The Interior Living Room

Welcome back! Take your time, enjoy, and subscribe to the RSS feed (or subscribe by email) if you haven't already.

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

A trend is the general course of prevailing tendency. For those of us in the cheap seats, that simply means that styles change with the passage of time. Sometimes drastically, and sometimes with a subtle nudge, trends are fickle and sometimes not very attractive. Trends are prone to cycles and popular culture. History has shown us that anything from a lunar eclipse to a celebrities’ new hairstyle can cause massive change to popular aesthetic desires. Trends affect almost any area of commerce and aesthetics. Interior design and home decorating are especially subjected to the changing of popular design trends and only a few timeless styles normally survive the evolution. Yesterday’s styles are quickly replaced by the trends of the day, whether speaking of your living room interior or your tool shed.

The following list makes up 4 of the latest and greatest design trends, as compiled from a survey of close to 1000 real estate agents, managing brokers, and like-minded executives. The new styles are surprising, and denote a significant shift from the current home styles and trends.

1. Garages aren’t just for your cars anymore: All “pimped” out (as the kids say), upscale garages of late have erased the image of concrete grease spots and unused tool benches normally associated with the inside of a garage. Today’s garages have undergone a complete restructuring, as homeowners prefer modern garages equipped with numerous luxuries. Closet systems and storage apparatus, refrigerators and home gyms, anything from air conditioning to residential-style flooring can be found in the modern garage.
2. The place where Zen takes over: The latest trend moving forward is the need and creation of space in the home for personal time, and space for relaxation. An appropriately adorned home space can give the homeowner lots of room to exercise their private meditations and hobbies.
3. Bringing the inside outside: In colder climates, many people are converting outdoor spaces into heated and temperate “warm zones”. There are many examples, including heated patios, heated walkways, and heat paneled, or temperate driveways. Not only used for creating a pleasing outdoor space, a temperate, climate controlled outdoor area helps a great deal in yard and driveway maintenance during winter months.
4. Keep quiet, I’ve got to work!!!: Simultaneously comical and utilitarian is the advent of an additional room adjacent to the master bedroom, known affectionately as “the snoring room”. Solving the problem of sleeping with snoring partners is this latest design trend. Hard to believe, perhaps, but people everywhere are committing to attach additional rooms to their master bedrooms today, which serves as a comfortable respite to those afflicted with sleep disorders. In the past it was normal (for those kept awake until the wee hours of the morning) to head for an uncomfortable couch, but the current trend allows for a much more suitable surrounding to get quality slumber. The typical “snoring room” is equipped with a comfortable bed, a reading chair, and easy access to the amenities of the master suite.

This top 4 list is the “best of” in current home design trends as compiled by only one survey, yet there are many more color trends and architectural styles making waves in the current design and decor world. As such, some of yesterday’s styles are being canceled out, as is always the case. Things like spiral staircases, bamboo floors, laminate flooring are all on the current trend “chopping block”. Complicated spiral shaped staircases are unfriendly for elders, pets and young children; bamboo floors are prone to scratches and damage, and laminated flooring is considered too noisy for comfort.

So if you are considering a living room interior makeover, or a complete redesign of your entire living space that to conform with the latest styles and comforts, consider these top 4 recommendations for the top of your own makeover list. Making these changes can not only leave you with a good night’s sleep and a room to practice yoga, it can also increase your property value and keep your back from the pains of shovelling snow.

Technorati Tags: decorating trends, design trends, interior design trends

Interior Living Room was about to call this article “The Disclaimer Post”, and you’ll know why once you’ve read it.

I have a story to share with you, but before I do, there were a flood of viewers emails asking me for home painting advice, so to help answer some questions there are two books that I recommend readers in need should indeed grab, either from here (by clicking on the fancy shmancy pics) or at a good book store of your choice.

This first book has been featured before in other posts but I didn’t offer it a proper nod. It’s called “Your Home, A Living Canvas” and I simply can’t rave enough about this journal. It is fantastic advice for the novice and expert alike. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best journals on faux painting techniques to come along in a while. The book itself contains rich colors, photographs are plenty, and there are oodles of before-during-after shots for your reference. The directions simple to understand and a breeze follow and finally, the finishes shown can give anyone new ideas to choose from. If you are considering any kind of creative painting technique for your living area, it’s worth every penny.

The second book that will certainly help you in great and vast ways is entitled “The Color Scheme Bible“. Here you will find all the info necessary to choose the right color for your interior living room and beyond. This is a spiral bound book so it is convenient for reference, which make it extremely nice when in the throws of painting and needing a quick look. It has an excellent introduction, touching on the basics of color theory, which is a very important subject and all too often glossed over by decorators of the day. The main body of the book contains color palettes, complete with descriptive text giving the inspiration behind the palette, and most importantly, it gives suggestions on how the colors might be used in your interior.

If you need instruction in painting, these two books go along way to help you to get the job done right.

At any rate, and speaking of painting, I’ve another glorious story to tell you;

So there I was, on a job, sometime last month. It’s 8 pm and I’m in the better part of the worst mood. At that point I had just finished whinging and screaming (I call it instructing) to my painter as to what color goes where, and how it should be best achieved – all while strategically pointing to my watch so he knew to start no later than 7am the next morning. Thankfully my painter is reliable and patient with my moods. Honestly I knew his team would do a fantastic job but I was in a “postal” frame of mind.

DISCLAIMER 1: I’m not normally an irritable “howl at the moon” kinda designer, but when you combine an 18 hour day, several key light fixtures on back-order, add 6000 milligrams of caffeine, multiply by 40+ cigarettes, well, I think even the Pope could grow whiskers.

Back to my story; after the painter left (cursing under his breathe I’m sure) I walk to the owners’ kitchen and have a cup of coffee with two of the most temperamental, rich buggers since “Thurston Howell the Third”. I assure them exactly why my color choice will work brilliantly for their ultra huge front room and den. After explaining things like “the emotional response to color” and “the co-relation of lighting design to color shading”, I left for home, feeling as if I’d just been interrogated by the entire cast of CSI Miami.

When I finally reached home that night (a 4 hour drive btw) my mind was made up to author the world’s most authoritative volume in the history authoritative volumes, so that I would never have to answer silly questions again. That’s right. Next time I saw that stunned look in a client’s eyes, I would just whip out a print of my biblical encyclopedia of paint theory and bask in abject brilliance. (Of course when I finally did get home I fell asleep and dreamed of sphaggetti noodles – I have know idea why)

It was in one of my more recent posts (this one) that jogged the memory of that night back into my thick skull, wherein I searched the inside of my head for mental notes and set out – yet again – to author the “War and Peace” of painting tutorials.

After some research (yes, google is my friend too) I found a few articles and squidoo lenses that not only bear mentioning here on Interior Living Room, but they bear my conceding the attempt to explain decorative painting theory to a much more capable person. I found a few lenses and blogs that explain everything I could say in a much more concise and critical way. In effect, contained within the sites I discovered is nothing short of the Holy Grail of House Painting. Every question you can ask has an answer, so I’m just gonna shut up now and give you the web addresses.

Perfect Paint Colors

Sensational Color

Color For Your Home

Head over, check them out, rate them and comment if you like, but I can almost guarantee that any question you’ve ever had on painting will be addressed – in detail – by the sites author.

As for the author, Kate Smith, well you may or may not have heard of her. She’s commented on my blog a few times – stealthily I might add, not at all hinting at her technical prowess. Her research and the applicable knowledge she imparts is just simply brilliant.

How can I say this to make my point as clearly as possible? Kate Smith is to decorative painting as Myles Davis is to trumpet.

I admire this woman so much after reading her lenses and posts that I will be consulting them with certain regularity. Before I read through her sites I had thought of myself as an authority on the subject of paint and color choice. After reading her sites I can humbly admit that the woman is a rock star and I, a mere groupie.

So if you haven’t heard of her on the subject of painting, read her kazillion or so posts, lenses, advice and/or articles. Kate has made volumes of free information available to us all, and in doing so she’s done a great service to the design and decorating community.

I couldn’t instruct you any better than these links if I was kidnapped by low flying geese with threats of dropping me on my head – into a pit full of nuclear waste. I’m not joking folks, if you want to learn about how to, where, to, and what to paint on your walls, ceilings, floors, e.t.c… The woman responsible for these sites knows more on the subject than Tony Robbins knows about being irritatingly optimistic.

DISCLAIMER 2: Kate Smith is not my mother, sister, wife, or in any way related to this site. I am not her afilliate, and she is not mine. Aside from her few comments I don’t even know the woman, but I do know talent and skill when I see it.  Here at Interior Living Room we like to give props where they are due – so Kate? Props!

Technorati Tags: color advice, decorative painting, home painting, product review

Things can get interesting here at Interior Living Room. Here’s how:

Someone recently called my office and said the following to me, verbatim: “Bro, I just came from my boy’s crib and he gave up yo digits. You know, {name withheld}’s place. Man, that {cencored} marble walkway was sick!! His home theater was the dope too, fo real!! You gotta come an drop it like that fo me yo. Hook up my kitchen dog, I want that same marble {cencored} for my kitchen. Ma digs have been under the radar too {mother of all cencored} long!”

I quickly ran for my decoder ring, and here’s what I took from the tone of this call:

“Hello and good day sir. I’ve just left from tea at the {name withheld} residence wherein I noticed your exemplary work with marble textures. I would so like it if you could join me at the club for cocktails, so that we might discuss arrangements for you to customize my kichen in a similar spirit.”

1. Except for the decoder ring bit, I’m not joking about the call.
2. How did this call get past my answering service? (note to self; fire my answering service)
3. I wasn’t sure what to think, when one of my projects was classified as “sick”. (apparently that’s a good thing these days)
4. I was almost sure I should inform the DEA that a drug dealer was asking me to plant something illegal in his home theater.

Needless to say I turned away this customer, mostly because I was fully booked *coughs*, but also because I’m generally not much for people that call other people “Dogs” as a term of endearment.

At any rate, since this is an article on marble, I’ll get back to it. Just thought I’d share.

If you are considering marble counter tops for your kitchen, perhaps like DJ JazzyFreshCool J (quoted above), then you should really grab some education on caring for marble.

• The most common group of marble – the white marble group – can stain and wear and tear easily unless treated properly and fabricated in a certain fashion. Even water has been known to stain white marble when it is not processed correctly.
• As a general rule, the darker the marble, the less likely it is to stain, however darker does not necessarily mean harder.
• Quality marble is protected with a sealer, in the same way your car’s paint is protected by wax. Just the same as car wax, you will need to renew the sealer on your marble periodically to ensure it has maximum protection from stains.
• Having said that, there is a new process that isn’t so well known yet called “impregnation” (stop with the dirty thoughts already). Basically this process applies a product that penetrates into the stone, repelling stains by becoming part of the marble.This is a permanent process, as opposed to having to re-apply a product periodically.

The best advice I can give if you are in a rental, a condo, or if you have a high level of activity in your kitchen (like lots of children), consider a serpentine class marble, or a granite finish instead of genuine marble. Both of these alternatives are visually similar to marble finish and they require far less maintenence than an authentic marble product. Also, both serpantine marble and granite are much harder than marble, so they are able to withstand the wear and tear in a kitchen known for lots of activity and traffic.

If, however, you are just dead-set on getting a marble counter top there are a few food items your marble will want you to avoid. Citrus can harm your finish, specifically lemons and lime. Anything acidic can be harmful to the marble, so it’s best to pour your juices at your dining table, not on the counter. It’s also best to ground your kids for a minimum of 4 years if you ever catch them pouring citrus juice on your marble counter top.

The bottom line on marble is that you have 2 major things to note before deciding on the purchase and installation:

1. Ask if the product should be impregnated to keep it from easily staining.
2. Pour acidic juices and squeeze your limes in the laundry room or in your neighbors kitchen, and set up a motion detecting alarm to warn you when your kids go in the kitchen unauthorized. (Just kidding about that last part, really I am)

So there’s the basics on marble counter tops. Of course with any major purchase like this I would expect you to write in with further questions, or ask a local marble expert to set you straight. At Interior Living Room we often let you know the pro’s as well as the cons of various popular choices – not to throw you from your preference – only to show you the best ways of enjoying your choices and the easiest methods you can use to enjoy your decorating ideas for a long time.

I’m off now to fire my answering service and change my phone numbers. Please do comment and subscribe, as I said before, things can get interesting around here.

Technorati Tags: ktichen ideas, maintenance, marble counters, surface finishes

In my last interior living room article, I touched very briefly on the subject of tiles. This time I’ll elaborate a bit further.

Stone, metal, glass, and prefab hybrid. These are all tile styles that have become so popular over the last few years thanks to technological advances in mass producing it. As a result, one would think ceramic tiles are outdated, in a “good for grandma’s house” sorta way. Grab a chair, you are in for a shock.

First, the pictures.

Pretty darn sexy, yes? All the pictures feature ceramic tile compilations. Ceramic tiles these days are almost red carpet material. Yes they can be a price premium. It’s mostly the deco tiles that will set you back your prettiest penny. But if you have the cash, there isn’t much else to say – except to say it’s bloody well worth it.

At any worthwhile ceramic tile showroom you can easily spend hours upon hours just trying to pick a design and commit to it. And of course with anything ultra cool, once you have made up your mind you’ll inevitably walk by yet another selection of tiles and be transformed into a drooling, indecisive idiot. I’ve been to a ceramic tile showroom in west LA recently that literally blew my mind. It was complete sensory overload.

Ceramic tiles are made of a certain type of clay, which is fired at a certain temperature. At this point someone waves a certain magic wand and presto! Ceramic tile. Ok, that last part isn’t necessarily true, but at least now you know a few steps in the process. The difference between this and porcelain tile (to the consumer) is that ceramic tiles tend to be more artisan, less perfect, more irregular, more striking. On the other hand, porcelain tiles tend to be much more streamlined, much more perfect. Because porcelain tiles are fired at a much higher temperature, it is much more durable than ceramics. Yet most people tend to gravitate towards ceramic tile.

Typically the more perfect something is, the more beautiful we find it. When shopping for tiles, that’s not the case. Ceramic tiles’ beauty lie within the flaws and inconsistencies. Ceramic tiles just have an undeniable charm, and for the most part they look handmade. Of course looking handmade comes part and parcel to actually BEING handmade, but I just thought I would point out the obvious. OK, pointless fact time is over.

To digress momentarily, if you are planning on taking on a tiling job anytime soon, directly below is a tool you will definitely need. As I always say at Interior Living Room, click the fancy-shmancy picture and be wisked away to Amazon land, where you can buy it at a bargain.

What you see to the left is a 24″ Tile Cutter, a heavy duty cutter used by professionals to cut up to 24″ square tiles.

So, back to the point… I’m a huge fan of using ceramic tiles, but I have to be honest, they are a frickin’ pain in the behind to install. Within the process of making ceramic tile, there can be as much as an 8% warping during the cooling process, for whatever reasons. So, when you do start tiling you can normally see a few tiles sticking out and looking odd. It will start to look less and less like you’ve been poked in the eye once you are around 50% completed with the tiling. At this point, the irregularities come together and you start to see the imperfect magnificence of it all. So if you’re new to laying ceramic tile, try not to have a cow when you see what looks like blatent flaws in the product, because when it’s all finished those imperfections will only add to your satisfaction.

Ceramic tile has a limitless design application really. You are only at the mercy of what you’re capable of dreaming up. There’s so many different colors, glazes, shapes, sizes, elements, repeating patterns, … ok, ok… I think you get the picture.

When in Rome, learn frickin’ Italian. (oh, and do as the Romans do) When in a tile showroom, learn what tile goes where (oh, and do what the Romans do). Here are a few factoids worth your attention when shopping for ceramic tiles:

• Field tile is anything that will take up the most space on a wall or floor. It’s typically tile that lacks elaborate designs and decoration.
• Base molding tiles run along the floor, at the bottom of a wall.
• Rail molding tiles are normally used to top off a half wall of tile, creating a textural separation between your normal wall and the tile design.
• corner (or crown) molding tiles are used where the top of the wall meets the ceiling.

To add flare to your tiling, you can use a border molding, which will run along the wall in a row, or you can insert a deco tile. Deco, or “decorative tiles” are used as accent pieces, in between moldings. You woudn’t use deco tiles together because in the first place it would just be too expensive, and in the second place it would end up looking as tacky as your ’80’s acid-washed jeans.

Deco tiles are only used as beautiful accents, splashes of decoration within an overall wall or floor tiling. Just by placing a few deco tiles strategically in your design you will make the most of your efforts.

So whether you think your interior living room needs a feature wall of ceramic tiling, or you just need to tear up your washroom and go nuts, ceramic tiles are a worthwhile and wonderful option to consider.

Technorati Tags: ceramic tile, flooring, wall covering

This is and always will be a site for interior living room design – for remodeling advice, and the latest redecorating ideas and products. Having said that, this post is both completely unrelated and absolutely necessary to my conscience, as I lend my own prayers and grateful thanks to the people involved in the very recent rescue on the Hudson River.

If you’ve just crawled from under a rock, here’s the deal: today an Airbus 320 took off, proceeded to hit a flock of birds, and subsequently crash landed in the Hudson River a few hours ago, at or around 3:30 pm local time.

150 passengers and 5 crew members all made it out alive, and this is in no small part due to the bravery and utter genius of the pilot and copilot. It is worth repeating that statement 1 million times, so that we might grasp the depth of skill and nerve it took for the pilot to successfully land a plane of that size in open water, without it breaking into a million pieces. The pilot and copilot deserve the highest civilian medal that can be bestowed, and I truly hope they get what they deserve. They are the textbook definition of heroes.

The passengers are also blessed to have had New Yorkers close by, because after September 11 NYC emergency services have been prepared for the worst. They have prepared well. There were boats, ferries, and rescue crews at that crash site within minutes, helping people off the doomed plane to safety. I’ve even heard that a 911 call was dispatched before the plane had crashed, and rescue workers were actually en route because someone noticed the plane was flying unusually low. No doubt that was a sight that any New Yorker would instinctively fear.

Today’s plane crash and subsequent rescue is a testament to the strength we can all find through adversity. It is a testament to the resolve of people who know what tragedy means, and of a people that won’t let it happen again willingly. I’m proud to be alive right now.

It has been 2 years since an airline crash has caused a fatality in the US, quite an achievement considering US airlines transport nearly 1/4th of the world’s population around the globe every year.  Thankfully, that record stands today.

And so I sit here and write, humbled and ever more hopeful that – in spite of the news of our crumbling economy and violent times – we are still blessed enough to be granted miracles like this one. When something this stunning and wonderful happens from a situation that contained a potential for total disaster, well it makes me worry just a little bit less about our future.

…well, not really. After all, in Star Trek the food magically appears via some sort of weird replicator-like thingy. At least I think that’s how it was done, I stopped watching the show a while back when Captain Kirk left. Alas, here comes this post’s tie in. The futuristic theme of this article is due to something we often notice here at The Interior Living Room. A great deal of otherwise top notch decorators and designers hold on to tradition at their detriment, not keeping up on the latest tech news and designs. Many have the tendancy to shun away from all things futuristic. My guess i those decorators don’t watch Star Trek either.

As designers we are all guilty of holding on to “old school” I suppose. Working by the axiom “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is always a good insurance policy, but sometimes it’s just plain boring. Let’s face it though, designers in this day and age should not be falling on their collective butts when it comes to noticing and implementing the latest technology. Being creatively forward looking – many times – involves taking a few risks and in a good number of such cases those risks can pay off with incredible decorating ideas and designs.

Here’s a brilliant idea I’ve just heard about from a company you’ve likely heard of – Electrolux. Electrolux is always on the edge of innovation, thanks to their Desgin Lab R n D department. This is news to me. Their plan to gather innovative ideas is a sort of “Celebrity Apprentice” meets “American Idol” method of finding the latest design wonderment, and it works rather well for them.

In a nutshell, they ask for submissions from designers world wide, all of whom are then judged by an international panel of renowned designers. Thankfully Simon Cowell isn’t an interior desgner, but my guess is there has to be at least 1 obnoxious British bloke on the Electrolux judging panel. The competitive nature of Electrolux’ design labs is underscored however. Their method works more like a giant “casting call” for new designs and creations. If you check out the Electrolux website you will quickly see that they are on to something.

There was one item that caught my eye, and that item was the muse for my writing this article. But before I get into specifics, it’s question time:

• How would you like a stove top that can read RFID chips? (If you don’t know what an RFID chip is, think “bar code replacement” and you’ll know everything you need to know). These chips have the potential to provide all sorts of information and communicate that information to appliances and devices. We’re talking info such as cooking times, correct cooking temperatures, and even delicious recipe suggestions.

So let’s say you just bought a Norwegian Salmon steak. Theoretically you could scan it with the RFID reader and before you even turn on the stove you would know the best temperature to cook it, how long to cook it, and have 50 or so delicious possibilities before you. I’m sorry, but I gotta say it… how cool is that? (I’m quite certain RFID chips can even provide the latest NHL stats, should you be so inclined to know).

Enter Mathias Pinkert’s Vesta cooktop, a 2008 finalist for best design at Electrolux Design Labs. You can read more about it here at yankodesign… and again I gotta say it… how cool is that!!?

Yep, that’s right, this stove top design does everything on the wishlist above, along with folding away vertically when it’s not in use. However it looks so nice that I don’t think I would ever fold it away. It really is a perfect design for those with limited space and I just think it’s the cat’s meow.

The Interior Living Room loves technology, as you will come to find out, so we are feverishly waiting to get a Vesta cooktop and install it in the galley of our very own spaceship.

Technorati Tags: innovative design, kitchen design, kitchen ideas, space saving advice

If you haven’t succumbed to the virus “PackRatItus” yet, you’ve definitely been to someone’s house showing signs of this horrendous disease. There are so many differing strains of PackRatItus that sometimes it goes undiagnosed for years. Perhaps your affliction is not too serious yet. If so, treatment is available, and you will likely not perish from the disease.

Diagnosis for PackRatItus involves a careful and deliberate assessment of your living area, being very mindful to check the nooks, the garage, under the stairs, the attics, and the basements for visible signs of the bacteria known as “clutter” or “junk”. Once it is determined that you have become afflicted, immediate steps should be taken to rid your home of this bacteria, using liberal doses of “cleanacillan”, “orginization-aspirin”. (Most medications can be found over the counter at your local “Get Off Your Butt” store. )

Seriously speaking, I call excessive clutter “PackRatItus” because accumulating junk over the years is something that happens right under your nose, and gets worse and worse when you pay no attention. It breeds in your home just as an infection worsens in your body – without careful and deliberate treatment.

There are ways to coordinate, organize, and banish your clutter, leaving you with plenty of room to walk to your kitchen (without tripping over your 1970’s bean bag chair). Here’s 5 steps to take that can alleviate the disease and give your home a breathe of fresh air, leaving you with peace of mind and unstubbed toes.

1. Do you have a shed? Perhaps you’re in a condo… if so does your condo have a storage area?

• If you have items strewn about your home that mean something to you – things that have sentimental value but are of no immediate use – then for the love of God gather them up and take them to your storage area. (Always a good idea to organize these items as well, so they are easy to find – see step 2). If you have no storage area, look into self storage facilities that may be close by. These places are almost always within a 10 minute drive from your home, and you can normally get one for as little as 30.00 per month.

2. Ikea is the Google of the interior design world. Ikea is your friend. At Ikea there are many shelving units and storage bins that will help you to organize your clutter into far smaller places. I once turned a garage full of clutter into a closet sized masterpiece of organizational brilliance by utilizing cheap and useful shelving + storage crates that I found at Ikea.

3. Get the book “Declutter Fast” by Mimi Tanner (click here for your copy) There is no one alive with more passion about de-cluttering your space than her. The book is just short of brilliant and explains in no uncertain terms how a cluttered home leads to a cluttered life. It’s also worth noting that by using the advice in her book, your de-cluttered home can reduce your daily stress level significantly.

4. Yard Sales are not just for families that wear matching track suits!!

• I know, I know. That guitar you received for Xmas on your 14th birthday is just waiting for you to learn how to play. However you’re 40 now – so to be blunt, give up the dream already!! Let a neighborhood kid have a go at being the next Segovia, because that guitar is making your living room look like a pawn shop! (and you know it)

• A yard sale can give you extra cash for redecorating, it can be a socially relevant thing to do (if you’re trying to get to know neighbors) and if you’re truly lucky, someone may actually buy that giant fish bowl your Aunt gave you in 1965 (the one that gives the kids nightmares).

5. Get the book “Declutter Fast” by Mimi Tanner. I know, I know, I’ve said it already but it definitely bares repeating. This is a real gem and goes into far more specific detail than we at Interior Living Room have time for at this point. It really is worth the small investment if PackRatItus has you feeling ill.

There will be future posts on this topic for sure, as we receive tons of emails asking for advice, but for now there’s bigger fish to fry here at Interior Living Room, and Mimi seems to have it covered nicely for now. Look for the links above or check the fancy shmancy book cover below to grab your copy.

So, if your case of PackRatItus is not terminal, there is hope, as you can see from above. Just pick a day, take the time, and treat the problem with the medications prescribed here. Oh, and drink lots of Orange Juice. That seems to help everything.

Technorati Tags: cleaning, storage ideas

When designing your interior living room, kitchen, study, or even if you plan to turn your backyard into a beautiful Japanese Garden, it is always best to use every tool available before committing to the actual construction. Physical trial and error can lead to very expensive and time consuming melt downs. Any time we can make a design experiment without it involving a sledgehammer + a wall,  or perhaps our back muscles + a large-ish couch, well something like that is worth it to me. Pain free design is a good thing, in fact I try to make it a rule.

When I started designing, there was always that soft yearning for some magic, all-in-one home design software package that would let me manipulate all of the critical components of my home virtually, and non-destructively. Something that, when I moved a feature wall behind the fireplace forgetting that there IS no fireplace, it could be undone and corrected at the click of a mouse. Alas, we didn’t have that sort of thing back in the day. You see when I started designing a horse and buggy still brought me my coffee, and doctors still paid house calls. (no I’m not quite that old )

These days however, the software suite I find myself using over most others – for interiors – is a smashing program called “Punch! Interior Design Suite“. (Yep, that’s Punch! complete with the exclamation point) Their software produces stunning results and creates the perfect virtual home you can really enjoy and be excited about. If your a professional, the tools inside this design suite are exemplary and highly intuitive to the needs of your design demands.

Punch! takes the best of existing design software, adds powerful new technologies, and includes top home improvement manufacturer product libraries. Then it combines them all into one easy-to-use interface to make your life a whole bunch easier.

Here’s a few things you can do with Punch!:

• Design your own storage with the Cabinet Wizard
• Layout your rooms easily with the Room Wizard
• Make moldings and baseboards with the Trim Designer
• Frame your outdoor view with the Window Designer
• Build a hearth for your home with the Fireplace Wizard
• Try new treatments with Decorator Theme Palettes
• Get help when you need it with the Help Tutorials
• Take a view through your roof by designing skylights
• Make your furniture fit with object resizing

The Interior Living Room Blog highly recommends this software. Buy it from Amazon by clicking the link I provided above, or this link, alternately there’s a link up and to the right (click the fancy shmancy pic), and come back here to comment on your opinion of it. Otherwise, grab Punch! from your local shop whenever you may see it because if you are looking for a new or perhaps easy way to get inspired – hoping to redecorate without the backaches, than this software really does the trick. You’ll discover – as I did – how easy it is to get the inside edge on design and decorating ideas.

Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to The Interior Living Room! There are more great reviews and advice to come!

Technorati Tags: design software, interior design product