It's Not Me, It's You - and Your Vision

Living Room After

Sometimes as designers we want to push our clients to what we think is the best, most current for a particular space. However, when Nancy and I tackle projects, we always have the client’s goals and tastes in our focus. That might not mean what we love, but what they love. An example of this was a project we recently completed. “Morven” is a home built 30 years ago on the ocean’s edge at the Jersey shore owned by a couple in their 80’s. They knew it was time to redecorate but were also a bit resistant to change.

Because the house is on the ocean in a shore town, it would have been easy for us to go in the ‘beach house’ direction, however, the clients lean toward traditional style with deep rich colors and ornate, fussy furniture – which doesn’t really say beach home. An additional challenge was that the exterior of the home evokes that of a European castle.

Before the project actually started, we spent a great deal of time talking with the client to ensure we fully understood the client’s goals and their vision (not ours) of how they wanted the home to feel. We then got to work coming up with a creative solution to this match-matched styled home. The result we achieved is a blend of styles we like to call Coastal Mediterranean. We brought the warmth of Mediterranean style with its traditional style furniture and warm stained wood beams on the ceilings and paired that with Coastal style light fabrics, wallpaper and paint colors. Lastly, we popped in a couple touches of nautical whimsy.

We lightened the feel of the home while improving the reflection of the exterior of the home with the inside. You might say we moved the castle from the deep wood of Bavaria to the rocky coast of Portofino! The clients are thrilled with the result, stating they love the lighter, freshened feel of the home while their memories of past happy times remain. That is what we call a success!Living Room Before

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After