Posted
August 31, 2009 by
erin under
Space Redesigns Wendy’s main goal with her space was to make sure everything was in the best place possible. She wanted to ensure that all their space was being utilized properly. I’ve made some minor changes and updated a few things while adding more flexible seating to update her space without spending lots of money. Many times, in homes of this size there are a limited number of ways that furniture can be laid out. There’s lots of space needed for circulation and maybe only one wall that has cable limiting where the TV is placed. The key in these spaces is to make sure that furniture, if possible, serves a dual purpose.
1. Remove the doors from this cabinet. Make simple fabric panels to cover the bottom. By doing this you’ll be able to utalize more space in this corner because it’s not needed for opening the doors to access the bottom of the built-ins. Use Amy Butler Fabric August Fields Graceful Vines Orange. Paint the inside of the upper cabinets a coordinating orange, SW 6889 Stirring Orange. Add a circular rug to help define the space. This round 6′ rug from Rugs Direct would work well.
2. Use the same Amy Butler Fabric Graceful Vines, to make some drapery panels for these windows. This will bring in some of the accent orange as well.
3. Let’s paint this TV stand. The furniture that you have thus far work well together as they are all a similar style and finish, except for the TV stand. By darkening this piece (Use Sherwin Williams Color SW 6070 Turkish Coffee) you will tie this in as well. I think you’ll find that you won’t feel like your furniture is a modge podge anymore!
4. Replace this coffee table with 3 of these ottomans from Overstock.com and use as a base to make your own covers with the Amy Butler Fabric-Lotus Wall Flower Green. (Yes the colors don’t match at all on the originals, but for $24 a piece you can’t go wrong! If you build these from scratch they would be more expensive.) Don’t forget to use Scotchguard on these and they’ll last for quite a while and stand up to your children using them! These will provide flexible seating for you. They can be used as a coffee table for now, then when more seating is needed, just pull them out for seating! Instead of a large area rug here, buy 3 carpet tiles from FLOR and use these to place the ottomans on. You’re essentially making a small runner for the ottomans. I’d go with All Square-Orange. (When you’re using the ottomans as seating, just slide the carpet under the sofa!)
5. Many designers will tell you to hang all artwork at eye level but there are times (many times in fact!) that this is not always the case. Right now it seems like they are floating above the rest of the items in the room, if you move them down about 12″ they will then be seen as part of the furniture arrangement that includes the ottomans and sofa! This will provide more continuity in the space, which is needed in a smaller space.
Here is the design board with the items from above:
Color Palette
1. New Wall Color: Sherwin Williams SW 6711 Parakeet
2. New TV Stand Color: Sherwin Williams SW 6070 Turkish Coffee
3. Accessory Color (You already have this covered!)
4. Cabinet Color for inside the built in cabinets in your dining space: Sherwin Williams SW 6889 Stirring Orange
I love your guitar arrangement! Thanks so much Wendy for letting us help you with your space!!
Do you need help redesigning your space? Click here to get started!
Tags: Amy Butler, dining room, living room, redesign
Posted
August 28, 2009 by
erin under
Space Redesigns
Monday we’re assisting Wendy with her Living Room and Dining Room space. Here is her current design:
Here are Wendy’s goals with the space above:
What are your favorite design store/home décor stores? They can be brick and mortar stores or online stores. The answers to this question help us determine your budget by seeing which places you like to shop. These also tell us a little bit about your style. I am a huge fan of Anthropology and Crate and Barrel for ideas. Then I utilize flea market/garage sale finds to try to replicate some of the items. I like furniture redos (painting, simple upholstery, change knobs, etc.). I have inherited many of the pieces in this room. The sofa is the only furniture piece that I bought new. Sometimes, this makes my rooms too hodgepodge/college aesthetic. I am not married to any of the accessories in this room. My favorite one is the flower painting because I think it is so fun. I also sew and can make pillows or window treatments. I LOVE Amy Butler’s fabrics and would love to use them somehow. The interview that you did with her was great. I am a huge fan! Her new rugs are so amazing.
What 3 words would you use to describe yourself and the feeling of the space you’d like? Warm, happy and colorful.
What is the most important thing you ’d like done with the space? I think the space layout needs attention. Also, we like to have people over but there is never enough comfortable seating for all of them. I have 2 kids who are 3 and 6 so although they are old enough to not pull things down, they still spill plenty of things on the floor/sofa so this is important to know. Because the space is small everything must be very functional and flexible.
What are two of your favorite and least favorite colors? (Keep this particular space in mind, as we know favorite colors vary from space to space) I love bold colors. We have lived with the dark green on the walls for 6 years now. I still really like it but would be up for an update. Also Red! I love red and variations of it. (This is probably why I like the green because anything red looks great with it.) Not a huge fan of pastels.
What are the overall dimensions, including ceiling height (if applicable) of your space? This room is an L- Shaped room with many doorways. See attached drawing. The ceilings are 9’.
Is there anything else you’d like us to include or consider in designing your space? We live in 1,000 SF so this is a very important room to all of us. We eat, watch TV, hobby, play, entertain, relax, and just plain live here a lot. I think there are some great opportunities for utilizing the space that we haven’t thought of. My husband is an avid guitar player. Our solution to having guitar stands everywhere was to hang them on the wall. I like this but would be open to changing the location or splitting them up if you thought we should for the layout to work.
Check back Monday for the redesign!
Tags: dining room, living room, redesign
Posted
August 27, 2009 by
deb under
Before & After 
Rachel Winokur from eTTa designs sent in this wonderful redesign done for homeowners in California. It is a living and dining area. Isn’t it amazing? I really like the rug in the dining area, and I love the mixtures of reds, greens and yellows.
What do you think? Are you working on something that you’d like to share? Send it our way at admin AT freshnestdesign DOT com.
Tags: dining room, living room
Posted
August 27, 2009 by
deb under
Giveaway 
The winners of the LaundryTreeSoapNut Starter Kit {100g soapnuts, an essential or fragrant oil, an extra washbag and a sample bag} are:
#3 Chelsey who said, “I’ve heard about these before, and I have always wanted to try them! They sound so fun!” and
#17 Kara who said, “I have never heard of these but would really love to try them.”
Send your mailing information to admin AT freshnestdesign DOT com and we will pass it along to LaundryTree.
Thanks to LaundryTree for sponsoring such a great giveaway and providing a natural and chemical free way to do our laundry!
and
Tags: LaundryTree, soapnuts, winner
Posted
August 26, 2009 by
erin under
Tutorial Today I’ve got a treat for you! We’ve created a free space plan download so that you can design and rearrange your own space. It’s simple to do and can even be reused!
You’ll need Acrobat Reader to open and print it.
Instructions:
Print all sheets on white cardstock and laminate the grid sheet. After you’ve laminated it you’re ready to go. Cut out the furniture pieces, doors, and windows that you need.
Use a dry erase marker to outline your room, remember that each square is 6″ so each 1 foot piece of wall will take up 2 squares, got it? When you need to do another room, just erase and layout your next space! Yea! What do you think? Will you use it? Let us know if there’s any pieces that you’ve just got to have and we’ll see about adding in another add-on download.
Tags: DIY, download, floorplan
