A little while back I had the honor to design a room for a young lady who was very into fashion. In fact, she inspired me to create these accent Pillows and Wall Art! If you look closely at my Glam Damask Pillow you will see that it is silhouettes of some of every girls favorite perfumes & make-up. Of course one of my favorites is my Lipstick Pillow front and center. The headboard is a fairly inexpensive Wall Decal. My favorite wall decals are from a company called Glam-A-Peel. Karen has so many options to choose from! They are perfect for someone who is renting, a dorm room, or someone who changes their mind a lot! The bedding is from PB Teen and it's still one of my favorites. Pretty simple! And Green! Happy St. Pat's!!
Shop The Love!
I'm so excited to have teamed up with the amazing ShopTen25 for a very fun Valentine's Pop Up Shop! I've created a limited edition of Original Watercolors now available at ShopTen25.com! Once they're sold, they're gone! Give the gift of Original Art to the one you Love or buy one for yourself! Many colors to choose from, 8" x 10", sale ends February 10th! xoxoxo
Can You Guess Which Color Won By A Landslide?
I recently completed a commission for LoLa Home, a beautiful home decor company in Brazil! They were lovely to work with! They had asked for several watercolors of flowers in their specified colors. It was so much fun to paint flowers! So it got me going on an entire flower kick! If you follow me on Instagram (@MariRDesign) I post quite a bit on what I'm working on.
This was one of my latest posts. I created this pattern from a Peony watercolor painting I did. When I started playing with different background colors, I couldn't decide! So I asked the question, which color? Blue, White, or Black??? I was actually a little surprised that one color was clearly the winner!
Blue! So interesting!
Nautical Boy's Room
OK I have to admit it, I'm really not very good at taking pictures of my interior design projects. I literally create dozens of projects in a year and I'm constantly moving on to the next as soon as I can finish the last. There's also the fact that my clients actually Live there. So as soon as I'm done I almost feel like I don't want to disturb them to take pictures. They've been waiting and want to obviously enjoy their space! I also just use my iphone to take pictures but this year I'm actually going to invest in a Real camera! Until then, I'm going to do my best to be a little more consistent on my blog & pop in a few pictures of some recent projects as best as I can, iphone and all.
I'll start with this Nautical Room I designed for a young boy. I love the accent wall and how it all came together. One of the best things you can do if your budget is tight, is use paint for impact. he Paddles are from Potter Barn & the mural from Land Of Nod. The bedding is Serena & Lily.
Peruvian New Year's Eve Traditions!
It all started with a conversation over a glass of wine at Christmas. I was speaking with my mother-in-law who is from Peru. We were talking about New Year's Eve and what we had planned. She then says to me, in her rather heavy accent, "Make sure you wear your yellow panties." With a glass of wine already consumed and her accent, I had to think to myself if I had actually heard her correctly? But I was right. She told me I need to wear yellow panties on New Years Eve! Um, OK, why? She then told me it was a Peruvian Tradition. Yellow Panties means you will have happiness in the year to come! Well Ok then, getting me a pair of yellow panties & green & red! We then talked about several other traditions that were so fun to learn about. I decided to paint a little watercolor to share with you the meaning of these Peruvian Traditions!
I had to chuckle a bit more when my husband chimed in and recalled this memory from his childhood. "Remember Mom, when you'd make me stay up until midnight when I was a little kid to walk to the corner of the house with an empty suitcase? I never even knew why?" ha ha According to the tradition, if you do this you will have great travels in the year ahead! I'm planning on doing this tonight!
Well, there you have it. Thank you for stopping bye. I'd love to hear what your family traditions are! May you have Very Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year! xoxo
Happy Holidays From Our Home To Yours!
Blue & White Bash At The Pink Pagoda!
This year I've had the pleasure to meet some really lovely and wonderful people via social media. I like to think that Jennifer from The Pink Pagoda is a true trend setter and visionary in the world of design. She is the original and the real deal and collaborating with her has been an incredible pleasure. Today she is hosting her famous Blue & White Bash! I was beyond excited to receive an invite to participate! Head over to her blog to check out this incredible link up party and receive some serious Interior Design Inspiration!!
In between countless design projects for my clients, I try to squeeze in some design for myself. We built and designed our home over a decade ago and it's in need of a design spruce up. When designing for myself it's all about color. I recently created my two Pagoda Paintings with the colors that I want to use in my own living room but too much color can be, well, too much. This is why I love the concept of a Blue and White room with just pops of color.
I put together this Mood Board with my Wish List of Blue and White Decor that I would Love to incorporate into my living room. Just to share with you too, these are some of the best places on the net to find current and gorgeous home decor! I found the sofa, coffee table and garden stool from ShopTen25. The fabulous chippendale chair is from ShopTheManor. The woven wood blinds are from Hunter Douglas (really worth every penny!) and of course you can find All kinds of gorgeous home decor accents, including this fabulous Jana Bek Brush Stroke Lamp at The Pink Pagoda's shop!
If you follow me on Instagram you know that I'm currently obsessed with zebras. They are beautiful creatures! So when I knew I needed a more toned down fabric (meaning just one color) for some accent pillows, I painted this little guy. BTW if you like to paint, I highly recommend Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors. I scanned him in Photoshop and created a repeat that I liked for my fabric. I'm currently on the hunt for some hot pink fringe to finish off these pillows.
That's it...I'll keep you posted on how this room turns out. Make sure you head over to The Pink Pagoda's link up and check out all the other bloggers and their awesome Blue and White rooms!
PS!!! Don't forget today is Cyber Monday and everything in My Shop is 20% OFF Today Only! Use Code: CYBERSALE at check out. xoxo Mari
1 Blue Zebra Pillows coming to my Shop soon! // 2 Jana Bek Brush Stroke Lamp // 3 Pagoda Painting In Teal // 4 Pagoda Painting In Pink // 5 Navy Lacquered Coffee Table // 6 Blue Zebra Accent Pillow // 7 Indigo Garden Trellis Stool // 8 Chinese Porcelain Planter // 9 Chippendale Arm Chair // 10 White Leather Chesterfield Sofa // 11 Woven Woods
The Evolution Of A Concept
In honor of my friend, Jennifer, over at The Pink Pagoda & her Blue & White Mondays, (today she is sharing gorgeous blue and white bedrooms!) I thought I would share a little snippet of a recent project. (BTW I'm thrilled with the new Squarespace format because now I can really show you some of the projects that I've been working on!)
WM Design Consultants
This was a gorgeous house that I had the pleasure work on from the beginning. During the design phase, prior to building, there are several conversations between the client, architect, designer and builder. It's the best time to hammer out all the details. So when it came to a long hallway my clients had, (most of my design friends know that I have an issue with Hallways - Not a fan of bowling allies unless I actually plan on bowling!) my clients were open to jazzing it up a bit. I suggested adding french doors and a fabulous reading nook, which I have to say, is now one of my favorite architectural details of this entire house. Fortunately my clients are very design conscious and were completely open to the idea and we repeated the arch detail in several other places throughout the house. (I Love repetition of form!) My client picked these great fabrics and now this thoughtful and creative feature looks out upon their gorgeous pool and landscaping. The perfect place to crawl up with a good book or take a nap!
Rendering By Jennifer Martin - Architect