Vivid Hue's Personal Closet Makeover

 I often post photos of my house on social media.  When I share my bedroom photos people inevitably ask to see the closet, too.  We'll y'all will soon see why I've never showed pictures from inside my closet.  Until recently, it was a dark hidden secret (aka disaster zone) that I purposefully kept behind closed doors!  

I do believe that an organized and well thought out space can provide mental clarity.  You can only imagine what this space was doing for my mental acuity!   I have no idea how I found clothes to get dressed In the morning.  Without further adieu, let's just jump right into this.  

Disaster Zone In Vivid Hue Home's Closet "Before" 

This huge mess started during Covid when one season changed to the next and rather than swapping my closet out for the seasons, I just added the new season right on top of the old.  One sloppily folded sweater after the other and eventually I had built quite the empire for messy closets.  There was no way I could get my head around tackling this mess on my own.  

Enter Megan Guest, from A Tidy Guest.  Tidying and organization is In her DNA and I met her when she came into my shop and became a fabulous customer.  I made an appointment for Megan to come to my home and take a look at the "project."  Within five minutes of consultation I knew she'd be the guru for my mess, er...job.  Eager to get this party started, I asked when she could start.  Much to my delight, she had a few hours right that afternoon to jump right In.  We worked together and Megan would hold up each item In front of me and we would sort into piles of "keep" or "donate."  Megan was gentle but firm In questioning my hold on certain items ("this sweater is filled with holes", "I don't think these stains will come out:).  

Meg from "A Tidy Guest" literally on hands and knees sorting my closet

We sorted and separated and our donate pile quickly grew from a few trash bags to over twenty bags.  What helped me the most, Megan removed every last bag from my house that very same day so there was no opportunity for me to go back into those bags and second guess my decisions.  It also removed the burden of me taking all of those items to donate.  Side note: Megan ended up posting these items on a  local Facebook page where people offer their gently used items for free.  People came to her garage and picked through items they could use.  It's a good feeling to know that these items were recycled back into the environment to others that could use them.  

Vivid Hue Home Donations

Vivid Hue Home Donations Grow 

With the excess clothing and accessories out of the way we were able to assess what was left to be organized.  That same afternoon, we sorted my remaining clothes by type: dress shirts, skirts, pants, dresses and more.   Here's an idea of how much cleaning things were already appearing.  

Before: Vivid Hue Home View of Dresser Drawers In Closett

Before: Vivid Hue Home's Jewelry

In Progress: After Initial Sorting Through Keep + Donate Piles

This purging process alone was therapeutic.  And it got my creative juices flowing.  Suddenly, I not only envisioned a neat and organized closet, but one with style and panache. 

That evening, I started to brainstorm how I could turn my closet into a more feminine closet boutique.  I don't share this space with anyone else and I became focsed on transforming this closet into a colorful space that would match the rest of my colorful home.  

Vivid Hue Home's Closet Renovation 2021

I needed to do this makeover on a dime and I desired to execute it quickly so I wouldn't derail my main goal: having a fresh and organized closet.  I spent the next several days scouring the internet for sources and deciding upon my design direction.  I changed my mind a few times, but there were a few discoveries that solidified my directly pretty quickly; the rug, the paper and the lighting.  

I picked  Target's Opalhouse Speckled Dot Peel and Stick Wallpaper In Gold for the ease of applying it to my wall and it's quick delivery to my home.  

  I fell In love with the colorful chinoiserie rug designed by the boys from Madcap Cottage  called the Moment Embrace Adventure Rug because of it's style and also the feminine colors. 

And then, are you ready for this?  I nearly died when I discovered the Lotus Flower Ceiling Pendant In Powder Blue.  These were on back order for several months but I thought the style was so unique that I decided to purchase two of them and they would be worth the wait. 

 With all of these fun colors, I new my closet would be transformed.  And yet something still seemed lacking.  I went back and forth contemplating whether or not to paint my built In dresser drawers.  It would open a can of worms to paint the dresser.  Would I have to paint the shelves on the side of the closet, too?  What if the end result looked cheap?  And what about the resale value of my house, would this deter future buyers?  (In the end, the future buyers are going to have a lot more to overcome In my house if they don't like colors and patterns because I have truly turned my home into a colorful space).  

Vivid Hue Home's Guest Bedroom. Photo Credit Christine Petit

Next, I will continue my closet renovation journey and reveal the color I decided to paint the closet dresser drawers.  Come back soon to continue reading about the closet makeover.  

Best, 

Heather 

Master Bedroom Project

This week I scored a pair of vintage bamboo chinoiserie chairs from a local estate sale.  I love them so much that I've decided to keep them for my own home.  But now, I need to decide how I'm going to refinish them!

My master bedroom has been in a state of flux for a few months.  It has changed drastically from the photos that appear on the blog.  (Visit Master Bedroom).   If nothing more, this project has made me realize that I need to get some updated shots of the bedroom up here!

Forgive the overly saturated color of this bedroom shot.  I'm sharing it here so you can have a reference point of where I'm starting from.  Earlier this year, I swapped out the pinstripe duvet for a custom duvet made from Cotton & Quill's art deco collection.  I needed to work around the curtains in the room because we put some money into them and it's too soon to update them (budget wise).

I thought this Runnin Wild pattern from Cotton & Quill tied together the existing colors in the room nicely.

Here are the swatches on the bed during the planning phase.  I had the front made in the art deco pattern with above and the back of the duvet in the yellow.

Vivid Hue Home Master Bedroom Project

I love how the duvet fabric blends with the chevron teal rug that was already in there.

Here is a very rough shot of the completed duvet with the drapery.  I promise to share better photos as I move forward with this project, but this will give you an idea of what's in there now.

I plan to remove the gray fireside chairs that are in the room (in fact they are already gone and put into our guest bedroom).  The new bamboo chairs will go on both sides of the fireplace.  The natural frames will already blend beautifully in there if I decide not to paint them.  But you know me, everything is better with a pop of color.  The decision is still out on whether or not I will paint the frames.  

The seat cushions will definitely be recovered and I'm currently gathering swatches to consider.  

Here are some considerations: 

These Broome Street Studio designs are not as saturated in color as they appear here.  I love the peacock and think that would tie in with the art deco theme of the current duvet.  

However, this Impari Vase by Thibaut is a dead match for color (I've already received the swatch).  The jury is still out.

Here is the impari vase on a Society Social Chair.

Photo Courtesy of The Blue Octagon

I will share more photos as I continue our bedroom update.  What are your preferences for the fabric and color choices for these chairs?

Visit more of Vivid Hue's Home, here.  

Best
Heather

A Look at VHH's Personal Flower Arrangements

Yesterday I got a call from Annie, our manager at the shop.  I'd just left the shop to pick up Smidge from school  but Annie was insistent that I return for "a surprise."  My immediate (cynical) thoughts went towards thinking there MUST be a character in the shop that Annie wants to make sure I experience...or we've just gotten a massive delivery of products and she wants me to share in the glory of processing all of it.  I pressed for more info, but nope....she only replied, "Some surprises are worth waiting for.'

So I arrived back at the shop with Smidge in tow and was presented with the most unexpected surprise of all, this beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers from my favorite flower farm in Connecticut, Eddy's Farm. :

  My fellow color-loving instagram friend, Kim Crawford of The Spirited Flamingo  had dropped them by the shop as a "just because."  Kim now also works at Eddy's.  She and I have given each other support through social media and have gushed over each other's love and appreciation for color!  What a way to make my day.  

Bouque from @spiritedflamingo for Vivid Hue Home. Photo courtesy: Vivid Hue Home

This sparked a little project yesterday afternoon and I started to peruse through my photo library discovering just how large my love of flowers seems to be.  Any time I'm entertaining guests, I must have flowers.  Every tablescape I set, there are flowers.  And on a good week when I have my act together, I have "just because" flowers (the best).

So today, I'll take you through the photo library of my personal flower arrangements.  They make me happy and hopefully will make you smile, too.  All of the arrangements below were styled by me so go easy on the judgements.  ha.  You'll also notice a theme....I LOVE to find unique vessels and vases to use for my arrangements.  Not that flowers need the extra boost, but it's fun to think about creative ways to display them.

A few things I have noticed about myself and flowers:
1. I use unique vessels for display
2. I tend to buy different flower types in the same color hues
3. I always look for the most unique flowers (and often don't even know the names of the flowers I buy).  I just buy what I like.

4. Sometimes I cheat and mix faux flowers into the arrangement to increase the longevity of the bouquet.  I mix them with real flowers for better disguise.  (SHHHHH).  I'll share below on when that's been the case.

Vivid Hue Home Sunflowers in front of my Parker Kennedy Elephant Candlesticks

My husband loves fresh sunflowers and I'm fortunate that any time he spots them at a farm stand, he picks them up and brings them home.  They add a sunny cheer to our kitchen.  Here they are with my Parker Kennedy candlesticks (sans candles but I still love them).

Vivid Hue Home Peonies in our gold Pineapple Canister

Peonies are one of my favorites! And here I put them in a gold Pineapple Jar from the shop.

Vivid Hue Home

A little fall arrangement with miniature pumpkins and gourds.

Peonies in the Vivid Hue Home sunroom

Peonies again!  I told you I love them.  A couple of years ago we had a photo shoot at the house for a publication that has since gone out of business...the photos from the shoot never aired.  A bit of a bummer, but that's not at all uncommon.  Maybe some day.

Vivid Hue Home

Elephants with more elephants.  I am in love with my elephant planters and use them often.

Vivid Hue Home-

Hosting an impromptu wine and cheese get together.  I find that adding flowers immediately zhushes up the occasion and makes your guests feel like you may have gone to a bit of prep for them.

Vivid Hue Home Whole Foods Flowers ready for purchase

Shades of pinks and purples, all loaded up in the cart ready for purchase.

Vivid Hue Home- medley of mixed flowers

Vivid Hue Home 

Full disclosure, the white floral base of this arrangement is faux.  I added the berries and additional live flowers into the mix. 

Vivid Hue Home 

Vivid Hue Home retail display

This is an entirely FAUX flower display that I designed in our first Vivid Hue Home location.  I used chicken wire in the back and my intent was to make it appear that the flowers were flowing out of the white porcelain vase on the table.  

There are the elephant planters again....I sure have gotten my mileage out of those.

Flowers are a great way to welcome guests to their rooms when staying at your house 

Vivid Hue Home Kitchen arrangement

Vivid Hue Home dressing up a cheese platter.  

Vivid Hue Home

Yes, the elephant planters again.

Vivid Hue Home.

Loved these at Whole Foods.  They were a just because arrangement.  

Prepping for a dinner party.  I LOVE my fish planter (also available at Vivid Hue Home). 

Just because.  GORGEOUS arrangement from a farmers market.

Photo shoot prep in Vivid Hue Home kitchen 

And this flower inspiration all started from a surprise bouquet that showed up at my shop yesterday.   The best news is that I've since learned that Eddy Farm has a bouquet CSA.  Subscribers will receive a fresh, hand tied bouquet weekly for pick up at the farm.  Their farm share runs April 21st through September 29th and you can sign up at any time, the price is prorated weekly to reflect the remaining time ($10/bouquet).  Check out more from their site here.

And to The Spirited Flamingo, thank you from the bottom of my heart for bring this wonderful treat my way.

Cheers, 

Heather