Vitamin Sea

Vitamin Sea Vacation Rental

Cape San Blas

This was a full renovation, including kitchen and bathroom remodels, opening up adjoining living spaces, new flooring and of course, new furnishings throughout. 

Vitamin Sea Photo Slideshow

Bottoms Up

Midtown Miami Condo

View additional photos of this completed project at

http://www.houzz.com/projects/1067737

starting point :: beni ourain rug

There's no doubt that these Moroccan wool rugs have ruled shelter magazine spreads over the past couple of years and are wildy popular -- and with good reason. Their ancient, subtly tribal designs work well across a variety of interior styles. Their rich texture and loosely graphic weaves are a wonderful counterpoint to modern rooms with minimalist furniture. Their exotic feel and tonal colors inject a bit of exotic personality to traditional interiors.

During these chilly winter days, the desire to cozy up a room is natural. Here's how I use the Zuri Zola rug from Lemongrass-Home.com as the starting point for a living room design that is inviting and livable:

Sources
Orbita Hanging Lamp $2600 :: Room
Bardot Sofa $1750 :: Classic Home Furnishings*
Cordova Malaga Club Chair $1100 :: Classic Home Furnishings*
Villa Collection Pillows $90-110 each :: Classic Home Furnishings*
Juliet Coffee Table $1150 :: Classic Home Furnishings*
Orbis Table Lamp $1630 :: Niermann Weeks*
Zuri Zola Rug $202-3227 :: Lemongrass Interiors
*available through Lemongrass Interiors

Though this room is inspired by winter days, it would be simple to lighten things up for the summer months. Just by switching out the rug like like this one in a natural weave, you'll change the feel of the room without undergoing a full redesign.

Naturals Lucia Adams Rug in Natural Silver $42-401 :: Lemongrass Interiors

Have questions about implementing this design in your space, selecting a complementary wall color or choosing the correct rug size? I'm happy to help! Message me with your concerns here or leave a comment below

lemongrass style now delivered by UPS!

After all these years, I've seen, spec'd and installed thousands of furnishings and home accessories. I've weeded out the duds and found some champs. And I definitely have my "go to" sources - the companies where I trust their quality and craftsmanship and their style has longevity.

Although I could try and keep it all close to the vest, I'd rather us all have some fun (and fabulous Lemongrass Style) in our homes. Announcing (drumroll please)...

www.lemongrass-home.com

I know, I know...exciting, right?? Here you'll find a carefully curated array of home furnishings and accessories that are uniquely coastal, are of impeccable quality and are an excellent value. I've filtered through literally thousands of items so you don't have to...it's like getting free professional design advice! 

And while we're on the subject of free advice, if you're ever stumped about how to pull your room together, just drop me a quick note and I'll be happy to give you my two cents. I'll also be posting handy how-to guides helping you determine the correct rug size for your room, explanations of rug terminology and more. 

Pillow, pouf and rug - lemongrass-home.com. Other items available by special order - just give me a shout 

Psst...I have some of the best prices on the web so feel free to do a little comparison shopping. Plus I offer free shipping on most items, you know, cause I'm cool like that ;)

room by room :: master bathroom

For the master bathroom, I utilized several of the same elements that were used in the downstairs bathroom. The freestanding vanities from Ikea worked perfectly as did the wall color, floor and wall tile. The layout is quite a bit different but as for the design, I only switched out the accent tile and how it was applied.

After searching through endless accent tile options and balancing style with budget, I found a fabulous mini brick marble mosaic at Home Depot. I used in as a border and in the inset. To add a little more dimension to the border, I sandwiched it with two bands of white beveled subway tiles.

 

Another element I used in the master bath to elevate it a little was marble sill found in the flooring department at Lowe's. I used it as baseboard, to cap the shower curb and to cap the narrow ledge I designed to run the length of one of the shower walls.

project :: corporate airplane hangar + lobby

For this recent project, I was tasked with sprucing up a corporate airplane hanger and office space. Previously, it had been leased by an airplane maintenance service, so scuffs were abundant! The first order of business was a fresh coat of paint and Benjamin Moore's Rockport Gray was the perfect greige to complement the commercial vinyl flooring.

The client gave me about a week to complete the furnishings, so I sought out off-the-floor items that could be delivered right away. For the art over the sofa, I requested a high resolution photo from the nice folks at Beechcraft. Then, with a little tweaking, I created a pretty cool triptych that I ordered from Easy Canvas Prints. They were great to work with, the product was well-priced and I received my ready-to-hang panels in about a week.

 I was happy with the result and enjoyed the challenge of finding ready-to-purchase items. Most importantly, the client was happy and love their new hangar!

And who doesn't love a King Air, right?? 

before + after :: atlantic cottage

In the Fall of 2013, one of my repeat customers purchased a simple little beach cottage in St Joe Beach. It was one of those location, location, location kind of things. The structure was in good condition, but a complete cosmetic renovation was clearly in order. In addition to new windows, paint, light fixtures, kitchen finishes and flooring, an ensuite bath was added onto the master bedroom. The contractor, F&B Builders in Port St Joe, did a wonderful job as always!

All new windows were installed along with the front sliding glass doors. A charming screened front porch was added for aesthetics and functionality.

On the rear of the home, the contractor added on a master bathroom, installed a soaking pool surrounded by a simple wooden fence.

For the living space, we chose to keep the original pine wainscot which resembles heart pine. We freshened the walls and trim with paint, updated the ceiling fan and installed a beautiful, wide-plank, handscraped laminate. The wall color throughout is my favorite go-to neutral -- Relaxed Khaki from Sherwin Williams (SW6149).  A tip for working with two wood tones in a room: don't try to match them. In this room, I chose a darker, chocolatey brown tone for the floors which complemented the darker tones in the wainscott.

 The dining area received the same treatment, except we replaced the ceiling fan with a brushed nickel warehouse-style pendant.

 The kitchen in this cottage had a small but efficient layout and solid wood cabinets that were in great condition. So we had them painted out, then topped them with beautiful honed black absolute granite. I wanted a classic and simple design that would compliment the overall aesthetic of the house. I had the carpenters notch out the original sink base to accomodate a Domsjo apron front sink from Ikea. To complete the design, we added a Glittran faucet also from Ikea and a white ceramic tile backsplash set in a brick pattern. We also traded out the dreaded faux wood trimmed flourescent fixture with a schoolhouse-style semi-flush mount.

Oh..small bathrooms are tough to photograph! With no natural light, this space was pretty dark and the dark cabinetry didn't help. We needed to keep the beige tub/shower combo which was in good shape, but find a way to blend it with the new white trim and vanity. So I chose install a white (instead of beige) toilet and white tile. To complement the tub, I designed a striped tile treatment with bands of beige penny rounds.

All three bedrooms suffered from drab paint, sad brown sculpted carpet and wobbly old ceiling fans. We painted out all of the doors and trim in white, changed the wall color, installed new carpet and updated the ceiling fans. A master suite was created with the addition of a full bathroom. Although I had designed a different pattern for the floor tile, the installer repeated the design from the guest bath. Sooo... what's done is done (throwing a tantrum wouldn't have helped and really isn't my style anyway). I do like the pattern and the mosaics are so pretty with the simple and very wallet-friendly white tile. The paint color for the master suite is Sea Salt from Sherwin Williams (SW6404). Its a great color and complemented the tile perfectly. 

Of course big budget allowances are fabulous...but there's something fun about a project like this one with a sufficient but pretty tight budget. I love creating a custom look using inexpensive elements. For example, the main floor tile was .99/square foot at Home Depot, but adding the mosaic bands gives it a unique look. And playing the "high/low" game is always a blast! I really liked the idea of the fixture on the left from School House Electric for $99, but found the one on the right from Home Depot for half the price.

Hope you enjoyed my little beach bungalow before and after!

elements :: fracture

While searching for a new, modern way to display art in an office space, I discovered "Fracture". Actually I had seen a tv commercial several months ago, but at the time, just kind of filed it away in my mind. I thought the concept was pretty cool but wondered if it would be a little too plain. Only one way to find out...

I started with an image I had taken with my Canon EOS rebel T4i

The Fractureme.com website is user friendly, pricing is very affordable and the upload process couldn't be simpler. Plus for orders over $100 they offer free shipping. I ordered the "extra large" (21.6" x 28.8") for $125 +tax. 

A few easy steps and about 10 days later, my first "fracture" was delivered to my door. 

I have to say that I was a little skeptical that a sheet of glass would make its journey to me completely intact... but the folks at Fracture have a clever packaging method. 

The glass panel is mounted on black foam core which acts as a spacer from the wall when hung. It's then mounted to a cardboard backing for stability in transit. On the inside of the box, there are vertical cardboard supports that basically float the glass in the center of the box. 

The foam core is pre-cut, so that when you unpack your Fracture, you just pop it off of the backing. 

They've installed a grommet in the foam backing making the whole installation very low profile and sleek. They even send along a self-anchoring screw which worked just fine for my installation into sheetrock. 

Simple! And yes, the effect is pretty austere, but that worked well for me in this space...which as you can see, is the break room.

I love the way the clean lines complement the industrial cart. I'll definitely be ordering more of these for future projects. I can envision them in a grouping for a new spin on a gallery wall or even mounted on rustic wooden or linen covered panels for a more dimensional installation.