OUTDOOR LIVING DESIGN CHALLENGE WINNERS & DESIGN CAMP GIVEAWAY!!

I am so grateful!! Thanks to your votes, two of my outdoor living design boards made it into the TOP 50 boards for the 'Inside-Out Design Challenge' at Olioboard. The design challenge judges, Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis, had to select their Top 3 picks from the Top 50 boards, meeting the requirements of using 5 Hayneedle products, and my board, Zig Zag Gazebo won FIRST PLACE!!! woo-hoo!!! (YES - I'm excited!!) As I mentioned in a previous post when the challenge began, I hadn't been on Olioboard since holiday - nor have I entered any contests or challenges (also since holiday) so winning the Hayneedle $1000 Shopping Spree feels fantastic! Congrats also to Olioboard members, Robbie and Tabitha for winning tickets to attend Lori & Kelli's Design Camp & Workshop, coming up on July 29 - 31 during Las Vegas Summer Market! Here are the Top 3 winning boards selected by the judges:

Browse through all the boards entered at Olioboard to get ideas and inspiration to refresh & renew your outdoor living area for this Summer! 

See the other boards I entered plus read my previous post about the challenge and its requirements at 

Outdoor Living Design Challenge Sponsored by Hayneedle & Design Camp at Olioboard!

Although I'd love to get four new (upholstered) dining chairs, I'm giving my $1000 shopping spree to the hubs (aka Chef Jeff) to get a new grill, just in time for summer (unless I can win the "Great Grill Giveaway" I just entered, happening at Hayneedle, now through June 13!!) Our grill has been road hard and Jeff has done many replacements + repairs to it - A new grill is long overdue, especially with all the grilling we've done in Florida and living here in AZ.  Since I won first place for the Olioboard contest, I'm doing (my first!) giveaway with the other part of my prize...

I'm giving away my winning ticket to attend Design Camp this summer in Las Vegas! I am attending the summer market, and I was invited to attend Design Camp as a guest - so I'm paying it forward by giving away my ticket I won from the Olioboard Challenge to you! In 10 days, I'll select the winner at random, after entries complete these 5 simple tasks:

1. Subscribe to my blog, Focal Point Styling.

2. Follow / Join the blog, Focal Point Styling.

3. Like Interior Design Camp on Facebook. (Go here)

4. Like Focal Point Styling on Facebook. (Go here)

5. Leave a comment on this blog post of why you'd like to attend Design Camp!

Congrats to all who participated, to the voter winners and again to the top winning boards selected by the judges - many thanks to you Lori & Kelli!

 Thank you also for stopping by - and possibly joining me here on the blog and Facebook! Good Luck and I look forward for the chance to meet you in real life at Design Camp this Summer!!

Note: 10 day period from today May 27 - June 5. I'll blog post winner on or before Monday, June 9, 2014.

Outdoor Living Design Challenge Sponsored by Hayneedle & Design Camp at Olioboard!

There is a fun & new Design Challenge happening at Olioboard! The challenge is sponsored by Hayneedle + Lori Dennis, Inc. for Interior Design Camp. All you have to do to enter is create your own outdoor living design board, utilizing five pieces from the Hayneedle Outdoor Living set, (set selections picked by Olioboard's CEO, Sheilah MacSporran) and add your board entry to the challenge. Enter the contest or vote for your favorite design boards - Once Daily - Now thru May 23. After the votes are tallied, and the Top 50 Boards meeting the rule qualifications for the Inside-Out Contest on Olioboard will become eligible for the first place prize: a $1000 shopping spree from Hayneedle PLUS (and this is the big win!!) receive a ticket to attend this summer's Interior Design Camp with Lori Dennis & Kelli Ellis! 

I haven't been on Olioboard since holiday time, and this contest was exciting to learn about. Although I've entered but not won a chance to attend other design camps, I'd especially like to go to this camp because it's being held at Las Vegas World Market during Market Week (a design event on this side of the country! yay!!). I had attended LVMKT Winter Market - and loved it(see my recap video too!) But now that winter is FAR behind us, it's time to get outside and enjoy outdoor living. Here are some of my Outdoor Living boards I entered in the contest - taking on the perspective of a homeowner or a consumer creating a 3D board, plus a merchandising board to shop the look featuring the 5 key elements & pieces from Hayneedle I included in by board designs...

To View & Vote - Click here: A WALK IN THE PARK

Tis the season to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors - Taking a walk in the park is a beautiful place to start inspiration for your outdoor living space.

To View & Vote - Click here: A WALK IN THE PARK HN5

OUTDOOR LIVING - SMALL SPACE 5

From park inspiration, include these 5 key pieces into outdoor living space - even if it's a small space: 

1. A comfortable outdoor ottoman to kick your feet up onto.

2. Bold stripes

3. Fun patterns to mix.

4. Comfortable conversation area.

5. Extra seating, or even a bistro for sipping morning coffee at.

 To View & Vote - Click here: SPRING SPLENDOR

Create an outdoor dining & entertaining area for your deck or patio.

To View & Vote - Click here: SPRING SPLENDOR HN5

OUTDOOR LIVING - ENTERTAINING 5

Include these 5 key elements into outdoor living space - great for entertaining:

1.Garden stools can add pattern & texture + become extra seating in a pinch.

2. An outdoor dining table - Rounds are great for small square spaces.

3. Bring pattern outside with outdoor textiles such as pillows.

4. Just like you do inside, mix wicker finishes - seats vs tables - to break up a "matched set" look.

5. Soften hard edges of pergolas with outdoor curtain panels. Here, I chose white to pop among the greens and wood.

Finish off the area with interesting containers for plants (bringing the garden to your deck or patio) - not to mention: be sure to include a great grill for all those delicious summer recipes you've been pinning all winter!

To View & Vote - Click here: ZIGZAG GAZEBO

My board is not a copy by any means, especially when trying to use more specific items featured in the Hayneedle Outdoor Living set on Olioboard. The TRUE inspiration for my "ZigZag Gazebo" actually came from a design showhouse in Atlanta I saw featured in my stream on Facebook.

ABSOLUTELY LOVE this outdoor space! The Ultimate Cabana, designed by Lance Jackson & Parker Kennedy for the Atlanta Symphony Showhouse (more about the showhouse and this space in an upcoming post!)

To View & Vote - Click here: ZIG ZAG GAZEBO HN5

Even if the lattice look isn't for you, substitute for a gazebo tent - Customize your canopy top with a scallop edge valance.

 

Gazebo available at Hayneedle - or locally at Home Depot, Lowes, or Target.

While at Hayneedle, also be sure to enter their Great Outdoor Giveaway!

 LOVE this square scallop valance!

Not a board I entered - I just created for fun, but great to show the merging of fashion & decor!

OUTDOOR LIVING - POOLSIDE 5

Include these 5 key elements into outdoor living space - perfect poolside:

1. Add mirrors outside to help create depth & luxury (especially when framed in gold!).

2. If you love a pattern inside, you'll also love it outside and create a natural flow from the inside-out.

3. Don't fear whites outdoors: they only get naturally brighter from the sun.

4. Break up B&W patterns with a crisp color splash of green.

5. Create privacy, shade, and drama outdoors with outdoor curtains, which when done in multiples can create a soft curtain wall, even behind lattice work.

The contest prize at Olioboard for Inside-Out get even better since the summer design camp will be held at Las Vegas World Market, during Summer Market Week plus one of the guest speakers on Day 1 will be Sheilah from Olioboard!

 

LVMKT SUMMER July 27 - 31 - Visit site here for seminars, book signing events, networking cocktail parties and new product + showroom launches! It was a wonderful event for winter and I'm sure the summer one will be even better!

 Design Camp July 29 - 31 - Visit site here to get the camp agenda!

The judges selecting the winning board(s) from the Top 50 boards in the Inside-Out Outdoor Living design contest on Olioboard will be Design Camp Co-Founders Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis!

Whether you create your own board, or visit Olioboard to view and vote for your favorite designs, it can become another source of outdoor inspiration ideas for your own home - with pinable boards you can save, plus share your faves via Facebook and Twitter. 

Thanks for stopping by - and if you voted, THANK YOU - I greatly appreciate your votes!

FABULOUSLY FESTIVE - HOLIDAY VIRTUAL ROOM DESIGNS AT HOMES.COM

It's been a while since I've participated in a challenge at Olioboard -- but, Thursday I created a few Holiday Style boards for a new sponsored challenge! Olioboard teamed up with Homes.com to create the Fabulously Festive - Virtual Room Design Contest! The rules included incorporating at least one decorative item created by the Homes.com blogger network, already pulled together in a set on Olioboard. Designing the boards for the challenge definitely helped to bring on the Christmas spirit. Since I was recently contracted to create a pin profile for a very traditional lifestyle brand Hadley Court (more about that later!) - my virtual room designs are a little more traditional in style, except one: Winter Greetings. Here are the four festive boards I created for the design contest, which you can vote on. Just click the link below the boards you'd like to vote on to visit Olioboard.com...

View and Vote for: Winter Greetings

Winter Greetings is more my personal holiday style I've created here in our Arizona home. Over the weekend, I dismantled my Fall living room and transformed it to a look very similar to this virtual room -- which is one of the great features about using Olioboard to create virtual rooms. You can see our home for the holidays at:  Holiday Home Tour

View and Vote for: Winter Gathering

Although I had created this roomboard last year (See at: Wine & Dine) it was a great starting point to decorate a virtual room for Christmas, just as a real-life home would be. I had fun mixing the buffalo check chairs and other plaid accents, like the scarves tied onto the top hat wreaths - which makes this virtual room fun & festive!

 View and Vote for: Cozy Christmas 

So true - Everything old is new again - Although this room may look like the 90's, the plaid club chairs and sofa are Ralph Lauren, the black shade lamps and gold mirror are from 1stdibs, and the deer antler chandelier is from Lamps Plus...

 View and Vote for: Festive Feast

 The plaid focal point over the fireplace was the perfect choice from the Homes.com blogger network set on Olioboard! I cropped it to be oval & framed it - Lovely virtual space to enjoy an after dinner Port! 

 Your votes count! They help place the Top 50 boards to qualify for an opportunity to win Visa Gift Cards from Homes.com. Guest Judge Courtney Whitmore from Pizzazzerie will select the The Top 3 boards as winners of the contest! Last week I learned the hubs may be getting a new store, and we'd be relocating to North Carolina by January (fingers crossed!)!! Winning a Visa Gift card could sure come in handy for a move - or even now with the holidays!

Thank you for taking the time to view my boards, check out the challenge, and vote for your faves too! You can vote once daily on your favorite room designs (over 144 entries so far!) or create a room of your own by joining Olioboard and creating a free account. The voting period for the Fabulously Festive Virtual Room Challenge is now until December 12!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You & Congrats To The Olioboard Challenge Winners!

MANY sincere THANK YOU's to all who had voted on my "Virtual Visuals" board in the Tobi Fairley "Get Published Challenge" at Olioboard! Thanks to all your dedication to voting and your support, my board was able to make it into the Top 25 boards - and I am grateful for that.  My board placed #14 out of 420 entries which is nothing to sneeze at! Thank you again -- And CONGRATS to the TWO Top Winners the judges selected from the Top 25 who get to go to Tobi Fairley's Design Camp: Jennifer Reynolds and Anna Lattimore!

 

 

Here are the 2 winning boards the three judges selected to win the tickets to Tobi Fairley's Get Published Design Camp:

 

 Above: Crazy For Stripes by Jennifer Reynolds was selected for second place.

Visit Olioboard to see more of Jenn's board details here: Crazy For Stripes.

 

 

Above: Sparkling Mint Bedroom by Anna Lattimore was chosen as the first place winner of the Tobi Fairlet Get Published Challenge. See more details about Anna's board at: Sparkling Mint Bedroom.

 

 

 

The judges were Crystal Gentilello, founder of RUE magazine, Ronda Carmen, founder of All The Best | A Passport To Stylish Living blog, Krissa Rossbund,Senior Style Editor at Traditional Home. Learn more about Tobi's Camp at: Tobi Fairley's The Journey To Getting Published. See all 420 boards entred at Olioboard here: Get Published Challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you again for your votes on my board, Virtual Vignette. I was honored to be a part of such a talented group -- and actually had the chance to meet Tobi Fairley this week at The Design Bloggers Conference -- details coming shortly so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

At the Design Bloggers Conference:

From left to right: Tobi Fairley, Denise McGaha, Brooke Carter Wallace, Lynda Quintero-Davids (me!), Leslie Hassler and Sheilah MacSporran. Sheilah is the CEO and Founder of Olioboard.

 

 

Congrats again to the winners and thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Cast Your VOTE in the Tobi Fairley Get Published Challenge at Olioboard!

Stripes continue to be a strong trend for 2013 and that is the theme for the current Get Published Challenge sponsored by Interior Designer Tobi Fairley on Olioboard! The challenge is to create a dynamic space filled with energy plus style using the 2013 trend of stripes! By doing so, people who enter are to create a space with that has a wow factor deserving to get published. The Top 25 boards are also being judged for a chance to win one of two passes to attend Tobi's Design Camp: The Journey to Getting Published. The judges are Crystal Gentilello, founder of RUE magazine, Ronda Carmen, founder of All The Best | A Passport To Stylish Living blog, Krissa Rossbund,Senior Style Editor at Traditional Home!  I entered two boards - both drastically different...

CHALLENGE ENTRY: BOARD 1
Thanks to all of your votes, you have already helped one of my boards I entered (see above) move up to PAGE 3 out of 46 with 260 votes -- BUT, I will need your help to keep it there or better yet -- Move n Up!  For the board I had originally created for the Get Vignette Set post had used two versions of stripes: In the back-ground with the bold horizontal window panels, and in the foreground with a pair of thinner stripe high back chairs. You can click the link here to VOTE: http://olioboard.com/boards/176415-virtual-vignette  VOTE once daily - NOW thru March 6th! 

CHALLENGE ENTRY: BOARD 2
For the other board, I used a stripe room background, paired with a thinner stripe slipper chair pair and mixed with another popular Spring trend: the Greek Key motif. For a little color, I used by two faves (also on trend for Spring) pops of cool blues and greens... For this board (thanks to you!) I'm currently on page 9 of 47 with 132 votes! You can click the link here to VOTE:  http://olioboard.com/boards/177580-greek-geek 

It costs nothing to join Olioboard. To vote on any of the boards in this or any of the monthly challenges on Olioboard, just visit the "Contests" tab at the top of the site - scroll thru challenges + entry boards and click the RED HEART to cast your vote on your faves! It's that easy! You can vote once daily for the duration of the challenge. This particular challenge, The Get Published Challenge from Tobi Fairly ends on March 6... and would be a wonderful challenge to win since joining Olio back in July 2010 -- But I need your help to do it!

Thanks for your votes and thanks for stopping by!

OlioLove!

 

The Passion for Fashion + Decor Continues!

I had so much fun collaborating in the OlioHop with Olioboard + 9 other design bloggers! I loved seeing all the different perspectives of how to merge Fashion & Decor! This was the best OlioHops yet and I'm so happy & honored to have been a part of it. Thank you Olioboard for having the perfect visual tool to help us all communicate our personal style! Leslie Carothers and Sheliah MacSporran created a portfOLIO of all the boards on Facebook, but I know some of the Focal Point readers do avoid Facebook. So in case you missed the post, here is a little recap of the boards, with the links to read more about them. One element we all used in one way or another: GOLD! Olioboard also launched some new design challenges that kicked off this week plus and existing one with a chance to win prizes too - details at the end of the post!

 

Franki Durbin from Life in a Venti Cup

I love the sophisticated combination of gold & neutral in Franki’s design. She says, “This room has such an abundance of femininity that it is almost literally dripping from the wall. This is somehow incredibly powerful yet quietly reserved at the same time. It’s an interesting mix of bold and delicate, organic and modern." She loves it and so do I (THAT DRESS!!!!) View Franki's full post here.
 

 

 Lesley Myrick from Lamps Plus Blog

Lesley’s clean design and simple color palette creates a luxurious and calming bedroom design. The metallic accents add a touch of glam to this beautiful design. See Lesley’s full post here.

 

 

 Jane Gianarelli from Embrace Your Inner Snob Blog

Jane incorrporated another popular trend in fashion & decor: Mixing old and new for a collected over time look by using vintage, antiques and flea market finds.  She also linked cosmetic colors to Annie Sloan paint for her merge of Fashion & Decor! If you love thrift or are a fan of timeless design and nostalgic innocence, check out Jane’s full post here.

 

 

 Cori Magee from EuroStyleLighting Blog

Black and white with metallic accents are right on trend for fall and this dining space integrates this bold fashion trend beautifully into the home. View Cori's full post here. 

 

Selma Hammer from Selma Hammer Designs

 Another take on black and gold: Notice how Selma pulled the gold damask wall covering in relation to the baroque appliques in the dress. View Selma's post
here.

 

See my post from

Moodboard Monday: BLACK & GOLD

 

 

 

See my Fashion & Decor post for the OlioHop:

Looking Ahead: Spring 2013 Fashion & Decor

 



 

 

 

 Erin Hiemstra from Apartment 34 

Erin’s choice of words nailed it: urban, confident and strong! Who wouldn’t want their closet or home to make her feel like that! View Erin's full post here.

 

Julia Buckingham Edelmann from Material Girls Blog

Julia pulled together the Plaid Fad and shows us that plaid is no longer just for our great-grandmother’s pillows or lodge decor! (And you KNOW I'm Mad for Plaid this Fall!) Check out Julia’s full post  plus other trends of note.

 

Robin Maria Pedrero from Pocket Full of Colors

Robin’s artwork takes center stage in her Olioboard design. By taking inspiration from the fashion image, she uses a neutral backdrop to allow her artwork to pop off the wall and create her focal point. See her full post here.

 

 Marilyn G Russell from Design Magnifique

This concept proves that masculine can be bold and colorful too! The punchy teal & orange color scheme is so refreshing in Marilyn’s Dapper Dan Living Room. View her full post here.

 

SPRING 2013 BLUE-GREENS

And the passion for Fashion + Decor continues at Olioboard with a NEW challenge at Olioboard with what else but the Fashion + Decor Challenge!  I entered my boards I created for the Fashion & Decor OlioHop. Owith the help of your votes, one board in particular has made it into the Top 8 so far. You can vote ONE time DAILY throughout the challenge which is from October 8 thru October 22.



We all have our own unique style and you too can create your own boards for the fashion & Decor challenge or some of the others on Olioboard from the Halloween Challenge to the Euro Style Lighting Challenge. For the Euro Style Lighting Challenge, you can have a chance to win one of 3 prize amounts totaling $750 to be redeemed on the website!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!