Discovery & RoomMakers

Please tell me there’s not a treadmill in your bedroom with a few strategically placed pieces of clothing draped on the handles!!!  And don’t tell me that you have your office, laundry room and toy storage in there either, OK?  Because that’s NOT restful!  That’s NOT relaxing!  If you do have a multi-multi purpose room, not to worry.  There are ways to reclaim and master your Master Bedroom.

First of all, what do you want from your master bedroom? 

• Do you want your bedroom to be a private, restful sanctuary?
• Besides sleeping, are there other activities you wish to do such as reading, watching TV, talking on the telephone, resting?
• What kind of lighting will you need for daily tasks such as dressing, putting on make-up or reading?
• Is your storage and closet space large enough for your clothing?
• Do you want extra seating for relaxing and reading?
• What kind of color scheme will make you feel comfortable and relaxed?

Once you’ve answered these questions you can begin to tackle your master bedroom.  The major categories to consider are furniture, lighting, color, style and accessories.

Furniture

Don’t feel as if all of your furniture has to match.  It’s much more common (and interesting) to have a “collected” look of furniture.  This trend also allows couples to accommodate their particular storage needs.  A great example of this collected look of furniture is to have differing nightstands.  While you may need lots of storage for magazines, books, scented lotion, nail polish, and other girly things, your partner may only need a place for the latest crossword puzzle.  A small 3-drawer dresser may be the answer for you and your storage needs, while your partner may need just a simple nightstand.  While the furniture manufacturer may have both of these pieces in your furniture grouping, it’s great to pull a look together with different wood finishes or with a wood finish and one painted piece.

Another furniture consideration is the trend of putting living room furniture in bedrooms.  Many master bedrooms lean towards a private suite in size and function.  Adding furniture usually considered living room pieces automatically “upscales” the importance of your bedroom.  Sofas, rocking chairs, recliners or overstuffed chairs and ottomans help create the feeling of an oasis.  

Lighting

In the bedroom, lighting is important for function and aesthetics.  You’ll want soft, warm lighting to encourage relaxing, and task lighting on each bedside table for reading (or doing those crossword puzzles).  It’s important that these lamps operate separately so that one person can read while the other sleeps.  Sitting areas, walk-in closets and romantic lighting are also high on the lighting list.  If you have over-head lighting, consider controlling the brightness with a dimmer switch.  Another beautiful trend for the master bedroom is to use a chandelier in the middle of the room.  If you tend to be warm, a ceiling fan in the middle of the room is also an excellent choice.

Color

Choose your color scheme depending upon the mood you want to inspire in your bedroom.  For example, if tranquility is what you’re after, a cool color scheme is desirable.  This means blues, greens, and lavenders, which are the colors of the water, sky, sea and forest.  If you want to feel more energized when in your master bedroom, then a warm color scheme is what you’re looking for.  Warm colors are red, orange and yellow, which are the colors of fire.  If you have one particular color that you’d like to emphasize, consider a neutral color scheme (beige, ivory, taupe, gray, black and white). You can paint one wall your desired color and use throw pillows or other accessories in the same color to pull the look together.  If you’re having a really hard time deciding on your bedroom’s color, think about the clothes in your closet.  What colors do you look best in?  If you choose colors that you typically like to wear, you’ll probably also enjoy incorporating that color palette into your bedroom décor.

Style

If your home has Victorian architecture, but you love contemporary style, do you have to still use the Victorian style?  The answer is easy:  yes and no!  Definitely acknowledge the Victorian style that defines your home’s architecture, but don’t ignore your true love of contemporary style.  Strike a balance by incorporating both styles within your bedroom.  This can be as easy as using a Victorian styled bed and a contemporary picture over the headboard.  Since eclectic style is in, feel free to mix your favorite styles, but be sure to give a nod to your home’s architectural style.

Accessories

While bedding isn’t usually considered an accessory, pillows are.  And your pillows have to coordinate with your bedding, don’t they?!  Layering is key to a luxurious, finished look on your bed (which is the centerpiece of the room).  Beautiful high thread count sheets, layered with a blanket, comforter or quilt, and a throw at the foot of the bed make a gorgeous cozy look.  What about those pillows?  Lucky for us, European pillows and shams are now common place, easily found in stores from discount to boutique.  Another bonus:  our regular sleeping pillows are easily hid behind large square European pillows.  Once you’ve got these two pillow sets in order, it’s easy to layer different colors, textures and smaller sizes of pillows in front of the larger pillows.   Pillows are a great way to incorporate colors that you love, adding a “pop” to the room.

The bedroom is a great place to display some of your favorite keepsakes that may be too personal to display in other parts of your home.  Be sure to keep accessories from looking like clutter by “containing” them on a shelf or on a tray.  Bookshelves are perfect for containing clutter and for displaying decorations and collections.  Use a few magazine holders to contain your magazines, catalogs and loose papers.  Add a few baskets on the bottom shelves to store CD’s, trinkets, and other small items that might look like clutter.  A bookshelf is also a great place for a flat-screened TV.  If you’re not wanting the TV be too prominent in your bedroom, this can be the perfect solution.

Once you have these areas of furniture, lighting, color, style and accessories addressed, you’ll have the luxurious accommodations that you’ve always dreamed of in your master bedroom.  And since we spend a third of our lives sleeping, shouldn’t our bedroom be a room for beautiful restoration?

The great room made its debut in the late 80’s, and has proved popular ever since.  Some designers say that the great room’s popularity is declining, while others still call it their favorite room in the house.  Whether your great room includes your kitchen, living room or family room (or all three), it’s a great place to relax and entertain in the home.  It’s where  family spends time in the evening and on weekends, when it’s raining or cold outside, where we get together to play board games, watch television and hang out with friends.  Let’s just say it – it’s a great room!

The term “great room” is truly about openness.  Why should the cook be so far removed from other living spaces?  Everyone should be able to happily congregate in one free-flowing space.  In fact, there’s probably no other room that gets so much use. 

So how do you decorate these large, multi-purpose rooms?  The best advice is to:

1. Use the focal point of the room to its best advantage and
2. Pick a theme

The focal point is usually a beautiful fireplace or picture window with a great view.  Sometimes it’s the television.  It does get tricky when you have two focal points, but there are ways around this dilemma.  Since great rooms usually have a lot of square feet, there’s almost always room for more than one seating area.  Place the largest seating area (usually a sofa) facing the most used focal point.  The secondary focal point can handle a smaller seating area, such as one or two chairs with accompanying side table and lamp.  If you’d like a little more visual separation in the room, columns or folding screens are helpful dividers.

Have you heard of “floating” your furniture?  For those of you who like to line all of your furniture up against the wall, this is a hard thing to do…but you can do it!  It’s made much easier by using two rugs in the room.  Use one rug for the main seating area (often a sofa facing the fireplace) and one seating area facing the TV.  By dividing the great room with rugs, you can place a sofa in the middle of the room, back-to-back with two chairs (or even another sofa) to create separate seating areas.  Be sure to include a coffee table and side tables for drinks and lamps.  Another idea for a great room is to create one seating area and one game area.  Game tables are a wonderful idea for families that play a lot of card or board games.  A desk can also be the “second half” of the room, or if you have the space, a third area.  Have fun trying different arrangements in your room. 

The second thing to keep in mind when decorating a Great Room is to pick a theme.  This can be anything from a style (Post-Modern Contemporary) to Nautical.  A great way to look at the importance of picking a theme is to consider this analogy:  you wouldn’t write a story without a plot, and when we decorate, we are telling a story about who lives there.  Your story may involve your family’s love of sports, your travels, or your love of antiques.  Whatever your story is, reflect that important information in your Great Room. 

Once you have a theme, it’s much easier to pick and choose elements in the room to create the feeling that you want.  It can also save you a lot of money by not purchasing items that don’t quite “go.”  When picking out a paint color for a Great Room consider using dark, vivid colors such as blue, green and red on walls, windows and even the ceiling to diminish the feeling of spaciousness in the room.  Select bold fabric patterns to make upholstered furniture appear larger than it really is.  Choose medium to large-scale furnishings as they will look more appropriate in a large space.  Small pieces can look lost and too many can create a cluttered look.  Several types of lighting are critical too – from task (reading, cross stitching) to ambient (general room lighting) to up lighting to add drama to the space. 

Don’t be overwhelmed by a large room.  Just remember that a large space is just a collection of smaller spaces.  The more you break up the space, the easier it comes together.  The great room will serve any family well, providing a welcoming place to hang out if you take the time to make it comfortable and inviting. 

References:  Furniturefirst.com and raftertales.com

June is certainly the month for romance, weddings, and perfect not-too-hot beautiful summer days.  After this past winter, seeing the flower blooms and green leaves is especially gratifying.  We feel as if we’ve earned this great weather!

With summer so beautifully present outside, it’s fun to bring it indoors too.  There are a few simple changes that can be made to lighten up your home for the warm weather.

First of all, the take-aways: 

• Any dark accessories such as velvet or heavy brocade pillows, heavy dark throws and even a dark leather club chair should be stored for the summer.
• Toss out any leggy, brown plants that you’ve been trying to nurse to health.  Bring in fresh flowering plants and beautiful green leafed plants for a great indoor summer welcome.
• Clean out the fire place completely and take away the fire screen; stack light colored wood, a candelabra especially made for fireplaces, a beautiful summer floral arrangement, or a fountain for a fresh look.
• Roll up the dark rugs.  Replace with a sisal or light colored rug, or just leave the floor “bare.”  Layering a larger sisal rug under a smaller, lighter colored (or themed) rug is also a beautiful look for summer.

Secondly, the additions:

• Instead of the heavy looking dark leather chair, trade wicker or wrought iron chairs or settees for a “bringing the outdoors in” look.
• Lighten up dark bookshelves by painting the back wall (or putting a painted fitted piece of inexpensive luan plywood wood behind the shelves).  Try a bright summery color against a contrasting color.  Great examples would be lime green in dark wood shelves or sky blue in medium to light colored shelves.   Fabric or wallpaper wrapped fitted pieces for the “wall” of the shelves also are a welcome change.
• Add simple botanical prints or landscapes to the bookshelf; they can just be leaned against the back of the shelf, hung on the back of the shelf, or even hung on the edge of the shelf itself.
• Choose one or two “themes” for your room, such as flowers & insects, sand, beach & shells, fruits & veggies, or East Coast Nautical.  Trade out some of your artwork and collections for this theme, and add trays, bowls and cloches to reinforce your summer decor.
• Go sheer with curtains, bed linens, and slipcovers for kitchen or dining room chairs or runners on the table.  White or neutrals are always look refreshing, or use pops of summer color, such as fuchsia pink, lime green or electric blue.  If you prefer the seaside, soft blues, aqua or greens are the perfect compliment. 
• Be sure to add a summery scent to your home.  The smell of your home is the first impression you and your guests have when walking in the door.  Make it a beautiful clean linen, fresh lilac or light floral scent for the summer.  

 Lastly, the rearranging of furniture can be one of the best summer changes.  Most of us have our furniture oriented towards the fireplace in cooler months, and have very cozy seating areas set up for our holiday gatherings.  Rearranging furniture so that it is oriented towards the view of a beautiful picture window is a great change of pace.  If you have a patio or French door that’s used only in the warmer months, arrange furniture so that there is an easily accessible pathway to the door.  You’ll be much more likely to go outside to enjoy the great outdoors (or even exercise) if it’s easy to get there!

Of course it’s impossible to do all of these “change-outs” for summer.  Just try at least a couple of the ideas for that wonderful summer feel of lighter, fresher, and more carefree times.  Many of the suggested additions or removals are quick and easy, and will have you enjoying the warmer months (and romance of June) inside your home as well as outside.

As with all design, there are no hard and fast rules to Industrial Chic Design.  Industrial Style blends easily into houses that already have a clean-lined modern look, but in more traditional houses, the blend of history and “hip-ness” found in old industrial style is also a perfect fit.  Of course, you don’t want to walk into a Colonial house and have one room look like a New York East Village loft and the others look like Colonial Williamsburg.  It’s all about the right mix of things.

What gives a space this great Industrial Chic style?  Features such as exposed brick, beams, ductwork or pipes.  The bones of a house can even be tweaked to lend itself to the Industrial Chic style.  If you’re building an addition to your home, think about having exposed ductwork and beams rather than covering the ceiling with drywall.  Hang lighting from the beams instead of investing in recessed ceiling lighting, and you’ll save money on installation!  Sometimes even a peeling-paint wall can add a huge amount of character to a space – the industrial space peeling paint can remind one of 500 year old peeling Italian walls in Venice.  

Kitchens are the perfect rooms in a house to infuse with Industrial Design.  Stainless steel appliances and professional grade stoves have already brought an industrial feel to many residential kitchens.  If you want to take this look further, add two gigantic industrial lights over a kitchen island or over a big distressed steel table and you immediately have the look.  Painted plank wood floors are another popular industrial element.  The more wear and tear on the walls or floor, the more authentic the look.  Adding wood and metal chairs or vintage industrial high-top can chairs add lots of personality to an eating area.  Aluminum stools do the trick too.  The contrast between a pristine white kitchen and these elements truly keeps things interesting.  Mounting antique corbels underneath kitchen cabinets or islands are another perfect example of bringing Industrial Chic into your kitchen.

To infuse Industrial Design throughout your home, consider replacing a side table or a coffee table with an old industrial trunk, cart, or card catalog.  Or, hang interesting pieces such as large gears or other vintage industrial components from your favorite furniture and accessory stores, Discovery Furniture and RoomMakers, or flea markets, antique stores and estate sales.  Look for pieces with aged or distressed metal rather than polished chrome.  Old industrial items that are fun, playful and unexpected are wonderful to incorporate into your home. 

Even if you don’t have a large, loft-like space, most homes can handle one or two Industrial Style conversation pieces.  Be sure to spread out your industrial items – you don’t want too much of the “rusty and crusty” in your home or your house will start looking like Sanford and Sons!  To balance out any of the coldness of Industrial décor, include a few more organic items to convey warmth.  Using natural-fiber fabrics, such as linen or linen like fabrics, wood furniture and comfy chairs keeps things looking balanced and “warm.”

Stop by Discovery Furniture and RoomMakers to see new Industrial Design accessories that you can easily incorporate into your home for this great look.  I’d love to see your latest decorating, including those wonderful Easter vignettes before you pack them away!  As always, feel free to post questions on this blog, and/or pictures on the Rooms ReNew facebook page.  I’ll give you an answer via the blog or facebook, or you can always e-mail me at tfarrellhiggins@discoveryfurniture.com or call 785.271.0684.  Happy May!

When Joyce Winter was at market in January, the “latest and greatest” was the European Vintage Style.  Kind of reminds you of the expression “everything old is new again,” doesn’t it?!

This style is inspired by the French, English and Tuscan countryside, incorporating the rustic character and charm of old farmhouses and country estates.  The style can be elegant, like French country estate, or it can be more homey, like a simple French cottage.  One important key to European Vintage Style is that there are few rules.  There is a tremendous amount of flexibility in mixing colors as well as mixing fabrics and prints that might not be acceptable in other styles.

Color Scheme

Your color inspirations for the European Vintage style can be drawn from the countryside itself.   Think about fields of lavender or soft purples, bright blue skies and fields of green grass.  Lemon yellow and deep red also are important colors in this style.  Just about anything from nature’s palette is acceptable!

Furniture

There are a few different furniture styles to keep in mind that will define European Vintage furniture.  Large pieces with a distressed finish look predominate this style.  Most common are white or off-white painted furniture pieces (with either plain or hand painted landscapes or floral scenes being very common).  Wrought iron furniture pieces are also applicable to the European Vintage Style.

Fabrics

Printed fabrics of all kinds are key to this style.   Floral scenes and toile are extremely popular, as is plaid.  Natural Fibers such as linen or linen-look fabric, as well as fabrics with writing also “makes” this style.  Mix different fabric styles – this kind of mix and match of pattern is very welcome in European Vintage! 

Accessories

Everything from birds to flowers to embroidered pieces helps define this style.  Don’t be afraid to mix and match to your heart’s content (as you did with fabrics). Handmade décor, fresh flowers, silk flowers, and French-style accessories that are simple and comfortable (as if you’re in the countryside) will help you pull off this easy style.

Enjoy the flexibility of this great style while putting European Vintage touches in your home.  No matter what style you decorate with now, if you love the European Vintage look, go ahead and incorporate a few vignettes of this style in your home this spring.   You’ll be glad you did, and your current style will blend beautifully!