Design that Reveals
Design that Reveals
Creativity is my love, interior design is my focus. Whether it be full service interior design, re-decoration or even online design through Design in a Box, I am passionate about all things creative. Here, I will share insights into projects, inspirations and what's going on in the world of design from Calgary and beyond. Would love to have you follow along.
my bedroom reveal May 10, 2011
publications: my home in avenue magazine Jun 14, 2012
exciting news! Jul 13, 2011
Last fall I embarked on a distance project in Vancouver, outfitting a condo top to bottom. I flew out for a day to visit the site and start the sourcing process. By the end of this week it will be complete and I’m looking forward to seeing our vision come together. Thursday I’ll share a sneak peek at the colours and concept but for now, here’s a look at a day in the life…
Caught the first flight out of the day.
Watched the sunrise during my flight.
Arrived at Layers and Layers.
A busy morning sourcing fabrics and furniture.
Took a cab to Granville Street. Vancouver is still so green in October.
Found furniture pieces and accessories in Granville shops.
Walked across the Granville Street Bridge to Yaletown.
More furniture and accessory sourcing in Yaletown.
Walked to site via the Vancouver Public Library.
Arrived at site and re-connected with Sharon from Layers and Layers to see the space and site measure.
The before.
Homeward bound. Caught the sky train back to the airport.
Watch for more sneak peeks via instagram, twitter or facebook later this week!
Nyla Free Designs is a full service Calgary Interior Design studio. Our goal is to bring your home to life by revealing your style and infusing unexpected elements of design and detail. If we can help with your project please let us know! See the contact page to get in touch.
Nyla Free Designs also offers an online design service through Design in a Box.
My girls have grown up shopping with me. It’s a huge part of my job. I started my business when my oldest daughter was four months old (now almost 11) so I’ve carted them around here and there, to and fro, especially during their pre school days. While very good, they’re also getting creative in how they pass the time as we go from store to store. During our vacation in Palm Springs (and of course shopping) our five year old had the camera while ten year old modeled. I was busy admiring all the pretty and colourful bits in Trina Turk and my girls were doing a fashion photo shoot.
It’s nice not to be the one behind the camera all the time. Sure, the photos aren’t perfect, but they capture the moment and fun they were having. I hear them giggling with each other as I look at the photos. What a great little memory.
I feel very fortunate to be in a position to work for myself, allowing time to spend with my girls before and after school as well as activities but it means they’re with me for work errands quite often. It’s certainly has it’s challenges and sacrifices but also huge benefits. We have a lot of fun shopping together (for the most part!) and I notice the girls playing “designer” with each other from time to time. Warms a mama’s heart.
Just another day shopping with Mom….
Nyla Free Designs is a full service Calgary Interior Design studio. Our goal is to bring your home to life by revealing your style and infusing unexpected elements of design and detail. If we can help with your project please let us know! See the contact page to get in touch.
Nyla Free Designs also offers an online design service through Design in a Box.
I’ve done a few projects outside of Calgary and most recently a Lake House property in the Okanagan. I don’t often get the opportunity to see the end result and help pull all our hard work together but today I’m headed to Kelowna and could not be more excited to see this place come together.
Our goal was to create a casual, beach-y feel that is stylish and family friendly. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the pieces we have on the truck ready to be unloaded and welcomed into their new home.
I hope to take lots of pictures and share some of the results with you!
Have a great day. I know I will :)
Sunbrella fabric, Ikat pillow, Chair, Bedding, Sectional, Chevron rug, Platform bed, Blue pillow, Floor lamp, Yellow patterned pillow, Coffee table.
If you love fabrics as much as I do then you’re sure to enjoy the eye candy below. As a designer we get the inside scoop on new introductions and products. One of my favorite things to do is attend ‘fabric shows’. They are like fashion shows without the runway. Large, beautiful pieces of fabric draped in front of us to touch, feel and gawk at the feast of colour and texture before us.
Last week I attended a showing of the JAB/Chivasso Spring 2011 Collection so naturally I wanted to share. JAB is a leader in the fabric industry and one of the largest fabric houses in the world. Their repertoire consists of everything from traditional to modern, while covering a wide range of price points to meet every budget. Here’s a peak at what I saw……
Grandezza Collection Vol. V is a stunning mix of silks and sheers with hand stitched intricate details.
The white passion collection, one of my favorites of the show is a stunning mix of textures, patterns, sheers and 3-dimensional details.
Fabulous heavy duty linens fit for upholstery and drapery in a rainbow of beautiful colours.
Matlasse Collection is reversible and washable. Perfect for bedding and interesting drapery applications.
Blueprint Collection was by far my favorite, in particular the metallic printed frames on a natural linen background. Stunning!
Well there you have it. An array of fabric fabulousness in the JAB/Chivasso Spring 2011 Collection.
A benefit of working with a designer is the access to fabrics such as the above that are only available to the trade, so if there is anything here that piques your interest, let me know!
One of the best parts of working for myself is having flexibility in my day so when my 4yo asked if I could come and talk to her class for career day, I said absolutely!
There were a few stipulations. I needed to bring a craft and I must “dress up in what I wanted to be when I grew up”, so said my 4yo old. The craft I could handle, and I was already doing what I wanted to do when I grow up, so off I went…dressed as a designer of course.
I had so much fun I thought I’d share some photos with you.
I prepared a craft for the kids to decorate a living room and dress a window. All my supplies are ready to go. A window, floor plan and all the cutouts to make the room pretty.
They were all so cute and the craft was a hit. Didn’t they do a great job?! Interior Designers in the making :)
Happy weekend everyone!
Today I’m off to Toronto for a whirlwind two days of designer fabulousness.
On Thursday I have a full day of shopping planned to many of the fabulous design stores in Toronto. There are several that I would like to visit, however there is not enough time in this day, or trip for that matter to make it to all of them. I think we have it narrowed down to 10 or so LOL! There are specific items I am looking for that I hope to find for clients and I’m sure along the way there will be many other treasures to be found.
What started out to be a casual dinner among twitter buddies, has turned into quite the evening event. Meredith Heron and Sonya Kinkade have organized a fabulous night at Nota Bene where I will have the opportunity to meet many twitter friends, finally face to face! And it doesn’t stop there. City Line (with camera’s I’m told) as well as Style at Home magazine (who are bringing prizes!!) will also be attending. How great is that?! Thanking you all in advance for your efforts in putting together an amazing evening!
Friday *early* morning I have a coffee date that I am truly excited about and then off to one of the main reasons for making the trek east. I’ll be at the doors of the Interior Design Show at the stroke of 9am. No time to waste as there is plenty of inspiration to be had at IDS.
Have you heard about Dabble Magazine? It’s a new online publication launching February 28th. Design. Travel. Food. What’s not to love? I’ll be hanging out with the Dabble gang on Friday afternoon. So excited about this!
If I have any energy left, I’ll be out for dinner on Friday night with great friends and hopefully even my little bro :)
Phew! That’s what I’ll be up to in the next 48 hours and I’ll be sure to let you know how it all goes.
Install days are filled with the work of unpacking boxes, placing furniture and accessories, hanging art and drapery, arranging flowers, and cleaning up the mess you just made all before the client arrives home for the reveal.
Last Friday I completed the installation for a clients great room. You can see the sneak peak at the samples and materials here.
We (me and my helper Sandra) started the day at 9am. When we arrived at the home the delivery truck was already there. I greeted my client and walked her through the details of the day. (I asked the delivery guys to sit tight until she was gone). No peaking!
Finally off she went for the day and we got underway. First ~ the before photo of the space. (Don’t worry…the red plate did not stay there!)
Typically I would delivery everything at once, however as you can see there are two chests that have been there for several months. They were part of the scheme I presented however based on the fact that they were selling like hotcakes, we scooped them up several months ago. They have been patiently waiting for the rest of the furniture to pull the room together.
9:30am my drapery installer arrives. Once again I ordered the drapery from Layers and Layers. A simple cotton/linen blend with a contrasting side band on each panel. Half way through, my installer notices that we are short rings, and enough rings that we could only hang one panel in the great room. SO disappointing, but we move on. I order more immediately. The remaining drapery will be installed later this week, so our reveal will be incomplete. Boo hoo!
11:00am I high tail it out to pick up some items that did not fit into my car the day before. Note to self “shop earlier so you can have the delivery company pick up for you”!! I gathered what I needed, picked up flowers and light bulbs and made my way back to site.
In the mean time Sandra received another piece of furniture at 11:30 and worked on accessorizing.
1:00pm the art installer arrives and begins hanging our selected pieces.
We had originally advised the client to come home at 2:30, however at this point we knew we would not be ready. I gave her a quick call and bought ourselves another 1/2 hour. Pweh!
The remaining few hours were nose to the floor trying to get everything perfect for the reveal. At 2:40 this is what the space still looked like. Yikes!
Stay tuned to see the final results!
I often get this type of comment when people find out I’m a designer ~ “Oh how fun, you get to shop for a living!”. Yes, this is true (among many other things) and I do love this part of my work. It’s just not always as glamorous as one might think. Don’t get me wrong, I love to shop! I just had to laugh at myself last week, while I was shopping for a young girls bedroom and kids homework room as well as a great room for a different client. I ran around the city filling my car to the brim and squeezing my children in amongst accessories, lamps, pillows and pieces of art.
I thought I would give you a quick behind the scenes look at ‘a day in the life of Nyla Free Designs’.
Day one: Not bad… I could actually see out the back window and fit both girls in the car.
Day two: I should have picked up a larger cart. As you can see things were overflowing and I was having a great deal of trouble hanging on to everything while trying to maneuver the Ikea carts that never seem to go straight!
End of day two. Car is full. I can barely see out the back window, however I can still fit both girls in the car. Good news.
Day three: All shopping bags found their way into my dining room where I could sort and organize the contents. Thankfully I have an understanding husband who can tolerate this type of chaos. (Disclaimer: only for a very short amount of time though)
On Friday the first of two installations was completed. I forgot to take a photo because I was in a hurry, however once my car was packed with the contents of both days of shopping I was full to the rooftop. Thankfully I only needed to fit one of the girls in the car that day.
Kimberley Seldon, based on her Business of Design course, would have words about this I’m sure. I can only imagine something like this ~ “What are you doing hauling all this stuff around yourself? That’s what delivery companies are for!” Well that is all fine and well, however when you are shopping at stores like Homesense, Ikea, Staples, Michaels and the like, it just doesn’t quite work that way. So I managed on my own. I love this part of my work. The finishing touches that inevitably complete the room is like icing on the cake.
Almost every item I bought stayed at the house. Yay! But every bit of garbage went back into my car…
So there you have it. A day in the life of a designer where maybe things aren’t quite as they seem. Designers, Stylists, Stagers, I’m sure you can relate?
Thanks for joining me on “A Day In The Life”!
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