Every night as we prepare dinner, my husband and I move through the house and pull the drapery. It is a cherished ritual. While we live in a fairly secluded neighborhood, we both find that drawing the panels gives us a sense of coziness. Our stone house has thick walls and tall oak trees, features that we love, but which limit our natural light. Because of this, we do not like for the fabric to cover the glass during the day. Luckily, I am a seasoned designer and know the perfect scale to make the drapery hit all of our requirements. I also know that custom drapery is one of the most impactful changes a person can make in a room.
To help demystify these treatments, here are the factors I keep in mind as I design drapery for my projects.
Read moreAt a recent house call, my client handed me a photo of a room from her childhood home. When it was taken, the shelving concept was not the subject matter. Instead the grainy snapshot from the 1980s was focused on a group of happy, good-looking people, sitting together in a family room on what might have been a Sunday evening after dinner.
As she looked at the photo and talked about adaptations to the design, she was suddenly overcome with emotion and we were both a little surprised when tears came to her eyes.
Read moreAfter almost two decades in design, I have become an expert at intelligent space planning, but as the owner of a modest home, the tricks I've learned for making the most of tight spaces are particularly close to my heart.
Read moreWe all have them, those unfinished projects that accumulate because we ran out of steam for one reason or another. Waning house projects, in particular, add to the figurative clutter in our lives.
Read moreAs a new homeowner and a designer, I can tell you that good interior design is all in the details, but these nuances can often be addressed with simple, cost-effective changes.
Read moreNot all kitchens are equal, but size does not have to be a limitation. To be honest, I am a big fan of smaller kitchens, which is tantamount to treason in some areas of my profession. I have tried larger ones on for size and they work against my instinct for tight organization. Maybe you also prefer an intimate and efficient work area for creative cooking. Or if you are a cottage dweller like me, you might be limited by the scale of your house to a modest kitchen. I can’t promise to make people who don’t like cooking into enthusiastic home chefs, but with my professional insights, I can make your small kitchen into a room you’ll love. In this second part of my Design 101: Small Kitchens blog series, I will get into all the nerdy details of good proportion, good lighting, and how to use pattern.
Read moreMaybe your home is older and the kitchen was small from the beginning. It might not be in your budget to expand the space or doing so would steal too much space from another area. Or maybe, like me, you’ve just come to realize that a big kitchen is not necessarily a good one. Here are some helpful ideas for making the most of a smaller kitchen.
Read moreI can still remember spending days as a child in our den with the windows open, the sunlight and cool breeze flowing over me as I read, using my very large golden retriever as a pillow. We spent many days joined at the hip. I remember Chancey as part of our daily activities.
So when I meet our clients’ furry friends I know how important it is for us to consider them in the design of our client’s homes. We’ve compiled our top tips to help you include your four legged companions without sacrificing style worth showing off.
Read moreAfter almost two decades in design, I have become an expert at intelligent space planning, but as the owner of a modest home, the tricks I've learned for making the most of tight spaces are particularly close to my heart.
Read moreDespite having already met one another, on the first site meeting the client is sometimes a shade nervous. They might say, "Here it is. Don't judge."
There are a lot of myths about what it’s like to work with a designer. Read on for a no-nonsense look at how we operate from introduction to installation.
Read moreAs a seasoned designer with diverse clients, I am often either helping a family decide how much to add to a home they are outgrowing or I am figuring out how to put unused rooms to work in a house that is a little too big for its owner.
Generally my opinion is that less house is better than too much house, but my skills and vision afford me the opportunity to create impactful designs no matter the scale of the project. For the homeowner who is trying to decide the size of their next home investment, there are a number of ways to evaluate what will be the perfect fit.
Read moreInterior design makes spaces look great and function optimally. Thoughtful consideration of lighting, space, color, and organization can improve our quality of life and our mood. Yet many people choose not to seek professional help for a myriad of perfectly understandable reasons.
Read moreWe recommend looking at the business from two perspectives: inside out and outside in. How staff experience it inwardly and how customers and clients perceive it outwardly. By sharpening the image of a business through interior design, clients and patrons feel more confident in their choice and more apt to refer the business to friends and colleagues.
Read moreMuch like business dress, the design in an office suite should elicit confidence from clients. This makes the typical default one that in the world of fashion is the equivalent of a two piece grey suit: a classic choice, but one that needs a little help from a necktie, jewelry, or a great pair of shoes.
Read moreWhen you strip away the frills, my design expertise essentially revolves around recognizing and solving problems. Large rooms are usually considered ideal, but they also require smart space planning to assure comfort and functionality.
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