Nashville, y’all. Last week was crazy fun, full of boots, blondes and booze battered fried bologna sandwiches. I love the South, i do. People just know how to have a good time and everybody is so nice. Men touch their hats when they shake your hand, little kids call me ‘Miss Emily’, and small-town small talk runs rampant. Sure, we can’t talk politics, i never excersize here and i immediately gain three pounds but other than that, I love it.
HGTV built this barn in the middle of the street festival and had promo events there all week, including my white box challenge that me and 2 other dudes (Todd Davis and Sparkle Josh) designed. It wasn’t a competition, thank god, just a promo thing.
The space itself looked like this:
Here was the story: We each designed the box based on a song that was nominated this year at the CMA’s and i chose T-Swift’s ‘Today is a fairytale’, because i wanted to do something super, super, super girly and over the top whimsical. (and becasue i love T-swift).
Here’s my moodboard i made for it. (yea, i know, i have terrible moodboarding skills – getting better as soon as i take Blog Shop).
We were allowed to prep beforehand (Thank you Orlando, Bonnie and Natalie who made all the flowers) and had 3 hours to install them with 3 assistants in the space (thank you so much Karrie, Laura, Caleb and Brad). Totally doable.
photo by Sara Kauss/Getting images
Photo by Sara Krauss/Getty Images
photo by Sara Kauss/Getty Images
photo by me.
photos by me.
photo by me.
photo by Sara Kauss/Getty Images
photo by Sara Kauss/Getty Images.
Lets get to some resources:
Bedding – pintuck from Target, or grab the West elm version for $30 more dollars.
Gold stripes??? While i want to keep it a secret because this stuff is good, i’ll give this resource up….. Link HERE.
It’s basically gold contact paper, made for the walls. It comes 18″ wide and 50′ long = $90. It’s 100% easy to use, repositionable, doesn’t stick to itself easily and while i had a lot of bubbles because i was in a HUGE hurry, its actually easy to apply without bubbles.
Its going to change my life. I can’t wait to do it in my bathroom when i get home. Or my hallway. Or my Car….or my CAT….i mean, i want it everywhere.
Ceilings? yes please. Headboards? probably. Tops of tables? why not?
The paper flowers were made mainly by Natalie Shriver and Bonnie Donaldson. I gave them this art direction:
They turned out great, so thank you so much guys for helping me. Bonnie is my new assistant that is killing it and Natalie is the ‘making shit’ genius (and stylist) behind Bri’s (DESIGNLOVEFEST’s) DIY’s. Click here to see all of them.
And that amazing geese is made by Tamar Mogendorf. www.tmogy.com She is crazy talented and makes these amazing sculptural stuffed animals – these guys aren’t for kids, though. They are totally beautiful and yes, expensive, pieces of art.
Photo by Sara Kauss/Getty Images
In general i kinda loved the room. I’ll always have criticism and wish i could make more changes, but it’s my inner fantasy princess bedroom. So much gold, hot pink, flowers, but with the whimsical touches that tickle my little princess bone. ( that’s the first and last time i’ll ever write ‘little princess bone’, by the way.)
OH and the hanging bed!!! It was made my a great carpenter at Scripps, Brad, but it wasn’t made to be functional so i can’t tell you exactly how to make it or hang it. I’m sure you could find a contractor to make one by showing them the picture of the one in my mood board.
photo by Sara Kauss/Getty images
What do you think, friends? Did i redeem myself from the disasterous Design Star white box challenge two years ago? (if you all say yes then i promise never to talk about my first white box challenge again…..).
ALL PHOTOS (EXCEPT 2) BY GETTY IMAGES/SARA KRAUS Link to her work, HERE. Thanks Sara, so much.