BEFORE & AFTER: How to Add Color to a Home

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BEFORE & AFTER: How to Add Color to a Home

A friend of Living By Skya asked for help in bringing color into her home and our designer, Shayna, was on the job. A lot of people tend to stay away from color when designing their own home and use a lot of neutrals and black & white. But color can really help a home feel more like a home when done right. 

First we tackled her bedroom. Our main goal here was to break up the monochromatic space with color, creating depth and an illusion of more space. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

By adding an accent wall the room became more defined and seemed bigger. Our next design trick was creating bigger windows without buying bigger windows. By hanging curtains from the ceiling to the floor the windows started to seem bigger. We also noticed that the windows in this room were not symmetrical, they were at different distances from the walls. We hung the curtains at equal distances from the walls, covering the windows at different spots, therefore suggesting that the windows stretched behind the entire curtain and were suddenly symmetrical in the room. Did it work?

Here we also played with a lot of textures to create contrast in the room. While different, they worked together in color tones to create a harmonic feeling in the bedroom. 

Then we tackled the home office. The goal here was to add colors that supported a focused work environment while not making it feel chaotic.

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Staying in the blue family works well for a home office, the calming colors create an inviting environment great for getting some work done. We used some rose gold accents to offset the blue. And then comes the best way to make color work in any room: accent pillows. 

For the desk, we used our favorite IKEA Hack to create a custom desk with plenty of space. 

On to the dining room...

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AFTER:

This room was fairly straight forward. The walls already had a great peachy tone to them so we wanted to play off that by bringing in some golds and whites as contrast. It completely changed the color of the walls without a singly coat of paint. It's all about how the colors interact in the space. Another design trick is to add a bench facing the open space of your dining room. This opens up the space and creates a more cohesive flow between rooms. 

The dining room opened up the living room, which was our last stop on the transformation. 

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AFTER:

This room was the most fun. Old Hollywood Glamour meets Modern Simplicity in this colorful room in the middle of the house. Here we played with the contrasting colors of Blue & Yellow and Red & Green. These combinations really make the colors pop in the room. The texture was added through the different patterns we used in a black & white color scheme. The room was loud and young yet cozy and intimate. Great for hosting friends or curling up with a movie. 

For more design tricks and inspo follow us on instagram and facebook. 

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Top Coffee Shop Design Inspiration in Highland Park

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Top Coffee Shop Design Inspiration in Highland Park

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We have been spending quite a lot of time over in Highland Park northeast of Los Angeles, as I'm sure many of you have noticed. On top of that, we are running on a coffee fueled diet out there managing our projects. So of course a lot of our design inspiration lately has come from our favorite coffee shops out in Highland Park.

1. CIVIL COFFEE

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Civil Coffee (5629 N FIGUEROA ST) is one of our favorite spots. We have taken many cues from their design. We love their tiled floors, modern light fixtures and use of marble everywhere they can. 

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civilcoffee2_livingbyskya

2. KINDNESS AND MISCHIEF COFFEE

The friendliest coffee shop in the neighborhood is also one of the most stylish. Kindness and Mischief (5537 NORTH FIGUEROA STREET) is the product of local artists and baristas. They also have an art gallery featuring new artists monthly. We could sit here for hours and soak up some inspiration. 

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3. MR. HOLMES BAKEHOUSE

This San Francisco bakery has made Highland Park its new home in so cal. Mr. Holmes Bakehouse has some of the most elaborate and inventive pastries (see their Cruffin below). But above their food is their design. They took the shell of a storefront in Highland Park and made an instagram destination. From their neon lights to their subway tiled wall and gold light fixtures, they made sure to make every part of your experience there worth snapping. 

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4. KITCHEN MOUSE

This is a Highland Park staple that really represents the heart of the neighborhood. The colors and the interior of the place feels local and friendly. Highland Park's history centers around the pink and green colors of the neighborhood that have been updated by the times. But Kitchen Mouse has been able to keep these alive in a modern way that will never go out of style.

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kitchenmouse2_livingbyskya

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BEFORE/AFTER: Creative Apartment Remodel

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BEFORE/AFTER: Creative Apartment Remodel

We are so excited to show you how this apartment turned into the living space of our dreams.

BEFORE:

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LivingbySkya_BeforeApt2

We wanted to give some much needed love to this apartment in Highland Park. For those of you who haven't made the trip northeast of Los Angeles to this trendy area, you are missing out. Stay tuned for our favorite spots in the area on Living By Skya. We wanted to create a space that matched the neighborhood and was a perfect place for the creative crowd we were meeting in the area. 

AFTER:

The first upgrade we made on the apartment was flooring. We sourced a vinyl floor that gave the look of wood from The Garrison Collection.  The outcome was more than we could've asked for. The vinyl floors give the apartment the upscale look we were after while maintaining the easy to clean and durable qualities that an apartment needs in order to endure the different residents over time. Trust us, we tried to find a way to ruin this flooring and we are still stumped. It is exactly what we wanted. 

Next came the walls and the ceiling. We wanted to update the cottage cheese ceilings and off white walls with a smoother, whiter finish to give the place a more modern look. We just love the looks of white walls, but what's not to love?

The kitchen update was very extensive. We demolished the existing cabinetry and added all new appliances. We retiled the backsplash and added a brushed bronze accent with our Top Knobs hardware. Our biggest upgrade? We added a washer-dryer combo unit to the kitchen. Everything you could ever need in this small living space. 

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We wanted to make the space feel as open as possible. Our solution? Open shelving. We opened up the cabinetry above the kitchen sink and demolished the hallways closet to create space for showcase art or store linens in baskets that add color and texture to the space. We have to admit, styling shelves is not easy. PRO TIP: Don't be afraid of empty space. 

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The bathroom remodel was next. We gutted that bathroom down to the bare bones so that we could retile the floors, replace the bathtub and toilet and get a new vanity for the room. We fell in love with a teal penny tile from Elite Tile for the floors. Pulling inspiration from the community, we noticed a lot of pinks and teal colors in the neighborhood and wanted to pull that color into the apartment as well. To finish the bathroom we sourced a modern vanity from Fresca to offset the classic look of the penny tile floors. 

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Making our way to the bedroom, we had a great idea for this small space. The existing mirrored closet doors were originally installed to give the illusion of a bigger room through the reflection. However, we had the idea that extending the wood finish to the closet doors would add an elegant touch to the room while accomplishing the same result. I think we proved ourselves right on this one and the result was just stunning. When we styled the room with brass and wood finished furniture the room really came to life and created a sophisticated room with plenty of space to breathe.  

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We styled the entire apartment with furniture from a Highland Park staple, Sunbeam Vintage. We are telling you, get yourselves to Highland Park. We had the best time going through their inventory of amazing furniture pieces. We pulled just a few of our favorites but there were so many more we could've chosen. We also got to work with a new Highland Park transplant from Abbot Kinney, Juicy Leaf, for those spectacular succulent plants that give any space that perfect home-y touch. 

Crazy about this combination of that yellow couch and those teal velvet chairs.

Crazy about this combination of that yellow couch and those teal velvet chairs.

This stained wood console speaks for itself. Just wow. 

This stained wood console speaks for itself. Just wow. 

Did we mention how much we love these chairs?

Did we mention how much we love these chairs?

Want to live here? Leasing is available for these newly renovated units in Highland Park. You can contact Moss and Company for more information or visit www.MoxieClover.com

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Wallpaper #Makers We LOVE

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Wallpaper #Makers We LOVE

Has anyone else noticed the wallpaper trend that we are very much enjoying? With instagram and etsy the wallpaper options are now endless with work from local artists all over creating their own designs. Three artists caught our eye recently and if you aren't already following them, you really should.

ELLIE CASHMAN

Photo from MyDomain

Photo from MyDomain

This floral print is by far our favorite but Ellie's designs are all sophisticated florals and perfect for that accent wall (or staircase) in your home. This isn't the floral print from your childhood bedroom. This is the upgrade!

SAMANTHA SANTANA

Photo from Mountain Plum

Photo from Mountain Plum

Samantha's wallpapers will brighten any room. And she designs it all, not just wallpaper. She is someone who has really taken advantage of the new era of social media, we found her on Instagram but she is also collaborating with brands all over the place and has a firm place in Etsy as well as sales directly on her website. Can't wait to see what she does next!

COLE AND SONS

Photo by Brandon Barre

Photo by Brandon Barre

This London based #maker is one of our favorites! The geometric patterns are timeless and we can't get enough of the color combinations they play with. Our design ninja Shayna found one of their designs in a local bar in Valencia, Spain on her last trip. The same pattern as seen in this cozy living room above is so versatile in this local bar below. 

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Modern Connecticut Farmhouse in Sherman Oaks

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Modern Connecticut Farmhouse in Sherman Oaks

We can't get enough of the farmhouse trend spreading across Los Angeles right now. Everywhere you look you see a new country style home popping up in every neighborhood. The stark white exterior and the wood finishes inside create a rustic getaway in the middle of a hectic city life. But at Skya we love to put our own twist on trends and add an element of modern style to a trend with roots in earlier years. 

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We wanted our 5 bedroom home to feel new and fresh despite the houses down the street that seemed to have the same look. One of our favorite accents in this home is the cement tile we sourced from Clé tile. The posts out front as well as the backyard bbq were covered in accent tiles to add a different look with a little more creativity and identity.

clé tile accents on the BBQ

clé tile accents on the BBQ

Tile is a great way to personalize a home. We made sure that no two bathrooms were alike in this home. Each bathroom had a personality of its own with the tile selection and the unique vanity. We found the vanities and accessories from Wayfair.com, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware for the home. These tiled bathrooms will give you major design inspiration for your next project.

The Master Bedroom was our favorite to work on. For this bathroom our design ninja, Shayna, drew up plans for the double vanity and we sourced reclaimed wood from Ross Alan Reclaimed Lumber for a one of a kind bathroom. The result was stunning:

Now for the living space in the house. Our design ninja, Gelena, drew inspiration for the kitchen from rustic farmhouse kitchens with her own touch of modern design. We created kitchen cabinetry that incorporated a ladder, to add that farmhouse touch to a stark clean and modern space. The stacked subway tile and the quartz countertops helped achieve the look we wanted. We also sourced oversized pendants from CB2 to add the final modern touch to a very functional and design friendly kitchen. 

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Every detail was accounted for in this kitchen. We fell in love with the Top Knobs Nouveau III Collection for all of the cabinetry and found amazing faucets on Wayfair.com. With this black and white kitchen, everything you cook will look like a masterpiece when the colors pop out of the background. Perfect for those Instagram photos of your latest kitchen endeavors. 

Off the kitchen we added a butler's pantry complete with a wine refrigerator, plenty of storage space and a full chalkboard wall for your grocery lists and friendly reminders. We think every kitchen needs one of these, if you have the room for it of course.

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Another fun addition to the house was our picture railing. It would be a shame to ruin the meticulous wainscoting throughout the house but without family photos displayed around the house it would lack that feel of home. To solve this we added a picture railing to the staircase that not only allows you to showcase your family photos but also adds a design element to the house that once again differentiates it from the rest. 

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So in love with the this pendant sourced from Barn Light Electric

So in love with the this pendant sourced from Barn Light Electric

Our light fixtures throughout the house were a great way for us to add our personality and design touch. We partnered with Mega Vision to design our dining room chandelier and are absolutely in love with the results. 

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The whole house was staged by Meridith Baer

The whole house was staged by Meridith Baer

We love this house and hopefully we are giving you all some inspiration for your next farmhouse.

What do you all think of our Modern Connecticut Farmhouse? We'd love to hear your thoughts and see what projects you are working on.

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5 Things You Need to See This Week

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5 Things You Need to See This Week

5 Things that are inspiring us this week:

1. OMBRE WALLS

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We love the seamless use of so much color for a room. Great for kids rooms but with the right color combination you could use this for almost any room in the house. An ombre of tan to dark chocolate would be such a great addition to your living room.

2. RAINBOW SHADES

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These pendant shades from Julien Renault Objects are the perfect addition of color to your industrial space. We love these because no two looks alike and you can use one as an accent to the room or buy a whole bunch to create a modern chandelier. 

3. MARBLE EVERYTHING

Spectrum Collection Marbled Cosmetics Bag

Spectrum Collection Marbled Cosmetics Bag

Marbled Notebook from Urban Outfitters

Marbled Notebook from Urban Outfitters

We just can't get enough of marble. It gives even paper the look of weight and elegance. For more of our favorite marbled goodies check out our saves on Pinterest.

4. TEEPEE HOMES

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Tour these tiny homes designed by Tokyo architect Issei Sum. The use of natural woods and the light airy spaces exposed by gorgeous tall windows looks like the perfect place to relax after a long day. These huts are used in Japan as a space for elderly residents but with the growing trends in the US surrounding "glamping" these huts would work perfectly in the middle of some of the most dramatic backdrops. 

5. OUR FAVORITE GINGERBREAD HOUSE THIS YEAR

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This house by @mixedandmeasured is simple yet so elegant. Rosemary just screams Christmas time and the subtle use icing, almonds, pretzels and rosemary with the homemade thyme wreaths is everything we want for the holidays. Book us a room any day here!

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