Home Organization

So I used to work for Kelly Holland of KPH Studio- who I give all the credit for me figuring out my path with interiors and learning endless amounts of design know-how from her expertise. She really took me under her wing. Anyways, sometimes a designer's biggest struggle is organizing and planning her own space. It's easy to make objective decisions for a client, but making your own final decision is funny how hard it can be. I guess it makes you understand why interior designers are in such demand! Anyway, Kelly had a room in her basement filled with old Stuff. One day we decided it needed to go. She hired me to go through everything with her and make room for more storage since she wanted to make a home office.

This is some of what we pulled out of her storage room. We looked through 15 years of old pictures, kids artwork, electronics, arts and crafts kits, vases, holiday decorations, winter clothing, everything imaginable that you don't want to think about and you store away! 

Instead of being overwhelmed inside the space, I pulled everything out of the room and organized it into piles. Then together we went pile at a time and re-entered only the most important things onto new shelves and recycled or donated the rest. 

Kelly was very happy. She ended up having enough space to then start working on her new home office. We played around a bit, (kelly green is her favorite color) and I made up this mood board for her. She ended up designing a beautiful layout and can finally work from home in a space more conducive to her needs. She is a fantastic designer and has been for 20+ years. Here's her website http://www.kphstudio.com/ and check her out on facebook too! https://www.facebook.com/pages/KPH-Studio/229143277210907 

Chocolate window display

The front window display I helped with for the Artisan Confections in Fairfax

I changed it around a couple of times. Here is with the chocolate wood letters in the cocoa beans.

Tanzania Interiors!

I thought it would be fun to pull out some mural and home decor pictures from my 3 years in Tanzania. Please keep in mind that these pictures show design on a dime in the truest meaning of the phrase! I was making about $200 a month and still managed to make my space as pretty as I could! :)

Devon's House:

 A new paint job, curtains, and spaceplan!

 These sofas were considered the nice ones! :) I gave her a whole new floorplan.



(Before)

The space turned office for St. Paul Partners:

My home:

 I realized I did not take any completed pictures of my house. In this pic, you can kind of make out my mural, the branch curtain rod and branch/tea light chandelier, the blue rug, and the furniture that I drew up for the carpenter and then painted blue myself.

 Neighbors enjoying the big coffee table! :)

 I lined all of the walls of my kitchen with flowers.

 This is the yellow mural before any of my furniture arrived.

Iyawaya Primary School:

I painted educational murals for the first and second grade classrooms at the school I taught at. They didn't have much of a text book, so this was another cool alternative!

The mural behind them is of a village scene to promote creative writing and story telling. To the left, around the window, you can see a store mural with blank price tags in chalkboard paint for them to practice math!

(Before)