Redo Update

Emily, our NYC career girl has been working hard to update her apartment using both my suggestions and her own ideas. I promised to keep you informed so check out these great photos Emily recently sent. She purchased that cute giraffe chair and a gorgeous sofa table from Pier1.

Emily recently asked for help on choosing a lamp. So far, I have only one photo for her but I will keep looking. She needs a lamp WITHOUT a dark shade (yes, I know they are good looking but as a light source the shade blocks too much) and with wattage capability of 150. Wattage of 100 will work in a pinch but 150 is better. The wattage is what causes the search difficulty - to find something fashionable and sharp often the wattages are low - like 60. Pretty much worthless as a real light source, I would consider that ambient light only. Check out the one (so far) lamp suggestion.

More About Emily's Redo

For all of you who are following Emily's NYC apartment redo here is a quick update.

While I was in NYC, I showed Emily a catalog I often refer to called Home Decorators Collection. It has some unusual and interesting accessories and some hard to find items too. They also showcase a large rug collection. The prices are fair and I have been generally happy with the quality. Emily chose a 6x8 rug with a black field (in designer speak this means background) with an updated white swirl pattern called Scroll. Since black is our classy accent color, it looks like the perfect choice. I would caution you on the Persian patterned rugs, since the colors are not always what you think they will be!

While shopping last week Emily went into Pier1 and coincidentally so did I! I was so happy to find that we both selected the same side chairs to replace her really, really old and really, really worn green club chair she has now. (Sorry, Em) SO! The big news is that we are moving forward, the rug is ready to be ordered and the chairs will get another look from Emily and she will choose her favorite. I personally loved all three she selected. AND Pier One is having a giant sale right now on all their furnishings!!

I was also recently at HomeGoods and found another fabulous chair for her that would work great as well. It was also selling at a nice price. Now we've got the paint, the rug, and the chair situations figured out.

NYC Apartment Redo OR We Can Just Call It Emily's Place

Adrienne’s best friend, Emily T. lives in a charming two bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City. She has lived there a number of years and while she was considering moving to a new apartment, she recently made the decision to stay put. SO, Emily was kind enough to ask for my help in redecorating her space and I was so happy to help.

I traveled to the city in December (perfect for NYC – all the decorations are up and the restaurants are lighted and the snowflakes on Saks Fifth Avenue are fabulous). Adrienne came in from Boston and we got to work.

I visited Emily on a Saturday morning and spent about 3 hours talking to her about how she lived, what she wished for in her apartment and her budget. Then, after asking her a ton of questions, I came up with a plan. We took a lot of “before” photos for you and as we make progress I will keep you updated.

PAINT: Emily knew her paint colors were not cohesive, so that is the first thing we worked on. In NYC, the apartments are very small and each room opens to the next so when you are sitting in the living room, you are also sort of sitting in the kitchen and powder room and bedroom too. You can close doors, but that really makes the space smaller.

As shown in the first photo below, Emily’s living room is painted a lovely butter yellow color - when I complimented her on the choice she responded “Well, you picked it.” I did remember Adrienne and I had helped her a bit a while back. Her main bedroom is painted a deep grey rose color and the den is a sky blue (bottom two photos), so the paint colors needed to be coordinated a bit better.

I suggested she paint the den a deep golden yellow color as in Benjamin Moore’s Concord Ivory (HC 12) or Cream Yellow (2155-60). These are deeper yellows but still complimentary.

Her bedroom linens are a pretty pale pinky taupe in a sleek box pattern and I suggested we paint that room a light mocha color like Benjamin Moore’s Light Mocha (2096-60) or Frosted Cafe (2098-70). These colors are pale but they will lighten up the space considerable since she has only one very narrow, tall window.

I suggested she begin with the paints and as time progresses, we will build on some accessory ideas. Stay tuned, we will keep working on this and it soon will be a beautiful, relaxing space.