Good Life of Design

Friday, February 3, 2017

How Important Is Texture In A Room?

Have you ever looked at a room in your own home or even in someone else's home, and thought... It looks nice, its pretty, but something is missing.

If you feel that way about your own home as well, 9 out of 10 times one of the missing elements just might be the "T" word, Texture!

Possibly there are no differences in the textures in the room. Remember the eighties where everyone got every table and lamp in brass and glass? That is a perfect example of not varying textures in a room.

A beautiful well appointed room will always have a good variation of textures there will be an assortment of textures ranging from rough textures, to smooth, and even shiny textures.

Go and look at a room in your own home, do you see variations in texture?

You can bring rough textures into your room with baskets, or sisal rugs.

A glass chandelier, or a clear Lucite block lamp for some shine. How about a smooth velvet sofa or chair?

(Homework assignment)

Study each of the pictures in this post and try to see if you can see a good variation of textures.

Shall we use this picture as an example?

Look at the rough texture of the basket, and the brick floor. The desk has a smooth finish but on the top of the desk you will find a stack of rough and old worn books topped with a great piece of rough coral. All of this texture keeps this room interesting and not just a nice room. The use of the clear glass lamp, the bud vase and the glass french doors add just the right shine to the room therefore varying its texture.

Notice this room used all three forms of texture, rough, smooth and shine!

This room shows a great example of texture variation as well.

The coffee table is the obvious shine, and so is the mercury glass lamp. Do you see some rough textures?

How about the white coral on the books, the horns, and look at the two large pieces of twisted wood in the corner. Even the small black pillow has some great texture going on. All of these pieces keep this room interesting and alive with the use of the "T" word, TEXTURE!!

When looking at images of rooms, always study the elements that are used. Every image will have a story to tell and a lesson to learn.

"ENJOY THE PROCESS" of:

Finding or adding texture to your rooms

All above images can be found on my Texture Pinterest board...

HERE!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Adjusting Decorating Plans In Our Entry Hall

In design sometimes we have to make changes in the original vision we had for a space. That happened to me this week with my lighting for the entry hall.

I like to take you all along with me as I go through this process in order to help you in making your own decisions for your own homes when you go to tackle projects.

The Hudson Valley Logan Sconce found HERE!

We received our sconces that I chose, and one of them had a couple of small scratches, so it had to go back.

In the mean time my sweet hubby and I had a discussion about the entry hall.

This all came about due to making a decision on which contractor to hire. Which by the way we now have a contractor on board and will be starting in 6 weeks. YAY!!!

My hubby knows me very well and he had visions of me changing my mind about the mirror we are going to hang and possibly wanting to hang our piece of artwork there.

(Please excuse blue tape, we were mapping out the panels)

Remember we are having paneled walls and the center panel will be a slab mirror with a mirror on top of the slab mirror, or as he suggested possibly the existing piece of art that now hangs there......

As you can see the artwork has a picture light above it and it would have one even if I choose to hang it on the slab mirror, so my brilliant husband suggested that we do a recessed receptacle behind the portrait so we can plug in the picture light.

Why didn't I think of that?

With that in mind I realized that the aged bronze sconces would look too harsh and that the aged brass would be more suitable for both scenarios. Sooooo back to the drawing board to find the right sconce. I could have ordered one just like the aged bronze in an aged brass, but it is back ordered until May, so that won't work.

However I did go back to revisit a sconce I had looked at previously and have decided to order it to replace the aged bronze sconce.

←I chose the Cohasset aged brass by Hudson Lighting.

The questions I still have stirring in my mind that will most likely wake me up in the middle of the night....

1. Slab mirror or no slab mirror?

2. Use a portrait light or a spot on ceiling?

So there you have it, always adjusting and trying to go with the flow over here!!!

BTW: The overhead lighting came in yesterday and it is absolutely perfection. Just what I had envisioned!!

Robert Abbey Axis pendant found HERE!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

10 Area Rugs For Entry Halls

I am a believer that the entry into a person's home should be the first glimpse of what the guest will see as they see the rest of your home.

It is your home's very first greeting. Basically it is your home's opening statement.

What do you want you home to say to your guest?

You might want to introduce the style, and feel of your home, or maybe you want to introduce one of the main colors you will be using in your home.

Entries are the perfect place to make both of these statements.

For such a small area it can really have a big impact on your home!

Try to keep that in mind when you make decisions on what to place in your small area, actually whether it is a big, or small entry it will have a big impact on your guest.

We all have walls, flooring, doors, and ceilings in our entry, no matter how large or small. When you think about it you have quite a canvas to do something beautiful.

I find it helpful to write down what I want my guest to feel when they enter our home.

Here is what I wrote for my own personal entry hall to better give you an idea of what I am talking about.

“You are about to enter the place we love, and call home, as you enter I hope you know your are welcomed here. We hope we have made you just a bit curious about how the rest of our home will look by our choices in colors, wall treatments, and the other elements we chose to greet you. We love beautiful things, but nothing is too precious in our home that it will ever be more important than YOU. We hope your feel at peace, and relaxed while you visit here.”

When you think about it, it is a pretty tall order for usually a very small area.

So that my dear friends is why I spent two whole days looking for a small 2X3 ft rug for my entry doorway.

I had to keep in mind the over all style of my home and the color scheme.

Style: Traditional with a coastal feel, somewhat ofa

Nantucket or Hamptoms vibe.

Colors: Black and white, or blue and white.

Patterns: Geometrics, and stripes.

I found the whole process interesting. Once I really got into it I would look at the rug and ask myself does this look like something I would choose, do I really love it?

Here is a line up of some of the rugs that caught my eye.....