Have I got a treat for you today! Who’s ready for a colorful room tour?
I know that I have been churning out these blog posts very slowly these days, but for very good reasons. It is extremely busy in #CasaViloraLand, so I am taking the time to manage all the wonderful projects and business opportunities coming my way!
I know how much you love room tours, and I love to bring them to you. So I am super excited about this one, because it is actually my personal space.
Many of you may know that I recently sold my home; I believe it was in May, and moved into a small one room apartment with my 14 year old son Joshua and our chiweenie Rufus. My daughter Courtney is away in Miami at college, so the timing was right for this grand adventure.
So, it is a long story about my decision to move, so I won’t get into it today, But it all stemmed from a Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom class I took in February. I sold the home and decided to downsize dramatically for about a year; maybe longer. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made! It is certainly not for everyone, but it works for me at this stage of life.
The new space is an old turn of the century Victorian house. Our living area is about 450 square feet, and then there is a kitchen (which we never use), a laundry room and a bathroom which takes up another 200sf give or take. I haven’t done much with the old kitchen and bath except paint, so they will not be included in the room tour today.
I am leasing the property, so I am very careful not to spend on permanent items that I cannot take with me when I leave.
My son and I literally share one room. It is a very large room that I was able to squeeze 2 bedrooms, a study space for my son, a library space for me and a living room area out of. Our bedrooms are separated by a two sided bookcase for privacy. I brought in a ton of storage through furniture and baskets, and I did downsize the wardrobe
Much of my furniture from the former house is occupying two storage units nearby.
This is the living room of the space. It all started with the large colorful painting on the wall. I commissioned this painting from a Dallas artist named Mike Owens. I had it framed at Hobby Lobby and it is now this gorgeous piece that I absolutely adore. The sofa came from the home I sold, and so is the blue chair off to the right and the cocktail table, which are actually two end tables nested together. I bought the two leather Panam chairs on the left, the striped bench and the chest in the corner. Notice how I layered the hide rug on top of the jute area rug just to add a bit of interest and coziness.
The custom draperies are my favorite. I literally cannot survive in a space without window treatments. I wanted to do bold horizontal stripes, but couldn’t find a fabric with the look I wanted. I took two solid fabrics and had my seamstress cut them into bands and sew them together, alternating colors for the striped effect. They add such drama and richness to the small space. Most of the pillows are custom – note the flamingo pillows that I ADORE! 🙂 Some of the pillows came from HomeGoods
The chandelier is also one of my favorite features. It is actually not a chandelier, but it’s a decorative shell hanging ornament that I found at a gas station in Florida. I was taking my daughter to college last year and stopped for gas, and there they were. I bought two of them. I had them both electrified and gave one to a client/friend of mine
The electrical spool table was picked up at an electrical supply place for $10. I have had it for a while in my design studio and decided to use it here, mainly because I didn’t want to go get my real tables from my storage unit. Lol
Here is an overall view of the space not including my son’s area and the library area. You can see my bedroom. That is a full size bed. See how close it is to the living room space? Literally about 2 feet. Haha. That is all the space I need. Behind that door is the kitchen, which I never use. We eat out everyday….Dave Ramsey would have a fit if he knew that 🙂
This is my bedroom area. The headboard was custom made by my upholsterer with some remnant fabrics he had. The bedding is from Crane and Canopy. I love duvet covers versus comforters for a relaxed look, and Crane and Canopy has some great, inexpensive options that feel so luxurious. The banana leaf pillows are from an Etsy store, the dotted one is custom made using clothing fabric I picked up on sale at Hobby Lobby, and the African print pillow is from a company I found on Facebook, I believe they are called Reflektion Designs. The bench at the foot of the bed was given to me by a client! She loved it, and we ordered it, and her husband hated it. Lol. She gifted it to me. Isn’t that nice? The art pieces are all from Ikea. The ceramic garden stool is where I keep my water bottle and Bible at night. The floral honestly was just for the photoshoot 🙂
Across from the bedroom area is my library area, with the door to the bathroom in between
I LOVE my library. I am an avid book collector – I read alot of them, but not all. Mostly decorating, architectural and art related books. This is about 80% of my books and magazines collection. The chair is my “famous” chair. It has been published 3 times locally! Lol. I have owned it for many years and it was covered in a very formal traditional silk fabric. I reupholstered it using this whimsical print and added the cute nail heads. It now makes for a great conversation piece. The chest is from a resale shop. I had planned to refinish it, but the really rustic patina grew on me. I decided to change the hardware to these fancy ones from Hobby Lobby for an interesting twist. I love the juxtaposition of refined with rustic. The botanical art above the TV was purchased for a client and it arrived with the glass broken. I had the vendor send me a replacement for the client and kept this one. I actually like it better without the glass! It is so bold and get subdued
The art on the bookcase is another original piece from a designer/artist friend Terri Lind Davis. I had it custom framed at Hobby Lobby in the off-the-shelf black frame.
So this is the clothing/storage area fro my clothes. My son has his own storage piece. The space has a pretty good sized closet, but I have a lot of other stuff stored in there, so this is mostly where I store my clothes. These are just a few of my favorite things on top.
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. In this shot, we actually photo-shopped out an AC window unit and added the art above the dressers. Yep, the magic of Photoshop. The AC unit is very unsightly, so I asked my photographer to make it disappear in this shot 🙂
This is my son’s half of the room; the other side of the bookcase. The bookcase was a perfect fit to give him a bit of privacy. The platform of the bed is not really old but it is actually falling a part a bit. It has storage drawers underneath for some of his clothing. It was cheap piece from Wayfair, and it serves its purpose. I decided not to get him a new one till we move in a year or so. The headboard was custom made by my upholsterer and was in his bedroom in our former home. This headboard was actually also featured in his room feature for Apartment Therapy. My furniture seems to be more famous than I am 🙂
Another shot of his bookcase
His bookcase contains a few of his favorite things.
I got him this cheap comforter set from HomeGoods since we plan to move soon
There’s a desk below this art wall, but too messy to show. Lol 🙂
This is the back wall of the space. This storage cabinet is huge, and contains some of my clothes.
Another art wall in the space. The top left is a piece by my daughter, the piece on the right is another original by Terri Lind Davis and the bottom left is from Ikea
A few more shots of the small space
A closer view of the art wall above my bed
My son’s dresser for his clothing. This was in his room in the former house
A closer view of the coffee table and pillows
Here’s a little coffee table styling video I did in the space recently
This is such a comfortable spot to just hang out
I love my coffee table books. The floral is custom from a local place here in Houston
I do like to decorate with busts as much as possible.
One of my favorite vignettes
I know that this much pattern and color is not for everyone, but most of my clients do like color and they like to see that I have done it a time or two before 🙂
I did a video tour of the space, so you can hear my thought process behind this eclectic look
So there you have it, my small studio space. Thank you for taking the tour with me
If you love color and patterns, or even if you don’t, contact me for your very own custom design. I can tailor any style to suit your needs and desires for your home
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Wishing You Beauty And Inspiration!
