Renovate for YOUR Life

This family lives in a competitive Austin housing market. With the family growing they needed more space. Location was ideal so they decided to re-evaluate their current home. With the help of Nika Interiors a plan was developed that would meet all of their needs. The house started out as a 3/2 and now the family needed all bedrooms to serve as bedrooms (and not flex spaces). It was decided to enclose a small portion of the living space. This enclosure now serves as a flex suite for office, guest room and workout room. Designers can help you figure out how to squeeze all of your needs into a small space. To make up for the missing living space an addition was added to the rear of the home. The addition created one large open concept space that now includes the living room, eat in kitchen, reading space and dining room. One of the best aspects the addition was the new indoor/outdoor living. The remodel allowed this family to live their dreams of having a home that opens up into nature.

How the design saved the family money: By leaving all of the plumbing in tact the family was able to add on livable space at a decreased cost than if they were to reconfigure the home in other ways. This family now has a fully customized space for much much less than what homes are on the market for. The renovation also increases the value of their home by making it a 4/2 (hot tip: ask your designer how to make sure your spaces qualify as a bedroom). See photos for more pictures

What does an interior designer do...

It’s not umcommon for one to wonder…. What in the heck does an interior designer do? I’d like to take a moment to share information to help clear this up!

In short, there are MANY different things a designer can do.

First, and most importantly, designers work to create an overall aesthetic and feel of the home that should be both intriguing and functional. This sometimes requires a third party’s eyes to take a fresh look at the space. When you live in a space you not only look over the items that are already there but also lose focus on the overall goal for the space. It can also sometimes be easier for people to express how they wish a space to feel then for them to implement that feel. These goals CAN be attainable with the use of a designer!

Interior designers first job is to LISTEN to the client. We listen to your wants, needs and desires for each space. It’s our job to make something beautiful but also useful. Our goal is to figure out how YOU (the client) intend to utilize the space. For example do you need more storage or entertainment areas? Next we want to know what overall vibe or feel you want to feel in the space? Or do you already know a certain design aesthetic you’d like to see in your home? And don’t worry. If you don’t know exactly how you want the space it is our jobs as designers to help you figure that out!

After the designer determines the main goals for the project they will determine what will feasibly work in each specific space. Next designers present their vision for the space to the client. It is then up to the client to convey if they like the direction the project is taking or if it needs some adjustments. Remember it’s the designers overall goal to make your space amazing for YOU!

The next steps vary depending on what level of design you require. This will be addressed in a future blog.

“Elevated Organic” Living Room Design

This wonderful family wanted to bring some life into their main living space! The main goals for the clients were to add entertainment space and reimagine the large fireplace surround.

The first step in the design process was to walk the space and get a feel for layout and aesthetic of the home. The living room was open concept and connected to the kitchen and dining. The home's aesthetic is Texan rustic with wood and stone textures. The inspiration pictures provided for the space were colorful hues of reds and oranges. It was the combination of the homes innate vibe and inspiration pictures that inspired a color palate of deep merlot, metals, woods and other natural textures.

Deep burgundy velvet drapery was chosen to bring color and elegance into the room. Additional seating was incorporated to accommodate entertaining. Burgundy stained wooden stools were included at the adjacent kitchen bar. Lower profile pieces were chosen so as to leave the natural walking path around the bar clear. Small but sturdy leather ottomans were placed near the fireplace to allow for more seating. One side of the newly installed media console was designed to store and serve cocktails. The fireplace surround was re-imagined but obtaining a reclaimed mantle, refinishing it and then staining it in a red mahogany. With the mantle installed and a large aged brass mirror the fireplace now appears to have a sense of purpose.

The final styling details were used to ensure the function of entertaining but also add visual interest. Greenery adds color and breath to the space. Mixtures of antique books and brass pitchers were combined with vibrant newer metallic pieces. The combination of all curated decor gives the space an elevated warm tension to the aesthetic while still providing functionality.

To see more PHOTOS

Kitchen Remodel

This Cedar Park Texas family needed help redesigning their kitchen. The main goals were to open it up the rest of the living space, modernize it while also staying within a budget. My goal was to provide them with elements but keep the overall design classic. When installing expensive fixed items you want to ensure the style trend is long lasting.

It started off as a multi-level island with a partial wall blocking the view to the living room. There were laminate counter tops and no back splash other than the dry wall. The cabinets were aging wood and in a traditional style.

The first and most important step was to stay within budget. In order to do this we kept the layout the same. The flow worked well but needed small tweaks. Leaving the appliances and plumbing in the same location helped keep costs down.

Second was removing the partial wall. This wall was serving no purpose except to cut off vision into the living room. By removing this and re-routing the electric it is now a fully open concept living room and dining. Next was to replace cabinets. A more classic yet modern shaker style cabinet was chosen. The two toned uppers and lowers add visual interest while adding a twist on the traditional.

The island was replaced with an “L” shaped one level built in. Counters were chosen for the light and bright quality but also the durability of quartz. The island surround was trimmed out to mimic the shaker style cabinets and then painted in the same navy blue.

Thick textured walls were sanded down and replaced with a classic multi-toned subway tile. The tile was elevated by installing it in a herringbone pattern. A light grey grout was chosen to accent the colors in the tile and outline the tiles but in a more subtle tone black.

Dimmable canned lights were installed throughout the space to provide an abundance of light for cooking or mood lighting for date night.

The space was styled with emerald green velvet bar stools and tasteful subtle pendant lights.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions. Enjoy!

AIA Austin Homes Tour

If you live in Austin Texas or the surrounding areas this is something you MUST check out. My family and I are lucky enough to live in Cedar Park Texas and attended this tour for the first time and we will definitely be going back next year. This tour gives everyone the opportunity to visit and walk through some of the most impressive and contemporary architectural designs. While all of the houses were impressive I definitely had my favorite.

Most of the houses were created from scratch. The space planning and inginuity it took to fit some of these homes into the landscape of the hill country was certainly impressive. However I particularly loved the “Hood House”. One of my favorite features of this home was that as you strolled up the streets of this quaint West Lake Hills neighborhood this home blended in seamlessly with all the neighbors. Murray Legge Architecture worked diligently to maintain the mid century unassuming facade of the house. Maintaining this characteristic honors the timeless era of the home.

Once inside the artictects and designers seamlessly honored both the mid century asthetic while also creating a modern yet livable space. The artitect intelligently integrated a 2 story addition that added enough square footage for a primary suite, kids play area, office and second living space. But by far my favorite part of the home was how the design created what we call in Dutch a “gezellig” feeling. Even despite some areas of concrete flooring the rooms were cozy and functional. The garden and pool creates a multilevel dream area of industrial and mid-century vibes. Brilliant!

Photo by Casey Woods Photography at caseywoods.com

Occupied Staging:

Step 1 was to ask the home owners if there were any issues with the room. In this room it was reported to be too dark. This was great insight and therefore we honed in on trying to convert this to a light and airy space.

Step 2 was to have the owners remove about 30% of their belongings from the area. It is important to create a non-cluttered feel in which owners feel like they could live in.

Step 3: rearrange the furniture as much as the room will allow. Arm chair was placed at a 90 degree angle to the couch to facilitate conversations. A blue/grey book shelf from another room was added to the blank wall. This was then styled. A mirror was added to increase reflection throughout the space

Step 5: Added light. 3 additional lamps were added to the space. It is important to have at least 3 sources of light in each room

Step 6: Add different textures of light neutral textiles.

Finish it off with a pop of accessories! :)