All Your Install Day Questions...Answered

Right before our most recent Install Day, we asked our Instagram followers for any and all of their Install Day questions. And today we’re sharing some of those questions and, of course, our answers. But, first, we thought it might be helpful to give you a brief rundown of what exactly Install Day is.

Ahhh…the mystical Install Day! Install Day is the day we complete a full service interior design project. Our client’s room starts the day either completely empty or full of old furniture. When our client returns home at the end of the day, the room is totally transformed with new furnishings and decor.

start of the day

(aka BEFORE)

end of the day

(aka AFTER)

Side Note: Technically, any part of a transformation that involves a tradesperson are done before Install Day. For the project above, fresh paint on the walls, new window treatments (not pictured), a new light fixture and some carpentry work on an existing built-in bookcase (not pictured) were completed in advance of Install Day.

Install Day officially kicks off when our movers deliver all the new furniture. Rugs and rug pads are placed, sofas are moved 2 inches to the right then 1 inch to the left…then back again (our movers are extremely patient), tables are centered, and armchairs are carefully nudged into their nooks. Next, we bring in all the decor. Decor includes everything from indoor trees to lamps. For the next several/many hours, with the help of a handyman and design assistant, mirrors and art are hung, plants are potted, pillows are fluffed and placed, and bookshelves are styled. At last, our client comes home to their new favorite place.

Sounds pretty awesome right? Just like some of your favorite HGTV shows?!? It really is.

And now for the questions:

“Hi Ladies! So you group (decor) by category? Do you also breakdown by room? Love seeing your install day process!”

Gray Oak Answer - After all our decor is brought into the home, we unpack and sort everything by the type of decor: baskets, books, trays, lamps, vases, planters and plants, boxes, objects, etc. And sometimes we’ll further separate categories, for example wire baskets versus woven baskets. The process remains the same whether we’re doing a one room install or multi-room room. However, we have a general decor plan for each room (and each area within a room - i.e. the coffee table plan, the mantel plan, etc.), so certain key pieces will be flagged to go into each room from the getgo and then the remainder of the categorized items act as filler.

We have found that grouping similar decor allows us to work more efficiently. As we’re styling, we know what type of decor we want, it’s usually just a matter of finding the right item within the category. For example, we want a tray on an oversized ottoman. We look through all our trays, try several out, pick the winner and move on.

“So do you guys install everything and give the client a list and invoice and let them figure out if they don’t want any of it to stay?”

Gray Oak Answer - During our creative presentation (check out details on our process here), we present our clients with a proposal for cost of all materials. This proposal breaks down our clients budget by item (i.e. sofa - $2,000, rug - $1,000, etc.). In this proposal, we include a line item for decor. The proposal for cost of all materials is approved by our client before any purchases are made. Then, when Install Day comes, we have a clear budget to use toward decor. While our clients are able to return any decor after Install Day, in truth, they don’t! The cost is already understood and the decor is tailored to the design plan they approved.

“How you decide what goes where. Do you do many tries before you know it’s right?”

Gray Oak Answer - This is a tricky one! Not because we don’t want to reveal our styling secrets, but because a lot of it is indescribable…the result of instinct. We definitely consider design pillars like negative space, balance, contrast and repetition. But, there is also a lot of try this and try that. (See the last question for our plan on how to share more styling tips)

Hence, we bring about 5 times the amount of decor we use! If you’ve watched any of our behind the scenes videos on Instagram stories during an Install Day, you’ve seen just how much decor this equals. A Lot. Seeing different pieces and creating different combinations onsite is the best way to find the perfect mix.

This process is a huge reason why our clients love when we style - we’re thorough and meticulous in making sure that a room looks and feels like home. Without the plants, vases, trays and books, a beautifully furnished room can feel cold. It’s the details that really bring a space to life.

“Hanging curtains pls - I need tips!”

Gray Oak Answer - We have a lot of good tips for curtains! First, we recommend using curtain rings (like these). They make opening and closing curtains smooth and easy (no pulling, tugging…yanking!), and they add length. The average ceiling height of many older New England homes is 7.5’ (90”) to 8’ (96”). But the average length of an out-of-the-box curtain is 84” or 96” or 108”. This means that 84” is too short, 96” is too long and 108” is way too long. By using an 84” curtain and adding an extra 2”-3” between the length of the curtain ring and the curtain rod, you’re able to raise your curtain rods closer to the ceiling, which is ideal. The general rule of thumb for hanging curtain rods is high and wide. Go as close to the ceiling as possible and far enough out so the curtain doesn’t cover any of the window when it’s open.

We also recommend “training” your curtains. This means to create folds (knife pleats) starting at the location of each ring and carry that fold to the bottom of the curtain. Then tie the hand pleated curtain together with a piece of yarn or twine. After about 2 days, untie and you will have a beautiful, pleated curtain that’s clean and crisp without being old school (aka pinch pleat, etc.).

“Maybe (show) different options styled and then the one you decide on? Fun!”

Gray Oak Answer - This follower wanted us to post different styling options for a vignette, to give a range of ideas on how it could look. And one day…we will…probably… We just love this idea, but have found that the time constraints we have during an actual Install Day have, thus far, prevented us from doing so.

Install Day is such an intense process because we want everything to look absolutely perfect and we want it to be done for our clients to come home at a reasonable time (our clients are out of the house while Install Day is underway). We know, however, that styling is hard and confusing and time consuming - and so every piece of advice to make it less so is coveted! With that, we would love to collect questions about our styling process - get as specific as you’d like - and we’ll dedicate a blog post on all the styling tips and tricks we have! So, leave a comment here, DM us, email us (hello@grayoakstudio.com) and we promise we’ll answer them all!

Have a wonderful week.

- Leah

Gray Oak Gives Back 2019 - Project Reveal (Part 1)

Today we’re walking you through how we brought our Gray Oak Gives Back project from start to finish. We’re so proud of this one for all the feel good reasons we’ve been talking about from Day 1. And, because it came out so beautifully.

But let’s back up to where we started.

Transforming the Function

Whenever we start a project, we have 3 lists of goals. The first list (that guides the other 2 lists) contains our function goals. How are we going to transform the room so it works for the family who lives there? Every space in a house should have a purpose. Sometimes that purpose will be to just look pretty. But more often than not, a room is used for a specific reason and all the design choices should cater to that reason.

When you have a room in your home that no one even enters, much less hangs out in and enjoys, it’s usually because the purpose of the room is undefined or the needs of your family have changed and the originally intended purpose doesn’t make sense anymore. Start with the questions: What will we do in this room? Why would we want to hang out here? When will we want to hang out here?

For our Gray Oak Gives Back project, we transformed a living room. The primary function of this particular living room was to gather with family and friends, watch TV and enjoy a fire. We also had some specific function requests from our Client. For example, she didn’t want a traditional coffee table - she wanted something soft to put her feet on.

With all the above in mind, here was the list of our plans to make functional transformations.

FIRST, we had several updates we wanted to tackle with the help of contractors:

1) The walls - Remove the 30-year-old wallpaper and repaint with a wall color that would both brighten and update the room.

2) The lighting - Remove sconces from wall behind sofa, relocate sconces above fireplace, and add recessed lights to the ceiling.

3) Fireplace Update - Update the fireplace from 1950 to 2020.

SECOND, we had a layout dilemma: Where to put the television. The angled, corner console wasn’t working, the fireplace mantel was too high to squeeze a TV above it (never our favorite choice even if it’s at a reasonable height), and all other walls were covered with doors or windows.

THIRD, we needed all new furniture and decor that created a better flow.

Transforming the Style

The second list contains our aesthetic goals. How do we want the room to look? This includes color palette, patterns, textures, furniture shapes and styles, etc. This list is a marriage between our Client’s vision for their room and Gray Oak Studio’s unique design perspective.

The specifics of the list are based on lots of conversations with our Client - the simple stuff, like color preferences (blue or red?), and the more complex stuff, like how should the room make them feel (calm or energized?). We also ask our clients to give us specific feedback on inspirational images and we share a Pinterest Board. For our Gray Oak Gives Back project, some of our aesthetic goals included transitional style furnishings, light/neutral palette with blue accents, nickel metal finishes and modern farmhouse touches.

Here are the mood boards we created, based on our aesthetic goals.

You’ll notice that a few details changed from the mood board to the completed room…but more on that later.

Making it Unique and Personal

The last list is our unique and personal touches list. These are our ideas to add unique touches and create personal moments within the room that speak directly to the passions/history/hobbies of our client. We a bit of a broken record this point, but we feel strongly that there is a special difference between a beautiful room and your beautiful room. When our clients walk into a room, we want it to feel like theirs. The tiny, personal details we speckle throughout a room are key to this element. And our ideas for these touches begin from our very first client meeting.

For our Gray Oak Gives Back project, we knew we wanted to include frames for family photos and we were even able to surprise our client by secretly getting our hands on a family photo, printing it, framing it and hanging it on Install Day. Along the journey, we learned about a favorite trip to Italy she had taken and her husband’s passion for vintage cars. We brought in tiny nods to these loves through art and a coffee table book.

a spot for a special photo

a coffee table book about vintage jaguars

And now for the fun part - all the (shoppable) details on the choices we made.

When you first walked in the room, we updated an existing console table to a modern farmhouse-esque piece that is more proportional to the space (longer and narrower) and more functional (2 hidden drawers). We styled it with vintage books (our favorite), plants (also our favorite), some decor and a table lamp.

Table lamps are great for function. They provide soft, targeted light, the opportunity for color, texture, interest, and height. People tend to think of the horizontal space in a room and forget about the vertical space. Adding tall items draws the eye upward and either highlights existing high ceilings or gives the illusion of high ceilings.

In the before and after photos below, we had already moved an existing table.

BEFORE

AFTER

Fresh paint and new furnishings play a huge part in this updated view, but also note the small change of removing the sheer covering over the French door. This is one of our favorite recommendations when we’re on a Designer for a Day. In most cases, this sort of “window treatment” doesn’t serve a function and also dates a room (big time).

And now let’s talk console table decor.

In terms of function, we’re obsessed with the hidden drawers on this console table. Both sides have a long, narrow drawer. We also love the bottom shelf that’s perfect for storage baskets. And, in this case, adding some decor to the bottom shelf is a great way to distract from/hide the older radiator.

In terms of styling - here is a list of tried and true decor to consider: vases, frames, plants, books, lanterns/candle holders. And here are a couple quick tips. First, height on the sides of the table (i.e. a lamp, a tall vase with stems, etc.). Second, mix large and small objects. Here we placed one large basket on the lower right and a cluster of smaller objects on the lower left.

Console Table / Lamp / Similar Storage Basket / Square Ottoman / Similar Wall Basket Decor / Similar Woven Stool / Lantern / White Vase

Next stop, the fireside reading chair. The scene might be our favorite. It’s just oozing cozy. And at the moment, in our freezing Massachusetts temperatures, cozy is everything!

This gorgeous armchair is an updated take on a classic wingback. The high back makes it a great chair for a stand alone moment in a room. If you’re placing a chair by itself (not next to another chair or sofa or other larger piece of furniture), it needs to have the size/proportional to hold it’s own. We had fun stacking some lidded baskets instead of a traditional side table and, of course, added a pouf for a footrest option (or another seating option if there’s a crowd).

Armchair / Knit Pouf / Rug / Similar Stacked Baskets / Throw Pillow / Similar Throw Blanket

If you’ve made it this far into the post, you can understand why we’re going to stop here and come back next week with the second half of this room transformation. We’ll cover the media center, the coffee table and the sofa. And we’ll recap the fireplace transformation in case you missed it!

Until next week!

- Leah

Gallery Wall Roundup

Many of our interior design clients request the highly coveted gallery wall. And we get it - they’re beautiful. They bring so much character and interest into a room. The flip of that design power is that they’re quite time consuming to create. First, and probably most time consuming, is to find the right art. Then, the perfect frames. Last, the magical configuration. Oh, and then hanging it up without making too many extra/accident holes. The sheer amount of time is one of the key reasons we only offer gallery wall creations to our Full Service package clients.

So, while we can’t offer you an actual gallery wall plan (unless you want to inquire about our Full Service Interior Design package in which case we would love to!), we can offer you lots of inspiration to make it happen on your own. Today we have a round-up of gallery walls we’ve created. We’ve designed and installed all different styles of galleries and all different styles of art. We love that you can get a feel for the Client just by scanning through the gallery.

Gray Oak Gives Back Project

This 15 frame grid gallery is from our Gray Oak Gives Back Project. A simple grid of matching frames filled with stock black and white photos. These photos can be easily replaced by family photos or more curated landscape photos or a series of abstracts. But they’re beautiful as is. (For sources on all things Gray Oak Gives Back head to the project reveal post)

Gray Oak Gives Back Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Prospect Project

This gallery is from our Prospect Project. If you guessed that the occupant of this room is under 10 years old, you guessed correctly. We love how the 3-dimensional elements of this gallery add to the whimsy.

Prospect Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Pearl Project

In both our Pearl Project and our Hutchins Project, we used a simple grid of 4 identical frames to create a gallery moment. This is a really great starter gallery if the big guys seem intimidating. For the Pearl Street Project, we simply clustered a series of pieces our Client already owned. Bringing them into a small gallery made them more of a focal point - the same effect as one large scale piece of art (but way less expensive!).

Pearl Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Hutchins Project

For our Hutchins Project, we created a gallery wall of frames ready for our Client to fill with family photos. Incorporating family photos in a modern, clean way was the goal.

Hutchins Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Homestead Project

This next gallery was from one of our very first projects, which was the second phase of a project for our very first Client. Needless to say, it holds a special place for us. Our Client had these beautiful, vintage, professionally framed family heirlooms that she wanted to display but always felt that they looked out of place in her more transitional (modern) home. By mixing in a series of round brass frames (very current and clean), we were able to bridge the feeling between vintage and modern and make it feel like a cohesive thought.

Homestead Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Lovell Project

Our last mini gallery is one of our favorite and probably our most shared/coveted/revered. It’s from our Lovell Project and it’s a good one. The key here was choosing one large anchoring piece and two complimentary, smaller pieces. When creating an eclectic gallery, it’s important to mix and match the size of the frames, the material of frames and the size of the mats (some frames with mats, some without, some with oversized mats).

Lovel Project - Design by Gray Oak Studio

Hope you’re feeling inspired to get started on the gallery wall you’ve been imagining.

Have a wonderful rest of your week.

- Leah