Journal – Kathryn J. LeMaster Art & Design

Merry Christmas!

Sending warm thoughts your way this Christmas Day.

xo,
-K

“I thank my God every time I remember you.” Philippians 1:3

It’s beginning to look alot like Christmas…

Happy December everyone! Lovely weather we’ve been having, yes? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been iced in for about 4 days now.

Everything’s coming up frozen in our back yard!

Rather than succumbing to cabin fever, I’ve focused on decorating for Christmas around our “cabin.” It’s coming along!

Here’s my Insta-recap of the first week of December:

Thankfully we made it to the tree farm and picked out the perfect Christmas tree before the ice storm hit. With the help of our neighbor, we even added some flocking to give it that snowy look. Although if we’d waited a few days and just left it outside, we could have had a nice coating of the real deal complete with sleet.

Hope you all are already enjoying some holiday cheer and staying cozy warm if it’s cold where you are too!

I’ll be back later this week sharing a few of my favorite Christmas picks from a great online shop I recently discovered. A few other things to look for on the blog this month: a furniture design reveal as well as a guest bedroom before and after, so stay tuned!

-K

Furniture Design Progress Report

In my previous post introducing Trevor Thurow Custom Furniture & Design, I shared with you how I would be working on a furniture design for Trevor to create something one-of-a-kind out of these spectacular barn wood beams:

We decided the best way to preserve the integrity of the authentic scraped texture of the beams would be to create something that incorporated as much length and as little cutting as possible. Thus we decided a dining table would be the way to go.

After sketching, researching, brainstorming and more sketching, the concept drawings were ready:

The concept was based on 45 degree or similar angles to create variations of diamonds or herringbone patterns. I wanted to try and create a “twist” like appearance to give the table visual movement – adding a fresh spin, creating a not-so typical farm table. These beams deserved a unique design!

These were the final concepts we decided to begin with:

As you can see from the below action shot of Trevor, construction is currently underway at his shop in Austin, TX. I’m so excited!!

You can follow Trevor’s updates on the project through his Facebook album, Barn Beam Dining Table. Here’s the most recent update from the album, the first table leg!

Way to go, Trevor! I just can’t get over the wood. The weather gray hand-scraped side or the fresh cut oak center. It’s absolutely gorgeous!

Now remember ladies and gents, this special piece will be looking for a good home once completed. If you think it might be the missing piece to your interior bliss… contact Trevor for more info. 🙂

Happy Monday!

-K

Cafe Lalo

Ah, Cafe Lalo. Is there a more picturesque french cafe this far from France? I think not.

(Brad Kelly Photo via Cafe Lalo)

This is one of my favorite places to visit in NYC, so naturally we had to have brunch there (my favorite meal) on our recent trip. It felt like visiting an old friend.

(via Cafe Lalo’s Facebook)

There are a million reasons to love this little cafe. Here are a few of mine:

1. It’s famous. It is the meeting place “Joe Fox” and “Kathleen Kelly” (aka Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) choose to meet in the classic chick flick loved by many, “You’ve Got Mail”. Look familiar?

(via Guest of a Guest)

2. The coffee. It’s delicious. And I love the espresso machine. And the brightly colored cups, saucers, and cream pitchers. Let’s just face it – coffee tastes better when it’s made and served in pretty things.

(KJL)

(via Cafe Lalo’s Facebook)

3. The interior. I love the brick walls, Art Nouveou art, brass rail bakery case, crystal flower track lighting, marble table tops… the list goes on and on.

(via Simple Recipe Raves)

(via Cafe Lalo’s Facebook)

4. The french windows. I know this technically falls under #3, but the windows are so fabulous, they get their own category.

(KJL)

5. The menu. From breakfast to midnight snack and every meal or treat in between, Cafe Lalo features an impossible array of delicious offerings. I say impossible, because it’s impossible to choose, so I always end up placing at least two orders for myself. A personal favorite: the Belgian waffle with home made cinnamon whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

(KJL)

(via Cafe Lalo’s Facebook)

6. The details. From the working vintage cash register to the souvenir match boxes… it’s the unique and unforgettable details that make Cafe Lalo so special.

(via Cafe Lalo’s Facebook)

Need I say more? I think not.

So next time you’re near the Upper West Side of Manhattan, you most definitely should stop in. Even if you only have time for a cupcake, it will be totally worth it. Until then, you should go like their Facebook page and check out their website.

It’s one of my happy places. I close my eyes and imagine that giant yellow cup of coffee and suddenly all is right in the world.

Happy November. Stay inspired!

-K

New York, New York

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

As I mentioned in my previous post, here are a few of my other favorite shots I took on our recent trip to NYC!

Hope you enjoyed this little snapshot tour of our trip to NYC. There’s so much more beauty where these came from accompanied by more history and culture – not to mentioned mesmerizing architecture around every corner. (I still have a crick in my neck from walking around looking straight up for hours on end just drooling over all of the mouldings.) I highly recommend a trip to NYC, especially if you’ve never been!

Don’t you just love New York in the fall?

New York City is dear to my heart. I used to visit every chance possible while my sister went to school in the heart of Manhattan for 4 years. It became especially special, however, in March of 2008 when my now husband completely surprised me on one of those visits to see my sister, showing up on top of Belvedere Castle in Central Park and proposing to me.

Sneaky AND romantic!

Well, our 5 year wedding anniversary was a week ago today, so Will and I flew out first thing last Saturday morning for an extended weekend in NYC to celebrate. Of course we had to return to the spot where it all began.

This is us at the scene of the surprise, five and a half years later:

What a wonderful 5 years it’s been!

Of all of my visits to the Big Apple, this was my first visit in October, and my was it lovely! Temperatures in the mid 60’s, sunshine and blue skies, and the leaves had already begun to change for fall. We strolled through Central Park for about 3 hours one afternoon and soaked in the symphony of colors and critters that unfolded around every turn.

These were just a few of my favorite shots from our stroll in the park. It was an amazing trip and I can’t wait to share more of my favorite photos from around the city, soon.

The week of celebrating isn’t over yet, because tomorrow brings another favorite day of my year – my birthday! 🙂

Hope you all have had a great week and are heading into a wonderful weekend, too!

-K

Master Bath Progress

So I’ve been missing from the blog this week – sorry about that! But I can promise you it’s been for a good reason.

As some of you may know, when we purchased our home last year it was a foreclosure. Needless to say, it needed alot of TLC and updates. We’ve been on a mission to bring it to it’s full potential ever since.

We took this last week to focus on finishing up some house projects that we’ve been needing to get to for awhile, including landscaping, trim work, light fixtures and touch up painting. The biggest undertaking, however, was bringing our master bathroom from about 30% to 98% completion!

So are you ready to see what our master bath looked like before we got started last year? The below picture was taken by one of our neighbors (and now good friends) before the house was even ours:

(before)

Yikes! I’ll just point out a few of the problems with it that were apparent right off the bat.

The vanity was only 22″ deep and 28″ high, so small and low, not to mention a dated yellow oak finish and cultured marble moulded sinks and counter top.

The forest green walls were dark and depressing for such a small space and made the room feel smaller than it already was.

Come to find out, it was dark green paint over TWO different layers of old wallpaper. Yes. That was fun trying to take off. When it stopped responding to all traditional methods of stripping and started damaging the sheet-rock in the process, we ended up sheet-rocking over with a thin layer to get a fresh, smooth surface.

Here was a picture from a couple months after we started remodeling once the new walls, floors (minus the grout), and 24″ deep by 36″ high cabinets were in:

(during)

Looking better! Now, if you remember from my previous post, Designer House Reveal: The Process, the inspiration for that project actually started with Dwell Studio fabrics I’d original picked out for our master suite. As we hadn’t finished our master project at the time, I used the materials in the show house instead and decided that if the items didn’t sell, I would re-purpose them in our project as originally planned.

So if you followed the Designer House project, you’ll recognize that some of the original items used are now in our master bath, including some of my original art!

Here’s how it looks after our big push this past week:

Quite a transformation so far, right?!

It still needs a few finishing touches including the final light fixtures over each mirror, drapery panels under the valance, and crown moulding. All in good time. Right now I’m just basking in the joy of having working sinks just feet away from my bed! Not to mention thick, coke bottle-like glass sinks. Ooo la la.

So that’s a sneak peek of what we were up to all week. Hopefully it makes up in some small way for my absence. 🙂

Have a wonderful rest of the week and stay inspired!

-K

The Farmers Market

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We went to visit our friends, who moved up to Columbia MO a few months ago, so it was the best of weekends! One of my favorite things that we got to do with them during our stay was shopping at their local farmers market.

It was just the funnest thing ever – so beautiful and inspiring, too! Everyone had their products displayed so nicely in their booths. Everything looked like fall and smelled like fresh coffee and baked goods. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to miss out on the local farmers market experience at home, because I absolutely loved the one up there. Note to self: go to Arkansas farmers markets. Like, now.

(photo cred: Laura)

My take-aways from our market trip were an amazing cup of freshly pressed french-press coffee by the Fretboard Coffee, Inc. and a giant basil plant that cost a whopping $3. What?! It matches Laura’s basil plant (above) she picked up on an earlier visit, along with some tomatoes and farm fresh eggs. Omelette, anyone?

Trevor Thurow Custom Furniture & Design

Today it’s my pleasure to introduce to you the incredible Trevor Thurow Custom Furniture and Design! Trevor and his lovely wife, Jenni, are based out of Austin, Texas – a state near and dear to my heart. (I was born in Dallas and let’s face it, once a Texan, always a Texan!) 🙂

Trevor is ridiculously gifted at was he does – his work is simply spectacular! Everything from the furniture style to the variety of materials used is precisely my cup of tea. Check out some of my favorite pieces of his work below!

Awesome, right? To read more about the above pieces and see more of Trevor’s work, be sure to check out and like their Facebook page and visit their website.

Now that you’ve met Trevor Thurow Custom Furniture and Design, I’m so excited to share that I’ve been asked to work with them to design a piece of furniture from these amazing old barn wood beams! What?!

I’m extremely honored to be teaming up with them on this one-of-a-kind project. It’s going to be a blast!

Stay tuned to my blog and Trevor’s blog to follow the design and production process over the next month.

Back to sketching! 😉

Look-alikes: Glam Living Room

I’ve had this image of a Jan Showers designed living room pinned to my “Living Rooms” Pintrest board for awhile now. Every time I see it it just makes me happy! I absolutely love the bold geometric prints and bright colors – what sophisticated fun.

(schlegel penthouse by jan showers via decor pad)

You can read more about the owners and the design of this space in this article by D Magazine.

Using the above image as inspiration, I created a look-alike living room design of affordable options to get a similar result!