STEPHANY TADDEO Interior Design

home is…what you make it

stephany @ home is what you make it — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:34:28 +0000

i am now blogging here:

home is…what you make it

please visit me there!

go dog! go!

stephany @ home is what you make it — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:32:38 +0000

Use pages from a favorite book as wall art in a child’s bedroom.

Easy. Inexpensive. Changeable.

baby girl’s nursery

stephany @ home is what you make it — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:55:04 +0000

My own house is a major work in progress that I never have the budget or the time to work on. The only rooms that I have really taken on are the kids rooms. They are both still “in progress” and probably always will be (like the rest of the house), but here you can get a glimpse of the work I have done in baby girl’s nursery…

a project still keeping me up at night

Sweet Dreams…

stephany @ home is what you make it — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:30:13 +0000

I have a wall tent. I haven’t used it in years. I’m tempted to pull it out this summer and use it as a guest room for visitors since our guest room is now our baby girl’s nursery. I dream of projects like this…

Mary Janes Farm Bed & Breakfast

The first step is STEP

stephany @ home is what you make it — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:10:58 +0000

Last fall, I set a goal to take the NCIDQ test in October of this year (see NCIDQ October 2010). I was going to start studying on my own, but then having a baby got in the way. I did not have enough time to study…well, I did not want to make the time to study. So, I have now signed up to take a STEP class January 29-31 thru the Oregon Chapter of ASID. I am looking forward to it…a little bit scary, but exciting, too! The first step to the NCIDQ exam is STEP!

Grown up looking storage solutions for kid friendly spaces

stephany @ home is what you make it — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:31:54 +0000

Pottery Barn Kids Artist Playroom

If you are anything like me you long for a space in your home that can be designated as a “Playroom”. I dream of a room like the ones I see in the Pottery Barn Kids catalogs that can be dedicated to my children and all the toys and activities that keep them occupied. In reality, we share all of our space with them. Our “Family Room” is exactly that, a FAMILY room.

Recently, we made some very big changes to our “Family Room” that have made it a comfortable space for all of us to “play” in. Using Markor storage solutions from IKEA, I have created a “grown up” look to store all of our childrens toys. In addition, we have storage for DVD’s, video games, books, accessories, and our new flat screen TV!

Reminder: I am an interior designer, not a photographer!

While I still long for a designated “Playroom”, I am happy with the solutions that we have put into place in our “Family Room”. What storage solutions have you implemented in your “Family Room”? What would be on your wish list for a dedicated “Playroom”?

Filling up space

stephany @ home is what you make it — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:52:19 +0000

It’s a new year and, like most people, I set goals for myself for the coming year. It’s been a while since I posted on this blog. Life happens…literally. I had another baby and things got busy. I never knew that it would be as busy as it has been. Between visitors (who were here to help out, but were still guests in our home), figuring out our new family routine, a husband who travels a lot for work, and the holidays I just have not found the time to write. That’s my excuse anyway.

The truth of the matter, is that interior design is my passion. I adore staying at home to raise my kids, but I LOVED working in the profession of interior design. I miss it. It is part of what makes me Stephany, not Mommy, or Mrs. Taddeo, or sister, or daughter, or friend. Leaving my job in the interior design world to stay home to raise my children was THE hardest decision I have had to make in my life. I am glad I made the choice I did, but I can’t lose part of me.

So, one of my main goals for 2010 is to be true to myself and not lose this part of me…the passion for interior design part of me. I am going to make a promise to myself…and anybody who reads this blog…that there will be at least one new post a week. It may not be full of amazing design tips, photos, or information each time, but it will fill up the space that is missing from Stephany…and hopefully fill a space for some of you, too.

Happy 2010!

My Most Demanding Client, Part 2

stephany @ home is what you make it — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:05:39 +0000

She keeps me on my toes and awake at night.

She always has work for me to do, but she always has a tight budget.

She has a mind racing full of ideas for every project and it can change with any give moment.

If you hadn’t guessed already, she is ME!

I am my most demanding (and toughest) client.

Currently, I have been working on a project for my most demanding client. It’s a great project, but it’s also been keeping me up at night…stay tuned!

My Most Demanding Client, Part 1

stephany @ home is what you make it — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:52:20 +0000

I am working with a repeat client right now. The good news is that she always has work for me to do, the bad news is that she always has work for me to do. Do you have any clients like this?

Leave a comment…I will have more to come on Wednesday!

New Hotel Smell

stephany @ home is what you make it — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:46:56 +0000

I did not know that I would find myself in the field of hospitality design when I went back to school to become and interior designer. However, when my husband and I made the move to Oregon 3 years ago an amazing opportunity presented itself. I found a job with a small interior design firm (WCI, Inc.) that focused on hotels and resorts and soon found myself to be taken up by the whirlwind that is hospitality design. I soon found that I was critiquing the design of any hotel room that I stayed in and soon referred to myself as a “chair flipper” looking at the bottom of furniture to find out who made it!

I recently had a short stay at a newly renovated resort. The design was beautiful and, initially, I was happy to stay in a fresh, new hotel room! The room had new carpet, tile, window coverings, paint, wall vinyl, casegoods, lighting, artwork, electronics, leather upholstered chair, bedding…you name it, it was new. It also had what I would refer as “New Hotel Smell” (which was almost as bad as staying in a smoking room to my olfactory senses that are in overdrive due to being pregnant). The room also included a thorough welcome binder with a plethora of information about the resort and surrounding area, green bathroom amenities, the usual information that you find in hotel rooms now telling you how they save water by not washing your towels or sheets if you give them the right “sign”, and a recycle container next to one of the trash cans. Some steps in the right direction, but as a designer that is passionate about green design there are some things I really would have like to have seen instead of the usual this-is-how-we-are-saving-the-environment mumbo jumbo. I would have liked to know things like:

What product was sourced locally?
Were the lighting and electronics energy efficient?
Was it low-VOC paint that was used?
Why did they choose to use wall vinyl?
Were the carpets and textiles recycled or recyclable?
What did they do with all of the old FF&E?

It would have been great to see this list in the binder of other information about the resort and would have impressed me about how the resort was taking steps to be more environmentally friendly. Instead of being impressed, I spent most of the night trying to figure out how to use the remote control AC unit to get some fresh air circulating in the room so I could get rid of that “New Hotel Smell”.