All posts by Beth and Carolina
Go #DryJanuary Crazy With This Shrub Recipe
Ever heard that vinegar is good for you? It’s true, but we get it… it’s easy to be deterred from drinking a cup of what can taste like toxic apple acid. But, it’s that time of year again — resolutions lists are miles long and gym memberships have never been used more.
Cutting down on alcohol is a good step towards healthy, wholesome living and we’ll be the first to say we could use one or two (or three or four) fewer cocktails a week. We’ve been longtime fans of a fresh shrub and thought there was no better time than Dry January to give you the lowdown on how you can craft this beverage deliciousness for yourself.
If you’ve never heard of a shrub before, you’re probably wondering what type of drink would have the same name as a small woody plant. A shrub is actually a syrup made from sweetened fruit-infused vinegar that can be mixed to make alcoholic or non-alholoc drinks. And they’re delicious!
How To Make Your Own Shrub
INGREDIENTS
1 Cup Seasonal Fruit — For winter, go for grapefruit, apple, or any berries you can get your hands on
Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Sugar — Substitute honey or agave as a healthier alternative
Sparking Water
APPARATUS
Muddler
Fine Mesh Sieve
Jar for Infusion
Glasses
Gemini Brass Coasters
METHOD
Add your choice of in season fruit and sugar to a mixing bowl and muddle together. Cover and let sit for 1-2 hours.
Combine the fruit and sugar mixture with 1 cup of vinegar in a sealable container. There are many variations of shrub recipes, but we like apple cider vinegar best for taste and health benefits. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 5-7 days, shaking about once a day.
Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing fruit to extract all liquid and flavor. Yay, you made a shrub!
Pour shrub syrup into glass and top off with sparkling water to taste.
You can refrigerate your extra shrub syrup for up to three weeks!
As interior designers, entertaining is always on our minds, so we love a good recipe that’s simple, but impressive to serve at your parties and dinners! Keep those entertaining and health goals going strong!
For professional interior design services, contact Pulp Design Studios®.
The 5 Best Coffee Tables for Small Spaces
We work with interior design clients in a very wide array of spaces — sometimes we’re designing an entire home large enough to accommodate 16 and other times we’re bring high-style to small scale city apartments. Space should never affect style, but sometimes we find ourselves in a design pinch and have to strategize. When working with small spaces, finding impactful and luxurious furnishings can be a challenge. We would never design a living space without a coffee table, so we rounded up the top five small coffee tables according to our interior design team…
Konnie Cocktail Table | Glenn Cocktail Table | Janson Coffee Table (available to Pulp clients) | Tre Metal Table | Taper Circle Cocktail Table
A coffee table is one of those essential home furnishings that you simply cannot skimp out on. Space constraints can present challenges, but it’s nothing that can’t be overcome., especially with the help of your favorite designers!
For professional interior design services, contact Pulp Design Studios®.
GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL TABLES
Everything You Need to Know About Building a Home Bar
We’ve all been to that person’s home who has the ultimate home bar. Not only is it chic as can be and styled better than a Vogue editorial, but it is stocked to such perfection that anyone visiting is happy for a night in just to enjoy the view of the holy grail of bar carts. It’s true, home bars bring undeniable joy, whether it comes from the essential personal cocktail or the sheer sight of another well-designed space in your home. It’s the curation we all admire and all strive to have. Entertaining spaces are one of our absolute favorites to design for our interior design clients, so creating a comprehensive guide to the ultimate mixologist assemble was a given.
It all comes down to three steps.
The beginning of any project starts with the foundation. The first step to creating a bar that is not just stunning, but also suits your drinking needs (we all have them, it’s okay) is determining the best product to display and hold your goodies.
The most impressive home bars involve a built in and fully custom design, like the one we designed for a client pictured above. If you aren’t planning on taking on a home renovation, opt for a bar cart for your space. Consider the amount of space you have, whether you want your cart to be portable and the variety of the cocktails you’d like to be able to make. You want to chose a piece that will accommodate all of your needs and fit well into your space.
Ina Rectangle Tray | Terrace Bar Cart | Charlene White Wine Cabinet | Come As You Are Rolling Bar Cart
Now that you’ve selected the piece that will best elevate the way you like to entertain in your space, we can get to the fun part… the alcohol. People often think they need the most extensive collection of alcohol to have a complete home bar, but through the lens of our splendid living approach, this just doesn’t make sense.
Focus on the flavors and drinks that you love and create a selection of spirits that will allow you to create a variety of cocktails without going unused for months. Keep a few versatile mixers on hand and don’t forget the garnish!
Spirits Pictured: Crystal Skull Vodka | Patron Tequila | Bulleit Bourbon | Campari | Martini Vermouth | Angostura Aromatic Bitters
Mixers Pictured: Agave Nectar | | Dry Sparkling Soda | Seltzer Water | Bundaberg Ginger Beer
Must-Have Garnishes: Lemon, Lime, Salt, Mint, Lavender, Basil, Olives… knock yourself out!
And finally, you wouldn’t be able to reap any of the benefits of a well-curated and stocked bar without bar and glassware. This is the part where you should bring as much style into your setup as possible. Tea towels and coasters are just as staple to a bar cart as a bottle opener is. Chic accessories are essential when creating something that is styled, not just thrown together.
Barware: Gemini Tea Towel | Copper Bar Spoon | Rickey Cocktail Shaker | Viski Canterbury Jigger | Starck Juicer | Double Pour Bottle Opener | Gemini Matte Black Coaster Set
Glassware: Enoteca Champagne Glass | Tour Red Wine Glass | Coupe Glass
It’s time to drink! You’ll never feel more inspired to make yourself a cocktail than after you’ve completed the ultimate home bar. And don’t forget, the most well-designed spaces are both luxurious and functional!
For professional interior design services, contact Pulp Design Studios®.
New Year, New Throw
These Color Trends Will Be Huge in 2018
Greeting the new year means welcoming a flood of new interior design trends. We’re bound to love some and loathe others, but if one thing is certain it’s that color will be making a splash in interiors all of 2018. A big splash. And we don’t expect vibrancy to limit itself to home textiles. Put on your rose colored glasses and watch as these ten trends mark their territory as leading style influencers, from interiors to fashion.
Our love for coffee table books is truly never ending. Ibiza Bohemia became an instant favorite the moment we pulled it out of the box for a client. A book as eye-catching and beautiful as this is the ultimate way to make a trendy statement in any space in your home or office. We might just have to snag a couple for ourselves…
It’s no wonder why this structural beauty designed by David Coleman was named among the best in residential architecture by Gray Magazine. Photographer Benjamin Benschneider perfectly captures the way structure and environment play equal parts in design. When a designer allows the natural background to play an influential role in design, color and impact are nothing shy of astounding.
While we certainly love a luxurious subdued palette, eye-catching textiles and bold color play will be everywhere you look in 2018. Synapse Rouge by S. Harris is a shining example of the type of bold textiles we’ll be integrating into our most stylish projects in 2018.
Statement rugs can play a similar role as gallery-picked artwork, especially when they are as well-designed as this rug that we are currently using in a client project. We expect to see designers using art-like rugs everywhere from residential to commercial.
We’ve never seen such a cool reading nook. A space that’s often created to fill space is transformed into a home destination through the use of striking pattern splashed on every inch. Color is key when taking lesser used spaces in the home to magazine-worthy design. This space, photographed by Dominique Vorillon, is proof that fearlessness leads to the coolest spaces…
Analogous spaces, spaces that only use three to four neighboring colors on the color wheel, will be among the boldest in 2018. This concept space appears monochromatic due to the similar nature of the colors used, but does not lack in interest. Kelly Wearstler strikes perfection in this room photographed by Francois Dischinger.
As interior designers continue to push the boundaries and create a divine intersection between interiors and fashion, our industry has more than caught up in terms of high-style risk taking in the world of design. Florals with an edge, like the Blossom wallcovering by Phillip Jefferies, are the perfect example of a stunning trend that bleeds from fashion to interiors, taking the feminine and giving it a blissful taste of drama.
One of our all time favorite forms of inspiration… the eye. We’re going full-throttle into the New Year loving this trend, whether it’s in the form of our Eye of Ra designs, or bold makeup looks like this one spotted in Elle. If one thing is for sure, it’s the time to let your eye shine.
Elevate your interiors by introducing vibrant accessories to accent personal style. Sometimes all you need is an unapologetically bright accessory to capture hearts in your interiors. Maximalist or minimalist, this trend design tip elevates style like Anna Wintour editing a closet.
Did you feel that? That was your heart fluttering at the sight of this absolutely breathtaking wallcovering by Fromental. Rockface is such a stunner that we simply cannot wait to use it in a project. We’re never shy about our love for a statement wallcovering, and this one is definitely no exception.
We can’t wait to see what 2018 will bring Pulp’s way, but if we can predict one thing, it’s that the year will bring some of our all-time favorite trends…
For professional interior design services, contact Pulp Design Studios℠.
The Best Things That Happened in Interior Design in 2017
What a year it’s been… Wrapping up 2017 has been a bittersweet affair. We’re reluctantly waving goodbye to one of our best years yet, but eagerly looking forward to all the design goodness that 2018 will bring Pulp’s way. Time seems to only go faster as we add more projects to our boards and watch our schedules fill with travel, events and installs that we cannot wait to share with the world. We’re kicking off the year strong and booking clients for 2018 projects. Before we dive head first into another highly anticipated year, let’s recap the highlights of 2017…
January
We kicked off the year by heading to Florida to attend The Kitchen and Bath Industry Show with DXV! We scoped out up-and-coming design trends to inspire a year full of projects for our interior design clients and wooed Howie Mandel with our Design Panel space.
Seeing our design for the DXV 2016 Design Panel in some of our all-time favorite publications, like Vanity Fair (gasp!!) and Architectural Digest was definitely a career highlight. Working with DXV on this project was an all-around amazing experience and seeing it published was the sweetest of cherries on top.
February
We headed to Palm Springs after being invited by DXV to attend and speak at Modernism Week! It was a great opportunity to network, learn and soak in all the beauty of one of our favorite areas.
March
Not only was this one of our busiest years yet, but we celebrated our 10 year business anniversary on March 15! We couldn’t have asked for a better tenth year and love looking back on our milestones over the years. Check out our videos and anniversary page to see just what we’ve been up to these past 10 years! We hope you appreciate this throwback photo to Pulp’s early days!
It was splendid timing to celebrate being named among the best interior designers in Dallas by D Home Magazine during the same month we celebrated our 10 years!
April
We hopped on another plane and headed to High Point Market for one of our favorite design trips every year. We spend the weekend touching, feeling and testing out the best furnishings for our clients.
We outgrew our Ballard studio and moved into a storefront space in Queen Anne, one of our favorite Seattle neighborhoods!
May
The kitchen we designed for our Contemporary Warmth project was featured in Elle Decor‘s roundup of “50 Incredible Chef Kitchens for Every Type of Cook“! Seeing this feature was such a treat!
We were thrilled to take part in A Well-Designed Business podcast to share a bit of insight into what goes on behind the scenes at Pulp. There was no better way to make our podcast debut!
July
Nearly no month of 2017 lacked a design trip. We jetted to NYC in July to pass the design panel baton to DXV’s 2017 panelists. We always look forward to seeing the amazing work each year’s set of designers execute!
September
We installed our Traditional Home Dallas Showhouse space and attended a weekend full of glamorous and designed-filled events to celebrate the opening of an absolutely stunning showhouse!
Another Showhouse toast was in order as our Napa Showhouse space, designed in 2016, hit newsstands nationwide in Traditional Home‘s October/November issue.
October
Our Fearless Style project was featured in a four-page spread in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens. We’ll never get enough of this project and were so proud to see it published in print!
After nearly an entire year of relentless work to bring our first collection of entertaining and gifting goods to utter perfection, we launched Kismet Lounge into the world in October.
Another day, another feature. We were thrilled to see the guest bathroom we designed for a long-time Pulp client featured in the awe-inspiring Gray Magazine.
October’s High Point Market marked a new milestone for Pulp as we stayed back and sent our design team to scope the best of the best without us. We loved hearing about their experiences and getting to see all the goodies they brought back!
November
We brought our collection to the ultra-sleek Thompson Hotel in downtown Seattle for an afternoon of sipping and shopping with some of Seattle’s finest. We also hosted two amazing pop-up’s in our Seattle and Dallas studios to celebrate the launch and allow our clients and customers an exclusive look at the line.
The Best of 2017
That’s a wrap! The entire Pulp team unanimously agrees that it’s been an absolutely remarkable year– splendid living for sure! We can’t help but feel deeply thankful for our team and family of clients, followers and customers for making 2017 one for the books. So many thanks to our amazing clients for allowing us to live our dream! Now to rejuvenate those design juices, we’re signing off until 2018…
For professional interior design services, contact Pulp Design Studios℠.
Textile Refresh
The 5 Things You Need To Complete The Holidays
GET MIXING
A holiday party just wouldn’t be right without a season cocktail mixed to perfection. This week we’re absolutely loving this festive twist on a classic drink. Get your copper mugs out!
INDULGE
We love a good signature scent, especially when it’s reminiscent of cozy winter days and quality time snuggled in with the family. The Feu de Bois/ Wood Fire candle from Diptyque is a must.
WRAPPING GAME STRONG
Put the cherry on top of your entertaining game and elevate your holiday gift wrapping with some seriously beautiful festive wrapping inspiration from These Four Walls.
GET COZY
We love a classic set of pajamas any time of the year, but think this set from J. Crew is especially needed during the holidays.
GET GIVING
While the holidays are in full swing, there is no end to great parties in sight. The tastemaker never shows up empty handed… be any hostess’ favorite guest with the perfect gift from Pulp’s ultimate gift guide.
We hope everyone has a splendid holiday season!
