More Reps

Today we had the company called Exquisite Surfaces based in L.A. come in and show us their great products. Their reps were great and one was from France and the other was from the Philippines. Here is a link to their website: http://www.xsurfaces.com with some images of their incredible products. 

Hand painted tiles 

stone options

Incredible Wood Options

Also we got our fabric from Bergamo today: Check out this gorgeous fabric at $140 per yard....

Also another rep. came today from T.J. Horan who also carries many great manufacturer's. Here is a link to their website: http://tjhoran.com/index.cfm/ID/3/MANUFACTURERS/. We were using one of their manufacturer's called David Edwards. This company has a wide variety of furniture options and all of them with great design and quality to back them up. 

David Edward's homepage

Custom Design

We are in the process of finding a company that can build a custom table with a zinc top for one of our client's. Bengt put me in charge of setting up things with the company and getting a reasonable price for the dining table. Today we met with Calls Designs and got the process on it's way. They have incredible skills and a great portfolio to view. 

Here is a link to their website:   http://callsdesign.com/

Trestle Dining Table with a Zinc Insert 

After work today, I did a little exploring. Everyday I pass a store called "Now & Again", it is a fun antique store that has many great pieces of restored items and nostalgic pieces. Below are some of my favorite pieces of the browsing trip:

Cute Facade! It got my attention....

Retro Table

Vintage Suitcase Anyone?

Oh that's just me having fun!

Herman Miller product that I wouldn't mind sitting in...

Meetings

Today was all about meetings... I had the opportunity to meet with a landscape architect, pool designer, and the homeowners with Bengt. I was also introduced as his design assistant. That had a nice sound to it and made me happy. The meeting was located in Holiday and the building had a great design inside and out and sat on a nice piece of property. I enjoyed being able to see the connection that the designer had with the other companies and the decisions that were made. They allowed Bengt to help and oversee the entire process and give his opinion on the exterior selections.  

The exterior of the office. 

After the meeting ended, we got to see a few pieces of furniture that were in a garage behind the office building. We got to go inside one, but it held some great antique treasures that were just apart of the family storage. I had a deep curiosity for what was behind the other five or more garage doors. Once this meeting ended we had another meeting back at the showroom. This was the same client that was making some more decisions on her furnishings for her home. We found a company that she loves and we love too. It is called Global Views, most of Bengt's showroom includes pieces from this company. Here are some of their pieces that I love:

Fabric for Christmas

Today involved pricing out furniture & fabric, making many phone calls, and getting packages. It was like Christmas morning when we received a box from "Town". I was so excited to see the fabric inside and see if Bengt liked some of the options that I picked out for him. He loved the stripe and it came in so many different colorways. Here are some fabrics that I really liked from the company: 

This fabric is a blend of linen & velvet. The hand is incredible!

Cut velvets in geometric prints

Blend of viscose and cotton. Great pattern but small in scale. Great look! 

Time to Celebrate!

I got to celebrate my fourth of July holiday in Flaming Gorge with boating and camping. It was such a great trip filled with lots of sun, good food, new experiences, and great people! Here are some pics of my trip:

Glitz & Glamour

Today involved three lighting reps coming from the company called MM&A, which stands for Marian McComb & Associates. They specialize in Swarovski Lighting, Schonbek, Basic Source, Holtkoetter, and Zenith International. The products that they showed were exquisite and incredible. They are all very high end lighting companies. Bengt also had the opportunity to be featured in an ad for small businesses with Zions Bank. They had done some filming of him before on my first day of my internship and this was part 2 of the process. Once the video is produced and made it will be sent out to a huge amount of people. He was asked some questions about his business and they took photo's of the showroom. We did a little, well maybe a lot of cleaning to make it photo ready. It was a great opportunity for his company and I'm excited to see what type of response he will receive. Here are some images of things that stood out to me from the lighting rep's:

Diamonds are woven into carpet.... Crazy & Wow!

Schonbek Chandelier- What a beauty!

Looking for great style & great quality?
Just combine swarovski  diamonds & schonbek lighting
and you got it with a huge price tag. 

Try Again

Today involved presenting the new furniture selections to the client. Overall, I had more winners than losers this time around. She was unsure of her style in the beginning but I am able to point out things and automatically know what things she will like and dislike. We have a good range of client's, all with very diverse styles. I like being able to see the differences of styles but also seeing the beauty of each style too.  Our most recent client really likes the style of these companies:

www.allmodern.com

www.eurostylelighting.com

inmod.com

"Town"

Today I continued working on furniture selections for a client and searching out more modern and contemporary pieces that she would enjoy. In the morning, I got to meet with a rep. from "Town", it is in the Denver Design District in Colorado. She was a fabric rep. and came with great samples. I was even able to ask some "intelligent questions" about the fabric. Thanks Darrin! I am beginning to know Bengt's style and hopefully picked out samples that he would like. We are currently working on a project that needed a big, bold stripe and guess who delivered? "Town" did. I looked at their website and found out some more manufacturers that they carry. Here is a link to their website & some images of the fabrics that she displayed:
http://www.denverdesign.com/productsandmanufacturers/showrooms/showroom.php?id=43

ROMO Fabrics

Bold stripe with a subtle herringbone pattern. This picture doesn't give it justice 

After the meeting with the rep. I was able to keep working on new selections for another client and got to also make some more material selections with another client as well. A good day's work one might say....

Presentation

Today I got to do my first official client meeting and I was in charge of it. Bengt had a meeting and wouldn't be able to attend the meeting with the client. So, he asked if I would be okay to go over the selection of furniture pieces and present to her the design that we had come up with. Oh boy! I was pretty excited to see what her opinion of the design was and how she liked it.  I was also able to do some research to help me design a space for her autistic son too. It was interesting and fun to gain some knowledge to best meet the needs of her son and still design a stylish space. 
                   Below are some of the furniture selections for her house that is under construction:

Selections for the Master Bedroom

Selections for Family Room

Selections for Study

Well the presentation got started and her first response was that she didn't like the style. She mostly liked one of the two furniture pieces and was unhappy with the other options. This presentation allowed me to see what her style was and to press onward. This process also was a time for her to also figure out her own style and then allow us to better suit her needs and accomplish what we could help her with. In a way, we discovered along with her what style she liked. In the presentation, she got excited to see what I had put together for her son and was happy with some of the ideas and solutions that I gave her. Overall, I learned a lot and look forward to the challenge of finding pieces to fit her style and needs.

Regency Royale

Today I was able to visit the Regency Royale showroom after work and enjoyed myself a lot. The main manager stopped by at Bengt's and invited me to come see the showroom. It sounded like a good opportunity so I went. They have so many different options and were able to give me a little tour through some of their main products line. The people that work there are super helpful and knowledgeable.

                             Check out their website for more info: www.regencyroyale.com

Regency Royale Showroom

Different Options for Rug Patterns

They had lots of fun textured wall coverings that I would want to
use someday on  a project. This is a printed cork wall covering. 

YAY! & OH NO!

This weekend involved traveling to Cache Valley to remedy my car less situation. This post will involve two main parts yay and oh no! The YAY involves what you see below these words. I got a good deal on the beauty of a car. Love it and it so much more reliable than my last car. I don't have to fill the engine with oil because it leaked out the night before. 

oh yeah baby!!!

But it seems with my streak of bad luck throughout this internship I wasn't supposed to drive my new car home. The drive home involved a rock about the size of a baseball hitting my rear passenger tire & shredding it to pieces.  This is the Oh No part of this post! When this happened this was also the first time ever driving this car on the freeway. So once again, I go home car less but grateful to my great Mom for all of her help during this time. 

NOT GOOD  :'[

Itchy

On top of car trouble my body has been having an allergic reaction to some unknown thing around me. It causes my eyes to swell up and I itch like crazy on my body. I felt really bad but took Thursday off and worked on things from home for Bengt today since I'm itchy and car less at the presence time. I finished up the revised drawings of the kitchen for Bengt and sent them in to him. I introduced the idea of using a drop box account at work and Bengt loved the concept. He was constantly saying the first day, "oh I just dropped it into Dropbox or it is in the drop box account." He is a fun person to work with and makes me feel really comfortable to make suggestions or comments when I feel that I should. Hopefully the next time I write, my weird allergic reaction will be a thing of the past. 

Thanks Steve for the introduction to the greatness of Dropbox!

Coffered Ceilings

I am currently working on a project with some incredible architecture. I am working on the great room that ranks above many great rooms that I have entered. It has two grand entrances with columns and arches to grab your attention. I get to design the fireplace wall and come up with different options for the client to view.       I also get to design the coffers on the ceiling. I found some really fun and creative ideas for a coffered ceiling. Below are some images I found from my study abroad experience of last summer to get my brain moving of some fun ceiling pattern ideas...

Here is also a link on youtube that I found to help explain about the process of building a coffered ceiling. I will give out a warning that it is a little cheesy and long but kind of informative. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIypJv5lMPs

Goodbye to a Good Friend

A story to begin my crazy Monday morning...
I was on my way to my sister's house in Clinton on Sunday and merging onto the freeway when my car decides to decelerate instead of accelerate when I push on the gas pedal. Scary! I weighed my options while my car also was shaking pretty hard at close to 40 mph. Luckily, I was able to pull to the side and put on my emergency lights. I went over my options and came to the conclusion to start my car again and see what happened. It started and the engine began to shake again so I went back to where I started. Now on Monday, I took the car in to a local transmission shop and got an estimate and technician to look at it. His diagnosis wasn't what I was hoping for. He said I would need a complete overhaul and it would cost close to 1700.00. Ouch!!! With my current income status at $0.00 an hour this was some scary news to hear. But life still keeps moving whether or not you would rather be standing still or in the fetal position on the floor. Haha :) So after I was able to get the car looked at and I went into work, Bengt is so great and helpful with this whole situation. Got there later and the day flew by with many things to work out in my mind. I am so grateful for the many people that assisted me through this crazy day and whatever would be ahead of me.  

Don't let this picture fool you.... a bad transmission is hiding under that shiny hood.   

Soon I will have to say goodbye to this friend/car. We survived most of high school & college together. 

First Week Done

Well it is finally Friday.... I worked on the kitchen layout some more in Revit and picked out some fabric and lighting options for another client. It is crazy that my first week has already flown by. This opportunity makes me excited for when school will be over and I will be able to have a job like this to go to every day. This is why you go to school, so that you can live your dream every day and not just go to work every day. Now for the weekend... Yay!!!

Day 3...

A new day begins and brings with it my first client meeting. It was a great experience to be apart of and see how Bengt as the designer reacted with some pretty harsh comments. They didn't like the layout of the kitchen and said it was very impractical among other things. The meeting turned into all of the things they didn't like about the plan and new things that they wanted but thought they had told Bengt already. It was a good thing for me to witness because it taught me that communication between the designer and the client is so important. This meeting showed me that sometimes you will just have to start at square one again and start a new design even if you are advanced in the design. It was an interesting meeting ending with the husband looking at me and saying something along the lines of  "Use this _ _ _ _* as fertilizer for something better for us to see next time." I thought it was hilarious & made me want to laugh but I felt that I should keep a serious face while he offered his advice to me. After he 
left, Bengt also offered some advice to me that made the both of us laugh for a while.  I also met the other intern that I work with, his name is Alex. 


                          Some inspiration pictures that I used for the new kitchen layout:

If you would like a raised dishwasher in your kitchen: a good solution is to put it in the corner
 instead of  having something ugly happening to the surface and line of your counter-top. 

Waste of space above.... don't do this.

Or you can work it into the island shape if plumbing allows...

This is when it "clicked" in my mind. 

Switch out the oven for the raised dishwasher and use a range.

*For those younger readers : )

Day 2...

After the first day I woke up in the morning and remembered that I hadn't flipped the open sign to closed when I had locked up the studio. Well, my brain helped me out but it was a little too late to do anything about it.  The most important thing was that I had locked the doors. Day two began with Bengt receiving some files from an architect that were all Revit files. He had heard of Revit and the things that it could do but didn't have it on his laptop. Guess who did? Me! I was able to open the files and was able to get started on the project. It was a condo remodel and we were helping the clients redo the layout of the kitchen and adding some custom built-ins in the master bedroom. The clients were coming tomorrow to meet with Bengt to finalize some of their choices. I also got to meet one of the other two interns that would be working with me during the summer. His name is Max and will be with me on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday's. They are both from LDS Business College and it is interesting to learn about the differences from their design program compared to the stellar program at USU. I also was able to pick out some lighting options for another client too. It was a great second day!

Yay for Revit!

The Big Day

The first day of my internship began after the Memorial weekend holiday. I was mostly excited all weekend to begin but by the time Monday night hit I was feeling the nerves.  Early on Tuesday morning I got a phone call that woke up my tired body really quick. I grabbed my phone not fully awake and glanced at who was calling me. It read, "Bengt Erlandsson." I went back and forth about answering the phone call or letting it go to messaging. While I made my decision in my sleepy state the phone stopped ringing and went to messaging. I didn't want to speak to my boss for the first time since my interview with a tired morning voice.  Anyway, besides being wide awake after the phone call I was able to call him back after a view exercises of my voice while in the shower.  Haha :) He was just informing me that he wouldn't be at the studio/showroom because he was being filmed for a commercial at the University of Utah. So, I got ready and waited till I could leave and not be there too early. I got there close to 1:00 and was able to talk with Bengt and learn more about his company. He had me go through the material's library which you can see below. I wrote down the vendors that were common suppliers for his designs. I was a pretty happy girl to sit and look through amazing catalogs filled with fabulous furniture, materials, and fabrics. To end the short first day, I got to lock up and was excited to begin the next day of my new summer adventure.

This is on a clean day...

On a normal work day :) 

The Summer of Stacie...

So to begin this blog I will give you a little background on where I am spending my summer for my internship. I had an interview right before I left for my adventures in Michigan & Chicago for school and got the job the day of the interview. I am so happy with how things have worked out for me this summer.  I am working for Bengt Erlandsson Interior Design in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here is a link to his companies website which will give you a better understanding about his company and what he does.  It is http://bengtdesigns.com/. 

Bengt Erlandsson
a.k.a
My Boss & Great Designer

Where I am working!!!

Showroom 

Showroom

Materials Library