AT HOME St. Louis Magazine's Habitat for Humanity project -- Sherrel's room

It's been fun working again with AT HOME St. Louis Magazine on yet another successful community project, this time with Habitat for Humanity. You may remember last year's project with Haven of Grace.

I was teamed up with designers Ellen Alvey and Becky Noelker. What a blast working with these talented women. We decorated Sherrel's top attic bedroom.

Sherrel gave us only one direction, blue walls with black and white accents and fabric. We loved the idea! All we added to the design plan were the pops of red.

All items were donated by generous area vendors and subscribers to the magazine. I donated the Ashley Furniture lamp to the right of the bed. The artwork was donated by a St. Louis favorite, Laura Gunn.

Sherrel and her friends helped paint the room. They also assisted us in painting the furniture.

See photos below with captions that tell the story.

Above, we laid out all the fabrics and a fun lamp shade for Sherrel to view and approve.

Above, old chest found in basement.

Above, after a bit of paint. We accentuated the lines already in the piece. The hardware is the same, original flower shaped knobs. We just spray painted them white and then dipped the edges in black. So cute! the scroll pattern on the top drawer was inspired by an are rug in the room.



Above, room before.

Above, room after.

Above, we slip covered this grandma chair in a fashion-forward pop of polka dots! Not your grandma's polka dots, but big ones. The red pillow was a bonus, made of found scrap fabric. Could not have planned that if we had tried.

Above, the three musketeers, left to right, Becky Noelker, Ellen Alvey, and me.

Artist Laura Gunn with her paintings.

Above, I can't resist this photo of Paul Pagano, designer, who worked on the basement of the home. He would drop by our room and entertain us. Watch it now, don't split your pants!

Sherrel thinks her room is hot!

Cousin Craig -- Repressing Andrew Wyeth

Cousin Craig has another masterpiece and, again, a great back story.

From his website:

It's no secret that I love photo-realism in painting and greatly admire the work of Andrew Wyeth. However, I find it can also be a trap that artists occasionally fall into (including me). In some ways, painting in a "Photo-Realistic style relegates to artist into becoming a human "Xerox" machine. This piece was to designed to "repress" my Wyethian tendencies, and strive for something original and my own statement. I first painted a portrait of Andrew in oils, and then deconstructed it by slicing it into 5 ribbons which I integrated into the "picture towers" shown above. The act of physically cutting the painting up was my way of severing my past artistic tendencies.

Piano Color

Here is a fun idea from Design Mom.

We think a piano can only be two colors, brown or black. How about green or another fun color?

Refinishing can be a good chunk of change. Painting yourself costs just a few pennies.

Mike and Toni's Chandelier Galaxy

This is hilarious. Heather and I have been shopping for the perfect chandelier for over her piano. This is one store we have not checked out. How about it Heather?I found this fun clip on Carolina Eclectic.