As we all know it is not easy to start Monday in a cheerful mood. My strategy is to go in to dig in as much beautiful interiors as I can. And there is one home that is truly light up my mood—Elle Decor’s International Design Editor Cynthia Frank’s Manhattan Home—its truly Parisian get-away in New York—elegant,. feminine and super cozy. In the sea of middle-century modern , coastal and farm-house styles in Los Angeles, I immediately become obsessed with this sophisticated style. Let’s take a look together:
The Prussia Blue that set the elegant Parisian tone of the whole house:
The neutral white wall color provide such a nice backdrop for the beautiful velvet furniture while Leopard rug is chic and modern.
2. A super glamorous dining room we will die for:
A Sneak Peek of the elegant dining room–love the gilded trims on the door, the classical chandelier, the white table-cloth, the candles, and of course the hot pink fresh flowers as the center-piece.Love how she paired the rich jewel-tone dinner plates with clear crystals—very classic.
3. A feminie bedroom:
Love the soothing color palette in this bedroom and the floral pattern on those French Louis XVI chairs.
We were recently invited to a private party to take a home tour at one of Paul McClean’s latest contemporary projects at Laguna Beach. It was a beautiful sunny day in the valley and by the beach, there was a little bit marine layers, wrapping the whole beach town in a romantic sheer. And you can see in the following video, the neighborhood is kind of lay-back cottage beach house style which really makes Paul McClean designed home stand out. Ireland-born architect Paul McClean has become somewhat synonymous with the high-end housing boom in Los Angeles. He designed homes for celebrities and high-net-worth buyers that include Calvin Klein, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and the Winklevoss twins — famous for suing Mark Zuckerberg. He likes to play light, air and water for his projects to create very Zen-like atmosphere.
Here are some high-lights that we really like in this contemporary house at Laguna Beach.
Dance in the Marine Layer
The video above is showing the lovely neighborhood.
And here is the entrance–very Zen-like.
Here are some high-lights that we really like this contemporary house a lot.
the Sculpture by the Entrance
The Stunning Waterdrop-like Crystal Chandelier by the Entrance and Floating right on top of the Water.
Love this centerpiece on the retangular kitchen island–subtle and elegant
Its looks like that we have been busy for photo shooting recent. Some are for the newly finished projects and some are for seasonal theme-decor ideas. Today, we were shooting for our fall catalogues. Please have a sneak peek.
The whole design inspiration is really from this cute pendant. We love the color palette and texture of this pom pom mini-chanderlier. And of course we know that fall is coming although we are still embracing 90 degree hot weather here in Los Angeles. So far, our mood is adding some saturated jewel tone while still keeping the overall color palette cool with highlights of different shades of blue and crisp white. Here are some product links you may find them help for your projects:
I get you. It is going to be a really big mess if you decide to demolish the original tile flooring. And you might do some research work and find out that it is possible to install tile over tile. Well, based on the guideline of ANSI A108 — the Installation Standard Specification for Ceramic Tile, the general requirements for tile installations, A108.02 4.1.1 states:
“All surfaces shall be structurally sound, clean, dry and free of oily or waxy films and all foreign matter. Concrete surfaces shall be free of form oil, curing compound laitance, and cracks.”
That said, there are still conditions that you are able install tile over tile, but here are 5 questions you need to answer before you take this strategy:
Did the old installation fail?
If so, what was the cause of failure?
Was it an installation or structural problem?
If it was properly installed, is the membrane still well adhered and able to perform its job to support the new installation?
When we just came back KBIS a week ago, we were really blown away by some of the innovations in the show. After all, the kitchen is the fastest growing sections among the whole home improvement industry. We always see some of the coolest things in kitchen from pro cooking appliances, range hoods, to refrigerators, faucets, countertop, smart technologies, lightings, etc… Although I am still working on the blog of KBIS 2019 (hope soon I can publish it), we were invited to a local trade kitchen showroom industry event several days ago, and actually were able to see some newer trends and technologies in the showroom that resonate what we saw from KBIS2019. This kitchen showroom is not that big but quite modern, neat and sleek even with a luxury walk-in closet and some cool technologies. Ladies, who doesn’t love a stylish, open and airy walk-in closet with a lot of bells and whistles?!!! And last but not the least, we had professional chefs working in the kitchen and making some yummy gourmet foods. Here are some of our wonderful moments from this beautiful night!
Fresh flowers always make guests feel so welcoming! I just love these saturated colors! They create a cheerful mood and beautiful moments. It is always such a good idea to have some fresh plants and flowers in kitchens. They make everyone happy and enhance the appetites!Hospitality! A stylish cheese platter is always a great idea to host a party in kitchens.What an eye-candy!Floral art
Here comes our pro chef! One of the things when we cook at home is that we can always use fresh veggies and other ingredients…
Yummy and beautiful!The kitchen is quite modern and sleek. Yet I like how the showroom styled the food with wood trays –very organic, warm and welcoming ..
Pretty and organic!
Here are some cool things in the kitchen area:
Touch-to-open sliding cabinet door! How cool it is! specially when you have a tight space, this type of doors can be a great idea!Miele Coffee machine—How neat it is! The coffee station incorporating a compact coffee machine in the kitchen is quite trendy in 2019. It’s convenient and very handy. Who wouldn’t love the coffee aroma in the earlier morning in our own kitchens?Here is my espresso just made from Miele coffee machine!
Time for some desserts
Yummy and pretty!
Well, after being through all of those above kitchen experiences, I think everyone just cannot wait to create a pretty live-in kitchen for ourselves or host a family/friends get-tother event soon in the already-pretty kitchens. After all, it is a life style!
Ok, let’s continue our beautiful evening by walking to the rear of the showroom. Wow, here is the large walk-in closet:
Love the central island and above chandelier and of course the lovely tufted leather bench.What a nice touch to be able to see your jewelries on the top island surface.Here is the overview walk-throughObviously, I don’t have any problem to just chill out here for the whole day!
Often time, when we try to furnish the room, we just cannot find that right piece to fit the space, match the current interiors, add piece of personality and have all of the bells and whistles clients want. This, then, will be the perfect moment to customize whatever the pieces we need. Sometimes, the process can be really tedious since we have to make prototypes and get approvals from the clients. And of course, the clients usually have their budgets. For the following project we did, the client has dark brown wood cabinets in her kitchen—kind of cookie-cutter style. . We had a very hard time to find the right bar chairs for the island. She wants something light, elegant yet very cool. So we decided to customize the chairs for her. We have two purposes on our minds before we started the jobs: 1) Light up the dark brown kitchen cabinets 2) Add a touch feminity. We tackle the issues by focusing on creating the shape of bar chairs and searching the right fabric. we chose sky-blue performance velvet for the chair fronts and rose embriodery silk for the back. The clients really like the end result.
We are creating the bar chair prototype. The shape of the bar chair is cute and playful, which ease off the seriousness of the dark brown wood cabinets create in the kitchen. The chair can be rotated and the large seat area offer extra comfy.Whimsical rose emboidery blue silk adds a touch of elegance to the dark kitchen.The end result that the client falls in love with. Yes, we do the floral arrangement too.
There are 5 take-aways from tones of the projects we did to streamline the whole furniture customization process:
Always keep eye on vendors’ offers and options to simplify the custom-made work.
Understand exactly what clients want and their top priorities.
Develop good relationship with local workrooms and stay with ones who are able to understand and express your ideas better.
The finishes and fabric of custom-made pieces are always very important. They will either make or break the jobs. So the key thing is always to look for and learn the new fabric and finishes out there.
Be inspired all the time. the inspired mind can create magical.
