Kathryn Lemaster

Art and Design

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!

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?

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!

1. Lamps – $80 each

2. Side Tables – $60 each

3. Black Pillow Covers – $38 pair

4. Pink Pillow – $99

5. Sunburst Mirror – $250

6. 8×10 Wool Rug – $310

7. Gold & Glass Coffee Table – $173

8. Daisy Arrangement – $50

9. White Tray – $30

10. Gold Vase – $20

11. White Sofa – $1090

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Everything on the board totals $2,340. But just think – if you were working with an existing sofa, then you could get everything else for $1,250!

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Here’s to a happy Monday and great end to September. Tomorrow brings my favorite month of the year… 🙂

Stay inspired!

-K

Ikea Love

Can we just talk about how much I love Ikea for a moment? I love the product variety and reasonable prices. I love the innovative thinking of the product designers. I love the crazy Swedish product names. I love their cinnamon rolls (and free coffee if you’re an Ikea Family Member, which you should be). Where else can you go for a combined dining and designing + showroom and shopping experience? Nowhere I tell you. Nowhere.

I returned home from Dallas via Frisco yesterday in order to stop by Ikea on the way out of town. I needed to pick up something for a client as well as pay a visit to my Swedish “family” and pick up a few treats for myself. It’s always a sweet, sweet reunion (partially because of my traditional cinnamon roll snack).

During this visit, I met this chair named Strandmon and I really wanted to take him home! He’s very handsome, super comfy, and comes in gray or orange linen or dark blue velvet… and is only $279!

Allow me to introduce you to my new crush, Mr. Strandmon Wing Chair.

Here’s a pic from Ikea’s inspiration gallery of Strandmon and a few of his buddies chillin with Isala (the cute little coffee table.)

Yep. I’m bumping two orange Strandmons to the top of my wishlist. I’ll come back for you someday, my dears!

If you live far away from an Ikea store as I do, you may find it helpful to know that Ikea’s website has great inspiration galleries for various room types. It’s the next best thing to visiting the showroom in person, as it helps to see how items can look within a certain context and a great way to get ideas on how to incorporate their products! Here are a few of my favorite Ikea inspiration pics:

How about those yellow Stockholm swivel chairs?! Super fun and funky and a great pop in this living space! View more products from this space here.

Who knew you could create a complete kitchen design including cabinets and countertops all at Ikea? It’s a one stop shop I tell you! View this image and find out item details here.

From the dining room gallery, I’m loving this rustic/industrial look! For more item details, click here.

Last but not least, how about this cozy living room? What a great way to create a Pottery Barn type feel, but for a fraction of the cost! More details on this space, here.

I hope you enjoyed this little Ikeaspiration sampling. If you get a chance to go by a store soon, please give Strandmon my love. Thanks!

 

 

Altar’d State

How about a little retail design therapy today? I just have to highlight this fabulous store the girls and I stumbled upon while perusing the Columbia Mall this past weekend: Altar’d State.

(Columbia Mall Facebook)

We were drawn in by the Anthropologie-like window display. The distressed wood, the array of drum and glass pendants… this was our kind of place!

(Altar’d State Blog)

Adorning the ceiling throughout the store was a sea of floating pallets sprinkled with various pendants and a stunning Arteriors chandelier in the center. (My image didn’t turn out well so this is a similar example from the Knoxville location.)

(Knox News)

How about this dressing room?! I’m beginning to think the secret to ceiling success may all come down to pallets and pendants.

(KBIA)

Behind the checkout counter was a mesmerizing lighted mosaic tile accent wall complete with more fun pendants raining down from the ceiling above.

(Columbia Favs)

The interior of the store wasn’t the only thing that was cute though. Their eclectic collection of ladies clothing, footwear, accessories, gifts and home decor were just as much fun as the store itself! At the top of my wardrobe “wish list”: this line up of cowgirl boots.

I did come away with this coral blouse that I fell in love with…It was mine all mine for a whopping price of $18.75. What?!

While Altar’d State’s style is similar to that of Anthropologie, the prices appeared to be alot friendlier in general. Even in the sale room the discounts were more significant.

If you live near one of their captivating boutiques, well then lucky you! I highly recommend going in for a unique shopping experience full of retail and retail design eye candy. The nearest one to me is still 3 hrs away, so until my next road trip, I’ll just be building my wish-list via web, here. 🙂

Happy shopping!

Souvenir

We made it to Dallas this past weekend to visit family, friends, and some favorite stores. It was a fantastic trip, mainly because of the people we saw, but also because of places we got to go.

Our lunch destination with friends after church took us to the Knox-Henderson area, which was just packed with wonderful stores. Among them being none other than the fun and funky Jonathan Adler!

Jonathan Adler

I have admired the shiny pretty things this brand has to offer for years via the web, but this weekend was my very first time to actually step foot in a store. Yep, it was an exciting moment. So of course I had to purchase something to remember the trip by.

Jonathan Adler Lighting

So after being torn between the $1,250 Mini Sputnik Chandelier and the $2,200 Giant Sputnik Chandelier (in my dreams…) I decided on a humble $18 coffee mug. Normally I would not spend $18 on a coffee mug, but after staring at the larger price tags hanging all over the store, 18 bucks started to look like a good deal for a drinking vessel.

Blue Carnaby Talitha Mug

So here is my beautiful little blue baby, the Blue Carnaby Talitha Mug, modeling a fresh pour of French Roast.

Close up

I love the bold graphics and of course love the navy and turquoise color combo.

Mug Shot

I’m quite thrilled with my first JA purchase and look forward to adding to my collection in the not-so-near future. Gotta start saving for my Sputnik light. 🙂

nuLOOM

Just to give you a little perspective, the average “Garden Ridge” area rug is about 5’x7′-6″ in size and may run between $200-$300 From what I’ve seen, that’s usually for a synthetic material like nylon or polyester. If you’re going for the indoor/outdoor rug look and texture and find a pattern you love, that may be just fine.

rugs_0912(Garden Ridge selection)

See something that excites in the above image? No? Well, maybe you’d have better luck in store. But maybe not. So this Monday morning I wanted to share with you one of my favorite rug solutions available through online retailers, nuLOOM.

nuloom_logo2

I love them because they do a great job of bridging the gap between quality and affordability, and their patterns are oh-so fun! Most of their styles fall under modern or transitional, but they do offer traditional patterns too so there is a little something for everyone!

Gradient Collection

If you’re holding out for higher quality and a more personal statement without a major price jump, nuLOOM is a great choice! Some of my favorite styles average around $300 for a 5’x8′ rug that’s 100% wool and hand hooked. Not too shabby! Take a look at this sampling of nuLoom rugs available from Burke Decor:

Acedia TrellisAcedia Trellis

CAPELLA COLLECTIONCapella Collection

Dakhla TrellisDakhla Trellis

MACARA TRELLIS

Macara Trellis

Malva

Malva 

Vibrant Union JackVibrant Union Jack

Jazzy, right? I thought so. 🙂

So there’s your first bit of good news today – you CAN have your rug and afford it too!

Another bit of good news: this line has frequently been spotted at even lower prices on various flash sale sitesand other retail sites too. So you may have a chance at scoring a dashing new nuLOOM rug at an even lower price than the ones shown above! (Not familiar with flash sales? Ohhh my. You will just have to stick around to learn more about that little secret/weakness.)

I’m so very glad you stopped by today and I hope you come back for more practical design insights in the future.

Here’s to a wonderful week ahead!

Kathryn Lemaster