e-decorating? I know what e-mail and e-newsletter are, but e-decorating? I hadn’t heard of this before I ran across Anna Williams of Ethos Design. Anna creates design kits for people who wish they could hire an interior designer but can’t afford it. I love interior design but can’t really bring a whole room together, so I had to learn more about these design kits.
Ethos design kits
Anna offers a few different options for her kits. Do you want one room? A whole house? Like a photo in a magazine? She will provide you with a kit to “steal” the look! Or, if you are currently building your home, she will provide guidance for what finishes, floors, etc. to choose for your style.
This concept is just brilliant, and Anna does an amazing job. Just check out some of the kits she has created.
Our experience with the process
My husband and I have a room we like to call our dining/game/library room. What? Are you wondering if our room has an identity problem? Well, we know that we technically “need” a dining room for when we have guests, but otherwise, we don’t use it as a formal dining room on a daily basis. So, we didn’t want the room to go to waste. We thought about it and realized that we have a ton of games and no place to play them. We also have a ton of books and no place to display them. This is how our dining/game/library room came into existence. Take a look at photos of our multi-purpose room as it is right now:
One of the first things you will notice is that the room looks very lopsided! We have been struggling with this. So, we sent Anna photos and answered her questionnaire that asked about our design style and the problems we were facing with the room. She also recommended creating a board on Pinterest with photos of rooms and items we like.
Our room issues
Once I started filling out the questionnaire, I realized that we really had a bunch of things we have been putting off because we just weren’t sure what to do. So, we asked for her help with these issues:
- Creating more balance in the room.
- Creating more light in the room. We don’t have any overhead electricity and therefore have no real light during the night in that room.
- What the heck do we do with the little room off of this room (shown in bottom photo above). We call it our phone booth room because it is so small. It isn’t really a closet because it has no door and for some reason has a window in it!
- What the heck do we do with some wasted space at the top of our basement steps (not shown above)? It is sort of a landing space that is right off of the dining/game/library room.
Our design kit
My husband and I sent all of the information, photos, and a roughly drawn layout of the room with measurements to Anna and anxiously awaited our design kit. When we received it, we were thrilled and amazed! We sat in bed one night going through the 15 page document Anna sent to us and were just in awe with the ideas she came up with and how detailed she was (she even included links to all of the pieces shown so that we could purchase them online). She really captured our design style! Here are some of the pages from the kit:
This is the moodboard for our room. We wanted to keep our table and bookshelves but all of the rest is Anna’s design idea.
This is the overhead layout of the room. It shows the placement of all of the items Anna recommended.
Check out the whole design kit for our dining/game/library room.
Anna’s great design suggestions
Here is how she addressed our main concerns listed above:
- She created more balance in the room by adding in a narrow console table next to the main dining table. It also will double as storage for some of our games.
- She added light to the room in two ways.
- She lightened some of the fabrics. She suggested changing the curtains to a white with a band of our old curtains at the bottom. These curtains are not only brighter, they will let more light into the room during the day.
- She recommended adding two lamps to the new console table and a mirror behind the lights. The mirror will reflect the light over our dining table!
- Next she tackled our “phone booth” room. She recommended creating a built-in desk for a laptop or other small items and a chair to sit at the desk. She even provided links to how to build this type of desk!
- And then she dealt with the landing at the top of our basement steps. She suggested a floor to ceiling display of family photos. We had tinkered with this idea, but wouldn’t have thought to go floor to ceiling. She also said to use the same frames and mats on each photo and have them printed in a sepia tone.
We never would have thought of these solutions, and we love all of them!
I want to thank you, Anna…you created an amazing room for us and we can’t wait to get started on incorporating your ideas.
Want a e-decorating design kit of your own?
Head over to Anna’s site for her design kits. You will see all of the different options and how much they cost. Note: they are quite affordable when you think of the thousands of dollars an interior designer would cost you!
Oh, and keep an eye out for a giveaway Ethos Design is hosting on Newlywed Survival. It will begin February 15. One reader will win a one-room design kit like I reviewed above (a value of $299)!
What room would you like to have e-decorated? Why?
Disclosure: I received a design kit from Ethos Design for review purposes. All opinions are 100% mine or my hubby’s!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This e-decorating thing is more my speed. Maybe when the tax return comes this year. I’d probably like to redo our living room since that is the room everyone sees when they enter our apartment. On the other hand, I’d probably want to wait until we move into a house, which I’m hoping will be before the end of the year.
LuAnn Braley recently posted..Blogathon2 Update
Good luck with the house search, LuAnn!
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