Scottsdale and Phoenix Interior Designer Introduces You to Artist Cecilia Paredes

As an interior designer, I am always interested in creative minds at work. I adore this photographers playful sense of surprise and the way he hides her subject and yet leaves them exposed at the same time. Her work is displayed through the Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts Gallery in Miami, Florida.  

This patchwork quilt photograph allows the subjects face to blend into the background beautifully.

I really like how the subject's eye grab your attention in the above photo.

I love these colors in this last photo! If you are intrigued and would like to learn more about Cecilia Paredes, you can check out her website ceciliaperedes.com to see what she is all about. She's had so many hits on her website that it has crashed, but I am sure that technical difficulty will be worked out soon. You can also check out some of Cecilia Paredes' images courtesy of the Diana Lowenstein Gallery at http://dlfinearts.com. I'd love to hear what you think of these graphic and interesting images! 

Scottsdale Interior Designer Does A Palm Springs Get Away!

Hi friends,
I recently had to get away with my husband for the weekend. It was much needed! I stayed at the Riviera Resort and Spa in Palm Springs, CA. Here's a photo of the lovely resort at night.

It's a great looking resort although quite the party place. Here's a picture of the party pool at a much calmer moment.

Many of you might not know that I have another blog. I recently changed my Susie Goldstein Interiors LLC website and added a blog to it to let my clients and friends know what is on my mind if they care to find out.
I have posted more pictures on my other blog about my Palm Springs weekend. Check it out to see some more room and resort photos. 


Don't forget to follow my Susie Goldstein Interiors blog and like my fan page on Facebook. Bye for now, friends!

Buffet Makeover

Quite a while ago I wrote about my old Mexican buffet that I wanted to redo. I had bought the buffet years ago when my children were young. I loved the Mexican style furniture back then that is so readily available in the southwest. I loved it because with two young children and a big black Labrador, there was nothing that any of them could do to the Mexican furniture that didn't just add to the rustic character of it. Here's a before picture of the buffet I am talking about.

I had been wanting a new buffet for such a long time because my tastes are more grown up and so different now. Being an interior designer, as time has gone by I've learned my style and my decor preferences in a way I just wasn't in tune with when my children were young. I am more true to myself when decorating now. For years I was too afraid to really decorate in my true taste for fear that it would be too feminine for my husband. Over the years he learned to trust me to not make our home too feminine. This was especially true in our major bath and bedroom remodel,  Our home has feminine touches, but I make sure to keep a nice balance so he feels comfortable in our home too. I also keep my dear, sweet husband in the loop regarding any changes I am looking to make to our home and give him say in the decisions making.

As I have looked to replaced our buffet I realized that I was not willing to pay the high price of new, high quality furniture. I even get a really nice "To the Trades" with most manufacturers. My current buffet is a really large and holds so much. I rather save my money and spend it on things for my home that I can make, so the makeover was smart, sensible and done completely to my taste. Are you ready to see the after???

I knew that one of the most important ways I could completely change the look was to add legs to the buffet. I wanted to get the piece off the floor. I went to a local shop that sells to upholsterers and designers that has a nice selection of furniture legs and found the perfect one. Not too tall and not to short with a graceful style too.

It's hard to tell from the full buffet picture some of the ways I made this makeover special. I stenciled the top of the buffet in a robin's egg blue and a color called laguna blue that has a teal tone to it. I put a robin's egg blue border around the top too.

The drawer fronts were really rustic before the redo. They required a lot of filler and sanding to smooth them out. Here's a look at what the drawers and doors used to look like.

Here's what the drawers and doors look like now that I have made them pretty.

I added some stencils to the side of the buffet as well. This buffet sits in our living room/dining room combo and the sides are very visible in the room so it was important that I make the sides pretty too.

So this is my buffet redo. I think it looks pretty good, especially against the newly painted wall. We painted the walls Sherwin Williams Copen Blue and I love the soft blue color. I have always loved painting furniture and used to paint children's furniture as a business for a while. If you want to check out some of my other painted furniture, take a look at my interior design web site Susie Goldstein Interiors LLC. 

Coffee Table Makeover

Today I wanted to share a recent makeover. I purchased this coffee table that had been in the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. It was so inexpensive for the substantial furniture piece that it is.

 It is a really heavy piece of furniture. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was pretty beat up. Hotel furniture suffers a lot of abuse from hotel guests! I had some gouges filled and then painted it Sherwin Williams Creamy. It looked pretty, but plain so I stencilled the top in teal and painted the edges to match.

I was happy with how it turned out for the most part, but it wasn't quite finished. After living with it a while, I decided to mix some of the SW Creamy with some glaze and rubbed it over the top. It was just what was needed to make me happy. The paint and glaze toned down the brightness of the teal and softened it in a lovely way. Here's the after of my wonderful makeover.

Here is a closeup of the stenciled top.

I am happy with how it turned out and I am so glad that it is finally done. This formerly beat up Las Vegas beauty is looking beautiful once again. My living room is really looking so good these days and that makes me so happy.

Speaking of Las Vegas, I had some of my best friends from Las Vegas over to our house yesterday. My friends loved my house so much that they want me to come to Las Vegas and help them with their beautiful home. They like to entertain often so we will start with their family room and kitchen first. It's a rather large home and I know I could make it into a home they will really love. Viva Las Vegas!

Bargain Chairs Made Over

I bought a couple of $29.00 Queen Anne arm chairs last year to redo and use in my home office. I also about that time I bought a disgusting looking wingback chair at a garage sale for $10.00 to use as my desk chair. The wingback had to be rebuilt completely because it sat way too low for this short lady to use as a desk chair. I finally had these three chairs redone and I wanted to share the finished chairs. I like them so much that I may use them as the end arm chairs in my dining room.
Here is the before shot of these sad and tired chairs.

Here's a picture of the chairs made over. I love the clean, fresh, and classic look of the redone beauties. In this picture are also two sets of bargain draperies I designed and had made. The lamp in the picture is one of two $5.00 lamps that I bought that is the perfect match. 

Here is a closeup of the arm chair. I threw a couple of my bargain throw pillows on the chairs just for the picture. I think the pillows look kind of good, don't you think?

Just in case you are interested, I'll include a picture of my drapes and $5.00 lamps. I'll post at length about the drapes in another post.

Aren't those lamps the perfect color? I just love the color. I have some inexpensive drum shades on them now, but since I paid so little for the lamps I may splurge and have a custom shade made that will be just perfect. So what do you think of my formerly sad chairs now? I love them! So next time you see a chair that you think is beyond repair, instead of just walking by think of the possibilities instead.

Check out these link parties:
Decor Chick
Creative Jewish Mom
I Heart Nap Time
Under the Table and Dreaming
Tatertots and Jello
A Vision to Remember
The Girl Creative
Between Naps on the Porch
It's So Very Cheri
The DIY Showoff
Southern Hospitality
Support Blog for Moms of Boys
The House in the Roses

The Layman's Guide to Wall Striping (and So Much More)

Hi Everyone! I've been very busy lately working like crazy. I've made a post to my other blog Gold Standard Finishes LLC on striped looks for a home that I thought you might enjoy. Here's one of my favorite photos from this post.

I just love this beautiful kitchen with this drop dead gorgeous striping. This photo features the work of Tobi Fairley who is one of my favorite interior designers. Since my paint company does decorative finishes in addition to regular house painting, be sure to either follow my blog on goldstandardfinishes.com or like us on Facebook to learn about our new painting posts!

Commercial Office Design

I was so thrilled to be asked to decorate my friend Tom's office. Tom is a great guy and my insurance broker too. His office is a nice space, but it definitely needed a woman's touch. I'm not completely done with the space yet, but in just a short time with a very modest amount of money I was able to warm up the lobby and give it some personality.

Here's a few befores of this very plain space. I loved the slate reception counters. I wanted to work off of the soft greens in the slate and the soft greens and golds in the waiting room chairs. One thing is for sure though, the brown wall had to go. It darkened the space and was depressing to look at.

   













So the brown walls were painted by our painting company, Gold Standard Finishes LLC. Art work and furniture was added too. I even added a little character to the plain jane handicapped accessible bathroom. A cabinet for bathroom necessities, a few pieces of art, and a seashell potpourri to add a scent.

I wish the color on the reception wall came across in the photo as it is in real life. It is a soft sage green color by Glidden called Courtyard Stone. Next on my list for Tom's lobby is a custom sign with their logo for the reception wall. I will probably need to buy one more piece of art for the area to the left of the reception desk. The nice thing about these changes is the fact the except for repainting the brown walls, everything purchased can be taken with them to a new location if they should choose not to renew their suite lease when it is up.

I will work on creating more personal spaces for the agents private offices too, but for now I am pleased with the progress made on a budget. Hey, if you live in Arizona consider contacting H Group Insurance. They have personally save me soooo much money on my home and auto insurance! 

Great and Green- The New Trend Towards Online Interior Decor Magazines

I love my interior design magazines. It is a thrill when I go through the mail and see what new magazine (or catalogs-love them too) has arrived for me to look through and absorb. Only one problem, as a recycler I always feel guilty that my magazines are adding to the environmental issues that many of us are concerned about. I read a magazine a few times, maybe tear out an article or two to save, and then add it to our recycling bin. That is the reason this trend towards online design magazines appeal to me.

While every design magazine offers an online presence along with many cool online extras, Nesting Newbies is the first completely online interior design magazine that I am aware of. It made its debut in 2009 and has published four issues to date. Nesting Newbies makes downloading easy so you can download just a few pages of choice or the whole issue for saving or printing.

 

















In October 2009 Lonny Magazine published their first magazine. Lonny Magazine has some gorgeous pictures and  great articles and is published bi-monthly. Downloading is not an option, but you can save links and save pages as jpgs to print later. I was a bit disappointed to read on their website that they are going to start printing paper copies of issues soon including back issues.

 


















The latest addition is High Gloss. This lifestyle magazine is publishing February 1, 2011 and will feature articles on interior design, entertaining, fashion and travel. Founder and Editor in Chief is Paloma Contreras, creator of the style blog La Dolce Vita. I'm really looking forward to this magazine  because it appears to have a talented team behind it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
The best part? So far these online magazine are free! You gotta love that. Are there any good online magazines I should know about? Comment and let me know.