Infloormation

If you find it challenging to make a buffet supper feel special, take a look at this photo. Although the display is simple, everything about it creates a welcoming environment.

The choices of serving bowls and decorative elements really fit with the style and mood of the room. The candles are held in a wrought iron piece that fits the rustic nature of the table while adding some much needed height. With a table that interesting table linens are unnecessary, but the simple oversized denim napkin under the serving pieces adds just the right note of color and softness. Bowls, plates and napkins echo the colors of the room.

One functional change would make this buffet easier for guests to maneuver through. If the napkins were wrapped around the silverware and placed in a basket or upright in a pitcher, people wouldn’t have to lift them to get to the plates underneath. Even with a small buffet, it’s important to think about traffic flow. This is a perfect example of incorporating straightforward design elements into entertaining. With this buffet, a few thoughtful touches make it consistent with the room’s style as well as welcoming to guests.

A room with a dark floor generally conjures a vision of a dark and gloomy room, but it does not have to be that way! Dark floors can offer an advantage, especially in rooms that attract a lot of traffic. They can camouflage foot prints, dirt and pet hair and hep so that you don’t have to clean the floor as frequently. A combination of contrasting accessories and furniture is all it takes to make a room with a dark floor a cheerful and vibrant room.

The first step in making a room with a dark floor cheerful is to complement it with plenty of natural light by day and artificial lighting by night.

The second step is to paint or paper the walls in light colors for an elegant appearance or in bold colors for a dramatic appearance.

Choosing bright and evenly patterned furnishings and accessories will make the room appear cheerful even with a dark floor. You can choose geometric patterns for curtains and upholstery for a clean abstract look or flowered patterns for a cozy English garden look.  Sprinkling light colored rugs over the floor will reduce the stark dark appearance of a dark floor.

Simple streamlined light furniture will make the room look brighter. Wrought iron or Rattan furniture will give the impression of bringing the garden in to the room and take the eye away from the dark floor.

With a little imagination you can transform a room with a dark floor into a cheerful, bright and airy room.

Once your home office is ready to furnish, several factors help make it a comfortable work space. Ergonomics, the study of fitting the workspace to an individual person, allows you to create the ideal working relationship between you and your computer.

First, find the right chair. Look for one that lets you to keep your feet flat on the floor when you’re working. Make sure the chair allows you to keep your back against the back of the chair without the front of the chair hitting you at the back of the knees. This helps reduce both back and circulation problems after long sessions at the computer.

Your mouse and keyboard should be at elbow height. If your desk is too high, purchase a keyboard drawer that will fit your needs. Finally, the top of the monitor is supposed to be at your eye level. With today’s larger monitors, this may not be possible, but set it as close to that height as you can.

Lighting is your next goal. You will want both task lighting and ambient light. Task lighting helps your work go smoother. Ambient light is to create a warm feeling in your office. Often a ceiling light takes care of your task lighting needs. If not, you may want to consider a desk lamp. Make sure your lighting choices don’t create a glare on your monitor.

Finally, determine what types of storage you need. File cabinets and bookshelves can warm up a room if you choose wood. Make sure your desk arrangement allows you a work space beyond the computer for other work requirements. Office furniture doesn’t have to match – just like bedroom furniture, a well-planned combination can make a space inviting without looking too contrived.

Design means more than home decorating. If you think in design terms when you entertain, it turns a simple event into something special. Whether you’re planning a small dinner or a large holiday party, adding design elements creates an environment that makes your guests feel valued.

Fresh flowers provide the easiest way to add visual interest to your space. Flowers’ temporary nature tells guests the gesture is for their benefit, and you can pick the style and color to match your theme or linen colors.

The most cost-effective approach involves selecting one or two bouquets from your local grocery or warehouse store and making your own arrangements.

Many people are uncomfortable arranging flowers, but if you keep your plans simple, the end result can be lovely and well-designed. In this picture, two stems and a few oranges almost arrange themselves. Yet the end result is flawless and appealing. Any solid fruit or vegetable can hold stems and make this type of approach work. Even a few stones from your garden (wash them well first) will hold your flowers in place.

Place arrangements on your main table and a few side tables – maybe in the foyer and the guest bathroom. In just an hour, you can add a design element to your entertainment plans that tells your guests you think they’re important and welcome.

A home office at its best works as well as any company-based operation, but looks and feels like home. A few simple approaches to your home office space can help you manage that balance.

Starting with flooring, a number of choices match residential styles while still handling the constant beating of a wheeled office chair. The best choice is a top quality laminate floor, which can echo the charm of wood while still operating successfully in an office.

Tile is generally not a good choice – the uneven nature of the material can cause problems with file cabinets and bookshelves, and make your chair uneven constantly. Carpet and wood seem like a bad choice, but a chair mat in either plastic from your local office superstore or a more appealing bamboo – available in catalogs – will take the abuse, keeping your original floor safe.

Warm up the space with wall colors that don’t say “office.” A sky blue or a soft green helps keep stress away while you work. You may need a bulletin board or calendar, but expand your thinking to make these items special. A standard bulletin board from an office supply store gets a whole new look with your choice of spray paint. Choose art that represents you, your dreams and aspirations, and things that make you happy.

HGTV’s Design Star always provides food for thought, and a recent episode featured a Donald Trump condo highrise. Participants were asked to create condo models that provided a sense of luxury. Their budget was quite small, but that’s alright, because luxury is not just about money. Let’s take a look at a few steps you can take to add to a sense of luxury in your home.

So many different elements can add to a sense of luxury. When you look at a space, consider a rich mix of textures, colors and sheen. On any type of flooring, adding deep-pile rugs in a variety of complementary colors creates an almost Moroccan sense of luxury and style. Even a small rug in a corner, or draped on a table, can become a sumptuous feature.

The right fabrics enrich a space. Don’t stop at one set of curtains on your windows. Start with a light linen sheer, add a set of silk dupioni panels in a medium neutral and finish up with velvet curtains in a dark rich tone. Even simple windows will shine with this treatment. Add a fake fur throw and maybe a leather or suede pillow. Mix your fabrics and textures to enliven and enrich your space.

Bring some bling into the room with accessories. Mirrors and metallics provide a variety of sheens and create a lavish look. Don’t stop with the walls when considering mirrors. How about picking up a mirrored nightstand or dresser? You can shop for shiny features for your space, or just check your cupboards. Chances are you have some family heirlooms in silver or crystal that deserve to leave storage and go on display. If not, look for shiny possibilities in home stores, as well as thrift and antique shops.

Luxury is not just about money; it’s about making the most of your space with the right choices.

One key to a well-designed room is a balance of hard and soft surfaces. In our last blog post we looked at what happens with too many hard surfaces. But on the other hand, too much softness can create a room with no definition.

Carpet is a good flooring choice for traditional spaces, and rugs are a natural complement. That provides a rich source of softness. Add in a few overstuffed chairs and a couch, a bevy of pillows and throws, and before you know it your room loses dimension in a cloud of softness. Traditional curved tables and cushioned dining chairs add to the general squishiness of the space.

Now this type of room can be very comfortable and livable. Just a few hard-surface choices, however, will sharpen the design and provide the positive contrast needed to showcase the softer elements.

Consider adding some glass or metallic accessories with clean straight lines. Using wood shutters or shades adds a nice hard surface, and the shades still allow you to add curtains. Another option is to do some editing – maybe removing a few pillows or an ottoman. Space between soft things gives the walls a chance to become hard-surface elements in a space.

Contrast in a room can make a space feel more interesting and well designed. One often-ignored area to consider is balancing hard and soft surfaces in a room. People often have a style preference that leads them in one or the other direction for surfaces, and this can accidentally lead to an unbalanced space.

Modern styles lend themselves to hard surfaces. Tile and wood flooring complement a modern look. Simple tables and dining chairs without cushions contribute to the modern feel of a space. Even modern upholstered furniture leans toward a tailored style rather than something oversized and cushy. This can lead to a room that feels sculptured, but also comes off as cold.

A few simple touches can fix this without compromising the modern look. Consider one or more rugs in contemporary styles. A thick monotone shag or wool or leather can both anchor and warm up a space. A contemporary weaving, quilt or tapestry hung on one wall provides art for a room while adding softness. That beautiful shaker-style table can benefit from a simple table-runner that adds a splash of color and texture without making the space feel traditional.

You don’t have to lose your modern look by adding softness. Instead, these additions can help showcase your contemporary style while adding valuable contrast to your space.

Making a major change such as flooring in an established room can seem overwhelming. Often, people find themselves redecorating with a new version of what they already have, just to make the decision process easier. Are you facing this dilemma and not sure where to start? We’ve discovered one way to explore your options while watching the first episode of this season’s “Design Star” program on Home & Garden Television.

The episode featured a “white box” challenge. The 12 design contestants were each given a small white space holding only a white bed, bookshelf and nightstand. They were asked to transform the rooms into bedrooms that represented the style and personality of one of the other designers. After watching the show, it made sense that we could create our own versions of white boxes in our own homes. By removing the distractions of our current décor as much as possible, we would have a clearer room for evaluating flooring, as well as a clearer head for making a new flooring decision.

Ready to consider a change? Let’s start by removing all of the room’s accessories and easily moved furniture. You may want to cover any pieces that are due for replacement with white sheets. Now you have your own version of a white room. Walk through the space, considering it from every angle. Take photos to bring to the store with you. If you have samples or photos from magazines to help you visualize flooring possibilities for the room, bring them into the space and look at them with your new floor in mind. Lay down any samples you may have, step back and see how they “feel”.

Making a flooring change is a challenge, but giving yourself a blank slate when considering your options makes the decision easier and more fun. Without the influence of past decisions, you may find that you are ready for a bigger change than you thought!

If you’d rather play virtually, try our virtual room designer here!

Have you ever purchased what you think is just the right chair, rug or accessory, only to bring it home and discover that it’s the absolutely wrong color or tone for the room? No matter how hard we try, color matching in our heads constantly presents a challenge. Well, with a bit of effort on your part, you can create a set of samples for each room to keep you from making those color mistakes.

If you’re moving into a new home or redecorating, take the time to collect everything you need during the installation process. Our installers can leave scraps of carpet, wood or tile when fitting your flooring to your room. Take advantage of these pieces to start your collection of samples. (just wait until they have finished!)

For paint, grab a set of index cards and paint one side of a card for each color in your home. A quick note on the back with location, paint name and brand may be helpful later. Don’t expect your paint chips to work; they rarely match the actual paint color exactly.

For fabric, ask for samples from any curtains or furniture you have custom made. For ready-made pieces, check the hems to see if you can trim a small scrap without doing harm. Your final element is photos of every room from several angles. This enables you capture furniture or features that you can’t sample.

Use a sturdy notebook, large envelopes or photo boxes to hold your samples, depending upon how much and how big your pieces are. Don’t think that bigger is better – use the smallest piece you can that will still give you the color information you need. Remember, this will travel with you as you shop! Now, armed with your sample collection, jump into future decorating or redecorating secure in the knowledge that you have the information you need to make successful purchases easily.