Posted
August 31, 2010 by
erin under
Design Basics Back to school means many different things to many different people! For those college students you know it’s an exciting time! They get to live on their own, make their own choices, and design their own unique place! Here are some great little pieces to consider:
Writer’s Block
Moustache Pencils
Fillsta Lamp from Ikea
Peacock Circles pillow from Pier 1
Speaking of layouts for small spaces, we now have a new option available to help with your home, apartment, or dorm room! This is perfect if you’ve already got the furniture but just don’t know how to lay it out as efficiently as possible. This single room service is a one time fee of $75 and includes a new floor plan for your room. Visit the Hire Us page to learn more.
Tags: apartment, design, dorm, school, studio
Posted
August 17, 2010 by
erin under
Design Basics I recently was talking with someone about their window treatments. (They are sewing some new ones themselves and wanted to know if they should pay the extra money and time to line them.) Most designers will tell you to line everything! I don’t necessarily believe this, so here’s what I look at when deciding whether or not to line.
Let’s talk first about why you’d want to line them. There are multiple reasons to line those drapes:
-To give your drapes body so that they’ll drape nicely instead of look limp
-To look consistent from the exterior of your home. Imagine standing outside the front of your house and seeing the back of all your different colored curtains…doesn’t look very good, does it?
-To protect some fibers, such as silk and linen, from the sun. These materials can be broken down by constant sunlight.
{Drapes from West Elm}
So how do you decide? Look at the material your using for your drapes. Is it thick? Is it thin? Is it neutral colored, or did you choose some bold colors or patterns?
For light to medium weight fabrics of a neutral color I’d opt to keep them unlined for a more airy feel. (Although lining them is just fine too.)
For light to medium weight fabrics with a bold color or pattern, I’d definitely line them. It helps to see the pattern better on the inside, and keep things nice looking from the outside as well.
For heavy material of any color I’d look at the back. Does the pattern show through on the back or not? If you don’t like the look of the back of the material then I’d line them in a lightweight lining. Heavy materials usually have enough body on their own drape well.
A lot of it really has to do with the look you’re going for!
Tags: advice, curtains, How to, lining, tips
Posted
July 1, 2010 by
erin under
Design Basics In school I took a rendering class. I haven’t done too much with them since school, but I recently took a Copic marker class to brush up on some of my techniques. Aren’t the colors so pretty?
I’m so excited to do more renderings soon, but until then I found some gorgeous ones to inspire me! I’d love to make a mini-collage of these to put on my wall! Am I the only one that loves looking at floorplans, elevations, and other architectural drawings so much?
{Drawing by Olechko}
{Drawing from Betsill Workshop}
{Interior Rendering from Ellen Nygaard}
Tags: copic markers, drawings, renderings, wall art
Posted
January 8, 2010 by
erin under
Design Basics Most of us have collections, but are unsure how to display them! The best way to start is to give them all something consistent to start with. Like this layout of old rulers. But keeping the bottom horizontal line the same they’ve given some consistency to it and allow you to better see the individual rulers.
(Photo via Trip Press Print)
Tags: collection, display
Posted
November 4, 2009 by
erin under
Design Basics Last night I had the opportunity to hear Mary Hoffman, a Color and Design Specialist for Benjamin Moore! I heard a little bit about Benjamin Moore and their process for choosing their color palettes for the year.
This is one of their color palettes for next year. I love the European feel to it! Very clean, chic, and contemporary!
I absolutely love color theory and anything having to do with color. I find it fascinating that they forecast the colors about 2-3 years out. So yep, back in 2007 they forecasted that purple would be big this year…and sure enough, we’re seeing purple everywhere now!
To choose the color palettes they come up with a theme (or a few themes). The particular color palette above was based on Ingenuity. They saw that designers would be using color in unconventional palettes. Their other palettes were based off of New Luxury and Genesis. The New Luxury color palette featured rich purples, yellows, oranges, and darker bronze neutrals. Almost Eastern inspired. Their Genesis palette featured a much more monochromatic palette which focused on colors found in nature. Texture was a big factor in this particular color palette to provide some relief from the monochromatic colors.
She talked some about their paint (which I’ll share later) but she hid paint chips throughout the store (Pottery Barn) and made it a game of finding them. She was showing some colors that coordinated, and some new color palettes we would start to see next year. Mary mentioned that along with more purple next year we’d start to see navy pop up again. (You heard it here first folks!) Here are some of the paint chips I found in the store:
We’ve seen a lot of yellow, grey, white color combinations, but pinks will be added to the palette next year too.
Love how this gorgeous green provides a soft feeling to all the dark wood tones.
Here’s some more purple! Love it with the neutrals and metallics!
Be sure to check out their site! They’ve got lots of great resources and inspiration photos too!
Tags: color, paint, trends
