Dallas Blog | Material Girls | Dallas Interior Design

This week, I was so honored to be included in iVillage’s article, “What My Mom Taught me: Celebrity Home Designers” in celebration of Mother’s Day.

It got me thinking about how much my mom has influenced my career path and how much she means to me.

My mom has been interested in interior design as long as I can remember. Growing up, things were always changing around our house.  Whether she was re-painting a room or a piece of furniture, putting up wallpaper, or making drapes, she was the woman who did it all (and all by hand).  Most of my friends assumed she was a decorator and did that for a living.  My husband loves to tell the story of how when he first met my parents and came to their house, he sat down on the couch and realized he was sitting on mounds of fabric swatches.  Little did he know, the same thing would continuing happening a few years later at our own house

 {My childhood home, in which my parents still live in today}

I have such fond memories of my mom and decorating.  I think it was at some point during highschool, when I caught the design bug from her.  My bedroom’s color scheme went from pink to purple to blue to turquoise.  The artwork in my bedroom (AKA, the Mark Paul Gosselar poster) was strategically placed at eye level and the Laura Ashley bedding was always fully coordinated to a matching valance.

My mom has always been there for me through every move- dorm, apartment, rental house, office and now, our new house.  These moves always bring a fun new decorating adventure for us.

 {My oh so stylish college apartment}

Most weekends we spend at the consignment stores hunting for treasures for one of our houses and telling eachother “you so need that!” (when we clearly don’t)…like this bar cart I got last weekend for $45!

My phone usually rings within hours of receiving the newest House Beautiful in the mail with my mom asking, “did you see that gorgeous spread?” or “did you read the blog post today on Colour Me Happy or Cote de Texas?”  We pour over magazines and blogs together, analyzing each and every room.

 

 {House Beautiful}

We’ve also recently started going to Roundtop to further feed our obsession with antiques.  We also hit up all the warehouse sales in the design district, go on local home tours, and stalk our favorite streets in Dallas (hello, Tokalon).

 {Some of our china from Roundtop}

We can’t help it- Interior design is just what we do! (and it always has been)  We couldn’t care less about shopping for clothes- in fact, that’s usually considered a nightmare to us.  We will take Riverfront Boulevard over Northpark any day of the week!

So in honor of my mom on this Mother’s Day, I thought I would share with you her thirty year transformation of the house she has lived in since the 80′s (and boy could you tell it was the 80′s when she first moved in!)

Entry in the 80′s-

Although we’re always on the lookout for fun, creative showrooms, it’s sometimes hard to find one whose character truly stand out from the rest. But West Palm Beach, Florida-based resale shop Circa Who has done just that with its wild selection of colors, fun trimmings, and collection of whimsical pieces from artichoke lamps to dolphin candlesticks.

Circa Who manages to fulfill your wildest design fantasy, while not going tacky-overboard, and the store’s owner and buyer Tracy Deramus describes the pieces as “20th Century furnishings meets vintage Palm Beach.” We love the mix of fabrics and colors that the store offers, with more than enough pieces to satisfy even the most avid of bamboo-lovers.

Here are a few of our favorites…

Orange ‘X’ Benches

 

 Pair of Clam Shell Lamps

 

Hollywood Regency Mirror

Cyprus Root Console

Faux Bamboo Chippendale Arm Chairs

Greek Key Headboard

Faux Bamboo Barrel Chairs

Pagoda Mirror

William Haines Cabinet

Artichoke Lamp

We asked store owner Tracy a few questions:

When did Circa Who open, and what inspired you to open your own store?

 The store has been open since 2004. While buying things to put my own house together, I realized there is so much FAB merchandise out there with so much LIFE left. I started buying all the things I loved and hoarding them in my husband’s warehouse and he encouraged me to open up a shop.

What inspires you to find “20th century-meets-West-Palm-Beach” pieces?

  I love the 20th century design, and how it was interpreted through Palm Beach details, especially in the 1970s!

Do you have a favorite room in the house to decorate?

The entrance/ foyer.

Who would you say are your ‘typical’ customers?

DIY decorators.

What is your favorite aspect of owning your won business?

Doing something that I LOVE to do!

Anything else you would like to share with Material Girls readers?

 I always tell my clients that it is the piece I fall in love with, not the color or the fabric. It’s the new life that I leave up to them!

Check out the site for more information on the store and its playful pieces! http://circawho.com/

Our Material Girl dreams are coming true… Schumacher has announced that they are collaborating with THE Mary McDonald to create a fabric collection for 2013!! It is such a shame that we have to wait so long, but we thought it would be fun to predict what her amazing line will look like!

For those who don’t know, Mary McDonald is an acclaimed interior designer based out of L.A. and was recently on Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators. Her signature style is timeless, elegant, and modern all in one! There will definitely be some greek key, bold colors, black & white, luxurious silks and velvets, and funky animal prints in her line (at least we hope so!!)

There’s a little greek key in almost all of her designs. As you all know, we can never have enough greek key! She uses a lot of bolster pillows with greek key tape trim on the ends.

More Greek key pillows!

Gorgeous navy and pink room. Did you spot the Greek key bolster?

Her line is sure to have some bold geometric prints- possibly in black and white? She is the master of black and white color schemes with bright pops of color!

She uses black and white chevron patterns a lot too! See the rug above and the amazing floor below-

This is a room Mary designed on Million Dollar Decorators. I am so obsessed with that floor.

Another great example of Mary’s layered black and white patterns.

She’s not afraid to throw in a little animal print here and there, and we hope she includes some in her line!

She really loves that zebra, and we do too!

Leopard wallpaper, so fab! Just wait until you see the whole room…

Wow, lots of leopard!

She includes stripes in a lot of her designs, so there are sure to be some in her Schumacher line. (And I do believe I see Schumacher wallpaper in the background!) I would just love for her to create a wallpaper line as well.

This room is girly in pink with chinoiserie accents. She frequently travels to Europe and the Far East, so we’re guessing that her line will contain ethnic prints and global influences.

We like to think that we’ve got her all figured out, but Mary McDonald is full of surprises.  All we know is that her line is sure to be ahhh-mazing! I guess we will just have to wait and see in 2013!

This morning, the EJ Interiors team took a little field trip to the Global Views warehouse sale! We got there right at 9 a.m. thinking we would be the only ones there… but the place was already packed! It was crazy and definitely took a lot of work, but we walked away with some AMAZING bargains!

There were rows and rows of tables covered in fabulous accessories…vases, candelabras, mirrors, trays, lamps, fabric, furniture, anything you could imagine… and people were grabbing everything in sight!

These etageres are to die for! I wanted to buy them all.

We started a little pile of our finds (which eventually grew into a HUGE pile), and continued adding as we discovered more!

Look at the assortment of trays we rounded up! We ended up buying two of the quatrefoil ones for ourselves And the cream Barbara Barry tray was a steal! Wouldn’t these look great on a coffee table or ottoman?

Amazing selection of mirrors. We came back with two of these also…

This was a great set but we really wanted a few more to finish it off so…

We decided on this set of 6! Not really sure where they are going yet but somebody needs these!

And finally, here are a few pictures of our THREE dollies full of goodies! Please don’t show my husband these photos…

These lamp shades might be going in the office or be made into a funky light fixture for a client!

These vases were a hit! (Everyone kept trying to grab them!) They are real silver leaf and imported from Italy! Such a good buy.

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time and came home with A LOT of great stuff! Now we just have to find a place to put it all!

The Global Views warehouse is located at 7301 Ambassador Row in Dallas and sale ends tomorrow at noon! Definitely worth a visit!

For the past month, we’ve been hard at work on a vignette for Dwell with Dignity’s new Thrift Studio store which just opened up in the design district here in Dallas.  Five local designers were asked to plan out a room vignette using Dwell’s vintage furniture and accessories from their warehouse, as well as other donations from the design community.  We had so much fun on this project because it was different from any other project we had done before. We really had to stretch our creativity on this one! We had a really short time to complete it in, limited resources, and virtually no budget, but we were definitely up for the challenge!

Taking this lackluster space from this-

{Before}

To this- in just a couple of weeks was a little bit of a stretch for EJ Interiors but somehow we managed to pull it off!

{After- EJ Interiors’ dining room vignette for Dwell with Dignity’s Thrift Studio opening}

Our room centered around bold orange and turquoise. The inspiration? A pair of these adorable chairs that we managed to dig up in Dwell’s warehouse…

The process was so unique that I had to take some photos along the way to document our Dwell journey!

Phase 1- All of the designers meet at Dwell’s warehouse to grab the pieces they want to use for their vignette.  I put everything in my little pile that could be a possibility for the space.  Now the question is- what in the world am I going to do with it all?

Phase 2- There was a lot to do in a little amount of time.  Since most of the things in the warehouse were older items, I knew that re-upholstering and re-painting furniture had to happen..and quick!

I couldn’t believe my luck in finding these four matching chairs in the warehouse…

And  then I was even more shocked to find the perfect turquoise fabrics hidden in a corner…

It was meant to be!

M&M Upholstery donated the upholstery labor and Nicole Horne of Modern Relics donated the painting labor for the chairs…what a fantastic team they made!

Phase 3- Time to get the room painted!  Twenty five Neiman Marcus volunteers came out to help us get our rooms ready and I must say that I couldn’t have done it without them!  They quickly helped my vision come to life and did such a great job painting the walls and trim.

I loved our little team! If any of you are reading this, thank you again so much!

The Thrift Studio starts coming together…

Loved the entrance!

Ok we are making some progress..drapes are almost up!

Phase Four- Completion! Everything is in place for the sneak preview party and so now we just wait for people to shop, shop, shop!

For those of you that weren’t able to make it for the great deals at the preview party last Friday, not to worry because the Thrift Studio pop up shop is open from now until October 29th- Monday through Saturday 10-5:30 pm at 1616 Hi Line Drive in Dallas.

So many great deals to be had and such an amazing way to help out a good cause!

So many volunteers helped make the Dwell with Dignity event such a success.  Thank you again!  Some of the sources below..

{Royal Old Fashioned Tumblers- Wisteria Outlet}

{Mirror- taken off from an old dresser and re purposed for the buffet.  Christian at Think Twice kindly helped us hang the mirror by decorative gold chain}

{Bust- Pettigrew Associates}

{Pedestal- Dwell with Dignity}

{Custom white drapes with turquoise band on leading edge- Stitches by Carmen; wood drapery rods- Williamson Supply}

{Crystal Sconce- Dwell with Dignity}

{Vintage Gucci bag- Dwell with Dignity}

{Painted brackets from Hobby Lobby, vintage New Orleans prints, wall sunbursts, antler horns- EJ Interiors}

{Chandelier- Visual Comfort, Taylors on Ten}

{Wall Color- Benjamin Moore paint}

{Flatware, dishes, wine glasses, decorative bowls- Dwell with Dignity}

{Dining table- Dwell with Dignity- base painted orange}

{Mercury glass vase- EJ Interiors}

{Sticks in vase- found in a pile of bulk trash-no kidding EJ Interiors}

{Chaise lounge- Dwell with Dignity- repainted creamy white}

{Custom 18″ pillow- Trina Turk fabric; chaise upholstery- Childress leopard print fabric- EJ Interiors}

{6×9 Sisal rug- Dwell with Dignity}

Photos by: Fort Worth Real Estate Photography

For some reason I feel like all of my projects lately have had one thing in common… ottomans! Random I know, but it seems like these multi-purpose pieces have solved some big design dilemmas for us at EJ Interiors! Whether we are working on a family room, bedroom, home office, or even an outdoor living space, ottomans have been the perfect solution when we are tight on space or need the room to serve several functions! I searched my go-to sites (Pinterest and Decorpad) for some fabulous examples of how ottomans can transform ANY room.

IN THE MIDDLE OF FOUR CHAIRS-

I must say that my favorite use of the ottoman is a square ottoman set on the diagonal placed between four chairs.  This seating arrangement makes for a very cozy conversation area-

{Traditional Home}

IN PLACE OF A TRADITIONAL COFFEE TABLE-

Sometimes you just want to put your feet up when on the couch watching TV, but this is never as relaxing with a regular coffee table.  With this layout, you don’t have to feel guilty kicking back and relaxing and it’s super comfortable too-

{Elle Decor}

In this situation, I like a tray on the ottoman- one that can hold books, vases, and other random accessories-

{Elle Decor}

BETWEEN TWO CHAIRS-

J Lo chose to put a coordinating ottoman between her two two matching chairs.  This ottoman can serve a few different purposes…it can be pulled up in front of one of the chairs as a foot rest, could be an extra seat, or if it had a tray, could pose as an accent table to hold drinks.

{Veranda}

This ottoman poses as a foot rest and/or coffee table between these two chairs in this gorgeous gray library-

UNDER A CONSOLE TABLE-

You never know when you are going to need extra seating at a party, so the placement of this ottoman is a great solution for when you have to accommodate larger groups. Not to mention, this ottoman just looks good as an accent under the console table and softens the lines of it.

IN FRONT OF A CHAIR-

This is the most obvious place for an ottoman, in front of a chair..however, where the chair and ottoman are, couldn’t be more unexpected- in a master bath!

AS EXTRA SEATING IN LIVING ROOM-

These round and oval ottomans are pretty fab and are a great way to add extra seating to your living room. Usually placed right in front of a coffee table, these ottomans provide a place for guests to perch and enjoy their cocktails!

Jamie knew what he was doing when he added this huge round hot pink ottoman-

{Jamie Drake}

And here he did it again!

{Jamie Drake}

AS A BED BENCH-

Ottomans in the bedroom are perfect for breakfast in bed! (or more realistically, a good spot to sit and put on your shoes!)

{House Beautiful}

{Tobi Fairley}

OUTDOOR OTTOMANS-

Ottomans in an outdoor living area add seating without blocking the beautiful view OR they could serve as footstools for days when you just want to lounge!

{Architectural Digest}

{Windsor Smith}

AS STORAGE-

How amazing is the Rousseau storage ottoman from Lilly Pulitzer?? 16 storage pockets inside for shoes!! This is seriously every girl’s dream…

IN A CLOSET-

Well actually, maybe THIS is every girl’s dream. Great use of it, wouldn’t you agree?!

And another…just so I can live vicariously through these women with their big closets!

So I guess the question is- is there anything you can’t do with an ottoman?!!

I was so excited when I received this email from Wisteria! It is finally time for their Warehouse Sale this Thursday, Sept. 22nd through Saturday Sept. 24th! (I will be there tomorrow with bells on!)

Their warehouse is located just outside of Dallas in Farmers Branch (see map HERE). I highly recommend heading out there sometime this weekend for some great deals on fab furniture, home accessories, jewelry and more!

Just wanted to remind all of you that we have reached the half-way mark in the Rugs USA Giveaway! There are 2 weeks left to enter (HERE), and everyone should sign up for a chance to win this amazing area rug from Rugs USA!

Make sure your friends and family enter before time runs out! We will announce the lucky winner on Tuesday, August 2nd here on Material Girls. Good luck to you all!

This past weekend, one of my absolute favorite furniture consignment shops, Again & Again, opened a new, improved, and HUGE location near the Dallas design district.  Leslie Pritchard continues to expand her stores around the Dallas area, and I could not be happier that she is doing so!  This lady is building a vintage furniture empire here…

Honestly, I wanted to take home everything with me, but didn’t think my fiancee would appreciate that so instead I snapped a few photos to share with you. Take a look at some of these amazing pieces!

I was really digging this tufted leather chair-very unique!

Leslie has a similar pair of chairs in her own home- sadly, these ones below are sold!

I stumbled upon these amazing acrylic bar stools that would look perfect with a reupholstered seat-

And speaking of acrylic, I found a coffee table that I almost died over (sadly it’s another one of those pieces that was already spoken for).  The person who has this on hold, is one lucky little shopper-

You can never go wrong with a chrome shelf unit-

I fell in love with this bold pink lacquered buffet.  Now whose home can I squeeze this gem in?

If you are worried your dining room doesn’t have enough personality, I have the table for you-

Brass coffee table- yes please!

A pair of sculptural table lamps-

And finally, an interesting acrylic pedestal and two funky bamboo stools-

I could go on and on about the rest of the treasures I found but I don’t want to spoil it for you! There is so much to see at their new location- plan to stay at least an hour like I did

On another note, if you find a piece you fall in love with but it is not quite the color or fabric you want, Again & Again will refinish, reupholster, and even rebuild the piece to create exactly what you are looking for.  They just finished refinishing a console for one of my clients as well as building new legs for another client’s mirrored console.

Aside from refinishing, they also build custom furniture. The possibilities are endless!

141 Howell Street

Dallas, TX 75207

I get a certain catalog on a regular basis in the mail (never signed up for it, I just somehow randomly get it- kind of like my catalog relationship with The Company Store, James Avery, etc…thirty catalogs later you are still trying to remember when you signed up?)  Anywho… I have never actually opened this catalog before but for some odd reason, I got the inkling today and ended up coming across some pretty great affordable finds…

Chippendale-style chair-

Moroccan inspired buffet-

Set of gold convex mirrors-

Tufted upholstered headboard-

Colorful outdoor bench perfect for summer-

Glossy white ceramic lamp-

Stylish mercury glass candleholders-

And you’ll never guess where these pieces came from either! Click HERE to find out how to get the look for less through this catalog/e-commerce site!