I was honored to be juried into the Columbus Museum of Art, 2019 Decorators Showcase this year. I was given the Children's Room which consisted of a room that was 20' x 20' with 15' tall ceilings. Wood floors and white walls. We were able to choose one piece of art from the museum's collection of art and it had to be chosen on the day we were assigned the room. I had absolutely NO idea what I was going to do yet! 

This is what the room looked like ...

So to work I went. I have to tell you, coming up with an idea for a client that isn't there and having nothing to go on is not as easy as it seems. I had to come up with a theme, colors, furniture, wall treatments, something to go with the artwork I chose and something that people would remember me by.

My theme eventually evolved into a London England theme. Megan Markle was going to have a baby about the time the Showcase was happening so I went to work. I really wanted a double-decker bus bed in the room but everything I found online wasn't big enough...my room was enormous for a child! After a month of research, I decided to just build the bus myself. I drew it up and contacted a guy I knew that could cut things on a CNC machine. He drew it into the program and we went over the fine details of the bus and after I approved the drawings he sent it to the cutter. I also designed several things for the walls. I found a vector file for the  skyline of London, England and drew up what building I wanted where on the walls around the room as well as an Underground sign to go above the bed. I looked high and low for the Red Phone Box and FINALLY found one that fit the specs I needed for the room. Those were the hardest items to come up with! All the wall pieces and the bus pieces were delivered to me in a raw wood finish and it was up to me to get them all put together.

 

The layout of the room was submitted to the museum about 5 months before the show. We were still ironing out all the details but this is what we rendered on the computer.

After lots of sanding, painting, nailing, screwing, gluing, velcro-ing, sweating, crying, drinking wine and not sleeping, the pieces and parts of the room started to come together!

 

We worked for about 3 weeks and each week added a different thing to the room. The first step was the walls. We added wallpaper to the wall behind the sofa and the other walls had the silhouettes of the London skyline

We added a whole bunch of details to the room that the visitors just loved. The accessories ranged from custom-designed wallpaper and fabric by my friend Kelly Hart to a custom Underground sign. We had photos of the royal family on hand too!

My team did an AMAZING job helping me put the finishing touches on the room. Honestly we were so exhausted and so glad we had it all done! It was a LOT of work and took up most of a solid month to get ready for!

For opening night I had the full effect for the guests. A London Bobby, a British Playlist, English Lavender pumped into the room and Harrods Earl Grey Tea in the teacups. The guest had such a great experience in the room and many told me this was their favorite room in the showcase! I loved being a part of the show and I made a lot of new friends! The room even made it on TV wit the morning newscaster Cameron Fontana sitting in the top of the bus! Here are a couple more photos of the room.