Monday, October 3, 2011

A Serene Sophisticated Bedroom Makeover

Do you have a guest bedroom that is in need of a makeover? Or a master bedroom that could use a more relaxing, serene and sophisticated feeling? Well this design may just be what you're looking for.

For today's virtual room, we'll create a bedroom design using a color palette of soft buttery yellows and soft grays.

We will start as usual with our walls. We will paint the walls in a soft yellow from Sherwin Williams called SW6687 Lantern Light




Next will be introduce our bed. An upholstered headboard is a great alternative to a traditional wood framed or metal bed. It is more comfortable to lean against for reading in bed. It gives a softer sophisticated feel to a bedroom. We have hit the right balance with the feminine lines of this queen headboard coupled with the more masculine gray fabric and nailhead trim. Our headboard is from Norwalk Furniture.


Next we will introduce our bedding. This beautiful paisley print semi-custom bedding from Legacy Linen is perfect. The soft gray and limestone color is definitely adding to the serene feel we are trying to accomplish in this room.


We will add a couple of yellow linen euro shams to pull our color scheme together. We will use this butter yellow linen fabric from Kast Fabrics called Linette Cornsilk and a matelasse coverlet made from this beautiful fabric from Kravet called Sand Dollar Natural






Next we'll add our nightstands. We'll add two of these beautiful pewter hand-painted demilune chests from Steinworld on either side of the bed


We'll add a couple of table lamps on each nightsatnd.

And a few table side accessories



Next we will need a dresser for storage. This beautiful, bow front, mirrored top dresser from Worlds Away is the perfect scale for the room. This will allow enough room for a seating area.




We'll add a mirror above our dresser. This beautiful silver leaf, antiqued mirror from Worlds Away is great because it's not matchy matchy but speaks to the silver and gray tones in the room.



I always like to add a bench at the foot of a bed to anchor the bed, and just an area to sit and put shoes on. We'll add this cute slip covered bench from C.R. Laine. We'll reupholster our bench in this beautiful fabric from Vervain. We will skip the rouching for a more tailored look.



We'll add a chair to our room as well. Great for reading a book or just relaxing. This great chair from Candice Olson Collection at Norwalk Furniture, done in this yellow linen fabric with nail head trim is perfect for the room. We'll also add a pillow in the Kravet fabric below


We'll add a floor lamp to this "reading" area. This arc lamp from Trend Lighting is a great choice



Next we'll add our drapery. We'll do two simple pinch pleat panels done in this beautiful fabric from Thom Filicia Collection for Kravet called Griffith Fog.


Now that we have all our furniture pieces, we'll add some accessories and ceiling lighting.












Our room is now complete. Any guest would love to fall asleep in this beautiful, serene getaway. Hope you are inspired to create the home of your dreams.



My top three "Fun Finds"of the week



This beautiful scrolled, bow front chest from Worlds Away is a great addition to a bedroom. Would look great as nightstands.


These iron tables (a cocktail table and an end table) from Rustic Living, are definitely gonna catch the eyes of your guests. They are as beautiful as tehy are functional



Monday, September 26, 2011

A Fun, Colorful Lounge

Living in Katy Texas, most homes come with a gameroom, a media room or some type of bonus room, designed to be the family hang out spot. I often get clients who are not sure what to do with these areas to make them fun and interesting. Most people are very accustomed to decorating the rest of their home in neutral colors, that they think they have to keep the flow going in their lounges or game areas. I beg to differ! A lounge or gameroom should be a fun hang out spot with a big personality! After all, this is where you go to let your hair down, play video games, watch the football game and spend quality time with family and friends. There is no reason why these areas should look exactly the same as the rest of the home, so we are going to kick it up a few notches and create a fun, colorful space for today's virtual game room.

Our color palette will consist of teal, tangerine, fuchsia, chartreuse, and white. With such a palette, we have to be careful not to end up with a clown house or a crazy house for that matter. So we'll add color where it counts without becoming overkill.

Let's get started with our wall color. Instead of just slapping on some paint on our walls, we will do a two-tone horizontal stripe paint technique but using very light colors. Each stripe will be about 24" high and will wrap around the entire room. We'll use Sherwin Williams SW6483 Buoyant Blue (in a flat finish) alternated with SW6484 Meander Blue (in eggshell finish). Using two different finishes will create a visible contrast between these two light colors with similar shades, without being the focus of the room.






Now that we have the walls painted, we can start bringing in our furniture pieces. Our sectional sofa from Norwalk Furniture is the right mix of comfort, function and beauty. We'll make it pop by doing it in a colorful tangerine with white piping.


We'll add some pillows in these beautiful fabrics.







Next we'll add two chairs to round off the seating area. These Norwalk chairs done in this fun fabric with a contrast piping is perfect


A couple of ottomans is always great as well. Great for extra seating for guests. These fun round ottomans from Norwalk Furniture will be placed by the window in the main seating area.

Next we will add our cocktail table and end tables. These urban contemporary, meets pedigreed traditional tables are from Hooker Furniture Trilogy Collection.






TV watching is an important function in this room, so we'll add a console from Lexington Home Brands for a big screen TV, and a place to store games and display personal items.




We will create an area for playing board games or to act as a bar. This pub table and chairs from Hooker Furniture are the right scale for our game room. We will re-upholster the stools in this fabric from Duralee.



Now for our window treatment. We will create a cornice board with a couple of panels. We'll use these two fabrics - the solid as the cornice board, adding nailhead trim, and the circle fabric as the valance. That oughta up the fun factor in this room.



We'll add an orange stripe on the leading edge of each panel to tie in the drapeery to the rest of the room.


Next we'll add some artwork. These fun, colorful, floral glicee are the right ticket for this space.










These gorgeous capiz shell pendants from Worlds Away will look great over the seating area hung in a cluster of three at different heights











We will add other colorful accessories to complete the room. And our colorful game room is finished. Hope you are inspired to create a fun, colorful room in your home.



My top three Fun Finds of the week:

The Le Premier chair by Christopher Guy. Can you say WOW!



This sweet "Beattles" settee from Vanguard Furniture


How fun is this chair from Anthropologie!



We'll throw in just one more fun chair from Christopher Guy