Our Friends Rock the Crap Out of DIFFA's Dining by Design

Well my friends, I have something amazing to share with you today.

And it has to do with the amazingly talented designer and artist, Jessica Rae Sommer.

As most of you already know, Ms. JSR is insanely talented...afterall, she creates paintings like this...

...turns out that she also has a day job working as a designer for a humungous/famous international hospitality firm called HBA.
And because she's SO talented, said firm selected her and another fabulous designer/blogger Kelly Sutton (Young, Broke and Decorating,) to create a design to represent the firm in a ridiculously prestigious event....DIFFA's Dining by Design.

Held as part of Architectural Digest's Home Design Show, this event helps raise money for AIDS research, education and awareness. 
It's a big deal...a VERY big deal.
And my girls had it covered in spades.
After finding out they were selected to design HBA's space, Jessica and Kelly got to work with their concept.
In J's words..."We were really excited to show our passion for the cause- finding a way to communicate our admiration and understanding for thriving in the midst of change and adversity. We sought to create an atmosphere of hope and transformation beyond ourselves. So began the concept of "The Raven" based on A Brothers Grimm fairy tale that captured the dark fantasy, crystalized imagination, and hopeful ending that field our design- our tag line for the booth became the meaningful "Set Me Free...In our design, we sought to visually express the greater hope and transformation that exists within all of us." 
And so it began.
First, concept boards were compiled...

...and then drawings/design boards were done...

Kelly and Jessica incorporated some incredible elements into the space starting with this....

...a divine fabric they designed with J's illustrations and K's graphics.

The fabric shows the story of the Raven, with a girl slowly transforming into a bird and the words 'Set Me Free' layered behind.
Um...can we just stop and admire it for a second....

insanely good.
And if that wasn't enough, the two also set out to create a custom table...

...and believe me, it wasn't just any table.

Nope...as you might guess from the illustration, it evolved into a sparkly little number.

In fact, the top was covered/filled with thousands of Swarovski crystals that were originally part of a custom curtain for the Oscars...apparently once these crystals are touched, they can't ever be sold again so Swarovski was generous enough to donate the gems.

They arrived in boxes...

...and were hand packed by J and K...

...again, insane!

From the photo above, two other incredible design elements are also shouting to be discussed.

First, that crazy gorgeous wallpaper...oh Trove Indi how I love thee...

...especially when you're in the custom gold colourway J and K created.

D.I.V.I.N.E

And then there's that rug...

...again, a custom creation featuring the lines of the fairytale with the words 'Set Me Free' highlighted in gold.

Once all these elements were brought together, the space was complete.

And let me tell you, I almost have no words...

but...

 I can't not at least attempt to articulate what these two incredibly talented designers put together.

The space was a completely fantastical creation filled to the brim with amazingly whimsical design...not one piece of the design wasn't dreamt of, visualized and brought to life by Jessica and Kelly....the result was a breathtaking tribute to their incredible talent.

To see true creativity come to life like this...well...there's no other word for that then inspirational.

I for one am beyond proud of both of them and feel honoured that they allowed me to share all of this beauty with you!

xo