"Sunday, just got back from North Carolina and found a darling cottage..." says my pal Kim Kelly, retired federal agent, home remodeler extraordinaire, and, her most important title, my Divine-Scout-at-Large. Met Kim when This Old House magazine sent me to Georgia to shoot one of her homes. Ten years later we've done a dozen shoots together including three more of her own homes for Country Home, Country Living and Cottage Style. Kim sent me her scout snaps and I booked a flight as she planned to drive back to North Carolina from Saint Simons Island, Georgia to meet me. At this point in my career I know what the interior magazines are looking for and sometimes it's worth it to shoot a story "on spec" as opposed to how we used to work selling the story up front. Ellie's charming little hide-away definitely fell into the "worth it" category. We arranged to bunk in the cottage as Ellie, homeowner, was not there that week. It made the whole whirlwind trip financially enticing since a magazine would not be picking up the expenses up front.... like in the old days. Through Ellie, made contact with the local Hannah Hall of Fern & Flora, uber floral designer, as Hannah's "foraging " style perfectly fit the bungalow's rustic charm. She immediately signed on as did Kenyon, Kim's yellow Lab. Here's the whole A Team we put together! Initially, Kim was the go-between with the homeowner. The hardest conversations I have with owners is that we have to add "the dreaded C word"-- Color. The same was true with sweet Ellie. Kim says I am really good at these conversations whereas she can be more direct (I think it comes from all those criminal investigative interrogations...) Ellie's cottage was all white. Kim: "Ellie, choose two colors you like." Ellie: "Well, I really like a neutral palette." Kim: "Ellie, choose two colors you like." "We" finally settled on pink and gold to reflect that Pink Paris Apartment vibe. Below are our inspiration images... We decided to "prop" as much as we could before arrival to avoid the very long "prep" day usually required before all photoshoots. Add to that another day of "returns" as a regular part of prep which involves borrowing items from local shops in exchange for credit in the magazines. All this simply takes lots of time. Packed my suitcase with towels, soaps, and pink accessories while Kim loaded rugs, pillow shams, throws and vases in her car (along with her two Labs, Kenyon & Sugar). Hannah allowed us to raid her home of baskets and coffee table-sized books, and Ellie sewed pillows and brought some beautiful pale pink plates. Everything else was already in the cottage. This was early March and the corona virus was already gaining steam in California which is why I dialed Kim the morning of my flight and told her I may not come -- that it was risky to get on a crowded plane -- but she revealed she was already in South Carolina. Knowing that this pandemic was likely going to sideline a lot of my near future-work I decided to go ahead with the trip. We are both glad we did because, of course, the world changed forever the week of our return. Styling and shooting five rooms in a home can take eight hours or longer. I reconfigure their home adding color and texture, subtracting clutter and rearranging furniture. In this photoshoot, Ellie was not going to be on location so we had more flexibility than in most. Plus, as we were staying in the cottage, I could see when the light would be optimum in each room and plan our shot order accordingly, making sure our "flower girl", Hannah, arrived with her designs for each room at their freshest. Turns out Miss Hannah Hall did so much more but that's another post (Okay, I'll tell you a little, I ended up getting a story authorized about Hannah for Where Women Create magazine during that same trip so we were busy.) Stay tuned for my next post --
the fabulous front porch of Ellie's sweet rustic Carolina cottage...
3 Comments
Manhattan Marek
7/20/2020 11:32:55 am
I love this. So neat to see how it all cane together!
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7/24/2020 12:24:56 pm
You should know, Manhattan --
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Penny at Enjoying The Simple Things
7/24/2020 05:21:20 am
I really enjoyed behind the scenes when you were are my house doing a shoot. Great post!
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