Workin' Nine to Five...

...More like 8am-9pm! So I have not been crafting alot the past two weeks, I've been working. But it has been fun, so I thought I would share. There are three projects that are on my desk right now and they are all in different stages of the design process.

It has been a two year process for this first one. I was the Interior Designer for a local spec office building. It was the first thing I worked on when I came to Memphis. It's not ground breaking design by any means and the client had a very strong vision for exactly what they wanted, but it's fun to compare original sketches to the final product.

So here is the lobby

This is the custom light fixture and ceiling. I'm only 50% pleased with this fixture. One of the hazards of my job is that some things look better in my head and in my renderings than they do in real life. It's not terrible, it's just not exactly what I had in mind.

I also designed the restrooms. Here is the rendering I presented.

And here is the near completed product.

Note: Those plastic plants were not picked out by yours truly. If I were going to pick out a live plant (plastic not even being an option) I would have gone with the grass (see rendering)


I was also the Interior Designer for one of the tenants for the building. It is not as far along in the construction process as the public spaces. Here is the sketch I presented of their lobby.


This is a close up of that feature wall in the making. See the box...it will soon glow.


Conference Room
(I borrowed one of the iPod dancers for this shoot :), I thought her cell phone to the ear pose was much more appropriate than her typical wild dance moves)


Conference Room ceiling looking the opposite direction. This man asked me why I couldn't just make the ceilings flat...what fun would that be?!


The GC on this project is great. Here is an example why...

A wall with all my paint colors to help me with any last minute freak outs and to avoid an uhhh...it looked much better on the paint chip moment. Unfortunately I've had a few.

And my current assignment that gets me excited about going to work.....
It's an elementary school! And it's two blocks from my house. And it may sound weird to other Interior Designers but I've always wanted to work on an elementary school. And the extra exciting thing about this one is they have a fairly descent budget!! I just presented this today and it went very well, especially considering that this school is in a very historic part of town and has an very strict board of approvals. But I threw them this "concept" of the ceiling element being a "ribbon" wrapping up the "gift" of a new building and I think they liked it. Hopefully the board will as well. One of my bosses said I was full of you know what, but I think he meant it as a compliment.

Here are some other views of the main lobby, the color palette, and one little library sketch.

Wouldn't you think you were so cool if you went to school here?! I would, but I suppose I am partial.

So that's what's on my desk this week and the reason I have not been able to post any fun crafts. But stay tuned...I'll be home for the Labor Day weekend and if all goes as planned there will be crafts!