Are Stripes the Answer for Your Plain Room?

Are you feeling like your wall needs a pop for little cost? Painted stripes might just be the perfect answer for you! Stripes can fulfill a need for a subtle or dramatic look depending on the colors you use. First of all, decide on a color scheme for your room. Next, do you want to have stripes throughout the entire room or just on an accent wall? How many colors do you want? Do you want all the stripes the same size or varying sizes? Is horizontal (used to make your room look larger) or vertical stripes (make your ceiling seem higher) more appropriate for your space? These are all questions to ask yourself before delving into this adventure!

When painting stripes throughout the entire room, I might recommend keeping the contrast subtle. First pick the main color you would like the walls to be in your room. Then take your paint fan deck and go up one or two colors on the page from your main color choice, or down one or two colors. This will ensure you have kept the colors in the same “family” because colors can play tricks on us when they get onto our walls, appearing to have an undertone that wasn’t quite expected such as a green or pink/peach. My other recommendation would be to pick the color you would like to use and paint one stripe in a matte finish and the other stripe in a semi-gloss or gloss finish. This will give you just enough effect to make an impact without overwhelming the space with lots of colors.

Are you looking for a more dramatic contrast? This can be achieved by combining coordinating colors to make a powerful impact in your room. Might I suggest choosing one wall or a focal point to achieve this look? Possibly even using the stripes as a focal point for a headboard, staircase, or fireplace. Finally, pick one of the more subtle colors in the stripes, such as a beige or gray for the remaining walls.

By now you are probably asking yourself how to do this? One way is to paint the entire wall the main color. Let this area dry for 24 to 48 hours. Then decide how thick of strips you would like to use, anywhere from 4” to 12” is standard. Don’t be afraid to mix widths, might I suggest 3”, 6” and 9”? Next, measure and tape the area you will paint in for your stripes. Allow yourself wide enough tape to be able to paint over the edge to guarantee that crisp line. Once finished, remove the tape and enjoy the pop your stripes have brought to your room!

How do you feel about stripes on your walls? Yay or nay? Thick or thin? Dramatic or subtle?

Thinking Vertically – Making the Most of the Space You Have

When you want to make a space look bigger, you have to get lighter as you go up. A dark ceiling can make a space feel closed in, so naturally doing to opposite and making a space lighter towards the top will give the space expanse. A light-colored ceiling reflects light and allows for openness. So now that you have an expanded space, what can you do to fill it and bring it to it’s full storage and display potential?

Thinking vertically is a way to use limited floor space and gain storage at the same time. We create floor plans most of the time in interior. Traditionally a floor plan is the equivalent of slicing a space at the four foot elevation and marking everything below that line. For this blog I want to focus on the space above that 4 foot line.

A really trendy and creative way to think vertically is the use of ladders. Either a super sheik metal ladder or perhaps an antique ladder matches your style; both will serve the purpose of thinking vertically. There are even some nice bookcases that look like ladders that are a great alternative to assist in the vertical movement.

Memo boards are another good way to use your wall space. Memo boards are a dressed up way to display notes, cards or other “to dos.” A memo board is just a little more dressed up. Plus, with this type of display, you can make one very easily yourself – select your favorite fabric and ribbon, add a staple gun and a spare piece of board and you are golden! But don’t forget buttons and batting to wrap it up!

Finally, shelving overhead is a great way to think vertically. When talking about that space over 4 feet – why not go all the way up to 6 or 7 feet on the way? This type of installation might give you a heavy feeling from above, but it all depends on what you are planning on putting on the shelving. If you choose heavy books, the shelves will be visually heavier along with having a heavier load.

So whatever method of thinking vertically you pick, just be sure to get the most out of your wall surface area!

How do you use your walls to think vertically?

A New Look For Baby Rooms

It’s a boy; I must use blue and white…. It’s a girl; I must use pink and white…. Are you tired of feeling trapped in what society views your baby’s room should look like? Well, here are some thoughts for bringing a new look for our future generations.

Light pink is generally used for little girls. But what about taking it up a notch to a darker brighter pink? Pairing it with a lime green and/or a bright dark yellow can bring a phenomenal pop to a room for your little girl. Is this a little bit too much out of the norm for you? Try mixing a dark chocolate brown with the standard light pink. How about adding light green or blue? Just because it’s a girl doesn’t mean she can’t have blue!

Baby Blue is often used for little boys, but what boy is going to want that light of a color once he gets a little older? Why not start off with a brighter blue or navy? Try pairing it with red for a pop! Did you know that red is often the first color a baby can see? Other color combinations for your little baby boy might be lime green and white, black and yellow, or light green and brown.

Now you may be saying, I really like the idea of doing something different but where am I going to find the bedding? The standard baby chain stores typically have the same themed bedding. Try going to a baby boutique in a trendy urban downtown, have custom bedding made or you could even make it yourself! I guarantee the local fabric store will have plenty of what you need. If you have something more specific in mind, I would recommend spending some time shopping on the internet. I bet you can find it somewhere in the world! As for the furniture, try pieces that are painted white, black of even smoky gray. This will provide a sharp contrast against the wall paint you have chosen.

Several other ideas to bring a change to the old fashion baby room would be to hang a trendy baby quilt on the wall. Have their name stitched on it with some fun patterns. Might I recommend animals or sailboats? Don’t forget to bring in the fun colors with the fabrics! As for other artwork, keep with one theme. Trying to add too many can end up giving you a room that looks like mass chaos. As for the typical baby rocker, try modernizing it with a rocker-recliner. In some instances you may even be able to pick a fun fabric to coordinate with the room. Why not be comfortable while rocking you baby to sleep? You are going to be spending a lot of time in that chair, might as well invest some money in it.

Just take a minute to think about this. If you stay away from the typical baby colors, your child may not ask you to paint their room a different color for years. Well, one can at least hope!

Why a Cornice to Spice Up Your Window?

Cornices can add an architectural element to a room that would otherwise be plain. If you have a fabric covered cornice, it can be simple and slightly padded or it can have a swag curtain. You can have wood cornices that are painted to add color or stained to match built-ins. Cornices can stand-alone over a window or they can cover the curtain hardware of sheers and drapes. They are a wonderful way to soften the hard rectangular lines of your windows.

Wood cornices create an image of sophistication and classic elegance to a room whether they are painted or stained. When considering decorative elements, you can purchase prefabricated decorative moldings to be added to the cornice. Simple 1” rope molding can be added to the base or a 3” piece of crown molding with dentil details at the top of the cornice. There are singular motifs that can be placed in the center or carved wood appliqués that can be placed across the face. Cornices allow you to match details in existing furniture pieces to create harmony. The cornice can transform your space from simple to dramatic.

Upholstered cornices provide added color and texture to a room. They can add rhythm and movement as the eye travels across the space. The selection of fabric and trim can add a period feeling to a room. For instance, a brocade or floral print with tassel trim would be perfect in an elegant period townhouse. A simple cotton, small print fabric would be a great addition to a farmhouse. Fabric cornices add warmth, charm and character to a space.

Cornices can also add symmetry to a room. The cornice can be placed the same amount of inches from the ceiling around your space and camouflage the fact that your windows are not uniform in their placement. In a room that is short in length, they can also add a sense of length in the room.

Have you ever used a cornice to hide a defect in your space? Do have a preference on using them as architectural details or padded for additional color in a space?

Dining Chairs – Comfort, Function, Style

Most people know that dining chairs can take quite a beating, especially in a family environment. People lean back, children rock in them supporting only the two back legs on the ground…etc. We exert weight and force on the rear legs and frame. The point is that it is important to look for durability as well as style when shopping for new dining chairs. Some designs that I like are by Philippe Starck, who tends to design beautiful chairs that are molded out of plastic seats and metal tube legs. They are practical, modern and great to look at. They are also multifunctional and double as desk chairs, stackable for storage, and great for outdoor use!

Chairs with arms work well at the head of a table. They can be awkward and cumbersome if the arms do not slide under the table, so I recommend checking the dimensions before purchasing. I also really love the idea of mixing the style of chairs used at one dining table. Whether it’s the design of the overall style that is different or just the fabric selection varying from chair to chair, thinking creatively will enhance the character of your room. I recently had a dining room project for a client who happens to have four young boys. We decided that a quick cleanable leather seat might be the best option for their four seats and introduced a coordinating fabric on the backs of the chairs. Mom and Dad’s chairs located at either end were the exact opposite – fabric seats and leather backs.

If you are planning to select different styles, it might be effective if you select your six favorite designers and represent a chair style from each collection at your table. You may also consider purchasing two additional chairs to have on hand for the occasional guest or two. The two spares can generally be used elsewhere in your home, like a desk chair or a corner chair in a spare bedroom. Have fun with the chair selection process! They don’t always have to be part of the same collection as your table.

Creating an Organic Feeling Environment

Organic, Natural, Environmentally friendly, these are all the buzz words we are hearing today. But what can you do to bring the organic look into your home? In the ideal world, a large open area with lots of windows would be a great way to bring in the organic look.

Now some of you may have this and some of you may not, so let’s start with the background color. This can make or break the overall feeling in the environment. Make your color scheme consistent with the colors of nature; beige, brown, white, light blues, light greens, stone, and grays. I recommend picking one of these colors for the paint on your walls. Possibly light beige, a color that might remind you of sand. Now, what to do with the rest of the room?

For a dining room, I recommend light colored or painted white woods. The area to pop the other “nature” colors might be on the seat fabrics. Bringing in light greens and blues mixed with white and browns are ideal to make the room pop. Try a beautiful oil painting of a water scene over a buffet or on an open wall. Keep the window treatments light and airy; possibly not use any at all! Soft linen drapes in a white might be a perfect solution, but do not use this color if it is the same color of your walls because a soft contrast is needed here. Repeat the soft colors used in the room through the dishes, glasses and/or vases. And most importantly, don’t forget the table centerpiece! Some soft greens foliage, a bowl with sea shells or stones, possibly even candles may work perfectly here.

As for the bedroom, I would recommend light colored wood, painted white wood, bamboo, or wheat board for the furniture. The bedding would be the perfect opportunity to bring in the beautiful blues and greens found in nature. Texture can also add to the feeling such as using linen or soft cottons. Wood, bamboo, or tile floors would look great in here with a sisal rug. Wall art should be simple with a skinny frame or even frameless, but don’t forget to make sure there is some color! Keep the lamps light, possibly with a glass base and a white shade without any details. Simple picture frames, greens, or candles would be the perfect finishing touch for the nightstands.

Finally for the living room, always look at the largest piece of furniture you will need. Typically this is the sofa and is a great start to building the atmosphere of your room. A beautiful crisp white sofa will bring a light organic feeling to an environment. Then placing colored pillows in blues, greens, beiges, stone or grays is a great start to bring in the colors of nature. For the coffee, end tables, and entertainment console remember to keep the wood light colored or painted in light colors. Simple accessories that remind you of nature are great for adding to the feeling to the room. How about some large coffee table books with photographs of the ocean, lighthouses, or the outdoors? Simple candles can be placed in a large charger with stones or shells covering the bottom. Bowls are a great place to add natural textured accessory balls. Finally, finish off the room with a beautiful seascape painting, photography of outdoor places, or flower prints.

Enjoy your Organic Feeling Room!

Bring a Little Summer to the Remaining Months of Winter

We are all aware of the changes to the economy in the past few years. So a lot of us have cut back on vacations and this means it is much harder to fight the winter blues. I know that an inside project is a good way to distract yourself from what might be brewing outside. So why not inject a good winter project with a little summer. Here are a few ways to bring a some sunshine to your interior projects:

Winter can feel heavy, so lighten it up! If you currently have heavy drapes, a good place to start are your windows. Get yourself some inexpensive yardage of lightweight fabric. You can even layer some cotton with lightweight chiffon over the top. The key is to use something light in weight and in color. If you do like the layered look, be sure to use colors that are similar but have enough contrast to offer a little depth. For instance, a few tones in sands and light blues is nice.

Spring is also a time for renewal. So by changing a few accessories around your house, it can start to feel renewed and full of life. After a few months of staring out the window and only seeing cold, it is nice to focus on small changes. Sort of like the first signs of spring – slowly the warm days begin to replace the cold and when you leave work at 5 o’clock, it’s not dark outside! So in your space, start by changing out some photos in frames, get a new piece of artwork and maybe change up the arrangement on your mantle.

Change out your linens - meaning the sheets, bedding, towels… nothing beats a great white interior. This can feel fresh, open and clean. Why not open up your space by biting the bullet, switching to your lighter blankets and just layering them up. As the weather warms up you can remove one by one, but in the meantime at least you will feel a little reassured that spring is coming!

Be looking to that first day very soon, to open the windows and let the fresh air in! In the meantime, little changes to your interior can make all the difference… and if that does not work, you can always bust out your spring shoes early and look adoringly into your closet until the snow melts!

What is Home Staging?

In the past, home staging was done for builders who were getting ready to show their models to the public and wanted the interior to be so perfect that they sold their homes. Most of the time interior decorators would be hired to choose the color scheme for the rooms. They would choose the color for the walls and a complementary color for the trim. They chose the kitchen cabinet wood grain colors and the counter top. They would also choose all of the accessories, window treatments and upholstery pieces to make the model gorgeous.

With the downturn in building these days, many people are beginning to look to home stagers when they are trying to sell their home. Many times you can ask your real estate agent for the name of a home stager. Your favorite shade of lavender may work for you, but people coming into your home may not be able to see past the lavender and in turn, may not make an offer on your home. Or the furniture arrangement may not make the home look roomy so again, you loose a potential buyer.

The home stagger looks at your home and then works to show off the highlights or special aspects of your home while downplaying it’s flaws. Staging usually has a tight budget because none of us want to spend a fortune on a home we are leaving, but it must be done immediately.

We have all seen the DIY shows when a home stager comes in and has all the comments from the potential buyers before they work on the home. After they finish their “repairs”, the stagers have the potential buyers come back in and they can’t believe it’s the same place. Many times the real estate agent says that the home asking price has actually increased because of the staging.

Unlike when we choose to decorate, which is something we want to do, home staging is, at many times, absolutely necessary if we want to sell our home for our asking price. Have you ever had your home staged? Do you know an interior decorator that does home staging? What kind of tips have they given you?

My Favorite Color Combinations

Split complementary color schemes are my favorite color combinations. These color combinations allow for some punch of color with the complementary part, but also have the softer blend of colors that are closer together on the color wheel.

Though I love color, the Victorian age, with a jumble of colors and patterns and every inch covered with items, is too much for me. I like to have the more harmonious colors of nature for the majority of the room combined with accent colors.

I was once told to consider 60-70% of the room to be the main color, but if hunter green is chosen, then you may find that in a large room this would mean the carpeting or the tile surround on the fireplace. Then consider 24-30% to be a lighter green (if you chose a middle tone green, you could then go to darker or lighter, but since I chose hunter green for my example, I am stuck with only being able to go lighter). You would find the lighter green on the upholstered pieces (remember that many of the prints have shades of dark and light greens in them) and hopefully your accent color. Then 5-10% in your accent color, which could be the throw pillows on the upholstered pieces, mats on the pictures hanging on the wall, or even in the lamp shade sitting on the dark green painted end table.

These split complementary color schemes appeal to me as it is a blend of the analogous (three colors next to each other, which brings harmony) and a bright hue on the other side of the color wheel. The greens on the wall and dark wood (which come from black being added to the green) create the harmonious background with the terra cotta red upholstery on the chairs being a great pop in color. The use of plants layer the greens so there is a subtle play of greens within the space.

I find rooms with split complimentary color schemes to be more complex in their look and feel. They are a much more subtle blending of colors and patterns of colors. The “Caribbean Island” look is a split complementary color scheme. It has the great blues of the water and sky and the pinky beige of the sand, or it can have the yellow-greens of the palms or minty greens and lilacs.

Double complementary color schemes take two sets of complementary colors next to each other on the color wheel and use them for the color scheme of a space. Again, I prefer the richer look of these rooms. Pale orange carpeting with darkened red-orange walls make up most of the room, but a blue bed skirt and pale blue-green bed curtains assist in layering the colors in the room to make it much or interesting.

Well, do you have a favorite yet? Are you ready to ditch the beiges and add some color?

Understanding How Light Affects Color

So you read all the stuff I have been writing and you say “Okay, I think I got which color scheme I want, and I have figured out the finish. Now you want me to understand WHAT??” Don’t throw in the towel. This is pretty simple stuff, but lighting can make a HUGE impact on the color scheme you have chosen. Remember all the times you have tried on an outfit in the store only to come home and wonder why it looks so different? Or wondered why that bedspread you loved just doesn’t work when it is home? It is all because of light.

First, light bulbs come in cool and warm colors and now daylight. Why should you care? Well, here’s why! If you choose a warm color palette, you don’t want to put cool color light bulbs in that space. It will muddy everything you have done. This is why many times the fabric, paint and even wallcoverings don’t look the same in your home as they did in the store.

So here is what to look for in regards to lighting. Light bulbs will have what is known as a color temperature of 2700-3000 to give warm white light. Warm colored lights are usually used in homes because they make our skin tones look better. This web site allows you to see different interiors under warm light.

Light bulbs in the color temperature of 3600 to 45000 give a cool white light. We typically see cool lights in work places, as there is better contrast (so if you have a reading light by the bed, think about a cool light bulb). You can check out different interiors under cool light at the same website mentioned above. As you change from Interior 1 to 3, you will see the interior color scheme changes. Which interior design scheme do you like most with cool lights? Light bulbs that are most similar daylight have a color temperature of 4800-5000.

Halogen white bulbs are usually within the color range of 2800K to 3500K. This color imparts a clear, white light with very little red or blue tones. These are typically seen in display cases. Jewelers love them, as they make the diamonds really sparkle. These light bulbs can also be used to highlight decorative elements of the home.

Full spectrum bulbs have a color temperature of 5000K and above. They impart a bright, white light. These bulbs are used for people who suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is usually brought on during winter, causing depression due to the lack of sunlight) . Many times, having only full spectrum light is overwhelming for individuals, so they are mixed in with daylight light bulbs to create a less sterile feeling environment.

For even more info about lighting, check out our article “Lighting Basics: Determining What to Use Where.”

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