Our home "after"

Our home is a result of all I believe in and stand for.  Uniqueness, individuality and comfort.  A mind of ones own.  It's a home that reflects our lifestyle as much as possible.  It's rooted in the classics but in a relaxed and young sophisticated way with modern and transitional elements.  I strive to be creative and unique so this home does not look like any other home because then it wouldn't be our own.  I like to incorporate modern pieces and/or modernized classic ones because that's what I consider chic.  A home with some modern and/or relaxed mood.  I actualized the classic fauteuil arm chairs by upholstering them in red leather and embellished with brass nail heads.  I did the same with the black stool.  I fell in love with the coffee table thanks to its sculptural lines, another design element I constantly praise about in this blog.  It weights like a forced marriage because its legs are solid steel. Every time I look at it, good memories come up to my mind remembering how my father-in-law and I carried it inside the house.  I'm just glad no one called the police on us suspecting we were carrying a dead body.  I bought the lamps at Gilt Home, excellent delivery time by the way, I added a trim of velvet to the shades to enhance them further.  The abstract painting is a bartered piece, really! The sofa is Paul McCobb with a slip cover and the oushak rug is from ABC.  The painting above the sofa is an Agam, bought at The Antique Garage.

The fireplace; behind the watercolor painting is the TV enclosed in the wall.  The bookcase is from ABC, the drop shaped stools are form Brookstone.  The brass swing arm sconces are from Shades of Light.

Adore, adore that black cocktail table.  It was purchased at ebay but you can find it here.

This precious space was occupied by that closet with wash and drier.  The inlaid dresser is from Lerebours Antiques, the Greek key base echoes the Greek key crown molding on the door and it's a find from Home Goods.

I'm not afraid of mixing patterns and using what I love and believe in.  A home is an extension of our lives and experiences.

The art deco sideboard was left from my inventory when I used to sell vintage and antiques.  I love to display my collection of pottery on top.  It takes no space and it's also decorative.  The French chandelier was purchased online.  The gorgeous dining table with brass details is also from Lerebours Antiques.

If anyone wants to hire me as a food stylist I'm available, consultation services can be provided online though or you have to pay for my plane ticket. :P  The black wine glasses were found at The Antique Garage, the horn cup holding the coffee beans is from TJ Max, candelabras and bowls are from ABC Carpet and the cheese tray is from West Elm.  Mixing high and low is what I like.  :)

Our bedroom is not huge so we kept the storage situation completely relegated to the closets.  No dressers out of the closets.  The wallpaper is from Brunschwig and Fils.  I love how in all this time I've never gotten tired of it and I think it's because the patterns are faded so I always see something different in it.  The headboard and lamps were found at a vintage store; the photographs of Ephesus were taken by me during our trip to Turkey; the Moroccan wedding blanket from West Elm is simply thrown on top of a table that I use as a bench.  The bedding is Pratesi bought on sale. The fabric on the headboard is Kells Dot by Quadrille.

It's been a real pleasure to wake up everyday and enjoy the beautiful view of NYC.  It makes a huge difference in our moods.  What you look at does make a difference.

My nightstand is from Lerebours Antiques and is usually not this nicely organized.  I keep a bunch of magazines, books, journal and pencils underneath it at hand.  I finally made a commitment of starting to write in my journal every night.  More for remembering my daily life than for any secret feeling.  With all the social media craziness of modern lives now I'm afraid people will not remember their lives in the future and by writing every night what I've done in the day and of course any thought or feeling helps me relive the moment and be more present.  I have a lithograph of a woman by Matisse on my side of the bed and on his side Evren has a Dali lithograph of an old man. 

We were lucky to get this house that in a way have a lot of storage.  This closet, below right, is all mine.  Slowly I squeezed out my hubby into one of the others we have in the hallway.  A post about customizing closet is coming soon. :b

This is where I get prettier every time I'm going out.  :)

Believe it or not I usually have the top of my vanity almost like it looks here.  As I've said before I like to see what I use regularly.  Enjoy!

All photographs by Robert Levi.

Our Home - "Before" Version

 I covered this wall above with mirrors and framed it with two architectural columns.

This is how our home was before we started remodeling it.  Light, yellowish floors, two small closets on either side of the living room blocking the nice view, a less than attractive fireplace, a closed-in kitchen and completely bland bathrooms.  Our labor of love was done in two separate times, kitchen, floors, closets were removed and painted before we moved in and the remodeling of the bathrooms were done two years after while living in it.  Tomorrow I'll show you the after pictures!

In the back you can see the powder room and the insane and unnecessary closet in the middle of everything not only taking precious space but also displaying the washer and drier for everyone who came in and out of the bathroom.  Nuts, right?

This closet across from the other one made a bit more sense since it was for coats but it didn't make complete sense for me either so below you can see it fully gutted out.  Now the entire entrance is open and I can see the main door from the stairs. 

The kitchen was a closed in room.  We took down the top half wall, added more lower cabinets and moved the fridge to another wall.  All the way in the back you can see the unattractive fireplace which was also spruced up. 

In order to use a bigger TV and to utilize the space more effectively, we opened up the space more and added another electric outlet for additional electronic equipment.

We added a shelf (not in the picture yet) to put the TV on top and cable box, router underneath.

all images by Julie Yenicag for Belle Vivir

Our powder room transformed with wallpaper remnants

Our powder room was the only bathroom that didn't get gutted and redone.  It would've been a lot of fun.  This is usually the place where designers choose to go wildest.  Maybe in the future we'll do.  Let's be real here, that's far from happening.  The only thing that came down was a ridiculous vanity cabinet,  who has a cabinet in a powder room and why?  To our timing all this bathroom needed was wallpaper, in this case the remnants from Lucas's bedroom.  Didn't I get lazy here?  That's the beauty about seagrass wallpaper; it is highly forgiving due to lack of a pattern, and the natural texture of the grains fit flawlessly together.  I hired a professional to do this, even when he was dealing with remnants- which is exactly the reason why I did it.  The wallpaper was installed in thee of the walls and the one across from the mirror and toilet has a gallery wall from floor to ceiling.   The result is totally flawless, even I can't tell where the seams are.  Go ahead don't throw away those remnants! 

This is the after shot.  The mirror is from Anthropologie and the towel is Pratesi, bought at a sale.

One or two things when remodeling a home: My masterbath after

When we started remodeling our home I knew we were not going to live here forever, I also knew what many people know to be reality now a days that the time of the housing boom was over.  Knowing that, my choices on materials and structural changes needed to be more cautious, but I didn't want to sacrifice style or comfort.  So I kept the kitchen and bathrooms as traditional and neutral as possible, something that would appeal to most people, in case one day we decide to sell this house. 
For our master bathroom I mixed "real and steal" materials.  Marble mosaic in calacata gold for the floor, chair rail (to end the tiles that I extended 12" up the wall, below) and the pencil border that frames the walking shower.  The shower walls are in porcelain that looks exactly like calacata gold marble.  It's funny the tile installer didn't know it wasn't marble until he saw the back of it.  I bought the porcelain tiles at Classic Tiles in Brooklyn.  The vanity is custom made. 
The master bathroom is on the small side so I installed a programmable tile warmer, a luxury feature that will compensate for the lack of space.
Anyone who has ever remodeled a home knows that faucets are extremely expensive.  For the shower faucets I simply left out unnecessary things such as volume control handles.  Those things complicate life, really! The main shower handle does the volume control already so why buy an extra one?  I got the big overhead shower at Lowe's and the handheld is a combination of one of those handles that come with the shower I just replaced the hose for one that you can connect separately and got the set of handles with its respective valves at a trade showroom.  After doing all that math and all the search I became more savvy about plumbing and my hubby keeps telling me that I like to complicate my life.  But when he enjoys a shower with more than one water source all hitting his body he gets to understand why I like to complicate my life and why I always choose to go through the less traveled road.  Whatever you think it's possible it's because it is! 

 A shot of the floor and chair rail.

Our sons's bathroom.  We finally got the oval shower curtain rod that was in back order (I don't stand when things are in back order) and replaced the L shaped rod we used for the previous photo shoot. 

Photos (besides the second) by Robert Levi

My Kitchen: Before and After

While thinking about what to post today, my own kitchen came to my mind.  Since we're soon moving to another country (Sao Paulo) I feel it would be great to show how I renovated our kitchen. The picture above shows how our kitchen was before.  Very unattractive!  We teared down everything, from the cabinets to the walls, got rid of that double tray ceiling and redid the floor.  My vision was to create something charming instead of modern because this house was built around the 80's when there was absolutely no reference whatsoever to any period architecture.  So I decided it would look like something between old and au courant.

I wanted the Ikea cabinets to go all the way up to the ceiling so I had the extra open boxes custom made and installed mirror in the back.  I also added crown moldings to make them look more custom.  These cabinets don't really need handles but I decided to install them anyway for the same purpose.  I was happy when I found this kind of porcelain mosaic for a great price at a place called The tile shop.  If you didn't, know the smaller the pieces the more expensive the mosaic, that's why  the places that offer more affordable tiles usually only have mosaic of one inch.  This one is little less than 3/4" which makes it look more like the real thing. 

 

The custom banquet, upholstered more than three years ago in a Quadrille fabric.

photos by Robert Levi

How to enhance your main door with more than just paint

 

 My small foyer Photographed by Robert Levi

I wanted to show you this picture above first so you can see the wall color through a professional lens.  This is the continuation of the left wall below. 

I found this awful before picture of my entryway.  We got rid of the this closet which was on the wall where the chair in the picture above is.

We've been trying to replace our main door for like forever, but our condo association people are not the most cooperative.  They're mean!  I wish they're reading this!  "never buy a condo" is what I have learned after this. 
Anyhow, our door was not the part of my house I was most proud of and I kept it untouched for a long time.  Sorry, I didn't find before pictures.  It was a bare space with nothing, literally.  Walls and door were all beige.  Boring! until I decided to do something more than just painting it.  I had a carpenter install simple molding that I got at Lowe's to make it look like paneling and painted all, well, yes beige, but I had a vision.  I went to Dykes and got a half round spoked pediment (not exactly the one pictured below)  of the same width of our door, painted the door and the pediment black and put mirror inside it to make it appear like a window.  This photograph doesn't really give it any justice.  It really looks beautiful and dramatic which is what I was looking for.  I hope this inspires you to do something beautiful for yourself and your home.

 

photos by Julie for Belle Vivir 

this last awesome image from here.