Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity to be part of their main floor update.  The ‘before’ pictures below illustrate the great potential of the space.  A few modern cosmetic updates quickly enhanced the look and feel of these spaces.

What We Love Most About This Project:

~ We removed a heavy wooden valance over the kitchen sink and replaced it with a decorative pendant.  This instantly made the kitchen feel lighter and updated.

~ The flooring: adiós awkward carpet & tile mixture; hello wide-plank engineered maple!

~The fireplace: we closed up the upper arch, eliminated the tile, and updated the entire look with a clean textured limestone tile and a rustic mantle.

~ The lighting: We replaced all the main floor lighting and fans with elements much better suited to the clients’ “mountain modern” tastes.

~ The furniture:  We wanted comfortable yet modern pieces, so we used an extra-deep sofa & oversized chair, both covered in a lighter performance fabric (it’s bleachable!) to keep the furniture from feeling too heavy.

~ The window treatments:  The original curtains came with the home.  We replaced these with top-down-bottom-up light filtering shades, complemented by linen blackout drapery panels.  (And, for the sake of budget, we were able to re-use the previous drapery rod, and we found pre-made panels so the client didn’t have to pay for custom drapery!)

The final touch was incorporating the existing artwork back into the new space.  Each piece of art holds a beautiful glimpse into their lives: art pieces from travels, their daughter’s artistic owl masterpiece, a hand-crafted Balinese sculpture of their dog, artwork created by family, grandmother’s baskets, and grandfather’s barometer.  The personal details of the home shine a light on what our clients value, and we are so honored to help them create their best space.  

The icing on the cake for this project was surprising them with the fun textures we added through the use of pillows and other accessories.  We were thrilled to have them come home from vacation to see (& love) the completed project!

As always, thank you to everyone who contributed to this project:

~ Flash Contracting (finish carpentry)

~ Vama Flooring (wood flooring & carpeting)

~ Pedro with CL Painting

~ Metro Tile (fireplace tile)

The other day I was laying on the kitchen floor painting base trim.  I hate painting trim, which is why, after living in the house 2-1/2 years, it’s still not done.  Anyway, I happened to look up and loved this view and how well the artwork in the kitchen coordinated with the piece we have in the 2nd floor stairwell.

I’ve been meaning to post a photo of this print for a while now.  This is actually an infrared photo that a family friend took (and edited) in downtown Baltimore.  I loved it the minute I saw it, and begged him to share the file with me so I could print it.  I was able to print the high-res version as a 12″x36″ poster (waited for a half off poster printing sale at Staples and got a killer deal), and then we had a custom frame made.  It’s one of my favorite pieces in our home.  I keep telling him he should start an etsy shop with all the great photos he’s taken…

The image to the left is this “Saarinen + Poulson” print from Blue Ant Studio.  (If you love mid-century chairs, check out the other prints – I had a hard time picking which one I wanted!)

I love that so many pieces of art in our home aren’t generic pieces – almost everything has a special meaning or history.  This is our newest piece – by William Germain.  William works for Hallmark Cabinets and has helped me out with some incredible custom pieces and finishes for my projects, and on the side he does some amazing painting on glass.  After my ooh-ing and aah-ing over some of his work, he was kind enough to give me a painting of my own.  By painting on back of the glass, the painting has a lot more depth than a standard canvas.  And this particular paint has an amazing metallic shimmer that I just couldn’t capture with my camera.


Here’s the best part – William has agreed to let me give away one of his pieces!  

My giveaway is for a painting like mine, and the winner gets to choose a blue or yellow metallic background.  Overall size, with frame, is ±25″ x 21″

Here’s what you need to do to enter:

1. Leave a comment here on this post, to include which color you’d choose if you won – the blue or the yellow metallic background.
2. I was going to require that you “like” enzy design on facebook, but started looking online for giveaway/sweepstakes rules and it appears I can’t force you to do anything, so I’ll just suggest that you like me, though I promise this will not in any way affect your chances of winning.

I’ve been seeing a lot of symmetrical geometric prints framed and hung in groups.  People are especially loving this set of 6 from Crate & Barrel:

Believe it or not, you can make your own art, and even if you don’t have a creative bone in your body, it can still look good!  The secret:  Use multiple pieces together in one big arrangement, so the individual pieces are just a small part of the whole look.

See examples below, and keep in mind that these would be great gift ideas if you’re on a budget (and we all are!)

You can use this approach with photographs:

  You can do the same thing with kid’s art:

I love the following images, where the children’s art was scanned or photographed and made into a poster collage:

You can also use non-traditional display methods:

Of, if you are somewhat confident in your creative abilities, try something like these resin art pieces :