If this is your first time visiting my site, welcome! I’m participating in the One Room Challenge organized by Linda of Calling it Home where myself and 19 other bloggers design a space in the span of six short weeks. I highly recommend you get caught up to speed, see my hideous before photos, & learn more about the ORC challenge by checking out my previous posts:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

If you are just tuning in, I’m taking over my husbands office (don’t worry he never uses it) as my home office is transitioning into a studio space to paint my brushstroke lamps.

Holy smokes this lady is in the weeds! Not much to mention this week – my faux shagreen fabric arrived on Monday for my IKEA console DIY & yesterday I got up the nerve to dive in. I’ve completed one cabinet, one & installation to go, but it looks amazing, here’s a sneak peek:

I’m not mentioning too much more because I think I’ll tweak my method as I finish it. I used clear packing tape to wrap everything (I’m sure you’re like this girl is cra cra) but I had it on hand & the DIY pessimist loved using something that if it all went to awry I wouldn’t have ruined the cabinets. BUT THEN as I was working with the faux fabric, it’s really something you have to finesse so I was hugely relieved to be working with a more temporary adhesive. I won’t have the DIY next week because I’m hoping to replace the tape in some places with a permanent adhesive but it’s working & looks great. It’s kismet because my faux shagreen fabric has considerable sheen to it so the tape disappears anyway. Gotta love happy accidents!

SO since you all took the time to show up; I realized I never shared a complete tour of my “then” home office so I thought I’d give you some eye candy for your troubles. We all just want pretty pictures, rights?! Of course the irony is these were taken just before I choose this room for my One Room Challenge!

I'm supposed to get my reupholstered chairs on Thursday & have to still pull everything together so I 'm a bit stresses but I know (pray) it will come together!

Thanks so much for cheering me on & hope to see you next Wednesday! If you want to see what I'm up to in the interim you can follow my @janabekdesign on instagram & twitter & on Facebook.The group is up to some gorgeous scheming so be sure to check out their sites at links below!

Trademarked by Calling it Home

Room RevealsJana BekOctober 29, 2014 Comments

One Room Challenge II Week 4

If this is your first time visiting my site, welcome! I’m participating in the One Room Challenge where myself and 19 other bloggers design a space in the span of six short weeks. I'm doing a home office. I highly recommend you get caught up to speed, see my hideous before photos, & learn more about the ORC challenge by checking out my previous posts:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Wow, I can’t believe there are only 2 weeks left! So in the past week, the rug, artwork, & new ottoman arrived & we (aka husband) started installing the Ikea cabinet. I’ve also managed to get VERY inspired and my design has changed somewhat.

As I mentioned, the wayfair ottoman came in & I’m OBSESSED with it. It is beautiful, the texture is amazing, I can’t say enough good things about it. The problem is, it’s too big. My coffee table was 27” in diameter & a great size in the office so at 30” I thought the ottoman would be fine but visually it was too heavy in the space. So, I’m taking our clear CB2 peekaboo table from the living room & will use it in the office. It has no legs & still fits with my coastal vibe so done & done. Here’s a photo of it our living room:

The ottoman will go in the living room to replace it:

So as I mentioned, I’ve gotten very inspired in the past week so I’ve made some modifications. First, Jennifer’s bench transformation for her ORC entry had my jaw dropping, I mean HUBBA! So I decided to go with this amazing Quadrille fabric I’d been obsessing over.

Quadrille = Jana not attempting to reupholster

I ordered the fabric last Friday, it arrived yesterday & my upholsterer is a godsend who will have them ready by next week!

The second change is with the Ikea console. I knew that there would be visible screws on the top because of the DIYs I had reviewed:

I promised myself I wouldn’t care, more like not take the time & energy to care. Well yesterday my hubs asked “what is something different you could do with the top?” I let that question marinate & then I had the most amazing idea & I hope it turns out one tenth of the fabulousness I’m imagining. I’ve always loved faux shagreen – the texture is just gorgeous – but lately I’ve seen in everywhere so it’s turned into an obsession. We were in Jayson Home in Chicago over the weekend and yummy shagreen was everywhere, taunting me. At $300 for a small tray though, it stayed at Jayson Home.

SO what is my fabulous keep-me-in-your-prayers-it-actually works-out idea? I’m putting this faux sharkskin on my Ikea console to create the look of shagreen. I ordered it yesterday & am crazy town excited to get my hands on it.

So what’s left on my plate is the Ikea console DIY & putting everything together, because it currently looks like this, (has to get worse to get better, right?!):

Thanks so much for cheering me on & hope to see you next Wednesday! If you want to see what I'm up to in the interim you can follow my @janabekdesign on instagram & twitter & on Facebook.

The group is up to some gorgeous scheming so be sure to check out their sites at links below!

Trademarked by Calling it Home

Room RevealsJana BekOctober 22, 2014 Comments

Basic Bedding to Beautiful - Sharing my Tips on Pottery Barn's Blog

When designing for myself or clients, I love neutral foundations as they offer you the option to mix things up as your tastes change. That's why all white bedding is often my go-to. Today I'm delighted to be sharing how to layer on color & play with pattern to take basic white bedding from boring to bold & beautiful on Pottery Barn's Blog. So head on over to check out my tips!

Design DirectionJana BekOctober 16, 2014 Comment

One Room Challenge II Week 3

If this is your first time visiting my site, welcome! For the next 4 weeks I’m participating in the One Room Challenge & I highly recommend you get caught up to speed, see my hideous before photos, & learn more about the ORC challenge by checking out last week’s post here & my first post here.

So this past week has not been super productive for my ORC but it always rocks my world what a transformation painting makes! The burgundy is gone & glorious Benjamin Moore revere pewter is on the walls and it’s a huge sigh of ahhh – there is hope for this room!

After painting, we brought the pieces down from my now studio (woo hoo) to the new office. I love the layout – I can see out of the windows & it all feels open and airy. To the right of the chairs will go be my Society Social bar cart & new Slim Aarons poolside glamour print. We painted around the barrister that was there & I’m liking how it looks so I think it’s staying. Don’t mind my mess otherwise! & I photographed this at night hence the blah lighting. That gorgeous plant is from Ikea! If you want an awesome tropical plant, I definitely recommend checking out Ikea (perfect too because it's not scary killing a $15 plant – ha!)

If you follow me on instagram you read the teaser, “how is the design changing?”

In the past week I’ve tweaked the original design a bit. Here is the original storyboard (this is how I mock up designs for my E-Design clients):

Here is the updated design:

Pretty similar but bringing the furniture into the space, with the chairs, desk & coffee table, the design was quite leggy (which I had feared).Also, it made me think a shag rug would not provide the lightness I was after.

As part of the ORC, a few generous companies sign on to sponsor us. It’s sponsorships like these that I am fortunate enough to participate in these types of challenges. It takes considerable amount of time to blog in a thoughtful way, which takes away from design time & all aspects associated with my brushstroke lamp business, so I’m so thankful that with the help of these companies I can bring you my design!

I had not used my Wayfair sponsorship & I so I hunted for the perfect beachy ottoman to swap out my coffee table. It was between these two:

The only on the left is slightly shorter which I preferred but I kept coming back to the texture of the one on the right so I went with my gut! I love it & cannot wait to get it in the space!

Second – my rug problem. We have the blanket on the left (which I LOVE) & I was scheming and laid it down where the rug would go – it looked perfect. I’m a HUGE fan of Dash & Albert rugs & I recalled they had a rug very similar to my blanket. Wouldn’t you know that Wayfair sells Dash & Albert rugs?! Double woo hoo & my blanket turned into the rug on the right.

My new rug pad is eagerly awaiting its rug as you can see. The rug pad was sponsored by Rug Pad USA & I’ve never had a better rug pad. The site is very helpful in walking you through what to consider while making your purchase & their customer service is exceptional to boot. I know rug pads aren’t sexy but they are necessary!

Needless to say, I’m a happy OCRer at the moment. This week is a full one in terms of my workload, but I’m hoping we can get the Ikea shelves up this weekend. A little nervous that I’m putting off attempting to reupholster the chairs until the last minute, that’s my top to do for next week.

I will be creating a source guide for all of the items in my design I’m waiting until everything is in to post it. Thanks so much for cheering me on & hope to see you next Wednesday! If you want to see what I'm up to in the interim you can follow my@janabekdesignoninstagram&twitter& onFacebook.

The group is up to some gorgeous scheming so be sure to check out their sites at links below!