the first time we got a sneak into joslyn taylor’s home was with her before & after bar transformation. it was a huge hit, and we were all dying to see more. lucky for us, today is the day! she and her husband are in the high-tech industry, but consider themselves “closet creatives” (joslyn into decor and design, and bryan dreaming of woodworking and organic farming). set in their careers, their home has become their creative outlet. see what their creative juices have cooked up, and click here for more images. as always, you can find all the sneak peeks here. -anne
[Our house was built in 1978, and when we moved in a couple of years ago we joked it had a sort of ‘Boogie Nights-meets-Brady Bunch’ vibe with loads of foil wallpaper, shag carpeting and DARK wood… Retaining the spirit of the house while making it modern and family friendly has been our biggest goal, as ultimately the space is a place where our two little girls Audrey (four) and Millie (one and a half) can run wild, create memories and express themselves…]
We painted the wall behind the bed three times before we got that eggplant color. The first two attempts were crazy…think grape, think Prince Purple Rain, think Barney…not good! The pillows on the bed are Jonathan Adler…I recently moved them in here from our living room and they completely changed the feel of the room. The Chinese panel is something I found in the “chip and dent” bin at Horchow for $8.00…perhaps my greatest. find. ever. I found the lamp and table is actually one piece. I found it at a garage/sample sale that an event designer in town had. It was a pretty cool find….I’ve never seen anything like it.
The Woods wallpaper in the little nook between the kitchen and the breakfast area is my favorite space in the house. I’m so happy with how that project turned out, as it’s a perfect backdrop for my collection of white dishes. I’m pretty obsessed with white dishes… especially “strays” — I can’t resist picking up the odd white serving bowl or tray every time I hit an estate sale or thrift shop, but my favorite piece is my Heath casserole. I love Heath ceramics so much…it’s becoming an issue.
The tongue-in-groove ash paneling in the living room was by far our biggest challenge. When we moved in it was stained dark walnut and was pretty depressing. We had it completely stripped and re-stained natural, which was an improvement but still not exactly right. So on a lark (and out of complete desperation) we bought a can of liming wax and experimented on a few hidden boards. It was a total success. So now in every single spare moment we lime the walls…we’re about half-way done with the room and hope to have the rest done by the end of the year.
Like most of the wood in the house, the cabinets in the kitchen were originally stained dark brown. We were determined not to replace them, so we slapped on several coats of Benjamin Moore Decorator White, which made the sort of Mondrian pattern on the doors really “pop”. That same motif is on every single cabinet in the house as well as on our front doors….
I was determined to make the dining room a place we’d actually use since so many people…don’t. When we moved in, this was the most traditional room in the house. The “fancy-lady” chandelier was the first thing we took down. We replaced it with a drum shade that we had custom-made by Moon Shine Shades to fit the space. I drew the lamp, and they made it in two weeks + they were really affordable.
The starting point for the guest room was all those National Geographic magazines. I’m sort of stuck on yellow + kelly green, so I painted the wall behind the bed that great green featured in Domino a few months ago…it’s a lot brighter than it seemed in the magazine, so it freaked me out a bit at first, but it really worked with all the yellow. The light fixture is from IKEA and the painting over the bed was a gift from my best friend. She’s the queen of thrift shops and estate sales and we’re always unearthing crazy stuff together. Groovy estate sale art is the best…you can find great 60s/70s pieces that straddle the line between totally awesome and a smidge scary, which is usually the best combo!
