DIY

9 Feature Wall Tips

March 19, 2019

Looking for simple, spring spruce-up tips? In just a few hours, you can transform a blah and boring wall into a design focal point. Here are some simple examples to use as a reference.

Create a Feature Wall in Just a Few Hours

Change the paint color. A new coat of paint may be all you need to make a wall pop. Accent walls are often thought of as bold or bright. However, even subtle changes can be enough to make an impact. See your room through the eyes of a paint palette and choose a color accordingly. Analogous colors are a wise choice since they are different from the root color but not so strikingly different as contrasting colors.
Paint a half wall. If you want something a little different than the traditional accent wall, consider painting a half wall. This trick is smart in smaller apartments or cottages. Using a darker color on the bottom and a lighter one on top will add the pop you want without making the room seem smaller than it is.
Display a collection. Do you have a prized collection? Maybe it’s time to get it off of shelves (or out of boxes) and onto an empty wall. Depending on what it is you collect, you can use shelves, frames or shadow boxes.
Add texture with trim. Texture is a vital part of interior design – and a part that is often overlooked. One way to add texture as well as an upscale finish is to add trim to an otherwise straightforward wall. Check out this craftsman-style entry and living room. Now, imagine it without the beautiful trim pieces. It would look dramatically different.
Create a gallery wall. Get out that shoebox of pictures – or start printing the favorites from your digital collection and create a gallery wall. There are all kinds of ways to cohesively display photos of varying sizes.
Wallpaper it. Don’t forget the power of wallpaper. For many, it’s easier to deal with than paint (clean first but no need to primer…) and there are so many great patterns to choose from. You can take advantage of the ‘half-wall’ idea, by papering half and applying a nice chair-rail trim piece to finish the transition.
Make the most of your fireplace. Are you getting all you can from your fireplace? Here in the Bay Area, fireplaces are used more for accent than for warmth, so it’s important to make the most of it. Using a new paint color above the mantel can give the fireplace wall new life. Then, prioritize the mantel and create a beautiful and/or interesting place to rest the eyes.
Paint or stencil. If you’re an artist, now’s the time to explore your creative side and conjure up a masterpiece to give a wall a facelift. If you aren’t much of an artist, look into stencils. Even the simplest of patterns will transform a wall from normal to absolutely stunning. It’s easier than you think and yet it’s rarely done.
Reflect and shine. Mirrors are a wonderful way to accent your interior design, which is reflected back in duplicate. They also help to increase illumination in an otherwise dim room and can make a small room seem larger. Perhaps it’s time to look for a single, stunning mirror – or create a gallery-type mirrored display. It will dress up a blank wall while providing additional design boost as well.

Creating a feature wall is a simple way to give a room a facelift without having to start over from scratch.

Stripes add pattern, depth and interest to an interior design but when used incorrectly, they can be overkill, crooked or just plain unattractive. In truth, using stripes in interior design isn’t all that different from using stripes in the fashion world. Color, direction and width have a significant impact on how those stripes express themselves on their host.

Tips for Using Stripes to Energize Your Interior Design

With that in mind let’s talk about a few things to consider when using stripes in your interior spaces as well as a few tips on how to use them to their best advantage.

Know the effect your stripes will have. There is no doubt about it, your stripes are bound to cause a shake up of your interior space’s energy. Unless you go for a monochromatic palette with a very slight shade variation between stripes (common in a bedroom or formal living room space) your striped pattern will be energetic. This isn’t a bad thing, but it need to be considered. If you like the idea of stripes but aren’t sure how bold a statement you want to make, consider stripes using very subtle colors or use colors that are analogous on the color wheel, as the more subtle the shade variance, the more calm the overall effect will be.

Which direction should the stripes go? In some cases, you’ll be able to intuit whether or not a space will look better with vertical or horizontal stripes. In others, you may be stuck on the decision. Keep in mind that vertical stripes – especially in narrow widths – make a room seem taller and draw the eye upwards. Horizontal stripes, on the other hand, make a room appear wider and more spacious. Knowing which effect will enhance your room’s decor should determine which stripe direction is best.

Walls versus furnishings. Here’s a good one. If you’ve never worked with stripes in your interior before, I highly recommend you start with furnishings and see what you think before moving on to the walls. Not surprisingly, stripes on the walls – whether painted or papered – are a much bigger time and energy investment. A couch, chair, window treatments, art and other furnishings are much easier to re-sell, reupholster or simply give away or donate if you determine stripes aren’t for you after all.

Stripes on the walls. If you do opt for stripes on the walls, you will have two choices: paint or paper. In either case, I highly recommend you enlist the assistance of a professional unless you are practically a professional painter or wallpaper installer in your own right. I say this because there is one thing that ruins the effect of stylish stripes – when they’re crooked!

It’s not easy to get striped wallpaper to lay straight on your wall – and often, you will learn that it’s your walls that aren’t exactly plumb, making wallpaper application an even greater challenge. Similarly, tracing and taping perfectly straight lines and then painting meticulously enough to keep them smudge free is no easy feat. If stripes are going to be a more permanent feature in your life, I say go professional and make sure they’re done right the first time around.

Don’t be afraid to layer stripes and patterns. I think stripes make a great foundation for pattern layering. You have two colors to work with and now you can start looking for other patterns and textiles that share similar color families or contrast completely, adding further depth and interest to your interior landscape.

Brightening Up Your Whole Home

March 3, 2019

Have a room or corner that looks a little dark or neglected? Perhaps it’s been a while since you took an objective look at your home’s interior. Are the walls a bit scuffed? Are certain furnishings looking a little shabby?

It might be time to brighten things up. A bright home is a cheerful home, welcoming you back from a hard day’s work or inviting guests to come in, relax and stay a while.

If you’re in the process of planning a remodel, you can take more expansive measures to brighten your home, like adding windows, skylights or solar tubes, or redesigning your home’s lighting plan. However, structural changes aren’t necessary to bring some bright cheer into a specific room or to the entirety of your living spaces.

The following are some ideas – some of the grand and some of the quite simple – in order to brighten up your interior design.

Give it a fresh coat of paint

Over the course of time, paint is dulled by pollutants, scuff marks, sun fading and general wear and tear. Because you live in the house, this dulling can go unnoticed. Refresh your paint, however, and you’ll realize how dulled it really was. If you like your current color scheme, your task is easy. If you are ready for a change, do some work with a color wheel or spend time in a home design center to choose a color palette that will give you a fresh new start. Consider using pastels on accent walls, doors or a piece of furniture here and there to add a bright pop of color.

Reupholster, repaint or refinish old furniture

If a chair or sofa has ‘good bones’ you’ll never need to replace it. Well-built furniture from high quality materials lasts for generations, but it’s up to you to give it that new fabric cover, a new coat of paint or to sand and refinish it so it looks it’s best.

My mother had a kitchen table and chair set that had grown downright grimy over the years. She was going to replace it, I advocated simply cleaning it and refinishing it. Getting rid of those layers of sediment that had affixed over the years brightened it up immensely, and brightened that area of the kitchen as a result.

Perk it up with patterns

Rather than repainting or reupholstering, you may find you can perk up a bland space by adding another pattern to the mix. You can do this by adding or swapping your accent pillows with versions that add a new burst of color or pattern into the room. If you’re a little wary of pattern layering, read, “How Many Patterns Can Fit in One Space,” for basics on how to mix and layer patterns without overwhelming a room.

Go light and monochromatic

There is something so soothing about monochromatic designs when they are done well. They are restful but at the same time, the variations in shade and texture create enough depth and interest that they aren’t boring. Lighter shades give a room a brighter and airier feel – Nordic designs are known for this. They can be minimal and yet still manage to convey warmth and comfort.

The kitchen in this Palo Alto home is a prime example of how shades of white and natural wood finishes combine for a light and bright kitchen that is in no way stark or cold.

Redesign the lighting plan

Are you living in a tract home? Odds are you don’t have the benefit of a custom lighting plan. Or, even if you are lucky enough to live in a home with a thoughtful plan, it wasn’t customized to your particular design or collections.

The right lighting plan will keep your interior free of dark corners or harsh shadows. It will provide both task and ambient lighting and it will feature your personal art pieces and collectibles. Even the addition of a few, directable recessed cans or the switching out of a standard light fixture for a customized suspended version can change the way a room looks and feels.

You don’t have to employ an interior designer to benefit from brighter living spaces. Instead, consider consulting with one as a means of gleaning expert tips that you can apply in your home on your own.

Displaying Your Fabulous Collections

January 25, 2019

I once had a wonderful client who collected pigs. The last time I visited her home, she had more than 350 different porcine replicas of all shapes and sizes. When I met her, the bulk of them were jam packed into an entryway curio cabinet, while the rest were scattered about her home or stored in boxes.

While the curio cabinet was fascinating to study, it really wasn’t the best way to display her prized pigs because:

It was overcrowded.
They were mostly the same, small-ish figurine size.
None of the pigs, some of which were old, beautiful and/or valuable ever got to live in the limelight.

She has since passed on, but the lessons I learned while creating different ways to display her abundant collection have served my client roster for many years now.

10 Ways to Let Your Collection Shine

If you aren’t careful, the word Collection can become synonymous with Clutter. Here are 10 ways to make sure that doesn’t become the case with your prized collectibles!

Whittle It Down. There is a danger in letting anyone know you “collect” something; friends and family inundate you with apropos collectibles every holiday, birthday or as souvenirs from their recent travels. This makes for many (maybe even dozens) of items you never would have chosen on your own. Don’t keep a single thing you don’t really like. Go through your current collections and eliminate the ones you think are tacky or just don’t really jive with your preferences. This will keep your collections more stylish.
Use a divided case. Using a divided case is a good way to highlight individual pieces or a few pieces that share a theme. The segregated sections create a literal “frame” around the pieces, making it easier for the eye to take them in one at a time.
Go bonkers. The antidote to eliminating clutter is to display your clutter with style. Build shelves or cubbies to show off every single piece of your collection from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Have a hat collection? Make a hat wall. All those baskets? Hang them all over the room. This is a particularly successful method in an office, a long foyer or entryway or down a long hallway.
Use cabinets with multiple shelves. If you choose to use curio cabinets, select versions that have different shelf heights or depths so the pieces don’t run into one another – creating a featureless sea.
Install upper-wall shelves. If your collectibles are on the bigger side – think lunch boxes, globes, antique hat boxes – create tasteful displays favorite pieces in one or more living spaces. Then, have upper-shelves installed just below the ceiling to display the rest. They end up creating visual interest in an area of wall space that is normally devoid of décor, while elevating the items up and out of the way so they don’t create clutter or take up valuable square footage.
Find a vintage display case. Display them in a case meant for displaying. Scour antique stores and flea marts and keep your eye out for a vintage or quirky display case, like the ones used in old general stores.
Rotate them. One of the ways we improved my aforementioned pig-collecting client’s collection was by rotating them. We cleared out about 75% of her entryway curio cabinet. She culled some of the lesser-loved and just-plain-faded or falling apart members, and then she kept the rest in a closet. Every few months, she rotated the figurines, which kept the collection fresh.
Donate your collection to each room. Rather than having a single space or two that’s devoted to your collection, create small displays in each room of your house, using whatever display method makes the most sense for each room. Perhaps those high-wall shelves make sense for the family room and kitchen, while a sideboard cluster makes sense in the dining room and the kitchen can enjoy an antique spice cabinet used as a display.
Don’t forget the bookshelves. Rows and rows of vertically aligned books are boring. Instead, break up your book collections by stacking some of the books horizontally. Then leave a nice sizable gap to display collectibles before resuming another run of books.
Use corner collections. Keep an eye out for tasteful corner shelves that suit your décor and fill them with your collection. Corners are notorious for being interior design “dead zones,” so move that houseplant elsewhere and create more room for your collection instead.

Do you feel like your collection has grown beyond your ability to display it attractively? Never fear. I firmly believe that “where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

6 Ways To Spruce Up Your Entryway

January 22, 2019

Your porch is all ready to greet your holiday guests when they pull up to the house. But how’s your entryway looking once they cross the threshold? Creating a welcoming and noteworthy entryway makes a wonderful first impression. In fact, the “tone” of the household is set here, so it’s worth taking a moment to assess your entryway and make any small tweaks (or large ones) that can spruce it up and make it worthy of your home.

6 Ideas For Creating an Entryway That is Guest-Ready

Give it a deep clean. These days, many of us enter our homes through a garage and/or kitchen door. Even neighbors and frequent guests may use a side or back door. That means the entryway is often a rather stale and lifeless mausoleum – a collector of corner-anchored fur balls, cobwebs and a layer of dust. So, first things first! Get your bucket and scrup brush, the feather duster and wood polish – and then do a thorough cleaning from top to bottom, including the light fixtures and wood details.
Give it a little color. A fresh coat of paint can continue the goal of the entryway cleanup, making it look even more fresh. Choose a color that complements your current décor – but maybe one that ads a little more warmth or va-va-voom to the space.
Create a wall gallery. When guests walk in the front door, what do they see? Is there a blank wall ahead or alongside of them? Create a more interesting visual by using a single, striking piece of art – or arrange an eclectic cluster from mismatched pieces you have stuck away. I’ve even seen clients frame scraps of unused wallpaper from other rooms in the house, which is a fun way to “set the tone,” as I mentioned above.
Add or change out the area rug or runner. Do you have a welcome mat only? Anchor the entryway space a little more using a properly sized area rug. If your entryway forms a narrow hallway that spills into the rest of the home, use a runner that draws the eye and leads guests “down the red carpet”. Make sure your front door can clear it easily and that it doesn’t get caught up on any other furnishings.
Add an interesting light fixture. Odds are your entryway has a ceiling-mounted or suspended fixture. But, is it truly interesting? If you moved into a subdivision, odds are you chose from a standard collection or a home where the standard option was chosen for you. Switch it out for something more interesting. A table with a lamp or a floor lamp is another homey addition, and it will create a nice ambient blow in the evening time. Whatever you do, make sure the light isn’t harsh or glaring, which can cause people to squint when entering from the outdoors on a dark night.
Take advantage of reflection. If your foyer is tiny, take advantage of a mirror or reflective surfaces. Not only will they provide the illusion of more space, when they reflect the existing space back at you, they will also capitalize on any natural or artificial light. If the space allows, be thoughtful about what is reflected in the mirror, placing an attractive or interesting object directly opposite if possible.