Designer I Love, Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Hello,

I wanted to talk about a designer/decorator who isn't exactly new, but who's name I recently discovered. His name is Martyn Lawrence Bullard and he has an amazing eye and knack for putting things together with a certain unique zest, and I don't mean in an understated way.

His story is equally amazing, which I read in my new book Live, Love & Decorate. If you haven't seen it yet you need to! It is filled with so much popping eye candy and diverse design style that you will be thirsting for more. I also love the affectionate and honest story of a dreaming actor to be turned decorator to the stars that is Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

One of the features in this book is from the New York home of Jimmy Choo's own Tamara Mellon, and it is just stunning! The mix of ecelectic Hollywood Regency meets vintage 70s glam is true perfection, and there is a whole lotta texture and gold up in that place. I like, I like very much.

Since starting on our bedroom addition, my love for all things gold has turned up and is now a raging fire. In the words of Gold Member from the great and wise Austin Powers, "I like gooooooold".
Mmmmmmm

Birthday Inspiration, Pink Rooms....It's Madness

Good morning,

In light of my BIG BIRTHDAY today I wanted to share some rooms with you inspired by my favorite color, pink.

Now for anyone who follows me or knows my typical design style, you will know that I am not big on using colors. You will instead find neutrals with touches of organic woods, greys, blacks, whites, golds and silvers. That's just how I roll.

Every now and then, however I have to design a space or will find a space with pops of color and one can't help but to smile. Nice design must be recognized even if it isn't ones own style;)

Here are today's pink rooms, Happy Birthday To Me! ~

 Notice in the above space the use of Ikea furniture in this high end looking room. I love that!

 All three of the above pictures are from a loft space and it looks AMAZING! I love the purple sofa and the pink accents. I also love the arc lamp and and the mix of vintage and new like the painted brick walls and the chandelier. And those windows and casually draped curtains? WOW!

In this space I love the mix of the luxe fabrics and that the room is  grounded by white and brown. Such a grown up version of non-typical grown up colors.

There isn't anything that I don't love in this space. The vintage looking gold lamp <3, the pink canvas<3, I want this vanity space!!!

I love the subtle pink accents in thie silver/grey room. This would be an easy to do pink combo.

 Who would have thought that a pink kitchen could look like this!!!!! Seriously?

 Notice in both of the two above pictures that there is a pink entry, a gold mirror above a console, and a zebra hide rug. Aparently a popular choice and I can see why.

Do I really need to say why this pink door works?! Reminds me of Palm Springs gone right, very right.

Have you seen any colorful spaces that you just love even if it's out of your norm?

A Cozy Window Seat Nook In Our Master Bedroom

Geed evening,

I wanted to share with you another quick project that we took on this weekend in our master bedroom. I have a corner in the room that was not being used and has so much wonderful light pouring in so we decided to make it a little nook. I took one of our previously painted white mirrors and placed it in the corner along with our Ikea Tobias chair (which if you haven't seen in person is an AMAZING chair!!!) and I also put the Ikea STOCKHOLM  side table in black (it also comes in white with a wood inset btw, and is also an AMAZING table. It is sturdy, high gloss, modern and well made!!!). Once I arranged some things I looked at the cute little nook and realized that it had a bit of that "somethings missing" happening which wouldn't work. So I added a quick DIY painted mirror project.

Here it was before:

Like everything else in our room, I wanted more drama so I added some accessories including our new West Elm Mongolian Lamb Pillow  in the color pebble with our very Kelly Hoppen-Esq coral and sand vases that I posted about originally here. Well it was looking good, but not great.

Soooooo, off I went armed with a can of spray paint to give my white mirror makeover in high gloss black, Baaam!

Here are the after results of our cute little window seat nook with the newly dressed up sexier black mirror.

We really like the results. It's kind of like when you put a pair of black nylons on and it finishes a dress just so. I also added a few of my favorite books, a to die for candle in a gold metal jar found at Home Goods, and a new container to place my sand vase in (if you look closely in the picture you can see a black and gold container. I have no idea what it was, but it was on clearance for $10 so I made it work:)

What do you think? Have you done anything in your home to transform an otherwise unused  window and made it a nice little nook? I would love to see your results.

Weekend Inspiration...Family Room Sneak Peek

Good morning,

I am thoroughly enjoying a cup of coffee in my light filled living room looking over my pretty things (which I sometimes do) and I wanted to share one of the pictures Robert took. It isn't often that I get to be still and just enjoy being in the moment and appreciating what I have.

There's nothing like a cup of coffee, a comfy sofa, a blanket and bloggin to start the day off right.

Whoohoo for the weekend! I hope you enjoy yours as well~ XOXO

Sneak Peek Of Our Modern Landscaping, Teak Wood Balls

Good morning,

I have a huge obsession with rustic and beached woods and use them in one form or another in most of my projects. I frequently shop at a local store called Victoria's Armoire. They are full of unique and amazing pieces from all over the world which the owner brings here in huge crates and sells them for more than reasonable prices. This store is an absolute gem, and it yet again it didn't disappoint.

While in the clearance section (which by the way ALWAYS has really amazing scores at thrift store-esq prices) I came across a section of solid and pieced together teak balls. These suckers were huge and heavy, and at prices of $10-$29 how could I resist?!!!

I bought three of them for my front garden to give it a little something, and though I'm not completely ready for the yard and drive way reveal due to picture quality I did want to give you a sneak peak of a little piece of our yard.

For those of you who don't know, these suckers will typically run around $150/ea at a discount store and then some. Since they are made of teak they can go in an all weather outdoor space. They may discolor a bit, but for that just adds to the charm.  As you can start to see the yard shaping up we are going very minimal and very modern and graphic. Our plants are all new so they look like little babies, but they will one day fill out and we plan to continue adding things little by little. I will try for pictures this weekend, and will finally reveal our A-MAZ-ING concrete driveway that came out neyond one of the coolest things EVER and completely transofrmed our house.

What do you think of our little teak wood balls? Aren't they such an organic and amazing statement to our modern yard? Love them <3

Dining Room Reveal, Hans Wegner Wishbone Chairs

Good morning,

I wanted to reveal the "after" of our dining room. I gave you a sneak peak before of what our custom dining table looks like with the new chairs, but I haven't shown you the clear pictures and since we have all our holiday decor put away it's a great time to reveal it to you.

Remember when I posted here about our dining room and my obsession with the Hans Wegner "Wishbone" chair? Well they came, and the risk paid off!!! I'm more in love with the dining room than I was before when Color Splash made over our home, and I didn't think that was going to be possible.

Here is the before of our dining room with the beautiful acrylic chairs:

Here is the dining room as it stands now with our new chairs:

If you look closely at the pictures you will see this amazing custom dining table creation by David Bromstad done half in a high gloss white lacquer with a modern style and the other half in a beautiful silver leaf with a traditional style. The table comfortably seats 12 (and could technically seat more) and is an amazing conversational piece. It stands alone as a piece of art, but these iconic and very popular mid- century modern chairs are also a work of art in their own right.  They are a neutral organic chair, and do not compete with the table or the amazing wood wall. They add such a seamless style and blend well with everything that we have going on here at the Perez House! They are super comfortable and well worth the wait and price.

What do you think?

Another Ikea RAST Night Stand....Part II

Good morning,

Today I'm sharing with you the big reveal on the Ikea Rast night stands. I've posted about them before, and LOVE these babies. Mostly because they can be changed and made over in so many wonderful ways as seen below.

These night stands are kind of like Ikea celebrities, and at only $34.99 ea you can't go wrong taking on a DIY project of your own.

Since I am going with the white, black and gold themed room I wanted to give them a face lift/ round II.  I started with the one shown in this before picture:

Which still looked nice, but not amazing. When I found this post on one of my favorite blogs Design Manifest, I was smitten and knew I had found the one. Look how Naomi used hers as a media console in her home:

So I decided to sand mine back down to a smooth finish, and painted them in a high gloss door trim paint.

* My suggestion to you for a high gloss lacquer piece of furniture is to use a roller (unless you are some painting whiz) because on the first coat I used a brush and it is extremely difficult to not create streaks and brush strokes.

Then I let this dry over night. Once dry I remembered the gold bottom trim shown in the inspiration picture and needed to do that myself so I spray painted it using my gold spray paint along only the bottom.

I then repeated the sanding and painting 2 more times (per Naomi's instructions)

Once the last coat was dry I applied a small amount of super glue to the corner brackets which can be bought here and were $2.65 for a set of 4, you will need 6 packs.

I then added my previous pulls instead of the ones Naomi used since I had them from before, and  LOVED their style. They can be found here .

Here is a picture of the supplies we used, plus an electric sander if you can, it saves a ton of time.

Here is a close up of the brackets while they were being applied:

Here are our finished results:

They make the perfect addition to our bedroom and it's theme. Thank you to Naomi from Design Manifest for the amazing Ikea hacked idea!!! It was exactly what we needed.

Stay tuned for the alligator banded pillows that will be going on top of the ol bed:)

Have a great Monday!