Before and After Series: My Ronald McDonald Project Design Remodel

I thought the best way to showcase the remodel of my room at the Ronald McDonald house of Long Island would be to show you the Before & After shots and take you step by step through the design concept, the ordering and the install (and all of the dramas that occurred in between!) so that it would be the most genuine representation of all we do as designers when putting together any design scheme for our clients.

It may look like we sprinkle some fairy dust into the room, and voila, magic appears but in fact that isn't the case!

On our tour of the house, we were asked to select our room and Room 101 struck me as the one for me right away! With a view of the children's playground through the window, I felt that it was just a poignant reminder of why we were all here.

My room is used as the respit room, not one for families that would be there long term but instead those that truly are in need for a few minutes of comfort, silence and restoration.

So let's begin with the Bathroom in this multi-part series of Before and After shots...

There were many images that sparked the inspiration for the room.. a Kravet Fabric... a color scheme based on blues and white with a touch of raspberry..

But first I wanted to tackle the functionality of the room.
All the designers were provided with the same brief and almost identically sized rooms, and we needed to include in the final space:

• 2 Full Beds. Headboards that would be easily cleaned and maintained. 
• 1 desk or dresser 
• 1 chair or lounge chair
• 1 closet area for storage and clothing
• we could chose to remodel the bathroom if we were able to 
• flooring which was chosen as the faux "wood" laminate which is great for the type of use which this house gets.

The main issues that I felt were really important to address in my room in particular, was the overall dark ambiance in the room. Without being able to add any lighting to the ceiling I needed to think of a creative way to illuminate the entire room so that even though it was a ground floor and received very little natural light, it would be refreshing when the family spent time in the room.







By painting the walls in "Chantilly Lace" by Benjamin Moore, and adding a soffit along the headboard wall I was able to , which allowed to wash the entire wall with a soft light that would be

Thanks to the amazing work by Oliver Marinovic
this alone was a great improvement to the overall feeling in the space.

The design concept for my room was loosely based on the strong Moorish influences throughout Portuguese architecture. While maintaining a soft and serene feeling in the overall finished result, I decided to focus on creating elements of repetition in the pattern and color palette.

We needed to create the height to elevate the room, so we decided that a painted double headboard would be a great way to unite the two beds while still allowing for the individual needs of the maintenance of the individual fabric headboards. This became the feature wall treatment of the room which is reminiscent of the outlined doorways and patterns in many homes across Southern Portugal.

Thankfully, and with a little divine intervention, I met Angela from The Finished Wall only days before my room was to be completed. She heard about my decision to try and paint the headboard on my own, and immediately offered her help. She even brought in another artist with her, and voila they were able to make magic happen for me. I am so grateful to them for taking the time, and making this effort for me and for the room.

Painted Headboard treatment by The Finished Wall

I needed to begin pulling my fabric scheme together and was immediately attracted to the Windsor Smith ANDALUSIA ORKID with its strong texture, color and great upholstery quality I knew that it would be the perfect fabric for the headboard and the other fabrics and trims quickly followed suit..

KRAVET: Andalusia, Atomic Pearl, A. Hampton Tassel Fringe, 31252 (Duvet); Peter Fasano: Sandhurst Marino
LEE JOFA: Lucia Stripe, Seaburn Raffia, Malva ; BRUNSCHWIG et FILS: Chancellor Strie

Concept Mood Board for the Room.

For a look at the entire room.. watch this video!

Over the course of the next few weeks I will continue the Before & After series moments of mine as well as  all the rooms with special focus on the amazing brands that have made it possible for me to participate:

à BAKER FURNITURE – www.bakerfurniture.com

à BENJAMIN MOORE – www.benjaminmoore.com

à BRIZO – www.brizo.com

à BRUNSCHWIG et FILS – www.brunschwig.com

à CALIFORNIA CLOSETS – www.caliclosets.com Contact: Carolyn Musher 

à CURREY & CO – www.curreycodealers.com

à CUSTOM WINDOWS – (203) 231-3659 Contact: John Hayes

à FILMORE CLARK – http://filmoreclark.com/

à GRACIE – www.graciestudio.com

à KENISE BARNES – http://kbfa.com/

à KRAVET – www.kravet.com

à LEE JOFA -  www.leejofa.com

à OLIVER’S HOUSE PAINTING, LLC – T: 914 954-3742

à STARK - www.starkcarpet.com  Contact: Adam Khan - T: 203-899-1771
à THE FINISHED WALL - Contact: Angela Capan & Nancy Schadt. www.thefinishedwall.com

Please make sure to visit each of their websites, as they are simply amazing!

Open October 11-14th ONLY.
This is an event you do NOT want to miss!
Call 516-775-5683 x129 to reserve your tickets today! Kravet NYC&G


Designers participation:  Amanda Nisbet, Anthony Baratta, The Breakfast Room, Bunny Williams, Core Consulting, Danielle Colding Design, Delrose Design, Drake Design Associates, Drew McGukin Interiors, Dwell Studio, Elaine Griffin Interior Design, Eric Colher, Kate Singer, Kim E Courtney Interiors & Designs, Mabley Handler Interior Design, Margreet Cevasco Design, Matthew Patrick Smyth, Meg Braff Designs, Mehditash Design (thats me!) Michael Herold Design, Michael Tavano Design, Mr Call Design, Nick Olsen, Pappas & Mirron Design, Tilton Fenwick Young Huh Interior Design,