I work with lots of talented people that help bring my ideas to life.

There are workrooms for drapery, upholstery, and soft goods; and there are carpenters, furniture makers, and painters. I work with one painter who is particularly talented and artistic. She does specialty finishes on furniture, walls, ceilings...just about anything!

Phyllis Palmer of Transformations by Phyllis has worked on many of my projects — most recently my showhouse room that I did last December.

I had a room full of gray cabinets, and I wanted to add the richness of wood somewhere in the cabinetry. Phyllis came in and turned this gray countertop into a beautiful wood finish. Everyone was amazed! She also put a beautiful glaze on the ceiling to soften the room and work with the color I had in there.

*Wood countertop, painted by Transformations by Phyllis*

This table base was a dark brown before Phyllis gave it new life:

*Table base refinished - Transformations by Phyllis*

She did this ceiling for a dining room in the same house:

*Dining Room Ceiling - silver painted finish by Transformations by Phyllis*

She finished this large entertainment center cabinet there too: (Hardware wasn’t on in this pic, yet.)

To say that I admire her work is an understatement. ;-)

I was so happy when, last spring, she inquired about having me help with her master bedroom redo.

She had a certain look she was going for and needed some help developing an overall design plan that she could then go about implementing on her own.

She’s still adding in some finishing touches, like a rug, a bench, and some artwork. But I couldn’t resist giving you a peek into what’s happened in there so far.

Here’s her front door. maybe you can guess what color scheme we’ll be working with?

Here are the before pics of her room. She already had a lovely room with tall ceilings and a nice bed to begin with.

First of all, I knew I wanted to showcase her talents in the room. Her painted finishes would be key, but we didn’t want the whole room to be done in a faux finish, as that would be overwhelming. She had been thinking of a finish for the ceiling, and I was in complete agreement with that idea. The ceiling slopes up on three sides but starts at about 9’. I wanted the room to feel taller; and if we’d started with a special treatment at the 9’ height, it would have made the ceiling feel much lower. We kept her lovely finishing skills on the tallest part of the ceiling: the very top, flat section. She did a rough hewn look in a grid pattern that I laid out for her.

Simple, soft gray/white walls envelope the space and make her unique finishes stand out.

The bed was made by one of her team members who has some great carpentry skills and we started with that as the main piece of furniture in the room. Because it was white and had a shiplap, rough look, I wanted the other pieces to go more gray and have a more refined finish.

She needed ideas for window treatments, a custom cabinet for the tv, nightstands, lamps, etc. She wanted to go with a soft gray/creamy white combo with navy accents.

I love that combo too! We sent her our selections and designed a custom cabinet for her.

Phyllis did so much of this on her own.

She found a wonderful local carpenter. (She was going to use her own team member again, but needed his expertise on their many other projects they are working on.) The carpenter she found did an amazing job on this cabinet. I love the brass hinges and the details. It works beautifully, and her finishing is lovely. Check out the aged brass cap feet — they are a painted finish!

She ordered the drapery herself (pre-made panels). And then we ordered the steel rod hardware, choosing the glass finial and a silver/gold combination for the rod and rings. We selected a simple woven grass shade with black-out lining for underneath the stationary panels. My installer came out and installed this treatment for her. He does an amazing job dressing the windows.

*Drapery Treatment - gray linen and grass roman shades with gilded rings and crystal finial*

*Drapery treatment with gilded rings and crystal finial*

The nightstands were from Bernhardt. And, of course, Phyllis put more work into the finishing (they had come in a darker and browner finish). She did a lovely gray wash type finish, and they look amazing in the room.

Crisp white gourd lamps with white linen shades add brightness; and the round mirrors from Ballard Designs were actually just the right touch to reflect the lamp light and soften the room. She didn’t have to touch the finish here; it was just right with the blue rim.

*Bedroom Nightstand in gray wash customized finish*

Phyllis had been looking at lace pillow cases and found them very expensive. So, instead, she found a lace curtain at Round Top and sewed these herself. Don’t they look amazing?

*Lace pillowcase with linen bedding and velvet pillow*

She made the long, velvet pillow. Then we had the two red chairs reupholstered. (For some reason I don’t have a good view of those, but maybe we’ll be back and shoot when she gets all the items in.)