"Change a Room, Redesign It!"

Each time you walk into your home, are there areas or a room you just don’t like, or care for any longer, or you notice it just feels “off?” Think redesign!!! The concept isn’t new, but with a slowed down - more cautious economy it is a practical and more affordable way to change a room.
When I redesign a room for a client - I work with existing furnishings and accessories and use them in creative new ways that will help to give a refreshed, more updated designer look to a space. Often times paired with the addition of new paint color(s), a few new updated accessories, and a new furniture layout. A room can completely change! I always think of it in these terms…revamp, refine, redefine, and refresh. If this is something you have been thinking about….why wait, it will change how you feel about your home.

This Room got a complete new look. We changed the wall color, added window treatments, new pillows, and a few new accessories, and changed the furniture layout. We brought in a chair and a small console table from another room.

The before picture.

The outdated red walls and mismatched accessories made this room feel very uncomfortable. Our objective with this space was to keep all existing furniture, tone down the wall color, add updated accessories and make the room feel cohesive with the rest of the home.

Why Not a New Pillow or Two?

I love design, color, texture and patterns. So, when I found this beautiful line of pillows at the New York Gift Show this past February; I thought I had lost my mind. The Pillows are available to the trade from Bayaa/Weavetree and are made from 100% cotton – silk patch (the embroidery is applied to the silk patch). The pillows come in wonderfully delicious colors such as, the citrine/black (shown), bone/black (shown), storm/citrine (dark grey/black background with yellow embroidery) cobalt/emerald (cobalt background with bright emerald embroidery), coffee and mushroom (coffee background with mushroom embroidery) and red/pumpkin (red background with orange embroidery). It is the citrine/black that did it for me, I love it! I just can’t get enough of the vivid yellow and black together. Adding fresh new pillows to any space can be a very useful tool in creating an exciting new look.

These beautiful pillows are found right in my own backyard….from a company called Filling Spaces located in the Portland, Oregon area. They are made from 100% silk and are available to the trade. http://www.filling-spaces.com/

Decorating with Malachite Motifs

It first really hit me that the "look" of malachite had really made its way back into interior design - when I saw it at the Las Vegas Design Center. I first spoted the malachite wallpaper at one of my favorite showrooms, Tozoi Home. At first I thought hmmmm....not really sure if I like it or not, but the more I looked at it - the more I liked it. In fact, I think it is absoulutly stunning how the malachite wallper sets off all the varrious accessories. Tony Duquette, a legendary Hollywood decorator made malachite very popular in the 1970's. Jim Thompson resently lauched the Tony Duquette luxury textile called Gemstone, which comes in Royal Blue, Smoke Grey, Rice Paper and Emerald..

Dawnridge (circa 1980) home of the late Tony Duquette - showing his signature malachite printed fabric. I just saw a Marsan chair from Baker, upholsted in the Emerald Gemstone cotton from Jim Thompson. Simply amazing!

Cole and Son - malachite wallpaper....love the red!!!

These modern little beauties are from Global Views.

Retail Furniture

As an Architecture and Interior Design firm we always try and order our furniture and accessories direct from our wholesale resources. However, sometimes we just need to purchase at retail stores...for the "spur of the moment" items for clients. We recently ran into this situation.

Say... "We were in the dark" but we were amazed at how the economy has taken its toll on some of our local furniture showrooms. We were in a showroom where we have purchased items before and were saddened by the stores state of affairs. It must be really tough to stay afloat right now. "Good Luck" to all you retailers out there. We understand how tough it must be - just to keep the doors open.