sustainably harvested organic seaweed at sea wellness spa

check out eTTa designs' eco-luxe spa design on voya's website. i designed sea wellness spa at casa del mar inspired by its seaside location and coincidentally, the client chose to feature a sustainably harvested organic seaweed based beauty and skincare product, voya. sea spa is the ONLY spa in the LA area which offers voya.

home style trends from las vegas market winter 2010

home style trends from las vegas market winter 2010 at world market center las vegas include the color turquoise (inspired by sea and sky, it creates a sense of hope, healing and compassion), understated elegance (simple, elegant, subdued, large scale, and sparse), metallic/ iridescent textiles and rugs, and of course eco (naturals, tone-on-tone, light distressing, woven grasses, and subdued tones).

learn more from monica pederson in this style file video!

lawns: big pollutants?

did you know....that in denver, 55% of all residential water is used on landscaping?!

....that gas-powered mowers produce11 times more air pollution per hour than a car?!

....that pesticie and herbicide runoff seriously affects plant and animal life in waterways?!

for many reasons, including environmental and aesthetics, i prefer real lawns vs. synthetic lawns, but that doesn't mean a ton of water consumption. there are solutions like native grasses like buffalo grass (see below), hair grass and even eco-lawn shown above from wildflower farm. eco-lawn grows in full sun, part shade and even deep shade! it's highly drought tolerant once established, has a beautiful green color, requires less fertilizing and can be mowed like regular lawn.

the lush buffalo grass lawn above (photo: joe fletcher, steve gunther, jack coyier) is from a project in venice, ca designed by marmol radziner & associates which received an honor award from the american society of landscape architects in 2009. once established, locally adapted types of native grasses should thrive on the area's average rainfall. during especially dry years, they may need some watering.

you can find more info on o'connell landscapes' blog and sunset's "kick the water habit" article.

my adopted room's professional photos have arrived!

thanks to the fabulously talented photographer laure joliet who donated her time and the professional photos for all 18 rooms at the new family shelter for upward bound house!

thanks laure!

when i first saw this bunkbed, pre-selected by upward bound, it was in 'honey oak' and i was not excited. but then i painted it in snowfall white with benjamin moore's natura donation and it looks great! i will protect it in a clear coating to be announced soon.

the floor lamp is donated from hotel surplus, the mother-of-pearl curtain hardware donated from west elm via parent company williams sonoma inc. and the bed sheets are donated from gotcha covered with pillow inserts and comforters from kohl's.

i started planning the room concept with the beautiful eco-friendly elizabeth wallpaper in peacock donated from madison & grow which drove the palette. since it's such a small room, a whopping 130SF, i decided it needed to be light and bright, hence the white walls and bed.

the inspirational message on the wall is a cool removable sticker by ferm living.

the dark brown wall-to-wall carpet was also pre-selected by upward bound but it's a wonderful foundation actually. though dark rugs may hide dirt, be warned that they show threads, lint, and anything light, very easily so be prepared to vacuum regularly. on top of it, is an abaca rug, a highly renewable plant, from natural carpet company. the lounge chair was donated from a wonderful upholsterer and refinisher (who also sewed the curtains and pillows!) who had it leftover from a job in their warehouse!

the cute white wicker table was donated from a designer friend of bridgid coulter, a designer who also worked on the shelter and who also donated the mirror and side chairs!

that's me wearing eco chic linda loudermilk...look at that back! fabric was donated from f&s, duralee and another designer friend of bridgid's, plus pillows from dl rhein and french american paper. gorgeous silk drum pendants donated from zia priven, white vase holding the orchid donated from accessory preview (plus a beautiful green capiz wastebasket in the bathroom) and woven baskets below the air unit (and a throw on the bed) donated from pottery barn.

the woven window shade, made from rapidly renewable grass, is from the woven company. this detail shows how special these treatments are yet it was a simple solution. i re-purposed the "silk" panels from a donor by adding trim that although donated, came from f&s' outlet store and only sells for $2/yd!

out of sight at the moment, in the bathroom, are a beautiful polished nickel towel hook and wastebasket donated from restoration hardware.

on the table is a beautiful arrangement of succulents in a sweet little urn donated from grow on abbot kinney, along with an orchid in the bathroom.

the plant and planter donated from the talented group at inner gardens who not only offer landscape design services but have an amazing collection of new and antique containers!

'before' video of room at family shelter

you'll see in this video what the room looked like when we were painting it. it looks so small with the bunkbed in the middle and it's hard to imagine how big and beautiful it ends up looking when it's finished!

thanks to all my friends who helped with the painting - it was fun!

what should a shelter look like?

upward bound house's new family shelter in culver city, ca is beautiful. in fact, some may be surprised at how nice the rooms are but why shouldn't a shelter be special? check out my videos for more visual peeks at the project.

first an introduction....

now for a tour....

a cool place listing things the blogger thinks are lovely and beautiful, hablan de ella, includes an image from my apartment at the top of today's list! it's a cool coffee table with griffin bases that was in my grandparents' home, shown in front of cushions in batik from f&s fabric and behind those are metal shelving from crate & barrel.

teaming up with lennar, cr designs and west elm

recently i had the privelage of helping carlo rios of cr designs who is also the design ambassador for west elm, stage a stunning luxury home called la casella in orange county for lennar. the spaces are brilliantly adorned with furnishings from west elm and art from amber trueblood.

eTTa in the LA Times!

thanks to lisa boone, anne cusack and the la times for covering the homelessness issue and spotlighting upward bound house's new family shelter. this image from their post today shows me cleaning the bunkbeds. don't worry, that pattern is later covered by all the bedding as it's just the mattress fabric - phew!

extra special thanks!

in the design/build industry, collaboration is crucial, whether with your client, your contractor or another designer and direclty affects the success of a project. thankfully, the upward bound house's new family shelter exudes this achievement.

it has been a pleasure working with the staff at upward bound house, in particular dara lasky, alison shiry, mary pat cooney and david snow. in addition, the contractor jensen construction was extremely helpful, especially jake and steven. and finally, my fellow designers, all 17 of them! the amount of support that i felt from the design group is amazing, whether i needed to borrow an extension cord, collect donations, or have help finishing my room in the last few minutes before the opening event.

thank you again to everyone who helped make decorating the family shelter such a success!

what works in a family shelter can really work in a mansion

thanks to apartment therapy and their latest fab re-nest posting of the upward bound project! it gives me such joy to know that our project is inspiring others...and to be included in a group of what ap states as "LA's most notable interior designers"!

an interesting tidbit is that the same pattern and color of madison & grow wallpaper donated for the feature wall shown in the left photo is what was used in the last showcase at greystone mansion in the righthand photo. i wish i had the professional shots to show here and will soon but in the meantime, enjoy the irony!

inspiring support for LA homeless families

my adopted room at upward bound house's new family shelter in culver city was a huge success (as was the entire project)! although 'my' room is being tweaked this week and professional photos will be taken soon, i'd like to acknowledge all the vendors, designers and individuals who contributed to 'my' room. if you're looking for great vendors/suppliers/resources and talented installers/subcontractors, check out this list! once i post the professional shots hopefully next week, i'll point out what these valuable resources provided.

AAA Packing and Shipping

Accessory Preview

Alysia Cotter Photography

B&B Hardware

Benjamin Moore

Bridgid Coulter Designs

Celadon Thai Kitchen

CR Creative Services

Custom Creation Solutions

DL Rhein

Duralee Fabric

Edward Thomas Collection

Elizabeth Zampolli

F&S Fabrics

Ferm Living

Gotcha Covered

GoToGreen

GPS Painting

Grow

Haefele Design

Hollywood at Home

Hotel Surplus

Inner Gardens

Jill's Paint

Joe Faux Decorative Painting

Jorge Coral

Kohl's

Liz's Antique Hardware

Madison & Grow

Manny Galindo

Natural Carpet Company

Neysa Pelletier

Paper Mosaic

Peacock Alley

Piero Spadaro

Pottery Barn

Ramland Construction

Recyclicious

Restoration Hardware

Rob Kramer

Rosalie Maduro

Savvy Traveler

Schlossberg USA

Sue Kim

Swedlow Design

Tara Mackenzie

The Woven Company

Williams Sonoma Inc

withAnet

Wood World

Woven Accents

Zia Priven

relaxed elegance for a new family shelter

i am so honored to be a part of an amazing experience designing a room at a new family shelter in culver city, upward bound house's family shelter. i will write more about it soon and reveal the sources of the donated treasures that adorn the room as well as professional photos once we have electricity in the spaces. in the meantime, check out the fab inhabitat and grace hilton blogs posted today about the shelter and the successful opening last friday.