The Interior Living Room

I have no words to express how much we’ve lost today. He was truly gifted and he will be missed. RIP Michael.

I just wanted to send out the ubiquitous Happy Father’s Day salutation that I’m sure you’ve already seen a zillion times on facebook and twitter.

So… Happy Father’s Day! I’m spending today playing PS3 with my boy. Today I will win NHL ‘09. (He’ll let me, I’m sure) Last year I tried my first (and last) roller coaster ride with my boy, because apperantly it’s extremely funny when your kids can see you shreek in abject terror for 90 to 120 seconds.

Any funny Father’s Day stories? I’m interested. There IS that big comment thing below.

“A father is someone that
holds your hand at the fair
makes sure you do what your mother says
holds back your hair when you are sick
brushes that hair when it is tangled because mother is too busy
lets you eat ice cream for breakfast
but only when mother is away
he walks you down the aisle
and tells you everythings gonna be ok”

First of all, when I say “discovery”, I am not suggesting for one second that I have just found the next Jason Mraz working at a coffee house, playing Elvis songs. I am simply pointing out that this designer came to my attention from a reader, and since I wasn’t aware of his design prowess, it’s a discovery. I really think his eye is brilliant. BTW, my fair and gentle readers, I am sorry that posts have been infrequent of late, but alas the real world has had me working long hours, slaving and toiling over more temperamental home owners.

At any rate, the photos above come courtesy of Jeremy Levine, of jeremy levine design. What can I say, another designer after my own heart. As you can likely tell I am very fond of the color tones – so I am also coming to realize (as I look back at my old design photos). If you can, visit his site as well because even if his designing style doesn’t turn your crank his website itself is bloody cool. I may have to try some of his flashy, pop up style site design once I redesign this blog.

When I see something that deserves proper attention I will definitely feature it here, and also recommend the designer to as many people as humanly possible. If you’ll remember not too long ago I came across Pangaea Interior Design, located in Portland, Oregon. Since featuring only the tiniest amount of her work I have been almost inundated with emails praising the photos and her keen eye.

So, to those readers who email me with their own and their favorite designs, believe me I am reading, I am checking them out. If and when I get the chance, they will end up featured here, on ye-old Interior Living Room. As for Jeremy, I would recommend him any day of the week, and not just based on these few photos, but also because I discovered his Flickr photo stream.You should most definitely click through to see more photos of his work.

Top notch stuff.

Technorati Tags: Designers, living room designs. remodelling, photos

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had time to post on the good old Interior Living Room blog, but only because lately I’ve had quite a time consuming redecorating project on my hands.

I wanted to touch on a few areas that relate to this latest project. Being that it’s located in Singapore, the home owner is looking for a very distinct Asian interior design, complete with a wonderfully appointed Japanese Garden and many trinkets from the orient.

The first thing people usually ask me about when speaking of Asian inspired interiors is that ubiquitous privacy screen and/or the Japanese sliding door. I guess most people have watched enough Jackie Chan movies to figure that most all Asian interiors come complete with one. In reality nothing could be further from the truth. In fact I’ve seen more Bamboo sliding doors and privacy screens in North America then I have in my time in South East Asia. However, in the case of my latest project, the owner desperately wanted to procure a few Asian items – including a few Bamboo sliding doors – and although I thought this would be completely cliche and look almost cheeky, once the space was defined I learned that I was so wrong! As you will see below the door itself may seem a bit cheeky, but when I added the other items to the overall theme, the entire package was quite inspiring and impressive.

And so yet again I digress, I’ve learned another lesson that I was speaking to in this post, in that one should never assume the client can’t be more right than the designer. I’ll be continuing the Asian Inspired Design theme in future posts, so for now take a look at a few of the items I have included in this post, they are all things that I’ve picked up for my latest home project. If you think they would be great for your own space you can click on the pictures to purchase them from the wonderful world of Amazon. Speaking of which, when I look for bargains on things that would otherwise cost an arm and a leg, it’s off to Amazon I often go, or Ikea, depending on the requirements of the design space.

Picture 1:Nine Buddhas Art Print

Picture 2:Japanese Design Wine Cabinet

Picture 3:Asian Decorative Boxes *This item is sold out (sorry folks!!)

Picture 4:Shoji Sliding Door Kit

Technorati Tags: asian decorating, asian inspired design

I could have named this post “Tips From the DIY Vaults”, or maybe, “Some Do It Yourself Basement Tricks”, but I just watched a rerun of Rosemary’s Baby on HBO and now I’m creeped out.

At any rate, here’s the scene … The Basement From Hell [insert scary music]:

Do you live right above a basement that looks like the inside of a well used barbecue? Did an overworked or perhaps alcoholic construction foreman leave it half finished, furnishing you with anywhere from 2 to 20 tiny and extremely ugly wannabe windows? Windows that are almost too high to reach and yet visible enough to poke tiny little needles into your decorating eyes?

When it’s late at night and you sneak downstairs for a quick cigar/glass of wine (or whatever you might sneak to the basement for), does that basement seem to cast a disproportionate amount of shadows, looking at you through shadowy, evil eyes, quietly sneering with the maniacal grin of some hideous, satanic, soul-sucking beast?

OK, OK, enough. As you can tell I have a flare for the dramatic. There is a point behind my prose, so I’ll postulate already. There are things that you can do – mostly on the cheap and on your own – to give any basement eyesore a significant aesthetic improvement. In most cases you need only purchase minor items and improvise with things that you already have laying around, or things that someone is dying to get rid of at a garage sale.

So here are some tips to exorcise the demons away from the Evil Basement of Abyss.

If you do actually have those tiny little wannabe windows residing far too close to the ceiling, one cheap trick is to take some long-ish fabric blinds, pleat them once or twice, and install them just above the offending buggers, covering the windows along with some of the wall…presto, the illusion is complete. You’ve now got proportionate windows in your basement (until someone peaks) and now you can set out to properly pull rabbits from behind them.

If your basement is one sprawling sea of nothingness – semi-finished and unorganized – here’s a trick I have used on occasions when budgets were smaller than those tiny little evil windows. This trick comes in steps, and here they are:

• scour garage sales and used furniture stores for some old, large, shelving units and get a matching set. Those old massive bookshelves can work great for “basement hacks” of all kind.

• Purchase paint, preferably of a color that won’t make Sparky the Dog have an epileptic seizure.

• Knock out the back walls of said recently purchased shelving units, making them open on both sides. Then you can sand down any problem spots and paint. Place the shelves at right angles to the wall, in areas you think would seem comfortable for a room division.
• Angle the pieces to mimic a new wall – as in – pointing at each other (not leaning against the walls).
• Adorn the empty shelf space with anything from model cars to framed photos, candles to magic 8 balls. Anything. Really.

Presto, you have created the illusion of separation in the room, allowing for two easily definable areas, such as a sitting room + a games room, or a laundry room + workout area. If it were up to my son there would be a Playstation 3 room + an XBox 360 room, but I digress.

If you have a washroom in the basement it is usually a bathroom that any self-respecting vampire would avoid like daylight. Since it is the dreaded “basement washroom”, it is possible that the room fell victim to the “We Be Out Of Cash” phase of construction. You might be stuck with dirty or cheap tile, the space might be small, constricting, half built, and just generally neglected in all areas. I see this far more often than not.

To make that washroom truly appeal to your finer sensibilities, it will cost some money. This is the one area you don’t want to bargain your way around. Don’t get me wrong however, it won’t be all that much money to decorate, and in the end it will be worth it.

Firstly, redo the floors and walls. I like to use lighter shade, large-ish stone tiles, as in marble or even certain ceramics. (See this post for some useful tidbits about ceramic tiles). Smaller spaces look more regal when they have a heavier feel. Take advantage of wall finishes that will compliment stone tiles, perhaps even going with dark wood or deeper paint colors.

To go the extra mile, clear as much space between the toilet and the rest of the washroom as you can. For example, if you fell victim to that lame, nonsensical, prefabricated cabinetry around the sink assembly – as most basement washrooms do – rip it to shreds and replace it with a thin fixture (sans cabinet), or perhaps a sink that rests on it’s own raised shelf with exposed stainless pipes below. Look below for just one example of this.

If you do have a shower in the bathroom, consider tiling the entire enclosure in marble/ceramic tiles, raising a small section of floor between the shower and the rest of the washroom to catch excess water. Install one of the Kazillion gorgeous shower-head assemblies that exist these days (some wonderful examples below) and don’t even bother installing a shower door. If you accessorize this area with complimentary towels, strategically placed framed art, and light the room properly, you’ll find that a shower door is not required. This will considerably open up the area, and by using the same tiling patterns throughout the entire washroom you are creating another illusion, in that the entire area will feel waterproof.

All in all, you could reasonably complete a task like this at a very reasonable price, if you don’t mind the hard work and assuming your DIY skills are up to snuff. At least then you can be rest assured there will be no portals to the dark side opening up underneath you as you sleep upstairs.

Once you are thinking along these lines, any neglected area of your home could be spruced up with a little like-minded thought and some elbow grease. Take a minute to look around at things you have packed away. If they are completely useless and taking up space, find clues that can make one object work in an entirely different context. Sometimes the grandest ideas come from the most unlikely beginnings. I once used an old window frame we had laying around our shop as a feature mantle piece in an outrageously expensive Vancouver area penthouse. I’m not joking. It sat directly above a wonderfully appointed faux fireplace. It was complete with discolored and broken glass panes, rusted hinges, et all. The end result of that experiment was more striking than I could have ever imagined.

So say your hail Marys, make a good and cheap-ish DIY plan, find your raw materials, and become the interior design and decorating expert yourself.

Technorati Tags: basement decorating, basement makeover, DIY

All of the following photos come courtesy of Pangaea Interior Design, located in Portland Oregon. Here is a site and designer after my own heart. I could write a long post describing her talented eye, and wax poetically on the various techniques this designer employs to achieve such stunning results, but it just makes more sense to show you.

This work is brilliant, and I hope you take the time to check out her site (linked above) and perhaps comment on her work.

Pangaea uses complimentary colors in ways that exude symmetrical wonderment, and her choice of paint and wall finishes immerse you in the design interior. As you can see, Pangaea uses bold colors in the artwork to feature other decor decisions within the rooms, also combining colors at seemingly random intervals throughout, a decision which results in a very understated design and decorating cohesion. I’ve eluded to the benefits of color context in this post. Interior Living Room will be keeping a very close eye on this designer, and continue to praise her efforts.

And so again, in the grand words of my old English professor, “Nuf said on the subject.”

Technorati Tags: decorating examples, design photos, design showcase, interior designers

Here are some interior living room painting/decorating rules that we live by religiously.

Rule #1; “I don’t care how portable your laptop is, you can’t check your email when you’re moving a piano”.

• If you have found that “eureka!!!” article – either on this site or another decorating/design website – please be kind to your laptop/ desktop and print out the instruction before you commence to lay brush to wall. In the first place, if you’re using a new technique you’ve learned from a website, you can easily destroy your laptop with paint spillage. In the second place, running back and forth from a desktop or laptop when you need quick reference takes valuable attention away from the task at hand, and can easily lead to glaring errors (and lots of paint droplets on the floor). If you can’t print out your new-found, brilliant painting technique, just shorthand the instructions to a real, live notepad and get cracking.

Rule #2; Most D.I.Y magazines and websites have very practical solutions to common decorating problems, without breaking your bank.

• It’s easy to lose creativity and hit a brick wall when you are not standing outside the decorating picture – looking in. It’s almost an “I can’t see the forest from the trees” kinda thing. Sometimes just cruising through a D.I.Y or decorating site/magazine can lead to that one brilliant and cheap idea that will give your chosen room the “oomph” it needs. For example, let’s say you really dig the regal look of a slate marble wall. Instead of searching out some Bavarian marble slate and selling your car to pay for it, faux marble painting is easier than you may think. In fact I know one web site that can tell you how it’s done, for free. (Hint hint) At the least, trying to paint a faux marble wall first is a crap-load cheaper than buying the real thing, and at the most you’ll have something to brag about when people ask how you did it. (btw, do Bavarians even make marble slate?)

Rule #3; The most awe-inspiring room features do not necessarily cost $4 000 000 dollars and your first born child.

• If you’ve spotted a set of ceramic Italian tiles that would be absolutely perfect for your kitchen counter, only to notice the $250.00 per tile sticker price, don’t have a breakdown and overdose on Prozac. There are many online resources for buying cheap ceramic tiles. If the tile design you had in mind is brilliant, I can almost guarantee you will find a strikingly similar design online, for a much cheaper cost. Check out here and/or here, for examples.

• This rule applies to more than just tiles, marble slate, and/or painting. I had a decorating dilemma recently. It involved an interior living room study with earthy taupe walls and neutral tone furnishings. I came in like a tornado and turned the room into a brilliant study. Brilliant with the exception of one empty corner. I was stuck in need of a compelling piece of decor to complete the space. It needed something unique, something that would stand out without being overbearing. Something with texture and asymmetrical by design. The owner suggested a marble bust of an infamous Roman dictator. (which was completely cost prohibitive!) Instead I decided to experiment with an idea. I ventured out to the backyard wooded area, scooped up 100 (or so) 5 foot tall, thin, fallen twigs. I then proceeded to wrap them together (12 at a time) using fabric I had leftover from the drapes. In the end I attached them all together at the bottom with a wide brass ring (the origins of which escape me), and placed the assembly in a $90.00, semi-huge, glass vase. Eureka!!! It tied the room together perfectly, it didn’t cost the owner an arm OR a leg, and the entire family was spared having to look at Julius frikin Caesar every morning.

Rule #4; Proper wall color is one of the most vital characteristics of your room’s appeal (or lack thereof).

• Wall color is as much personal preference as it is decorating technique. Having said that, some people’s personal preference is far more ridiculous than it is sublime. You really should find a common color scheme in the room you are decorating, choosing a paint color that will blend those colors together while allowing your most striking room decor to … well… strike. As an example, if your interior living room is full of beige color with… say… burnt orange furniture, a lighter or darker yet complimentary color is always the good choice for your walls.
• I often like to take the least visually stimulating color within the room, dial it forward or backward a shade (or two) and paint the walls with that color. Then I will take the most bold color from the room decor and paint one feature wall in a very slight variance of that color. Such a bold color can come from any item in the room – from a throw pillow to a wall painting. This technique offsets the room nicely and shows a consistent color scheme throughout. It’s a cheap and simple technique that can make your room look very expensive.

Rule #5; Less is usually more.

• Need I say more? Ok, ok, I will. Everyone has a tendency to go overboard when decorating. While 1 fishbowl may be cute, 25 fishbowls in various sizes indicates a need for aggressive psychiatric treatment. Once you have things in order and think your room is the absolute pinnacle of decorating brilliance, take some things away and observe objectively. Does it still look amazing? The litmus test here is simple; if your room still looks great after you’ve removed a few items, leave those items as future decor replacements, and be comfortable knowing your guests will bow at your feet in worship of your keen decorating prowess. When you come to a point where removing an item makes your room look or feel incomplete, put it back where it belongs, because you’ve gone too far.

There are a few perfect books on the market for decorating your home on a budget, and some really informative manuals on interior house painting. Have a look here and here respectively. Alternately, you can click on the fancy shmancy pix at the bottom of this article. These wonderful books explain in vast and grand detail what I am trying to highlight here within this article, and they’re a great value.

There you have it. A few of the cardinal rules of decorating, interior living room style. Take these suggestions and your budget, whatever it may be, and get started!

Technorati Tags: color scheme, painting advice

Of course you can. Heck, you can decorate a pet ferret if you’re so inclined (look up), although I’d be sending some men in white coats your way if I saw you do it. “Morning rooms” exist, they rock, and in the grand words of my old high school English professor, “‘nuf said on the subject”.

Lots of people have never even heard the expression “morning room” and those who have usually envision a room residing somewhere in Bruce Wayne Manor, right next to the secret door that leads to the Bat Cave. In fact many homes built after the turn of the last century have an area that can be used as a breakfast nook. The difference between a breakfast nook and a morning room is essentially flowers, comfortable chairs, good coffee, and pompous attitude, so potentially you already own a “morning room”, it just has an identity crisis. Now if only you had a butler named Alfred and a secret lair.

So, if you’re following along, one can consider the “morning room” as the classier incarnation of that tried and true “breakfast nook”. This epiphany – of course – assumes that you make significantly less than $10, 000, 000.00 British Pounds per year. If you are a rich bugger, then the concept of “morning room” can contain an entirely different meaning.

The purpose of a morning room is to have a sanctuary within your private house or establishment – where people can sit, talk, relax, ponder, e.t.c… during daylight hours. Also, genetically speaking, it is within our human nature to seek sunlight upon waking so as to acclimatize our bodies and minds for the day ahead. In that respect a morning room is a perfect spot to nibble a quick bite, grab a coffee and gather your thoughts.

• Factoid: In my relentless pursuit to inform and educate, I’ve come to discover that morning rooms are – for the most part – designed for morning use. I tell you fair and gentle reader, I leave no stone unturned, no weed unearthed.

So if by now, you still are unclear as to what a morning room is, I’ll quote my 16 year old son and then … ‘nuf said on the subject.

“It’s kind of .. like… just a place where you can chill and munch out before school.”

So how do you appropriately adorn and decorate a morning room? Of course this all comes down to your personal style, but there are a few things worth noting:

• Darker wall colors will absorb natural light and heat, so they can be useful to keep your guests from feeling as if they’re sitting inside a solar flare. The opposite can be said for your color choice of furnishings, because incessant sunlight can heat up a dark seat like a frying pan.

• Any respective artwork will want to have some darker shadings, perhaps even textures, to make it feature more within the natural light surrounding it.

• Window coverings – if at all necessary – should be sheer and loose, having a translucent quality. This can be achieved using any open weaved decorative fabric.

• Certain high-light plants can give you that “outdoorsy” feeling, should you be so inclined. Larger floor plants work if your “nook” is on the larger scale. Plants such as Norfolk Island Pine, Weeping Fig, even Fiddle-leaved Fig plants can work well in bright, sunlit areas as accent pieces. Otherwise, you can achieve a similar feel by utilizing a good soft toned *flower arrangement as a center piece on your table.
  

A morning room is easy to decorate as long as you start by defining it as a “mini-dining room for sun worship”. You will of course need an appropriate table – I prefer smallish – with a few comfortable chairs surrounding it. I wouldn’t go for a table that sits too high vertically; instead try to find something that’s in between dining table height and coffee table height.

I have seen a few very attractive morning rooms with typical dining room chairs being used, but my personal preference is to bargain hunt for some good quality high seated, cushioned chairs. These are not the soft and cushy flop chairs you find in a master bedroom or living room, but a kind of hybrid dining chair that adds lots of padding and some “sink in” value. They can be found at any furniture gallery worth a salt. I keep harping on the chairs because seating is one of the more important elements of a good “morning room”. It should be more comfortable than a typical dining ensemble, and should enable you to sit upright for a spot of tea as well as be comfortable when leaning back to meditate on the coming day.

Your morning room will certainly want to face the rising sun, otherwise forget a morning room and get a light therapy machine. (I’m kidding, I think) Assuming your room IS guided to glory by the rising of the sun, it will be well lit by a natural light source and this creates two potentially negative effects on the room:

1. Temperature: sunlight produces quite a bit of excess heat, more-so when accumulated in small spaces. You will want to try and offset this with a powerful, yet quiet ceiling fan or a small air conditioning unit. Floor model fans are usually miserable in a small room as their use often results in a napkin blowing Festival Of Doom. Unless you’re prepared to tie everything in the nook down, forget a standing fan for cooling. It’s just not really conducive to a relaxing morning coffee when your chasing around the sports section. Get your cardio workouts in the gym, I say.
2. With natural light, aesthetic imperfections are magnified at least 436, 799 (and 1/3rd) times. OK I’m not so sure about the statistic, but I can tell you that fading paint or a chipped fruit bowl seem to have a Rock Star Spotlight on it in a morning room. Room dust can also hinder your morning tranquility, as it just seems to hang in the air, reflecting the sunlight and reminding you of just exactly that which is landing on your breakfast bagel and eggs. As such, you will want to keep the room well maintained and as dust free as possible.

*For full disclosure I have to say that when I commence to feats of decorating prowess, the rule is to never use real flowers in small spaces, using nooks as the prime example. Flower arrangements can produce pollen and irritate sinuses, not the best way for someone to start their day. If you have guests occasionally and you don’t wish to keep a candy dish of antihistamines near by, lose the FTD credit card already. Flowers can also significantly add to dust in a small area, even when kept perfectly. So if you choose to go the route of having a flower arrangement, spend a little extra and get a nice faux flower deal and put some aromatherapy candles around for the scent of lavender, Jasmine, or my personal favorite, burgamot.

Dollars to donuts says that if you have a detached private home there is an area available that you can designate a “morning room”. If not, oh well, no loss really, after all sunlight is highly overrated. (I’m kidding again, I think) If you feel like taking a break from eating toast on your way to work however, recon your home for that one place pointing towards the big, bright and shiny ball in the sky, and start your creative juices to build your own little piece of morning nirvana. Me, I hate mornings, even when they come after noon. I’ll stick to the bat cave, thank you very much.

Oh, btw, I can’t leave off before letting my loyal readers know that at some point in the not too distant future there might just be contest of sorts at Interior Living Room, which will involve your essays on design, your before/after pictures, and your motivation to win a great, wonderful, and moderately expensive prize. Stay tuned

P.S.,
Oh, and feel free to subscribe and receive this blog in your email!! The form is up and to the right.

Technorati Tags: decorating, design advice, morning rooms, sun room

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Having just completed a post about interior design trends, I feel like I should take a minute to qualify some things before everyone runs out to heat their driveway and yank out their spiral staircases and bamboo flooring.

Proper interior design and decor is about great ideas, innovative thinking, being fun, being new, and only those designers that are interested in your own opinion will give you a comfortable and personable design. Yes there may be plenty of talented “freaks” out there, and they can easily dress up your home in styles they are comfortable with imposing on your sensibility. However the best decorators and designers will never force a trend on you, nor will they try and convince you that their style brilliance is better than your own idea. The truly talented designers cater to your specific needs and your own personal trends – not the current magazine issue definition – but trends based on your own personality.

A good designer will take his/her time and try to inspire people to empower their own lives through the home design, not offer a cookie-cutter version of a photo spread or TV show. You will notice at Interior Living Room I have yet to include those massive photo spreads you see on most design and remodeling web sites. Of course there will be tons of pictorials to come, but I really felt it necessary to start this site by showing that ideas for design and decor come more from what inspires you on the inside, not strictly from visual stimuli. One should strive to be the sort of designer that can translate what people want into their own story, as told throughout the entire home environment. You can’t get that from pictures of a stranger’s home being flashed in your face by a lazy or egocentric designer. When you are looking for a design partner, or perhaps deciding to do things on your own, keep this in mind.

The trends that you should be gravitating toward are your own trends and styles. Whether or not it’s current or “artsy” makes no difference if the design chosen makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. Ask yourself these questions… What is it that makes you tick? What colors make you feel relaxed? What styles and symmetry really, really leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed? There simply is no rigid set of rules when it comes to designing. It comes from within, as it should. The best designers in the world are those who know exactly how to get that inner voice of yours to speak – through careful and collaborative design choices.

A good way to look at designing is to pick what’s right for you, have a foundation for your core idea (what you wish your outcome to be) and then connect the dots. To help facilitate this technique many people use whiteboards – complete with photos of furniture options, paint swatches, photos of the empty rooms. Once the board is populated they will set to arranging and pinning various decor and design items wherever they look the most appropriate. This can make for a very useful blueprint in your decorating and designing choices. I’ve even seen examples of decorators that will take a life-size print of furniture and fixtures and proceed to spread it throughout an empty room. Quite elaborate I admit, but useful none-the-less.

Nowadays with technology being ridiculously freaky and amazing, most forgo the traditional whiteboard for more efficient and easily manipulated design software packages. At Interior Living Room we have many recommendations for software that can really help you get the most out of what you want. In a previous post (this one) I detailed one of my own personal favorites. Punch! Interior Design Software is the software I reviewed in that article, and although it does have a slight learning curve it can truly give you some brilliant design ideas and it’s not going to cause an economic crisis should you decide to buy it.

As you can tell by the title of my blog, my absolute favorite room to design is without a doubt the living room interior. The reason for this is simple really. The living room is exactly as the title implies. It’s the room you live in.  To me this is the one room that most tells your story. It shows how you want your most comfortable space to look and react to your movement; it shows how you like to wind down; and it shows your friends and guests the things you hold dear, along with the decor you find most attractive.

The best advice I can offer? OK. In a nutshell, once you have the living room interior space defined to your own specifics, use that room as the inspiration for the rest of the home. Too many times people will cause their homes to become inconsistent – thanks to the vast amount of choices in designs and decor available. I’ve seen homes wherein each room has it’s own mutually exclusive theme, and that’s not gonna win you any free tickets to the “Designers R Us Convention”. Plus it’s bloody confusing for your pets.

Not only do style inconsistencies make you and your guests feel confused and uncomfortable in your home, it all but destroys the concept of your home being one cohesive habitat. It becomes nothing more than a building full of separate rooms, joined only by walls and electricity. While this may appeal to some, a true “home” is a synergy of style and function that should correlate one common theme, and that theme can only come from one place, your personality.

So I guess the point is that while it’s only prudent to keep an eye on current trends it is much more important that your trends come from within, from your own gut instinct. Something that may look stunning in a magazine or pictorial may not make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It should always fall on the shoulders of the person living in the spaces, not by the designer and decorator. And if you’re the designer and decorator, remember to stick to a common theme. And all that, of course, means that Einstein was not an interior designer.

Watch out for an up and coming blog contest oh fair and gentle readers!! Oh, and I’ve just recieved word from NASA that I can now accept email subscriptions on the blogl! So apparently if you fill in the form (up and to the right) this blog in its’ entirety will be sent directly to your inbox. How cool is that! OK, so what if people have been doing this for years now, it’s my first email subscriber thingy, and I’m proud of it.

Technorati Tags: decorating trends, interior design software, interior design trends, trends and styles