While I wait for the renovation projects to be completed on my upstaging project in Halfmoon Bay, I visited CA, and had a wonderful time.
For me that includes being with friends & their family members, seeing their homes, as well as getting in some shopping and doing some work. I had a design project in Oakland, followed by fun in San Anselmo, a lovely area near San Fran, and then moved onto wine country in Calistoga and Guerneville, Sonoma. The weather was always sunny and a few days way too hot to not be in a swimming pool or the Russian river. Luckily I had access to both on my journeys.
The last time I was in California working, I forgot to take the before shots of my work, not this time! I do learn from past mistakes occasionally! As soon as I was in the client's home, I whipped out my camera to ensure I had the "before" pix, before I started de-cluttering and re-arranging.
These are before shots
of their den.
The owners of the home are fellow book lovers; there are books in every room. I knew I could upstage the current look while maintaining their loved book library and create a more invitiing room for them to relax in.
This project took me about 8 hours - de-cluttering, dusting, sorting, re-organizing and re-design. The fun part was looking thru the homeowner's cupboards (with their permission of course!) searching for decor pieces for the new look. There are so many lovely things just tucked away here and there. I found them and brought them into the den where they can really shine and add an artistic and colourful flair to the poor neglected bar area.
The first project I tackled was checking out the table that had been placed beside the couch. As you can see, it is a beautiful table: the placement failed to show the table off. There was enough clearance and wall space for me to move it under the wall bookcase, so that the lovely carved front shows when one enters the room.
AFTER SHOTS
They now have de-cluttered bookshelves, and their beautiful table is placed to get attention in a less cluttered reading room. I added the floor lamp at the other end of the sofa (it was sitting unused in another room), to add more light for reading.
Time permitting I would have spent a bit more time upstaging this bookshelf. I took the material off the back wall of this bookcase; and I think I should have added a bit more colour and books to this bookcase.
I edited the other bookcase as well, moving many of the books into an armoire that sat empty at the end of their living room; re-aligning the remaining books in a similar fashion as in the smaller bookcase, so the titles were easier to read and the books were easier to take out and look at.
I would have liked more time to edit the cd collection and relocate the record player which I am sure never gets used anymore.
T
he biggest project was the bar area, which has sat unused with the doors closed for years. As you can see, behind the folding doors was a clutter of magazines, old law books, some beer mugs and even some small trophies from university days. Re-creating an attractive and useful bar area was the fun part of this project.
This involved unloading the whole cluttered mess of books, magazines and objects, dusting cupboards up and down, along with the shelves, editing out and removing items that were of no value. The bar top needed serious elbow grease to remove marks and bring the shine back; the sink needed cleaning and the water line needed to clear itself of muddy water. I used a bar of soap on the bottom cabinet sliders so the doors would move more readily.
I found wine bottle shelves hidden in the upper cabinets and put them to the use they were originally designed for - storing wine bottles. Being part owners of a winery in Sonoma with other family, they always have wine to store. I relocated their liquor from the armoire in the living room and placed it in the storage shelves below.
I found a variety of unused silver pieces in the kitchen cupboards - lovely serving trays, a silver water jug and ice bucket; polished up the long unused beer mugs and created a colourful display, and then added some of their wine & whiskey/water glasses.
AFTER SHOTS
Now, behold their new bar area where they can serve themselves a drink of water, a glass of wine while enjoying their den; or they can more easily serve guests in their adjacent dining room. Entertaining will be far easier now and no longer require going back and forth to three different areas for glasses, water, wine, liquor and liqueurs.
The homeowners were thrilled with the end result and very pleased that I even found a spot for Elvis! (You can see him playing his guitar between two of the beer mugs)
Now that I am back home, upacked and back into work, I will take a run out to my client's home on Monday and see what they have accomplished on the many renovation, painting & sewing projects needing completion before the upstaging begins and their home gets listed for sale. From the emails exchanged they have been quite busy and I am anxious to see the changes.
I am looking forward to the upstaging. Wait 'til you see those "after" pix!
I hope you are all enjoying summer as much as I am.
UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES CAN CREATE A FRESH, NEW LOOK FOR FURTHER ENJOYMENT OF YOUR HOME
OR
WILL UPSTAGE YOUR HOUSE FOR SALE, ENSURING IT UPSTAGES THE COMPETITION AND ATTRACTS BUYERS
SHARON@UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES
WWW.UPSTAGINGYOURHOMES.COM
604-885-6680
There is just something very special about Vancouver, and of course the Sunshine Coast of BC, where I now live, is only a 40 minute ferry ride from the mainland. A beautiful way to de-stress after busy day working or shopping.
Vancouver, Vienna top quality of life list
