Dallas Blog | Material Girls | Dallas Interior Design

Last week I ventured out to my client Stacey’s house for the unveiling of the Lana Gomez artwork that we had been waiting on to arrive!  It was an incredibly exciting reveal because this was the piece that was going to pull the whole room together.

To give you a little background on Lana…she is an amazing abstract expressionist artist based out of West Hollywood, who has been popping up everywhere lately. From House Beautiful to C Magazine, this gal’s work is hot hot hot!  Lana uses acrylics and a mixture of different materials to create one-of-a-kind masterpieces for anyone who likes color and boldness.

How cute is she?

This was the piece that arrived at Stacey’s last week and the photo really doesn’t even do it justice..it is stunning (with a capital S) in person!!

This piece literally has every single color in the spectrum…I think it will be something that can move with Stacey from house to house for a long time to come.

 

 

I love how all of the colors blend into eachother-

 

 

Does she look familiar to you yet? It might be because you saw her work in the room Jamie Drake recently designed-

 

 

 

Or in Kelly Wearstler’s office-

Lana even became the resident painter at Wearstler’s Design Studio. This fantastic opportunity opened the door for Lana to continue to create art and she eventually opened her own fabulous gallery in California.

Here are some other amazing Lana art installs-

Lana’s funky use of bold colors, shapes, and textures makes her work unique and stunning. I really appreciate young artists and their drive to be different. Thanks Lana Gomez for sharing your gorgeous work with us! I encourage you to uncover more of Lana’s eye popping art on her website or facebook .

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-

We’ve always been charmed by the beautiful, hand-painted Chinoiserie, Japanese, and Korean wallpaper created by de Gournay but, as impressive as these designs are, don’t think of this NYC company as a one trick pony.

In addition to admiring their knobbly slub silk, hand woven silk damask, Indian tea paper, and striking metallic wallpapers, we’ve recently been intrigued by de Gournay’s extensive fabric collection.

The talent behind these romantic designs can paint any of their looks onto fabrics of different qualities and weights. Upholstery, bedspreads, curtains, blinds- whatever your need- the designers at de Gournay will help you complete your room in the best possible taste. Even porcelain can be used as a canvas to create the harmonious interior of your dreams!

Take a look at just a sample of their hand-painted work!

For those of you in NYC, look out for the re-opening of their showroom on 59^th and 2^nd avenue in the design district before the summer months!

For the past two years I’ve been living in a 1,000 square foot house in East Dallas with no disposal, a dishwasher that you have to hook up manually to the faucet, one bathroom and a vintage O’Keefe and Merit oven (which is adorable until you want to make cookies and have to buy a special tiny cookie sheet for the oven and THEN have to light a match to even start the baking process).  At times, I forget that I’m living in the 21st century

Don’t get me wrong, we love our quirky little 1930′s house.  It has lots of charm (original doorknobs, warm wood floors, scalloped built-ins, and french doors.) It’s also fun living near White Rock lake, Mockingbird Station, Greenville and Lakewood.

This house has been a great first house for my husband and I..but let’s be honest…one bathroom, closets that only fit half a season’s worth of clothes, and a living room that doesn’t fit anything larger than an apartment sized sofa, are things that are wearing on us just a tad.

{an example of our oven}

With our lease expiration in May fast approaching, the clock has started to tick on finding a larger place.  We’re toying with the idea of buying something and I have to admit that I’ve been doing what must be typical of every interior designer (right???)- something I like to call obsessing.  I check the MLS for new listings every single day trying to find the “perfect” house in our price range. My realtor has dubbed me the “picky” client as I always seem to point out what is wrong with every single house (“oh I need a separate formal living and separate formal dining”, “is that carpet in the kitchen?”, “does this backsplash give you the heebie jeebies?”, “does the orange undertone in these wood floors bother anyone else here?”, “Zoey can’t live in a house with a detached backyard”)

Okay, okay she’s right- maybe I am picky…but I think the main problem is that I improve spaces for a living and so I am out there every single day seeing the latest and greatest so when I see the not so great, I immediately have to comment on it. Of course no house will be perfect and really, what fun would it be if it was? My husband has been dying for us to get a fixer-upper so we can work on it together these next few years.

Until then, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming of the perfect house, is there?

There are so many images on MLS that make up “my dream house” but since that 12 million dollar house on Strait Lane is a little bit of a reach for me , I thought I’d compile my favorite images of realistic houses that we’ve actually been looking at into a virtual “dream home” for ya’ll to see- enjoy!

Hollywood Heights, Santa Monica, M Streets or Lakewood? I’d be overjoyed to live in any of these East Dallas neighborhoods. You don’t get a lot of space for your money, but because I die over those Tudor exteriors, I’d gladly give up square footage for curbside appeal with one of these cottage cuties-

An updated kitchen can be hard to come by for the right price in this neighborhood, but I managed to find a few white kitchens that I’d be happy to bake my cookies in (and I look forward to joining the rest of the world with a modern oven and dishwasher- woo hoo!)

I love a formal living room.  I know it’s not really practical this day and age, but I think I’ll always want to have one.  It’s the one room where you don’t have to feel guilty about purchasing unique vintage chairs that are on the smaller side, delicate mirrored coffee tables and clean lined, dainty tight back skirted sofas. This room can be all about PRETTY.  If your husband is anything like mine, he doesn’t care what goes in this room, as long as he has a “man cave” or a comfortable den, so this room truly becomes whatever you want it to be- bliss!

Of course, a family room is important too, but unfortunately most of these smaller houses in East Dallas only have one living area, so in this case, I’m loving how these homeowners mixed the formal with the informal to satisfy both parties in the family.

Arched doorways, painted wood fireplaces, and crown moulding give these houses architectural interest and extra detail.

My husband came across this listing the other day and said that he wants this exact room as his “man cave”- I can deal with that!

In general, I love me some dark wood floors, white trim and gray (or off white) walls!

I’m a nut for a clean and updated looking bathroom.  You can see that this homeowner was on top of the ball when he chose to use white marble in this guest bath.  I always say that every space needs a touch of black- he must have thought so too!

White subway tile is a very affordable way to give a bathroom an instant makeover.  Normally you see white cabinets with white subway, but I like how this homeowner went against the norm and stained his cabinets a deep brown. It warms up the small space nicely-

This room was done by the homeowner, who is an interior designer (can’t you tell)?  Most bedrooms I stumble across on the MLS in our price range aren’t this put together.  Notice the custom cut sisal around the perimeter of the room, custom window treatments and upholstered headboard. You can tell that this homeowner is with it.  Perhaps if we buy this one, he’d consider throwing in the sunburst mirror for free?

And I almost forgot about storage!  Since our house is bursting at the seams currently because of no storage space, I’d add some extra built-ins to our make believe house like the below-

Since this is a dream, I suppose I’ll add on this indoor side porch too.  It makes such a cute sitting area-

Of course, the backyard is very important too.  Even though our house is tiny, we have a great backyard with a deck (it’s probably larger than our house) so I know that is one of the things that we will miss. Here are some other views from the back porch of my pretend East Dallas home, that I wouldn’t mind waking up to every day-

And while we are at it, let’s throw in a guest-house for EJ Interiors to office out of-

Well I suppose it’s time for me to wake up from my house dream and get back to reality. Until next time!

Every designer in Dallas has their go-to vintage stores that they frequent for the best deals and hidden treasures. EJ Interiors would like to share one of our personal favorites for finding the best in vintage furniture and accessories – Antiques Moderne! (We are not alone, this is even Barbara Bush’s favorite spot for vintage furniture shopping!) They are a one-stop shop – you can pick your piece and they will refinish, restore, or reupholster for you as well.

John Bacile is the owner of this 20,000 square foot space that is packed full of furniture, art, lighting, and accessories. He has a workshop in the back where they are busy restoring, upholstering and lacquering unique pieces for their wide range of clients. John finds some of the most amazing pieces that you just can’t find anywhere else, and he’s always got the history behind each piece! This guy really knows his furniture.

Take a look at some of the furniture pieces our clients have purchased and the amazing job that Antiques Moderne has done refinishing them -

Wing Chair AFTER!:

We refinished the wood in a glossy white and reupholstered it in a fun gray and white fabric with shiny silver nail heads. Didn’t their team do a great job? Our client just loves it, and we do too!

This credenza stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it. I completely fell in love, and our client did too!

This is it BEFORE:

And here is the AFTER!:

We had John and his team lacquer this piece in a gray-blue color to coordinate with a fabric in the room. It looks absolutely fabulous now!

For the same client, we purchased two wing back chairs that were in need of a little T.L.C.

Here is the BEFORE:

And AFTER!:

We had Antiques Moderne reupholster the pair in a vibrant orange velvet to pop in the navy room. They turned out amazing!

If you live in, or ever visit, Dallas you must stop by Antiques Moderne to see their huge inventory of great vintage furniture. You’re sure to fall in love with something!

Their address is 1208 N. Riverfront Blvd. Tell John we sent you!

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!

We are so excited to announce that the winner of the Peacock Alley Soprano sheets giveaway is Ashley from Midland, Texas! Congratulations!

She is a girl after our own hearts…she graduated from OU with a degree in Interior Design! She is also a new mom of a two week old baby girl, so these luxurious sheets will provide a great getaway to sneak in some Z’s!

Ashley was also kind enough to provide us with some info on her favorite design material: fabric! This girl really knew what she was talking about!

“I love fabric because you can really make a space special with it. It’s easy to toss in a few new pillows or a throw on your couch, or change out your curtains with the season to make your space seem fresh. I love mixing graphic prints with stripes and solids with interesting textures.” – We couldn’t agree more!

She also told us that her major inspiration when it comes to fabric is Sarah Richardson. “I love that she doesn’t just use bolts of fabric in obvious ways, but can sew interesting tea towels into accent pillows or frame an interesting print fabric as artwork.” We love her work too!

Thanks so much for sharing Ashley, and congratulations again! We hope these sheets provide you with some much needed R&R! Also, thank you to all of the MG readers who participated.  Be on the lookout for the next MG giveaway coming soon!

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?!!

As I’m perusing the internet for design inspiration, I came across this beauty from the Elle Decor Showhouse 2010 by Jay Jeffers design.  It’s hard to put into words how obsessed I am with the colors in this room.  From the taupe walls down to the pink, yellow, and turquoise artwork, I am totally smitten.  I’ve seen this photo before, but keep stumbling upon it by chance and have decided that the style and colors of this room are exactly what I want to incorporate into my work-in-progress living room! As they say, when you know, you know.  What great inspiration!  Thank you Elle Decor…

Gets put on the blog!

I was in Vegas this week for the Coverings Tradeshow Media Tour and had fun learning all about the latest and greatest in tile and stone (and meeting some really cool bloggers and editors, to boot!)

The show was held at The Sands Convention Center at The Venetian and consisted of 46,456 square feet of tradeshow! Now that’s alot.  There was so much to see in so little time, so I thought I’d highlight my top five parts of the Coverings’ experience-

#1- TREND UPDATE- On Tuesday, at the Tile of Spain Press Conference, Patti Fasan gave a very informative talk on the 2011 trends for tile and stone.   Here are some of the trends that she touched on-

• Camel- “the new neutral”.  When it’s mixed with black, it’s a lot less stark than black and white together
• Blues- from dark indigos to light shades (in a vintage look)
• Mirror like reflections- opalescence or a clear/mirrored surface, and metallic tints/sparkle
• Textured tile surfaces- folded, twisted, pulled, stretched (manipulated flat planes to create interest)
• Ceramic tile in different shapes
• Rich, tarnished gold mixed with brown is the new metallic (she pointed out that it “reeks of luxury”). She also said that copper is a big one (in stones, wood, and textiles)
• Purple- influenced by browns, grays (and even standing on its own)
• Faded, weathered sepia hues with vintage inspired motifs
• Browns- less stark than black, but a warmer, softer palette than grays
• Tile that looks like menswear fabrics (herringbone, linen, etc)
• Thick tiles inset into the face of cabinets to match the wall tile and medicine cabinet tile
• Lack of red (she said that red is receding this year and is used mainly as a temporary accent)
• Digital printing on tile
• Pastels- such as ice colors and champagne (hues with just hints of color)

#2- TILE OF ITALY- On Tuesday, we also visited the booths at the show encompassing the “Tile of Italy”.  First off, let me just say that the Italian tile that I witnessed was absolutely GORGEOUS (almost as much as the Italian men that were stationed at each booth  Talk about well dressed! Some of my favorite booths that we visited-

SICIS- there are no words to describe SICIS.  It was my favorite booth at the show and I knew that MG readers would really appreciate it, so I made sure to snap lots of pics.  SICIS is known as an “art mosaic factory”. I’m sure you’ve seen their ads in magazines, before, displaying their luxury mosaics.

On the Italy tour, we also saw-

Tile made from recycled televisions at REFIN-

Incredibly thin porcelain tile at LEA (their Waves collection)-

Incredibly large tile (48″x48″) at FLORIM group in different neutrals.  This series, dubbed Nera, also comes in trapezoid sizes.  FLORIM also had lots of glass tile in neutral colors, that were nice and versatile.

Funky wild tile from Mosaico (a relatively new company- only three years old).  The new tile from their Area 25 Collection is composed of 95% recycled glass.  Their Dialoghi collection gives you the opportunity to create your own custom design.

We also saw tile from Viva and Emil that were made to look like wallpaper-

#3- TILE OF SPAIN- Tuesday morning, we visited the booths of Spain.  Spain is really on top of their game here.  They had fabulous booths with really informative presentations (and not to mention tapas AND sangria!)

Peronda showed us how they used inkjet technology to produce “Graffiti-like” tile-

Grespania- had lots of options for imitations of natural stone (shown here is an imitation of Carrara marble produced through ink jet technology)

Their Palace Collection of porcelain tile was also really interesting-

The Onix booth had their 98% recycled-content glass mosaic tile on display.  These tiles are great for pools and spas.  Their tiles can even be done in gold leaf for a high-end application)  They can also produce custom designs. I learned that they were one of the first companies to make atypical shaped mosaics, such as ovals.

#4- NORTH AMERICAN TILE- Now of course, I can’t forget the American tile tour on the top five!

Crossville had a very colorful booth which displayed their latest “Color by Numbers” collection.  This series coordinates  their color block porcelain floor tile with Benjamin Moore paint.

I enjoyed “learning about”/devouring their color coordinated M&M’s too-

Art Tile Village- we learned here how artistic tile in general, is a North American phenomenon.

We came across a lot of “tile that didn”t look like tile”….(made to look more like wood and stone)

{Wood done in ceramic at Florida Tile}

{Iris, one of the leaders in digital printing technology- which means that they take designs and make the tile look like real stone}

#5- OUT and ABOUT- Aside from the scheduled tours, I did venture out a bit to see what the rest of the show had to offer.

I had an appointment to meet with the folks over at Bondera and had fun playing around with their pressure sensitive adhesive-tile rolls.  This adhesive can be used on a countertop or backsplash and makes installing tile a breeze!  What a great and easy DIY project.  The process takes a lot of mess away from typical tile installation…literally just peel and stick!  *Warning- only 36″ tile or below, can be used!*

Since Material Girls are such nuts for metallics, I had to snap a photo of this wall tile from Villeroy and Boch-

More fun accent tiles-

Thank you Coverings for such a great experience!