One Year Anniversary and Giveaway!

January 13, 2019January 13, 2019 ktslonim

Today marks the one year anniversary of The Fig Design’s launch! Woo Hoo!! To celebrate I am putting on a giveaway of a free E-Design plan for any room in your house! Head to my instagram post to enter and hit up the E-Design Services page to learn what you’re getting! The winner will be announced on January 19th at 12am EST.

After literally years of planning, and thinking, and learning, I finally got up the courage in 2018 to start this blog. I am so glad I stopped being afraid of failing, and started failing! I could write a whole post about all the stuff I got wrong (and for that reason I have rewritten this post 3-4 times!) But there will never be a shortage of excuses in my life so I am going to instead focus on my goals for 2019!

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Now is NOT the time for me to slow down. Last year was about taking things one at a time, and not being too hard on myself because everything didn’t need to be perfect right away, yada-yada-yada. I still think that was an important goal to have for the first year and I might not have even started without it, but I accomplished it a little too well. My natural inclination is to take on way too much right away, not thinking about the personal costs, then get overwhelmed with the responsibility and shut down, so in 2018 I was intentionally noncommittal. This did result in the desired peace about my career, but it also resulted in a lack of forward momentum, lack of structure, lack of consistency, and perhaps most destructively, a severe lack of creative energy.

So with that in mind, my goals for 2019 are to:

Find ways to increase creative energy
Be more structured
Find a consistent design aesthetic
Consume more content from people I admire

The first of these goals is definitely the main one, and all of the following are secondary ways to aid the first goal.

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Creative Bankruptcy

Honesty time: 2018 finished really low in the creative energy department. Post writing feels like a chore and all my ideas seem one dimensional. Its bad. You know this quote by Stephen King “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”? well I love that quote and really believe in it, however if you never feel inspired it can be really hard to stay motivated long term and enjoy what you’re doing. I believe that inspiration isn’t something that just happens to you randomly, but rather it is something that you can chase. You can put yourself in danger of being inspired by building a community of other creative people who are feeding off of each others creativity (this is why I think instagram is so cool) In 2019 I want to manufacture situations in which I could get inspired by connecting with other creative people.

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Structure

Structure means schedules, tasks, timelines, and coffee shops. Always coffee shops. Home has too many dishes, and too much laundry for it to be a realistic place to get anything done. I want to establish a very firm routine for the posting, writing, designing, and management of The Fig Design.

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Consistency

Essentially this means committing to a style. I really, really love a lot of different styles but I am realizing how much I need to stick to one style, get good at it, and be consistent in my brand. So I’m starting to process what I feel instinctively drawn to and the only thing I can tell you for sure it will be moody, warm, and quirky. More on this to come.

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Consume

Before I started this blog I used to read roughly 3-4 posts a day from other designers and brands. When my life became busy with more “important” work, like getting ahead on that weeks post writing, I stopped reading other blogs almost entirely. I am a firm believer that in order to create good content, you need to consume good content. Its like fuel. I never want to stop learning and become uninformed on current design trends, therefore I need to prioritize consuming the content of people I admire like it is a multivitamin. In 2019 consuming content will be a regular and necessary part of my writing process.

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My personal mission statement for 2019 is: To be creatively energized and make blogging a lifestyle. My hope is that structure, and consistency will provide an established framework in which to create, and that consuming the content of talented people will fuel inspiration and a “I can do that!” attitude.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway on my instagram! The winner gets one of these!

Budget, Design Plan, E-Design

Budget E-Design – Entry

November 2, 2018 ktslonim

Happy Friday! Today is the next installment of the Budget E-Design series. First we had the bedroom with a budget of $2,500, next a cute living room for only $3,000, and today at the lowest price point yet, is an area that is often neglected but can be high impact – The entry!

The entry is important because not only is it the first impression that someone gets of your home’s aesthetic, but it also needs to be highly functional, promoting neatness by storing coats, keys, umbrellas, bubbles, tequila, purses, a yodeling pickle (actual thing), and whatever else you might need in order to leave the house on a daily basis. (Please note: I actually carry bubbles around with me on a daily basis. No joke.)

Today’s entry has a budget of a mere $1,000 including:

Lighting
Rug
Credenza
Artwork
Mirror
Styling objects

Here is the floor plan for the area:

Because this is a shared area, the vibe for this entry plays heavily off of the design from the living room:

Airy and floral with scandi/midcentury accents and a colorful palette of pastels, this entry is functional and economical.

The Credenza – This credenza serves as a platform for styling goodies and to ground the space. I have a nasty tendency to dump a bunch of junk on surfaces like this credenza, so in order to curb that habit I like to keep pretty object on the credenza, making me reluctant to muddy the waters with the detritus of a busy life.

The Rug – When considering a rug for an entry, you want to make sure that there is enough color variation in the weave so that dirt and other odds and ends don’t show too much. You will also want to look for something with low-pile (not shaggy) so that it wont get worn down as easily. Thankfully this rug from CB2 checks both boxes and is super cute to boot!

The Art – This print from minted is a neutral B&W but plenty floral and feminine so it fits well in this apartment without shouting GIRLY!

The Mirror/Hooks – I have something similar (can’t find) in my entry and I love having somewhere to do a last check. The usefulness of the hooks is hopefully obvious but I’ll say none the less that hooks by the door are SO HELPFUL. Such a little thing, such big impact.

The Tea Set – Totally decorative. You can’t be practical with everything in life, sometimes you need a useless tea set in your entry!

The Sconce – This sconce is great because it is long enough to engage the whole wall and it has two different light sources. As you can imagine, plenty of light in an entry is very important to the feeling of comfort when you first walk into a house, especially if you are feeling rushed or tired from a long day!

The Cork – One thing I love in entries (and, lets be honest the rest of the home as well) is BIG ART! (shocker) but if I was going to stay in budget, that couldn’t happen to the scale that I wanted. Enter – the cork board. Not only is it a welcome warm tone, but it is a great place to store little reminders, tickets, or pictures, and at a much lower price point than a piece of art. Plus, think of all the glorious push pin possibilities! Mwahahahaha!

The Plants – Anyone who knows me know what a huge fan of plants I am. Having vibrant plants in an entry can also help with that bright/open feeling that we love so much in entries.

Now comes the most important part of E-Design, the 3D version. This is an approximation of the actual design, created to ensure that the size of the items work in the actual space. If I were to skip the 3D sketch up, I would risk things not fitting or being the right scale in the actual room. In short – this step lowers the risk of expensive mistakes!

GET THE LOOK:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

So when it comes to entries you always want to incorporate these three elements:

Storage: In the form of a credenza, hooks, baskets, and bowls. you should have at least a few of these things to allow a proper place for potential…DUN-DUN-DUN…clutter…

Lighting: Sconces, ceiling lights, or lamps, but it helps if it has a light switch connection for easy access (instead of fumbling with a lamp in the dark).

Decoration: Rugs, art, plants, and useless tea sets, all serve the warm feeling you want when you or your guests arrive!

If you need help with your entry, or any other part of your house, I offer E-Design services! Tailored to your specific space, this process is SO easy, worry-free, and budget friendly.

1 Room 3 Ways, Design Board, E-Design, Inspiration, Shopping, Tips

1 Bathroom 3 Ways

August 3, 2018 ktslonim

Happy Friday! Today is another installment of 1 room 3 ways, this time – a bathroom! A bathroom is a great place to do this because even though there are a lot of permanent fixtures, there are endless fun little accessories you can style with. Which means that picking just 3 combos was very very hard!

First we look at the bare bones of this bathroom:

The Vanity: This simple midcentury modern vanity is from Rejuvenation, which has some really fabulous vanities that go with most styles! With everything included, they are customizable and a great backdrop.

The Mirror: This mirror is from Pottery Barn and is an interesting shape with the fun chain detail, but is still simple enough to go with anything.

The Pendant: This pendant is a gem from Lulu And Georgia! It is the perfect blend of unique and simple. You’re not likely to find this ziggurat style anywhere else.

I also chose a white penny tile for the floor and shower. Penny tile is probably the most versatile (ha! get it!?) tile there is.

The styling variables:

Sconces
Art
Rug
Chair
Basket
Towels

The goal is to take these variables and change them around to demonstrate how different a room can look just by changing out the cosmetics.

Global Version:

Sconces / Art / Rug / Chair / Basket / Towels / Vase

For the global version of this bathroom a vintage kilm rug was the jumping off point. Global style is characterized by ethnic patterns, wood, and warm tones. It is a very layered style that is great for mixing in to other styles.

Wallpaper Version:

Sconces / Art / Rug / Chair / Basket / Vase / Wallpaper

We take a hard left turn with this wallpaper, turning the bathroom whimsical, colorful, and almost childlike. There is something very colonial about this iteration but I can’t pin down a specific style. It hints at a lot of different things.

Modern Scandinavian:

Sconce / Art / Rug / Chair / Ladder / Towels

The Modern Scandinavian bathroom is really minimalist and simple with clean lines and warm tones. This style is similar to global in that it can be mixed with any other style effortlessly. Unlike global style it is characterized by color blocking (no pattern), simple lines, and minimalist, open spaces.

Styling is magic! It can completely transform a room into different versions of itself. In this series I demonstrate how to restyle the same room 3 different ways and completely transform it!

Don’t miss the other posts in this series!

1 Bedroom 3 Ways, 1 Living Room 3 Ways, 1 Nursery 3 Ways

Design Board, Design Plan, E-Design

What is E-Design?

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018 ktslonim

Happy Monday! Today is very very exciting for The Fig Design as I launch the second half of this business. E-Design is something that really gets me excited, because It is a way of meeting people and creating art that can be done from anywhere in the world!

So what exactly is e-design? The short version: E-Design is an all-online way to form a cohesive design plan for your home. In the past, the client’s role in the design of their home was fairly detached. I think of the stereotype in sitcoms of a flowing entrance by a self-important and overly “artistic” designer (usually wearing a scarf) who dramatically declares “everything must go!” and “I love it!” or “This disgusts me, take it away!” and the client’s naive impulse to do anything the designer says because “well…they’re the expert…” (Later in the episode the client realizes that they like their home just the way it is and they brusquely toss the haughty designer out, against some french-accented and highly pompous objections. The characters drink hot chocolate and feel warm and fuzzy. The end.)

Thankfully, In the last few years the format for “design” has largely shifted to become far more collaborative and hands on! Aided by blogs, HGTV, and internet videos, more and more people are gaining the confidence and desire to do it themselves. In an effort to aid and encourage this mindset, e-design helps give a solid direction and cohesive plan to a DIY approach.

One of the pitfalls of DIY design is that sometimes a lot of time and money can be wasted by not having a solid and cohesive design plan for your space. Thats where e-design comes in! It takes a lot of the expensive guesswork out of designing your home and is a streamlined way to represent YOUR style as accurately as possible for a lot less moolah then an in-person designer.

To find out more about the process for e-design, head over to the E-Design Services page! There you will find what is included in an e-design, guidelines for how to determine a budget, an e-design demo, pricing, and more!