Flourish Spaces owner and founder Stevie McFadden shares her stories, thoughts, and ideas on how to create a home that you love.

At the recommendation of my friend, I recently listened to a conversation about grief between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper on Cooper's new podcast called, All There Is. It is a beautiful, thought-provoking conversation that is at its core, about love. Remembering his recently deceased mother, Colbert observed that the act of loving anyone is physical.

I happened to be listening to this as I was doing the dishes and folding laundry and other mundane chores and I was reminded of how much laundry my mom folded (and I probably threw on the floor), the lunches she packed (that we most likely complained about), the rooms she cleaned (that we definitely trashed). The physical act of loving takes many forms: cooking, breaking bread with extended family, sipping cocktails with friends, spooning on the couch to binge watch trashy television, and yes, doing laundry and cooking and cleaning. In these gestures, how we love becomes inextricably intertwined with where we love.

This is a picture of my great grandfather, peeling potatoes for the family lunch that happened each Sunday. He is jammed into the world’s smallest breakfast room of my Nana’s house - in a kitchen that remained untouched from the time she installed her pristine St. Charles Cabinets in the 60s until the house was sold in the late nineties. This picture graces the walls of each member of my family’s kitchen today.

The kitchen seems to get all of the attention on the stage where moments that turn into memories play out. It’s the heart of the home, the place where everyone gathers, yada yada ya. And maybe a den or a great room gets second billing. But what if we put the spotlight on some of the forgotten parts of our homes that provide important support? I’m guessing those spaces are not the beneficiaries of much attention or many decorating dollars.

Funny enough, my friend who recommended this podcast has been upgrading some of the spaces in her home that might otherwise be considered dead spaces. She has let us transform them into beautiful and more utilitarian places.

Starting first with a laundry room where there was no actual “room” for laundering the endless amounts of dirty clothes that three children and a husband can generate. What she did have was a large, up until then, useless second floor hallway at the end of her old row house. We maximized the space with cabinets, shelving, hooks and baskets for the way she wanted to do the laundry for her family on an on-going basis, while making it feel as pretty and intentional as the rest of her home.

The Spruce says these laundry rooms will make doing laundry a joy. I am not going to go that far and attach that claim to our design.
*Two Carrara Marble waterfall counters conceal the family washer and dryer along with four sorting baskets. A drying rack is disguised as a drawer while hanging clothes air out behind upper cabinets.*

My friend also generously welcomes people into her home, hosting work socials, family gatherings, and friends for various occasions. So, most recently, we took the space under her stairs and transformed it into a beautiful bar area. We updated her vintage sideboard with some funky hardware, added some custom wallpaper from local designer, Sarah Rowland, (Leo, printed on grasscloth), and installed black fishbone sconces (Available through The Collective). Collectors of great art, she and her husband selected a new piece from Sarah Irvin, to go above the sideboard. Voila - a beautiful bar that attracts you and makes you linger.

Cut crystal knobs on the sideboard are swapped for amorphous, oversized glass bulbs for a more playful look. By installing sconce lights, we kept the benefit of mood lighting without taking up valuable bar space. At first blush, the space under the stairs may seem small…but there is actually a lot of space with those tall ceilings. By taking the paper up the slant of the ceiling, it draws the eye up to take advantage of that volume.

*Sarah Irvin,* Connect the Dots 999, 2022, Archival Ink on paper. Irvin’s explores cultural and social significance of mothering as a practice of care

During the month of February, a month where we are constantly reminded to show our love to sweethearts and gal pals and classmates, how about showing a little love to the neglected spaces in our home? We would love to hear from you - DM us on instagram or drop us a comment on the spaces in your home where you do the daily work of loving others. And of course, please come by and see us in our space for a little dose of inspiration!

Stevie

February Event: ART NIGHT

We are currently featuring artwork by Richmond abstract artist, Dandridge “Dede” Davis www.dandridgeart.com in the form of original paintings, textiles and wallpaper.

Please join us for an evening to meet and greet with Dede, shop and celebrate her work!

Thursday, February 23rd, 6:30 - 8:30PM

Wine, beer and light bites will be served

RSVP

What We’re Learning

We kicked off a very exciting new project this month that sent us down a research rabbit hole learning all about the British Arts + Crafts movement. In the late 19th century, the movement put an emphasis on how things were made, valuing the use of natural materials and designs inspired by nature. We found ourselves rekindling our love affair with William Morris and his designs which live on in impossibly beautiful wallpapers and fabrics. Here is a sneak peek of our jumping off point for this project:

A Forgotten Favorite

Imagine our delight when a shipment of items that we had forgotten were ordered so very long ago at Fall Market arrived last week! Totally worth the wait. These beauties are so fabulous that we almost hate to put anything in them to detract.
sidenote: Don’t they look great paired with these original art pieces by Richmond artist, Theodora Miller?!!

Meet Allison

Allison Mahaney has joined us as our Showroom Director and brings with her over 20 years of experience working with some of the best home interior retail brands. Her passion is helping people create beautiful and meaningful spaces. She has a wonderful ability to see design challenges in a fresh light and combine elements in creative and delightful ways! Come into the shop (shameless plug) Tues-Fri 11-6 and Sat 11-4 and let her help you find that perfect piece to complete your project!

Comedic Colour

I love this old SNL clip, spoofing Farrow & Ball, almost as much as I love the 11 new *Colour*s they’ve added to their collection (the first new introductions in 4 years).
Be still my heart…Bamboozled!

VIEW SNL CLIP

Flourish Spaces & Collective Owner, Stevie McFadden, shares her inspirations, motivations and intentions for the year ahead.

Everything you need to Flourish!

With the chaos of the holidays comfortably in the distance of the rearview mirror, I am zooming in on 2023, trying to focus on what I hope to accomplish and who I hope to continue to become in the year ahead.

At the top of that list is a desire for more space. I don’t mean an upgrade in the size of my accommodations; I’m talking about spaciousness in my days and in my mind, that is typically a pipe dream by 10:00 am on Monday. The number of obligations and to-dos grossly outweighs the time available for doing.

As someone whose craft is making beautiful and functional spaces, I am not unfamiliar with maximizing within an established and often constrained footprint of a room or home. More often than not, the challenge set before us is to design a room that serves multiple purposes while looking ready for a magazine shoot at a moment’s notice. The ideal answer is to dedicate four different rooms to all of the various needs, but the reality is that we have one room to work with. In these instances, our approach is to Clear Out and Curate.

CLEAR OUT

This first step is critical. We take inventory of what we are working with and strip away what we don’t need .. We’re left with the foundation to which we add everything else. So that foundation has to be solid and support the people who use the space. This kind of addition by subtraction requires a level of ruthless inquiry — purging the things we don’t need, don’t love, don’t know what to do with or somehow don’t “fit”.

CURATE

Once we are rid of the visual noise, we can creatively curate what remains: organizing, grouping, repurposing, and rearranging to make a little more space for what is to come and what’s possible.

How many of us, after putting away the holiday décor, felt a need to purge, tidy, organize or deep clean? There is something in us that understands the condition of our exterior space greatly impacts our interior state.

We are feeling those same urges here in our design studio and shop. Too often I also fall prey to thinking that making my space beautiful means adding new and improved fixtures or decorative elements. But the secret to beautiful design is in the editing of details. We are starting small with what we have, making sure we have a foundation that supports what we need, and then we’ll see how small changes and additions let our environment take new shape in very intentional ways.

My hope is that shaping my environment with this approach will inspire me to clear out and curate other parts of my life – activities, expectations, relationships and obligations – to create a stable foundation for what is to come and what’s possible in 2023.

-Stevie

January Event

Join us on Thursday, January 26th at 6:30pm at 221 East Clay St. to discuss the intersection of design and organization with Kristin Ziegler from Minima Organizing. Embrace the urge to clear out and curate with the ruthless eye of a designer! We’ll serve mocktails from Point 5, Richmond’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop and toast the New Year!

Project Spotlight

Out with the old and in with the new! This week, RiverWest Contractors started demoing a fan house kitchen to make way for a new space that we designed to meet the unique needs of their family, be a great spot for entertaining and reflect their fun and funky style. Here is a sneak peek of the renderings we created for our clients. Follow us on Instagram @flourishspaces to watch our progress!

Color Crush

Maybe it’s the dark days of winter but we’ve been repeatedly drawn to the soft and light glow of Benjamin Moore’s Head Over Heels. It is the best non-pink blush we’ve set eyes on. It pairs well with Terracotta and is the perfect compliment to a deep blue. We used it most recently with this combo and it is anything but girlie!

Where We Love