Lewiston Tour of Kitchens, 2014

I hope you're liking Color Outside the Line's "new do" so far. More changes and improvements are in the works! Today, I wanted to share with all of you some of the photos from the 2014 Lewiston Tour of Kitchens. I had the great pleasure of working with a wonderful home owner this year, my last with the tours, to make an already beautiful home really shine for the more than 1400 patrons. If you're not familiar, the tour showcases 6-7 homes each year in the Village and Town of Lewiston, New York. It's an upscale little place just north of Niagara Falls, where I live.

Each house is paired up with a designer (or two) and a local Lewiston restaurant. Tickets are $27 and you get to browse through private homes and enjoy samples of the food d'jour.

The home I was luckily assigned was (and is) beautiful. Built in 2013, the house has very little mileage on it, and therefore just about everything was as shiny and pristine as it was when first installed. The cabinets are all custom, finished in two tones - a satin finish ivory with a burnt sienna glaze, and a gorgeous walnut.





As you can see, there wasn't much for me to do in the kitchen. My design skills were really left to the other areas of the house. But I did supply Linda O'Connor with Summertime Blooms with the basket to create this amazing, completely edible center piece for the island. Packed with herbs, spices, and vegetables, this tabletop garden was the hit of the show. Linda does amazing work, and did all of the flowers throughout the home and on all of the tables. If you're local, and would like to have her do custom work for you, you can call her at Summertime Blooms: 716-791-3369.

Linda has over 2-acres of beautiful flowers that she grows each year, so you're not only buying from a brilliant artist when it comes to floral arrangements, but a local farmer. So, again, if you're local - get in touch with Linda. From one arrangement to fill your home with beauty, to a full-scale wedding, Linda's your gal!

Most of the time, when you work on a home that is occupied, you're having work around furniture that exists. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good. Lucky for me (and Linda) our homeowner had great taste, and beautiful furniture that was perfect. All it needed was a few finishing touches. The birdcage (isn't that fantastic) was a piece that I bought for the show. We needed that "wow" factor upon entering the house and this did it. It perched perfectly upon the existing console table of the homeowner, and the stools below were a purchase she made at my suggestion.

The homeowner and I had worked together on curtains for the dining room, and continued that pattern into the living room with pillows made from the same fabric for the sofa. Again, here I just brought in accessories for the shelves, tables, and made slight styling improvements.

The house sits on a large lot, and was built with light in mind. The light these rooms get is enviable for anyone! Once they were styled and ready for the tour - I didn't want to leave. 



Even the puppy was impressed with the new comfort all the accessories had added to this room.





The dining room is not a formal space. It's adjacent to the kitchen, and provides wonderful family style seating for impromptu meals.



More gorgeous flowers by Linda at Summertime Blooms. Here, napkins from the same fabric banded in a bright turquoise pull sit atop blue and white plates. Cloches, covering salt wells filled with turquoise chocolate mints make for a beautiful presentation. The flatware is bronze and teak from Thailand.

And here, the new curtains warm up the space along with the seagrass rug that we added under the table. The outside spaces at this house are really amazing, and is where the family spends most of their time during the summer ... one look at their outdoor living room and there's no need to wonder why.

A large salt water pool beyond and a beautiful outdoor kitchen are also outdoor amenities that I unfortunately couldn't photograph prior to the tour ... I know, what was I thinking? You ever wish you could trade houses, but have the current owner keep the payment? Yeah ... me, too!

Almost Normal ...

Lewiston Tour of Kitchens and Homes 2014 Client

Well, the weekend is over - and so goes another year of the Lewiston Tour of Kitchens. This year, I had the ultimate pleasure of not only working on a new house, but making a fabulous friend with the beautiful homeowner and her family. We had a great time, and while we were not voted Best of Show, I have to say that it was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my time with the Lewiston Tours. 

This house marks my retirement from the organization, freeing up my winters and summers to work on my own projects, both at home and for other clients. More photos to come ... but as I wind down the weekend with the beginning of the "work" week, I wanted to touch base and tell all of you that things are almost back to normal ... more posts coming soon! 

Barn Progress

Christmas is right around the corner, really - it's speeding through here like a freight train. I realized this weekend that the Lewiston Home Tour is less than 3-weeks away, and I'm not even nearly ready. Just when I think I've made headway - something happens that sets me back. 

Thankfully, this weekend sweet, sweet Meg from Oliver and Rust came all the way from Canada (it's really only 20 minutes) to help me out with some kitchen styling. Now to qualify, it wasn't a real kitchen, and rather one I was able to fake thanks to the help of Kinetic Kitchen and Bath lending me a display kitchen, and utilizing some storage shelving and an existing work bench. 

Here's how it all started: 

This little saltbox addition has paneled walls, and is a bit more narrow than the barn. It's still quite a large space. I knew when I first saw it that it'd make a beautiful kitchen/dining room - so, with a little help, here's what we have so far: 

I know - you're all tired of these iPhone pictures - I am too! I keep forgetting my camera at the house, and the with the loads I've been making from our basement I probably haven't had room for the camera in the car anyway! 

I promise I'll have better pictures next week of the whole space. Til then, enjoy these which although not great, showcase some excellent styling by Meg of Oliver and Rust on that shelving unit, using things from my basement and garden! She is SO talented. I took the "island" and the kitchen counters. I think we worked it out! Still need to bring in a rug, a basket, some decor on that wreath, a much larger cutting board ... see - never ending! 

Happy Tuesday! 

Run Over and Check Out Meg's Post on the Barn

Winner of the LoveFeast Pumpkins has been notified by email! 

A Little Progress ...

Well, the Christmas decor is being layered in, piece by piece. I really need to bring in my camera and stop relying on my iPhone with this terrible lighting. Once I get my lanterns from Progress Lighting, I think that'll be better.

I decided that an asymmetrical arrangement worked best here, and I liked the play of the traditional plaid with the somewhat unconventional arrangement and decoration. Some people won't get it - it will look unfinished, for others, it will be an inspiration for their mantels at home. That's how these tours work ... which do you think?

See you Wednesday - with a GREAT giveaway!! 

Lewiston Tour of Kitchens, Take Three

For the past three years, I've been heavily involved with the Lewiston Show Houses. They happen twice annually, one in June that centers around homes with gorgeous kitchens, and another in December that features Christmas decor.

For the June tour, aptly called the Tour of Kitchens, 6 homes throughout Lewiston, NY, a quaint little well-to-do village with small town appeal, are chosen and then decorators are assigned to each space. This year, I shared a home with a friend and colleague, Michelle Hook, who sews all of my custom slipcovers and pillows, and window treatments.

She took inside, and I took the outside. Of course, like every year, it rained. So, I tented what I thought I'd never do for one of these tours ... a buffet!

I'm not much for seeing the same thing over and over and over again at these tours, so I knew that I had to do something that was likely not going to be at every other house. The house is on the Niagara Falls Country Club Golf Course, and the homeowner, an avid and very respected golfer. The interior was beautifully redesigned and there are a lot of golf references, I wanted something still in the theme, but not 'kitschy.

I also wanted to try to save some money this year, and use what I already had. So, the buffet was a great idea, and to wrap the golf theme in, I created little plaid menu cards for each plate. hamBOGEY anyone? They're great on a MULLIGAN roll! Ha! I know nothing about golf, but luckily had a pro to check my definitions.

Among the obvious plates, forks, knives, and napkins one needs at a buffet, Supermarket Liquors loaned a case of Greg Norman wine for the show. Greg Norman, for those of you who know nothing or very little about golf, is a pro-golfer who now has a wine label that is pretty popular. I bought the range buckets and took golf balls from the homeowner to fill around a thin vase that I put in the center. I did the flowers this time because my florist friend was doing a house of her own on the tour.

This house was paired with the Brickyard, a restaurant in Lewiston that serves food on one side, and alcohol on the other. They specialize in BBQ, and of course, beer. But, I didn't want people thinking that the food they were serving (Brunswick Stew and Cornbread) was supposed to be on this buffet table, so, I made a center place card that read: seven o'clock PAR TEE buffet. No food here til' 7PM. Long after the tour is over!

With all the rain we had last night, and then the fog and rain this morning, just about anything glass was doomed. I would clean it, and moments later it looked hazy. So, if you went on the tour and saw hazy glasses in the tent, I promise, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it!  Still, I think it came out pretty nicely, and is different than anything else I've ever seen on the tour. A well placed buffet is actually quite an inspiring thing, don't you think?

Of course, when I was taking pictures, I had to get a few up close "glamour" shots for my portfolio. Things like this always help to round out a post, too!

To further the golf theme throughout the table, I put little cordial glasses on some of the plates with golf tees inside.

I had to bring my demi john jar filled with wine corks from home. There's something about that presentation of corks that just makes me think "SOMEBODY knows how to have a good time!"

Thankfully Scott has quite the hoard of white pfaltzgraff. I asked for his help last night in setting up, as I did it after working all week 9-5, and was really burning the midnight oil. These two hands can only do so much! I just knew he was going to say: "Aren't you glad I have all of this stuff so you can do things like this without having to buy anything?" But he didn't. SHOCKING!! I'm sure it's coming.

So there you have it ... the PAR TEE buffet (in a tent), what do you think? Beautiful without being too thematic? I hope so! I mean, who the heck needs to be hit with it when just steps away you've got this:

Didn't I tell you it was foggy! And misty, too! All morning! I can't imagine playing golf in this, but as you can see - that didn't stop these guys. The house also has a pool. Luckily, I happen to have a client who owns a pool supply warehouse and online company who was able to give me the biggest beach balls I've EVER seen:

They're 48" around, that's as big as my  dining room table! You can get your own right here! They're only $7.99, and you get a discount when you buy 2 or more! If I had a pool, I'd have to get a few of these things just because it's comical how big they are!

Anyway, back to the tour. So, I didn't really do much out here. I wanted to keep this whole thing very simple, and since it was doomed to be rained on, anything elaborate would just have been silly. So, I pulled more of the red in ...

I put red beach towels on the foot of each of the four lounge chairs, with a table to the left of each one for a giant beer mug, and a bottle of beer with the homeowners favorite coozies. She has quite the collection.

I also did a tablescape, I'll show more pictures of that sometime next week, but here's a sneak peek:

I got this flatware at Brimfield for a real deal, and I love it! The sword like skewers are from Istanbul! This is a good one ... so I'll have more pictures of that up soon.

And last but not least, there were the porches ... the front:

and the back:

And there you have it ... at least for now. I'm going to take a quick nap to try to catch up on some of the sleep I lost while I was up all night digging for plates and napkins, sewing a table runner, and cleaning stemware that apparently didn't really make a difference anyway! Hope you enjoyed it, and if you went on the tour, I'd love to know what you thought of all the houses.

The Ribbon Tree - Lewiston Tour of Homes

The tree of tour was in the sunroom of the house that I decorated for the weekend long event. Everyone came through enamored by the use of burlap strapping as tree ribbon. When I found the balls at the Pottery Barn outlet in Ohio, I knew that they had to be the focal point of the tree. So, 7 went up, and then the ribbon and red ornaments were peppered in around them.

At first, I was going to use ribbon exclusively in this tree, but again, after finding those huge orbs, literally the size of basketballs, that changed. So I pulled the red from the rug up into the tree, and out onto the patio, as you saw in the tablescape featured here. My intention with all the decorating for this house was to seamlessly blend the color from the decor into the Christmas trimmings.

I'm so sorry that the pictures of this room are so heavily over-exposed. They get so much wonderful light in this room, that it makes photo taking a real chore! So, enjoy the rest of them ... and as a quick note: I WON! The tour has a "winner" each year, and I was informed just moments ago, that this house was chosen by those who toured as the crowd favorite! Many thanks to those of you who may have come and voted!

Outdoor Room at Lewiston Tour of Homes

Well, if you even read this blog anymore - you'll know I had a problem with figuring out a way to have an ugly $40 brass chandelier look like a gorgeous and sophisticated chandelier worth of a Ralph Lauren ad. This is what I came up with ... a pretty nice end result given that I started with this:

Enjoy the rest of the table, leave a comment if you like the way it turned out!

Hope you enjoyed these little snips.