The bleeping paneling is taking a wee bit longer than we expected. Le sigh. Hopefully we’ll have an update for you soon. In the meantime…
Every once in a while a shop or office inspires us so much that we decide to crash it (just like we did when it came to this fun kids consignment shop). And we weaseled our way into this office space for Towne & Reese (a jewelry company named after two Charlotte ladies’ kids) thanks to a house crashing adventure from a few years back. You have to remember this one, right? Here are a few shots to jog your memory:
And here’s a pic of the cute couple with their darling daughter Towne out front (from back when we house crashed them):
That good looking couple happen to be Christi and Barret. And Christi happens to be 50% of Towne & Reese (which makes sense of the fact that her daughter’s name is 50% of the moniker). You still with me? Anyway, since Christi’s brain runneth over with amazing style, we couldn’t leave Charlotte without stopping in to see what she did with a bland blank-slate office space. Here’s what it looked like before she got to work:
And here’s what it looks like these days. When you walk in you see a charming bright blue wall emblazoned with their sweet company logo (created by this amazing couple that we’ve also House Crashed – Charlotte is a small town, haha). Gotta love that they put a bird on it.
And see that lovely rug (scored on sale at Anthropologie)? That was the inspiration for the entire office makeover. For example Christi plucked the blue for the wall (Valspar’s Tropical Oasis) right out of the rug (she also got another accent color from the rug that she used in another area, but more on that in a minute). Oh and the leather pouf and awesome side table are from a local shop called Post & Gray.
To the right of the logo wall with the rug-that-inspired-it-all is another teal wall (still Valspar’s Tropical Oasis) covered with their jewelry.
How creative and sweet are the linen canvases that Christi picked up in a variety of shapes and sizes which she uses to pin up all of their gorgeous bling? Sidenote: I know that the word bling was supposed to be dead once our parents started using it, but I just can’t let it die.
Intermixed with the linen canvases is a giant secondhand mirror that Christi got at Post & Gray. It’s huge and such a statement piece among all the jewelry. And it’s even functional (if a buyer shows up and wants to toss on a necklace from the wall there’s a spot to check out the goods).
Christi got the linen canvases really inexpensively from Binders (there’s a location in Charlotte, but they have a website too). Never wanting to pay more than she needs to Christi signed up to be a “preferred customer” (which is completely free) to score some pretty amazing canvas deals. She says that she’s never found better canvas sales anywhere else.
Here’s a better shot of the insanely cool giant mirror. It was literally as tall as I am and I loved the cool grass-cloth-ish texture and ornate design at the top. Oh and from this POV you can see a sliver of the other color that Christi pulled from the rug for another punchy accent wall in a zone beyond the wall of canvases:
How much fun is that splash of raspberry on the wall beyond their charming old meeting/conference table? That paint color is Panama Rose by Olympic. The rugs both came from Ikea and the table was a secondhand score at a local shop called The Sleepy Poet.
As for those great metal chairs, they were from Overstock. Four are just $193, which made them just 48 beans each (she has two extras in another area). Oh and the extremely convincing greenery on the table is Ikea too. I thought it was real. That was embarrassing.
Here’s the view if you walk up to the raspberry wall of frames and turn around to face the table. On the right there’s a little shelf with some great black stools lined up (those are also from Overstock, scored for $45 a pop) and the richest darkest not-cloudy-est chalkboard paint we’ve seen. Ever.
And that chalkboard paint is carried over to the other wall across from the raspberry frame wall as well. We had to know the exact type of paint that came out so deep and rich (sometimes it looks kind of cloudy and gray) so Christi hooked us up with the info: it’s Valspar’s Chalkboard Paint from Lowe’s. Good to know.
Guess who made those scribbles? Hint: remember the name of the company. Yup, that’s Towne and Reese’s handiwork along with a few of their buddies. Gotta love a kid-friendly office complete with a small Ikea table with sweet little colored poufs from Urban Outfitters.
Is Christi not a total genius at mixing elegant stylish industrial pieces (those metal chairs and black stools) with secondhand finds (the conference table, the giant mirror), inexpensive finds (Ikea and Urban Outfitters items), bold colors (those pink and blue accent walls) and fun touches (the grid of kid and jewelry photos, the chalkboard wall, the linen canvases of jewelry, the kid station in the corner)? I was running around drooling and squealing. It was not a good look. Forgive me oh fashionable and composed jewelry designing women.
Here’s one last peek into their gorgeous space (once again Christi brought in a little bit of old thanks to this secondhand buffet from Post & Gray). But look how great it looks with the sleek industrial metal seating and the raspberry wall peeking out from around the corner.
Oh and file this under so-charming-and-boutique-y-that-I-want-to-do-it-at-home:
Yup those are just dry beans on a plate with rings happily bathing in them. Once again, I bow to Christi and her fun creative approach to decorating on a budget and making her space feel so happy and inviting. What a great place to work, eh? Snaps for Christi. And a big thank you to Jessica, the other 50% of Towne & Reese (yup, you guessed it, she’s Reese’s mom). She was just as sweet as Christi. And on top of letting me traipse around drooling and shouting unintelligible things like “Ohmygooooooooons!” and “Chalkblort paint!” they wanted to hook you guys up with a discount code for their entire line of jewelry. So feel free to drop by this online dealer of their lovely wares and enter YOUNGHOUSELOVE15 to score 15% off. Anyway, thanks for showing us a good time in an office building of all places, Christi and Jessica. Smooch those sweet jewelry-inspiring kiddos of yours for us.
So, who wants to play the what’s your favorite part game? I’m having a hard time narrowing things down, but I think the linen canvases, the black stools, and that happy raspberry wall are awesome with a capital AWE.
Psst- Check out other awesome places that we’ve crashed here.
Psssst- We crashed an nursery-turned-big-girl-room over on BabyCenter today. Come on ovah (ovah is the new over).
I was cruising around Urban Outfitters after clicking on the link to the pouf and I found this, in case you didn’t know about it:
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=80&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=17995671&parentid=A_FURN_FURNITURE&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,+product.marketingPriority&navCount=150&navAction=jump&color=&pushId=A_FURN_FURNITURE&popId=APARTMENT&prepushId=&selectedProductSize=
Love it!
xo,
s
Gorgeous!!! Now that would be an awesome office to work in all day. I just stare at white walls and beige/grey cubes. YUCK!!! I would be a lot happier to come into an office with vibrate colors. Thanks for sharing!!!
I love the chalkboard walls! And the dressers in the second to last picture… and the awesome mirrors!! It’s all super cute.
Want. Anthropologie. Rug.
I love the idea of the rings mixed with the white beans. Innovative design with things that just about everybody has lying around the house.
How fun and girly. Love!
http://www.amandadovewells.com/?p=805
Hi Petersiks!
What version of Photoshop are you currently using? After searching aimlessly on your blog I can’t find it! Thank you for all your home decorating inspiration!
We use Adobe Creative Suite (version 9 I think) since we used to use it for work in our advertising days. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I love seeing combinations of classy and cute – the bright paint and chalkboard paint are awesome, combined with classy displays of their jewelry. It’s so refreshing to see those together and see how well they work! I can’t wait to start decorating my new house.
RUGGG hands down. I even hurried on over to anthropologie just to see if, ya know, they possibly still had it. That was a no go. But they did have a similar one but it didn’t have yellow in it which I was really loving.
Whoa, I live in Charlotte, how have I never see this shop!? You guys should definitely check out Sleepy Poet Antique Mall next time you’re in town, 55,000 sq ft of antique goodness! :)
We’ve been there and loved it!!!
xo,
s
Sorry to hear the paneling is going slowly. Funny timing, because I just posted about the house we DIDN’T buy that was nothing BUT paneling. You just reaffirmed my confidence that we ended up in the right, paneling-free house.
You can check out the 70s chalet look in its full glory here:
http://thenestinggame.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/the-one-that-got-away/
And what an amazing office space! The linen canvases are gorgeous and they really did a nice job with such a blank, blah space. The jewels aren’t so bad either…
Amazing transformation!!
Beautiful space – I am so inspired! I love the houses/offices you crash!!!
love the house, love the office, but what I really want to know is how on earth Chriti looks that awesome with newborn!! I know the original picture is two years old, but here I sit three months postpartum with unwashed hair and hips as broad as a barn feeling completely inadequate (god help me if I had white anything in my house…)!
In short, I’m jealous of the whole package!!
Such pretty jewelry! Thank you for posting the discount code. I ended up buying the Kathryn in matte gold – a little “no reason” treat for myself! And it’s doubly cute because my name is Katherine ;)
Thanks to everyone for all of your wonderfully sweet comments about the space and love for the jewelry! Below are answers to your questions so far….
– Discount Code: I’m so sorry some of you guys are having problems with the discount code. The code is: YOUNGHOUSELOVE15. You enter it in after you enter your payment information. Here’s a little info from Jessica that might help, too: “You are probably trying to enter the code on the paypal portion of the site. Finish filling out payment info (it will not charge you until you confirm) and then it will take you back to the Queen Street site (you’ll know because the background will be black again). Then there will be a line for promo code. Let me know if you have any other issues.”
– Towne’s Name: My husband actually went to college with a girl named Towne. He and his friends mentioned her name one day, and I just loved it! I was 12 weeks pregnant at that point and knew that had to be the name if we had a girl.
– Hanging Jewelry on Canvases: For hanging the necklaces on the canvases I purchased t-pins at a local fabric store. The necklaces can definitely get heavy and pull the t-pins out, so I stick rubber earring bags on the t-pins to keep them secure. You can buy the rubber backs at your local craft/beading store. The earrings hold really well. I’ll usually make a hole with a t-pin first and then just feed the fishhook or post through the hole.
– Mudroom Door: We purchased the door with the frosted glass at our local Home Depot store, and I just ordered the “Mudroom” sign from speedysigns.com. It’s a vinyl decal and was super easy to apply.
I’ll be checking back in later in case there are any more questions. Thanks!!
So smart about securing those t-pins! Amazing. Thanks for all the info Christi!
xo,
s
Awesome space! I love that you guys did an office space this time!
Oh em gee I die. My fave is that rustic buffet and how it shines juxtaposed with the more modern, bright colors. They did SUCH a good job mixing the rustic and natural items with industrial, modern pieces.
And: “I thought it was real. That was embarrassing.” – LOL!
I love all the rugs! And all the little poofs..:)
Does anyone know if all of the jewelery on the site (Queen Street) is from the same designers? It doesn’t specify and I’m just curious if they are all from the women who have this gorgeous space, or other designers too (?).
Christi and Jessica design the jewelry line (Towne & Reese) and it’s sold at multiple locations. Those vendors (Queen Street) were down with honoring the discount code so that’s why they linked us over to them. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I love the black and white diamond patterned rug peeking out from the other room in the Towne & Reese chalkboard scribbles photo! Any idea of the source?
Maybe West Elm? Here’s hoping Christi can stop in to clarify.
xo,
s
Did you see the “Lynn” earrings? They remind me of your mirror in the master bath! and…the “Emma” necklace!
Too funny! I’ll have to check those out.
xo,
s
The rug is hands down my FAVORITE part of this space, but I must say the entire thing is so inspiring!! I would love to go to work there every day.
this doesn’t have anything to do with the post, but my friend sent me this today. it seems like a place sherry would go for a zen moment:
http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/
Sweet. Off to check it out!
xo,
s
Hi – I love this space, love it even more being that I live in Charlotte. Do they have a store here? Or is it just online? I would LOVE to go shop around.
It’s just online (and carried in other stores both locally and nationwide). Sorry you can’t drop in on the gals though!
xo,
s
I LOVE Town & Reese! So great to see their work space; I expected nothing less than fabulous. Fortunately, I work at a great boutique (Heliotrope) that carries their amazing jewelry, so I get to grow my collection with an employee discount (woot!)
You lucky lady!
xo,
s
chalkboard paint…Where to use in the new house????
Just purchased more than my fair share of jewelry and will definitely be back for more once the checking account recovers. Thanks for the code and I plan to pin and grin from this pist.
Love the shout-out from “Portlandia” — that’s my town, yo. It is no joke — all those skits are an 96.8% accurate portrayal of what it’s like to live out here.
What an amazing giveaway!!! This would be a dream come true for a neat-freak like me!
– Ashley
I cannot narrow it down to liking only one or two things. I live it all. Everything about it. What great designers!
Hang in there on the panelling! Painting our 250+ square foot wood panelled guest house took for-ev-er and I thought I was going to stab myself in the eye with a paint brush if the wood kept peeking through, but it was SO worth it in the end :-)
I would love to know where that brown rug that’s peaking out from behind the chalkboard wall is from – it would be perfect in my living room!
That’s from West Elm. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
sherry, i love your self effacing humor; you made my afternoon when I laughed out loud at your “running around, squealing and drooling…it wasn’t a good look!..please forgive me stylish jewelery-designing ladies…” comment. thank you. and fwiw, i’m sure you’re equally as stylish and delightful as those “jewelery-designing ladies.”
Is Towne pronounced “town” as in, you know, a town, or like “tawny”?
Yup, just like the town in hometown.
xo,
s
I’ve loved reading all the comments today. Thank you to everyone!
Here are a few more answers to earlier questions…
– All the jewelry on shopqueenstreet.com is Towne & Reese. In the next several weeks there will be LOTS of new styles added, so check back!
– Towne & Reese only sells wholesale, but you can find a retailer near you on the Towne & Reese website (www.towneandreese.com) under the “Buy” section.
– The diamond rug peeking out in my office is from West Elm (http://www.westelm.com/products/kite-kilim-rug-r894/?pkey=crugs-flooring)
Hope this helps!
Thanks again for all the info Christi! You’re the best.
xo,
s
That’s great. I’ll have to take some ideas from this!
I’ve noticed lately that not all the photos are loading (in google reader or on the blog). Any ideas as to why?
So sorry- no idea why on our end. Maybe try unsubscribing and then resubscribing to “reset” things? Hope it helps!
xo,
s
This is lovely! I really enjoyed the linen canvases and the plate of beans to hold rings–how clever! I’m definitely going to have to do some window shopping on their site :)
I’m lalalaloving those metal chairs!
Total nit-picky question here r.e. jewlery– does anyone know if the height of earrings includes the earwire, or is it just the actual decorative part of the earing? I’m in love with a pair of the earrings, but don’t like them too long… Christy? Anyone? Help!
Here’s hoping they can drop in with that info for ya!
xo,
s
My 65-year-old mom has been collecting vintage rings for decades and displays them in her walk-in closet in black bean-filled, footed glass bowls. Very pretty.
Sherry, do you mean the logo wall and the jewelry display wall are both Valspar Tropical Oasis? My computer color must really be paying tricks on me! Just want to clarify before I go to Lowe’s. Thank you.
Yes, it looks like they’re different shades from that shot but they’re the same color in person (it’s just the light hitting the different planes).
xo,
s
Ok, I definitely love the office but I love you even more for introducing me to their jewelry! :-)
Gorgeous space and gorgeous jewelry! This post was a delight!
Great post! Would you happen to know where she found the black and beige diamond-ish rug that is peaking out in one of the last photos? I’ve been searching for something exactly like it!!!
That’s from West Elm. Hope it helps.
xo,
s
The earring measurements on the website are of the decorative portion of the earring only. It doesn’t include the fish hook. It’s measuring from the base of the fish hook where the design starts to the very bottom tip of the earring. Hope this helps!
Thanks for that info Christi!
xo,
s
ummm….wow. What a fabulous office, from all accounts. I loved everything, and I can’t say that too often! I want to visit!!
Great Crash!
Their previous house crash is one of my favorites, any chance Christi would share were the mirror above the fireplace is from?
Thanks!
Here’s hoping she drops in with that info!
xo,
s
Love all the colour in their office!
I followed your link to UO and while in the apartment section I found chairs made out of your ikat curtain fabric!!
Massive link below:
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jspitemdescription=true&itemCount=80&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=17995671&parentid=A_FURN_FURNITURE&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,+product.marketingPriority&navCount=10&navAction=jump&color=&pushId=A_FURN_FURNITURE&popId=APARTMENT&prepushId=&selectedProductSize=
How crazy is that!?
So funny! I love them!
xo,
s
I have already decided to steal the “jewelry on linen canvas” idea! I have been wondering how I could display my necklaces better so I’d actually where them and to see how they did it is inspiring. Will also keep the chalkboard wall in my back pocket as I’ve been toying with that idea for my daughter’s room once it’s transitioned from baby to little/big girl room! Also appreciate your website for the great ideas! Keep it up!