AbbeyK — On Interior Design

Final Prep for This Old House

With just one day left to go, Maddy and I have a million things left to do. They say it will all get done. It will be a late night.

We bought frames, Maddy printed out family photos and here we are choosing which pictures go with which frames. Family photos are a great way to warm up a home. All you need is some well chosen photos, some cute frames and a paper cutter for trimming.

Happy Holidays

Hi All,

Will be taking some time off to spend with friends and family.

See you next year with the photos of the wrap for This Old House, previews for '08 and a whole lot more.

Happy New Year.

Abbey

Just about Time for the Reveal, This Old House

All the furniture has arrived and we placed everything in the living room and dining room. The family room is still being worked on. Hopefully the paper protecting the floor will come off tomorrow so we can cut and lay the area rugs.

Boxes are certainly everywhere!!!

What's new at Dwell

Dwell magazine has updated their web site with among other things, some cool new videos.
Check out The Dwell Design Leader video series, an inside look at some inspirational and innovative work.

Check it out at Dwell.com.

Almost Time to Move in, This Old House Newton

It's almost time to move in. But first there's still a lot to do. Lights are going in, furniture is getting delivered, rugs installed. Would you believe we have 3 days until the reveal?

The folks at TOH say this is the way it always is and it always gets done. I am trusting.

Air Dates for This Old House and AbbeyK

Many of you have written and asked when you can see me on This Old House.

PBS works in interesting ways. Each station sets its own schedule. It's not like NBC where there's one set time to watch a show. For example, part 11 where I appear has aired once in Boston (at 3 am on 12/13) and it's due to air soon in NYC.

More upcoming Boston times were just announced:
Thursday, 1/17/08 at 8 pm on WGBH - Ch. 44
Saturday, 1/19/08 at 5pm on WGBH – Ch. 2

So check your local listings through your local PBS station.
How to do this? If you go online to your PBS station and look under "This Old House Hour" you will find listings for part 11. I will also be appearing on part 16, the final episode which won't air until '08.

Set your TIVO, tune in and Happy Viewing.

More Progress This Old House

With only 4 days until the project is over, there's still a fair amount to be done.

The kitchen has some work left. The carpenters need to do the trim leading to the mudroom and the upholsterer is working on the upholstery on the banquette. Lighting has to go in.

The painting is going well. They are just about done.

The floors have been refinished and the guys come to do the carpets on Tuesday.
The furniture gets delivered on Wed.
We'll accessorize as we go along.

We shoot on Thursday and then there's a party to celebrate.
And then I take a few days off. Oh boy! So much to do.

It's time to plan for staging. So I walked around the house and took some snap shots of works in progress so Maddy and I could figure out what we needed where. There's shower curtains, towels, accessories for the built-ins, objets, flowers, a center piece for the table, the list goes on and on. Breathe in -- breathe out.

Choosing stain color, floor, This Old House

Decisions at this point, so close to the end, are well, endless.

Here we looked at a few stain colors for the stair.

A tip: stairs treads can be darker than the floors. It helps to show off the rug or highlight the stair itself. You can visualiz this when you look at the samples through the spindles.

Our decision? In the image without the spindles...it's the top left. An easy choice. We all agreed in about a second -- the homeowner, the floor guy and me.

This Old House, Progress

Thought you'd all like to see the on-going process.

My 10th grade English teacher always said: show don't tell.
So it's all pictures today.

Taste is Personal

Sometimes client's will worry: “Well, what if you don’t like my taste?” And I say “Well, taste is personal." It doesn’t matter if I like it a client's taste or not. I’ll just make it more beautiful then they could have ever imagined. So it doesn’t matter to me whether a client wants zebra stripes and polka dots, I’ll figure out a way to make it beautiful.