A few years ago, I came up with an idea to create custom art for a client’s guest bedroom. Since the house was here in Santa Barbara, and the room was a guest room, I thought it would be fun to take photos of street signs that were iconic to Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Street, Mission Street, California Street) and print, frame, and hang them ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Cute/fun/intriguing, right? But the project never got off the ground. Or, more to the point, neither the client nor I made the time to go around snapping street signs.

 

Fast forward five years later to the client who has

 

gusto..

 

an open mind..

 

and an iPhone that takes very good photos!

 

 

And that is how my idea for custom Santa Barbara street sign photographs, to hang in a guest bedroom, finally came to fruition.

 

 

A guest room which began like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, not exactly like this. The first element to be ordered was the seagrass headboard which was prevented from having its true moment until we fixed up the rest of the room.

 

 

Which we did…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a bit of cajoling before I could convince her of the greatness of this nightstand from Pottery Barn, but the moment we placed it she agreed it added the right amount of world-traveler-whimsy to the space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other side of the bed…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the other side of the room with a new lamp, pillows and accessories…

 

 

 

One day, or so I’m promised, we can reupholster that chair in an oatmeal shade of Belgian linen. For now, it got a pillow makeover. The orange table lamp was a super find as it tied in so nicely with the custom orange bolster pillow.  PS, My client sewed all the pillows herself with fabric we selected from Your Remnant Store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: The street sign photos were taken on a regular ol’ iPhone and printed in sepia at regular ol’ Costco. We popped them into pre-fab frames from Aaron Brother’s and…ta da…inexpensive, original art, ideal for a Santa Barbara guest bedroom was born!

 

 

Speaking of guest bedrooms, here’s Guest Bedroom Number Two as I first saw it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad. It has that all-white bed thing going for it. But we could do better, so it was transformed into this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nightstands…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opposite wall…

 

 

 

 

(More Santa Barbara-themed art, this time an old rendering of the Santa Barbara Mission.)

 

 

 

 

Notice the lighter version of the seagrass headboard that we used in the other bedroom and, my favorite part, the custom Euro pillows (Kravet fabric: Nashik/Bluemoon) that my client was happy to sew herself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s to turning the ideas floating around in our heads into finished projects! 🙂

 

 

 

Happy weekend!