I Might Be Going To The Dark Side!

 Don't worry today I am talking about the dark side of color, not the Baaaad dark side! ;)

Dark walls are often associated with making a room look smaller. Yes, they can do that, but they can also make a room look cozy, and inviting, or crisp and sharp when accented with white. 

If you pay close attention you will notice that dark walls are being seen in  the design world these days especially in dark charcoals, and blacks.

One of the most stunning, small, tiny powder rooms I ever saw was all painted in black with gold accents. It literally had room for a toilet and a very small sink. I saw this years ago and have never forgotten it.

Personally I tend to go for rooms that are in a fairly light to medium hues, however there is one color I have learned I can live with that is dark, and that is NAVY BLUE!!

Benjamin Moore’s Van Deusen blue

When my oldest son was celebrating his 9th birthday we did his room in all navy and white, his Dad made him his furniture for the room which was all white with navy drawers and navy tops. 

It is still one of my favorite rooms that I decorated in our home of 37 years. I wish I had a picture to show you.

With the purchase of a new home I have started thinking about each room as it will relate to the other rooms in the house. 

In an open concept home you need to look at the whole picture  not just each room as a separate entity.

Today I am going to talk about the office/den in our new home. Let me show you the floor plan once again so you can see how it relates to the kitchen and great room….

Our office is where they show a dining room. It can be an office, or dining room. You will notice that our office doors are French doors. 

I am very excited about these gorgeous 8 ft, glass doors, but since they are glass the office will be in plain view even when doors are closed. 

The doors can have a covering on them, but why have French doors if you are going to leave them covered up all the time.

Remember I am a girl that requires light so I might have a covering that can be closed if my hubby wants privacy, but most of the time this door will be open for viewing.

With that in mind, you can tell from the floor plan that you will be able to see inside the office from the kitchen and great room. 

It is important that there is a visual flow, from room to room, and since my color scheme is navy/cobalt, black and white in this part of the home it seemed to me that the office would be the perfect spot to do navy.

I still have some convincing to do as far as my hubby is concerned, but I think I can convince him if I keep it fresh and crisp.

The two navy paint colors I am considering at this point are:

           Van Deusen Blue         Normandy Blue             

Both of these colors are from Benjamin Moore paints. The first one is the color I love, the second color is still in the Navy but just might make a good compromise for my hubby, if I need to compromise to convince him.

Let me show you some of the rooms that have inspired me….

This one wall is so striking, it does not make the room close in or look dark and heavy. 

We have two nice sized windows on the back wall that could take this treatment beautifully. 

I am not a fan of the brown recliner, or the russet throw, but all the navy and white is so appealing to me.

Notice the round window? I don’t have a window, but I can use a nice white round mirror to give me this look.

This navy is quite a bit darker, and yet it still feels crisp with all of the white surrounding it. I also like the window treatments in this room, they add a touch of texture and warmth.

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The rug and the gold accents really bring this room to life.

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The more white the better.

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The white furniture and storage cabinets, keep this room looking fresh and crisp. Love the sail ship and I think the office is a perfect place to display a ship like this! I think this might also be another element that just might convince hubby he NEEDS a navy office.

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This room has a lot more white than navy  by making the navy in panels outlined in white moldings, and yet it still gives you the feeling that you are in a navy room. I really like this.

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Navy with a touch of black is so handsome and it is a combination that I do love and use in my home. I even have a pinterest board named, Black, White and blue all over.

I even found a piece I would like to hang on the navy wall in the office/den from Dot & Bo

found HERE!

As you can see my wheels are turning in my design brain. I am having so much fun. Design is such a passion of mine that this just feeds my creative side to be able to make plans for our new home.

We have a lot to think about and trust me I am……

“Enjoying The Process!”

House Progress:

It is starting to look like a real house now, not just a box in the dirt!

BTW: To see more of my inspiration images go  to

• Office
• Dark Walls
• Black, White, and Blue All Over

 

 

 

Kitchen Lighting Plan For My New House

 

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How much light does a room need? Most homes are light poor. In my career I have found this to be very true. 

Did you know there is actually a formula to figure out how much lighting a room needs in your home?

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HELPFUL TIP:

I read a little formula a long time ago that said  find your square footage (example 12ftx16ft = 192sq.ft) then multiply your square footage by 1.5 (192 x 1.5 =288) so that means your room will need 288 watts of lighting sources.An average room should have approx. 4-5 lamps.

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Anyone who knows me well, knows that I require light and air so I always have enough lighting in my room.

I am a big proponent for ambient lighting as well so most of might lighting has dimmers.

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In my new kitchen I have, in my opinion, way too many over head recessed lights I have never been a big fan of overhead recessed cans, or the Swiss cheese look for ceilings, but I do understand their use, and most new built homes are going to have recessed lighting. 

This is a picture of the model, I think I counted 8-9 can lights. I am NOT a fan. These babies will all be on dimmers.

I like different types of lighting in a room, not just overhead lighting. I like lamps, sconces and overhead lights. 

In kitchens we are all use to mostly overhead lighting, but there are other ways to use the different types of lighting in our kitchens.

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Recently a friend of mine showed me a picture of a kitchen that she just knew I would love and little did she know it renewed an idea I had thought about for years, but did not have the opportunity to do this idea in my previous home.

(Thank you Jeanette!)

With my new home this could possibly be an option I might be using depending on the final design plan for my kitchen.

LAMPS ON KITCHEN COUNTERS:

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When I had lamps on my counter in my other home I made sure I could hide the cord. 

Downside of that was the lamp had to be close by an outlet. 

If you look closely you can see the cord running underneath the mirror tray. I had it like this for years, until I got under counter lighting in the kitchen.

Because of the height of the cabinets I also had to make sure the lamp was low enough to go under the upper cabinets.

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This entire kitchen is stunning to say the least. I love the lamps on the upper portion of the breakfast bar. 

It appears that these lamps are permanent fixtures. no cord to be seen. However I know that cords are often photo shopped out.

This is a picture of Ina Garten’s kitchen. This island measures 18ft long, and I thought my island was BIG!!! I just noticed there is a cord in this picture, but take a look at this next image…..

At first I thought it was the same lamp as in the other image, but it is slightly different. 

Notice no little feet, and this appears to have silicone, or some type of caulking around the bottom edge, and there is not a cord in sight.

Maybe Ina was like me at first, not sure she would want it as a permanent fixture, and then she decided she like them there so much she made them a permanent fixture. I really have no idea, this is me assuming.

I would like to know, wouldn’t you. So INA if you are reading this, (fat chance that would happen) could you tell us about your lamps on your counter in the comments!!

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Since I do not plan on having lamps on my counter permanently I have to figure out a way to do it without the cord showing. This made me start to look for some ideas on how to accomplish that. I did find some possibilities.

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Nice looking is she? (her name is Marilyn,) If the lamp was going to be a permanent fixture forever it might be worth the price of $425 to not have a cord, but there are other ways to get around the CORD issue.

I found a blog post that shows how to make a cordless light using LED strip lighting. 

This is the particular strip lighting we used as under cabinet lighting, and inside our cabinets in our old home, and we also plan on using it in our new home. It is easy to install and very inexpensive.

You can read about here.

This blogger is so generous in showing just how to do it and she uses rechargeable batteries so it sounds to me like this just might be the way to go in order to stay within a reasonable budget that hubby will be happy with.

You can go HERE to her blog post to see how she did it.

So now I have a plan of attack if I decide not to do any lighting over my island, and decide to do lamps on my island instead.

You all know I am a girl that has to have a plan of attack.

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Could you see a cordless lamp in your future, or a lamp on your kitchen counter top?

I definitely can and just might!!!

For a great blog post on lamps in kitchens be sure to read “Things That Inspire,” Holly’s post HERE!!

Since I am a planner you can bet I will be doing more blog post on my kitchen lighting ideas!!

Stay Tuned!

 

 

I Have Been, "RACKING," My Brain For Ideas

 

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To say my mind is busy spinning with ideas would be an understatement. With the purchase of a new home I can see new possibilities around me everywhere.

However I am the kind of homeowner that keeps her home pretty much in the same vein with tweaks here and there.

In looking around at new ideas I always refer back to my pins on Pinterest. I do have a board that is called,

 “Things that are on my radar!”

This is the board I pin things that I keep being attracted to for some reason. I have found by pinning lots of ideas like this  helps me either want it more, or I realize I probably couldn’t really live with it in reality.

If we get caught up in the moment, or a new trend and just dive in head first without thinking of how it will relate to our existing pieces, or the over all feeling of our home we can end up with a hodge podge of ideas plunked down in our rooms therefore creating a, “Hot Mess!”

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I spend a great deal of time mulling over ideas, and making plans on the over all design before ever jumping forward with anything. 

In my career when asked what is the biggest mistake homeowners make, I would always say, “They start decorating without a plan!” 

If you don’t have a flexible plan in place you can not make good choices, or adjustments as needed.

There will always be adjustments that need to take place for a few reasons, availability, affordability, and practicality.

We as home owners always have to keep these three things in mind when decorating our homes.

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With all of this in mind I thought I would share one of the ideas I am just thinking about for our new home, in fact it is an element I thought seriously about for our old home as well. 

You have probably guessed what it is by now because of the images I have posted!

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PLATE RACKS

In thinking about a plate rack I think the positives for me are it is decorative, and functional at the same time.

It can add charm to a blank wall. The down side, or just a bit of apprehension on my part is, will it be too much going on for my eye. 

I like simplicity, and not too much visual clutter. Because of this I have to think it through completely before committing.

Let me show you the wall that I am thinking about putting it on. This wall is one of the problem children in my homes design. 

With a new build or a reno we sometimes have to work around/with problem elements. The only way to get around this is to build a custom home that you design from the ground up.

My problem child is the end wall in my dining area it has two 18in. square awkward looking windows at the top of the wall.

I understand the reasoning behind this was probably to allow those that have a hutch or a serving piece to be able to place it there. 

I have NEVER had, or even liked a hutch so for me I would much rather have a nice big window there, but I did not design the home so no one is listening to me on this count so I am going to work around my two awkward windows.

I am trying to look at this as a design lesson for me, and for you and I will figure out something once we actually live in the home, but for now I am dreaming, and making plans for the possibilities, so that is what we are going to discuss today.

I think I have about 6ft high of wall space to work with under the windows. Now use your imagination and picture white cabinets, white quartz counter tops and medium brown hardwood floors……

These are my actual finishes for this area.

Before we start I have two other ideas that could work for this wall as well. I will discuss those in later post. 

But for now lets look at some plate racks that could possibly work on that end wall…

Ideally I would like that entire wall clad with paneling of some kind so that the plate rack looks almost like a built in feature, something like this…….

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I love the simplicity of this design with only one platter per shelf. I will display some plain white platters that I have collected over the years. 

The one feature I would change on this  plate rack is the curved corner pieces, that makes it a bit too cute for my style. I love the idea of  having sconces included in the design. That is very appealing to me.

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Nice and simple, however I think the top needs to be capped off with some time of header.

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I love the way the white plates pop off of the darker background. I use black in my home, just not sure I could do this.

If I did do this, I would keep the frame and the rails white and only have the very back wall black. It is a thought and one I will consider.

In my consideration I have to keep in mind that I do not want to get too many black and white areas in my home, making it look contrived rather than well designed, it is a very fine line that I try not to cross.

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I really liked seeing this particular plate rack  because of it’s white surroundings, which is what I will have. It is also wider than some of the others I have seen. Again, I would eliminate the corner corbels for a cleaner line.

This is one of the ideas that I have for my problem child wall!!

Next question:

Should I do the plate rack right below the windows, and put nice big molding around the windows to make it look like part of the plate rack, or should I include the windows inside the plate rack on the very top shelf?

Hmmmm? Something to think about.

I have two more ideas up my sleeves, more on that later!!!