Presenting ideas to a new client

 

{roses from my garden}

Friday I presented a few ideas to a new client. I had met with her once before and on our first visit she showed me around her home and we talked about the changes she wanted to make. We will be making some flooring and window treatment changes as well as new upholstery, area rugs and light fixtures in a couple of rooms. I took measurements and some before photos as well. 

our starting point

After our first meeting, I went to a couple of showrooms to look for some upholstery fabrics. Sometimes I will bring a client along with me to select fabrics but most of the time too many choices is overwhelming for them. Narrowing down the choices to just a few makes it a lot easier for a client.

One of the upholstery projects we are working on is recovering a small sofa. I had my favorite choice ready to show her and a couple of alternate ideas if she didn't like the first. (She liked the first!). The goal was to keep the existing black and white palette but to update the space and bring in some modern elements to a very traditional space. This is what we decided on for the sofa:

sofa fabric + two pillow fabrics

After the sofa fabric was determined I brought out the rest of my fabrics to coordinate with our choice. 

We also wanted to replace an existing chair that was worn out and she wanted to update her coffee table. Again, I brought out just a couple of ideas and we settled on a beautiful leather wing back chair from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and a simple travertine parsons coffee table from Crate and Barrel. I have used this coffee table before and it is an inexpensive piece ($599) that is clean and substantial and the perfect empty slate for some fun coffee table styling.

Kalinda's Leather Chair

The chair was not a terrible price at $1,895 (retail) but my salesman was able to find me a floor model for $1,125 - I love when things turn out that perfectly!

With all of our upholstery decisions made (window treatments, dining chairs, benches, ottomans, sofa and quite a few pillows) and the furniture selected, the next step is to bring out my upholsterer to take measurements and determine exactly how much yardage I need of each fabric. Because I had a clear idea of my client's likes and dislikes this project was able to move along quite quickly. Sometimes I "nail it" the first time and other times it takes another trip back to select more fabrics. It is always nice to get it right the first time!

{silver rhino I couldn't resist bringing home from the showroom for myself!}

I'm off to meet with my fabulous upholsterer ....

Happy Monday everyone ... and Happy JULY 1st (how in the world did that happen?)