Budgie...Inspiration for a Room

I'm feeling pretty darn good this month. it might have something to do with the moment a certain large envelope arrived at my office. I opened it and let out a squeal as I discovered that our townhouse project was gracing the cover of the September issue of Interior Design magazine. Its a pretty great feeling and I am very honored that Cindy Allen felt that our work was cover worthy. Not only that, but we also got a 12-page spread!

We worked on this project for a long time...I mean years. It was a total labor of love, so finishing it and seeing it in my favorite magazine is in fact confirmation that it was really and truly complete.

I have enjoyed the feedback from colleagues, clients, and friends, and lately have been reflecting back on how we came up with some of the design directions. One of my favorite rooms is Paige's office. Here's the story:

Paige arrived at a design meeting with this picture of a budgie with these instructions; "Could you make my office feel and look like this?" Yes, she's kind of awesome. Doesn't this seem like the kind of assignment you get in design school?

So here is what we came up with. I was happy about using these colors. I love turquoise and that pop of yellow is just perfect. We kept all the walls white and started by added some color in the back of the bookcase by introducing a wallpaper by Given Campbell through Studio Printworks. I liked that this started to introduce the yellow. I am partial to sulphur yellow and found a briliant yelow fabric through Elitis which we used on the 2 lounge chairs that the client already owned from another house.

We divided the room into 2 parts: her desk area and a lounge. We used a low-ribbed goat hair area rug which we got through Aronsons (my fav floor covering peeps) and had them make a shag to match. I like the varying texture that this created.

I love color on color and the desk by Robert Austin Gonzalez was a "go" the minute I showed it to Paige. The banquette was custom made and has drawers in the bottom to store her kids art work. We embellished the linear bookcases with over-the-top frames which we found online and had lacquered white. Its kinda kitch and fun. And the piece de resistance: the giant feather lamp shade that ABYU fabricated for us--yeah, could not help being a little literal here.

The art work on the back wall above the desk is by Lukas Roth. Paige put up all the artwork after the interiors were done. She pulled the work for her own private collection and I was stunned to see how perfect this looked in the room.

All photos except Budgie by Eric Laignel.