not so far back, i gave a shout out post of gratitude to the good people at
grace home furnishings for supplying me with that amazing screen for my
LCDQ window last may, but i only thanked half of the peeps responsible for the beautiful screen. today it's time to thank the other half,
tracy hiner and black crow studios (only a year later... but hey, better late than never ;-)
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| tracy in front of her beautiful wallpaper. not only is she pretty and wildly talented, she's just totally awesome and one of my favorite people. |
i met tracy a couple years back and instantly liked her (she's
dog people after all- if you are one too, you know that carries a lot of weight), and though i knew she did some cool wallpaper, i only saw some smaller scale samples of her work, and i sort filed her wallpaper away as "someday, i'd like to use that". it wasn't until i saw a full room installation by
wendy schwartz at the
greystone mansion de luxe showhouse did "
someday" turn into "
if i don't get to use that amazing wallpaper TODAY, i might die". melodramatic, yes, but seriously, i was
that excited about it, and you know us designers, we can be slightly melodramatic at times. (ok,
all the time...)
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| wendy schwartz at the maison de luxe showhouse. |
so when asked to do a window for the
legends 2012 event a few months later, i knew exactly what i wanted to use- some kick ass
black crow studios wall paper! only problem was is that i had no actual walls for wallpaper, hence the idea of an 8 foot tall screen to create a wall where there was none. i also knew i wanted to use sunshine and swimming pools for my color inspiration, so using tracy's watercolor wallpaper in beautiful blues was a no brainer. the rest was sheer delight...
after tracy and i talked about my concept, and she agreed to generously supply me with her paper for my window, i sent her a schematic of my screen and she sent me back a bunch of sample layouts to choose from. which wasn't easy to do- they all looked fantastic.
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| this was my favorite, but i decided it wouldn't effectively convey the water theme, since it looks more like an impressionist masterpiece. someday, i'm going to recreate the screen for my own home and use this layout. i freaking love it and still, a year later, dream about it. |
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| this was the layout selected. watery and beautiful, and would read really nicely from the street- not of small importance for a widow display. |
then, a few weeks later, tracy delivered my wallpaper, and even helped me apply it to my screen!
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| the raw screen from grace home. |
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| tracy used a self-adhesive, removable and repositional vinyl for the panels. |
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| so easy, even a monkey could do it! |
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and taa-daa! the screen was finished, about 45 minutes later. would have been faster, but i'm a talker.
;-) |
tracy and have since collaborated again on the original "memphis" wallpaper for my
california home + design show house bath, and i can't wait to collaborate again and again in the future. she's a genius at what she does, and that inspires me to step up to the bar when i work with her- the results are always magic. keep an eye on
black crow studios- i have a feeling the best is yet to come! and thank you tracy- your support and friendship is amazing! xo.
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| black crow studios collaboration #1 |
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| black crow studios collaboration #2- with many more to come! (photo by john ellis) |
