I told you I was going to spread this house out. I’m really milking it. We are on post number four (out of five) of the studio city house and today’s makeover is totally exclusive to this blog, since the office didn’t make it into the magazine. (See post 1, 2 and 3.) We didn’t have a huge budget for the office; it was definitely not a priority, but that weird niche below was really a waste of space that needed to get addressed.
So I did what any shelf styling lover would do — added some wallpaper and some shelving.
We had our contractor install those shelves for $600 (I believe) and we made them really chunky and modern to fit the clean lines of all the molding in the house. Generally when we do custom shelves we like to do them about 16″ apart so they are tall enough to be able to add art, but not so tall that novels look tiny and messy. 12″ is too short, and 18″ becomes a little “store display” so 14″ – 16″ is the sweet spot.
The blue chair is from West Elm, although they don’t sell it in the vintage indigo fabric anymore. That crate/table was a last minute desperate styling maneuver that I regret (we didn’t plan on this shot), although I love that lamp that is on top (vintage).
We used mainly their real stuff with the addition of the stack of books on the bottom, porcelain owl, and the gold clock that they liked — but not for the $150 price tag. And yes, the typewriters were already their’s (as they are both writers), same with the vintage camera, and leather medicine bag.
I think we all know what makes this shot/room: Oh Joy’s Petal Pusher Wallpaper. This is the gold and gray version and I swear to God, Rachna requested it; I’m not constantly trying to push my friends’ goods on my clients, but yes, I’m always happy to support my friends whilst making my clients happy. Dave went along with it because the color palette was fairly masculine for what looks like it could be a floral wallpaper (although it is succulents, just so you know). It adds such great contrast into the space. I love it.
Meanwhile up the stairs we created a family photo wall full of tons of photos spanning decades, with both family and friends. But we shot it twice, two different ways. (Again, once for the scouting shots to get the magazine to shoot it and once during the actual magazine shoot).
Bethany Nauert shot this and I love the angle, but we had to reshoot it because as you’ll notice the middle painting isn’t exactly a family photo. They had just had their family photos taken by the amazing Max Wanger, but they hadn’t received them back yet so this painting held its place while we were waiting for the big prints to arrive.
Ah, that is much cuter. If you ever have the luck to book Max for family photos, DO IT. He’s incredible. This was one of many that turned out so beautiful and artistic, and yet captured the family’s energy, sense of humor, and personalities perfectly. Rachna says every time she walks up the stairs, she gets so happy (and she might have even admitted she cried the first time, which pretty much made my year, nay, life).
… Although I want to take that photo and move it to the left 1 1/2 inch. Aghh, that is why you have to stare at every single photo in the camera or computer and obsess over every detail or else you’ll miss something. There was nothing really to style in this shot so I was in the master bedroom steaming sheets while they were shooting it, and now and forever more that placement of that photo will drive me crazy. Not that big of a deal, but I wanted to point it out before I got a ton of negative comments. Ultimately, the wall is incredibly happy. She wanted it to feel really collected over time so we went with the “let’s get a bunch of frames in the color palette and just go for it” method. It doesn’t look perfect, but it looks like an organic collection of memories that she can continue to add to without having to obsess over placement.
 Check out Post #1, Post #2,  Post #3 and Post #5, and don’t forget to watch the behind-the-scenes video that Tessa made for me, and thanks again Bethany Nauert for all the pretty photos.