Last weekend, I had the opportunity to work with my friend and professional photographer, Eisaku, on shooting our living room at the condo. I have gotten repeated requests from friends, family and blog viewers to showcase the room since posting pictures of the feature wall. After failed attempts to take pictures of the room myself with my camera, I enlisted the help of Eisaku to photograph the space. Eisaku is truly a renaissance man; graduate of Berkeley, a classical violinist (he plays with the Marin orchestra), photographer/model and a fully licensed practitioner and partner in a thriving Eastern Medicine clinic in Walnut Creek, CA. And did I mention that some of his work was recently featured on Good Morning America? Honestly, I was lucky to snag him for half a day to do the shoot, but fortunately for all his talents he possesses, he isn’t a great cook (go figure!) so with the lure of a stellar brunch, baked treats and a fridge full of leftovers to feed him for a week, I was able to book a date.
Not wanting to waste Eisaku’s time, I decided to limit the shoot to three things: (1) head shots of myself (to come shortly), (2) shots of the living room and (3) shooting a holiday tablescape I created so I can start a pseudo-portfolio. People keep saying that the things I do at the house are good enough for editorial work, so I decided to put it to the test and see what the outcome was. I still need to do a few tweaks to those pictures, but I will be sharing those also very briefly.
However, without further adieu, here is our living room circa December 2010!
And them for some laughs, I deposited myself into some shots ala those design magazine editorials I dream of styling one day…….
Then I decided to up the drama ever so slightly…..
Don’t you love the “dreamy” far off expression, I am trying to give for the camera above? I was trying to “smize” for the camera while channeling Rue Magazine and a bit of Elle Decor for good measure….did it work?
So that is my humble living room in the house? I again want to give a big shout out to Eisaku who I worked like a dog for a better part of 5 hours on the shoots. I hope he has forgiven me because there are a few more concepts I have in mind that I want to test! You can see more of Eisaku’s work on Flickr at www.flickr.com/etphotoworks or you can contact him directly at etphotoworks@gmail.com.
I am quite proud of how the room looks and am excited to share the tablescape shots with you! As usual, I love hearing from you, so drop me a line at lifeoutloudmail@gmail.com or leave a comment.
Courtney Out Loud 
The “far off look.” Is what does it for me! Great!
love the shots but would have love to see what the ceiling look like .. and if i may comment further ..u seem to love bright multi colours @ your top jacket outfit ,However i don’t see that expressed in your living room colours .seems a bit dull with greys and blues and creams but then again thats my opinion … and I’m not a professional.anyway i wish i had a room like that , clean , neat , tidy , a place for everything..
Ouch. But hey to each their own. I chose to keep a neutral palate in the living room since it’s visible from every room in the house. It allowed me to have more bold color choices in the private areas of the house. However, the room is full of color from the pillows to the velvet chairs to the accessories. Add in the texture from the materials chosen and I am quite happy with the overall appeal of the room. I do want to say thank you for your opinion as it’s always good to hear critiques because they allow me to see projects through someone else’s eyes. In doing so it forces me to think through my design decisions and see if they were the right choices for the project. Hope you come back and look through the other projects and give your opinions! Happy holidays….
Gorgeous! I love it! Hope to see it in person some day. Def. magazine worthy!
I like to think of that expression as “I’m thinking deep, designing thoughts because all of this just flows from my fingertips…” Hilarious counterpoint to your actual posts about the projects themselves (glue burns anyone?).
Crap, I didn’t actually say anything about the room. I love the blues. The texture in the carpet adds such a huge appeal because it gives you that I-want-to-roll-on-it feeling and expands on touch-me feeling of the velvet. Ok, obviously I rarely talk about design (just look at it) so I hope this makes sense.
WOW! This room is beyond gorgeous!
I love this! You have a sophisticated taste and the space is well thought out. It looks like a million bucks! It must have been hard to limit yourself to the color palette, but it really works. The first commenter might have forgotten that living rooms are really expensive, last a long time, and you are not the only one living in your house. Ann
Beautiful! May I ask, what are the paint colors you chose fo your walls and accent wall, which I am assuming was stenciled?
Hi Desiree – there is a hyperlink to all that information if you click the words highlighted words “feature wall” in the post. Thanks for the compliment!
you had me at “smize”
i’m forever a follower!
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Good job! I am from the Bay Area also. Hope to meet you someday. Keep your ears and eyes open to: Refresh Your Rooms!
What a beautiful room! Love those chairs and the color palette. So serene and elegant.
Your living room is GORGEOUS! Seriously, to die for. I’m so in awe. And I so agree with everyone who has said that you could do editorial work, those shots looked like they were straight out of a magazine!
PS I love that we have the same name!
i need to know where you got those gorgeous blue chairs!! they are exactly what im looking for