Decorating J-O-B

Last week I had the awesome opportunity to help a couple who are professors at my husband's school decorate their home!

They heard I studied interior decorating and asked me to come over and give them a few tips and I was more than willing to help.

The couple recently decided to move to Grenada long-term and shipped some of their most precious belongings to remind them of their time spent in Africa, but were clueless as to how to use them.

They faced similar issues as me with living in a rental home made of concrete.  Drilling holes and painting weren't an option and on top of that the home came pre-furnished and buying anything new was out of the question.

I went over to their house for about an hour, asked a few questions, snapped a few pictures, and came home to prepare an action plan.

I knew the wife loved their African tribal print fabrics, the husband really liked colorful, modern designs over the natural African look, and they were in serious need of some storage (without buying anything new).

Also, the main room of the house serves as living room, dining room, kitchen, office, and guest room... all in one large rectangular space. 

I drew up some floor plans, created a few 3-D images of what I wanted their room to look like, and gathered some inspiration images.

They were so easily impressed by my ideas it was amazing!  If I do go into this as a career someday remind me to work with the over 50 crowd ;)

Ok so enough chatter, here are the pictures!

the layout of the room. 
The only change I made was to move the office area and to create a new reading/guest sleeping area.

This 3-D rendering was created using mydeco.com to give the client a visual of the reading area because they were having trouble picturing it.
It didn't turn out exactly like this, but they got the idea.

This is what we started with.

As I said they had a lot of fabrics from African that they wanted to use.  Since a framer is out of the question, I taped the fabric to pieces of cardboard.  Taping it prevents the fabric from being damaged and the cardboard allows it to be hung on the wall easily.

Another little trick I came up with was to use a pashmina scarf to create a pillow case.  The home came with a pair of green plaid pillows that did not match anything, but the client had several scarves and wraps.  I wrapped the pillow in the scarf and tied it decoratively.

I didn't end up using this pillow (way too many prints going on) but I really like how it turned out and I think I'll be using this trick in the future!

Ok and here are the before and afters!

I moved the office area across the room and used this corner, which was a much larger space, as a reading area and to serve as a sleeping area for guests.  It is a 1 bedroom apartment and before they just had a twin sized bed behind their sofa in the living room.  This gives the bed and space purpose and provided lots of wall space to use some of their tribal print fabrics.

The zebra, giraffe, and other piece are all 3 fabrics wrapped around cardboard as well.

The larger prints were too large and heavy to wrap on cardboard and so it is just draped behind the bed.

I went outside and cut some bamboo shoots to put in the vase as a final touch.  I didn't have time to arrange the bookcase, which will forever irk me.  One of my favorite things to do is arrange books and shelves, but we were on a limited time frame - only a few hours!

The other side of the room, the new office area created in the corner.

Didn't get a great picture and we had to literally pick up the desk as is and move it.  The man had to work!

But I was able to hang a few bright, modern photography prints in his area to make him happy about all the African tribal work going on :)

 

Mini-makeover. 
I went out on their porch and brought in some of their sea-finds - shells, rocks, and driftwood to add some decoration to their entertainment center.  I also grouped a few of their family photos in a more prominent location so they can enjoy their family from the Caribbean. 

Another issue to address was the storage dilemma.  They are a very active couple with loads of equipment - tennis rackets, kayak oars, snorkeling stuff, life jackets, coolers, beach chairs, etc.  But they had no where to put it.  I snuck a few things in behind the entertainment center and under the daybed, but there was still more!  I decided to put up a fold up table they had and covered it with a cloth and hid lots of junk underneath ;)  The last remaining cloth was quite busy, so many animals!  So I found a hammock that they had and never used and draped it over to sort of tone down the print and add a little whimsy to the table.

That vase is just waiting for some  flowers or branches to be put it in too.

This has been a Grenada Re-Style.

Total cost? $0

What do you think?

Oh wait!  the best part!

THIS IS THE VIEW FROM THE HOUSE.  SITTING ON THOSE SOFAS YOU CAN SEE THIS!