I hired Rachel and her mom to design and style my living room/dining room and home office. I knew I wanted to be really involved in the process and DIY a bunch of stuff, but at the same time I needed guidance and some help reigning in my ideas! Rachel did just that! She looked at my pinterest and evaluated my space and helped pull together a moodboard for me, complete with paint colors and items to buy/diy! Then the hard labor came in… me + my in-laws took on a bunch of projects from painting the walls and cabinets, to switching out light fixtures, DIYing a linear chandelier, repainting some furniture, sewing new slipcovers for our tired dining chairs (that was all my mother-in-law), DIYing new closet doors, and DIYing Chevron curtains (more on that later)! The shopping was clearly the easy part! But honestly, it felt so good to put in the work to our home. It really makes it your own when you put your sweat in it!

With our projects and shopping complete, it was time for Rachel and Robin to come back to our place and style/decorate everything! This is the part that amazes me! It’s all about the little details and the arranging of pieces. I am working on getting better at styling but honestly it can be frustrating for me. I am a person who seems to create clutter wherever I go in my home, so to really step back, streamline and rearrange is a challenge! I was VERY thankful to be able to leave the finishing touches to the experts!

The other great thing is that Rachel was able to take a lot of the antique and vintage pieces that I inherited from my grandparents and put them throughout our home. It is because of my grandparents that we had the down payment for the home, for which I will always be so thankful. It feels very special to have their cherished antiques and decorative items in our own home. I know my grandma would love it!

Having a home I could be proud of has been a LONG time coming. It is literally a dream come true. I have always envied other photographers who met clients in their homes, and were able to show their clients beautiful  walls of canvas and print displays. I wished, hoped, and prayed that one day I could have a space that not only I’d be proud to show clients, but that my clients would find comfy, helpful and educational! I am excited to begin taking meetings in my home, and thankful I have a comfy, cozy, stylish atmosphere to really show my potential clients who I am and what I have to offer them. Having a office with a gallery wall allows me to show clients the different print options, and exactly why having your pictures live beyond the digital realm is so important! So… that was a long fancy way of explaining that from now forth all client meetings will take place in my home/home studio in Santa Barbara, CA!

And now without further ado..PICTURES!

I LOVE the plate wall, which mixes plates my grandparents had collected from around the world with a few vintage pieces that Rachel brought! Oh, and that is also my grandparents antique banjo barometer!

There are no words to describe how in love I am with my DIY crystal chandelier and DIY chevron curtains!

On the left - our adorable sitting area with painted side table! And on the right – a detail of our bookshelves, which are from Ikea. Rachel added a faux bois wallpaper backing to give them a little more personality and add a masculine touch to the room!

I am obsessed with our chair (the Cute as a Button Erin from World Market) and the chevron pillow made by Little House Frau. Rachel added an organic touch with this real bird’s nest and decorative eggs inside this glass dome!

LOVE this vignette on the coffee table (which is from World Market by the way).

The living room!

Without a doubt my favorite area of the room is my silhouette wall! My grandma had silhouettes of herself, my dad and me as a kid. I love the family tradition. I added to it by ordering some from Esty, and had one made of me, AJ and our 2 cats! It’s a little family tree. Hopefully we can add to this wall some day! I also adore the lamp which is from Urban Home…and the decanter, which is vintage Baccarat, inherited from my grandparents.

The antique desk and chair were also from my grandparents…antique finds which they brought home from a trip to England! The table and chair are so meaningful to me because I remember it being in their home and the stories they’d tell me about bringing it back from London. My mother-in-law recovered the cushion though since the old fabric was worn out. Voila, so antique and so modern all at once!

Cute vignettes…

The living room couch and pillows on the couch are courtesy of my favorite store EVER… West Elm! The throws are from Ikea.

And now for my home studio!!!!! I adore the gallery wall of my work… a nice mix of matted + framed prints and canvas gallery wraps! The desk is from Target, the chair is Ikea and the lamp is an antique (again, from my grandparents)!

I LOVE this little window bench… but my cats love it even more! The curtains are West Elm!

We DIY’d those closet doors (more on that in another post) and the other wall houses all my work stuff! The best thing is that there is enough room in here to set up a back drop for shoots if need be! It truly is my mini home studio!

I totally underestimated how inspiring it is to work surrounded by my favorite photos and magazine features! It pushes me to take it to the next level!

Voila! My home! We still need to decorate the master bedroom, the guest bath and the third bedroom, but this is quite the start! I can’t wait for you to come see it!

Credits:

Design – Madison Modern Home http://madisonmodernhome.com/

Furniture and Accessories – Ikea, West Elm, World Market, Urban Home, Target, Pampa, Little House Frau

Silhouettes – Aeryck De Sade

Paint Colors: Dunn Edwards: “Foil” (gray for living room), “Citron” (accent wall in living room), “Prime Pink” (home studio)

Everything Else – DIY’d by me or Antique/Vintage

You see my husband and I are moving to Santa Barbara! Santa Barbara, you ask! Why? What? How? Don’t you LOVE LA??

Let me explain. Yes, I LOVE LA. I love it like it is my family. But I do actually love my husband more. And as it turns out, this year my husband (who is a Santa Barbara native) got his dream job. The dream job he told me about just a few weeks after we began dating 7 years ago. Yep, and it’s in Santa Barbara. Womp womp womp. But… Santa Barbara is a LOVELY place! So I am very lucky actually

We also… BOUGHT A CONDO THERE! Yep! A lovely 3 bedroom condo! Of our very own! This is our first time being home owners so we are thrilled!

You may be wondering how the move will affect my clients. And really, once we get settled in it won’t change a thing! I will still be shooting weddings and engagements in LA, in addition to working in SB.

Very exciting stuff!

But… It’s also a little cray-cray stressful. We get our keys today and move this weekend. Then it’s practically Christmas + Hanukkah (we celebrate both) and then I leave to visit my dad in Texas for 8 days.

I want to let you know that I will not be in the office from today, Friday 12/16 until Tuesday 1/3/12.

I will still try to reply to emails, but they may be returned  much slower than usual. Additionally, I will not be editing images, scheduling shoots, mailing out discs/canvases/albums during this time. All such work will resume on January 3rd.

Thanks so much for your patience! I wish everyone Happy Holidays! And please stay tuned on the blog as I have scheduled some posts to entertain y’all in the interim!

xo,

Ashleigh

Thanks so much for your patience while I am away from the office!!!!!!

xoxo

Ashleigh

Also…regarding Tuesday Top 5… I’ve decided to discontinue that. Tears, I know! But Tuesdays are a hard day for me to blog workflow wise, plus I was only talking about food anyways. LOL! So Tuesday Top 5 will now become two separate weekly blog features– Foodie Fridays (hooray!) and random posts entitled Material Girl in which I’ll talk about all the material things I love! So that’s the story there!!

Okay….HAWAII TIME!!! Aloha and Mahalo!

Go check out Mandi + Dan’s love shoot on Ever Ours:

This week I will be sharing more gorgeous photos from this Lady and the Tramp inspired anniversary shoot but for now go take a peak at it on GWS:

The Festival Of Brides is an upscale bridal show and it will be happening this Saturday and Sunday at the LA Convention Center! If you have been anxious to meet me, or see my albums and work in person this is  a great chance! Also we will be running a special contest there which you definitely want to check out! Trust me!

What’s even better is that you can get FREE tickets to the show! Please click the http://www.festivalofbrides.com/free-ticket-prereg-la.php for show information, registration and free tickets.

I look forward to meeting you there!

AMP 97.1 Radio Station featured the Gaga Wedding on their blog:

Utah Bride picked up the shoot as well:

Martha’s Circle on Martha Stewart gave us a shout out:

And some brides on Project Wedding buzzed about our shoot too:

Bride Finds gave us a holla in their weekly recap in what was big in weddings this week!:

Thank you to everyone who let me know where they saw the shoot pop up! And thanks to everyone for your support! Love you all! xoxo!

First up, remember that fabulous Serra Plaza Brunch?! Well today it is featured on one of my favorite blogs Grey Likes Weddings!

Click here to see this Brunch Wedding Inspiration on Grey Likes:

Secondly, I was so very honored to be a part of a fabulous Lady Gaga Wedding Inspiration shoot…and today it’s featured on Wedding Chicks!!

Ever wonder what GaGa’s wedding will be like?! Click here to see our predictions: