interior

The Art Of Flower Display

August 31, 2019

With the return of spring comes the return of flowers – and flowering branches – which can make a tremendous addition to your interior design. While vases are lovely, sometimes it’s fun to think outside the vase, finding unique containers in which to show off your garden’s bounty.

10 New Ways to Display Your Flower Arrangements

While you’re in the process of spring cleaning and organizing, start thinking in terms of reduce-reuse-recycle to find eclectic ways to use a variety of containers and vessels.

Teacups in saucers. In addition to being a sweet way to show off individual blooms or small clusters, this is also a good method for getting that collection of antique teacups and saucers out on display. They look sweet on shelves or small end tables or you can line them up as a centerpiece for the dining room table.
Children’s rain boots. Kids grow in and out of their galoshes so quickly, but you can put them to use year after year as a watertight floral vase. It’s a fun way to add color and interest and a little something different to the mix. They’ll work indoors but will also serve as a clever springtime addition to porches or hanging from the front window ledges.
Recycled bottles. Use colorful or beautifully shaped bottles solo or in groups. Rinsed out bottles make a lovely home for a tall, stalk-like blooms. You may want to anchor them on the bottom with tacky putty in case they’re top-heavy to protect glass from toppling over and breaking in a strong breeze.
Watering cans. Have a watering can that has rusted through? Turn it into a flower container with a florist’s frog in the middle to retain moisture and hold flowers in place.
Colorful pots. Rather than planting a pot, insert a frog and use the pot as a display for groups of stalk-like flowers or tall cut grasses.
Conch shells. Are you a fan of beach house décor? Put those conch shells to use by flipping them open-side-up and sticking a bloom or two inside. With a little arranging, you can come up with some gorgeous looks, including cascading blooms or sweet succulent gardens. These are a fun surprise on book shelves or window sills.
Jars, jars and jars. Even if you are a serial-recycler, it can be tough to throw away all those jars left over from foodstuffs. Once the labels are soaked off, however, those empty jars make a perfect vessel for displaying flower arrangements or a single, stunning blossom. You can also use them to starting new plants from houseplant cuttings – kids will enjoy watching the roots begin to sprout and grow. You can tie a ribbon or colored raffia around the necks for color and a little traditional flair.
Printed tin boxes. Prop open the lid of an old tin box and you have the perfect container for flowers. Tin boxes come in all shapes and sizes and are a fun theme as you coordinate the right tins for the right locations and rooms.
Pitchers. I have found stunning pitchers for a song at local thrift stores and flea markets. You can store them easily in a box in between times and use different sizes, shapes, patterns and colors to suit your seasonal needs or the whimsy of your moods.
Coffee Cans. A coffee can will serve as the foundation for a myriad of external decorating motifs. From asparagus spears, upright and tied with a bow, to twigs of various shapes and sizes, seashells, glass beads and more. Get creative and enjoy transforming old coffee cans into shabby-chic delights.

Creating A Warm And Inviting Dining Room

August 28, 2019

It’s time to do a bit of fall cleaning, change the linens on the guest room bed, and get your house in company order.

Holiday season is entertaining season, and that means your dining room will be seeing a lot more action over the course of the next few months. Let’s look at ways to create a warm and inviting dining room – or dining room area – to welcome your family and friends.

Tips for making your dining room more warm and inviting

Some of the following tips are larger projects (in which case you’ll want to take action sooner rather than later), others can be done within a matter of hours or minutes.

Open it up. Do you live in a smaller or older bay area home? Open floor plans have only become popular in the last couple of decades. Older homes are often much more compartmentalized, and this can make it harder to entertain the way you’d like. If you have a formal dining room that is rarely used, consider opening it up to the larger living space. In some cases, this may kick-start you into a full remodel, in order to transform your layout into an open floor plan. In others, you may simply decide to expand the dining room entrance so it’s larger and provides better flow for sight lines and available light. If you have a galley or small kitchen, expanding the entrance to the adjacent dining room might improve the feel of your kitchen design as well.

Get rid of the clutter. If you don’t use your formal dining room all that often, there’s a good chance that the area has become cluttered with art projects, scrapbooking materials, this year’s pertinent financial and tax documents, upcoming holiday gifts, and so on. If there’s one thing that doesn’t make a guest feel warm and welcome it’s a big pile of clutter. Get the whole household on board and start tackling the clutter ASAP so your dining room will be ready to welcome guests with feelings of calm, comforting joy. Feeling stuck in your de-cluttering process? Read, my Guide to What Stays and What Goes.

Re-think your area rug. If you have hard surface flooring, consider adding an area rug that warms up the space a bit more. Look for a rug that will enhance the room’s textural appeal – perhaps a little shaggier or a natural, woven rug would balance things better. Or, look at the colors present in your current design and choose a rug that reflects and echoes the warmer hues.

Re-paint with a darker shade. Yes! That darker brown you’ve coveted, that rich just-right scarlet you’ve always wondered about, that delightfully autumnal apricot that makes an appearance in the art hung over the sideboard – now is the time to embrace those hues and paint your dining room walls. The dining room is one space where a cozier, closer atmosphere is welcome – so you don’t have to worry so much about creating that “open and spacious” feeling we prefer in kitchens or living rooms.

Be thoughtful about accommodations. I’m a big fan of designing a home for multiple generations. This benefits all age groups, and all levels of physical ability. There’s nothing that makes a wheelchair- or walker-bound guest feel less warm and welcome than not being able to maneuver to their seat, or feeling bumpy and clunky as they move through the space. Think about your dining room from the perspective of guests that span a range of ages, sizes, shapes and abilities – and see where changes might be in order.

Fifty Shades of White

August 25, 2019

Are you tempted to decorate a room using only shades of white? It’s a brave endeavor, but when done well all white rooms are absolutely stunning. They make you stop in your tracks and take a big, deep, pleasurable breath. The effect should be completely relaxing and provide an inviting space for you and your guests to sit down and enjoy rare moments of uncluttered mental and physical space.

Tips for Decorating an All White Room

First, let’s eliminate some of the negative connotations that go along with all white interiors. The most common, of course, is that they are difficult to keep clean. Keeping an all white room clean is a challenge, that’s true. They are not recommended if the room will be in the constant flight pattern of children or pets. That being said, being smart about your fabric and furnishings choices will go a long way towards helping you design an all white space that can, indeed, be kept white.

Secondly, all white rooms have a reputation for being sterile. Au contraire! This has much more to do with design and materials choices than it does about the fact that white spaces are boring. White is an accumulation of all the colors in the spectrum, so choosing varying shades, paying attention to lighting and using the right accents, your white room will be visually interesting.

Now that we’ve dispelled your doubts, let’s move on to the tips and tricks that will make your white room a showpiece in your home.

Choose the right white(s). Just as there are varying shades of blue or red, there are a variety of whites. Some are cooler and cast blue or grey tones. Others are warmer and will look more creamy. Selecting the right whites for your tastes is the first step. Typically, cooler whites are used in modern designs and warmer, creamier whites are used in traditional and transitional spaces.

A modern space will lean toward cool whites as well as linear accents and smooth surfaces with an occasional textural pop. You may opt for accents like metallics, glass or mirrored furniture that add visual interest and dimension but don’t veer from the modern aesthetic.
A traditional space will have more creamy whites and play up textures using lace, wool and distressed wood furnishings. Shiny accents and smooth surfaces are usually kept to a minimum. Vintage and antique furnishings will also enhance this aesthetic.

You must have texture. Those cold and clinical rooms we talked about above? Those are almost always the byproduct of a designer who didn’t pay attention to the textural elements. If color isn’t going to be the way you draw the eye, then texture is a must. There should be elements of soft and hard, low-profile fibers and more wooly or nubbly ones. Use a variety of finishes from high-gloss to matte sheens. Together, your varying textures will create a more interesting environment. Try to mix elements as well – wood, metal, glass, stone, natural fibers, etc.

Use stunning accents. As an interior decorator, I can never advocate “standard” accessories. I feel every piece should have a specific purpose. That being said, an all white room needs to have exceptionally purposeful accents and accessories since every angle, and every wall hanging, will draw the eye.

Getting Creative With Holiday Lights

August 22, 2019

Watching the light shows pop up one by one throughout the neighborhood is a highlight of the holiday season. It’s pretty amazing how people can use the same basic equipment – strings of white or colored lights – and come up with such varied results. There are no two houses alike.

That being said, there are certainly differences in how the holiday landscape lighting presents itself to the world. If you’re going to invest the time and energy it takes to string all those holiday lights, you want passersby reactions to be a bit more enthusiastic than “Good effort!”

Tips for Creating a Holiday Lights Display That Wins Best In Show

Here are some tips for creating a holiday lights display that makes your house an annual “favorite” for people of all ages.

Have a Plan. The difference between a family that has a plan and one that just strings lights up willy-nilly is pretty obvious. The interesting thing, however, is that both households are doing almost the same amount of work – but with very different results. Instead of just throwing strands of lights up here and there – come up with a plan.

Light shortages: If you don’t have enough to run a consistent set of lights all the way around the perimeter of your roof trim, fully-illuminate a tree instead and then add a couple more strands to complete the front perimeter next year.
Color variations: Think about the best use of color. Perhaps the white lights will look best on the house while the colored lights will look festive outlining your trees or a couple of lampposts. Don’t buy too many strands of different colored lights, instead – concentrate on a few complementary colors that you use in balance with one another.
Play with shapes. Analyze the outline of your landscape – including both the hardscape and plants – and note the variations in shapes. Sometimes it’s fun to tally what you have the most of – triangles, rounds or squares – and then only accent those with the lights so there’s a bit of continuity in the overall appearance.

Create a Theme. Having a theme doesn’t mean you have to set up Santa’s Workshop (although that’s fine too) but it is beneficial to come up with cohesive idea of sorts. Do you want to go all white? How about trees only? How many figurines do you want, and how many is too much? Do you want the overall effect to be traditional, entertaining or modern? It can be disconcerting when a stately home has illuminated garlands wrapped around porch railings and columns (traditional) with a few cheesy blow up toys like Santa and his Reindeer (entertaining).

Think in Layers. Sometimes, a good way to divide your landscape is by thinking in terms of layers, then you can alternate the light colors accordingly. Maybe the bottom half of trees are white while the tops are colored. Maybe the house is white, the shrubs in the front are multi-colored and then individual bushes or hardscape features are each a separate color. This is an organized way to go about it and it will always yield positive results.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Simplicity. There is a man on my street who does the same thing every year. He uses all white lights and strings them around the base and throughout the bare branches – including the individual branches – of three trees in his yard. That’s it – no lights on the house, none on the shrubs and not a single red bow or candy cane to be seen. And yet, the effect is completely stunning – especially in the years when we have a freak snow storm. Moral of the story – simplicity can be a wondrous thing.

Making A Statement With Oversized Art

August 18, 2019

Are you done with organizing all your smaller prints and family photos on gallery walls and shelves? Perhaps it’s time to think bigger – like, a LOT bigger – and go oversized. Contrary to what you might think – it can be easier to deal with oversized art because unlike its smaller, normal-sized counterparts, there are only so many places you can install it.

Decorating With Oversized Art

The fun thing about oversized paintings, photos and murals is that they are unable to be ignored. They say, “Look at me and pay homage…” the way an average still-life or a lovely, autographed photo might not.

That being said, large paintings and art pieces become a part of your interior design rather than being an accent, and for that reason – it can take a little bit of planning, rearranging or even redecorating in order to make the statement you want to make with oversized pieces.

Clear a wall and make space. It goes without saying that an impressive work of art will requires an equally impressive display space. And, in the name of balance, it will also need an appropriate amount of white space (or whatever color wall you have) around it. Thus, you’re usually looking at the sacrifice of an entire wall, the whole section of wall on a stair landing, a half-wall dividing two open spaces, or an something like that.
Use a simple frame. In most cases, a large canvas will not require much in the way of framework. Depending on the size of the wall in question, you may not need a frame at all. Like I mentioned above, the wall space around the work of art can serve as a frame on its own. Otherwise, it may only require the simplest of frames so nothing detracts from the focus of the artwork.
Echo the art in your interior design. Of course, one of the most striking ways to make a large piece of art a part of your living space, and vice versa, is to echo elements of the work in other design accents and features. This can be done via color, shapes, pattern or theme. It can also include the echoing of texture.
Enhance your minimalist motif. Are you a modern minimalist? If so, it can be difficult to strike the balance between a room that is stylishly minimal and one that just looks empty and boring. Counterintuitively, more can be less when it comes to oversized artworks. A large canvas or a detailed wall mural will fill up the space, making your solo chair and end table, or a couple of comfortable poufs, look completely natural and not at all overshadowed by the otherwise empty floor space.
Do consider proportions. While the above is true in minimal designs, more typical home designs will need to take proportion into consideration. Large art can dwarf standard size furnishings so be aware. You may need to purchase new furniture, or do a little furniture arranging, so the furnishings “fit” the artwork.
Think about using panels. If you live in a small space, are intimidated by the scope and breadth of a single-large panel, or have windows that ruin your grand oversized art plan – not to worry. Take a different approach and look for a large piece that is intentionally divided into panels. The panels can have just a few inches or a couple of feet in between them. They can be offset at angles, which can trick the eye in a room with low ceilings – making it appear taller than it is. Or, you can place it along the wall without a care for the windows that interrupt it.
Take a softer approach. Similarly, if you like the idea of a single, large canvas but don’t want it to take over the whole room – look for abstracts or landscapes in soft, pale tones. The piece will still make a statement without overwhelming your current design.