Three Stops & Five Paint Colors

Countdown: 88 days to opening night

Win of the day: Adding Rejuvenation furniture to our find list! Have you seen their new collections off Grand Boulevard?

Loss of the day: The budget allows for five paint colors in the entire home. Are you kidding me?

We finished each room’s floor plan two weeks ago, laying out a wish list of pieces for each room. We have been selecting furnishings for the Street of Dreams in between our regular client load. (The good and bad news is that we are fairly busy right now with regular clientele.) Yesterday we blocked out half of the day to go see a few pieces in person.

The reality is the actual furniture pieces and dimensions in the show will probably differ significantly from the original floor plan draft. It just depends on what we can find. This isn’t like a typical client where we have the pieces, ordered or made and we select the fabrics exclusively for them. In this project there is no budget, so it is best for us to find what we need in someone’s warehouse or retail showroom floor.

Laura and I embarked on our “selection” journey. Everything is interrelated when your goal is to achieve great design. A great find might change several other components in the room. This is how furnishing a Street of Dreams home plays out. I have all of these crazy details and dimensions in my mind as we use my car navigational system to get us to place to place. I am embarrassed to admit I can remember a color so accurately it is shocking to some people, but I can’t recall how to get to showrooms I have visited before. Actually, I remember so many crazy details most people never think about, it is no wonder I can’t remember how to get anywhere in Portland.

Though we bring our floor plans with us, I seldom look at it in the field. Instead my mind is swimming with shapes, colors, textures and dimensions ideas – and I know the concepts so well it is rare I stop to open the file. I walk warehouses and showrooms simultaneously remembering each room’s needs like a card catalog in my mind. Watching me walk through selecting furniture is like the worst case of A.D.D. you have ever seen. I am talking about a potential coffee table one moment, the next moment I see a bed for the master suite, then I am on to seeing a potential sofa for the great room. Then I note an overhead light that makes me think about the exact location of the floor plug in the great room. To cover it we need a sofa in the great room that is at least 82” long, but not to exceed 92” or the scale of the room won’t work. I need a coffee table that is no less than 36”, but doesn’t exceed 42”. I would prefer a square coffee table or ottoman, but if it is round I will need to reinforce that line somewhere else in the room. My mind works like that. It is mad science.

First stop is meeting Cassandra at The Joinery. The style of our home is Northwest Contemporary and our concept will be using many outdoor elements indoors. Needless to say, the Joinery has been on our short list for some time. We walk the floor and select an amazing round table for the kitchen, some bar stools, a possible sofa option for the great room, and a live edge king size bed frame for the master. We make sure Cassandra has a notation of each these pieces, and a few more we like.

Next stop, is stopping in to see Brian and Rebecca at Kush Handknotted Rugs. Dang it. They aren’t open on Mondays at their Hawthorne Avenue storefront, so we head over to Rejuvenation off Grand where Kush’s second showroom resides. Apparently Kush is moving to the Pearl District. (Oh yeah, wasn’t there an email recently about them expanding in the Pearl?) Fate made the most of it. I was immediately impressed with Rejuvenation’s furniture options. I haven’t been in the store for some time and was pleasantly surprised that they have more than craftsman furniture. As a matter of fact, their collections and selection is outstanding. Mid century modern, chesterfield sofas, reclaimed woods, and even upholstered pieces with pattern. Who knew? We scouted some upholstered chairs with wood accents we particularly liked and a sofa with great potential. I talked with Amy about their participation with a few pieces in the Street of Dreams and she accepted. Apparently Rejuvenation has reinvented themselves. Jackpot! Special thanks to Kush Handknotted Carpets for being closed on Mondays.

We visited locally made Altura Furniture off Mississippi Avenue. They aren’t a retail establishment, they sell the the trade, so we wouldn’t call it a showroom. More like a workshop with an entry area office with some furniture stacked about. Not only do we love Altura’s sense of style and grace in furniture pieces, we also love that they make them in Portland , sourcing local wood. Ironic that most of their business is out of New York and Los Angeles isn’t it? These piece are made to order, but we were looking in their graveyard. Well, they don’t call it their graveyard, but Laura and I fondly use that term for areas you have to hunt for good pieces. Alas, we found some buttery cashmere upholstered chairs for the dining room table. They might work.

Call to Elements International in NW Portland. They have outstanding plants and sculpture. Eeks, another vendor that is closed on Mondays. We call those hairdresser hours. We left a message with Karen for an appointment.

I have been waiting to finalize paint colors. The furnishings selected will be the determining factor. The paint colors are the last surface I have to select for the build. In some ways we are halfway done with our project, over the past few months I have reviewed and finalized stone, windows, interior and exterior doors, fireplaces, hardwood floors, granite, marble, quartz, natural and porcelain stone, backsplashes, sinks, faucets, hardware, cabinetry, wood stains and lighting. Most of those decisions required 1 or 2 showroom visits, some more. After final decisions on surfaces were made by the team, the hand drawing and CAD rendering commenced. I can’t believe I just wrote in a few short sentences what our design team has been doing close to 20 hours on average a each week since late February.

Wait, I got distracted. I was talking about paint colors. Remember that cost conscious concern versus what is right for creating a great show home written in an earlier blog? It looks like the budget calls for only five paint colors. The house is 5000 square feet, so I will pick my wish list of colors that will exceed five, and also pick just five in case that is all we can do. Hopefully somewhere in the implementation we can make up the cost difference, and roll on the color. I just don’t know yet.

I packed up my day, grabbed the dog’s leashes and went for a walk.

Angela Todd Designs, working in conjunction with Steel Creek Homes, is currently building and furnishing Cascade Splendor a 5000 square foot home for the NW Natural 2011 Street of Dreams. The show will be held August 6th through August 26th, 2011. Follow our progress by subscribing to our blog, following us on Facebook, and/or following us onTwitter.

Angela Todd Studios For Custom Furnishings

Angela Todd

Owner & Principal Designer

Angela is the principal designer at her boutique interior design firm in Portland, Oregon. She is known for creating memorable backdrops that tell the story of fascinating and intricate lives.

Explore our Portfolio

Angela Todd Studios Oregon Coast