Amy's Having A Baby!

I will be hosting Amy's baby shower in February, so here is the invitation to the couple's baby shower that I designed.

Save the Date Magnets

My little sister is getting married!!

We have just started the wedding planning and I think it is going to be so fun! She has already chosen her bridesmaids dresses in a color called 'Mango Tango' (how fun!) So when we met with the florist, we loved the look of hot pink and mango tango together so that, with hints of lime green has become the color scheme.

So after having her Engagement Pictures taken by Marshall Graham Photography (http://marshallgrahamphoto.com) I used three of the shots for the Save the Date magnets to be mailed out soon to plaster all of friend's and family's refrigerators.

Rainbow Fish

When my sister Shana graduated from Clemson with her degree in Elementary Education, I needed a gift. So, I thought about something she could use in her classroom and then I remembered her favorite book from our childhood, The Rainbow Fish. I painted an interpretation of the front cover of the book and used beaded paper to imitate the shiny scales the Rainbow Fish shared with his new friends.

A tree... inside?

My fifteen year old sister was ready to update her pink room to a more fun and mature style, so I painted the walls a cool gray and the ceiling aqua. I added a stripe from the floor to the ceiling on the wall beside the windows and also behind the bed for more color. We cut a large branch off a tree outside and attached it to the wall and added small crystal balls and flowers to the branches. I found an old brass chandelier from the Habitat Restore and painted it black lacquer. The curtains are sheer aqua and match the ceiling, apple green accents the aqua with the bedspread.

The tree wall.

Dammit Janet Fronts

Here are a few front proposals for the club Dammit Janet. The main objective with these is to grab attention and be a bit out of the ordinary.

This one is going to print now. That gnome gets around!

This one is not being used as of now. It focused a bit too much on the 80's instead of 'retro' and since Charlotte already has an 80's club, it didn't make the cut. It still makes me smile though.

And this one is my favorite... oh, black sheep, always a good time!

Pig Pickin Oyster Roast

Common House will be hosting it's First Annual Pig Pickin' Oyster Roast on Saturday November 7. Here are some of the ads that I designed to help promote the event. All promotional materials include: 11" x 17" poster, 4" x 5" two sided handbills, tickets, a web banner for Creative Loafing's website and three different sized ads for the three weeks preceding the event's issues of Creative Loafing (quater page, vertical half page & full page). I drew the pig and then created the rest of the materials in Photoshop.

11" x 17" Poster

Event tickets

Web Banner for http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com

Common House Menu

Here is the new menu for Common House. The purpose of changing the menu was to make the menu more of an extension of the Common House brand and to better highlight the delicious food. The old menu was a flimsy laminated 8.5" x 14" piece of paper with vague descriptions and layout that raised more questions than it answered. The new menus are folded menu books with the menus printed on a light cream colored paper.

Front cover of the menu.

Inside of menu, blueprint faded in background in keeping with 'house' theme.

Back of menu, lots of information about Common House.

Beer list laminated and stands on each table.

Wine list on opposite side of beer list.

A Fun & Open Floor Plan

This house was so much fun to work with, the homeowners are young and excited to be a little more creative with their home. When we first started the project, the home was very compartmentalized. There was not a good flow to the space at all and much of the home was in bad shape. We completely changed the floor plan of the house to make it much more of a family oriented space. The kitchen is open to the family room and the dining area and all of the bedrooms are directly off of this space, no wasted hallway space. Once the floor plan was finalized, the homeowners made a lot of the design decisions themselves. I came back and helped out with decisions during the building process and then made the paint selections.

Here is the open kitchen, great for a young family to hang out together. All paint is Sherwin Williams brand. The walls are a nice neutral blueish gray called 'Gray Screen' and the ceiling is a warm orange tone that creates warmth in the space called 'Folksy Gold.' All cabinets were selected by the homeowner based on the floor plan provided and are from Ikea.


This room is the future dining room, but is currently a seating area. The paint is called 'Tigereye.'

From the guest bedroom looking into the living room. The doors are painted 'Iron Ore.' This color adds the feel of an older home yet with a modern twist. Richer and more interesting than your typical trim white door color.
This is the office/ mommy station of the house; fun and bright with 'Sassy Green' on the walls and a Capiz shell chandelier.

The homeowner loves to travel and wanted to use many of the treasures she has collected to decorate the house. This bedspread was from her travels and she wanted to incorporate it in the space and pull vibrant colors from it for the walls. We selected 'Theater Red' for the wall behind the bed and 'Mesmerize' for the other three walls. This room feels incredibly cozy and romantic.
Here is the bedroom from the other side, showing off some great travel finds!The bathroom is painted 'Lazy Gray' and has contrasting tiles on the floor and surrounding the tub. Laying the floor tiles on a 45 degree angle is another great way to add interest and contrast.
The kid's room is a fun space. The bifold closet doors are painted with chalkboard paint to encourage creativity in the children.
The walls of the kid's bedroom have a fun stripe pattern and remains gender neutral for both of the children.

Common House KRAWL Ad

Plaza Midwood has a seasonal Krawl where local businesses stay open late, have drink specials and entertainment. This Fall's Krawl is also raising Breast Cancer Awareness. Common House is donating a portion of the proceeds from the night's sales to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and offering $5.00 Pink Martinis. Here is the ad that I created to go on the Krawl page of the Creative Loafing.

Dammit Janet Flyer

Dammit Janet! Weekly Events Flyer
 

The Muenster Mash

At Owen's Bagel and Deli, the home of the amazing steamed bagel sandwich, there is no elegant menu board organized by type of meat or bread - the menu is about 50 8.5" x 11"ish homemade signs made by employees, customers, whoever hung randomly wherever there happens to be a space. This deli has a great fun, funky vibe and certainly isn't trying to impress you with fancy decor, but ironically, this is what impresses people. People feel at home, they write all over the walls, and interact with the employees and each other. It's such a fun and unique place - and the food is great!

So, here is my addition to the OBD menu, the Muenster Mash. My delicious vegetarian sandwich with hummus, bell peppers, onions, meunster cheese (of course), lettuce and tomato on a bialy. mmmm! It's the Muenster Monster!

Porch Bench - Now with Flair!

We were given this old park bench from a friend who was moving. It has served it's purpose just fine as a stained wood bench, but since I can never leave unpainted things alone we now have an outer space bench for our porch. I was inspired by the 60's artist Peter Max and his fun whimsical, almost trippy art. The stars are painted in a metallic silver so they sparkle. Now, I'm just not sure if I actually want people sitting on it...

Art Card

This is an art card that I made for Max Arledge, an Anderson SC painter. He needed a card that patrons could take away from exhibits to contact him and be reminded of his work. I used four images of his work to create the card and featured two quotes of the artist discussing his style and background. Below is the front and back image of the card.

35th & McDowell Development

YSS was contracted to assist with the client selections and design of the ten home 35th & McDowell project located in NoDa here in Charlotte. I worked with the new home owners while their homes were under construction to guide them through the processes of exterior selections (paint, stains, brick, stone, lighting, etc) as well as interior selections (paint, granite, appliances, tile, plumbing fixtures, lighting, cabinetry, etc). I also worked with the contractors to coordinate scheduling and ordering of products and completed invoicing. It was a great experience to step into the role of project management.

This home did not have an owner when construction was started so it became the show home for the development (until it sold shortly after completion). With no home owners input, it was open to our own design devices... within reason. For the exterior, we wanted to do something other than the typical white trim so we went with a dark charcoal gray for the siding and a nice gold beige for the door and window trim.
Here is the back view of the house and a glimpse of the neighboring house which I also worked on.
The open floor plan of this house made the kitchen very important. It is the center of the home. The cabinets are two toned to add more interest - a nice taupe color for the main cabinets and a ebony island each with black granite. The lighting became important and was a bit of a challenge because of the high vaulted ceilings, we had to make sure that it could hang low enough. The is a pot rack over the island with lights, and clear pendant lights over the peninsula and sink. In the dining room, there is a Capiz shell light that I spent entirely too much time altering! It was three separate lights that I reconfigured to make one large light. Had I known what I was getting into, it may not have happened. But it turned out very cool and was a unique light for the space that coordinated very well with the stone fire place so, I'm glad I did it.
Here is the living room with the grand stone fireplace. The walls are a nice warm gray that give the space life and color, yet is still neutral enough for a home on the market.
This is the formal living room located just inside the front door. Painted a nice golden beige with an awesome brick tile fireplace. The tile has a very subtle stripe similar to linen.
And the guest bathroom with bright white cabinetry, black granite counter tops and translucent blue vessel sinks to coordinate with the wall color. Not a bad place to send your guests!

My bathroom

Here is the bathroom in our house, it's very small but we are stuck with that for now so we had to make the best of it. There was a strange tile-esque linoleum with a pink flower in each 4" x 4" square on the wall when we moved in, so that was the first thing to change! Instead of taking the linoleum down though, I just primed and painted a chocolate brown right over it to keep the tile texture and add another little bit of interest in the small space. I found this cool chandelier at the Habitat Restore and painted it red and changed the bulbs to round ones (I mean, are the flame shaped bulbs really fooling anyone?). Then, I painted the ceiling a teal color to compliment the red chandelier and brighten up the brown walls. Maybe it's not a 500 square foot spa escape complete with dual rainfall shower heads, but it's mine and I love it!
The bathroom before... exciting, I know!

Playing around with acryllics

This is a painting I did at least seven or eight years ago. It was shortly after I had my big trip to the art store when I decided painting would be my new hobby. I was mostly just getting a feel for mixing paint and brush stokes with this piece, but I also like the tension that it creates with the angled line. My own little analogy to life, neat and orderly but then something unexpected.

SURFACES :: Orchid Ceramics

SURFACES is a yearly industry event where floor covering professionals from around the world come together in a 350,000 square foot space to show off new products and trends. Jeanene and I were asked by Orchid Ceramics to design their temporary showroom for the event. The idea for our space was to create mock rooms to show uses for tile all around the house. This was a very successful method and offered much more visual interest than endless racks of tile samples.


In the Kitchen, we contracted the local cabinet designers/builders, Hefner Woodworking. They created the cabinets used. We used a variety of tile on the counter tops, floors and back splash to create the modern look. In the Living Room, we used a unique floor tile and made the tile sample boards into the artwork of the room. We also incorporated two paintings from Charlotte artist, Charlotte Foust. The chain columns were built by Hefner Woodworking and consisted of hundreds and hundreds of feet of ball chain suspended in circular form with lights in the center. Two barcelona chairs and a natural wood side table completed the look of this room.

In the center area of the showroom, there were more examples of tile as art. The wall was created with a sheets of aluminum behind a wood veneer with 2" - 4" holes cut out. The veneer framed the tile to display it to potential buyers.
The Garden Room used the tile as art again on the walls, it was also used to build an outdoor sofa and on the floors. Three pouf chairs were between two custom built planters. As in all of the rooms, textured wall panels were applied to the wall to add another layer of detail.
The bathroom was a calm and chic room with two tones of tile used on the floor to create interest. The custom platform bathtub had a ledge around the bottom for pebbles and the floating cabinets featured a step ledge.

The Old Office of YSS

Here are two images from our old Yellow Shoe Studio office. Jeanene and I shared a large room with a fireplace in the center. We wanted to create an environment that was conducive to both creativity and productivity. Although we each had a desk with chairs, we often found it more comfortable (and less work feeling) to sit in our 'comfy chairs' and work.

We used a medium gray with slight blue undertones on the walls and a vibrant teal color on the ceiling to brighten the room and add a splash of color that was not overwhelming. The chandelier was a steal at the Habitat for Humanity Restore for only $10 and the artwork was from a local painter. It was our mission to *try* to have an orchid in the office all of the time because it always made us smile.

Floor Plan :: 1900 Nassau

This is a drawing from a proposed home renovation located in the Plaza Midwood Area here in Charlotte. The home was originally less than 1000 square feet with two bedrooms and one bathroom, but the investor was looking to have a total of approximately 2500 square feet with 4-5 bedrooms and 3+ bathrooms all working within the original footprint of the house. The proposed plan included a garage beneath the hillside home and an additional floor and a half above the existing structure. The main level is a very open plan that flows between the dining, living and kitchen areas. A sunroom was also added to create an informal family gathering space overlooking the large backyard.

Beer Pong, Dead Style

Made from a Habitat ReStore door.

The Screen Porch Project

When we moved into our new place, Phil and I found a pile of old window screens in the backyard and felt inspired. We created a pseudo wall out of the nine 16" x 48" screens that we painted and suspended with wire.