Installation for the Holidays

Over the past few months I have moved a couple from a two bedroom condo into a  cluster home. The couple's new home has wonderful features. Upon entering, the long hallway carries your eye to the living room where three sliding doors over look a  secluded pond.  The living and dining room have a great open floor plan with  the master bedroom suite and den on the first floor for easy access and,  two  guest rooms are on the second floor. This client wanted to take most of her furniture, accessories and, window treatments to their new home.
 My job ( as I had blogged about back in June) was to take measurements and notes of each piece and place it in their new home, specify paint colors( all +Farrow & Ball ) and,  complete the windows with treatments. This was a delightful project for me and  I thoroughly enjoyed every step of the way because, it was challenging to utilize all existing furniture and window treatments instead of designing with all new. Today we completed the last of the window treatment installations. The three large doors looking over looking the pond were installed. The client did not want to cover the scenery therefore we did stationary panels on each end to "frame" the pretty picture outside. The exquisite(my favorite word) +Conrad Shade was installed over the tub in the master bathroom. It operates top down or bottom up giving the client the versatility. I installed crown molding in the den room so the silk plaid panels over a woven shade were the perfect touch. Finally, in the kitchen a valance with a  woven shade for privacy  underneath was installed. Window treatments and accessories are the icing on the cake when completing a home. I had such a great feeling walking out of this client's home,  it was finally finished (phew.... right before the holidays!) and everything went perfectly. Of course it  was perfect..... it was a Terri Reilly Design project. I do believe in perfection and the home is the most important space in a person's life so,  it better be perfect for them.  The photos (from my I Phone...the professional ones are yet to come) reflect the before and after of the windows.

Master Bedroom before

Master Bedroom window after

Kitchen sink window before

Kitchen sink window after

Master Bathroom after

Master Bathroom before

Living Room window before

Living Room window after

Living Room window before

Living Room window after

A holiday weekend of Inspiration

This past holiday weekend  was a wondrous and joyful time to spend with my children, family, cousin in laws( more like sisters and brothers) and, all that GREAT food.
Home is the most important place in the world so on this great occasion of giving thanks I can't think of a better place to be than in my own home. My home truly reflects who I and my family are, the accessories express the fun travels we ventured on together, fabulous colors running through out, it is comfortable, inviting and, enough seating for over 20 people in my living room. Although not at one table.... we finally had to resort to buffet style. My dining room isn't quite long enough.....with leaves in the table it almost touches the other wall out in the hallway.

Before the food feast my daughter and I ran a 5K for the Ridgefield Boys and Girls club, which is one of their biggest fund raisers. This was my third year attending.  It's always great to see friends and distant neighbors for a quick catch up in all the doings in their families. Their kids are getting married, others having babies, some off to grad school. What happened to all those grammar school kids?

Back to the food celebration. We supplied the turkey, accouterments, drinks and, everyone else  brought a side dish. Since were all working it helps to divvy up the jobs plus, its a nice way to taste other people's traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. I never liked sweet potatoes until my mother in law brought her dish one year and now I'm hooked.

Cousins-don't they look alike

The day after, Black Friday, my girls and I had big plans but.....just couldn't rally enough energy to go shopping....thanks goodness....I'm not crazy about shopping except for a client's home.  Instead we pulled out all the Christmas decorations....I was a little over whelmed at first however, slowly but surely we placed everything. My girls also created our little Christmas village....we started out cementing the gingerbread houses together....when they were kids
 I 'd get so anxious trying to get the molds of the houses to "glue" together...but now I just get to sit back and watch them. Every year that goes by my girls seem to take over all the traditions I've practiced over the years. The grammar school kids are now adults.

With all this wonderful celebration over the holiday weekend  what inspires me as a designer is,  people, food, love, gathering, being thankful, running for a good cause, twinkling lights, red and green and, enough seating for all to enjoy the time together.

The Family

More cousins and a dog

Village in production

The Village

 Enjoy the next few weeks leading up to the holidays and take time to  look around, treasure  those you are with and,  see what inspires you


Terri