Spring Colours in Your Home

Now that springtime is in the air, people are ready to brighten their indoor rooms by exchanging their cosy cabin with the fire-in-the-hearth look for flowers, gardens, birds and bright spring colours. The world is alive and home owners do some spring cleaning and open windows to the air. Then, a few home improvements can help to invite the spring season inside with simple tasks that owners can do for themselves, using the spring colour palette to bring the outdoors inside their interior spaces.

Simple Do-It-Yourself Changes

Bringing the feel of spring into the home can mean just making a few simple changes. Most decorating projects can easily be executed by the owners themselves or they can hire someone to come in to do the work. Still, either doing the work or hiring it done does not have to involve thousands of dollars.

Some of the changes could be a coat of paint to trimmings or walls, new photographs and paintings hung and adding new pillows and slip covers to the sofa and plush chairs in the living room. A wall painting job could be just one contrasting wall that gives the room a fresh look. New mantle decorations or window treatments can speak a new theme of springtime.

Colours that Look like Spring

People can put pictures into their minds of their favourite outdoor places to visit in the spring like the beach, the garden and the park. The colours found in those places during the season of spring and early summer can inspire the indoor colour palette with hues like light blues and bright yellows, greens and pinks.

Spring is the celebration of new life and many bright colours are a part of the celebrating. Still, people should keep in mind that indoor rooms should avoid looking cluttered and busy with too much variety. Simple and lovely accents and one or two bouquets or spring paintings strategically placed will give the natural look of spring as well as expressing a casual invitation into the fresh earthy pleasures of the season.

Bringing the Outdoors Indoors

Decorating the home and bringing in a few improvements can make the indoors look like spring. Outside the activity of the birds and the explosions of flower colour sing songs of new life, and the interiors of people's homes can reflect at least the essence of the best of the spring season as well.

Bungalow Dining Room: Before & After

A client of mine purchased an adorable bungalow in a great neighborhood around here & I have been so excited about her project.  We're just finishing up the main level.  She's young & single and has a really great style: relaxed & fresh yet cozy with a tiny vintage-rustic edge.  After talking with her about what she was looking for & pouring over inspiration images, we decided on a mix of woods & aged finished with fresh, happy turquoisey-blues.

{The gorgeous paisley is by Raoul Textiles available through John Rosselli}

We installed the dining room & final rouches in the other rooms earlier this week so I wanted to share a couple quick {unstyled} shots of the dining room.  My camera battery died on installation day (boo hoo!!!) but I will definitely be back to share more & pics of the other spaces.  My client entertains frequently & I can't wait for her have some guests over to enjoy the finished dining room!  Here it is a few days after she moved in.  (You can spy moving boxes)--

...And here it is now:

The artwork is a set of 3 oversized prints (out of 16 total) made out of an antique children's game where the kids could mix and match the landscapes to create different stories.  It's hard to see in this photo but the landscapes line up and we chose a tree, a mountain and a crumbling old building flanked by a super tall pair of alabaster lamps.  The curtains (which are sadly so hard to see in this pic!!) are in a Raoul Textiles linen paisley and I want them. 

The host chairs are slipcovered in a  robin's egg linen and I love their lines.  I'll be sure to share close-ups eventually, but the vintage-styled spindled side chairs are in black with oatmeal linen seats.  The reclaimed wood parsons table is custom by one of our favorite companies -The Lorimer Workshop - and its finish is incredible.  (If you're looking to for the perfect table, I can't recommend them enough.  The owner, David Ellison, is so helpful & knowledgable & you will end up with an amazing piece. Check it out here.)  The sideboard in the background is a painstaking reproduction & it has the most incredible rat-tail hinges.   (by Sarried Ltd.)

Everything is simple & functional and I know my client will serve up some amazing gourmet meals in here.  (She loves to cook & could write a blog on entertaining/ creative meals & drinks:)  I can't thank my client enough for such a fun & rewarding project.   (I don't want it to be over!! ;)

I'm off for the day but have a great weekend & good luck if you're braving the stores for Christmas shopping!!  I am going to try to get a fire going this weekend!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Green News

I’m writing a short post today but one of some measurable importance for those of you in the construction and remodeling game like myself. It was my girlfriend’s brother, an ex-NYC plumber who now works in the administration at a community college in Maryland, who pointed me towards an article late last week highlighting that President Obama and former President Bill Clinton are launching a four-billion dollar plan aiming at promoting Green building and retrofitting. The result is more jobs being created at no further expense to the taxpayer, as no new federal spending or tax breaks are required for the plan.

It comes at a crucial time, both economically speaking and in terms of seasons. As many of my local NYC handymen have been telling me, energy efficiency is something that becomes more important around the holidays, right around when the energy bill looks to spike. Green lighting is one thing but many people, thankfully, have been also replacing and repairing their doors and windows to cut down on drafts and subsequently lessen the need for increased heating costs. We’re still a few years away from compost heaters becoming a normal purchase and practice but news of Obama’s plan, coupled with the news from my colleagues, is certainly a positive step.

The plan’s main thrust is green improvements to larger buildings and, on average, Clinton was quoted as saying that every billion dollars spent on energy upgrades equates to approximately 7,000 jobs in America. June 2012 will see the first steps of this plan, wherein over a dozen organizations have planned to upgrade some 300 sq. ft. of building space with over $500 million coming from private financing. For NYC plumbers, electricians, handymen and other service providers, this is all gravy. Overdue gravy, but gravy all the same.  

Guest Blogger: Emily of emmarie Web Design

When I started the process of looking for a web designer to do my online store, I looked far & wide.  I was nervous and totally got what it felt like being on the other side of things.  (A client looking for a designer = kind of scary)  I know NOTHING about web design and was looking for someone who could translate my style into a website which is no easy task.  My language is interiors .. but web design???  I had no idea how to get "me" into my website.   It was a long search to find "the one."  (Emily!)  Even once I found her, it was hard for me to covey to her what I wanted because I didn't quite know what it was, but she helped me get there. 

Emily's visiting today to talk about inspiration & how gathering it in unexpected places and using points of reference can get us to our final goal of creating whatever it is we're creating.  I didn't even know quite what she was doing when she did it but am so glad she did!!! :)

-ps- I am dying laughing out loud right now because when I first wrote this post I typo'd and wrote "online sore" ... a very sweet commenter let me know.  thank you so much!! :)   (you've probably noticed, but I don't proofread the blog so don't look too closely or you will definitely find more!! ;)

===========  Emily of emmarie Web Design:

I have always been a sucker for good design. Typography, interiors, graphics. You name it, if executed well, I will drool.

My favorite thing about designing is gathering inspiration. My favorite thing about gathering inspiration is gathering it in places you would never expect.

When working on designing Lauren's online shop, Lauren sent me inspirational pieces in the form of interior shots. She was showing me her style, and I was actually able to take these images of rooms she's designed (and her rooms definitely make me drool) and turn them into a website with the same style.
Don't get me wrong here; designing a room is far from designing websites - goodness knows the mess I've made of my own living room (though I do love my bedroom - pat on the back) - but it is very possible to pull inspiration for graphics from non-graphics.

And this works in every way possible, which is something that I think creatives sometimes forget. Designing a room? Thumb through a wedding invitation catalog. Designing a rad new typeface? Visit a fabric store for pattern overload. I'm an adamant enforcer of "get out of your studio so you can get some real work done!" Reach out of your design-y comfort zone and pull inspiration of less likely places. You might find yourself to be oh-so surprised at what comes of it.

Where are your favorite places to find inspiration?

Emily is a web designer and developer for her own studio at emmarie Web Design. You can also find her on her blog, teaching the basics of starting and running an online business at Indie Shopography, sharing small business showcases and resources at Piccola Mag, and on Twitter, where things sometimes get a little funny.

Thanks so much Emily!!!



If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Ryan's Artwork or: Dry Wall Delirium

The trip back home to Albany for Thanksgiving spurred a memory that is borderline cinematic to me. One of my first jobs, following a stint working at the local multiplex, was at Siena College, where I worked as a carpenter’s assistant and key room manager. Most days were spent in the key room, a little nothing of an office, with John, a former NYC handyman who had moved to Albany to essentially retire. He took the job, as he told me, out of boredom and seemed to enjoy the lazy pace of the place.

When I wasn’t with John, I was working with a crew to restore dormitories and classrooms across campus, jobs that, though relatively simple, often caused me injuries. One of my first jobs was involved soldering, and I don’t mind telling you that, while removing a wheel from an iron cart of sorts, a piece of hot metal fell and cut me around my ankle pretty badily. That was actual pain that John and my supervisor, Eric (another veteran NYC handyman, as it turned out), took very seriously but the dry wall story was more the thing of comedic legend in the Siena carpentry shop.

The job was simply to bring two-dozen large pieces of dry wall up to the fifth floor, from the fourth floor. There were three of us doing it, to save time, and about halfway through the job, we took an hour lunch break at the dining hall. The dry wall was to replace some damaged walls in a classroom upstairs, a suitable quick fix before the winter and fall started. It’s a regular job now that nearly any handyman can get done in a day, but this was larger scale seeing as a two-day torrential rainstorm that had hit us earlier that month had caused water damage in nearly half the classroom.

Boring stuff, actually, but when my two colleagues and me returned we found that the remaining half-dozen or so planks had become the canvas of some particularly expressive young artists. There were some minor curse words but more prominently, a slew of crayon drawing on at least half of the planks.  There were the normal culprits: a big sun, stick figures, a few animals, shapes surrounded by a mass of squiggly lines. More than anything, I was shocked by the amount of stuff that had been drawn in a relatively short amount of time.

The culprits were obvious a few rebellious kids from the campus summer camp and at the end of the day, who cares? But as I’ve been told, watching Tim, who eventually became a general contractor out of Nyack, and myself grunting and sweating while angling a large piece of dry wall with “Ryan Wuz Here!” and a big blue smiley face on it was enough to bring a few of the day laborers to their knees with laughter. I don’t doubt it, especially concerning the fact that I was a bit more liberal with the curse words back then. Regardless, the artist henceforth to be known as Ryan’s masterpiece is now covered up and makes up the left wall of the Level 3 math course classroom at Siena to this day. 

Before & After: Happy Kids' Art Wall

This past Summer, a client of ours moved into a large newly-built home.  There were so many areas to address (we're still going) but one of the most important areas in making a house feel like a home is the kitchen.  Our client had collected a ton of her children's artwork and so we thought it would be great to make a focal point in the kitchen dining area out of it.  My client's style is bright & happy & fun so the colors were perfect.  We started out with this:

And we ended up with this:

We had so much fun creating this collage!!!   In the evening, the sconces create the prefect glow around the artwork.  We still have to do a bit of styling to do (a zebra rug was in our original plan & we need to put something pretty on the table- I'll be sure to get a final professional pic!) but I am loving the vibe!!!   The curtains are this great red medallion pattern that's happy, fresh & graphic.

This is something I've been meaning to do forevah for my boys & so my client's project gave me the get-up-and-go I needed.  It was super-easy but had such a big, personal impact on the space.  (I love easy high-impact projects.)  We picked up frames this weekend for house & I'm now scouring my house for the boys' artwork.  (I'm not as organized as my client with my kids's stuff! ;)  I'll be sure to share pics when we're done too!

My clients kids are so proud to have their artwork displayed in such a prominent spot in the house.  (They now even have plans for more walls!! :)  If you've got a spot for it, I think it's one of the coolest things you can do to make your kids feel like they've been included in "decorating" your home. 

I'm off for the day & hope you have a great one!! :)

INFO:

*The paint color remained the same... it's the difference btwn cloudy & sunny & cameras.

*Curtain fabric is by John Robshaw

*Pendant & Sconces by Visual Comfort}

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Gone With The Wind

On Thursday we had a huge windstorm.  In our little town the wind was clocked at 93 mph.  Just a few miles from us, it was clocked at 102 mph.  The devastation was terrible!

There is a cemetery right down the street from us.  It was so upsetting to see!

We took this picture this morning.  There are at least ten trees that look just like this, all in a row.

This tree has been cleaned up.  It was HUGE and just barely missed hitting the apartment building right there.  The trunk is (was) right near that stop sign!  I'm guessing that it was 60-75 feet tall.  I'm sure those people living right there are very thankful that it fell in the direction that it did!

As we were driving around today, the devastation was amazing.  There are thousands of trees that fell.  So many of them were enormous!  There are entire streets right near us that cannot even be driven on due to the trees and debris spread everywhere.


The bad news is that another storm is forecast for tonight with winds up to 75mph and snow.  Even though Sunday is always a very, very quiet day around our town, it was bustling today with so many people rushing to get the streets cleaned up before the next storm hits tonight.   (We just received a call from the city telling us that the National Guard will be working through the night to clear as much debris as possible.)  Now our fingers are crossed that tonight's storm won't pack the same sort of punch.

Thanks for your visit.

Pam