ABCD Design Sketch Book | milestones in life set the tone » Dream Decorating

{interior design as inspiration} Kay Douglass

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:41:47 +0000

{Images via Design In The Woods, Atlanta Homes, House Beautiful, McAlpine Tankersley, Coastal Living - Belgian inspired interior design by Kay Douglass from South of Market}

For the Laundry Room and Kitchen Pantry {a jewel box}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:09:32 +0000

I know, I know. I have talked about the laundry room on numerous occasions. What girl who has spent the last 13+/- years schlepping to the communal laundry room in the basement wouldn’t obsess? If you need a reminder: Before Shots and Inspiration, A Sneak Peek of the Laundry Room Design, Laundry Room Design Progress, and (the infamous) vintage lamp re-do.Originally, I thought I wanted Cole and Son Malabar lining the backs of the pantry shelves. Suddenly, the black and white paisley looks very predictable to me. ABCD ala 2007…no thanks. So I started dream decorating a bit and found this floral full of cream, white, mustard and a hint of silver. Now I might be onto something!

ABCD Design {guest post} New England Home Magazine

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:03:27 +0000

ABCD Design was asked to make a guest appearance at New England Home Magazine. Please stop by the New England Home Magazine today to see Interior Design Inspired by Nature and New England Seasons - chime in and tell us which one is your favorite color palette!

Shaker Style Mountain Farmhouse {Barbara Barry Jackson, Wyoming}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:30:52 +0000

We stayed an extra day at The Country House. Omgosh it was bloody cold! Winter’s deep freeze has finally settled in. (Now, if we could only get some snow!) There is nothing quite like hunkering down for a long weekend to catch up on sleep and eating well. Over the weekend, this Jackson Hole Shaker Farmhouse by Barbara Barry helped provide inspiration as we thought about the modern glass breezeway project.We had plenty of time to hang out in the barn (luckily it has a gas heater!) to think about what the new breezeway could do for us. We’d no longer have to go out in the cold or heat through the yard to reach the barn. This would be a HUGE improvement. Heck, this project could turn into a barn extension! “What could look like?” we wondered. There is a lot to consider about the timeline, how we’ll proceed and what the space will eventually be used for. To be honest, the house in its current state is plenty of space for us. What’s the benefit? It would allow for us to claim the entire space upstairs of the existing house (about 900 sq ft) as our master bedroom.We’d have the fireplace room, our own master bath and bedroom to ourselves. The very best part is that we’d be able to claim the current guest bedroom as a gracious walk in closet. You recall the lack of closet space and the abundance of open shelves we were “blessed” with upon moving into the country house, right? The bain of my existence. Right now, it looks like eventually the barn will become a TV room (we don’t currently have a TV in the house) with a Wittus Shaker Stove and an additional dining or table for fireside dinners, sewing projects and game playing. Speaking of which, we were recently introduced to a game called Mexican Train that you play with a set of Double Fifteen Dominoes. It’s so much fun, you should give it a go next time you have a group of four together to play.
There will be a spare bedroom upstairs, and off the back of the barn we will build a bathroom, steps upstairs, storage and a workroom. I want there to be either enough space for both of us to have our own workroom, or a space large enough for us to share. I will weave fabric on a loom again, for this I am certain. I also think a sink and counter space is imperative for flower cutting and arranging. I am sure my husband has ideas for “his” space too.
We also dream designed ideas for the new breezeway. This will be step one of our plan and it is likely to happen during ’12. The current mud room is 11 feet long and about 6 feet wide. It has a wood floor – finished with zero VOC Belgian oil. I love the look, but the guy we hired did a terrible job on it. Do you remember how horrible he was? Unfortunately, my blood boils every time I look at it.I have visions of saying good riddance to that wood floor. I love the idea of using irregular bluestone with grey grout as the flooring in the new breezeway-mudroom. Considering that we have a bluestone patio in front of the barn, it will immediately give us the indoor-outdoor feel that I am after. I don’t ever want to worry about wearing shoes, scuffs or scratches like I do currently with the wood floor.You remember what my inspiration for the breezeway is, right? I added it in at the bottom of a post last week, so it’s possible you may have missed it. The only reason we wouldn’t go modern: it’s bound to be cost prohibitive.
I found another example of a glass breezeway over the weekend. While I am not a fan of the round ceiling in these images below – I do love the double wall of modern windows. How cool is it to be able to see the backyard from the front door?Images Veranda Magazine, Wittus, Connecticut Stone, my own, Hammersmith, Inc.

Mountain House Master Bedroom Design Scheme

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:13:25 +0000

We sold The City Apartment in 2009 and bought The Country House in 2010. I always love a good personal interior design project, and if I had it my way we’d move at least every five years. (Finish one project – move to the next!) I mentioned to you yesterday that inheriting all that great heirloom furniture from my mom has kick started my desire to upholster lingering vintage pieces, get new bedding in the master and wrap up the design project upstairs with a pretty orange bow. Orange, you ask?
It’s no secret I’ve been using burnt orange as a neutral color throughout The Country House. I just love how it looks with charcoal grey! I have this color palette in our library with hits of sky blue. In our master bedroom we have orange and charcoal with hits of honey, camel and black. Below you see a detail shot of our industrial style nightstands.We currently have the metal canopy bed from our Soho Apartment the master bedroom. It breaks up the space visually and just isn’t right. I’ve been making due with it, but have been dream decorating with a tufted headboard for some time now. I think I am ready to place my order! I am going to go with a tone-on-tone color palette just like the one I saw in my inspiration photo. I’ve selected Liebeco Belgian linen in a color called Arabica.
High Falls Mercantile sells a pillow called the Double Dutch. It’s the width of a twin bed and is perfect for leaning up against when reading in bed. I am going to do two large Double Dutch pillows on the back of the headboard in plaid Romo fabric. (Also available through HFM.)
I should make it clear here that these mentions of HFM are not sponsored posts. I simply like the product lines that my friend Larry carries. If I can work with him to help finish off the soft furnishings upstairs, why not do it?
In addition to the large pillows, I have some orange velvet ones by Maison de Vacances that I will use. I also plan to stitch together boiled wool army blankets with a contrasting hot-orange contrasting blanket stitch – I’ve been dying to bring more mossy green into the picture. And lastly, the duvet will be in Fog color Liebeco linen to coordinate with the changes I have been planning for the fireplace room…more on that later!
I showed the Mr what I came up with and he said “It’s so masculine.” Given the hints of Industrial decor and Mid Century Modern pieces we have in our master bedroom, the dark painted walls and the knotty pine ceiling – I think that our weekend house in the mountains should have that manly feel. Besides, I inherited a special set of botanical prints from mom that will ‘girl’ it up just enough for my taste!