I planned to add a tiny bit more sparkle to the Arlington Rooftop women’s restroom.  The overall design of the entire restaurant tends toward the masculine so I wanted this area, right off the entrance to the Main Dining Room, to follow the scheme of the rest of the space, only a touch fancier.  As if it were wearing jewelry.  I found a few perfect pieces, in distressed gold, open and lacy, but not too feminine; to give me just the touch of bauble I was after.

I purchased a matching pair of pendants to hang between the sinks.  And I found gorgeous mirrors to compliment them. Or so I thought. 

This is my rendering of a plan that is not going to happen.  The Agusto Mirrors are from Uttermost. They are skinny and tall, with open metalwork and hints of gold.  I found out today that they are backordered until August.

We ran into this problem with the light fixtures for the mezzanine as well.  Due to the decrease in demand, Philips, the manufacturer of Forecast Lighting, reduced production drastically.  Every style I chose was gone, completely unavailable in the Philips warehouses.    And they won’t be produced until October.  In China.

And another victim of the economy:  this may be old news to some of you, but I just found out Z Gallerie closed in Tyson’s Corner.

Who would have thought it would take 45 minutes, 2,000 questions and 2,000 dollars to order seven interior doors? 

I don’t consider myself a working mother.  After having no paycheck for 12 years, it is still hard to identify myself as someone with a job.  Even though I get dressed and go out the door every single day.  Sometimes not acknowledging the fact that I work bites me in the behind.  Like today. 

It is nearly the end of the school year, and my oldest is on an exam schedule.  She only had to go to school for two hours today.  My husband was able to take her, but I needed to pick her up.  Sure, no problem. I will just run into Precision Doors, which is on the way home, and place the necessary order.  I ran in, all right.  But it was over an hour before I walked out.

My client and I needed to purchase seven interior doors, each with a different set of measurements and use requirements.  Lounel Barnabas was wonderful at helping us sort it all.  But in the meantime, my phone was vibrating all over the place with text messages from my daughter wondering where I was.  Due to the jacked up schedule, her friend needed a ride as well.  I thought I had a perfect solution.  Since they were together and it wasn’t yet raining, I suggested they walk to Starbucks and wait for me there. 

That didn’t go over well with my husband.  He left his work in the middle of a meeting, and drove from Ballston to Woodbridge to pick them up then promptly drove BACK to work. 

I’m thinking he’s going to struggle a bit with the fact that she will go away to college in one short year.  And I can only hope he didn’t buy his wasted gas at BP…

It was helpful to me as well.  It made it easy to tally every piece of tile I would need, since all the drawings were to scale.  As I mentioned before, we purchased some of the tiles through auction, so I had to be very careful to have enough to finish an area completely. 

There are enough places that close enough to being finished for me to show you.

I have been at the construction site of the restaurant project every day, including weekends and holidays.  But I took yesterday “off” to chaperone a field trip to the zoo with my youngest daughter and to create a design plan for the patio of another DC hot spot.   (It’s good to have connections.)

At this point in the game, 48 hours is too long to pass without tending to my tilers.  They are an enthusiastic bunch for sure, and are tiling every wall in sight.  Including one I had reserved for some custom wallpaper. 

I was planning to have wallpaper created out of a wonderful historic photo of a plane landing at National Airport.  This was to go on the wall directly facing the exit to the ground floor of the elevator.  Today I see that this wall is now tiled in leather with penny round accents.  Which is correct for every OTHER wall in that area, just not THAT particular wall.  (I guess my big fat Sharpie “Wallpaper” should have been written in Spanish.)  My Plan B is to move it to the lobby of the entrance to the bar on the roof, since patrons sitting there will be enjoying modern aircraft when the flight path is directly overhead, as it often is.

The actual Bar was delivered yesterday.  It still sits in pieces on the floor, and I am having some serious anxiety about the fact that the glass is still not in the windows and a huge storm could possibly blow water onto them.  My clients think I should calm down.  They are more confident in the plastic sheeting that continually needs re-stapled to the wall…

I ordered the five colors of Patty Madden Rosello wallpaper that I intend to cut into stripes yesterday.  There is NO WAY I am letting anyone near it until the glass is finally here.  In fact, I think I will leave it at home.

I am CRAZY about the gold I chose for the soffit and ceiling above the bar.  I think it is absolutely beautiful, even though a pipe fitter who was working today told me it looked exactly like breast milk poop.  Hey, at least this burly man is changing diapers.  Hope for this world.

I don’t think I ever told you about how I got the tiles I used in my design for Arlington Rooftop Bar and Grill.  The vast majority of the tiles were purchased through an online auction liquidation company.  Rasmus is very different from Ebay.  Auctions are local, pick up times are very specific, and merchandise is available for preview.  We were able to choose what we wanted a few weeks prior to the actual bidding, which gave us time to prioritize what we were willing to bid in order of importance to the overall design plan. 

Before I even knew about Rasmus, I had already become enamored with tile planks which mock hardwood flooring.  Some of the samples I ordered ran nearly $12 A PIECE, well out of my budget, and probably out of most of America’s.  So I guess it wasn’t too shocking to find plenty of palettes seven feet high in at least three colors of “wood stain” in our first round of Rasmus auctions.  We ended up purchasing four palettes.  The cost was cheaper than the most mundane Big Box Beige– we averaged about fifty cents a square foot. 

Purchasing tile this way worked for me.  I had a lot of wall to cover, so we only bid on the less popular large lots.  The auctions were at the beginning of my design plan, so I was very flexible, and I gave my clients a broad range on what would be acceptable to me to use.  Many of the choices in the auctions were stunning, and quite fashion forward. We ended up with shockingly beautiful, rich brown leather tiles, a nice granite-look for the restrooms, two tones of the fore mentioned wood, a huge palette of white embossed with a star for the Kitchen walls, gorgeous long thin gray planks, an a small lot of large wood pieces in two tones.

I chose five accent tiles that had to be purchased conventionally.  The invoice on these amounted to more than what we paid at Rasmus, and the quantity was one tenth.

My only beef—we ended up receiving one palette that was not what we bid on.  Our original order was for 774 square feet of 16 x 10 leather rectangular tiles.  We ended up with 13 x 13 squares in matte espresso.  Sadly, it took us three months to even realize the mistake, thus causing me to sacrifice part of my Memorial Day Weekend to figure out what to do about it.  Trust me; it’s not easy to see what you have when you are searching among 7,000 square feet stacked up in about 200 square feet of space.

And not really a beef, but more of a stressor is the fact that buying tile at an auction leaves zero room for error.  You can’t just order more if you run out. I have mapped, plotted, calculated and fretted myself gray worrying about having enough to finish an area.  Today I decided that every tiled wall needs an order of priority and a Plan B, so I took a fat Sharpie and did just that, writing directly onto each piece of sheetrock. 

And I am very thankful for clients who understand the importance of paying a little more to hire a chief installer who speaks perfect English and has good design sense.  But I know I won’t come down from the verge of a panic attack until the last piece is laid.

I have two areas of monstrous blank walls I have to deal with.  The sheetrock installation gave me a revelation.  Wide but variegated, horizontal stripes would be striking in my color palettes, some in my beloved metallic paint.  I went to the web for some inspiration:

via Todd Riches Interiors

…On to work it out in Photoshop.

I had such grand plans for the exterior of the Rooftop restaurant I’m designing.  Too grand.

The EFIS applicators were struggling with my channeled diamonds.  I wanted nine graduated long thin rectangles of identical width, five increasing in length followed by four decreasing in length.  Smaller diamonds would cap each window.  I didn’t think the design was complicated, but I was wrong.  As it turns out, what I thought was easy–a quilt pattern created by gouging lines 5 feet apart on the diagonal –was mangled only a few days into application. 

And so we have ended up with more of the quilting pattern than I planned, and the area around the windows has simple horizontal stripes.  Very graphic, very simple three layer columns decorate the tight spaces between door and windows on the first floor exterior.  I think the columns help delineate the lower level Indian Restaurant from the new restaurant.  

EFIS is crazy stuff.  Rap on the finished surface and you get a very high pitched, hollow sound.   It feels very unsubstantial and nearly weightless when you rub your hand across it.  But don’t be fooled, I can’t lift a five gallon bucket of it.   The application consists of four separate layers: waterproof adhesive, foam, mesh and topcoat.  The last layer goes on with only four tools. The workers spread it like mud with a trowel and the textured pattern appears automatically.  The color is added in the manufacturing process.

Besides pestering the workers, I spent today choosing lights, arguing about the signage, marking on main level walls what the final surfaces will be, dialing and redialing Atlanta, trying to sweet talk my clients into ordering the sofa I desperately want, and of course, drinking chai, and eating Indian food with Kulfi.

This email has been sitting in my inbox for a while now.  Melissa sent me her dilemma  for me to answer here on my blog.  I asked her for a few more pictures and some additional information, but perhaps a cyber monster ate it up because I haven’t heard back.  I’m going to address this email anyway and use it as an illustration for what a decorating “typical” Decorate Your Space consultation looks like. (If there WERE such a thing as typical.)

 Here’s the email:

 ”Hi

I have a decorating issue. I’ve attached a photo. I am leasing this house, but I hate the color pallet. There is emerald green tile in front of the fireplace and in front of the door. What color paint should I use if I want to down play the green, and what kind and color of furniture would go as well. I currently have big red furniture, but I am afraid it will look like Christmas all year round, so I am willing to buy something new.

Thanks a bunch.

 Melissa”

Melissa,

 Thank you for reading Design Strategies.  I love it when someone tells me about their decorating dilemma and gives me the chance to solve it. 

If you had hired me to come into your home for a consultation, I would ask you a whole lot of questions.  (I do hope you read this, and answer!) 

1)   What changes are you actually allowed to make?

I am assuming from your email that the owner of the home you are leasing is ok with you painting.  You will be doing her a big favor by bringing this room out of the 80s, but sometimes owners intend to move back into their homes one day and they don’t want anything changed. This is especially true where I live and work, as we have a high number of military families who will one day return to the area.  

The wallpaper border really dates the house.  The first thing I would suggest is to remove it. Now we need to decide what color to repaint the walls.  The high contrast between the tones above and below the chair rail also screams “twenty years ago!”

2)   How old is the current big red furniture?  Does it fit well in the space?  Are you looking for an excuse to buy new?  Is red a color you would choose again? 

If you love your furniture, let’s make it work.  From the picture, the room looks large and will give you plenty of configuring options.

3)   How many people are living with you?  What will the room be used for?  How many of those people will actually be using this room? (I told you there would be a lot of questions!)

4)   What is your style?  Are there other pieces that you own that you want to highlight?  What are your favorite colors?  What colors do you hate?

A lot of these questions I never need to ask.  I can get plenty of information from the client by having them show me around their space and talking to me about the things they own and how they acquired them.  I try to always ask about what the client absolutely does not want as well, as that can be as revealing as it opposite question. 

Since I have none of the answers to the questions, I am just going to wing it.  I am going to give you a palette that suits a variety of tastes, can blend with most shades of red, and will downplay the green in the tile.  I hope your “hate” is not….Neutral.

Without further information, and taking into consideration that you are leasing this house, I will suggest a rich but safe neutral scheme.  Aura Paint in Affinity Colors by Benjamin Moore is my personal favorite right now.  The palette is limited, but gorgeous, and good for situations like this.  (Normally I need every single swatch from the three separate manufacturers’ cases that I would bring to your home to find exactly the right color.)

 Try Carob AF- 160 below the chair rail and Pensive AF-140 above.  These colors are pretty, and will prevent you from having to paint the cream trim.

…Oh but I can’t stop before you get your money’s worth. Funky slightly greenish golds instantly update dated tones of green.  A dark brown as a backdrop for reds?  Perfect.

 Try Wenge AF-180 below the chair rail and Anjou Pear AF-425 above.  If you dare.

I stalk on Facebook. 

I know, you are probably thinking BIG DEAL.  That’s the whole point, isn’t it?  Even Betty White knows this. 

My version of stalking is a bit different.  I love to look at the background environments in the photos people post.  Especially when they are of people and places I know nothing about.  (If one of my friends is tagged in a photo, if I press the right or left arrow key I can see the whole photo album, even if I am not friends with the person who uploaded the group of pictures.)

It’s the interiors in the photos that intrigue me.  Are they messy?  Usually.  Does it look like the room was created with intention?  Sometimes.  Are there regional differences?  YES.

Last week my husband worked a job fair in Pittsburgh.  On the day he returned, the first words out of his mouth were, “People in Pittsburgh are different!  They have  strange accents and I never realized how style [of dress] can change with only a few hundred miles.”  He has been talking about this the last few days, which made me notice more what I have always been just slightly aware of.  Interior decorating styles can be regional, too. 

Out of my 500 or so Facebook friends, the majority fall into two categories.  The largest group is local:  my friends and business associates who live and work where I do, in metropolitan Washington DC.  The second largest group is from my hometown in Ohio.  The rest are from everywhere, even some who live out the US.

Ohio people  like it…gaudy.  Lots of oversized floral arrangements, gilded candlesticks and long fringe.  They are still faux painting there.  DC people are all trying to streamline.  Tassels were shoved into hiding two years ago. 

Am I biased?

My friend-for-life, Betsy, is having her first baby.  She just found out yesterday that it is going to be a boy.  Here is my Congratulations Gift to her: a virtual consultation.  She wrote me yesterday to tell me she didn’t want any kitschy character crap and her hallway upon entering the baby’s room had chocolate walls and vanilla trim.  (Hint Hint, right?)

When I give a client a Design Recap, the copy is formal.  But Betsy is my friend, not my client, and I am posting this on my blog for the world to see.  So just imagine me standing in room with her…

Run out NOW, Betsy, and get the DwellStudio Space Baby Bedding Collection because it is really really super cheap at $64 for Designer Bedding.   They have it at your Target (I checked) but in limited quantities. Plus, its blue and green and should remind you of my dorm at Westminster. (Readers, Betsy and I went to college together, but we go back  waaayyy  before that…) And space stuff is cool, not dumb like trucks or trains. The world needs more scientists. 

The paint swatches are from Benjamin Moore’s new Affinty Colors mixed exclusively in Aura paint.  Aura paint is scrubbable, which is good since you are having a boy, and is environmentally friendly.  It is more expensive, but take my advice.  This high quality paint is worth the few extra dollars.

An outdoor rug will protect your light carpeting, and can be hosed off when the baby has an explosion poop or barfs all over the place.  It doesn’t look like an outdoor rug, does it?  I have had great luck with Home Decorators Collection.  Go for as big as you can afford, but try not to get any smaller than the 5 x 7, which is more than I wanted to find at $169, but remember I saved you a bunch on the bedding.

I love this earth decal.  It’s pretty big at 27 x 27, only $30 and is removeable, so have no fear.  You can use it to point out where mommy and daddy are from.  And teach Biddy Baby how important it is to clean up after your oil spill.

Brown furniture will coordinate well.  I tried to find  something for you on CraigsList, but I wasn’t too successful.  The good thing is you have time to keep checking.  I do love this $99  small dresser from Ikea.  You can use it for a changing table, and buying it will give you a reason to come and see me. I found this crib at Target and it looks pretty nice  for only $149.

NO GLIDERS!  Get a Poang instead.  Plus I really want you to make an Ikea trip so I can rub your baby bump.

The drapery panels are from Pottery Barn Kids.  They are clearanced priced at $49, and if you have only one window, you will need two.  (A panel for either side.) They are Blackout, and if you have a baby that sleeps better in a dark room you will love me forever for suggesting them.  Choose navy in order to avoid Matchy Matchy Syndrome.

Last but not least, understand that every baby’s room needs a little kitsch.  It’s the American Way, Betsy.  This Rocket Lava Lamp is the bomb diggity and only $23!  The green goo sparkles as it warms up.  And when Biddy is the first man on Mars, you can tell him to thank his Aunty Denise.