I'm in a mood to redo every room in the house! Relax, I'm not about to attempt that but I am contemplating some painting, rearranging and organizing. I recently read an article on classic American interiors that had some inspiring ideas for rooms based influential styles seen in cities across the United States. It's hard for me to choose just one because there are several of them I really like--which one, or one's, inspire you?
The Los Angeles Look
Here you have a mid-century modern look with the use of sleek furniture, hardwoods and breezy floor-to-ceiling curtains. I'm not usually a mid-century modern design type of girl but I would LOVE this room in my house (minus the gold accents, of course!).
The Key West Look
Now we're talking! Load this room on the truck and deliver it to me, please!! The use of white with the bright lime accent speaks to me. You could use other colors, like turquoise or yellow, with or without the lime green. This room is relaxing and perfect!
The Santa Fe Look
This style always grabs me and pulls me in. I love Southwestern architecture and the use of warm colors and stone floors! Adding the rich browns with the use of leather and wood help pull this style together--fabulous!
photo courtesy designer Sarah Richardson
photo courtesy Rate My Space
photo courtesy designer Erinn Valencich
photo courtesy designer David Bromstad
1. The Color Wheel is a visual representation of colors arranged according to their chromatic relationship--the primary hues are equidistant from one another and are bridged using secondary and tertiary colors.
A. Primary Colors--those colors at their basic essence which cannot be created by mixing others.
B. Secondary Colors--those colors achieved by a mixture of two primaries.
C. Tertiary Colors--those colors achieved by a mixture of primary and secondary hues.
D. Complementary Colors--those colors located opposite each other on the color wheel.
E. Analogous Colors--those colors located close together on the color wheel.
Did you know there was a Color Council? I didn't but what a GREAT council to serve on--where do I sign up? Apparently, this council gets to pick colors every two years which comprise the market colors found in paint decks!
2. A few design rules of note: (a) all the lampshades in a room should be the same color; and (b) you should never use furniture in a room that has all legs showing--you should mix it up with some skirted pieces EXCEPT if your style is Transitional or if you have a period room, such as Victorian.
3. If you are having furniture reupholstered, you should always label the face side of your fabric. Some fabrics are pretty on both sides and it can be difficult to determine which is the front and which is the back. Mark it clearly so the upholsterer does not make a costly mistake!
4. All lining on your window treatments should be the same, especially those window treatments on the front of your home. This is important because from the street, passers-by can only see the lining and you want them to match. This rule becomes bendable when you have blinds or plantation shutters.
5. A piece of upholstered furniture, such as a sofa, which is 8-Way Hand Tied is of exceptional quality. If you can find this type of construction, buy it and it will last a very long time!
6. Space Planning is key to good design. One should always measure their space before purchasing key pieces for a room to avoid costly mistakes. Obtain your field measurements by measuring the length and width of your space (LxW). Include the molding as part of your wall measurement. Take these measurements with you when you're shopping for furniture and window treatments (I also bring along a tap measure)!
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I realized that I haven't posted about my Interior Design 101 class in a while so I thought I'd catch you up. Tonight is the fourth meeting of our six class session. So far, we've studied space planning, design terms, colors and field drawing. Each student selected a room in their home as their "class project" and we had to draw that room to scale. Yes, that's my room of choice in the picture and it's our master bedroom/sitting room. This room has several "design" challenges so I'm excited to actually go through the space on paper and devise a space plan before the designing begins (pretty cool, huh?)! And, see those little pieces of paper? Those are the furniture cutouts we use to move everything around the room to achieve the designed space--trust me, this method is much easier on the back! Cutting all these little pieces out reminded me of playing paper dolls when I was a little girl. Funny thing, I think I had way more fun than I remember with the paper dolls (yes, I'm a dork, I know)! I am really excited about tonight's class to hear everyone's design ideas for the space. Two (or in this case twelve) heads are better than one!
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The color scheme I used was light yellow, light blue and chocolate. I decided on those colors after finding bedding I loved at a local boutique, Heir Apparent. To add some visual interest, I had two opposite walls painted with stripes and left the other two walls light yellow. The painter was awesome--he did the stripes freehand in half a day!
The furniture came from a really cute store in Tuscaloosa. The crib is convertible which at the time, I thought was a must (oh, the things you learn on your own). I like that we have the option to convert it but when Macklin came along, we decided to move Jackson into a "big boy bed" and keep the crib just as it is--it was a good decision for us.
This dresser was in my room when I was a little girl and it has lots of storage. We didn't really have a space for it in the new house so we opted to move it to the nursery for organizing all the new baby items we were trying to figure out!
This is the sign that hung on our room door at the hospital. A dear friend of mine's dad made it for me and I love it! I painted it and added the ribbon from my baby shower gifts to it so I could hang it. It is very special to me and I will keep it forever!
Macklin's nursery is similar but different in subtle ways. Since we had a toddler on our hands, we were worried about the transition and a new baby. We made a big deal out of Jackson becoming the big brother and him growing into big boy room. With that in mind, I didn't want the new baby to look back and pictures and think he just got his big brother's leftovers so I tried to change things up a bit through accessories and color.
The nursery got a fresh coat of light blue paint on all four walls. It is a very calm and serene color that relaxes you the moment you enter the room. I opted to use the same bedding for Macklin but bought several new crib sheets for a subtle change.
I made the cornice and covered it with a light blue fabric so it would blend in with the walls. To add interest, I hand-painted the crowns in chocolate brown. The white tiles are from Southern Living at Home and I had so many of them, I decided to add them here for some texture.
I added some new artwork and a corner armorie we used in the living room at our old house. We painted it white and removed the bottom doors so we'd have some open storage. My old dresser moved next to the armorie and we moved the changing table to wall opposite the crib.
We bought new Boppy pillow covers and I used one as a "C" (for our last name) on the floor next to the changing table. This nursery has been great and we will be sad to see it go now that Macklin is 18 months old and ready for the next step!
Last night I attended the first session of my interior design class and it did not disappoint! There was a room full of eager folks, ranging in age from 20-50, and everyone was ready to learn about design.
After introductions, a bit of industry small talk and some job market discussion, we got into space planning. Our first exercise was a review of a residential floor plan. The particular floor plan our instructor choose was one in which the clients faced several design issues once the home was complete. Everyone eagerly scoured the plan attempting to find the problems.
Secondly, we went over architecture drawings, measuring to scale and how to measure a space correctly. This discussion brought us to our very first assignment which is a three-part one: (1) get a Benjamin Moore paint deck--check; (2) compile 20 to 30 pictures from magazines of design ideas and rooms we like--check; and (3) select a room in our home as our class project and then measure and draw that room using an architect scale.
Sketches, renderings, architectural drawings and blueprints are like candy to me--I love them all! To say that I am oozing with excitement about measuring and correctly drawing a room in our house is more than an understatement! One of the things I like most about design is seeing the designers drawing actually "come to life" once the space is complete. I am making a trip to the store this afternoon for my architect scale so I can get to work!
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This is the small wall behind our front door as you enter our foyer. I placed a dainty table which I recently purchased at Chelsea Antique Mall. I wanted to use something in this space that wasn't overpowering but allowed for some small accent pieces....
This is the other small wall in our foyer. We used this cabinet in our previous house but I gave it a mini face-lift and added the dark brown accents. I wanted to have a mirror and lamp in this area for use in the evening and decided to keep the accents simple with my estate sale lamp which you may remember from here and some great frames I found at a few yard sales....
This is our dining room which is located just to the left of the foyer. This was one of the first rooms we painted when we moved in a few years ago. It's a fantastic shade of orange with turquoise and white accents and large, farmhouse style furniture for comfortable dining....
Our study is to the right of the foyer and has transom doors for privacy. You may recall this post which is the wall just to the left of these chairs. Currently, we are reevaluating the use of this space but this room is really comfortable and a great place to escape for some quiet time.....
This is the entry hallway. I used this bookshelf from Pier One as a place to display lots of family photographs which can be easily removed before an open house....
This is the TV wall in our keeping room. The cabinet is from Z Gallery and was an excellent purchase--I wish I had another one. It neatly houses my collection of Martha Stewart magazines, design books, pottery and family photographs....
This is another view of our keeping room and it's where we spend the majority of our time. The curtains were my very first sewing project which you can read about here. I used the space underneath the couch table to organize all the boys books and toys in large baskets which provide easy access and clean-up....
This pie-safe serves as a room divider for the keeping room and eat-in kitchen area. We got this piece at Frontera and I must admit it is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I have a set of pottery from my grandmother inside, a fore more design books and some serving pieces for entertaining....
This is a small wall in the back of our eat-in kitchen where I placed our wine table (minus the wine) and some cookbooks I use often....
And this is the space above largest wall of kitchen cabinets. It's hard to tell in this picture but the cabinets are designer cabinets with a glaze topcoat. I was the first to ever pick these cabinets at the design studio and everyone was anxious to see how they would look once installed. They are really neat and I am very happy with my choice.
Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour. More decorating and space redos to come soon!
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