Creating A Bedroom Retreat

Create a relaxing sanctuary right in your own bedroom!  We think these bedrooms have great style and here’s why!

If you like a calm and neutral palette this might be your style!  Despite the neutral palette, however, this bedroom still screams luxury!  The understated luxurious decor of this room combines affordable antiques with more expensive furniture pieces.  When working with neutrals, incorporate bedding, rugs, throw pillows, paint and accent furniture with colors from the same color family.  Make sure to keep the bed as the focal point.

Love the contrast of the warm chocolate walls against the white!  This design is crisp, clean and fresh!  Once again, the bed is the focal point with the interesting headboard and the white linens.  The drapery adds a sense of drama yet also provides privacy.  The chandelier adds interest and softens the room.

Both of these bedroom are both eclectic and bold!  The use of bright colors and the mix of interesting furniture keeps these rooms fun and interesting.  To keep the room unified, use at least one color that is constant throughout the room.

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Lighting Effects

Lighting is a crucial design element when it comes to accessorizing and decorating your home.  “Lighting is not simply to eliminate darkness; it is a creative ingredient in successful design,” said Deborah Kreye, ASID, interior designer with Vogue Interiors.  Part of a design plan needs to include how to illuminate a space effectively and not to simply focus on the fixture itself.  Make sure that your rooms are correctly illuminated with just the right amount of light.  Over-lit or under-lit rooms can become uncomfortable rooms to be in.  To know if a room is illuminated correctly take the total number of watts in the room (generally a 4″ can will have a 65 watt lamp) and divide by the square footage of the room.  You want to be as close to .8 as possible.  Here are some examples of different lighting applications. 

Creating A “Path” Of Light 

Use wall sconces to create a subtle “path” of light through the home.  This can create a directional visual element to lead people in a logical progression. 

 

Lighting Artwork 

Highlight artwork in your home with spot lighting or track lighting.  Spot lighting can be focused directly on one piece whereas track lighting can illuminate an entire gallery. 

Track Lighting

Spot Lighting

Lighting For Architectural Details 

Architectual details of a home can be accentuated with lighting.  Highlight a recessed cove with concealed cove lighting. 

 

 

Ambient Lighting  

Ambient lighting can be either direct of indirect.  Ambient lighting can be a hidden light sources that washes a room with a glow.  Temporary ambient effects can be achieved with a dimmer. 

 

 

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Outdoor Spaces

Summer is right around the corner and so it’s time to take advantage of the fabulous outdoor spaces that we have!  Utilizing your patios, decks and beckyards makes your house feel like it has that much more living space.  Interior Design is not only about interior spaces but also incoorporating the same design principles into your outdoor spaces to achieve the same goals as you would inside.  Here are some ideas to spruce up your outdoor space and make it an inviting sanctuary for you and your guests!

Patio Furniture

Determine what you use your outdoor space for (eating, lounging, cocktail hour, entertaining) and then you can place the appropriate furniture. 

Dining Table

Sofa and Coffee Table

Bar Table

Fire Pit

Liven things up with an outdoor fire pit or fireplace.  A fire feature is a perfect design element to make your outdoor space inviting.

Table Fire Pit

Fire Pit

Free Standing Fire Pit

 Accessories

Yes, you can accessorize an outdoor space!  Do this by adding an area rug, throw pillows, candles and anything else you can think of.  Use an outdoor area rug under your seating or dining area to define and anchor the space.  Next, use throw pillows to add comfort but also color and style to your outdoor furniture.

Area Rug

Area Rug

Area Rug

Throw Pillows

Throw Pillows

Lighting

Add a little ambience to your outdoor space with lighting.  Lighting is a very important design element both indoors and outdoors.  String lights, lanterns and candles can all create a beautiful lighting effect for your outdoor space!

String Lights

Chinese Lanterns

Lanterns

 

 

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Decorating With Gray

Gray is the ultimate neutral.  It looks good with just about any color and ranges from cool to warm.  Gray can provide the perfect anchor color and can also be used to offset moldings, flooring and ceiling in a room.  Because gray looks good with just about any accent color you can’t really go wrong!  Check out gray with these hot new color trends for 2010!

Gray and Yellow

Add a little cheerfulness to your gray with a beautiful yellow!  If you have gray floors, gray walls or gray bathroom tiles work with what you’ve got to incoorporate color.

Gray and Turquoise

Turquoise is a hot color this season and will surely make any room pop with color!  Blue evokes a calming emotion and between that and gray this color combo will keep you at ease.

Gray and Orange

Orange is becoming more and more popular these days despite how much your mom may hate it!  If you use it sparingly you might not hate it 20 years later as much as your mom does.

Gray and Pink

So, pink might be a little touchy especially for the guys or if you live with a guy!  Chances are, that you might not get your husband to agree with pink in a common area, but you might be able to swing it in a children’s room or guest bedroom.  However, if you live alone this could be the perfect color palette just for you!

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