12.08.2011

family room

we moved into our townhouse in fall of 2009 from a two-bedroom 650-square-foot apartment. we had a few furniture pieces but many of them were dwarfed by the bigger rooms in our new place. my original tactic for decorating was "tackle the whole house now" since i wanted every room pieced together perfectly right away! you know that feeling. so i shopped at my favorite stores and looked for good deals, only to get home and not actually have a place for things.
i couldn't seem to make the magic happen.

so... enter kirsten this spring. i was hesitant to hire someone because i didn't want to spend money on ideas and a decorator, and then not be able to buy the furniture and accessories. one of the great things about kirsten is that she let me have as much control as i wanted. the more i handled, the less she charged.

she helped a lot at the beginning. she sent 50 fabric images to me and had me rank them, we talked about overall style, decided on the room layout, and how to add curtains--all the big things. once a few of the fabrics were selected and we had layouts for the rooms, i went to work and found multiples of furniture pieces for the room. i would throw a bunch of links in an email, like five coffee tables i liked for instance, and she helped me narrow it down and explained why one or two were better than the others.

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photography by jessica kettle

one of my favorite things about the room is how it lights up at night. the lamps warm the room and make it feel so cozy!

i absolutely love what kirsten helped me create and i would use her again in a second! the biggest headache? the picture wall. number of returned items? one, a solid blue rug that was too green. total months to complete? 6. best bargain? the wall clock. biggest splurge? the coffee table.

here is a source list if you're interested:

rugs | williams-sonoma home
ikat chairs | csn stores
couch | ashley furniture
coffee table | crate & barrel
table lamps | homegoods
side tables | kohl's
mirror table | west elm
frames & books | thrifted
tv stand | target
floor lamp | amazon, robert abbey
gold poufs | ebay
wallpaper | walls, veneto: printers guild production
clock | ebay
curtains | wilmington

11 comments:

Sarah (: said...

It looks great! :D Can't wait to see it in person. (:

Kim and Preston said...

Good job this looks fabulous! I will just hire you one day!

VoNique said...

I love love LOVE it! It looks like it came straight from a magazine! Actually...it's kinda hard to tell from the pictures. I think I'm going to need to see it in real life. :)

Shannon said...

You & Kirsten together are amazing!! Just love it all.

Chelsea said...

looks beautiful candace! i love kirsten...she's so sweet, and obviously does great work! i'm happy for you! makes me excited to someday get my house together! miss you!

Erin Masi said...

Candace! Your place looks beautiful!! I love it!!

Jenn said...

Wow, amazing!! good job girl. I love all the different patterns. Everything just works so well together. Totally from a magazine.

I could definitely use some help in the decorating area. You're my inspiration.

Unknown said...

What brand/color is that lovely blue paint you've selected?

Candace said...

I thought I kept the name or a swatch of the blue paint color, but its gone missing. I tried to find it and I can't. Sorry!

Ejohnsonk said...

Love this! Do you know where the pillows are from on your sofa?! I love these!!!

Unknown said...

EJohnsonk, the red pillow is from West Elm, the yellow pillow and the small dark blue pillows are from Target, and the chevron and ikat pillows are custom from Etsy.