by studiotullia | Oct 28, 2016 | DESIGN TRENDS, HOME IMPROVEMENT
Well here we are at WEEK 4 of the ORC. I am at a rather difficult stage of this project.
PAINTING OVER THE ORANGE WALLS
The orange walls have required at least three coats of white paint and I’m not even sure that’s going to do it. I still have to paint the trim on the doors and the stairs.
My intention is to finish those by the end of the weekend. We’ll see how that goes. This is after one coat so you can see what we are dealing with.
That old trim is looking pretty funky.
Trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The pictures for my gallery wall are being matted and assembled this week.
I ordered a runner from West Elm and I’m hoping it’s everything I want it to be
Once I have it, I can figure out the door paint colors
So I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me NEXT WEEK.
I’ll be painting the dresser and selecting new hardware…
My husband’s job is to install the lighting and assist with painting. He is a seriously speedy champ on the paint roller.
We also need to restore the floor at the bottom of the stairs. It is the scariest thing we found when we pulled up the rug. This area is also the entry into my home office so I thought it needed something.
I found an awesome stencil on Instagram from HEIRLOOM142 . It is coming from Canada so I hope it gets here in time! They shipped it out the next day which I really appreciated.
I’m stressing out this week so wish me good luck.
Grab a huge cup of coffee (or wine if that applies) and follow along with all the other DESIGNERS and GUEST PARTICIPANTS
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. I’ll talk to you next week!
Best,
Suzanne
![ONE ROOM CHALLENGE 2016 -WEEK 6 of CHARLOTTE’S ROOM FINAL REVEAL!]()
by studiotullia | May 13, 2016 | DESIGN TRENDS, HOME IMPROVEMENT, HOUSE TOUR: Traditional Spanish Style House near Pto. Vallarta, INTERIOR DESIGNERS THAT INSPIRE
Well, we managed to finish up just in time! Here are the results. We were lucky to have a bright sunny day for these last minute pictures, thanks to my amazing assistant, Amanda. Everything is smelling like roses and I am drinking a gin and tonic as I write this (it is after 5 pm West coast time, FYI).
FINAL REVEAL:
Below is a painting of our backyard fig tree that Charlotte and her friend Alex painted together last year. I floated it in one of IKEA’s shadow box frames.
As you can see we have a little woodland theme going on with the deers and bunny rabbit. I know the rose floral shade on the sconce and bed linens from IKEA are a departure from the neon splatter, but it was such a lovely pattern we bent the matchy matchy rules. Perhaps bold colors or solid colored linens would have worked better, but we wanted to make these work. They’re cozy and a little English or something. The framed deer art is hand cross stitched by a very patient Oregonian: a vintage find that was in perfect condition. The antique bed is an heirloom from my grandparents that my Mother stripped and refinished years ago.
The large splatter pillow was a trial run before the curtains and the hand drawn critter pillow Charlotte drew awhile back as a prototype for a school auction project. The cross pillow was from STUDIO TULLIA inventory and we liked it in the room.
You can see a little bit of the furry stool we created by covering an IKEA stool. It is the perfect little occasional stool for this tiny room and adds some much needed glamour.
I want to show you a close up of the white bunny painting by Oregonian artist ELIZABETH SEE because she is so talented.
We have come quite a ways in just a couple weeks. Here are a few before shots:
Getting that pink the right color took some work. Between BENJAMIN MOORE PAINT and METRO PAINT we got it done.
The IKEA curtains were perhaps the funnest part of this project and they really set the tone for the room.
This IKEA PS 2014 ceiling pendant is very cool in its design. The pull factor really is fun at night and gives you a diverse range of visual effects. Her twin brother Arthur is a little jealous when it comes to the light. Thank God they have lego building experience as they put this thing together all by themselves. Whereas that project might have put me right over the edge.
This is her bookshelf which I have staged for this shoot. The camellias ,roses and hydrangeas are from our garden. The amethyst cut crystal vase was her great grandmother’s and the other vase is a hand painted vintage vase as well. The flower etched globe light is from IKEA. And we all know that’s an AMERICAN DOLL in a wheelchair. The one thing in the catalog Arthur liked because it had wheels.
HARRY POTTER books without their covers aren’t so bad looking next to the collection of NANCY DREW books.
All of the pillows in this feature have been provided by my primary sponsor ~ STUDIO TULLIA! Vintage ones (like the cool beaded rose pillow above) as well as other vintage oddities are available through TULLIA MARKETPLACE, which is not fully off the ground, but should be by this Summer.
Here are a few more pictures of the flowers up close because they are just so pretty. The vase is by who else…IKEA. The little painting is by Charlotte.
A FEW MORE NOTES…
We decided last minute to switch out her side table form TARGET and it needed to be white. The finish was antique gold and it just fell flat in the corner. We almost painted the gold framed mirror, too, but decided it added some bling and was ok as is.
This room was a quite a challenge because in all honesty this room is a dog. The room is tiny, the ceiling is slanted, the windows and trim work are funky, and many more issues I don’t need to bore you with.
The good news is that this is the room she wants to be in and is a very happy girl. She could not fall asleep last night she was so excited. I hated to wake her up this morning. This room is her safe haven, compared to the larger guest room where she was temporarily staying during this project.
Sweet Dreams, my Sweet Charlotte.
I am excited to grab a cup of coffee tomorrow morning and indulge myself in the many final reveals as part of the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, thanks to CALLING IT HOME.
This was a great challenge for me and 6 weeks was just about right. I am excited to do another room in the Fall.
Here is the link to twenty very talented designer bloggers’ final reveals HERE
And if that’s not enough, there are over 1,000 Guest Participant Final Reveals to view HERE:
Thanks so much for following along!
Best,
Suzanne
by studiotullia | May 5, 2016 | DESIGN TRENDS, HOME IMPROVEMENT, HOUSE TOUR: Traditional Spanish Style House near Pto. Vallarta
Well, we are coming into WEEK 5 with one week left to go. It has not been glamorous: its been about painting and electrical, but it is almost done!
My husband spent half a day last weekend putting in the electrical for the ceiling pendant in Charlotte’s room and while he was at it he upgraded our smoke alarms upstairs which felt good to check off the list.
As you can see, we got the walls painted and just have the trim left to paint. It took a little work to get the lilac and pink right. I think they are not too intense and balance each other out pretty well.
We still need to add trim to this one wall. Don’t ask me why it’s not there. That is how this house rolls and has for several decades.
Hope Hubbie can find the plates for the switches and outlets. I got the curtains hemmed and just need the hardware installed. Oh honey…
Yesterday we assessed where we are with ART, PILLOWS and BED LINENS.
She got this in MEXICO:
There is never a shortage of pillows around here. The splattered one was made up using leftover fabric from Charlotte’s curtain project.
We might paint the frame on this mirror. Haven’t decided yet.
We have this large vintage cross stitch piece that I found at a rummage sale that Charlotte loves. 
It sort of ties in with the bed which is an antique from my grandparents.
And, here is another lovely Mexican textile to add to the mix.
To check in on the ORC Featured Designers, go HERE
And, to see the ORC Guest Participants, go HERE
So, there’s a lot to do still, but we are going to pull this thing together by next week. Until then….have a great rest of the week.
– Suzanne
by studiotullia | Apr 28, 2016 | BENEFITS & GREAT CAUSES, DESIGN TRENDS, HOME IMPROVEMENT, HOUSE TOUR: Traditional Spanish Style House near Pto. Vallarta
Things are getting real here, folks, with only a couple weeks left. Our goal is to have electrical, painting, curtain installation and most of the furnishings in place by next week. That will leave the last week for bed linens, art, styling and the photo shoot.
Check out the GUEST PARTICIPANTS HERE
And check out the FEATURED DESIGNERS HERE
There are some wonderful projects going on so take a peek.
SPLATTERED CURTAINS
If you recall, we have been discussing Charlotte’s curtains and I had some serious concerns about the outcome…
Well we decided to dive in one recent afternoon. Starting with the three neon paints dyes (with glitter) I made her do a few practice runs, trying different brushes and splatter techniques.
We put a tarp down in the back yard and laid the two cotton curtain panels on it.
We got out the neon dye colors:
And, here she is giving it a whirl.
Lots of mixing going on…
After a few practice runs on scrap fabric, and before we even started on the curtains we had to run back to COLLAGE, our local crafts store to get more paint! 
By the time we got back with SEVERAL more fabric dye colors, it was starting to get dark!
The paints and splattered textiles were even beginning to glow. We had to hustle as I was not setting all this up again. I didn’t want her to over do it anyway.
She was able to get it all done before it was too dark and we were really happy with the results:
I am also making a euro sham for her bed out of a couple of the scrap pieces. All in all it took about two hours.
UPHOLSTERED STOOL
We needed to find some sort of small chair or stool for her room and I came across this one while shopping at FABRIC DEPOT. I picked it up to look underneath and drum roll please… it was from IKEA!
So back to IKEA I went and got this for $35.
I had some leftover white fur from my pillow line on ETSY so I am using that to cover the stool.
Here’s the fur we used although it is more white – Arctic Fox white. We are going to decide later if we want to paint the legs or leave them black.
Here it is…what do you think? This puppy could use a little trim/combing, but not too shabby:
TEXTILES & PENDLETON:
I was shopping at Pendleton Woolen Mills and came across this interesting turquoise plaid that I thought might be a colorful blanket. So I am keeping that in mind at $60/yard.
Here is one of the PINK CROSS pillows available at STUDIO TULLIA on ETSY that we are planning to use on her bed.
And I am just starting to think about art, although she already has quite a bit of her own to work with. I just think these are lovely.
And lastly, think it would be fun to paint her door this rose quartz when we get to the hallway outside her room.
Wishing everyone a great few last days of the week.
And, thanks for reading!
Best,
Suzanne
by studiotullia | Apr 21, 2016 | DESIGN TRENDS, HOME IMPROVEMENT, HOUSE TOUR: Traditional Spanish Style House near Pto. Vallarta
We decided to get some shopping done for the essentials of the room: lighting, hardware and curtains. I wasn’t sure how much input to let Charlotte have, but for the most part she picked some essentials I couldn’t find too much fault with. I just had to keep reminding her that the room is small so we couldn’t go too loud or crazy.
So here’s what we accomplished in less than two hours at IKEA:
LIGHTING:
She picked this floral etched glass KNUBBIG globe, which is a pretty accent light for the bookshelf. It has a subtle cherry blossom motif which is in keeping with our theme.
We finally decided on this chandelier by DAVID WAHL. I am curious to see how it looks installed. We chose the turquoise inside rather than the orange.
I like that you can easily pull on the cords to control the amount of light into the room.
Then we chose this RODD sconce that we paired with the EMMIE BLOM shade which has a nice floral pattern:
They had it on display and we liked it. We are from the City of Roses afterall.
Next we moved onto…
HARDWARE & CURTAINS:
This is the look we were after with the grommets. We chose the MERETE cotton curtains which are a nice weight cotton.
We also wanted sheers so we picked the LILL lace curtains:
We went with the VASENTLIG ball finials and double curtain rods:
Pretty basic choices, but I feel good that we got those items taken care of. It gives my husband some time to install the pendant and sconces as well as the curtains rods.
We are still painting the walls and hoping to have that done soon. And, Charlotte plans to splatter the curtains…oh boy.
I loved this chair but it is too big.
We also considered this one at VINTAGE VINTAGE on Division St, but again too big.
Would you look at all the carts at IKEA! We were leaving as they were closing up.
Well, thanks for reading and we will see you next week!
Best,
Suzanne
