Category Archives: Design Inspiration

Metallic Backsplash Adds Style

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metallic-backsplash-adds-stylewBathrooms are by their very nature small. This can make them somewhat of a throwaway room when it comes to both design and decorating. But if you’re smart, a bathroom is the best place to splurge since it doesn’t take much square footage, or dollars, to make a big splash. Let’s take a close look at this bath vanity and see how smart design and décor makes a difference.

Oil-rubbed bronze fixtures: There’s something about oil-rubbed bronze that draws the eye. Maybe because we all grew up with classic chrome, seeing this look captures attention. It feels old-style without being too traditional. It also works well with granite like the choice shown here. The brown and gold really suits the soft dark tones of the bronze fixture.

Granite with personality: When you have a limited amount of counter space, choosing granite with a lot of contrast and veining really works. In this bathroom, the countertop adds drama and suits the simple white sink.

Metallic tile backsplash: This metallic is not the same finish as the faucet, but the dark tones help them set each other off when seen together. When the space is limited, choosing a tile with this much texture and a metallic finish means that it won’t be ignored by guests.

Framed mirror: The ultimate finishing touch is a framed mirror. Instead of a simple mounted wall mirror, the frame creates the feeling of completion that makes this bathroom something special.

Merging Indoor and Outdoor Living

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merging-indoor-and-outdoor-livingwLiving in Arizona, we’re lucky to be able to spend more time outside than in other parts of the country. That’s one reason why it’s nice to look for a home that allows you to merge indoor and outdoor living.

Whether you’re entertaining or just enjoying time with the family, it’s a pleasure to be able to move from inside to outside as you wish. It might be that your family enjoys breakfast outdoors once the temperatures drop enough to spend early mornings with doors and windows open. Some family members may just prefer to take their coffee and the morning paper outside.

If you have houseguests who come from the East, chances are they’ll take advantage of any time they get to spend out in the sun. How about a lunch of cheese and fruit on the patio? Or you could offer different cold cuts and potato salad or coleslaw. With this home it’s just a few steps from the kitchen to the back yard, so it’s easy for people to fill their plates and go back for seconds.

Maybe spending time outside gives some family members a chance to enjoy a little alone time, settling down in the yard with a good book or relaxing on a lounge chair for a nap. Have you considered putting up a hammock? It could become a popular feature in your yard.

With this generous sliding glass door that also includes two floor-to-ceiling windows, the outside is always calling and the inside is always near. So choose your spot. Going from one to the other is a breeze.

 Make Room for Art

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make-room-for-artwWhen decorating a home, many people focus only on the big items such as furniture and then slowly add accessories over time, and this is a good approach. But while you’re furnishing your new home, be sure to include art in your plans.

If you’ve been living in an apartment, you may find that your current collection of wall art looks rather small in your new larger rooms. This photo shows one way to deal with this – by hanging two smaller pieces together. This way the art takes up more space. Two or more pieces like these – with the same size, the same kind of frames and the same feel to the art – work well as a team on the wall.

Don’t limit your art thinking to walls. Notice the book set on the stand on the counter to the right of the photo. With the luscious photo on the cover, this book positions itself nicely as another art piece. In fact, if you didn’t look closely, it could be a small canvas set on an easel. You may have books or other elements that can double as art in your home if you take a look around.

If you would like more art on your walls but your budget is limited, consider photographs. Visit the Library of Congress photo collection online to view a rich choice of historical and other photos. You can have these reproduced for a minimal cost and frame them to create instant art at an extremely reasonable price. And family photos can be enlarged at your closest warehouse store at good rates.

Thrift shops and consignment stores are also a great resource for art at good prices. This is also an excellent place to pick up inexpensive frames. Just replace the art you don’t like with something that you do.

Take advantage of all your options to add art to your home. It can contribute color, interest, style and personality to your décor.

Integrating Space in an Open Floor Plan

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integrating-space-in-an-open-floor-planwLiving with an open floor plan has so many advantages.  The space works well for families and entertaining and arrangements can be modified to expand and contract living and dining areas to meet specific needs. However, open architecture does present decorating challenges. Here are some tips to make your open living space work well.

Define living areas: Use furniture, area rugs and artwork to define each living area. Without walls you can have the back of a sofa, a bookshelf, or a table set limits for a particular space.  Notice in this photo from the Cooley Station community how the sofa defines the end of the dining area and the start of the living area. Large pieces of furniture like sofas are some of the best tools for defining each space.

Create transitions: The plants on the kitchen counter and the floor and artwork make a softer natural transition between the kitchen and the dining area. Without these, the adjustment from one area to another can feel too abrupt. Having two larger houseplants in the dining area also helps define that space and keeps it connected.

Use lighting: Chandeliers such as the one over the dining table also help create a specific mood in one area of a large living space. Often the family room will have a ceiling fan. Our brains turn those light fixtures into room definitions.

Use color: Pulling the same accent colors throughout the space helps everything feel integrated. Throw pillows, area rugs, artwork and accessories in this room all use dark rust and peach tones to tie this living space together.

Guest Bath with Color

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Guest-Bath-with-ColorwYou don’t have to put color in your permanent elements to make a room colorful. Let’s take a look at the savvy choices that make this guest bathroom something special.

Tile mosaic: Although this mosaic contains only neutral tones, the variety of dark and light tiles open the space for color. When you add bright color near neutrals with strong contrasts, the colors will reflect onto the neutrals, pulling color into their space. Take a look at this photo. It looks like the backsplash mosaic has some color in it although it doesn’t.

Art: Art is one of the easiest ways to add color. these two canvases are different yet link together by color, style and subject matter. It’s smart to start choosing your color palette in a room like this one by choosing art. The rest of the color can be drawn out of the selection of prints or canvases you choose.

Towels: Today you can get towels in any color range from vivid almost-neon tones to soft muted shades. It’s smart to choose two or at the most three colors for a bathroom towel set so that the colors work well together yet provide enough contrast to make the space interesting.

Shower curtain: If your bathroom needs a shower curtain, consider adding a floor-to-ceiling decorative curtain like this one. This pulls the colors from the art and towels to another location in the bathroom and adds additional patterns to the mix. Altogether a nice addition to the space.

Accessories: The flowers are a bright spot in the bathroom. You don’t need a lot of accessories for this bath. Just enough to add interest and one more spot of color.

When you decorate your bathroom, don’t be afraid to add color wherever you can. You will also be adding warmth, personality and interest.

Dare to go Dark

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dare-to-go-dark2wJust how daring are you willing to be with your master bedroom’s look? How about painting a wall this dark? It may seem scary but it works remarkably well thanks to several thoughtful decisions.

Natural light: This wall comes between two generously-sized windows. The dark dark wall provides an inviting contrast to the natural light on either side. This is further supported by having curtains on only one side of each window, allowing the dark wall to seem as if it is part of the entire window display.

Light bedding: Yes, there are darker pillows, but the primary bedspread color is cream. Once again this places light right near the dark wall. The pillows pull that spread and the wall together, serving as an effective transition.

Rich color scheme: By bringing rich colors into the room, the dark wall feels like a natural continuation of the color choices. Rich and dark tones complement each other.

Gold: Gold always works well with black. In this case the trim on the nightstands and lamps combine with the dark wood to create a warm rich feel.

Plenty of light: Even at night the ceiling fan with lights and the matching lamps on either side of the bed will keep the room well lit.

Would you like to have a bedroom with this look of drama? How about considering a dark accent wall? To see this room in person, visit Fulton Home’s Cooley Station.

Comics Influence Boy’s Room

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comic-books-influence-boy's-roomw - CopyIf you’re having trouble coming up with a good theme for a boy’s bedroom, take a clue from the comics. With their bright strong-contrast colors and powerful graphics they can quickly turn a room into an attention-grabber. Let’s take a look at how this room became a comic-book lover’s dream with very little effort or cost.

Bedding: Children can shift interests often, so it’s smart to choose lower-cost theme items for their bedrooms, allowing you to change things out in a few years as their tastes evolve. Bedding is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make a change. A bedspread, shams and a throw pillow start the theme off with recognizable yet relatively generic comic-book images such as stars and lightning bolts. The black European shams on the bed work well with the look yet can be recycled when your child moves on to other interests.

Paint: The red stripe on the wall behind the bed does double duty. It operates as a visual headboard and it dramatically links all the vivid elements together with their common red theme. This is also an easy-to-replace choice. Simply paint the wide stripe in another color or paint the entire wall.

Art: If you have a talented artist in the family, then you can have them create images like these on blank canvases with acrylic paint. If not, look for the right art in comic book stores and poster shops. You might even want to frame some favorite comic book covers or pictures of heroes to personalize the room.

This is a fun theme, so have fun with it. You could add shelves for action figures or table space for piles of comics. This could be your comic-loving child’s best dream come true!

Ceiling Makes Room Special

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ceiling-design-makes-room-specialwWhen planning a home’s décor, most of us start with the flooring, then move on color choices. We may select a daring paint option for a room like the almost-black on this bedroom’s left wall. Window coverings often come next, followed by larger, then smaller pieces of furniture. We finish up with accessories and art.

But one thing we generally don’t do is worth the extra step. Before the flooring, the paint and the furniture, take a minute to look up. What does your ceiling have to offer in a room? If you’re stuck with one of those popcorn ceilings from a few decades ago, it may be time to hire someone to redo it. That will add value and selling your home will be easier if you lose that dated look. However, what about having a ceiling that makes the room something special?

This master bedroom gains luxury and style before you even notice the walls, floor or furniture with its dramatic coffered ceiling. The molding running along the inside adds interest and a bit of traditional flavor to a non-traditional approach. The lights and ceiling fan create shadows that make the entire ceiling intriguing. The white molding works well with the dark ceiling color to create contrast and keep the room feeling cozy and inviting.

When you’re planning a new home, think about every surface. Adding molding, wainscoting, lighting and ceiling architecture becomes the gift that keeps on giving – making your home a special one-of-a-kind place for you and your family.

Balance Formal Casual Traditional Contemporary

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balance-of-casual-and-formal-traditional-and-contemporarywIs this dining room formal or casual? Traditional or contemporary? Actually, it has elements of all four. Let’s take a look at how it’s put together and why it works so well.

Formal: The basic chandelier has classic lines, even crystal pendants, to maintain a formal traditional theme. The table also shows its formal roots with the dark-wood finish, turned legs and detailed edging around the top.

Casual: the choice of placemats and napkins in bright colors and patterns rather than the more classic white tablecloth approach says casual. Also, choosing a simple fabric for the dining chairs’ upholstery maintains a more casual feel.

Traditional: The dining table and chairs as well as the chandelier’s basic lines are classic and traditional but…

Contemporary: Choosing the circular frame around the chandelier takes it out of the last century and bumps it firmly into this one. The stoneware is also modern in line and glaze.

Overall, this dining room combines many design approaches into one cohesive whole. It works for several reasons. The proportions fit well together and there is a nice mix of dark and light. It takes courage to blend these different approaches to décor together, but when it works – as it does in this case – it is a pleasure to see.

Step Up to Autumn: Décor

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autumn-decor-morguewebWe’re moving into autumn, but here in Arizona it still feels like summer. You can change your home’s mood to reflect the season even if outside we’re still dealing with temperatures in the 90’s. Here are some tips to give your home that fall flavor.

Wreaths: Start your autumn mood with a wreath on your front door. Many hobby shops and florists have options available for purchase, or make your own with dried flowers, leaves and seed pods. You can add multi-colored ears of corn and even small pumpkins to make it even more interesting.

Fabrics: Change out throw pillows and add lap quilts across the tops of sofas and chairs. Although you have no need for their warmth at this time of year, they still set the mood. There are lots of choices available in fall colors in almost any store. Consider some of the discount stores for a bevy of fall tones on a budget.

Accessories: Why not select one or two surfaces in your home to host a fall display? Start with an interesting branch from outside to integrate everything, add a few pumpkins – fabrics such as burlap help create the mood. Although out leaves aren’t turning here, you can pick up a few fall leaf branches or garlands at your nearest hobby shop to add the sense of autumn. Finish up with some acorns or nuts in their shells.

With a few strategic décor decisions, you can create an autumn mood in Arizona even if it still feels like summer.