+ art, color, decorating, furniture, home decor, Interior design, Interior Design Trends, kitchen design, Lifestyle, organization, paint, personal style, Redesign, style
“Less is More: The Zen of Minimalist Interior Design (Plus, It Won’t Hide Your Keys!)”
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Let’s Talk Kitchens
+ Area Rugs, art, color, decorating, Designing You, fabric, Feng Shui, furniture, home decor, Interior design, Interior Design Trends, Lifestyle, lighting, Outdoor Living, paint, personal style, Redesign, style, wallpaper
Real Design Talks Continued
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Feature, Feature, Feature
It always makes me so happy to have people and companies to reach out for my thoughts and ideas about how to bring a space together. Recently Redfin reached out for some thoughts on how to work with windows and for interesting ideas that aren’t the typical answers. Check out this great article that features Artful Conceptions along with some other designers on how to highlight your windows uniquely!
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Recent Magazine Article
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A Wild and Crazy Year
I know every year I saw that I will blog more and let everyone know what we are up to. This year I seriously dropped off for way too long and I truly apologize. Reality is that there was no way to keep up with all that was going on design wise and keep a blog going. And as I spoke about before; self care needed to be on the top of my list so the blog totally got the chopping block. As did all of my writing so no new book was worked on this year either. But with all of that said I have to say that there have been some amazing projects worked on, new avenues of growth and a true happiness.
With all of the building growth there were many many design sessions this year. These are a few pictures of homes that were designed.
There were remodels everything from bathrooms to full house guts and redos.
There were paintings created for special spaces.
There were new construction homes finally completed.
There was lots and lots of waiting. Windows went to 25 weeks lead time. Furniture took over 20 weeks to make. Cabinets went from 4 weeks to 20 weeks. There were quarantines, and losses of vendor and craftsman. There was inflation and crazy price increases. There was lack of labor and installers. There were awesome and amazing clients and there was frustration and super creative thinking. Managing projects went from walking construction sites to being connected to a computer and phone searching for product and shipping options. The words, discontinued and unavailable were a daily occurrence and to have only one or two pieces in a project fall on that list was a cause for celebration. And yet through all of this it was one of the biggest years for almost everyone in the industry.
The biggest things that I took away from this year is to not take anything too seriously. Life is going to happen and we can either worry and fret about all of it constantly seeing the negative, or we can take a deep breath, do our best and try to leave work at work. The pandemic has taught us all that we cannot predict the future, so taking a moment to enjoy each and everyday is what life is really about. For me this means working on projects I love, taking me time, enjoying my family and not feeling guilty about taking vacation time to recharge.
+ color, Design Blogger, Designing You, Interior design, Lifestyle, Outdoor Living, personal style, style
Finding Calm and Inspiration
As many of you know the building and housing industry is going crazy right now. And by crazy I don’t just mean super busy. It is crazy on so many levels. There is lack of product, extremely high prices for basic product like lumber, long wait times to get product, 22 weeks for impact windows, and houses that aren’t on the market for more than a minute. New construction is sold before the footers are even dug and the price to build the house will now double before completion if we keep at the same rate. So what does all of this mean to the design industry? It means having to be constantly thinking on your feet. Having difficult conversations and needing really good connections in the industry. It also means that you have to pace yourself or you will get burnt out, fast! If you are a new designer and haven’t lived through this kind of growth and insanity you are probably eating it up and thinking this is the way it is always going to be. I remember when I first got into design and we were in this type of market. It was great to ride the ride. Although when it came to implementing things not just putting the design together reality set in. That lack of product and long wait times made for unhappy clients. Finding labor to do the job at the price bid became next to impossible and stress became a daily event. It was in those times that I realized how important it was to have really good vendors and contractors. That building those relationships would be key to being successful in the industry. It also taught me that I needed to take care of my mindset and to continuously find way to be inspired.
I have always been a sunrise person. I love watching the sun come up and bring a new day. I think it goes back to growing up on the water and loving to see it send shimmers. As a child I would sit on the dock with my feet in the water and just listen to all of the sounds of nature. As I got older I would take trips with my aunt and uncle hiking in the mountains. The trip I will always remember was to Arcadia and the mornings watching the sunrise from the mountain over the ocean. For me these morning sunrises have always been my reset. Whether it has been stress for work, family, children, divorce, or just finding myself the sunrise has been the perfect morning meditation time. I wish that I could say that I find the time everyday to watch the sunrise and have my morning coffee and meditate but that would not be life. What is life is finding time to go away, reset and take breaks from the daily grind. This week I have taken off to Destin. This has been a great trip for the kids to be kids. Swimming, fishing and just exploring new things. But it has also allowed me to have my morning time walking the beach, watching the sunrise and putting life into perspective. Taking time to set goals for where I want to be in all aspects of my life.
Each morning I enjoy the sunrise with a cup of coffee and then walk the beautiful beach. Some days my mind is going a million miles and I find myself walking super fast others my mind is clear and it is a slow introspective walk. Other days it is stopping along the way to talk to the other early risers who are walking the beach or fishing. It is finding new shells and seeing the colors bounce off the water. It is saying hello to the birds and being greeted back.
It is watching the power of the surf and realizing how small we are in comparison. The beautiful rocks that jut out into the ocean with no agenda just to be and stand firm. The rocks that are worn away over time by the surf and yet come out even more magnificent with each wave that hits them.
So when life is crazy and everything seems stressful it might really mean taking a step back and refocusing. Remembering what you love and what inspires you. For me, I see new color combinations in each and every sunrise. I see building designs in the sand and rocks. I see new paintings ready to be created from the shell and wave designs. I see new directions that I want to take my business and life. I see goals forming and creating. I see inspiration in each and every sunrise.
Where will you find your inspiration? How do you find your calm? Share with my your morning or evening rituals to bring you focus and direction.
+ art, color, decorating, Design Blogger, fabric, furniture, home decor, Interior design, Lifestyle, lighting, Outdoor Living, paint, personal style, Redesign, style
Designing and Creating
With all the changes that this year has brought I have continued to have some of the most amazing clients and am so thankful for the beautiful projects I have been able to work on. Last week I did the first round of install on this home that we gutted and redesigned. This beautiful pool home was ready for a big update and I love that this client wanted a modern flare to the space. We redid the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, doors, paint, trim, lighting and the exterior. Basically a complete redo! I am in love with how this kitchen came together!
The white cabinets with the cushion backsplash really brings the space together and brightened the whole house. Love how we created a build in fridge look even though is wasn’t a built in fridge!
The master bath now has two sinks and is truly a functional space!
We brought in all new furniture throughout and did a big day one install with artwork and lighting.
Love how all of it is coming together and check out those huge paintings! Tomorrow will be the next round of installation with accessories and little finishing touches. Check back to see how it comes together and the spaces keep updating to create the perfect comfy home!
I talked about how recently I have been reconnecting with myself. Who I am as a designer. Who I am as a Mom. Who I am as an artist. Who I am as a business owner. And who I am as a person. When you have spent years being everything for everyone else this can be hard to truly acknowledge what it is you want and need. It has been great connecting with other Mom’s and hearing their stories about mom life. And a huge shout out to Mom Life USA, I can’t wait for the t-shirts to show up! Thank you for asking me to be a part of your community and I look forward to rocking some super cool clothes!
The one theme that I have heard from all of the Mom’s that I have been talking to is the huge amount of guilt that we share when we aren’t doing something. That if we have five minutes that aren’t scheduled we should be doing something for the kids, cleaning dishes, vacuuming the house, strategizing how to grow our businesses, meal prep and planning or doing laundry. Sound familiar? This past week taking time for just me felt weird. I missed my kids terribly but I also found a person that had been long gone. I had moments where I did nothing. Yup absolutely nothing. But the big thing I did was take in all that was around me. I enjoyed going through art galleries. The Susan Swartz gallery was amazing. She has had her work all over the world including in international embassies. It inspired me to continue with different techniques in my painting.
Although I studied painting in college I focused more on design, printmaking and sculpture so I know many techniques but had not practiced many. The time away and my explorations drove me to experiment with impasto techniques. Many people know this style of painting from Van Gogh. But this style was used back in the time of Titian and Rubens. The translation simply means to apply thick paint. Often the paint is applied with a palette knife and as modern art became more and more popular the impasto technique became a requirement in the painting community. Modern art took on the idea that the brush strokes and texture created in the medium could and did convey feeling and the artists response to a subject. So for me creating pieces in the impasto style was about connecting more and more to myself. The energy and excitement that came from tapping into who I am as an artist had me create three new pieces since my return.
Working an impasto style painting is invigorating and therapeutic. Working with the thick paint felt like I was creating a sculpture on canvas. Each layer upon layer was like laying down part of my soul, connecting with the medium and the colors. I got such an understanding of why the modernist painters felt that one had to use the impasto technique to truly connect with their work. The ability to manipulate the light and depth through the technique is fantastic. The paintings feel like living breathing works. I believe I will continue with this impasto series and continue to explore how emotions and part of me mix with each piece. One thing I have learned, although I am putting part of me onto every canvas I actually feel more whole than every before. The connection I am finding in painting again is connecting myself to who I am in all parts of my life.
If any of my pieces connect with you they can be purchased on on Etsy site. Yup I re-activated the Etsy site I started back in 2012. Who knows you might start to see some of my handmade jewelry come back onto the site. Making necklaces for the strawberry festival got me itching to make some more pieces. etsy.com/shop/artfulconceptionsllc
I have to admit I have a really hard time talking about an being vulnerable. So this blog post is hard to write and yet there is part of me that is driven to write it for accountability and to let others out there know that they aren’t alone. Designing for better health has to start at home.
As a mom of three and business owner anxiety is a regular emotion. And the act of self care and taking mom time can be guilt ridden as there is always that feeling in the back of my mind that I should be doing something else, that there is something else more important than me. Any other moms, parents, business owners out there that feel this way?
At one point in my life I let myself give so much of me that I was constantly living in a Lupus flare and missing out on so much of the wonderful things in life. Part of designing and tapping into the creative process is putting part of yourself into each design. When you aren’t adding back to you the process is exhausting. Add in parenting and trying to be the perfect wife and I was living looking forward to the vacations that I would schedule to have a week where I could shut things off with the high hopes that the vacation would be perfect. And I am sure you would know what happens when things need to be perfect, they rarely are and the unrealized expectations just make the situation worse. The anxiety would rise. I needed to find a way to believe that what I wanted and needed was just as important as what everyone else needed and that if I kept giving all of me to everyone else there wouldn’t be anything left of me.
Over the past year and a half I have been consciously working on taking care of myself. Setting boundaries. Taking time for friends, going hiking, painting and my favorite thing skiing. I realized that I can’t keep working 60+ hours a week. The high altitude of the ski mountains is amazing for my lupus. It may be getting out of the humidity in Florida or the peaceful settings and adjustment of oxygen levels. People talk about altitude sickness, I feel the best at higher altitudes like my body is brand new and the lupus doesn’t exist. So for me self care is not just taking care of mind and body but also finding ways to make sure I keep my lupus in check.
These views bring such peace to my soul. I have to say there was definitely some serious mom guilt going on, that this week I am out exploring a new place and skiing without the kids. And they definitely let me know that they wished that they could be with me. There was so much guilt about going by myself. Everything from did I really want to be states away from my kids, what if something happened? Did I really need to spend the money on myself? Am I taking away from something I should be doing for my kids or my clients? But in the end I realized that I can’t keep running on empty. That I needed to be inspired to bring new ideas back to my clients. That I needed time to myself where I am not worrying about everything going on with the kids. And even bigger that I made a commitment to myself to keep healing me so that I can recognize the anxiety, fear and pain that came with the past and move forward. To not live in it, to acknowledge and release it. This can be scary and so satisfying when accomplished.
Today I had a huge moment. I am rarely ever nervous about heights. I was a gymnast, I was the kid that would walk on top of monkey bars. I walked construction sites on the top floors while pregnant with no stairs/railing, solely going up ladders in heals. Roller coasters and amusement rides, all things I love to do. So today when I got to the top of the mountain there was a panic that set in out of nowhere. Yes it was high, over 9,500 ft but I had been higher. It was a new run for me and for the first time this week I had a realization that I was out here alone. But it wasn’t a sad alone it was a connection to me. It was a heightened sense of being that I was super aware of everything around me. The view was amazing.
The signage on the lift going up says no easy way down. And there was no easy way down but there was an exhilarating way down. The sense of accomplishment to overcome the nervousness, to have faith in my abilities and to trust that I was capable. A little over a year ago I had never taken a run down a mountain by myself, even though I have been skiing since I was 8 years old. Today I am on a week trip skiing by myself and not stopping myself from going to the very top of the mountain. I am putting myself out there swallowing the fear of not being perfect and just being me. Realizing that it is ok to say that I don’t know everything, that I do need breaks and that self care is just as important as the care I give everyone else.
So here I am, about to turn 41. Letting go of the voices that tell me I’m not good enough. Looking to a future that doesn’t let others dictate how I see myself. Setting an keeping boundaries that respect me. And learning how to celebrate each and every moment, even those where I am not perfect.
So join me in celebrating all the parents and business owners that are finally taking care of themselves. Give them a smile, a like, a nod to the fact that you know they are trying as hard as they can. Find a way to look for positive intent and be the helping hand they are too afraid to ask for. And if you have found a way to overcome your anxiety and guilt I want to hear about it!
+ decorating, Design Blogger, Designing You, Interior design, Interior Design Trends, Lifestyle, personal style, style
The White Barn
On my first night in Park City I came across the cutest local Italian Restaurant and Bar. Lucky for me it is right across from my hotel! I chose to sit at the bar get a great class of Sangiovese and have a bit to eat.
Looks amazing right!?! It was and so was the company of locals that were also hanging at the bar. There is nothing better than wandering into the place that the locals go, you know the food will be good and you can get great tips on things to do and see. So I asked what was the one most iconic architectural place in Park City. The answer came back without a doubt the White Barn.
The White Barn is a historic landmark here in Park City that was originally the homestead of the Harrison McLane Family. It dates back to 1886 and was purchased by the Citizens of Park City in 1990 to preserve the history. It is a very cool location and now has cross country trails, bike trails and walking trails around for all to use. The original property was a 160 acre farm. 80 acres were sold to the McPolin Family in 1897 and in 1922 the barn was erected from recycled timber salvaged from the old mines. If you didn’t know this whole are was silver mines and many made their start in these mines.
This iconic barn sits in the middle of mountains and off of a now 4 lane highway. One one side you can park and hit the trail heads. On the other side is the White Barn. There is an amazing tunnel that goes under the highway and you definitely want to use the tunnel. (Don’t be like me the first time and try to run across the highway!) And you will want to experience this tunnel as it is a beautiful mural.
I never in a million years expected to see this kind of beauty in a tunnel under a highway. The modern mural with the elements of the area speaks to the combination of Park City. There is this dichotomy here of history and tradition and new modern elements. And as you talk to the locals you will get some of the frustration of the history being removed and taken over. But yet they are open and friendly and are excited to tell you all about their favorite places.
When you come out of the tunnel there is this peaceful place where the barn sits in the middle of trails and mountains.
There is a river that runs through the front of the property and the cutest bridge with trees that just call out for you to hang in. And you will see people doing all kinds of photo shoots at the location. It is the a number one spot for wedding pictures. I got to see a girl doing what looked like senior pictures in a bright red ball gown in the snow. Brrrr!
Throughout the property there are plaques that tell the story of the White Barn and the owners.
There has been so much of the farmhouse design style and seeing this historic barn in person made me smile. There are elements that I love and the combination of wood, metal and concrete. I also love that they still have the old farm equipment on site so you can really feel like you are back in time.
Check out those garage doors! I bet you thought the ones everyone has been doing the past few years were a new thing. Nope, here they are glass with those awesome beams. I love the siding that is both horizontal and vertical. Check out the stone base, this is the same process as how the Romans built. I love that this site has been saved for all to enjoy. Go experience the history and be inspired to bring some design elements into your home. Historical elements never go wrong!
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