All original work © Jason W. Wong. Please ask for permission to reproduce any work.

All original work © Jason W. Wong. Please ask for permission to reproduce any work.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Starting from zero, got nothing to lose...

This last weekend I had the chance to finish up with L., one of my Oakland clients who found me through the magic of the internet. When we began back in April, we were faced with an interesting problem: having just moved back to the Bay Area for work, L. decided to start over from scratch. She had just a few pieces of art that she loved, and virtually no furniture. Just a bed and dresser, two kitchen chairs, a bookcase, an ottoman, and a TV and stand.

The great thing was that she was realistic about what she wanted to spend for decent quality furniture, and she wanted a mix of pieces that could grow with her. After a good consultation and some e-mail correspondence we came up with a concept for her recently renovated 60s-era apartment:


L.'s tastes leaned toward midcentury anyway, so we found pieces that complemented the architecture of her apartment as well as her sensibilities. The two "midcentury modest" chairs I scored from a thrift shop were a nice counterpoint to the more streamlined pieces I had her purchase. The living room side table was free--how can you beat that!? The zig zag rug was something we had to talk about for a bit--at first she wasn't sure what to make of it--but it soon became one of her favorite pieces in the room (I think she had one of my "I'm about to lose control and I think I like it" moments!)

As most of us know, all roads lead to Ikea when you're starting out on your own, so bedroom chairs, curtains, nightstands, and several other pieces came from our favorite Swedish retailer. Sure, she's got a few little things left to do, like hang that dining room pendant she bought and maybe get a plant and some more accessories and art, but in the end, we got her set up with a good mix of quality and vintage pieces--the perfect foundation from which to grow.

Here's the living room before:


And after:



The dining room before:


And after:


The bedroom before:


And after:


I look forward to getting updates from L. in the future, and can't wait to see how her apartment evolves!

1 comment:

Jim said...

A great example of a little bit going a long way! Very cool.