For the past year Enzy Design has been volunteering with the Family Support Center, doing a donation drive and helping with updates to their Administrative Offices.  We have been truly inspired by their mission and the dedication of their staff.

We recently had the opportunity to tour the LifeStart Village units, and we learned how underutilized the community living rooms are, since they are now 15 years old, dated, and drab.  The residents of these units are single-parent families and they are fighting hard to give their kids the best they can give.   Currently, these living rooms do not convey a feeling of hope and optimism.  Since we know Design Makes a Difference, we want to transform these rooms into comfortable, inviting, and functional living spaces that encourage a sense of community within the villages.  We’ve done some space-planning, and we have general concepts ready to implement.

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)