E-design Winner Presentation

You might remember a while back we launched a competition for one of our readers to win a free E-Design in anticipation of the launch of our new design services.  Since then we have launched the new site, completed the mood-boards for our winner, the lovely Emily Miller, and we wanted to share them with you.

As a mom of 2 kids, and with a 3rd one on the way, Emily and her husband wanted us to redecorate their bedroom, as it was the room that had been most neglected and they thought it was about time they got a ‘grown-up’ bedroom.  They wanted the vibe to feel like a calming retreat away from the chaos of kid’s toys (somewhere that didn’t feel like a playroom).  We asked her a series of questions so we could get a better understanding of her personality, style and needs:

What would you say your style is? (midcentury, hollywood regency, etc.)
Eclectic, clean, tribal, vintage, and global

How do you want the space to feel?
A retreat / escape

How will the room be used? (i.e. living room – space for our family to relax and watch TV.  Dining room for formal dinner/cocktail parties)
Sleeping, getting ready, nursing new baby, napping

What colors do you want to see in the room(s)?
Bright, bold, navy, indigo

What do you NOT want to see in the room(s)?
Floral decor, animal print, large amount of pillows, no blackout shades, sisal rugs, all white, pastel, muted or pink

Do you have any specific items you’d like to keep? 
Queen mattress, red dresser (can be painted), and we need a ceiling fan. 

Budget
$3000

We also asked her to share some photos of the room as it is now, provide us with sketched floor plan showing the rooms dimensions, and a pinboard of her ideas.

The room has lots of natural light and the walls had just been painted in Benjamin Moore Crisp Linen so it gave us a really good blank canvas to work with. The mid-toned wood floors are beautiful, but the room is crying out for a rug to cut up all that empty floor space.

Other than the mattress and the red dresser (top right) everything else could be replaced, which was great news for us.

She sent through a simple drawing with all the measurements that we needed. See? You don’t need a crazy computer rendering to send to us – just a pencil and a tape measurer.

We (Ginny, our Design Director) started pinning away and coming up with the general art direction/design plan.

Since their walls were white and had just been painted we were mainly pinning bright white spaces that had pops of color, pattern and texture. Mainly indigo blue with natural wood tones and a rustic global influence. Emily had mentioned she liked the idea of a neutral bed with color coming from the pillows and throw blankets.

We drew up the bedroom to see if there was a better way to lay it out and show them where we wanted to add our new pieces. Once we knew the floorplan then it was time to pick the particulars.

Ginny spent hours pulling together this product board – with their budget in mind ($3k). Now, I know that $3k sounds like a lot, but it ain’t when it comes to pulling together a whole room.

Source: Fan | Bolster Pillow | Tie-backs | Curtains | Rod | Bed | Side Table | Lamps | Rug | Mirror | Bench | Drawer knob | Paint | Indigo Throw | Dresser

As part of the presentation we gave Emily our ‘ideal’ product board that showed additional items outside of her $3k budget so that she could add more accessories and furniture pieces down the line.  For instance, they already have window shades and didn’t want to add blackout treatments, but for us to bring in more color and make the room feel more complete we suggested the blue linen curtains as an optional extra.  This option came out at $4, 112.

With the design itself we started off by choosing an affordable bed in a neutral grey linen, which is a good base to allow the rest of the softer furnishings to pop. With Emily wanting to bring in tones of indigo and navy blue we decided to do this by adding a blue rug and other accessories. This rug worked particularly well as it spoke to the Moroccan global aspect she wanted, whilst keeping in budget and adding color.

We wanted to replace the tall dresser with something more modern with cleaner lines and chose a natural rustic piece with brass handles. The mid-century style legs help with the vintage vibe she was after.

The low red dresser is a piece that has been in Emily’s family for a while so she really wanted to keep it but wasn’t opposed to painting it and upgrading the knobs.  So we suggested Farrow & Ball’s Drawing room blue paint and these cute hexagonal brass knobs from Anthropologie.  She later mentioned that they had sold the original 1950’s brass drawer knobs!

To further bring in the global theme we added carved wood side tables as nightstands and a copper colored mirror with a Moroccan style profile.

One of her specific requests was to not add too many pillows, so instead we added one long bolster that was predominantly blue and white with pops of hot pink to bring in more color.

We added blue linen curtains to add texture, color and warmth, and an indigo throw blanket that she could add to the end of the bed.  They have enough room at the foot of the bed to add a bench, so we chose this woven bench in a darker wood tone to contrast with all the other woods going on.

They wanted to replace their existing fan which we were in total agreement with. We’ve suggested a white one that is very simple and modern in shape without feeling contemporary.

Source: Fan | Bolster Pillow |  Bed | Side Table | Lamps | Rug | Mirror | Bench | Drawer knob | Paint | Indigo Throw | Dresser

We also give her the option of sticking around the $3k budget and tried to include all of the major pieces that would transform the room.  We did go over a little on this but it’s always good to push the boundaries a little if you’re going to get that little bit better results.

Source: Fan | Bolster Pillow | Headboard | Side Table | Lamps | Rug | Mirror | Bench | Drawer knob | Paint | Indigo Throw | Dresser

We then gave her options of how she could pair down the costs by swapping out some of the items, like the bed could be switched out for a headboard (because she already had a box spring and mattress) and we also changed out the side table and lamps. This option came in at $2, 521 (I think Target had a sale on at the time which made the headboard even cheaper that it’s showing online now) and if she wanted to include the accessories it would have been $3, 540.

Once we had compiled all the information and sent it onto Emily, she and her husband pretty much loved everything except for the side tables. Emily’s husband wanted something more traditional with storage, so we gave them these 6 options for them to choose from that fit within their budget.

Nightstands: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

I love the nightstands that Ginny chose originally, but we all agreed that storage is better – it just upped the budget for that piece a bit. I mean, I have like 9 face creams (that I still don’t use) just sitting on my nightstands that I love shoving in my drawers where I will surely never EVER use them, but I’m still so happy that I have the drawers.

Since we issued the e-design to them they have purchased the headboard, the dresser with matching nightstands and the rug. They decided they didn’t love the bench we had proposed so decided to hold off on that.

I’m DYING to see the after, so if any of you know a talented photographer in Oklahoma let me know, so we can shoot and blog about it.

We estimated at least 2 full days (16 hours) of work and we think we spent 20 hours all in. So it was a good lesson for us to really count how long a room takes to pull together, on budget, coordinate emails and then put in a presentation so we can price all future E-Design services with that in mind. Ginny is the Design Director and deserves full credit on this E-design. We met about the project 3 times to make sure I liked it, obviously, but she did a great job of pulling together this beautiful board that made the client oh so happy. Now, Emily (the client), please finish installing this bad boy so we can shoot it and show everyone the final transformation.

Any questions?