Guest post from interior designer Jason Martin who has just launched his e-design venture DIY+.
First, I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent in his or her design challenge. I appreciate the time it took to photograph and write about your spaces. It is always enlightening to get a peek into the homes of others. The rooms that I picked to highlight are spaces that represent questions that came from multiple readers so I hope that there will be ideas to help everyone. Just a side note, out of all the entries we received I didn’t see one bedroom! Is that because everyone has a clear idea of how they live in their bedroom or is it that we lead such busy lives the bedroom has become the place we spend the least amount of time?
Week 1. Living/Dining – Two different spaces with similar problems-
Adrena’s Living/Dining
Adrena has a good start but needs help bringing it all together. Like many out there, she has a combined living dining space that is long and narrow. She is having a hard time making the space multifunctional and comfortable at the same time. I think showing Adrena how to complete this space will help others with this dilemma too.
Rali’s House
The design needs in Rali’s living/dining area similar to those at Adrena’s house. She wants to find a way to make the best use of the space and create a family friendly beach house. Rali, like many people who move into a new house, is struggling to make the new space feel like home.
Week 2. Corennei’s Dining Room
Corennei’s dining room is the prefect example of a room that is 90% there but just that illusive extra 10% to feel complete. It is a case where a fresh perspective is the only way around the design dilemma. I hope the design work we do for Corennei will help others to look at their own home with new eyes.
Week 3. Roeshel’s Living Room
Roeshel’s living room is a good example of working too hard on a space. Often when we are graced with a room as detailed as this it can be more daunting than figuring out what to do with a charmless “white box”. With built-in shelves, a fireplace, staircase and French doors this space is a great example of understanding how to respect all those elements and still make room for you and your family.
Week 4. Maggi’s Apartment
Maggi’s apartment is representative of many of our homes. She obviously loves design and has no problem getting in there and working on her space. However like many homes what Maggi’s place needs is an editor’s eye. I have a feeling a lot of readers out there will find the info in this post very helpful.
Week 5. Mariana’s house
If only we all had the problem Mariana has- How to make an amazing house in Brazil feel cohesive and comfortable. Outside of the location Mariana’s home is similar to a lot of new construction these days – large open floor plans with high ceiling. As nice as that is it creates some design problems with paint, furniture layout and general flow of a house. We will address all those topics in Mariana’s house.
Tricia Mitchell says:
Wow this is going to be fun to watch and learn from. Can’t wait to see what Jason Martin comes up with!
Tricia – Avolli
Anonymous says:
I’m looking forward to lots of ideas that I can use in my own home!
Candied Fabrics says:
Perfect examples of rooms a lot of us have – can’t WAIT to see what he comes up with!
Anonymous says:
hmmmm hot sure i like this. it seems like it’s too commercial and self promoting for the designer
Anonymous says:
I agree. Is this advertising for Jason Martin? I’m seeing way too much of his work on this blog site.
midcenturyjo says:
Hi to the two anon commenters who have voiced some concerns about these posts by Jason. Firstly let me state that these are not advertising in any way. Jason has not paid us in cash or kind for these posts. If he had we would have stated that he was a sponsor. Jason is a talented up and coming designer who offered his services for free to our readers. Yes he does get a link to his site but if you did something nice for us or our readers we would link to you too. Other blogs have featured designers who have provided “virtual” advice on readers homes.
As to too much of Jason’s work on this blog I think that if you put names like Greg Natale or Scott Weston in the search box to the left you would see that we have promoted their wonderful work ad nauseum almost because as talented designers they have shared their work generously with us over the years.
The number of posts over the past two weeks have just been a reminder for readers to submit their house if they wanted to and they did.
I’m excited to see what Jason has in store for us. Just as I’m excited to see your comments on his suggestions as he reveals them. Just remember to actually leave a linkable name (your email or your website) if you decide to negatively critique his work. That would be the polite thing to do.
Virginia says:
I can see how some readers could be put off but I have to say I’m REALLY looking forward to these posts.