Having survived the ordeal of a home photo shoot for a local shelter magazine, Houston blogger and interior designer Joni Webb graduates to the big leagues. A “national magazine” liked what they saw of Webb’s West U home in Houston House & Home, and asked her if they could photograph her Family Room and Guest Room for two separate upcoming issues. Webb’s response?

After last year’s physically tiring and mentally exhausting photo shoot, I swore I would never do it again. But, somehow, here I was, less than a year later, again welcoming strange photographers into my house. Of course, nothing is ever easy.

Exactly one week before the big photoshoot, I received news from the local scout. She had a list of things the editor wanted changed for the shoot. Oh? Really? The editor and art director wanted a new window seat cushion (made out of the Bennison fabric, no less!) The zebra rug HAD to go – apparently their readers object to zebra rugs, the suzani on the chair also had to go (suzanis are too bright) and the neon orange pillows must also go to be replaced by other pillows (like what other pillows, I wondered?) Now understand, I had known this shoot was going to happen for about three months – three months that I could have gotten all these changes done with no problem. Instead, the editor gave me one week to get the new cushions and pillows made.

More details of Webb’s quick-change artistry, after the jump!

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Luckily I had a little fabric in the garage left over from a few jobs, so I didn’t have to order the Bennison fabric which never would have arrived in time, never mind how expensive it is. I called my trusty assistant Monica, from Custom Creations by Monica, and she ran over that night to measure. In the end, she got the workroom to rush the new window seat cushion, 7 new pillows, a new seat cushion for the wicker chair, and two new cushions for the two child’s chairs. I ran out and bought a new Blanc d’ivoire desk and lamps to take the place of the hideous TV stand in the room. Monica showed up exactly 6 days later with her bounty, thank God.

The photo above is Webb’s Guest Room as it appeared in last year’s local photo shoot. And below are Webb’s own photos of the room in its new and improved-for-national-consumption form:

• Photoshoot #2 [Cote de Texas]
• The Messy Truth About Those Shelter Magazine Photo Shoots [Swamplot]

Photos: Miro Dvorscak (at top; PDF) and Joni Webb (all others)