Friday, April 29th, 2011
When I saw this photo of a bedroom perfect for two young girls (or one girl who likes to have sleepovers) I couldn’t resist sharing it with you!
Serena & Lily started out with a line of bed linens for nurseries and children’s rooms. Over the years they have expanded into bedding for adults, furniture and accessories. This headboard is great because you could just as easily order it in another color for a very adult bedroom. Stay tuned for my concept board for an adult bedroom featuring this bed!
Tags: bed, headboard, Serena & Lily
Posted in Industry Updates | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Picking paint colors has got to be one of the most challenging design decisions most people face. Even though a gallon of paint ranges from $20 to $75 for the premium collections, it seems harder for people to take a chance with paint than with a piece of furniture that costs many times more.
So how can you get more confident in your paint selections? Listening to advice from professionals who deal with this on a daily basis is always a great place to start. So how do you access advice from these professionals? Start with a great resource like “House Beautiful 500+ Favorite Paint Colors” or “House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites.”
Culled from the pages of House Beautiful magazine, these reference books complie the best paint color recommendations from interior designers. Rather than just show you the best browns or blues, each designer explains the color and what undertones there are in it or how it makes a room feel. There are also selections based on type of room (bedroom vs. entrance) and sun exposure (north facing vs. south facing). These are the kinds of details that help you understand how color influences the feeling of a space and therefore why certain colors work best.
As you can see from the table of contents above, they have pulled together a lot of color information to get the wheels turning in your head. Not sure what your color personality is? Then take the quiz! Prefer neutrals? They have it covered.
I love how they even feature an example of one of the colors as used in a real space by a designer. Since the color chips they show are not always true to the paint chips you will find on the paint deck when you look at them in person, it is helpful to see the colors in use.
I think of these colors as a great starting place and then I work with the paint decks from the different manufacturers to find similar colors (if the color rendering in the magazine is too different from the paint chip). I believe in ordering larger sheets of paint chips (Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore provide samples to designers of all their colors, up to 8″x10″ in size) and taping them up on the wall for days at a time so I can see how the colors I’m debating between will look at different times of day in different lighting conditions. Trust me, this makes a big difference! That hint of pink undertone in that creamy ivory at night might turn ballerina pink in the daylight.
Small sample pots of paint are a wonderful evolution in the paint industry that I believe help take some of the panic out of paint color selections. Paint swatches (2′ by 3′ is a good size) of each color on the wall and see what they look like throughout the day and night.
And when you finally commit to a paint color, don’t skimp out on the painters tape, roller, or paint base. Use quality materials and it will result in a quality finished product. After you’ve invested all this time and energy in picking a paint color and then painting (or hiring someone else to paint) it would be a shame to have a less than fabulous finished product!
I just bought a new house so you know I’m going crazy picking paint colors and plotting new color schemes and floor plans. Embrace the fun of it, the ability to transform the feeling of a room in a weekend, and to have a fresh new space for very little cash. I hope this has taken some of the fear out of painting for you. Need additional tips? Just ask!
Tags: 500 Favorite Paint Colors, Benjamin Moore, House Beautiful, interior design, painting, Sherwin Williams, tips, twin cities
Posted in Color Pulse, Design & Home Living Tips, Reading List | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Flipping through the latest Pottery Barn catalog I spotted this table designed to serve as a large bar cart console.
The Markham Bar Console has a great vintage styling meant to look like you found it at an antiques shop and added a towel bar and bottle opener to convert it into your own bar station.
I knew I’d seen a similar style bar table before and a quick scroll through the visual archives in my brain reminded me that Thom Filicia (of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Dress My Nest fame) has a similar table in his lake home.
I did a quick search on the internet (faster than flipping through my hard copies of design magazines to find the original photo, which was featured in the now extinct but fabulous Domino magazine, August 2008) and quickly found the following image.
What do you think of the similarities? Obviously the scale of Thom’s table is longer, but the feet, thicker ends to the top, and lower shelf with high sides are all very similar. I’m sure there are many old work tables like this to be found in old shops, and the details aren’t particularly unique to this one table. Nonetheless, I can’t help but think that the Pottery Barn design team was inspired by Thom’s vintage find when they designed their own piece.
I think both are nice tables, and I’d love to have a table like that in my house when we entertain since everyone ends up in the kitchen and this would pull them out into adjacent rooms. But I always prefer an authentic old piece whenever possible because the patina of true wear and tear can never be matched in a factory. Of course finding an old piece like this would take a lot of work, but that’s the fun part for me – the victory of finding just the right piece and the story that comes with it (both it’s history and the story of your quest.)
By the way, does this remind anyone else of the Friends episode where Ross and Rachel both buy the Pottery Barn Apothecary Coffee Table and Rachel tries to convince Phoebe that it’s vintage and she found it at a flea market since Phoebe doesn’t like mass produced furniture? Yeah, I know you remember it too!
So what do you think? Would you buy the Pottery Barn version or try to find a vintage table of your own? Or would you prefer a totally different style bar cart?
Photo sources: Pottery Barn and Houzz
Tags: bar, bar cart, Friends, interior design, Pottery Barn, table, Thom Filicia, twin cities
Posted in Industry Updates | No Comments »
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Why is that when the weather is gray outside, people say they feel “blue”?
I’ve been noticing that saturated blues are experiencing a fresh surge of popularity in everything from home decor to fashion. To me these colors are far from bummed out, melancholy mood inducing tones. Instead they are strong, assertive, and yet classic.
For another perspective on the trend, check out the article Sherwin-Williams recently ran in their magazine, Stir, about the color indigio as a trend for 2011. See the article here.
To start with you can see how the concept of the ocean, white sands and fish is playing out in West Elm’s new collection (top left corner). Oscar de la Renta has used saturated blues in his latest fashion collection and in his home (middle top and bottom) Yves Klein Blue is even moving from the runway to make up collections. Wallflowers need not apply!
The richness of these shades of blue shows confidence and sophistication when integrated into your wardrobe, as shown above in a feature from Oprah magazine. The center photo shows how this color can be integrated into your summer wardrobe with all those colorful brights we talked about last week. Even your table settings can be bold and playful as this mix and match table setting highlights.
Finally, West Elm’s vision of a weather bleached dock with a lounge surrounded by endless blue waters evokes a calm peacefulness in me. If it was all white it would be boring to me. But those indigio pillows in a variety of patterns and textures and the blue stool in the background add the interest I need. The thatched roof and woven tote bag add great texture too. The principles of design here can just as easily be brought into your living room.
As always, I’m happy to help you get there.
Have a great weekend everyone, and I hope you only feel “blue” in a bold way!
Tags: Blue, Dwell Studio, indigio, interior design, navy, Oprah, trend, West Elm, Yves Klein blue
Posted in Color Pulse | 1 Comment »
Colleen Fox Slack | email: colleen@colleenfoxinteriors.com | phone: 612.868.0348
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