Great Decoration

.  There is definitely a "simpler Christmas" trend in the last several years. Simple is good and clean and when you add green to the mix you have the perfect Christmas accent, a small/miniature tree.  From plain to layered, there are lots of options.


Love the bucket and bench  (it's all the texture and gray) but the simple ornaments finish everything off beautifully.  Who would think white card trees could be so elegant?

Every home is filled with furniture and objects, but they are not valued equally by homeowners. Personal preferences and history play a part in determining individual likes and dislikes in furniture and accessories.  Coming to terms with what you truly value in your home can help you set a design focus.

 As a place to start with clients who  may be  having difficulty focusing on where they want to go with a design, I often ask them to show me several things in the space that they value/love/ couldn't part with. In talking about why they like the particular piece I get insight into what is important to them and many times the objects also provide inspiration for the design.

 It is not necessary to spend huge amounts of money to accessorize your home.  Much of what you need is probably in another room or in the natural environment. Garage sales, thrift stores etc. can  also provide  economical options.  The trick is to select  things that have multiple uses.  In this way you can rotate objects to make them new.   I love bottles and natural elements together.  It's no wonder I loved Anna Truelsen's My Lovely Things blog when I found it this week. She is a pro at using ordinary things for big impact. 

 Take one white table and add various bottles and natural elements.  When you add a growing bulb to the mix the vignette will change as the bulb grows.

 The look is changed completely when a black frame is used as a backdrop and a potted plant and a narrow necked bottle is added with a chair in the foreground.

 Different bottles with feathery ferns change the look again.  I was thinking how I would love to add a small black and white print inside the frame to fill up the space at the top. What do you think?

Replacing the black frame with a mirror adds to the repetition of objects and the mirror will also reflect other things in the decor.  Massing object together has big impact.

With Christmas just around the corner what could you do to add a little festive flavour? 

Who knew that one sculptural green leaf could be so dramatic?

This vignette is built on varying shades and finishes of black with a strongly sculptural branch with blossoms to break up the starkness of the space. You could achieve a similar look with any colour interior by keeping the colour of the objects in the same family.  Certainly black has an impact that other colours might not have.

Look around.  What do you have in your home that you could group together?

 I had a refreshing conversation with a client/friend recently about  reordering  and supplementing her space to make it more peaceful and inviting. It brought me back to  what  I  feel is important, and what I am  most attracted to in my own  living space.  My last post explores ways to create a peaceful environment and this one is a follow up.

I want a quiet, peaceful space and I'm constantly fighting my attraction to objects.  I love pattern, texture, shapes and a bit of glitz. After several years of letting myself buy this because.... or that because...., I have areas of my house that are getting just too object driven.  I'm currently in a simplifying phase and I have three guiding principles: 

1.  Embrace space by decluttering
2. Celebrate ordinary things
3. Focus on what you value

Today's focus is....

Embrace space by decluttering 


 Getting rid of all the excesses in a house leaves a space that is simpler and opened up.   I feel you need to walk that fine line between  owning objects and feeling burdened by them. When you remove things you let empty space occupy the site, and your eyes will seek that openness.

  Do you want a table laden with an array of objects or do you want several meaningful objects? 




My eye is happier moving over this arrangement which has visual interest with its varying textures, shapes and heights, but still feels calm.

 Or this white on white arrangement  with wood tones to break it up.



For a more dramatic look you can have darker or more intense colour, but still have a pared down, clean  look.

 If you love art  it is always a challenge to have just enough to appreciate what you have. Each art piece needs its own personal space just like people.  Cluttered gallery walls are not for  everyone. Less is often more.

Here are several space enhancing tricks with art:

 Arranging one piece of art over furniture and viewing it from a distance creates a  long view.  Your eye moves over the space that is in front of it in a seeking fashion.  Honing in so to speak. It's very effective.  You need larger or dramatic work for this trick to be effective. Framing with a doorway is a great way to move your eye through.

Use repetition of simple frames and black and white on a coloured wall to anchor work and attract the eye. While there are four works here you view them as a unit.


 Let art work take centre stage.  This room doesn't need any other art with these three panels.

 In my last post I presented my problem dining  room. I feel I've put the space on the road to salvation.  Here's the update so far.  I have more ideas, but they require a lot of elbow grease and won't happen before Christmas.  I think it's looking more spacious and welcoming.

Before

We all have them, those rooms that defy all you know about design, and just continue to go about their merry way creating problems no matter what you do with them. I managed to create a monster a quarter of a century ago right  in the middle of my house because  my mind was focused on other things at the time. I've spent the intervening  years trying to make my dining room "right" by my standards - I haven't achieved that yet. 

No one has ever walked into my house and said "OMG, what a mess this dining room is."  So what's wrong with it  in my eyes?

Location:  When you're standing in my entry  you look directly into the dining room.  The archway frames the table and the window.  It is also a walk through space from the living room  on the right  to the kitchen which is to the left.

There is an alternate hallway beside the stairs, but we never go that way. My dining room is the room in the middle with no identity. Because the walkway needs to be maintained  only half the room is really accessible for  the table - problem #1.



You're right! The furniture is the same height as the railing causing your eye to run along the lines and never go anywhere else. I've used all my tricks to make it otherwise, with minimal success. Note all the verticals - floor lamp, tall twigs, candle sticks, vertical artwork, accentuated vertical windows in living room.  The strength of the horizontal lines and the preponderance of wood wins out every time.

Flooring and railing
Problem #3
The aged oak is so orange- my least favourite tone in wood. Because I can't rip it all up or throw away the furniture, I've decided to embrace the orange  and pick it up in interesting art works that also have lots of purples and blues to tame down the orange.  



Lighting 
Problem #6

The light fixture was an impulse buy  because I liked the lines,  but its scale is too small, and it is hung too high in my efforts to make sure you could see the painting at the end of the room.   As an artist, art always takes precedent over every other design  decision in my house.  This often leads me into hot water.

Wall colour 
Problem # 7

You may be thinking at this point why doesn't she have the walls pained a cooler neutral.  Can't happen because the living room, where most of the light comes from, is north facing and the house next door blocks off any light in the dining room.  Both rooms are dull and cold.  The living room is  Elephant Tusk OC 8 Benjamin Moore and the dining room is Light Khaki  BM 2148-40.

Window treatment
Problem #8 
I love these back tab drapes for the subtle design and their softness,  but the necessity to crop them to allow for the buffet further emphasizes all the horizontal lines. I also think I should have a window treatment that covers the window in some way so you can't see the wall of the next house with is very close to the window and certainly not interesting.

Matching set 
Problem # 9
I have an aversion to matched sets of furniture and here I am living with just that. Matching always looks so uninspired in my eyes and gives the appearance of laziness.  Like you couldn't be bothered to put the room together.  Yes I like a curated room and I have a bundled set!

I'm sure if I really tried I could find a Problem 10.  Many of you may feel it is the lack of cove mouldings, but that again is not part of the architectural details of the original house. 

 Well that about explains the problems. Who knew there was so much wrong with my dining room?  Most of my friends would be very surprised by this analysis!  In the next post I'll look at some possible solutions.  If you have anything to suggest that might help with my design dilemmas, I'd love to hear from you.

Fall and Thanksgiving were heralded for the past month on various blogs and Pinterest. How much effort and expense are involved in your seasonal decorations?  My holiday tables always  give a gentle nod to  the season rather than a yell.  Usually I find things to combine from  my garden or my accessory  shelf in my storage room.  It is so much more fun to be thrifty and it stretches you to be creative with less.  In that vein, perhaps these ideas will get you thinking about how  to use what you already have.

 A few twigs from the garden and several small pumpkins in a large vase.  Simple and beautiful.  No pumpkins?  A trip to the Dollar store is in order for fake fall leaves (or the real thing) or spray paint assorted nuts gold and use those to anchor the twigs.

 Scoop  out a pumpkin just deep enough to place a candle in it and decorate the edges with faux leaves, twigs and berries.

 Collect all t he large clear vases you have, place a white pillar candle in each and decorate with nuts or leaves. Change to red berries for christmas. 

 Use the flowers of the season and bottles to rest one bloom in each .  Line them up along the table.

 Sunflowers, an old brass pan, berries and a green pumpkin.  While real sunflowers are beautiful you can substitute with fake ones. 
 Small vases with nuts, water and a flower on the top.  What else could you use to replace nuts?  A plaid tablecloth is always so cozy.

 Love this idea of stringing small pumpkins/gourds along the table with ribbon and a garland of berries.

 Use small potted plants, wrap them in a vivid croton leaf and place in square vases. Keep it until Christmas.


 I love kale but I've never thought of cutting it and using it inside as a bouquet.  Don't you love the purple ones?


I've been admiring these long wooden boxes for dining tables.  Each season what you put in them changes.  They would look just as inviting along a mantle.  Christmas idea for sure... any bits of wood in your basement?

Which is your favourite?