Category Archives: Design Inspiration

Decorating with Rustic Contemporary Style

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When you first hear contemporary and rustic together you may think they don’t fit. How can the clean, sleek lines of contemporary style work with the imperfect, rough surfaces and designs of rustic style?

 

 

This is a surprising style combination that does indeed work, and work well together. The saying opposites attract certainly applies to contemporary rustic style.

 

This living room is a beautiful example of the two styles working together to create a new and interesting style.  Contemporary rustic style isn’t the same as eclectic style, which marries a few different styles into a single room.  Contemporary rustic is much more streamlined and has its roots firmly in contemporary style.  Rustic additions add a handcrafted element to the smooth, machine made surfaces of contemporary furniture.

 

The sleek contemporary chaise in this living room is paired with a rustic low bench that is used as a coffee table. A roughly carved bowl and primitive sculpture create a vignette on the table. Other rustic elements in the room include the floating shelves. These shelves appear to be made of reclaimed wood, a popular material in contemporary rustic design. In fact, reclaimed wood floors are a popular choice for contemporary spaces.  The reclaimed wood floors add texture and interest to the minimalist designs of contemporary style.

 

Mixing styles like rustic and contemporary is about finding harmony between the two styles.  This room is successful because it retains its contemporary style but includes a few handcrafted rustic elements. This rule would work for global or ethnic accents in a contemporary space, too.

Home Decor – Purple Grows Up

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Purple is becoming a popular decorating color in all areas of the home.  You may have never considered decorating in purple but it is a big trend.  Yes, lavender and pink have been a popular color combination for a girl’s bedroom as long as girls have loved purple, but now purple is growing up.

 

Sophisticated shades of purple from deep plum to whispery silvers with lavender hues are showing up in living rooms, dining rooms and master bedrooms.  This color can work in either masculine or feminine or gender neutral spaces.  It is lovely in a room with a cool, tonal color palette such as this dining room.  Or it can be paired with its cool color sisters of blue and green.  Mix lavender with gold accents for a complementary color palette that feels sophisticated and serene. Plum and browns create a rich, dramatic feeling room.

 

The lavender chairs in this modern dining room have a little more pink or red in the color than the walls and this allows them to pop despite this being a monochrome palette.  The pendant lights have more blue undertones and being a darker hue helps them stand out.

 

Even monochrome room needs a few neutral shades to help balance the color.  The light wood and jute rug in this dining area act as both a neutral shade and a contrasting color because they have yellow undertones that give them some warmth.  Black or white would also work in this space.  A white parson’s table would be great with the modern chairs and pendant lights.

 

Setting the Stage for Good Design: Room Layout

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Creating a welcoming room begins with the furniture arrangement. This living room is a great example of a balanced room layout. It’s easy because the room is essentially a square, which lends itself to a balanced room.  Let’s take a look and see what works in this room, and what could be changed.

 

First, the fireplace is situated between a pair of windows, becoming the focal point of the room.  This way the seating can be set up to face both the view out the windows and the fireplace.

 

Second, the seating arrangement is nicely focused on the fireplace with a pair of sofas facing one another for conversation. Two chairs face the fireplace and are situated in close proximity to each other and the sofas, creating a tight arrangement that is perfect for socializing.  The coffee table anchors the seating arrangement.  It is large enough for drinks, snacks and even board games.

 

These are things the room gets right, but the design stops there.  Finishing touches are missing; the things that make a room feel like home need to be added. Blank walls are begging to be filled.  Accessories need to be added. A rug would center the seating area. The black and white palette could be kept or color could be added in the form of accent pillows, books, vases, objects and throws. Accessories would also add texture to the space.

 

Building off the basics is easy if you get the bones of the room established first.  This is where a drawing of the room can come in handy before you begin moving around the furniture. Plan first—move second.

How to Create a Eclectic Modern Living Room

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Eclectic is a big buzz word in design right now. Seamlessly mixing styles to create a space that feels collected and personal takes a good eye and a sense of balance.  Eclectic is not just throwing together a hodgepodge of things and hoping they work together.  Successfully mixing styles is a matter of creating harmony with elements that do not match.

 

Adding eclectic style to an existing décor can help break up the feeling of a furniture showroom where everything matches.  The furniture showroom look and sets of furnishings for the dining room, living room or bedroom feels a little outdated. Don’t worry if you have a living room or bedroom set, there are easy ways to give your room an updated, eclectic look with accessories and lighting.

 

This living room is a great example of an eclectic modern room.  You’ll notice that the chairs and sofa all match and were probably bought as a set.  The coffee table is also modern and its clean lines complement the sofa and chairs.  These coordinating pieces give the room a strong modern base on which to add eclectic pieces.

 

Accent pieces, lighting and accessories are used to introduce eclectic style in this living room.  The Chinese cabinet brings in a bit of global style. The traditional crystal chandelier adds a formal touch and a bit of glamour. Patterned accent pillows are a great place to bring in patterns from other styles, too.

 

So if you want to achieve an eclectic style, start with what you have as the base. Build on it by adding in accent pieces, accessories and lighting in different styles to make the room reflect your personality and interests.

 

Traditional Dining Room Decor

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Formal dining rooms often follow a pattern in their design. Many formal dining rooms have a traditional style even if the rest of the home is more casual and comfortable.  In many minds, the dining room should be formal and for many of us formal means traditional.  This is the room where we dress up for dinner and celebrate holidays and milestones.

 

Achieving a formal feel in the dining room is often done with traditional design elements and furnishings.  Even if your style is more modern, these traditional elements are the foundation of any formal dining room.  You can take the traditional elements and modernize them to suit your taste, but you’ll find that you use the same pieces as a traditional style dining room does.

 

The dining table is the focal point of the room. Surrounded by a set of six, eight, ten or twelve chairs, the table is centered in the room by a light fixture, most often a chandelier.  The chandelier is typically hung thrity-something inches above the table, low enough to relate to the table and high enough not to interfere with the sight lines from the chair.  Other pieces in a traditional dining room include a sideboard or buffet and often a mirror above it.

 

This dining room has all the classic elements of a traditional dining room. Crown molding, a chair rail and picture molding below add a formal feel to the room.  The large area rug ties in the striped pattern of the wallpaper and the colors of the table and chairs.

 

Silver Hues in the Kitchen

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Silver is the choice for metal surfaces in the kitchen. Cool silvery hues like stainless steel, chrome, and nickel continue to be popular finishes for ranges, hoods, sinks, faucets and hardware in the kitchen. The influence of commercial kitchens with their stainless steel surfaces can be the source for this popular metal in today’s residential kitchens.

 

Stainless steel appliances set the tone for all other metals in the kitchen. When your largest appliances like the fridge or stove are stainless steel, they demand that other metals in the kitchen coordinate with them.  Of course you could add other metallic finishes to the room like oiled bronze or brass, but using silvery finishes with stainless steel gives the room a more unified appearance.

 

Silvery chrome and nickel work well with stainless appliances and sinks.  Chrome and nickel come in a number of finishes including satin and polished.  The more shiny the finish, the more the metals will stand out and sparkle in the space.

 

Silvery metals also work with any number of cabinet and floor choices. Dark wood cabinets and floors get a pop of sparkle with silvery chrome or nickel pulls.  The silvery pulls are like sparkling jewelry against the wood, like a sparkling bangle or necklace is against a little black dress.

 

These metals also look great with glass front cabinets and marble counters veined with grey.  Using silver against grey and white is a sophisticated look for the kitchen. It is also a great look for a bathroom.

Make your Bathroom Standout

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New construction is a wonderful opportunity to customize a home to suit your needs. Upgrades can add up and you might not get every upgrade you want due to your budget. Often the second or third bathroom in a home is lower on the list of builder upgrades than the kitchen or master bathroom. If this is the case and you have a builder basic bathroom, there are simple tricks you can do to give it the look and feel of an expensive upgrade.

 

Wall color is the first place to start. Choose a paint color that works with your cabinetry, floors and tile colors since those are more expensive to change. If you have builder’s beige bathroom, change the wall color. It doesn’t have to be a major change from beige to bold color. Even a deeper neutral like warm grey can make a big impact. If your vanity or other bathroom storage is off white or cream, you might want to avoid crisp white. If you have wood cabinetry, the white will highlight the natural beauty of the wood.

 

The large plate of mirror that is standard in a newer construction bathroom is another builder grade staple that can be change. You can put a frame around the large mirror to give it a more finished look. You could add a cabinet in between two sinks to divide the mirror in two. There are many fantastic tricks and ideas on dealing with large bathroom mirrors on design blogs.

Beautiful Browns in the Bedroom

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You might shy away from browns in the bedroom thinking they are too dark or dramatic. Layering shades of brown can create a warm, soothing bedroom that feels like a sanctuary.  This bedroom demonstrates that you can layer several shades of brown in the bedroom and create a beautiful room.

 

The carved wood furniture sets the tone for this bedroom. The tall headboard set into a nook is the focal point of the room. The heavy wood furniture has a beautiful rich wood tone.  Working from this warm wood, the table lamps are done in shades of brown that play off the furniture. Keeping the walls a light color keeps the room from feeling too dark. You could also play off the richness of the furniture’s wood and go darker on the walls for a much more masculine look to the room. Deeper wall colors would create a cozy feeling in the space.

 

Light walls lead your eye up to the tray ceiling where the center is painted a warm taupe. Bringing a darker color onto the tray draws your eye up to the architectural detail. The warm taupe color also ties in with the wood floor as it is a similar shade.

 

It would be nice to see more accessories in this room. Framed artwork on the wall above the nightstands would help balance out the large headboard. Window treatments that tied in with the wood of the bed or the colors of the bed linens would give a finished look to the room.

Boldly Colored Home Décor

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Sometimes design rules should be broken. Today’s design trends are turning traditional design rules on their sides. One of the most followed design rules is to purchase large investment pieces in neutral colors of grey, white, tans, browns and blacks. Breaking this rule and purchasing seating in bright, bold colors can be the perfect decision for some decors.

 

In a neutral decor, a red sofa, like the one pictured here, will be the star of the space.  Any brightly colored piece of furniture will be a focal point in a room with a neutral color palette.  Aqua, green, yellow, purple or red are bold colors that can work well with neutral colors and not feel too feminine or masculine.  A pink or fuchsia sofa will feel more feminine while a navy or royal blue might work better in a more masculine space. A boldly colored headboard is a great way to highlight the bed in a bedroom.

 

Boldly colored furniture in a colorful room that features bright colors on the walls and floors should either contrast with the wall or floor color or blend in with the other dominate colors of the room. Having more than three colors in a room can make the energy in the room feel too intense. White rooms with a boldly colored sofa or chair is a nice way to add pops of color.

 

With a custom made slip cover in a white or other neutral color, the boldly colored chair or sofa can be covered up should you tire of the bright color.

Décor – Celebrating Dog Lovers!

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Dogs have been appearing in art and design for centuries. These beloved pets appear on decorative accessories from china to pillows and everything in between. Painting of and about dogs can decorate the walls of a traditional or contemporary home. Dogs are not only some of our best friends; they make for handsome decorative elements in interior design and decorating.

 

Dogs in art became popular with Sporting Art that originated in England in the 18th century. Dogs were also popular subjects in Impressionist and Modern art. Contemporary art today often features dogs like the famous Blue Dog series. There are numerous businesses that provide custom artwork and photographs of the beloved family pet. Custom portraits are even available for any kind of pet.

 

Artwork is not the only area of decorating where dogs are used as decorative elements. English Staffordshire figurines of dogs, as pictured here, are highly collected. Dog figurines and sculptures decorate shelves and table tops. Popular dog breeds for these small decorative items are Scotties, Greyhounds, English Bulldogs, Poodles and Setters.

 

Soft goods like rugs and pillows can feature dog silhouettes and patterns.  Needlepoint rugs might feature a classic hunting scene or fox hunt. Needlepoint pillows with every breed from pugs to poodles can offer a charming accent for sofas and chairs.

 

Hang a portrait of a beloved family pet or decorate with your favorite breed, letting the house go to the dogs can be a fun way to add a personal touch to your décor.