This was another great collab between Michael Fowler Creative and The RARE Design.
This was a design project for my friend and colleague Alison. As we toiled with the various options and directions we could go, we knew it needed to be fun and joyful, but also have tons of storage, and lots of funk. Alison has always had a great sense of fashion, understands what she likes, and is not afraid of color. So when thinking what inspiration I could use to design the space, Iris Apfel and her beautiful rugs from Ruggable seemed a natural choice. She wanted to incorporate a lot of her signature hot pink, so everything else fell into place once we found the rug.
Alison did a lot of DIY projects I didn't think she'd be able to do, like the contact paper on the existing granite counters. I thought for sure she would screw it up because I sure as hell would have! However, she did a phenomenal job; it looked fantastic - almost like real white marble rather than the awful brown granite underneath.
We did a few of the typical small-space living tricks like adding a clear lucite coffee table and corresponding nesting tables to give her practical storage without cluttering the space, lots of white, and tons of storage under the bed and in every piece of furniture.
Ultimately, this was a very fun project that turned out beautifully. How could it not be beautiful and fun when a project inspired by the late Iris Apfel?
Photos: Derek & Victoria Miller
