I’m Back…

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.. Business has picked up but sadly the blog has suffered… I’m going to get back in the swing of blogging slowly and just share some pictures of  my last camera upload…  These are some pictures from James and my New Years trip to Highlands, NC.  We stayed at the Old Edwards Inn and we LOVED it… definitely did not want to leave!  It reminds me of Seaside, FL but in the mountains of NC… if you can imagine what that would be like?! 🙂 Even though it was supposed to be the town’s “off-season” we liked it because it wasn’t crowded, the snow was beautiful, and it was still decorated for Christmas!! I realize that it is almost spring outside but it’s cold today- so sorry for all of the wintery pictures!!  … I promise to be back with another blog post SOON! Have a good week!

The frozen pond looked so pretty

James and me on New Years Eve night.

The knoll play area outside of our room.. Im sure it is filled with kids during the summer.  The black dot in the middle is a melted snowman 🙂

Some houses nearby… I loved the architecture, paint colors they used, and roof lines.

James is packing up the car to go home…

I loved the white subway tile and tub spout and hand washer..

The shower with white subway tile as well…

I love the attention to detail with their custom carpet..  pretty unusual for a hotel room!

The fireplace in the den area was still decorated for Christmas.

the room was stayed in.. I liked how they used the striped fabric on the headboard.

One of the views as we were going down the mountain to go home.

Love, 

Tis the season…

Are you finished with your shopping? Are you looking for the perfect gift? Well, here is an idea for your mother, sister, sister-in-law, grandmother, daughter, friend… A Caitie Morgan Interior Design Gift Certificate.  It would make the perfect gift for anyone that you know that might need a little design help or inspiration for the New Year.  It can be for any amount of design services or consultations.  I have already had one smart husband purchase one!!  This is what I will send to him to give to his wife on Christmas:

Available only while supplies last……… 🙂 Just email me and we can get started! Information to contact me is located under the Contact link at the top of the page.

I wanted to congratulate one of my best friends, LISA, on her exciting engagement!!!  She and her fiance, Tate, are so excited to be planning a wedding for late summer. Date TBD!  It is such an exciting time of year and I know they are looking forward to spending Christmas and New Years making the plans to begin their life together!! CONGRATS and BEST WISHES! She has grown up a lot this year… In fact, here is a picture of Lisa from a  Christmas party  TACKY Christmas Party that James and I had last year…

And another older picture of Lis and me….

Lisa and me Summer 2009

On a side note….. I also had the opportunity to help Lisa with her bedroom, den pillows and den drapery in a house she recently purchased. I don’t have good pictures yet- Im hoping Santa brings me a nice camera.. Ahemm… Are you listening Santa?! 🙂 Here are a few sneak peek pictures from my phone but more of the bedroom to come later…

Sofa is Lisa’s and pillows are new… Greek Key trim is Robert Allen but we found it at King Cotton, a discounted fabric, trim, and rug store in Birmingham.  Damask pillow matches drapery- fabric is Wesley Hall- “Lutron” color: Storm

more photos to come….

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas…

Love,

Caitie

Babies and nailheads

Im sorry for the lack of posts lately! Things have been really busy around here and then the rush of the holidays came with Thanksgiving… Anyway, things have been good BUT busy.  I haven’t mentioned my beautiful new niece who I got to see over Thanksgiving weekend.  My sister and brother-in-law, Josh and Elizabeth, had their first baby, Juliet Ann, in August.  She is beautiful!!  We are a very proud Aunt Caitie and Uncle James. 🙂 James and I were so excited to be able to go to her Christening over Thanksgiving weekend in Atlanta. Introducing, the newest addition to our family… Juliet…

Sporting the cutest Turkey dress for Thanksgiving.

I love this one because it looks like she is smiling 🙂

We are looking forward to hanging out with Juliet and her parents during Christmas…

I have also been busy with some installations for my friend, Emily.  Here is a sneak peek from her house taken with  my lovely IPhone… more to come with a better camera!!

Meet Emily….

 She and I met in Tuscaloosa and lived together in Seagrove, FL while we both did internships during the summer. She looked SO pretty on her wedding day!  Emily just got married at the end of August this year and I am helping her decorate her and her husband, Steve’s, house/den.  She wanted to look for a few new pieces for their den.  She emailed me this picture below this past summer and asked what I thought about 2 matching chairs like this…. 

Fabulous, aren’t they?!?  Haha, well maybe they aren’t right now but I had some high hopes for these bad boys…

I said BUY BUY BUY!! For several reasons…

A) the price for both were unbeatable… Emily found them at a furniture consignment shop for about $100 per chair. 

B) these chairs weren’t anything that my highly skilled upholsterer couldn’t fix!

C) two words for you… NAIL HEADS!! I picked the right one out from a board like this…

They look a little somsething like this antique brass nailhead.

And the new and improved chair looks like:

We covered the chairs in a pretty light blue linen from Kravet and also had the legs of the chairs stained darker.

Love the side details…

A close-up of the drapery fabric.

These are 2 pillows for the blue linen chairs…. Also Kravet fabric.

Covered this French Bergere and ottoman with a cute “cub print” that Emily loved.

Here is what I am thinking for the rest of the room…

More pictures to come…

Feel free to post feedback/ comments! 🙂

Love,

Caitie

Game Day Condo

Hope everyone is having a good week… It’s  FRIDAY and it is freezing here!! It is starting to feel like fall…  I was going through my computer and thought I would share some photos of a condo that I had the opportunity of doing last year. Some of James’ and my friends, Nick and Jennifer, contacted me to help them put together one of two condominiums in Tuscaloosa that they had recently purchased to rent out for Alabama game weekends. They wanted it to be nice but were on a budget to fix it up and have it ready in time for football season.  Here are some before pictures…  Sorry in advance for the quality of the pictures.. It was with my old camera. Here are Nick and Jennifer in the corner giving James and me the tour when we first saw it …

The Den

Looking into a dining area…

Guest Bedroom soon to have 2 double beds…

Here is the finished den.. I found the sofa and loveseat from the Cindy Crawford collection at Rooms to Go.  Here it is…

and the pillows are a trellis pattern that I found on Etsy.

 I am dying to get back there to photograph this place with a better camera! The rug is a piece of cut carpet that I found at flooring remnant outlet here in Birmingham.  The lamps are from the one and only Homegoods. You can find the best lamps in there! The side chairs are also from Homegoods. It can be hit or miss but we have two locations in Birmingham so that helped.  The round circle mirror is from another one of my favorite stores, Tar-geh.  The coffee table and side tables are from a Lane furniture outlet that was conveniently in Tuscaloosa but recently closed. 😦 It was a great go-to for inexpensive GOOD furniture.  Here are some more pictures of the den.

The finished guest bedroom.. I got the bedding from Kohl’s.  It had a Hotel Collection feel but not for a Hotel Collection price 🙂

 I found the lamp and framed artifact-like shadowbox pictures from Home Goods… I thought they were more interesting than a boring print.

I love these cow prints that I found at Tuesday Morning to put over the sink. 

(FYI- I just discovered this-that link is to the Tuesday Morning website that you can actually shop- (not their informational one) so the next time you go into Tuesday Morning and find the perfect duvet cover, for example, that is 75% off retail but cannot find the matching shams, you can get on the website and order the discounted shams to match! I just recently did that for a client and it worked out so well!

I don’t have pictures of the bedroom that we installed a King bed into because I am waiting to get back into the condo now that the headboard is installed.  I found a great king size upholstered headboard with nailheads from Hayneedle.  They have some great looking headboards.

Hope you have a great weekend! Here is one last picture to leave you with before the weekend… 

My little girl… the Reesie Monster.

Love,

caitie

My Beach House Makeover

There are very few things in life that I LOVE…  I love my job.  I love my Apple desktop… and I love my sleep…. but … I LOVE my beach house.   It is my favorite place in the world and has been since I was a little girl.  My great grandfather built our beach house so it is safe to say that it has stood the test of time.  We are now in the 4th generation of kids enjoying this sweet beach cottage in Laguna Beach, FL and it is about time for a face lift for the interiors. I was just reading my November edition of Coastal Living and it gives advice on how to create a nautical bar area.  I think it would be a great foyer or sofa table too.  The white wood plank walls remind me of the beach house…

I love the blue/slate-like lamps they chose, especially for a beach house.  I also love the rattan covered console table.  

We would need a fabric like this…

That is all it would take to make a simple table like this look fabulous. So easy but so cute!

Instead of just doing one print over a table, it would be cute to do several or a grouping of 3 or 4.  Perhaps if I get to re-do my family’s beach house one day OR maybe someone else’s family’s beach house I could try out some of these ideas plus a few of my own!?!  (subtle hint  haha! 🙂 ) 

Here are a few pictures of my beach house.

The view from our second floor deck…

An awesome sunset…

An old picture of the front of the house.  When I was little we had a dirt road on our street… My have the times have changed! Haha- That makes me feel kind of old! 🙂 

My grandmother, Carol.. She was beautiful, smart, and such a classy lady.  I get my love for interior design from her.  She also went to Alabama for interior design and art, just like ME… This picture was taken on the beach in front of our house.

Fast forward many years later and here she is with me and my cousins playing on the beach. That is me on the right with the sweet light denim shorts and neon orange and green shirt. I was stylin’…

Another pic of the front of the house but now with our white picket fence.

Old photographs were given to me by my uncle, Shawn Smith. Thank you for sharing.

 

I will post more on current projects soon!

Caitie

A nursery for TWO!

I recently had the opportunity of helping our friends and neighbors, Loren and Jon, who live across the street from us.  Loren asked for my help in the spring when she and Jon had just found out that they were having boy AND girl twins.   I was so excited to help because this was my very first nursery.  They had already done a little bit of homework and picked out their bedding which needed to be suitable for a boy and girl.. not too feminine or boyish… they decided on the Cocalo Delilah.  The colors of the prints are more masculine but the print was more girly.  They were not looking for the AVERAGE canned performance of a nursery and wanted to try to stay away from pastels, so the bedding they chose was perfect for them.  I was happy to help with nursery layout and accessorizing.
 To start off, I wanted to give them some options for the nursery layout to accommodate twins.  Now, I dont know if you are familiar with Homewood houses in Birmingham, BUT, they are very charming and a GREAT location but not always equipped with the largest rooms or closets! SO, I started thinking about the nursery layout….

We ended up going basically with the one on the bottom (with the star next to it) except we decided to start the babies out in one crib until they were big enough to need two and have it against the wall for the time being.  We also moved the diaper changing table down a little bit.  We chose a Restoration Hardware paint color called Light Silver Sage.  It turned out absolutely beautiful!  The whole room has a very calming feel to it which should be perfect for the new parents, Jon and Loren and, of course, babies Anna and Ben. We picked out a really pretty, SOFT carpet which also happens to be very stain resistant.. perfect for the babies and any umm.. accidents that could happen…?!

The white bow roman shades looked calming yet perfect for babies with the sweet bows. We found them at Pottery Barn.

Loren and I both liked the idea of having a G over the crib, so I bought some of the bedding fabric and covered the inside of a brown frame in the fabric.  I then screwed the “G” in from behind to make sure it was secure.  It has some weight to it so I couldn’t take the chance of it falling off the wall.  I then found two oval blocks of wood at a craft store and painted them yellow to match the bedding.  I also found an “A” and a “B”.  I screwed these in from behind too to make sure they were sturdy and that there was no chance of them falling. Then I hot glue gunned the precious chocolate brown ball trim to the edges of the oval block.  I definitely felt like HGTV! 🙂

 Here are some peeks of the finished nursery.  Anna and Ben should be coming home from the hospital any day now and I can’t wait to meet them!! CONGRATULATIONS Loren and Jon!! I am so happy for your family!

We have plenty of storage for diapers, bibs, blankets, etc. in the cute lined baskets we added to the diaper stacker.

Loren found some old childrens’ books that her mom had saved and we framed them and put them on a cute white shelf that Loren will be able to accessorize as she gets new pictures of the twins when they come home!

Here are some precious pictures that Loren sent me from the hospital after they were born yesterday. Enjoy!! 🙂

The proud Daddy, Jon, holding his babies.

Loren and the babies… so sweet!

Caitie

Hello, my name is…

Caitie Morgan… and I am really excited to have a blog, as I have been a H U G E fan of blogs for a couple of years now.  I went to the University of Alabama and I am now an interior designer in Birmingham as well as a newly wed.  I married my husband, James, in May of 2009, so we just recently celebrated our first year of marriage.  🙂
Here we are at our wedding…

You can see one of our fabulous and very talented photographers Mecheal Johnson in the corner of the photo.  (Paul Johnson Photography)

And here we are again…

Shortly, after that happy picture, I was faced with the decision most interior designers come to face… “It’s time.. Should I start studying for my certifcation test after being out of college and working for  (the required) 2 years ?!?” Well James and I talked about it a lot.. and … unfortunately for James (and myself), the first year of our marriage consisted of a lot of fun being newly weds but also A LOT of me studying to take the NCIDQ…. (In case you aren’t familiar, it stands for the National Council for Interior Design Qualification.) 
Well…… I took it……And….. The good news is:  A) that I PASSED!!! (doing a happy dance in my head everytime I think about it) and B) that I now have time on my hands to do waaaay more important things like start my own interior design business which I have always wanted to do… and this lovely blog (which I can already tell is going to be my new favorite thing to do)! 


Since this is my first post, I might as well introduce you to the rest of James and my family, because I talk about her a lot…

Say Hello to Reesie, our Chocolate Lab.   Reese, affectionately known as “the Reesie Mons” (short for Monster) because for 99% of her 2 year life she has kept us on our toes and usually laughing.  We are pretty much obsessed with her and love her to death.  In this picture she is sitting on our bathroom floor staring at me while I get ready.  This is our standard morning routine. Isn’t she cute?  Our bathroom floor was put in after we got married… James and I picked it out together.  It’s a nice neutral hexagonal tile and our double vanity ( which you can see part of) I decided to paint a robins egg blue.   It really seems like it fits in our cottage-style house.   What do you think? 


Until next time…


caitie