Behind the Scenes at EH Design: Episode 2

Hey folks… it’s Brady… Remember me?

Well, Im back and its time for another episode of what’s been happening around the office here at EH Design. To say we have been busy is an absolute understatement. As a viewer and a reader you may think that what you see on the blog constitutes the majority of what we do. But let me tell you life would be all peaches and cream if we could just kick off our heels all day (or in my case – gladiator sandals – yes i hate myself for just saying that) and just blog in the perfectly sun filled studio of ours while sipping on cocktails and making sure that our bangs didn’t fall out of place while we typed our bony little fingers away!

But damn folks — we got sh*t to do! We’ve had quite a busy few weeks here at EH Design. Photoshoots for Redbook and Matchbook magazine, major house demo and renovations for Emily’s house tour with Domino magazine (coming real soon), pulling together designs and shopping for furniture for Ban.do’s new office, curating some fun new post and series ideas for the blog, tackling a few DIY’s, raiding the rose bowl flea market for everything it was worth, and answering about 1.76485 billion emails.

But, amongst all the work how can you complain when you get to hang out with these two chicks at the flea market on Sunday Morning? Anybody who is this happy at 5:30am has to be worth spending a half a day with right?!

The second sunday of every month has a very special place in our hearts here at EH design, right next to Mother Theresa or the day that we all watched Charlie try solid food for the first time (which was a fail). That reoccurring date tugs on heartstrings for one reason and one reason only — ROSEBOWL FLEA MARKET. This is the mother of all flea markets and she never ceases to disappoint. We always seem to walk to our car covered in sweat, delirious from the heat, exhausted from bargaining, but with bags and bags of perfect little treasures in tow.

We often wonder why in the hell we wake up at 5:00am to get our fat-*sses to that stadium of goodness before even the sun has made his morning appearance but as soon as we walk in and see what the good lord of vintage furniture, antiques, accessories and art has put in front of us we soon realize that our cups runneth over! If there was a way to bottle up the excitement we have as we walk through those entrance gates and sell it to the public it would sell out faster than Justin Beibers concert tours did 3 years ago before he decided to stop being the cute and lovable tween we all wanted to tack up to our bedroom walls. (my poster has relocated to the closet for now – as I’m still crossing my fingers that he pulls a Lilo and turns his life around)! Back to the important point though. We love the flea market here at EH Design. Its one of those things that makes our little world go around and this last week we loved taking along Jen Gotch to grab some stuff for the Ban.do offices we are working on!

Even Emily needs a break to sit down for half a second and stuff her face!

This brings me to my next point – and a new sub-series I am working entitled “the many faces of emily” Please take in all of its goodness below:

 We’ve got the

– “are you seriously taking a picture of me”

– “bubbly-fun”

– “my child loves me and I love him

– “300 bucks for a nude sketch isn’t too bad”

– “its not mahjong — its kitchen tiles”

– “don’t bother me I’m eating”

Now that she will hate me for the rest of eternities lets get back to the dirty BTS info we are all biting our fingernails over…

Lets start with some exciting news!!! We’ve got a fun new room makeover in the works!! Stay tuned for some wicked good before and afters y’all.

Note to EVERYONE: when doing a room makeover make sure that you set up a perfectly curated and artistic shot of all of your sample paint color pots that looks like it was just casually thrown together so that you can take a picture and look like your just a natural artist without trying too hard. Your friends that love you will love you even more and your enemies will soon turn over a new leaf and come crawling back into your arms. Oh, and make sure that you don’t step on the cardboard backdrop with your ugly nasty hobbit man feet like I did, because now this shot is a total failure – just like me. I will now go live in the forest alone, remembering the time that I ruined that one picture that meant everything.

I can hear the picture below whispering Amy Adams words from “American Hustle” to me over and over and over  — “You are NOTHING to me until you are EVERYTHING to me”

Sorry World.

To take our minds off of my depressing state and lackluster photo skills lets look at some equally lackluster before photos, and this time try and focus on the positive:

This room has the natural beauty of Kim Kardashian — after she has been airbrushed, the bones of Angelia Jolie’s face — after she has skipped a few meals, and the charm of Jennifer Lawrence — after she fell down the stairs at the academy awards. In other words we couldn’t have asked for a better blank canvas to work with! We are very excited about it and as you can see Emily is taking this whole makeover thing VERY seriously….

On to our next item on the agenda:

You know how you see those beautifully curated images on the internet that just seem like they either jumped right out of a fantasy land or are directly taken from the most perfectly perfect person in the world that has nothing to do but prop their house for the next shot to be taken.

Well folks, sorry to kill your dream but this is what I like to call – “What You See vs. What We See”

Exibit A: no real explanation needed other than the fact that the picture conveys to the audience a perfectly lit office space that is ready to pull you in for a hard days work.

Exhibit B:

-torn apart living room

-props and equipment everywhere

-deflated party balloon

-fabric scraps

– one very talented photographer

Sometimes it takes a village to just get one shot but as I said last episode (which Emily banned me from ever saying again on her blog), the joy is in the journey. It is so much fun to come into Emily’s house on a weekday to rip apart her living room, try and shove a desk through a doorway that it won’t fit through because the light is better in the living room than the guest room, move every piece of art off the walls and stash it somewhere else for 6 hours, rent an office chair, and then put it all back to its original state a few shots later!

We do make a mess – but at least its a beautiful mess

We also have some crazy – insane – worth giving up your first child for – pieces that we just sent over to the upholsterer. You know its a good day at the office when emily has five chairs, one storage chest, and two huge cushions that she wants you to fit into her car “tetris style” and take it in to our upholstery wizard to get them all a new skin.

We also don’t believe in hiring movers when we have the braun to do it ourselves. Emily is a champ at lifting things — all that practice with Sir Charles came in handy when we had to carry her new sofa up two flights of stairs, through her balcony door, and into its final resting place in the living room!

Things are quickly changing around Emily’s house and we couldn’t be more excited! We’ve got wallpaper going up in Emily’s bedroom, bookcases going up in the hallway, a full (almost) kitchen overhaul, and many more changes. Its like christmas everyday here and I am just about ready to start blasting, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”! I would love to spoil all the fun with pictures but emily would not totally agree with that and then that could be the end of BTS as we know it. So I will let her do the honors with those reveals and you guys will just have to sit tight and enjoy the ride so far.

It’s been another great week here at the office and we sure are in for a busy next month with everything that we have on the calendar. Someone is sure to lose their sh*t, or sh*t will hit the fan, or someone might sh*t themselves. Regardless – i think some awesome sh*t is about to happen!

xoxo

–Brady