Getaways | Lori May Interiors

April 15, 2013

Guess where we went?

If you follow me on instagram or facebook, this will not be a surprise at all. Last week was spring break and we took the girls to…

…the Grand Canyon! What an amazing place. It is truly awe inspiring to stand there and look over the edge at something that has been there for millions of years. We joked about the first explorer who came upon it. Can you imagine? No cell phones, no mail, no way to share this phenomenal discovery!

It is so hard to describe the massiveness of what you see there standing at the edge. I love this picture of Eric. Not only does it show you how cute my hubby is, but it also helps you see the vastness of the Grand Canyon. Amazing!

After our visit to the Grand Canyon, we made our way to Sedona. While I enjoyed the Grand Canyon, Sedona was my favorite. It was a perfect day and our first stop was a ride on the Pink Jeep Tour. Eric made these reservations and I’ll be honest, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

This is the “hill” that we had just driven (slid) down right before the jeep behind us. We were actually sitting at a 45 degree angle while the driver told us a few interesting facts. My oldest loved it, my youngest covered her eyes for most of the ride.

This view at the top was well worth the rough ride, though.

This is right before we left to go home. We were all tired, but so happy that we came. If you haven’t had the chance to visit the Grand Canyon or Sedona, AZ, be sure to add them to your bucket list. You will not be disappointed.

I’ll be back to the business of design this week, so stay tuned to instagram and facebook at Lori May Interiors for a sneak peek into my week! I’m thrilled to be the keynote speaker at the Designer’s Workroom Council annual meeting this Thursday. It’s sure to be a fun day! If you’re in the Atlanta area, I’d love to see you!

by Lori | Filed Under: Family, Getaways | 3 Comments

February 20, 2013

My week in pictures

Hello again friends. When I checked in with you last week, I mentioned that there was a lot going on. Today I thought I’d share a few pics with you, some work and some personal. Enjoy!

Sherry and I took apart our Inspiration House space on Tuesday. It was certainly bittersweet. Hard to believe that what was once this…

…became this, in an hour. Such a wonderful experience. So many wonderful people. I was honored to be a part.

After work, came play, and we were off to spend some much needed time away.

We headed to the NC mountains to stay in Angela’s cottage. The kids stayed back at the cottage with my parents and Eric and I toured the Biltmore.

If you have the opportunity to visit this American “castle”, please do. I’ve been before and each time, I discover something new. I only wish they let you take pictures inside. :(

This was my favorite shot. I have no idea how old this wisteria vine is, but it’s a beauty. If you follow me on Instagram and Vine, you saw many more pics and my first ever videos. You can find me at Lori May Interiors. I’d love to hear from you!

We were able to make a quick stop here after our Biltmore tour.

Not real sure what these were used for, but I loved the colors.

I still regret that I didn’t get these stars. I think they would have looked great in Kate’s room.

Pins and bouys, anyone?

Sherry, I thought of you when I saw this fab brass propeller. Perfect accessory for a bookshelf. At $75, it was a bit rich for me.

Love the sparkle and shine.

Great use of old yard sticks.

One of my favorite chairs.

Great lamp.

Back to the Biltmore for just a second. Remember the shot of Eric and I at the beginning of this post. The bright blue clear sky? As we were leaving this is what we saw. I should have known something was about happen.

This is what happened. We woke up Saturday morning to this. My kids were ecstatic!

The day was spent doing this. So happy that my sweet nephews were able to join us too!

By Monday morning, this was the view as we headed back to Atlanta. I hope you all had a great week last week. I’m still getting back into the swing of things. Four day weeks are always hard for me. I’ll be sharing that master bedroom reveal that I told you about on Friday.

See you then!

by Lori | Filed Under: Bedrooms, Family, Getaways, My Projects, Shopping | 13 Comments

August 23, 2012

New blogger friends, a mountain show house and a bit of thrifting

If you’ve read this blog for any time at all, you know that I’m not a big thrifter. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I just tend to hoard items with grandiose plans and no actual completion. This past weekend was an exception, however. Why, you ask? Because there is no way to not enjoy thrifting and come home with a few goodies when you find yourself in the NC mountains with new and old (not old, old, you know what I mean) blogger friends.

Edie, Lisa, me, Sherry and Rhoda

The main reason for our trip, (Oh, who am I kidding? Who really needs a reason to go hang out in a beautiful cottage, talking about nothing but design with 4 other women who feel exactly the same way…) I sure don’t, but we did actually go up to see this year’s Cashiers Designer Showhouse.

It did not disappoint. They don’t allow photos inside, but here are a few of the outside. The inside was just as beautiful and the view was to die for.

I can really see myself sitting here, a glass of wine, the kids playing in the yard…Then I remember the $5,000,000 price tag. Oh well, it’s fun to dream.

Once we’d gotten our fill of $5,000,000 fabulousness, we moved on to the things we could afford.

Our first stop was the Tobacco Barn, which really was a tobacco barn for years, until the thrifting craze took over. If you follow me on instagram @lorimayinteriors you saw this and a few more photos on Saturday.

Here are a few of my finds.

Don’t you love the color of these? They were super heavy, but I’d love to see them on a bookcase or one as a door stop.

Yes, more chairs. I’ve decided I have a chair problem. But, just like this one that I wrote about a few weeks ago, I didn’t come home with these either. Really love the shape of the one on the right…

This lovely almost came home with me, but I decided it was too big (and too heavy). Lisa picked it up though, so if you shop her booth at Scott’s, it could be yours…

I’ve decided I need to do a post on horses. I just love them and I’m not sure why. It all started when I saw these gorgeous photographs at Scotts. I can’t seem to stop thinking about them. I really think I need one. (Not a real one, way too much trouble.)

And last, but not least, the things I did come home with, a box o’ books! Yes, that’s what it said on the side of the box along with the ridiculously low price tag. The marbled papers are so pretty and I do have plans for them. Hopefully, I’ll get to them and they won’t go into the thrifting graveyard that is my garage. I’ll keep you posted.

by Lori | Filed Under: Artwork, Getaways, Outdoor spaces, Shopping | 12 Comments

June 8, 2012

An instagram tour of Charleston

Okay, so I know I promised a different post for today, but we took a surprise trip to Charleston yesterday and I wanted to share my instagram photos with you. If you’ve never been to Charleston, you should certainly put this on your bucket list. It has some of the most beautiful homes that I’ve ever seen. And not to mention the food, which is where our tour starts…

Toast was our first spot for a delicious brunch.

Charlotte was thrilled with her breakfast favorite!

Next was a carriage ride tour of the city. This is where the fun begins! (My sweet nephew Jeremiah was less than thrilled with the ride, but he and Charlotte soon fell asleep and missed the majority of the ride.)

Love all the architectural details and the beautiful blue paint color.

The porches on the sides of the homes were once used to receive guests, especially during the heat of the summer.

Many of these doorways are “false” doors. They open up to the sitting porch of the home.

Gotta love the blue ceiling. They are everywhere in Charleston. The blue is called haint blue which was used by the early residents of Charleston to keep the evil spirits away.

I loved these shiny red doors. The windows were so clean that they look like mirrors.

One of Charleston’s quaint hotels.

These morning glories were so blue that they almost didn’t look real.

There are so many amazing churches. These gorgeous columns are actually brick covered with smooth stucco and painted to look like marble.

Another wonderful place to visit are the many old cemeteries. It’s fascinating to read about the people buried there.

I know this picture is a little wonky, but I had to lean out of the carriage to get it. I didn’t want to miss this gorgeous pink home.

This home was under going a major renovation. It’s so different from all of the others. It felt so sturdy, yet so beautiful.

And, last but not least, this is the most photographed home in Charleston. It sits right on the water. People were lined up to take photos of it. Can you imagine living here and having people look into your windows day and night? I can’t, but I guess that’s just part of living in one of the most beautiful homes in one of our most beautiful cities.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my instagram tour. If you’d like to see more photos, be sure to follow me on instagram at @lorimayinteriors. I love to take photos when we travel, but I also share photos of my daily shopping adventures for clients and of course, myself.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

by Lori | Filed Under: Entryways, Getaways, Outdoor spaces | 2 Comments

June 4, 2012

Hello from Hilton Head!

Hello there friends. Yes, I’m on vacation, but I feel like I’ve been neglecting you all so much that I wanted to pop in and show you the view from our gorgeous home here in Hilton Head. We are here with our extended family and looking forward to some rest and relaxation. Don’t worry, though, I’ve got a few things planned for you as well.

On Wednesday, I’ll take you on a tour of the beautiful neighborhood near our home here in Hilton Head and on Friday I’ll show you how to add a chic beach look to your home without it looking like The Salty Dog.

Have a great day and I’ll see you back here on Wednesday!

by Lori | Filed Under: Family, Getaways, Outdoor spaces | 2 Comments

May 21, 2012

What I’ve been up to lately…

Hi all,

I know that my blog posts have slowed to a crawl, but you guys are still on my mind constantly. Today, I thought I’d share a few photos from what I’ve been up to these last few weeks. I’ll be off the radar for another week or so. This week is the last week of school and I’ll be spending most of my time at my girls’ school and working on my existing and new client projects. I have so much to share with you all, but my girls come first right now. They are so excited about the last few days of school. It feels like there are parties every day! I know that many of you are doing the same thing this week, so enjoy and I’ll see you back here in a few!

Thought I’d share this with you first. This is what my desk looks like right now. Think I need to spend a little time here? But instead, I’ve been…

…here, doing a lot of…

…this, for…

…this sweet girl and…

…her phenomenal soccer team. We had the most amazing weekend ever and I can’t tell you how proud I am of these girls. They are warriors!

They may not have ended up with the final win, but they fought hard until the end and were great sports through it all.

We spent the weekend before here in Fountain Hills, AZ. We all went out to celebrate my fabulous mom in law’s birthday.

It was a great trip. We took a boat ride and watched bald eagles nesting. Charlotte thought that was pretty cool.

I’ve been incredibly blessed with several new design projects these past few weeks as well. I’m looking forward to sharing my new projects and the final pics of some projects that have been in the works for some time now. Here’s a sneak peek.

So, that’s what’s going on for me right now. How about you? Are you crazy with work, kids and life? You’ve gotta love it! I truly appreciate your patience. I’ll see you back here soon!

by Lori | Filed Under: Family, Getaways, My Home, My Projects, Offices | 9 Comments

May 2, 2012

Behind the scenes on HGTV Design Wars/Part 3

So, are you tired of this project yet? If so, you’ll be happy to know the blog will be back to normal next week. If not, here’s one more post on my behind the scenes experiences with Design Wars. But, before we get to that, I wanted to answer a couple of reader emails. A couple of you had asked about the other rooms that I designed for the show. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the kitchen/dining area or the foyer (the space they didn’t show on the episode). The way the show worked, each designer had a certain amount of time to do each space and once we were done filming, the crew sometimes began to break down our spaces before we could get photos. Another reader asked to see the before photo of the family room. I had to do a little searching, but I found one. The photo quality is really bad, but here it is.

What do you think? Pretty drastic change, isn’t it? It’s amazing the changes that can be made in just 1 week.

I promised you a look on the other side of the room. Here you go. Yes, I was putting the final touches on the space in a dress and heels the day of the reveal. The room was pretty much finished the morning of the reveal, but the director made me take out almost all of the accessories, so that they could make it appear that I was still working. While I was doing that, the crew was putting up the lighting both inside and outside.

Here are all of my accessories. The only thing missing here are the 30 members of the crew. Not sure where they were at this point.

There’s me walking back and forth with pillows as they film. The night before was a different story, just me and my amazing friends and family. I recruited anyone and everyone I could get to get this done in time! The stone fireplace took 4 days to install, so we did not start with everything else until the night before the reveal. It was crazy, but we did it.

Here’s Heidi. This project would have been completely impossible without her.

Eric and Heidi working on the gallery wall. Eric took the photos of the family that we used on the wall. They were beautiful and I’m not the least bit biased.

My girls. They watched way to many movies and ate way too much junk food that night!

By midnight, they were sleeping through everything.

By the next morning, we were tired, but so happy with the space. I hope you’ve enjoyed the behind the scenes posts. Thanks again for your amazing support. This experience has been phenomenal and I’ve loved every minute of it.

We’re off to Arizona this weekend to celebrate my mother in law’s 70th birthday. I’m so looking forward to some pool time and birthday cake. My friend Jen from At Home in the Northwest will be here on Friday with a fabulous tutorial, so be sure to stop back by.

Take care!

by Lori | Filed Under: Family, Getaways, Guest posts, LIving Room, My Projects | 3 Comments

April 6, 2012

What I found this week #12/The Nashville Edition

Hi all,

How are you? I have so enjoyed my blogging break, but it’s also nice to be back with you today. And, boy, do I have some fabulous finds this week! I spent last weekend in Nashville with my family. It was great to get away and do some shopping that wasn’t work related.

Let’s start with a wonderful surprise I discovered from Anthropologie.

Can you guess? This is Anthro’s new concept store. There are only 2 in the US so far and I would love to see one here in Atlanta!

Don’t you love it? It’s tiny by regular Anthro standards, but it only features accessories and shoes.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Anthro store without a green apple vintage settee. Don’t you love my model? Not sure where her shoes went…

Now, on to Flair Vintage Decor. This is a brand new shop on the West side of Nashville opened by my friend and fellow blogger, Caroline from A Flair for Vintage Decor. Caroline’s sense of style is just wonderful. She takes vintage finds, has them professionally painted white and resells them along with fabulous accessories in her little shop. Take a look at some of her latest finds.

I really wanted this bamboo bench, but, unfortunately for me, there was a hold ticket on it.

The stripes on the back wall of the shop add the perfect amount of texture to the neutral tones.

This console could be used in so many places, think entry hall, dining room or behind a sofa.

Caroline has some beautifully subtle accessories.

What a wonderful pop of color. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it’s my favorite shade of tangerine!

After visiting with Caroline, she sent me down the street to Holly’s lovely boutique. I thought I’d treat you to a few gorgeous outfits and accessories to finish off the Nashville edition of my weekly finds.

I can just picture myself on a beach somewhere in this outfit.

Holly has a wonderful selection of jewelry and handbags.

Fun red bag!

These bracelets would go with everything.

I loved this white bike in the window of Holly’s shop. Welcome spring! Holly has a fabulous promo that’s running through the weekend on two of her most popular blouses. A great price and free shipping. She’s retiring them to make room for other things. Check it out here.

Be sure and visit Flair and Holly’s the next time your in Nashville. Both shops are on my must visit list whenever I’m there. For those of you who can’t make it to Nashville, Holly is opening a new online shop soon. I’ll keep you posted!

Take care and have a great weekend! I’ve got big HGTV news on Monday!