Day 2; Naples Project

After arriving on the job site very late the night before, we met the moving firm bright and early Saturday morning. I took several photos of the freshly painted empty house before the excitement began. Anticipating all of the selected furnishings and seeing them begin to complete the design vision is always rewarding.



The colors we selected many months ago-a pallet of gray-blues and ocean hues, punctuated with soft chocolate and venetian gold, set the stage for what was to come...

Our home owner was a bit uneasy with a pallet so unused in this area of Florida! I was all about making a statement that was indeed unexpected in this part of the country. So...let's see how things began to fit into place.

Two moving trucks pulled up and the men began to unpack, and bring the furnishings into the house. A full staff of 7 men were on task. Yes!


Sneelock also began to unload and untie the items we brought with us from our warehouse...(that would be his garage. He's oh so happy to have a portion of space back for the winter!)

Within the hour, we also expected an on-site repair of my van's window. (See former post regarding this one).



One of the last pieces to come off the truck was a 9' wide, 9' tall statement piece (as named by the client!). This glass cabinet was a beautiful hand painted bibliotech that I planned to house a collection of coral, books, and collectibles. At the end of the day, the owner of the receiving company was hesitant to try to get this piece up the two flights of stairs necessary, one being a curved one. He was serious! He told me that if he did try, there would be a 90% chance that his crew would not be able to be successful. Thankfully, there were two darling strong young men who stated that they were sure they could get it up, providing they could get it up the first flight. The owner reluctantly agreed to let them try one time, after telling me that he would not be responsible for breaking the stair banister, stone staircase, porcelain tile, or...the piece itself. I signed off on that, and they began the task.

You'll see the results of their labors in a later post! Yes, they were successful. I turned my back for most of it and had a silent prayer. Those young men were great!



My favorite bed (used by me in multiple designs to date), placed in the master bedroom,
with another of my favorites-these mirrored chests. Now, this room is set for the beginning of the end.

I call this "dueling irons"! Linda and I set out during the day to have an ironing marathon. Every piece of custom bedding for three bedrooms, dining room chair slipcovers, and 4 pair of linen draperies would have to be pressed. A total of about 32 hours of pressing was the end result of these dueling irons over the next few days. Whew.

The end of day two resulted in a 14 hour day for my team of three. I'm not sure what happened, but not one singe self-portrait was taken the entire set-up. Drat.

We successfully had all of the furniture delivered, unpacked $10,000.00 worth of accessories, assembled 14 lamps and shades, prepped 4 chandeliers, placed all furniture and rugs in their proper quarters, ate a few apples, and began the marathon ironing of the days to follow. Day two, successful, tiring, and preparatory for the real work ahead.

Back to our humble quarters for a night's sleep to prepare for the next 2 intense days ahead.

Sleep looks good.