Kathryn Lemaster

Art and Design

Oh Happy May!

Spring is my most second favorite season of the year (fall wins, because… the leaves, and my birthday!). I’ve been doing the happy dance ever since I saw the first bright green buds on the trees in my backyard this season. It seemed like overnight, everything was new and bright and alive again. I just love it! Well most of it. I could go without quite so many April showers, pollen-nados and here in the South, actual tornadoes…

But that’s all behind us now (I hope) because it’s MAY – with all the flowers, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and pre-summer joy it brings.

One of the special joys this May in particular brings for me is the long-awaited unveiling of a project dear to my heart – the charming and colorful storybook cottage remodel in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Little Rock!

A huge thank you to At Home in Arkansas Magazine for the beaming feature that so beautifully communicates the creativity, heart and soul behind this project. Be sure to read the full story and see more of the wonderful photos by Rett Peek, here!

The kitchen was the most extensive portion of the remodel, so to appreciate just how far it came from it’s less-than-thrilling beginnings, I’ll leave you with a few “before” photos for reference…

Change is good, yes? 😉 Here’s to beautiful seasons of transformation and newness!!

xo,

Kathryn

PS! If you’re new here, thanks so much for dropping by. I’d love to keep in touch! I recently completed my first ever free downloadable resource for my readers (my top paint colors, hello!) and would love to gift that to you for joining my “E-Party”! If you missed or exited the pop-up invite upon arriving here, you can simply scroll down to the bottom of this page to find the invite. Easy peasy!

“Heirloom Revival” Guest Room & Bath Reveal on House of Turquoise!

Ready for the never-before-seen Guest Bed and Bath photos from the beloved Heirloom Revival project published by At Home in Arkansas Magazine last year?!

RP_aha_150325_2010_610Good! Because I have been waiting a year to share them with you and I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

When it comes to publishing, sometimes there are a few rooms from a whole home project like this that don’t make the cut due to page numbers and editorial content. Rich in unique design details and historic family heirlooms, this aqua hued guest suite – located off the main hall in the center of the home – was just such a duo of rooms when the story was originally published.Baker_Redesigned Floor Plan_03.2015_610I wanted to give the rest of the house a full year of fanfare before adding these two hidden gems to the mix!

Then of course, I had to find the perfect place to introduce them to the world. I’m so honored to have everyone’s favorite aqua tinted blog bringing you these never-before-seen spaces for the first time: House of Turquoise!!

Without further adieu, please click above to head on over to Erin’s blog!

I’ll leave you with a “before” glimpse of each space…

Existing_Middle Bedroom windows_610

Existing_Guest Bath_610

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Designer House XXIII Info!

Ladies and gents… we are so excited to be kicking off the much anticipated event of the spring at the end of this week, the ASO Designer House XXIII! This popular event takes place every couple of years to raise support for all of the wonderful musical programs offered through the Symphony Guild. This year, the Designer House is located in Chenal in West Little Rock, AR.

It’s such an honor to have worked on this special project with 20+ other amazing local designers. If you’ve been following my journey of the Sitting Room design on Instagram , you’ve seen some behind the scenes along the way that I hope have you excited to come visit in person!

We have been dreaming, scheming, and planning our spaces since the fall… designing, presenting and installing all winter…

But it is SPRING now and it is at last time to unveil, share, and enjoy it all together for 3 glorious weeks!

As a musician myself, I have always been passionate about the powerful art of music. To me, music is a universal language that can reach people on a soul level to encourage, uplift, inspire, comfort – communicating in a way nothing else can. I’m thrilled to be supporting music, music education, the ASO and all of their efforts through this exciting event, and I hope you will join us in support by purchasing a ticket to come tour the home – and perhaps do a bit of shopping while you’re there. All ticket proceeds and a portion of all furniture and decor sales go to the ASO Guild. So come on out!

AND… as a thank you for being here, being there, and being amazing in general… here is a link to purchase discounted tickets for the Crecendo Party (April 14th) as well as the Girl’s Night Out event (April 28th)!

If you have any questions about the event please feel free to email me at kathryn@kathrynjlemaster.com and I will help you find answeres asap! Hope to see you there!

Heights Remodel Project Featured in At Home in Arkansas Magazine!

It’s been such an exciting whirlwind that I haven’t had a chance to announce on the blog yet, but At Home in Arkansas Magazine, our state’s ultimate home and lifestyle publication, featured our Heights remodel project in their May 2015 Before & After issue!!

(Instagram moment from when I read it for the first time… #memories. Follow on Instagram, @kjlemaster to keep up in real time.)

KJL Art & Design Instagram

You can pick up the magazine in newsstands around AR today, or subscribe to receive your very own, glossy copy in the mail! What makes this being in this issue even better than it already is – one of my super talented, good designer friends – Brittany Nixon – has a remodel project featured in the same issue! This is the kitchen from her project on the COVER! (Go Britt!! *virtual high fives*) If you see this magazine – snatch it up fast! The Before & After issue is one of the most popular of the year and will be gone before you know it.

At Home in Arkansas May 2015 Issue

The Heights remodel is a very special project we’ve been working on since the end of last summer and just wrapped up – barely in time for the magazine photoshoot! The story is one-of-a-kind. I just can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you get to hear it first from an outstanding source like At Home. From the editor, to photographer, to writer, to everyone else involved – the team that covered it is amazing, and I’m so grateful to share it with you all this way thanks to them! I’m positive you will enjoy it and glean something inspiring from it. Click here to read the full story on their website, and enjoy a preview of one of the before & after comparisons below!

Laundry Room turned Home Office:

Before:Existing_Laundry-turned-into-office_Baker_06.2014_bw (1)
After:

RP_aha_150325_1779aI die over that cheerful little office. Every. Time. I still wish it were mine!

Be sure to stay tuned this month and next for project extras, bonus photos, and behind-the-scenes that may be surfacing on our blog and At Home in Arkansas Magazine’s blog! 😉

 

Kitchen Remodel Before & After Reveal, Part 1: Before

What fun it was having our kitchen remodel project be the Before & After feature in At Home in Arkansas Magazine for the whole month of April!

To continue the fun, we’re kicking off the month of May with our before and after blog series on this project, rolling out more before and behind the scenes photos, design drawings, as well as the entire portfolio collection of after photos by Karen E. Segrave, shared for the first time ever!

Let’s go back to the begining – the walk through and the before photos, which include some great action shots of the family at work! I didn’t want to disturb the cooking and cleaning while snapping photos and taking notes, as it was helpful to observe how the kitchen functioned (or in this case didn’t) for their big, busy family on an everyday basis.

Without further adieu, meet the Barber’s “before” kitchen!

(Upon entrance from the left/south end)

(Sink area to left)

(Cooking area to right)

(Breakfast peninsula to left)

(Study/Office beyond peninsula)

(Turning back toward entrance)

(Looking back toward entrance)

Note the many activities happening at once – dishes being unloaded, dinner cooking, grocery bags just unloaded from car to counters, homework being done in the midst of it all – can anyone relate? Multitasking is already a chore, but with the current layout of their kitchen, it was nearly impossible to have various activities going on simultaneously without bumping into someone or knocking something over. Though in need of style updates for sure, the first issue we tackled was function and space maximization. I’ll walk you through what we changed and why in the next post!

Thanks to my wonderful clients for being candid and willing for me to share where we started so that you could fully understand and appreciate the drastic difference of where we end up.

Stay tuned for the the next post, revealing the redesigned plan!

Groundbreaking News: UCA’s Greek Village

UCA – home of the Purple Bears – is soon to be home to 5 new sorority houses and an NPHC meeting center, kicking off the beginning of an all new Greek Village at UCA in Conway, Arkansas!

Did I mention this was also my home? Yes. I am a UCA alumni and I loved the four years I spent on their beautiful campus full of historic buildings and lush landscaping going through the interior design program.

This is why I was so thrilled when I was presented with the opportunity to come back to be a part of this monumental project! In the last month, I’ve had the huge honor and privileged of working with UCA, their builders and architects, to consult on finish spec options for the sororities to choose from for their new houses.

The process has been fast and furious, as well as lots of fun. Here’s a little snapshot of the product researching, sampling, selecting, and presentation board building that’s been going on around here in the last several weeks:

The goal of the finishes design is to have a versatile, neutral palette that leaves flexibility for the groups to personalize and make each space their own. By providing a clean and simple, sophisticated color palette, I want to help them create the perfect canvas as a foundation for the furnishings and decor to come.

Yesterday was an especially special day in the project – the groundbreaking ceremony at the Greek Village site!  Each sorority had their letters set up in the clearing near the location of their future houses – too cool.

There was a fantastic turnout, and after hearing from several speakers including President Courtway, the event wrapped up with the highly anticipated golden shovel ceremony. The president and board members scooped the first shovels full of dirt, then everybody jumped in on the fun!

I was delighted to be included in the festivites, especially standing among all of these great and talented folks from UCA, Nabholz Construction, and Caradine Architects. What fun!

It was like a bunch of kids in a sand box, just more organized. Let’s face it – playing in a dirt pile is fun. Especially with shiny golden shovels!

Of course I had to get a shot with two of the fabulous ladies I’ve enjoyed working with on the team from UCA: Diane Newton and Wendy Holbrook!

 What a day – and what a year it will be now that construction has officially begun. And by construction I mean our expertly excavated dirt piles. Luckily Nabholz will be setting up shop on site soon to take over from here. I’m sure they will appreciate the head start. 😉

Kitchen Styling Tips on At Home in Arkansas Blog

If you enjoyed our Before & After feature in At Home in Arkansas this month, you’ll definitely want to click on over to their blog today for a bonus feature from this family friendly kitchen design!

They will show you how we built in flexible accessories to be able to swap out styles in a pinch, creating two different looks and feels. Hopefully you’ll get some ideas on how this could apply in your home!

Click on the image below to connect to their post, “Styled Two Ways“!

 

 

Guest Room/Office Before & After Reveal

Earlier this year I shared a guest room redo that was part of a larger project. (If you missed that one, you can check it out here!)

Well today is the day I get to share another room from that project – the 2nd guest room and office! I’m so excited. Ready? Here we go!

Before:

Are you scared yet? It’s okay – I was too. Don’t worry, I promise this story has a happy ending!

The jumping off point for the new design from a functional standpoint revolved around maximizing the space plan to incorporate a small office space. We also needed to work with a few existing items, mainly the bed. If you click to my previous post, you’ll notice we ended up flip-flopping the existing beds between the rooms!

From an aesthetic standpoint, the inspiration started with a beautiful crewel embroidered duvet my client and I had seen at Pottery Barn.

Below is a mini inspiration board from during the design process. Then keep scrolling for the after photos!!

Kathryn J. LeMaster Art & Design - Guest Room/Office Before & After - Design Board

Kathryn J. LeMaster Art & Design – Guest Room/Office Before & After – Design Board

*drum roll*

.

TAH DAH!

A far cry from the before photos, yes? I told you this would be a happy story! 😉 I’d love to know your thoughts on the project and invite you to leave a comment/question below.

If you were inspired by this project, please share it with someone you think would enjoy it as well or pin to your Pintrest board for later with the handy-dandy new “Pin-It” button I just installed! (It should magically appear in the corner of each photo as you scroll over… yes. It’s pretty exciting. :))

A special thanks to my fantastic photographer Karen E. Seagrave for the beautiful photos! As always, thank you to my wonderful clients for trusting me with your space. And finally thank YOU for being here today!

Stay inspired,

-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

Painting Party

Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law who closed on their first house this past weekend! Welcome to the wonderful (and sometimes overwhelming) world of home ownership! 🙂
We spent this weekend giving their new house a face-lift with fresh coats of paint throughout the interior. And I must say, after alot of prep work and elbow grease… it  looks mighty spiffy!

What perfect timing that Sherwin Williams was running a 40% off sale over the weekend?! We stocked up on everything needed for a successful painting weekend, including the complimentary coffee from their Keurig station. Thanks, Sherwin!

Not sure about everywhere else, but in the Little Rock area at least the sale runs through the 22nd. So if you need a new splash of color or some “purdy” great supplies, run on by today and save a buck or fifty!

To cover over existing wall colors quickly, we went with the “Super Paint” 2 in 1 coverage recommended by the SW specialists. This was my first time working with this particular SW product, and I must say I was impressed with how it covered. We were able to cover over the existing gold, blue, and pink walls with one coat in every room!

Here was the final line up of paints that completed our neutral interior color palette. Taking the 8′ ceilings and amount of natural light available into account, I made sure to stay on the lighter end of the fan deck to allow margin for the colors to appear slightly darker once applied. The main goal was to make the space feel more open throughout. Mission accomplished! I was quite happy with the results and I think our new homeowners wholeheartedly agree. 😉

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Here’s to a happy Monday and fresh starts all around!