How To Create The Decor You’ll Love In Any Home

Even If You Don’t Have The Architecture And The Budget You Think You Need

We all do it.  We zip through Pinterest, Instagram and places like Houzz, and find rooms we love.  Entire houses in fact.  We save the photos and may even start dissecting and researching to see how to make these visions come to life in our home.  Before long we hit a snag.  For starters,  the architecture in the rooms we love is the exact opposite of ours.  Or the first piece of furniture we price is what we hoped to spend on the entire space.  Perhaps the paint color on the walls, so recently finished you can still smell paint, came out different from in the photo you used as your inspiration.  Sound familiar?  Designing a home, your home, does not have to be like this.  Designers don’t necessarily have a bag of secrets but we do follow one rule on nearly every project….

Designers Work With The Concept Of A Design And Space Above All Else

So yes, we like for you to show us a photo that connects with you.  We love it when we are able to show you how the idea of the design can work with your space.  Many times, all you need to implement the design is a little confidence that your efforts will produce the concept.

Let’s look at several rooms that appeal to us.  Not only because the owner/designer has done outstanding jobs with scale, balance, selections of color palettes and furnishings, but also because the concept of these spaces can be done in most homes.

SMALL NONDESCRIPT ROOM

Nearly every abode has a small room.  In larger homes it can be a rarely used living room.  In apartments it may be the main area where everything has to happen.  Perhaps it is technically a bedroom that can be repurposed.  Flooring may be a generic carpet, or some kind of hard service.  In many cases, there are rooms in our homes that we sometimes don’t use to their full potential.  Regardless of where your small room is located, it can become a very inviting space with a few key pieces and some basic good design elements.

What We Like About This Room

• The walls are unadorned with any moldings and are a very neutral color.
• A comfortable conversation area for at least two is defined with one piece of upholstery, a central table and an area rug.
• A larger case good, a console in this case, in a stained wood brings warmth to the color palette and creates a foundation of balance to the scale of the room.
• Both the console and the cocktail table offer storage and decor features with the mix of woods and metals in the decor.
• Contemporary art hung close together create the illusion of one larger piece and is a nice juxtapose to the funky animal sculpture and the traditional mirror.
• Use of a statement overhead light fixture and contrasting fireplace paint color bring architectural detail at a moderate cost.

A NARROW ROOM WITH HIGH CEILINGS

Historical homes often have glorious rooms with high ceilings and fantastic moldings that have stood the decor changes of many decades.  The character comes from worn wood flooring, layers of paint and a mixture of several generations worth of furnishings.  Much of the draw to rooms like these is that they are intimate, or in other words small.

How To Achieve History In A Newer Space

• Develop a plan with wall and ceiling moldings that is not the standard big box or builder grade base and crown.  Even oversize ceiling and floor moldings can be boring.  Panel moldings are not expensive and can transform a room when installed with intention.
• Rethink the conventional “white” trim and doors in a space.  Also consider using a flatter sheen than semi gloss on moldings.  Historical paints rarely had a sheen.
• Choose a color palette that allows everything in the room to relate to each other.  Select wall colors last.
• Pay attention to the doors in the space.  Are they as interesting as they can be?  Are they just like your neighbor’s?
• Consider using more modern design for fireplaces and lighting, to contrast the traditional moldings.
• Select furnishings that are appropriate size and scale for the space and individually unique.  Mix metals, acrylics, woods and textiles.  Go easy on the number of pieces of wall art.
• Create flooring that appears to have some age.
• Filter natural light coming into the space.  Use a dimmer on all artificial lighting.  Use large wall mirrors to capitalize and expand the daylight available.

In every decor, and in every room, it can be as simple as using the right furnishings to create the “feelings” we want to portray about ourselves.  Today the trend to do with less is often misinterpreted to mean nearly nothing.  We work with our clients to use art, furniture, lighting, and accessories that have meaning and are truly an enjoyable part of their home’s decor.  An otherwise uninspiring room can be transformed with our personal choices.

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