggested they bring their cameras/iphones so that they could record their favorite items ... just in case : )
The official Passport to Design sweepstakes drawing will be held in March after the last seminar in the series, so there is still time to pick up your own passport and enter to win (next seminar is at Tile by Design on February 6th). In the meantime, however, let me show you how we spent our bloggers-day-out ...
We ended up with a fabulous group of bloggers – most of whom I knew, but a few I met for the first time – when we got together last Tuesday at Circle Furniture for hour one of our day long design journey. We immediately got our bloggers set up with name tags and hashtags, because what is a blogger event without Instagram updates and tweet pics? If you are on either, type in #Passport2Design and you can follow a whirlwind photo tour of the day’s events.
CIRCLE FURNITURE // danvers
At Circle Furniture in Danvers, we were welcomed by marketing director Sarah Cooney and one of Circle’s social media voices/ showroom stylist Sean William Donovan. The showroom team put out a light breakfast for the bloggers and Sean gave us an entertaining tour of what is new at Circle. Everything at Circle looks fabulous to me since I am at the stage in my family life cycle where the pre-frat boys (8 to 14) have completely taken over the living room. I took lots of pics of vignettes that included accent pillows and throws ON the sofas, not in a tattered pile on the floor. And there wasn’t an Xbox in sight! Can I live here?
Cindy Barry, showroom manager at Circle with
Erin Greene, blogger for Boston Magazine
Cindy with Michelle Cortizo of Cortizo Interiors
I love the gray of the sofa combined with the colorful carpet beneath.
Bloggers relaxing in Stressless-style: Megan Meyers, Erin Greene, Danika Herrick
North shore based designers Katherine Hawkins and Linda Holt
Perhaps we should offer pretty items like this in our Designer Bath showroom?
A pillow designed for designers!
TILE BY DESIGN // danvers
Doug Madden of Tile by Design, cupcakes provided by Gifford Events
The next showroom stop on the tour was Tile by Design in Danvers. We were welcomed with champagne mimosas and cupcakes-to-go. I think I may have been first in line for the bubbly. While we were there, store owner Jerry McGinn pointed out some of the newest trends in the world of tile.
Tile that looks like reclaimed wood ... tweet-worthy for sure!
There is so much to choose from ... designing with tile truly is an art!
Katherine Hawkins and Linda Merrill
I am obsessed with shades of gray.
Michelle Cortizo, Kristina Crestin, Danika Herrick
DESIGNER BATH // beverly
How happy was I to have a showroom full of design bloggers! Usually I am the only one walking around snapping post-worthy pictures, but on this day I was entertained by a design-savvy group discovering on their own some of my favorite brands in real time. I gave them the assignment to photograph a favorite faucet. Click here to see their choices on our website. (Thanks, bloggers!)
Original Brizo fan Michelle with new to the brand fan Danika
Danika was also a fan of our sleek Zucchetti tub from Italy.
Sparkling new faucets and light fixtures to come!
Part of our showroom was being updated during the tour (we are constantly changing out our displays) so later on I will post an “after” photo to go with the freshly painted wall above.
Midway through our tour, I brought the bloggers upstairs to our state-of-the-art heating system training room for a quick lunch break, while I checked emails and ad deadlines at my desk. I also grabbed a swag bag for each of them, tucking a few Designer Bath goodies inside.
The splash of orange is my favorite part of the training room
(designed to coordinate with our logo, of course!)
(designed to coordinate with our logo, of course!)
LANDRY AND ARCARI // salem
I have to say, Landry and Arcari in Salem is one of THE most photographable showrooms! Our third stop on the tour, we were captivated by the rich and colorful woven pieces of art. Landry and Arcari has a wealth of carpets to choose from, whether you are looking for traditional styles or more contemporary designs. When designing a room, if you can start from the floor up, you can really be inspired with the least amount of limitations. If you have a carpet in good condition that you no longer want, they may even buy it from you! A carpet that needs repair? They can fix almost anything or come up with a solution to make a rug look its best regardless of age.
The team at Landry and Arcari educated us and even served us tea!
Even the smallest carpet had the power to stop us in our tracks.
John Kelsey with Mary Donovan
Carpets made of hides may not be for everyone,
but they are quite stunning and so very soft!
Great for a sunroom, pool house, or even a bathroom.
Gray and orange striped version caught my eye ...
Somehow Danika found the one chevron carpet in the middle of a huge stack.
A trip to Landry and Arcari is like traveling to a foreign marketplace.
Their vast inventory is beyond amazing! So. Many. Carpets!
Rug repair is done on-site by hand.
Ken Gurley shares the history of the over-dyed carpet,
a design trend made popular by Calvin Klein.
Official Landry and Arcari mascots.
LUCIA LIGHTING // lynn
Okay, time for one more round of champagne! The always-effervescent Lucy Dearborn uncorked a few bottles for us to celebrate the last stop on our Passport to Design blog tour at her sparkling showroom, Lucia Lighting in Lynn. Lucy knows lighting and she certainly knows how to engage a group of bloggers who have been traveling for the better part of the day. With glasses in hand, we took a quick tour through her 8,000 square foot showroom. Lucy pointed out some of her latest finds along the way ...
Lights made out of recycled glass are green and gorgeous!
A room filled with both traditional and traditional-inspired pieces.
I think this is my favorite room ... I love the light directly over the table
(my dining room would look amazing with a pair of these!)
(my dining room would look amazing with a pair of these!)
And above is another favorite from my space at the Wenham design show.
Bring on the bling! Wouldn't these be a nice surprise in a walk-in closet?
Below is a list of related posts from our very important bloggers (I will update as I see more of them). Thanks for sharing your day and your thoughts with us!
Linda Merrill
Michelle Cortizo
Kristina Crestin
Danika Herrick
Megan Meyers
Erin Greene
My Passport to Design Blog Tour Curation ...
I hope you enjoyed the tour!
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