Seasons Change...Time to Reconnect

Did you hear it last Tuesday? It was that collective sigh across the country as the last kids headed back to school. Over the past month, as families have adjusted their schedules back to a more structured schedule (maybe); we're more apt to be caught up in the who's doing what, when, where and how are they getting there. The Halloween displays have been up for two weeks already and can Christmas be far behind? So stop...take a breath...aaahh. Now wouldn't it be nice to have some nice chat time with a friend or two. Nothing fancy. Just a chance to reconnect and catch up!

Maybe just coffee and donuts...

September has some of the best weather of the year

How about something outdoors...

Not too much fuss...just add some fall leaves or pumpkins

or a beautifully aged picnic table works

Use what you have...these oranges could easily be small pumpkins
to get the same pop of color or some green pears would be
beautiful too!



So send an email or text (or maybe call them) to a few of your girlfriends.
The ones you know will appreciate a break from the routine but won't
expect your best linen and crystal, unless you want to use them of course!
Share a couple of hours catching up, venting and celebrating all the reasons
why you're friends in first place.

And just to get in a few design tips, here are three projects from marthastewart.com that will enhance any fall decor and the girls will be so impressed that you're channeling your inner Martha...love the pumpkin chandelier!

Cornhusk Votives

for instructions click http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/cornhusk-votives

Outdoor Bouquet

click http://www.marthastewart.com/article/outdoor-bouquet

Pumpkin Chandelier

click http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pumpkin-chandeliers

How fun would it be to include your friends and make one of the projects above...you get to laugh and have fun and each go home with something beautiful. Email them the supplies list and provide some snacks and munchies and spend quality time catching up and being creative!

Food...$40

Drinks...$25

Spending time with the girls...priceless

Happy Designing,

Michele

House Beautiful...Beautiful Color Inspiration

I may have said this before but I have an addiction. Those of you who know me well are probably thinking "well, we knew she liked wine", well yes, I do like wine but that's not it. It's magazines. I'd like to say it goes with the job. I use them for inspiration and to keep up with everything design, but that's just the excuse I need to enable my habit. My husband John tells me I need a twelve step program and although one of the first steps is admitting you have a problem, I don't think I do. It is true that most of my subscriptions are for shelter magazines and I do have to help out my niece every year when her school is selling subscriptions (it's my duty as an aunt!). But keeping up with my, um, problem has been really difficult recently because four of my favorites (Domino, Cottage Living, Home Companion and Country Home) have all gone under, as in bye bye, no longer arriving in my mail box or waiting for me at Barnes and Noble. The publishers have replaced them with things I wouldn't normally subscribe to and that does give me something to thumb through while waiting for my favorites. So imagine my joy when i saw the new House Beautiful; ah, the Fall Color Issue; and they have truly outdone themselves. It is full of the most beautiful photography and color filled rooms that I paged through from front to back in about 20 minutes and then had to go back through for another look. I don't love every room but what I love is the genius in showing what can be achieved with color in a room.

One of my favorite parts is the middle section (pgs. 94-95) titled "What is Your Color Personality?" It has lists of inspirational books on color, a numerology key to your color personality (a little weird), designers to Google if you love color and iPhone Aps to download.
But the most fun part is color quiz on the very last page. You don't have to turn the page upside down to see the answers because there are no right or wrong ones. It is just meant to get you thinking about color and how it plays a part in your life. So here are the questions and my answers but I challenge you take the quiz and see what your answers would be.

1. What's the first color you seen in the morning? Lots of sunlight and Ralph Lauren's Linen paint on the walls, cut 50%.

2. What color are your eyes? Hazel but sometimes green depending on what I'm wearing.

3. What color do you wear the most? Green or Black

Allison Paladino/House Beautiful

4. What color do you never wear? Tan/Beige...makes me look washed out.

5. What color do you wear when you want to feel sexy? Black of course!

6. What color gets you the most compliments? Apple green and Pink/Fuscia



7. What color is your lipstick? I always seem to pick the same shade of pink/brown, I wear the same Bobbi Brown lip gloss usually. I'm in a rut!



8. What color was your living room when you were growing up? I can't really remember...Mom? Maybe beige.


9. What color was your bedroom when you were growing up? First lavendar and then pink...




10. What color are your sheets? Cafe au lait

11. What color was your favorite crayon as a child? Blue and we did a lot of coloring!

12. What color is your car? Technically it's called Winestone but it's maroon. I like this one!

13. What color was your prom dress? Peach, I think and I hope there's no evidence to prove me right!

14. What's your favorite gemstone? Diamonds are a girls best friend!!!

15. What is your favorite flower? Peonies and then roses...(lavendar, sunflowers, coneflowers...)

16. What color makes you happiest? These ones...


17. What color depresses you? Army green...nuff said.

18. What color calms you? Aaaaahhhh!

19. What color makes you grind your teeth? Hhmmmm, when I first moved out I painted my room a hideous royal blue. Not a good experiment!

20. What color would you like to try, but are scared to? Black! I'm not scared exactly, it's just such a commitment.

These two rooms could make me lose my fear of commitment...I love them!

Images by Rob Southern/HouseBeautiful

So now it's your turn...to respond all you have to do is click on the "comment" link at the end of this post. Choose which browser you want to use and let me know how color plays a part in your life.

Happy Designing...

Michele

Summertime Blues and White

This months eye candy is about blue and white because it's a patriotic month and these interiors are guaranteed to feel summertime fresh. While I was researching the gorgeous blue and white photos, two of the blogs I subscribe to also did posts on blue and white decor. One of my favorite blogs is by color consultant, Maria Killam and her blog Colour Me Happy. It always amazes me how informative and beautiful her blog is, so be sure and check it out.

But before we get to that I also want to share something with you that came to me via Facebook...you may have seen or heard about this but if not, take a look at an uplifting message that we all could use more of. It's about Russ Haan and a website he started called Hope is in the Cards after having a rough time as a small business owner, trying to stay afloat and keep his employees. The premise is to send someone you know (or dare I say a total stranger) a personal card saying "thank you" or "I believe in You." On the outside of the envelope, just write four letters...HOPE. How nice would it be to receive something like this if you were having a really rotten day? If you'd like to know more, click here and let me know if you send a card to someone...I know I'm going to.

I have always been drawn to warm colors; reds, golds, oranges and yellow greens. Lately though, I keep finding myself drawn to blues more and more and especially that green blue with a touch of gray that I keep seeing everywhere. Last week in search of something to wear, standing in my closet I thought "wow, I really have a lot of blue shirts. When did that happen?" That is one way of finding out what colors you really like...go through your closet and drawers. What do you come up with? What colors have you recently purchased? or what color is your tried and true favorite to wear? The outfit you know you look and feel great in? This will give you a clue as to what colors you can live with in your space.

The color blue can evoke calm and tranquility like the sky or can become very dynamic and dramatic as in a royal blue or a deep indigo blue. It is the most popular "favorite" color and appeals equally to men and women. Designer Patricia Gray says in her blog that 'blue is the new black'. So look at these visions in blue and white and get a sense for how you would feel in each of these settings.

This picture was featured in House Beautiful...how much more patriotic can you get than this room?

Some Swedish design with a french accent!






J. Barwich in Tradional Home

J. Barwick in Traditional Home

Wine and cheese anyone?


These next three were designed by Barclay Butera.
If you look at his website you can tell he loves blue and white.

Love the blue and white with the dark wood

This looks like a little Tiffany box bedroom...

These next two are a little more contemporary...

European design can be very modern...this kitchen is in Italy

Lovely foyer below

photo from StyleBeat.blogspot.com

Aawww, I could spend hours here!
I wonder if the view out the window is as lovely as that tub?

And on that happy note, with a bubble bath on my mind...Enjoy the summer months and stay cool.

Happy Designing,

Michele

Summer Means Grads and Outdoor Living

June and Graduations...This weekend we are off to Oregon to my nephew Cody's high school graduation. I was blessed enough to be present for both he and my nieces' births, so it's pretty special to watch him end this phase of his life and begin a new one. Love you Cody and wish you all the best as you go out into the world to make it your own!

Lil' buckeroo!

So trying to find a graduation present for a teenage boy is not the easiest thing in the world. I was looking for something meaningful to mark the occasion but like most teens, he probably would just like the cash. In my search i looked at Room Service, one of my favorite catalog websites that has some nice personalized gifts . It's distracting when there are lots of great pictures of interiors/exteriors and five or fifteen web links later, i'm still looking at these beautiful designs and time flies and "oh yeah" i'm supposed to be looking for a graduation present!

Soooo Cody, guess what you're getting for graduation...but in my search i found some really great pictures of outdoor spaces to share and kick off the summer season. The patios or decks just steps out the door can mimic our indoor spaces with kitchens, grills and furniture as comfortable and as stylish as anything we have inside. Throw in some outdoor curtain panels, a chandelier and pots of gorgeous flowers and you've added to your homes square footage.

It's June. Fire up the grill and pour the margaritas. Memorial Day has come and gone and summer's on...enjoy some outdoor eye candy and if you have any suggestions for future graduation gifts, I've got a daughter and more nieces and nephews in the years to come!

These first three images are why i got distracted. They are of a Decorator's Showhouse in Malibu that Room Service provided accessories for...can i just move in?

This is a cool corner planter from Ballards

Very simple from Ballards

I love this picture from Southern Living Magazine because it is something anyone can

do...inexpensive clay pots with some sand and candles and voila!

This is the perfect setting for brunch...notice how the blue hydrangea

flowers pick up the trim on the house.

I still love this tuscan look and apparently it's a trend

that is not going away...yay!

Southern Living Magazine


So which one is your favorite? I'd love to see photos of your backyard/patio inspirations

Happy Designing...

Michele

More on proportion and scale...got the picture to load!

This is a very large foyer that most of us don't have but I love this table for the entrance.

It is large enough to make a statement (scaled to the room) but visually does not feel heavy and you can still see through to the next room, which draws you in and isn't that exactly what you want.Your entry and foyer should say "welcome to my home!" The centrally placed light fixture brings the high ceilings down and the large floral arrangement brings your eye up. Quite lovely...

Design 101 - Scale and Proportion

Great example of pattern scale - large on

the walls and small on the floor

The deco vanity bounces the pattern around

the small room. Interior by Woodson-Rummerfield

Great scale and proportion in this interior by Paul Wiseman
The artwork and fireplace are obvious but also notice the coffee table and
sofa scaled perfectly and the arched window mirroring the wall arch.

One of the first things you learn in any fundamental interior design course is the principals of good design. This concept is not necessarily rocket science but it does seem that it's a right brain/left brain thing which some people have a natural talent for. It's really a matter of understanding relationships in space; between objects, colors and light and it's what interior designers are great at doing.

Proportion can be hard to define and ancient Greeks actually had a theory called "the golden mean', which happens when the ratio of small elements to larger elements is the same as the larger elements to the whole. Have I lost you yet? What that boils down to is the size of an object compared to everything else. It can be the size of your furniture in proportion to the room, or the size of you in proportion to the furniture. How to balance color and pattern are also components to getting the scale of a room right. In the picture above of a room designed by Michael Taylor, the huge windows could easily dwarf everything in the room but by flanking them with the tall tables and stunning mirrors, he's filled up the space and created a focal point. This looks to be a large room but there are not a lot of small things to create clutter. The paint color helps ground and absorb the light filled space.

I'm having technical difficulties and can't seem to upload all the examples but just keep in mind when planning your rooms that the shape, scale and layout of your rooms provide the foundation for what's to go in it and if I can get the rest of the pictures uploaded I will post them soon.

Have a great weekend and a Happy Mother's Day!

Michele

A Front Door That Says 'Welcome'

I haven't posted for the last month and it's good to be back. Life and death happen and unfortunately my dear "grams" passed away a week ago. She lived a long life and had two sons, grandchildren, great and great great grandchildren...that's a legacy. I will miss you grams.

My post today is about front doors. They are the welcome to the outside world and often the first thing that makes an impression to someone visiting or driving by. I want a new one but that is not in the budget right now so at the very least, now that the weather is better, I would like to paint mine and change up the hardware a little bit.

I have found some amazing inspiration pics online and have been noticing what others are doing in my area when I'm driving. My house is the typical California stucco, tan/beige and my door is currently black. Our home model is called 'Tuscany' and we've gone with that both in landscape and interiors. I still like it but feel the door could be more...so here are some of my inspiration photos. Do you have any suggestions or doors that you like? Do share...

I really like this one that i found on Jeld-Wen's website and the style is right

This is in Provence...character for days!

I am so attracted to red doors...good feng shui

I also like this blue!

This is just cute and creative and a testament to the power of the internet. I found this on Flickr.com posted by Craft and Creativity. It's painted with chalkboard paint...thanks Helena! She is one talented woman.

We have a side door on the driveway that is visible from the street, so I would like to paint them both the same. So now it's time to get out my paint decks and try and make a decision...sigh!

Happy house and home...

Michele