Watch Melissa create an urban retreat in Rod and Nat’s backyard.
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Tags: David Craig, design, HGTV, Marriage Under Construction, Melissa Davis, Natalie Westlake, reality tv, Rodney Bowers, YDF, Your Designer Friend
Watch Melissa reveal the plans and concept for Rod and Nat’s entire house.
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Tags: design, HGTV, Marriage Under Construction, Melissa Davis, Natalie Westlake, Photography, photos, Rodney Bowers, watch online
Watch Melissa getting started with the team in Episode 2 of Marriage Under Construction.
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I’m doing a baby’s room right now. Baby and children’s rooms can go in so many drastically different directions. Some parents decorate to suit their own style. Others go kid crazy with decals, Dora bed spreads and primary paint tones. The reality is babies have little appreciation for their decor for the first 12-18 months. My son’s room is now and has always been white walls, and wood floors. A stellar mobile and display area for his toys is all he cares about. His colourful toys against a clean white back drop is far more impactful than the Disney channel having its way with his room. His room fits with our style. A few Diego decals have snuck onto his play area wall this holiday….he’s mad about Diego!
Serendipitously I was in New York visiting some friends last month. Andrew and Christy Zolty are both disgustingly talented creatives. Andrew and my fella met in Amsterdam while working on a pitch. They of course won the pitch and became fast friends. Christy is a fashion designer who has just returned to New York after living and working in London.
Having not jumped back into fashion just yet, I tried to sway her into taking on more home decor projects before she did. She’s remarkably creative and I knew planting a little seed with her would bring about something amazing. I was right!
The room I’m doing is to have a mural, Where The Wild Things Are style. The background walls are done in a bright watery blue/green and will be covered with trees. The trunks will be a bit dark, mysterious as is the story book, and the canopies will stop just below the ceiling.
I wanted a real branch to hang in front. A 3 dimensional element to give depth to the 2D painting. Something to replace the traditional mobile, that would grow with the child. What she created is just incredible. It’s 4′ long, all covered with hand stitching. An ugly little owl sits on top, a snail clings to the underside and 3 pine cones droop from the limbs. It’s beyond my expectations.
She suggested a small mushroom stool might be a nice accompaniment. Again, all hand-made, every detail is perfectly executed. The underside is puckered, perfectly depicting a real mushroom. You can see her tiny models loving it!
I suspect when these images get out to the world, she’ll be in full-time log production mode. send me a quick email and I will connect you to her if you like. melissa@designerfriend.ca
image sources [log & mushroom stool - Christy zolty, Where the wild things are -www.thevine.com.au ]
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Tags: Andrew Zolty, baby, Children, Christy Zolty, decoration, design, Interior design, kids room, Melissa Davis, modern, new york, where the wild things are, YDF
Winter Sale at 120 Modern
info@onetwentymodern.com
T 416 537 4400
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10 to 6
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Tags: 120 modern, modern, ossington, sale
New year, and a fresh reminder to visit our main site! People often mistake this blog for the site. Your Designer Friend can help you Design, Shop, and Renovate both on and offline. For intelligent and Inspired Design visit
designerfriend.ca>
We’d also love to hear from you:
For design, renovation, product inquiries, or trade referrals please contact melissa@designerfriend.ca
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After months of filming, planning and having on-camera melt downs, the time has arrived! My new series premieres this Monday night (Jan 4) at 9pm. Here is HGTV’s show synopsis and a link to the schedule this week. These air dates apply to Canada only. US times to follow, begining in March.
MARRIAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION SEASON III
Rodney and Natalie have known each other for four years and were recently married last summer in St. John’s, Newfoundland. They currently live in Cabbagetown (a community within Toronto) and rent a room in a place they call ‘The Frat House’ with two of Rodney’s friends. After a year of fun, they are eager to get a place of their own and settle down with hopes of starting a family in the near future.
Rodney, a 6’ tall teddy bear, fell in love with cooking as a profession at the age of 18 and currently owns two successful restaurants in the Toronto area. Natalie (Rodney’s wife) recently moved back to Canada from the US for three years. She’s a health nut and runs at least two half marathons every summer; all while working as a Canadian Training Store Manager for a successful clothing brand.
Both Rodney and Natalie can’t wait to be west-enders again in Toronto! They have set their sights on a new trendy neighbourhood where they are minutes away from shopping, restaurants, parks and schools. They have decided that a budget of $600,000 will land them their dream ‘fixer upper’ home that will work as a ‘family home for the future’, as well as include a ‘dream kitchen’ to entertain family and friends.
Bills. Construction. Living together in their first home and a new neighbourhood. The ups and downs of home ownership. MARRIAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION III is a 13-part docu-soap that follows Rodney and Natalie’s relationship, along with the struggles of building their first home together. It’s a personal and physical renovation.
Upcoming Episodes:
Monday, January 4 9:00 PM EST Let’s Get Moving (CC)
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Tags: HGTV, Marriage Under Construction, Melissa Davis, MUC, Natalie Westlake, Rodney Bowers, Steve Cladwell, YDF, Your Desiner Friend
Lose The Towel and I Love You
Save for the flesh pink towel, I think this tub shower combo is stunning. Simple use of materials, maximizes area, clean lines and an unexpected approach. Perhaps a slight angle on the tub rear wall may be more comfortable and I would prefer the tub in slabs to avoid the grout lines there, but otherwise this is lovely.
Also a very economical approach. A contemporary soaker tub starts at $1500, a porcelain tile like used here could start at $200!
image source [Habitus Magazine, vol 5] project by [ Hyla Architects, Singapore]
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Tags: Habitus Magazine, Hyla Architects, Melissa Davis, modern bathroom, porcelaine tile, Singapore, tiled walls, tub and shower, wood floor, YDF, Your Designer Friend
A project by Base Architecture, Queensland Australia
Wickham Apartment – description by Base Architects
The objective of this renovation was to turn the existing one level apartment into a modern urban retreat within the lively Fortitude Valley context. The Wickham Street heritage commercial building accommodates several offices over 3 levels with the apartment located on the top level at the rear of the building.
The modern, white interior is contrasted by the raw existing fabric of brick and concrete, allowing the occupant to engage with the building’s heritage. The use of timber flooring and battens throughout compliments the existing brickwork and brings warmth into the apartment, balancing the starkness of the white. By using this limited material palette, the perceived size of the apartment is maximised and through well-considered joinery design so too is the functionality.
This renovation was efficient in its use of resources (both financial and material), particularly through maximising the use of existing building fabric and structure, which was crucial to the overall success of the project. All aspects of the brief were satisfied, particularly maximising the entertaining space. In this regard the client’s expectations were by far exceeded due to the ability to physically separate the living and private spaces with the inclusion of the mezzanine level.
Source [ project descripion and images http://www.basearchitecture.com.au ]
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Tags: apartment, australia, Base Architecture, Melissa Davis, modern design, queensland, YDF, Your Designer Friend
Since I live with a Mad Men type agency guy (he’s handsome and dresses well too), I can’t help but draw comparisons in our businesses. I’ve never worked in a big office. The max I think was 10 people, and it was a pretty typical design studio set up. Everyone does everything.
At my old firm, I rustled up jobs, did pitches, managed the studio staff and oversaw production, I produced, ordered all the “stuff” we spec’d, invoiced clients, did collections calls and did the dishes. That’s how it’s done in small design studios. You’re thrown in head first and you need to learn and wear all hats.
This seems an obvious observation, but strangely isn’t to most designers; Jack of all trades truly means master of none. By nature I control. I take on everything and have real issue letting anything up to others. Even when I hire and pay others to do jobs, I would somehow prefer to research and do it myself. That’s very very bad for business. I’m business savvy enough to realize the most successful entrepreneurs hire others, the best at their discipline, to handle each element of a business.
I often observe the workings of large advertising agencies and wonder how on earth any actual creative takes place with so much paper work and “management” by non-creatives. How does a creative service go corporate, but maintain a creative edge. They’re contradictory, no? Of course they’re doing something right since all the largest and most successful brands hire the largest and most successful ad agencies. It’s that reality that often has me questioning why the heck interior design firms don’t adopt the agency structure. Allow the creatives to create, planners plan, developers figure out how to make the esthetic actually work from a practical perspective.
Half my friends are finance guys and gals, mostly equity dudes that think for a living. They allow others to come up with a creative idea then step in to stream line “corporatize” and help grow that idea into a managed, accountable, controlled machine. They help good ideas, make money. They like hanging out with me because I’m a creative, but in the most controlled use of the title. Typically they buy me dinner and wine, talk about they’re latest acquisitions, and I tell them what I think based on my Twitter feed, observings of creative friends in other disciplines, and my rare perspective of a small town working class girl living in a city in a business that spends money on luxuries.
It’s no surprise I, for a spell became hooked (4am, blood-shot eyes) on The Sims. I built a mini society, from town plan, to housing materials and every relationship and emotionally nurturing interaction. I love, thrive, on controlling moving parts and nurturing a positive outcome.
The job of a designer, this designer anyway, more often than not is mediator. I watch my trades, my clients, my staff, and must know what they need vs want. A client has a budget and a timeline, and my job is to understand how those elements effect each one individually. Project extras of $5000 could be financially devastating for one client, but compromising to save $5000 for another, would see them disappointed in the results. I have to know how each want me to address these situations with them, and how best to speak with them. Equally important however, is the organic, creative product that if done correctly enriches their lives. Designing with room for a two person soaker tub could save a marriage, a single shower, not so much! It’s my job to guage where these importances lie.
I can take on commercial projects that are highly profitable, but must hire staff that prefer work consistencies like 9-5 hours and standard details, over creative variance. If I hire really talented creatives, I have to give them juicy projects that feed their needs or they will get restless and unhappy.
Somehow the agency approach where it’s one person’s job to nurture the client, another translates data and yet another creates something beautiful, seems to make more and more sense! The irony of the entire comparison – The city right now is a wash of lead creatives, all having left big ad agencies, all longing for a little shop or more creative control. Little shops that will inevitably be run much like the small interior design shops I’m familiar with.
Adding to my troubled, always analyzing brain is the observation of a TV producer I met last week. “In LA creatives get to be flighty, troubled, free-spirited, as long as they are creating. A suit will turn what they do into a business. For some reason, here we want our creatives to wear a suit and a smock.”
Well, I like to wear ripped jeans and a well-tailored blazer to work. I think I’ll stay here and keep masterminding my designer/Mad Men version of The Sims.
If I have any break throughs on my observations I’ll let you know. If you have any names for my Sims characters in mind, you let me know.
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Tags: Advertising agencies, LA, Mad Men, Melissa Davis, Producers, The Sims, YDF, Your Designer Friend
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