Before & After Archives - Kathryn Lemaster

“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?!

Good! 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.I 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…

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.)

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.

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:

After:

I 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 3: After

Welcome! If you’re just joining us for the reveal, you can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 to see the before photos and design process to understand the details of how far this kitchen has come to what you’re about to see today.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so excited to share with you for the first time ever the entire collection of “after” photos from the Barber’s kitchen remodel!

You may recognize some of the after photos of the kitchen if you saw the project in At Home in Arkansas’ April issue, which showcased beautiful photography captured by the talented Nancy Nolan exclusively for the magazine feature. The collection I get to unveil today are the original portfolio images taken shortly after the projected was completed last year, shot by the amazing Karen E. Segrave KES Photo and fantastically lit by Mike McCall of Backfocus Productions.

Brace yourselves for the dramatic change you are about to behold…

I bring you, the Barber’s new and improved kitchen!

Thank you for following the story of the Barber’s kitchen makeover! I hope you’ve enjoyed watching the process unfold. If you’ve been inspired by this project or can think of someone else who enjoy a good before and after project, I invite you to please share, pin, tweet, or spread the word in whatever fashion you like!

Happy Sunday – stay inspired. 🙂

xo,

-K

Oh Happy Day!

First of all, Happy St. Patrick’s day! Did you get your green on today? I didn’t go all out, but made sure to add a splash with one of my favorite scarves.

The main reason for this post though, is because Gibson and I have a very important announcement to make that will explain our current state of jubilation – (who’s Gibson, you ask? Why he’s just one of my favorite furry, four-legged nephews who likes to be included in everything) – ahem:

We are so excited to announce that the Kitchen project we shot with At Home in Arkansas last month will be highlighted as the Before and After feature in their April 2014 issue! (See some behind the scenes from the shoot here.)

We’re so excited!! Many thanks to the outstanding At Home in Arkansas team for this amazing honor. I couldn’t be more thrilled to share my work with you all through this distinguished publication.

Gibson and I won’t spoil it for you, but as you can see we were mesmerized with how beautifully the feature turned out. The issue will be hitting newsstands and mailboxes soon, so keep your eyes open and scoop one up when you see it! We think you’ll just love this family-friendly, total kitchen transformation, as well as the other fantastic features this issue holds that are full of ideas you won’t want to miss for spring inspiration.

Please spread the word! When you get a chance to check it out, we’d love to know what you think, so come back by and drop us a line! 😉

We hope you had a great St. Patrick’s Day and Monday all around and wish you a happy week ahead!

xoxo,

-K

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

*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

Saturday Special: Before & After Reveal

Today I’m very excited to share with a fun before and after post! This guest bedroom revamp was part of a larger project for one my amazing clients. I’ll share more from their project soon, but today let’s just start off in the first guest bedroom.

Ready? Here we go…

BEFORE:

Exciting, huh? 🙂 To start off, the furniture plan needed editing to optimize the function of the space. After that, the goal was to bring in a more transitional look while still incorporating some of the original antique pieces. Other important goals were being budget-friendly and catering to their personal taste by incorporating some southwestern inspired “flair.” Here was the end result:

AFTER:

The color scheme was inspired by the client’s own original artwork, the still-life triptych of pears. The bedside tables were original but placement was swapped to make the vanity more accessible. The bed was originally in the guest room across the hall, but this headboard handcrafted out of antique ceiling tin by the clients belonged perfectly in this room.

Finally new textiles, lighting, and other accessories added much needed texture and color, bringing it all to life!

Special thanks to the fabulous Karen E. Segrave of KES Photo and her amazing husband Michael McCall of Backfocus Productions for the wonderful “after” photography (be sure and check out their websites!) Thanks also to my fun and adventurous clients. You are always a joy to work with!

Have a space like the “before” in this post and have higher hopes for what it could be? Contact me to find out how I could help!

Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂