I hired a decorator...
You still there? Good, because I can't wait to tell you about her!
First, why did I hire a decorator? We have a few rooms in our house that have completely perplexed me. They're ugly, dysfunctional, and difficult to decorate. I'm talking about our dining room, guest room, and basement.
The basement is a true mess, so we're saving that for later.
The dining room is tough because it's small, dark, connects a bunch of other spaces, and gets abused as both a place to eat and a place to work. We'd probably find a bunch of other things to do in there if we didn't hate being in the room. It's a mess.
I took a photo as-is because it shows how it's just not working for us. Stuff piled everywhere, computers in the way, uck.
The guest room is tough, too. Eventually we hope this room will become the nursery, so we don't want to invest in anything that won't have a life there or somewhere else in our house after a baby. I've also been unable to see past the wretched wallpaper in there.
It's small, too, and we can't put anything but a queen bed in there. Guests have no room to walk and nowhere to put a suitcase. It's highly uninviting.
So with all those challenges, I was stumped!
Meanwhile, I've discovered Jackie through her blog Teal & Lime. Since I started following her, she's quit her day job and started an interior design service, Teal & Lime Interiors. What's cool is that she never even comes to my house - it's all done digitally! This helps her keeps costs low - she provides the design, ideas, and a shopping list, and the client buys and installs everything themselves.
Besides all that, I LOVE her work. Her house is amazing, and I am constantly inspired by her mood boards and projects.
Affordable, beautiful style that I can implement myself? Sign me up!
We hired Jackie to make two custom mood boards for us - one for the dining room and one for the guest room. This past weekend, she sent me the completed designs. You better believe I spent the next hours of my life poring over them and starting to buy the stuff!
Today I'll share our before pics and her designs. Over the next weeks (maybe months), I'll share how we go about implementing her design.
So far, we're loving the process, and highly recommend Jackie. If you're interested in her services, tell her I sent you! She had a lot of fun working on our rooms.
Without further ado...
Dining Room: Small, dark, messy, and the center of our house. The only things I like are the built-in cabinets (yay storage) and the chandelier we installed last fall. Keeping it real here, don't judge!
Here's Jackie's solution for the room. She based it on my idea of hanging a family photo from our wedding week at the head of the table. Everyone is wearing coral and navy, so she incorporated those colors in her design. I also ordered most of the stuff for this room, and I can't wait to set it up!
Guest Room: Small, dark, awful wallpaper, uninviting. The lake view from the room is about the only thing going for it. Again, keeping it very real here, so don't judge!!!
Again, Jackie came through with an awesome design! She drew inspiration from the shirt stripes quilt I made from Tommy's dress shirts. We're still fixing the walls in here, so I haven't made as much ordering progress, but I'm super excited to get started.
What do you think? Am I crazy to hire a designer? Do you think her designs will work for us?
Awesome ideas. Fwiw, I noticed you are cursed with the same no overhead/ceiling light in your guest room. We can fix that at some point. I did it with all of our bedrooms. Converted that switched outlet to a normal outlet, and made the switch control a ceiling light. Since there is attic access, it's a fun diy project, just do it in cooler weather and before you paint! Excited to see the work in progress!
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