All posts by Beth and Carolina

6 Ways to Curate the Right Art for Your Home

February 10, 2021Entertaining + Home Livingart, art collection, color, curate, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, drawing, framed art, frames, gallery, home, home goals, house, ideas, interior design, interior design tips, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, original art, painting, pattern, photography, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, sculpture, seattle, space, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

The Pulp team loves curating and selecting original art for our clients and their homes. Art adds a unique touch and personality to rooms, and the right pieces can tell you a lot about the people who live in the home, too. We love when our clients have incredible art collections… and, of course, we love to help our clients build them, too. But finding the right art can be intimidating if you aren’t sure where to look or what really works. So here are 6 sure-fire ways to select art for your home!

1. Fall in Love

Art should always speak to you! It doesn’t matter if it is an expensive painting or a thrift store find, if it speaks to you then it is the right art for you. You are the one who has to live with it in your home, and it should be a reflection of your taste and personality. Let your art tell the story of who you are and what you love!

2. Tell a Color Story

The Pulp team is often inspired by the colors in a painting or photograph and use that as a jumping-off point for a room’s palette. You can also turn that around and look for things you love that will complement the colors already in a room. We love that art can either draw the eye as the star of a space, or it can be a supporting player with colors that work well in the overall design.

3. Mix It Up

When the Pulp team curates art for clients, we don’t just look for paintings. We create a mix of art from drawings to sculpture to photography. We’re lucky that co-founder Beth Dotolo has a talented photographer as a husband (that’s his work in the vignette above). And we’ve also been known to find incredible photographs among our client’s personal collections that can be blown up and framed for a stunning look. So mix it up!

4. Make an Investment

Art can make such a bold statement, and it’s even better when it’s an investment. The Pulp team definitely has favorite artists that we love to support – like Amy Opsal whose work is above. When you find an artist who creates stunning pieces that you love, buy their original art and showcase your passion for their work. Again, original art not only gives guests clues into your personality, it is also something that you won’t find in every home. It’s unique and personal – that’s what art is all about!

5. Layer the Look

You don’t have to let art sit in a silo on its own. We like a more layered look, especially on surfaces or bookshelves. This works especially well when you’re using different mediums of art, like a sculpture in front of a photograph, or a painting in front of a print. Experiment with scale, too, by using a smaller item with a larger-scale piece. It adds so much more dimension and interest!

6. Size Does Matter

Speaking of scale, it’s very important to consider the size of the wall when selecting the right piece of art. A very large painting would overwhelm a small table, while a large wall expanse like the one above needs more than just a tiny photograph. On your largest walls, you can use a gallery approach or a stunning piece like the one we hung for our client above. Just be sure you’re thinking about balance and symmetry when selecting art for specific spaces in your home.

Have an art-filled home that needs the Pulp touch, or do you need a better-designed home for your collection? Give us a call!

Design for Those Awkward Spaces

February 3, 2021Entertaining + Home Livingawkward spaces, bar, color, custom design, custom design looks, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, design solutions, home, home office, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, original design, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, smart design, smart design ideas, space, tips, trends, wine roomBeth and Carolina

Even in a new build project, you can sometimes have “leftover” space – that area under the stairs, the other side of a closet, a weird passthrough. And in older homes, there are all sorts of niches and awkward spaces that you just don’t know how to reconfigure. That’s where the Pulp design team comes to the rescue – we love creating inventive design solutions to provide both function and fabulous looks!

The Unused Attic

So many homes have bonus space or attic space that just isn’t being used. With lots of angles in a roof, people often throw their hands up rather than try to tackle that space. In the new build project above, the home’s upstairs  attic area was originally  planned to be unused  space. But the Pulp team  developed the idea for a  media room with a built- in bar. Now it’s one of the  family’s favorite spaces! We took advantage of all the odd angles, instead of being limited by them.

That Weird Niche

Sometimes there are strange niches in a house that made sense at one point, but are just weird problems now. We love the old telephone spots, the areas that once held art or even an ironing board, and other fun architectural head-scratchers. And some, just don’t make any sense. In this Texas home, we filled a useless niche in a hallway to the dining and living room with a functional custom bar. It has a built-in Thermador pull-out refrigerator, freezer drawers, and a Sub-Zero wine fridge. Our clients are thrilled with how this space functions now, and it definitely looks purpose-built.

A Room with No Purpose

Even our co-founder Beth Dotolo had an awkward space in her home’s basement. This small room didn’t have a purpose, and it was too small for a guest room or family area. So she turned it into her home office and personal sanctuary! It’s still a work in progress, but we love the moody vibe she has going in this seating nook. We also are obsessed by the art by her photographer husband Kevin Dotolo!

The Space Under The Stairs

Usually, the space under the stairs becomes a small closet or storage area with a weird little door. The Pulp team likes to maximize space and make it as functional as possible, so we designed a chic pass through in the home above. Now a hidden door leads to a wine cellar. It looks amazing and works perfectly for our clients!

Have an awkward space in your home that needs our creative design solutions? Give us a call – we love a good challenge!

How We Work a Remodel

January 27, 2021Entertaining + Home Livinga new addition, addition, architect, builder, color, construction, contractor, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, down to the studs, home, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, mid century modern house, midcentury modern, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, remodel, remodel diary, renovation, renovation step by step, rooms, seattle, space, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

Pulp specializes in a wide range of home projects from micro-renovations to new builds to down-to-the studs remodels. Two weeks ago, we talked about our micro-renovation process. And we’re pulling the curtain back even further to walk you through our major remodel projects. Those are the types of jobs that include an addition, larger renovations, and/or moving walls and stairs. And they’re called down-to-the studs projects for a reason!

When these Dallas clients thought about selling their 1955 midcentury modern home, they realized they loved it too much to part with it. They wanted to give it another chance with a renovation, so we completely gutted the structure. As you can see above, our teams removed everything down to the interior structure – or the studs. When you do this type of renovation, it allows you to rework floorplans, to rewire or replumb, and to add security or sound systems.

In a major renovation project like this, we work very closely with the architect and contractor to ensure everyone is on the same page. That requires a lot of on-site meetings and walkthroughs of the jobsite. The Pulp team stays on top of every detail to ensure that the design plan that our clients approved is exactly what they will see after installation.

In this particular project, that design plan included an addition that opened up the floorplan and gave them a new office and master bath.

We worked with Wealdstone Construction and studioSHORTALL architects to bring our design vision to life for the space.

For many people, this can seem like the “boring part” of a design project. But this is really where the magic happens! Things like lighting plans and electrical plans can make your home function for you in the best way possible. So those details are really key to the entire home remodel.

We’ll test new stains and finishes until we get to the perfect look for our clients. You can see our progress on a new hallway floor above.

And the Pulp team always looks to use every square inch of a floorplan to add as much storage and function as possible. Above, we added cabinetry and a bench seat to the new passthrough hall.

We’ll drop by a job site at least weekly, especially to check on the paint progress. Mistakes can happen, so we always want to be sure it’s the right color, the right shade, and the right sheen for the room.

The accent wall above was going to be the focal point of the family room, so it was especially important to get it right. The teams we worked with on this project were such pros – they really brought our ideas to life.

The closer we get to the final look, the more excited our team gets. No matter how many times we work on these bigger projects, we’re always energized by how fabulous the homes look. And then finally, it’s time for furnishings, art, and final touches. Here’s how this Dallas project looked when we opened it up for the final reveal to our clients!

The living room with that focal wall – and the new passthrough hallway beyond.

A stunning new kitchen with much more light and life.

The new home office with that gorgeous black paint on the walls.

The hall with all that fabulous storage and a little seat for reading or just hanging out.

To see more of this gorgeous mid-century modern home, take the tour here. And if you’d like to talk about a major remodel of your home, give us a call!

The Magic of Wallpaper

January 20, 2021Entertaining + Home Livingcolor, custom, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, home, home goals, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, space, tips, trends, Wall covering, wallpaper, wallsBeth and Carolina

Wallpaper is more popular than ever before. Nothing can add more pop and visual interest to a room than an amazing wall covering. The Pulp team loves to use special patterns and custom designs to add punch to their interiors projects. Here are some of our favorite ways to use wallpaper to make a big statement!

Color Highlight

In a black-and-white monochrome bathroom, adding a vibrant pattern from Abnormals Anonymous in turquoise transforms this bathroom. Part of a basement renovation, the wallpaper brightens the room and makes it a compelling focal point.

A Bit of Whimsy

Wallpaper can also tell a story for you. In the pattern above, we customized the design with a bold black background and touches of glam gold in the kernels. But what story is it telling? This special wall covering is going up in a home theater, and what goes better with movies than popcorn?!

Wrap It Up

Wallpaper can create a chic-but-cozy space if it wraps the room from floor to ceiling! We took a gorgeously glam pattern and covered all 4 walls AND the ceiling to create a super-special space for our clients.

The Element of Surprise

The wallcovering above from Elitis is one of our all-time favorites! It’s unique and textural and it transforms this tiny space into a surprisingly stunning gallery.

Focal Point

In our modern glass house project, a boring sliding wall becomes a compelling focal point with this lovely crane pattern from Phillip Jeffries. It is so gorgeous that it looks like an oversized piece of art!

Looking Up

As your looking for fantastic wallpaper patterns, remember to look up! In a neutral themed modern lakehouse, adding pattern keeps the visual interest high. We placed this wallpaper on the ceiling to be the perfect counterpoint to the art and the lovely rug.

Use these ideas to create wow-worthy spaces with wallpaper! And if you need help creating unexpected moments in your rooms, just give us a call.

Making the Most of a Micro-Renovation

January 13, 2021Entertaining + Home Livingcolor, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, furnishings, furniture, home, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, lighting, living, Los Angeles, painting, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, renovation, rooms, seattle, space, tile, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

The Pulp team’s work ranges from new construction to down-to-the-studs renovations. But we also love to do micro-renovations! What’s that, you ask? Those are smart home refreshes and furnishings packages that offer a nip-and-tuck approach to updating a home. In a micro-renovation, we work with fantastic contractors and trades to make small improvements that pay off big time!

For example, the clients who own the home pictured above had purchased this beautiful house in a sought-after Dallas neighborhood. It had great bones and well-appointed hard finishes, but it didn’t reflect their personal style. Rather than a major renovation, the house just needed a simple lift with paint, lighting, and furnishings. This micro-renovation gave our clients a home that is now a complete reflection of personality and style!

In another Dallas home for a family of 5, our team planned minor renovation projects and furnishings packages that would transform this home on a very tight deadline. Small improvements that don’t involve structural changes can still completely transform a space. Just look at what a bit of tile did for the room above!

For that same project, check out the “before” of the home office. We painted the room a bright white, added new furniture and textiles, and curated an art package that our clients loved. And look at how incredible the reworked room is below!

Wallpaper also makes a huge difference in transforming a room. Below, we used a painterly design to showcase the creativity of our clients. Pulp also brought in unique furnishings to tell the edgy and modern style story that fit the clients. The result is a fashion forward and playful modern residence that the homeowners are proud to call home.

Most importantly, the Pulp micro-renovations not only help personalize your home, but they also add a lot of value.

In the Seattle home above, Pulp created a warm furnishings package to complement the contemporary architecture and finishes. The result highlights the best of the architecture and design, but also adds much-needed softness and balance.

Designing your dream home doesn’t always mean you need to tear things down and start all over. Contact us today to see if our micro-renovation package is right for you!

Tour this Modern Glass House Featured in Gray Magazine!

January 6, 2021Entertaining + Home Livingcolor, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, glass house, home, home goals, house, house tour, ideas, interior design, interior designer, interiors, lake washington, lakehouse, living, Los Angeles, modern, modern house, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, space, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

We’re so excited that this modern glass house project on Lake Washington is featured in the Masterworks Issue of Gray Magazine! We are so proud of this new construction project that our team worked on for the last few years with DeForest Architects and Toth Construction. These clients really let us create something unique for them and have unrestrained design fun. That’s what it should be!

With floor-to-ceiling windows that can be opened to let the rooms flow into the outdoor setting, the architecture makes the most of the mountain and lake views. These clients love to entertain, are a family of artists, and enjoy travel. So we created unique design details that were geared towards creating, entertaining, and showcasing the soul of these unique clients. Luckily, they also were not afraid of color, pattern, or taking a risk, which is why they were drawn to Pulp Design Studios in their exhaustive hunt for a designer. Let’s take a tour of this gorgeous home!

Entry/Exterior

Living Room

Dining Room/Kitchen

Study

Principal Bedroom Suite

Artist Studio

To take the full tour of this gorgeous modern home, just click here!

Gray Is Still Having Its Day

December 16, 2020Entertaining + Home Livingcolor, color of the year, color trends, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, future ideas, gray, grey, home, home ideas, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, paint colors, paint trends, pantone, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, space, tips, trends, yellowBeth and Carolina

Gray has had a long run as a popular color for interiors. Some may have thought that it was on its way out, but it’s still going strong! Need proof? The color forecasting icon Pantone selected two colors for its 2021 Colors of the Year – a soft Ultimate Gray and a bright yellow called Illuminating. We’ve used this color duo before and it makes a great pairing. You can see it above in one of our projects. That soft gray is Repose from Sherwin-Williams and it’s a great all-around gray.

We were also excited to be interviewed for Martha Stewart’s website to talk about our favorite gray paint colors. We love Cyberspace from Sherwin-Williams (you can see it above)! As we told Martha, it’s a dramatic tone that makes a strong impact in a room, but the fact that it’s gray takes the edge off. We love the drama.

Gray is also gorgeous on furnishings. In the room we created above, it’s a soft accompaniment to the white walls, and it was all inspired by the lakeside views outside. The CR Laine captain’s chairs are covered in San Polo by Castel, and they work so well with that lovely gray rug from Driscoll Robbins.

Another project that features that soft Repose Gray is the midcentury modern renovation we designed above. With a slightly darker gray on the sectional and a great pop of teal, this room is a great reflection of the home’s history, but with a modern update.

We love the neutral undertones of Repose, too. It’s great in any room, but especially where you want to create a sense of calm and quiet, like in the sitting area of a principal bedroom (above).

What do you think about gray’s longevity? Is it still a color you’d want in your home? Let us know!

4 Tips for Trying Bold Color in Your Home

December 9, 2020Entertaining + Home Livingbold color, color, Dallas, decor, decorating, design, home, home goals, home ideas, house, house tour, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, paint colors, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, room ideas, rooms, seattle, space, tips, trends, wallpaperBeth and Carolina

There’s one thing we hear over and over – most people are still fearful about using bright colors in their homes. They either think it will be “too much,” or that they’ll get tired of it quickly. But those bold colors are important as we spend more time at home. In fact, now is the perfect time to experiment. It’s your home and it should make you happy. So the Pulp team has 4 foolproof tips for getting bolder in your home’s palette!

Go Small

A little can go a long way when you’re trying out color in your home. Find a small space where you can experiment, like in the pantry at the top of this post, or the cabinetry we designed in the kitchen above. Those little hits of color should complement the rest of the room, and we guarantee they’ll make you smile. If you’re super-nervous, use spaces that don’t get a lot of traffic or that are inside a closet or small space.

Be Art Smart

Art is a great way to bring dramatic colors into your rooms. Choose pieces that you love, even if the color is bolder than you might normally try. You also might want to select an oversized piece to cover a large wall and make a big statement. Then you can bring in accessories that complement the colors in the art. This is a great way to slowly build up a strong color story in a room!

Accent the Positive

Try accent pieces in super-bright colors as a foray into a bold new world! We loved using these hot pink swivel chairs to brighten an otherwise neutral space. And notice that we also used the same color in pillows and even in book covers. The great thing about using pops of color like this is you can easily switch them out if they don’t work for you. And with a neutral main palette, you can play with the accent colors until you find the perfect one.

Drench It

We love a monochrome room! That’s a space that is absolutely drenched in one dramatic color, like the black bathroom above. This is a room that your friends and family will talk about – and they’ll marvel at how brave you are. To take this approach, again choose a color that you really like, but don’t go pale and quiet. Think about cobalt blue, bright emerald, sizzling saffron, or deep merlot. Don’t use too many other colors in the room to help you achieve the perfect look.

Try going this bold in the smallest room in your house – the powder room! This is the perfect room to experiment in because you won’t see it all the time. Drama works very well in these little spaces, so really go bold. Remember, paint doesn’t cost a lot, so if you don’t like it, it’s easy to change.

We LOVE to work with bold color and we know how to select the perfect ones for each of our clients. Need help with color and personality in your home? Give us a call!

It’s Giving Tuesday!

December 1, 2020Entertaining + Home Livingcharity, color, Dallas, dallas designer, decor, decorating, design, designer, donations, giving, giving tuesday, home, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, nonprofits, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, seattle designer, space, texas, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

Giving back and paying it forward are core values for Pulp Design Studios. On Giving Tuesday, the Pulp team is highlighting the charities that are close to our hearts and that we support throughout the year. Each of our team members has selected their own non-profit to showcase. So please consider donating to the non-profits we’ve listed below, or to causes that you believe in. This season, more than ever, they need our support.

Carolina’s Charity: Dwell with Dignity

Dwell with Dignity designs and installs complete home interiors for families who desperately need an environment that will support health and wellness. They empower families to lead their best lives and to thrive in a safe, functional, and beautiful environment. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Beth’s Charity: The Conscious Kid

The Conscious Kid is an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. The group supports organizations, families, and educators in taking action to disrupt racism in young children. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Tracy’s Charity: Baby2Baby

Baby2Baby is a mega diaper bank and nonprofit organization providing essential items to children in need across the country. In the last 9 years, Baby2Baby has distributed over 100 million items to children in homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, foster care, hospitals, and underserved schools. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Tara’s Charity: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of crisis centers that provides free and confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is committed to improving crisis services and advancing suicide prevention. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Jana’s Charity: The Humane Society

The Humane Society fights the big fights to end suffering for all animals.They take on puppy mills, factory farms, the fur trade, trophy hunting, animal cosmetics testing, and other cruel industries. And they rescue and care for thousands of animals every year through the Animal Rescue Team. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Ellie’s Charity: Team Read

Team Read in Seattle propels young students to become inspired, joyful readers. Team Read’s dual-impact model helps young students to become confident, joyful readers equipped for academic success, and teens to develop work and life skills that support their transition to college and future employment. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Leina’s Charity: The Bridge

The Bridge is a homeless recovery center for individuals without a home in Dallas County. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, The Bridge offers basic needs services including hot showers, nutritious meals, and haircuts, as well as intensive services such as physical and mental health evaluations and care management services. Click here to learn more or to donate.

Aidan’s Charity: Planned Parenthood

With over 100 years of service, Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide. Click here to learn more or to donate.

How We Solved Our Biggest Design Dilemmas

November 25, 2020Entertaining + Home Livingarch digest, architectural digest, challenges, color, Dallas, dallas designer, decor, decorating, design, design dilemmas, home, home experts, home ideas, house, ideas, interior design, interior designer, living, Los Angeles, pattern, pulp, pulp design studios, rooms, seattle, seattle designer, space, tips, trendsBeth and Carolina

We recently revealed to Architectural Digest what our biggest design dilemma has been in the last few years. We told the editor that it was an awkward space under our client’s stairs, and that we transformed it into a magical hidden door to a fabulous wine room – you can see the door closed above, and open below. In our business, you run into dilemmas a lot, and we had a few projects to choose from that gave us issues to work around. But the Pulp team loves a challenge – it lets us put our creativity into high gear. Take a look at these projects that offered dilemmas, and how we solved them!

Getting the Perfect Finish

In the photo below, all you see now are gorgeous beams and lots of beautiful wood tones. But getting that fabulous lodge look was a challenging multistep process that took hundreds of hours of applying finishes and comparing results. We literally had 15 reapplications of stains. Our clients had two very different design styles. He wanted a more rustic look and she was more into a modern transitional design. So getting these finishes right was key to combining what they wanted into a cohesive style. They love the finished look!

From Dingy to Dynamite

The project below required a lot of vision on our part because what we started with was a dark and dreary basement. In fact, it was so bad that we had to show you the before photo below. It was a HUGE challenge to work through the renovation and create a family room and bathroom that was a stunning as the interiors upstairs (which Pulp finished a couple of years ago). We added fabulous wallpaper and art, built-in storage, and lots of great seating to create a stunning hangout that made our clients want to show off this space to everyone who came to their home (pre-COVID, of course).

That Awkward Corner

Every interior designer who sees a corner fireplace, especially at an angle, will roll her eyes. It can be such a pain to design around these, and really they should just be removed. So when our clients said they wanted to keep their midcentury modern dream house but needed it to be reworked, we knew the fireplace below had to go. They also needed more room, so our solution was actually a win-win. We gutted the structure, creating an addition that opened up the floorplan. That let us expand this room and add a new (NOT angled) fireplace! See before and after photos below.

Do you have a design dilemma? We would love to help you find the perfect solution! Just get in touch with us by clicking here!

Wherever You Are

We work all across the country, designing primary residences, pied-à-terres, and vacation homes, for our clients near and far.

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