Wishing for a Fireplace?

In the last two and a half years, I have worked with several clients that live in a new luxury condominium building in Arlington, Virginia called The Turnberry Towers.  The building is the tallest in the DC skyline and offers spectacular views of Georgetown, DC, Potomac River, the list goes on!



  I am working with a super fun client that has called on me to help her with a few things in their home.  Tops on her list? A fireplace!  Although the apartments have gas in them, tying into an existing gas line is not an option for this client.  So I did a little research and then remembered I had seen some pretty cool units at Snaidero in Georgetown.  Back I went to Georgetown!

 Check out these neat Bio Ethanol units from EcoSmart Fire!

How cool is this?

 These are ventless units so they are perfect for our project and as you can see by the pictures, can be used in lots of different ways. The website explains how everything works better than I can so I quote "EcoSmart Fireplaces are fuelled by bioethanol, a renewable liquid fuel produced from agricultural by-products which burns clean - no smoke, no sparks, no fuss". 

Love that part..."no fuss"!

This is the one we chose.

We have an asymetrical design plan for this. The fireplace starts on the left, with a creamy colored, laquer finish, tall cabinet on the right side (kinda where the Asian art is).  On top of the fireplace unit we are installing a thick piece of glass with a rough cut edge that will serve as a counter area.  The piece of glass will extend beyond the firebox on both sides to create a nice, long visual wall.  (I will post when it's installed so you can get the visual!)

All for now, time to end my "Design Day".  Ok, I guess I need to pose a question here, does a "design Day" ever really end...?

Email me about a post, project or partnership at Victoria@victoriasanchezinteriors.com

Wishing Wednesday Santa Fe Style

My parents retired to Santa Fe, New Mexico five years ago.  I have to tell you that I was initially devastated that they were moving across the country!  I had bought a house about a mile and a half from them and assumed that they were going to stay in their home of thirty years forever.  Well, surprises never cease to amaze and my father bought a spectacular house in Santa Fe.  He is a native New Mexican and my mom is from Long Island. (I know, unlikely combo; they met at GWU.)

  My niece and I went at the same time.  This is Kim on the balcony of my parents guest house.

 The Pink Adobe is a old restaurant in town and my first night there we had dinner and these lovely "Pink Dragons" made with prickly pear juice.  Delish!

Shopping is one of my favorite things to do when I'm visiting.  No surprise there!  Santa Fe is known as an artists town and there are amazing galleries and wonderful shops and vendors with beautiful crafts.  I wandered around the plaza and found some fun things.  Davis Mather Folk Art is a block off the plaza and I had a great time chatting with him and learning about his shop which specializes in New Mexican and Mexican crafts.

The shops around the plaza can be a little touristy, but I have a few favorites that I visit every time.  Look at this gorgeous rug.

 

Another fun thing to do is is go to this crazy place called Jackalope.  Literally!

They have every kind of thing imaginable.  Handmade paper flowers from Mexico, a glass blower, vintage shops, pots out the kazoo, rugs, furniture, you name it and they just might have it.  Kim and I had a blast then hit the trail when we saw a storm brewing.

Isn't Kim gorgeous?  We loved watching them blow glass and were amazed at all the lovely combinations of colors.

We went to the farmers market and were amazed at some of the produce. 

Marigold chains.

One of the big hits there was this fellow roasting green chilies.

I also had the pleasure of visiting with my fellow designer (and blogger), Michael Hampton of Michael Hampton Design.  He and his partner moved from DC to Santa Fe last year and we had a great time catching up.  Drinks (once again!) and snacks at the famed Coyote Cafe.

So, there you have it!  Lot's to wish for on this Wednesday!

I

Georgetown Staging

We are working on a very cool staging project for a client that is listing their gorgeous town house in Georgetown for sale.  It's on 33rd St a block up from Georgetown Cupcake.  We are always in awe of the line for those cupcakes regardless of the time or the weather!



So the house is both of the white facades.  The entrance is the green door tucked back. We are doing the entry, living, dining, family room, breakfast room on the first floor.  Two bedrooms, master and master sitting room on the second floor.  A total of eight rooms!  Check out the floor plan!






We are working with a really great company that specializes in leasing furniture to designers and stagers located 10 minutes from our office.  We went to their warehouse a couple of weeks ago (NO airconditioning on THE hottest day in DC!).  It was easily over 105 degrees in there while we were poking around.  We spent quite a bit of time making our selections and taking pictures of everything we wanted to use. 

He had a few things out for us when we got there.

Pretty painting that we are thinking of using.

Lovely table.  We are thinking entrance.

I've been scouting around town for more pieces and feel like I have hit every little shop there is.  Here is a little preview of some of the cool pieces I have found. 

Is he not FABULOUS?

This is for the front bedroom.

Me unloading!

Our office is a wreck!  I'll keep you posted on our progress.  We install the end of August.

Email me about a post, project or partnership at Victoria@victoriasanchezinteriors.com.



Wishful Wednesdays

Every Wednesday I plan on sharing a design concept that I would wish for if my house had endless rooms and I had endless money.

As I was sorting my Mexico pictures last night, I stopped at this one because it reminded of a beautiful fabric that I had pinned to my inspiration board at the office.

I took this picture in the market in Zihuatanejo.  There were two main markets in town.  One for the tourists and one for the locals.  The touristy one was full of color, excitement and people.  Here is a picture of the baskets that I bought.   See the lime green one? 

Isn't the embroidery gorgeous? The style of the pattern reminds me of Mexico too!

And here is what I got!

I think the textures would really work super well together in a breakfast room, dining room or even a casual California living room.  How cool would this be for my fantasy ceiling?  Each one of these handmade tin stars is pierced so that at night the entire looks like little twinkling stars.  It was so magical!

That's it for today.  See you on Friday!

Email me about a post, project or partnership at Victoria@victoriasanchezinteriors.com.

Inspired Beginnings

I just spent a week in Mexico for my summer vacation.  No kids.  No dogs.  Bad 3G reception.  Perfect. 


It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my design business, the changing times in our industry and who I want to be as a designer in the future.  One of the changes I love in the world of design is the blogging.  Shelter magazines arrive once a month; blogs arrive daily.  It keeps me fresh and inspired.  I hope everyone finds my blog to be inspiring too.  It's new for me.  Hope it's new for you.

Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Villa entrace at our resort, The Tides at Zihuatanejo



A big dinner splurge at Tentaciones!



Amazing lobby floor at the resort!

Email me about a post, project or partnership at Victoria@victoriasanchezinteriors.com.