PARISH Blog
Happy Monday!
Ashley’s back from vacation and has taken some time to do guest blogging over at The Uncontainable Truth!
As a part of a series, 31 Days of Living Out Loud, Christen Price interviewed Ashley about her life and tips for fall from an interior designer’s point of view. Check it out here!
Hope everyone has a great day… Enjoy this beautiful fall weather!!
It’s been a crazy few weeks here at AFGID & PARISH. We completed a big job in Alys Beach, flew up to NYC and back, and had a HUGE sale at PARISH. Whew, all that just in time for fall and football season!
Ashley and I were lucky enough to travel to New York City for the installation in TriBeCa. It was my first trip to the city and I am slightly ashamed to say that I was a total tourist. I took pictures of everything… At least I had the blog for my excuse!
If you’re new to the blog, before pictures and our design concept can be found on my previous blog post, The TriBeCa Project.
Get ready for a whirlwind of pictures:
Speeding past the beautiful skyline on the way to the hotel:
This was my first New York cab ride! Buddy the Elf got it right when he said “the yellow ones don’t stop!” YIKES.
{Note to self: Do not cross the streets carelessly like you do in Auburn. You will regret it.}
It was so fun to see all the beautiful architecture in person! I took this one as we sped by in a cab:
The first stop was the Eventi Hotel to quickly check in before getting to work. Our hotel room was super modern and fun!
After checking in, we were off to get some shopping done!
Day One: Scope out apartment and do some major accessory shopping.
Shopping began at CB2 and West Elm. West Elm found a great use for palates – white wash & use as display/room divider!
Another display at West Elm… This cocktail table would be so great for a small apartment!
After a ton of shopping we ate dinner with our client at Public. The design was beautiful and the people were totally how I imagined New Yorkers – all dressed up sipping on fancy drinks on a random Tuesday night.
The bathroom was totally covered in small glass tiles with built-in soap storage in the walls!
After dinner we went back to the hotel to map out our plans for the next day. We were more than pleasantly surprised to find that the concierge had sent up cupcakes in honor of my first trip to the Big Apple. How cute is that!? I guess Southern Hospitality is making it’s way up north!
Day Two: More accessory shopping, furniture delivery & installation, drapery installation.
First… Breakfast. Ashley and I are big breakfast people so we decided to hit up Bubby’s for breakfast.
We both got sour cream pancakes, eggs, & bacon…. So yummy.
Then we were off to get some work done. Our main stop on day two was the ABC Carpet & Home store. Amanda told me I was going to freak out… She was right. Six floors of interior design heaven.
Disclaimer on the next photo: This sofa looks like the most comfortable thing ever made however it is not a statement that should be made in the middle of a living room… You might as well put a bed in the middle of the room.
This one is purely for entertainment purposes. I love America and all, but an American Flag sofa is pure overkill.
We snagged some great finds at ABC Carpet & Home and walked over to the ABC Kitchen for lunch. Isn’t it cute!?
While wandering around looking for the hostess, we passed MARTHA STEWART having lunch with a friends. I was totally starstruck. Growing up I was the crafting, scrapbooking, baking, Martha-Stewart-wanna-be kind of girl. She was the only celeb we saw and I’m totally fine with that.
Anyway, ABC Kitchen was way too packed so Ashley and I headed to CraftBar – a super chic restaurant on Broadway.
Turns out it was the end of restaurant week so we were obligated to eat a 3 course lunch. No complaints here!
After a late lunch, we headed back to the apartment with all our shopping bags….
We got back just in time for the movers to arrive. And the installation begins:
Around 8pm we were exhausted and ready for dinner! Mexican was calling our names and we happily stumbled upon Crema – a much fancier Mexican restaurant than you will find in south Alabama that’s for sure.
Then we decided we had to get a little sight seeing in so we took the subway to Time Square. The first thing I saw as I stepped out onto the streets was a giant picture of Pauly D! Not what I was expecting… But I guess I really didn’t know what to expect!
One short ride down was Grand Central Station! I’m obsessed with all the beautiful details.
After our crazy day, we could not get to bed fast enough! 6am came very quickly…
Day 3: Electrical work, Art Installation, Accessory returns, and finishing touches.
Our final NY breakfast was at Plein Sud:
The design was beautiful all the way down to the details. Check out the upholstered ceiling!
We planned out our day while eating some yummy French Toast and Eggs Benedict. Ashley ran all over town buying even more accessories while I held down the fort with the art installer and the electrician. We desperately missed our sweet installers from home. Teaching a Spanish speaking man how to hang art the Ashley way is not so easy to do. He finally got the hang of it, thank goodness.
We got everything finished just in the nick of time! The client came home to see the finished project as we were taking the final pictures. To say that Ashley and I were relieved would be a serious understatement.
Ashley and I said grabbed some pizza from the closest place we could find, hopped in a cab, and headed back to the airport just in time to make our flight back to the South!
I hope you’re all dying to see the final pictures at this point… But you will have to wait and see! Our final pics are coming very soon!!
This is a little look at what goes on at AFGID behind the scenes. We spend plenty of time showing y’all the finished product. What we don’t really tell you is that we bust our butts to get projects looking picture perfect. Sometimes we climb on furniture. Sometimes we move sofas in 5 inch heels. Everyday is different (and somehow, we always wear the wrong shoes).
We’d be lying if we said we are the only people responsible for the finished design projects we show off on the blog. There are a number of people we rely on to help us get our job done and we thought we’d introduce y’all to some of our most relied on helpers…
First there’s Steve. He is our drapery installer, art hanger, and miracle worker. If only he knew how much we adore him. He is never allowed to retire — we remind him of that at least once a day.
Steve after fixing the bamboo blinds which arrived in the complete wrong size from what we had specified.
Didn’t he do a great job hanging these frames with rope for our fun beach job?!
Hanging a mirror… He has probably hung the same mirror 5 different times in the shop. We just like change every now and then.
Steve’s van is like the Magic School Bus of interior design. If we forget a finial or a drapery bracket, one appears in the Magic Van. The only thing I don’t like about the Magic Van is the license plate on the front (Steve’s a Bammer) but I’ll get over it…. 
Steve’s Magic Van
Then there’s Robert (aka Roberto). Where do I begin…. Robert is our one and only electrician. When we need a laugh, we call Robert. He is always in a good mood and it never fails that he will find something to make fun of us for… to be honest, we probably deserve it. Sometimes he likes to ignore us because we call him more than we call our moms. We even resort to bribery in the form of baked goods. He eventually answers because he knows we won’t stop ’til he picks up. Below you will see Roberto at his best… jumping rope with a chandelier chain….
Typical Robert
Sometimes he works, too!
Robert installing sconces. Sweet Steve was also there hanging drapery. They make the best team!
Next there’s Sharon. Sharon is our wonderful seamstress. She puts up with so much. We bombard her with client work, hundreds of pillows for PARISH, and then proceed to call her multiple times a day to check on our projects. Yet somehow she gets it all done and beautifully at that. We wouldn’t know what to do without her.
The wonderful Sharon.
We do a lot of rearranging with our own muscle power. But there are days when we just can’t handle it. Therefore….
Somedays there are movers. Our sweet, sweet movers and their wonderful boss David let us boss them around all day long, in extreme heat, moving large pieces of furniture through tiny passageways, up 3 flights of stairs, etc, etc… We always appreciate the help. Sometimes we even have cute young movers that make our hubbies/boyfriends jealous for all of 2 seconds. We don’t hate it….
The cute movers!
Lastly, there are contractors. We don’t deal with them too often but when we do, we never know what to expect. By far the most entertaining has been the contractor at the beach job near Alys Beach. All I will say is that working out and never missing a meal were more important than meeting a deadline. Oh, and he may or may not have proposed that he should take his shirt off because of the dreadful heat…..
Workin’ away…
If you keep up with The Intern Diaries on Fridays, you know that there are crazy days that lead to all of us getting a little ‘tude on the phone with people who don’t get their job done. It’s not that we want to be rude, it’s just that we don’t want to disappoint our clients. So, a huge thank you to everyone that helps us out. We could not do it without you all!
Hope y’all enjoyed!
Located in the charming Cloverdale Village along the main street of Montgomery’s famed … More...