Summer Lovin, Having A Blast!

Hey!!!!

Well, we've been traveling allot lately which has been a nice retreat. The kids have been out of school, I've had family in town, my projects luckily are ending and beginning all at the perfect time, and we just got back from a trip to Costa Rica where I uh hem, surfed! FINALLY!

** Costa Rica Summer 2013

Needless to say, I'm feeling good my friends. Now of coarse I have to get back to work which is well needed after the holidays and the spending, but I'm still in a summer kinda mood.

I figure I'll kick blogging back off with some sunshine state love. Summer from me to you:)

I literally ADORE that sequin pillow on the casual seating. Leave it to me to love me some sequins.

When we were in Costa Rica last week they were selling these amazing scalloped hammocks for only $50!!! I waned one so bad I could taste it, but then Rob the blob told me we had no where to hang it:( This was true, but I may creatively work one in one day.

This little set up is my yard crush dream yard, of coarse mixed with the sequin pillows above. The modern concrete and pool style are what I'm aiming for in our upcoming pool design. To be continued.

I just ordered this Holy Chic pillow from Joss and Main. I'm in love with all things sparkle, gold and catch phrase these days which is both in home decor and fashion alike. **Sorry it is a limited supply and last I checked they were sold out.

This living room design is one of my own projects that you can see more of here. This client had such a love of beachy drift wood silver havin coral displaying goodness that her home just screams "breath of fresh beach air"

This was my 4th of July outfit inspiration. With the flag, jean cut offs and Coca Cola need I say more?!

 

I love high waisted shorts this season. They are so cute and easy to wear. Here in Florida they have been a summer staple for me both day and dressed up at night.

I would love to blow this image up and hang it on the wall in my daughters room, and I just may do that!

Colorful and casual. I love the use of the Asian inspired media console and the low laying cushions. This is a place to bunker down in and read a book. Mmmmm!

This is a hair country chic, but I can dig it. I would love to transform my mom's sun porch in Utah so that she could sit there and enjoy herself some down time. Love it!

Why oh, why can't Robert just read my mind and create this lovely little place for the two of us to share champagne and stone crabs from the famed Miami Beach Joe's Stone Crab (take out of coarse!)

 

This happy little outdoor area again pays a bit of nostalgia to my Utah roots where is is pleasant to sit outside in the evenings under some cute cafe lights and enjoy the cooler air at night. Can you tell I'ma bit home sick lately??

So, now that I've enticed you back with some happy and very summery images I hope you'll still want to stay tuned for what will be coming back to The Cuban In My Coffee soon.

Here's what you can expect to see:

-Portfolio Pics coming soon for my most recent project which I've only shown you a few Sneak Peaks of (sorry about that).
-Upcoming Home Office Makeover. It's a fantastic one.
-Upcoming Home Makeover and Project Reveal for a 5,000SF home.
-There will also be some happenings around here. Front Yard and drive way reveal, landscaping the front yard garden/terrace, backyard refurnish and pool coming soon, more art and accessory changes, and the typical usual Whitney changing the house AGAIN when I'm in need of a lil something new.

Summer has been a nice retreat from the stresses of work and the stresses of life, but it's time to get back to business and especially back to blogging. I've had requests and complaints from some of you missing my posting which always makes my day.  I hope you'll come back along with me and continue to enjoy The Cuban In My Coffee;)

Preteen Transitional Room, Project Sneak Peek

Good morning,

As promised from my previous post, I want to share with you the beginnings of an amazing and glamorous little girl's room. For this room, the idea is give her a more grown up space that can easily transition into her upcoming teenage years without being too childish but still keeping it fun.

Here is the design scheme for Daniella's room.

You see in the scheme that these basic elements can transition easily in to different colors and styles.I chose simple and clean pieces for her room mostly in white. The idea here is that it is still fit for a little girl, but as show grows up the simple change of bedding and color can change the feel of the entire space.

Clean White Upholstered Bed

White Laquered desk with lucite handles added for a higher end look.

 

 

 

 White night stands with glass drawers and trellis detail.

Glamerous chandelier to up the "wow" factor.

Here are a couple sneak peeks (taken at night) to give you a vague idea of the progress.

 I just love the moroccan pouf and the glamerous upholstered bed. So pretty, lucky little girl. I still have a gallery wall to create above the bed, and curtains to hang as well as the final staging, so the final images coming soon.

Oh, and just in case you wanted to see the shaping up of the second daughter's room. Remember the room scheme that I posted recently?

Here is a glimpse at her room as it's starting to come together.

Don't you just love that vivid zebra print rug! Amazing! The shelves aren't stages, the mirror isn't painted, and I don't even have a duvet cover on her bed!, but you get the idea.

I swear that one day I will actually bring AND use my nice camera to get you some non embarrassing photos, but in the mean time you get my iPhone pics;)

There is still allot left to do, and stage but these rooms are starting to come together and are looking great. It's always interesting to do 2 daughter's rooms at the same time. I should know, I have 2 girls and since I do this for a living my younger daughter is constantly worried that I will make some other little girl's room better than hers. She will understand one day, Ha!  Things can easily go wrong if one room is even slightly "cooler" than the other. In this case I'm working around what each girl wants as far as color and patter and keeping them as equally cool as possible as to save their father the headache of hearing about it later.

I'll start showing you more of the house this week. It's come a long way baby!

What do you think of the 2 girls rooms so far? Do you prefer one over the other?

A Little Sunshine In This Girl's Room

Good Morning!!

It's been a while since I've posted and I am making a goal to get back to it! Lately it's easier said than done, but I am going to make an effort.

Today I want to share with you the board for one of the little girl's rooms that I'm working on in a current project. This room is for an adorable little girl who has the biggest personality in the world and I wanted her room to be as happy and cheery as she is.

I love designing rooms for kids. It is extremely rewarding because the cute little buggers are always so excited and thankful that you are bringing "cool" to their new little worlds. This little girl is no exception, and puts a smile on my face every time I see her. 

Take a look at the design scheme for Adriana's room.

As you can see this room packs a punch! The main points for this room are a) to maximize the space in her room, b) give it lots of color and character, and c) incorporate zebra print which is her personal favorite print.

To maximize the space I chose a day bed, which leaves the space open. The style of the day bed I'm using has a very modern trellis wood design and it is just amazing. I also kept all the walls white which keep the space feeling very open and clean. Light colors are a nice trick to keeping a space feeling large.

I then added pops of zebra to make this little girl happy. I did that by grounding the space with a large 8' round wool zebra rug that has allot of white in it with an exaggerated zebra print. I also added it through accents such as the sheets and the ends of my custom bolster pillows. The idea was to not go over board, but still bringing in this admittedly wild print (no pun intended).

Lastly, to add the sunshine and life to this room I am using pops of sunny yellow and magenta pink. I also had curtains made with a very vibrant Ikat print which add so much character and also unify the many colors and styles that are coming in. Sometimes you need that major statement to bring your space together and in this case it is this fabric. I also used it to make 2 large bolster pillows for the day bed which I capped of the ends with a zebra accent. Mmmmm.

The end result of this room is anything but boring! Things are starting to come together so I should be able to reveal progress pictures for you soon. I will also share the "grown up" bedroom for the older sister which is simply elegant and beautiful.








What do you think of this little girl's room? Visually it has allot going on, which in kid land spells "F.U.N" The white base throughout the room keeps it more toned down, and allowed me to go a bit crazy with the prints of zebra and ikat. I personally love a colorful space for kids. That's part of the fun in designing them, you don't have to color with in the lines.

Talk to you soon~

Project Sneek Peak, Custom Lighting Design Done Very Right

Recently while shopping for my current project I came across a light, and when I saw this light I had a moment of "ahhhhh" where the clouds parted and the skies became blue with sun rays bursting all over the place. Has this ever happened to you? I call this a "design crush".

It sometimes happens that these "design crushes" real as they may be end up becoming a cross roads of sorts. This is due to the "do I buy the chandelier that is well over $10k or do I install the new stair case????". It all depends on the budget at the end of the day and in this case I had to make a judgement call and go for the stairs. That doesn't mean however that I wanted to rule out my "design crush" all together, but rather where there's a will there's a way. So in true Whitney form I had to figure out how to create an amazing fixture that delivered the "WOW" affect, but also came in a price range that I could justify (i.e. around half the price of my crush).

And so.....I did! Ha! I designed a custom light fixture with 16 blown glass pendants, and a custom 36" canopy for the foyer. I am lucky enough to work with an amazing lighting designer (who I've worked with for years), and the results are absolutely stunning. It exceeded my expectations, though I won't say it was easy. It was in fact the exact opposite and required multiple trips to the designer, careful design and structure, a VERY difficult installation with a 3 story scaffolding, lots of sweat but is also one of my favorite design moments of all time!

Take a look at the light as you walk in the door.

And just in case you got too big for your britches and thought it wasn't worth it, here is the previous light fixture.

Before:

After:

Now, there's still that notably awful arched window at the entrance that needs a complete face lift and so shall it be, but in the mean time this new 16' tall fixture with amber and silver glass pendants is just stunning and completes the look of the new and improved stairs and foyer.

What do you think of the new custom chandelier? You as in LOVE with it as I am??

Project Sneak Peek, The Stairs Are Done!!!

Good morning,

One of the biggest anticipations for my current bachelor project has been updating the stair case to a new and improved and dare I say BAD A$$ glass paneled stair case?! I couldn't be happier with the results. Sometime you have to look at these details when updating a modernizing a space, and if budget allows a change like this will transform the entire space.

Take a sneak peek at the stairs with the newly installed glass panels.

Now take a look at where we started with the stairs in the beginning of the project before the paint and new wood floors came in:

Here are the stairs in progress with the new paint, the new wood floors and also with the interior walls removed.

Finally, here are the new stairs the glass panels:

The stairs are beyond amazing, and when everything is touched up and finished will absolutely complete and tie this space together. I went with a mix of the stainless steel brackets, and mixed that with a dark brown/grew powder coated finish for the rails themselves. This helped keep things modern but still warm and also blended the new stairs with our exposed beams and door frames.

I have a large custom chandelier coming in the end of this week which will be visible upstairs especially with the new glass panels. I just love how the glass just opens up the home even more and keeps things light and crisp.

These stairs went from traditional and dated, to modern and are now a show case for this home. Job well done!!

I wanted to show you one more mini transformation that made a huge impact. The door that you see in the last image went from this.

To This:

This made a huge impact to the space, and was done by simply removing the white panels from the glass and painting the metal frame with a metal paint which was applied with a paint gun. That white door is an eye sore no more;)

I plan to share more with you this week such as the 3 newly completed bathrooms. I also have additional shipments coming in so the fun should begin. Can't wait!

By the way, Happy Monday!!!