Open Floor Plan – Kitchen Pass Through

Posted on May 15, 2012 by creatingyourspace

With all of the focus on open floor plans and open concept living, walls between rooms are disappearing in new home construction. The old kitchen that had a wall separating it from the dining room or living room has given way to a more open feeling with sight lines from the kitchen into the other rooms.

This living room and kitchen depicts a popular solution for opening up the walls in a kitchen: the pass through. The pass through is a cutout in the wall between kitchen and typically the dining area or dining room. Pass throughs are named for the ability to pass food and beverages through the opening.

The opening of a pass through can be a narrow opening under the cabinets or, as seen in this space, a large opening between the two rooms. A pass through can be created without too much consideration for load bearing walls and beams if the pass through is not too large.

Because both rooms will be visible, you might want to consider matching or coordinating the flooring between the kitchen and the other living areas. This will create a greater sense of flow in the home and between the two spaces.

Couples Decorating Together

Posted on May 15, 2012 by creatingyourspace

Decorating the home has long been perceived as the realm of women. Women read the shelter magazines, follow blogs and discuss things like wallpaper patterns and area rugs. Men are thought to not care about the color of walls or whether they have carpet or hardwood floors in the bedrooms. This stereotype isn’t true for most couples.

Many couples enjoy building a home together and that includes decorating. If you visit a large home improvement store on the weekend you’ll see couples shopping together for lighting and other things for their home.

Decorating as a couple will mean that your home will reflect both your personalities. Of course this can be done when just one member of the couple is in charge of decorating, but a collaborative effort is best. Collaborating on any project means compromise. The all pink master bedroom might be toned down with grey walls and pink accents.

More gender neutral spaces like bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms are great examples of places where couples should collaborate on décor. Choosing flooring and other major purchases like lighting and seating should be agreed upon by both. For larger pieces you might find you both agree to go neutral or can compromise with a color you both like. Favorite colors can be included as accent pieces. Details and accents can be more personal to each of you. Include photos of your life together as well as sentimental items for your past to remind you of your life together. Remember, this is a home for both of you.

Designing a Room from the Floor Up

Posted on May 9, 2012 by creatingyourspace

If you have wood floors or carpet that you love, you can build a room design from the floor up. Often when designing a room, we begin with an inspiration fabric or accent color. Flooring is typically 30% of a room, so it should be a big factor in the overall design of the space. Taking flooring into account at the beginning of your design will create a beautiful polished room in the end.

Even if you don’t love your existing flooring, choosing your flooring at the beginning of the design process is a good idea. Think of how you will use the space. Kitchens and bathrooms have different flooring needs than living and bedrooms. Do you have pets? Kids? High foot traffic? All of these should be taken into consideration when choosing flooring types and colors.

Once you have your beautiful floors selected, you can begin building your room. Get samples of paint, wallpaper, fabric and accent colors to create a unified design. When selecting colors for the room, take into account the color and tone of your floors. Dark or light, warm or cool tones in the flooring will make wall and fabric colors look differently. Keep floor color in mind especially if you have wood furniture on wood floors. A little bit of contrast between the woods will make the furniture stand out more; similar colors will make the two elements blend together.

Remember, if it all seems too overwhelming, involve the help of a flooring professional. They can help you pull everything together.

Transform Your Space With Paint

Posted on May 7, 2012 by creatingyourspace

Paint is one of the most versatile design elements in decorating. It can transform walls, furniture, floors and fabric. Simply painting a wall, one of the easiest DIY projects, can immediately change the feel and look of a room. But paint can do a lot more than just change the color of a wall, floor or piece of furniture.

This room might seem an extreme example of what you can do with paint. The graphic pattern on the wall is very lively yet the look is achieved with just two colors of paint. Creating patterns with paint can make a simple project have a complicated result. Using stencils and tape can yield a myriad of patterns. Vertical and horizontal stripes can be done with painters’ tape and a level. Stencils can be as simple as a circle or as complex as a lattice print or classic onion pattern.

The techniques that are most typically used on a wall can also be used on furniture. Wood furniture should be properly prepped before being painted. Prep work may include puttying, sanding, priming and more sanding before you begin to paint. Stripes are easy to achieve vertically or horizontally on the wall. Painters’ tape should still be used to mark off the stripes to prevent the color bleeding through. Stenciled walls can imitate traditional inlay or patterned tiles. For a large expanse of wall, bigger patterns will feel less busy.

When Toys Take Over the Room

Posted on May 4, 2012 by creatingyourspace

Have you ever felt like your home has been the victim of an invasion by toys? Stepping on a small toy part hidden in the carpet or something with wheels on a wood floor in the middle of the night is the stuff of comedy sketches. These painful reminders to pick up the toys often happen to mom or dad rather than the kids. Corralling toys can save your home from the invasion of the toys.

Piles of toys in the living room or family room, bathroom, and kids’ bedrooms can make you feel like you are outnumbered. Toys seem to accumulate when we are not looking. Like everything in our homes that tends to accumulate from condiments in the fridge to toys, you need to de-clutter on a regular basis. The standard of keep, trash and give away can be applied to toys too.

Some parents give ultimatums that if the toys aren’t picked up in a certain amount of time they will be bagged up and given to charity or thrown away. These ultimatums need to be followed through on to really work. Just once might be enough. No matter if you have gotten to the ultimatum point or not, good storage is a must to keep the toys from taking over.

Bins, baskets, boxes… anything and everything that will get toys up off the floor will work. Having storage readily available and easy to access may just make storing toys less of a battle.

Decorating 101: Shapes

Posted on May 2, 2012 by creatingyourspace

This vignette on a mantel illustrates the importance of using a variety of shapes in decorating. While all of the objects on the mantel are white, their shapes give them each a unique visual interest. Varying shapes as well as size can create a dynamic design in a room or in a vignette on a table, shelf or mantel.

Having a range of shapes in a vignette or room adds variety to the lines of the furniture and accessories. Long rectangular sofas with square or round cushions are a good example of using different shapes in furniture and accents. If a room is dominated by rectangles in the furniture and area rugs, round and curving lines of circles can be brought in with accents and patterns. Using a round coffee table is an easy way to break up all the straight lines of sofas and chairs.

A round area rug in a living room, or a rectangular rug under a round table in the dining room, is a great way to introduce a new shape to the space. Runners and area rugs are often rectangles but can be found in squares and circles as well.

Vases, bowls and other tabletop accessories are a great way to introduce or repeat shapes in a room. Grouping items by color rather than by shape will put the focus on the unique shape of each object. This can be done with glass or pottery collections. Variety of shapes and sizes is the key to creating interesting vignettes and rooms.

Planning for Summer Outdoors

Posted on May 1, 2012 by creatingyourspace

Cooler weather doesn’t mean that it is too early to begin planning and decorating your outdoor living space, sun porch or front porch. The cooler months of spring are the perfect time to assess what you have, what still works and what you will need to replace for this summer.

Outdoor furniture may need to be replaced more frequently than the furniture inside your home since it is exposed to the elements. Rain and sun can both do damage to outdoor furniture that is made of wood or plastic or painted. Outdoor fabrics are designed to be water resistant and less likely to fade but will eventually show the wear and tear of life outdoors. Outdoor rugs are similar to outdoor fabric in terms of fading and resistance to water.

Wood and metal furniture can be given a second life with a coat or two of spray paint. Prepping the chair or table to remove any dirt and rust is a must for the paint to adhere. A light sanding can also roughen the surface to accept the new layer of paint. There are even spray paints designed to work on plastic that can be a great option for plastic patio furniture.

Once you know what outdoor furniture and accessories you can still use this coming summer you’ll know what you need to buy new. Planning your budget and shopping early will help you get the right piece and stay within your budget.

Mixing Light and Dark Woods

Posted on April 27, 2012 by creatingyourspace

With wood floors being so popular in homes these days there is a new discussion about matching or mixing wood tones between flooring and furniture. Having all the same type of wood furniture in a room is an older way of approaching design. Very formal rooms, such as dining rooms, often had all mahogany or cherry furniture. Today’s design style is more apt to mix one or more woods in a room’s design, including the flooring.

If you have light floors like maple or dark floors like ebony stained hickory, you are not held to only have light or dark furniture to match the floors. Placing dark wood furniture on light floors and vice versa can make the wood of both pop. Using similar wood, dark on dark or light on light, will cause your furniture to blend in more with the flooring. This can be remedied by using a colorful or patterned area rug to break up the unified wood tones.

The contrast between light and dark has a more modern and contemporary feel than the traditional style of using similar wood tones. Using different wood tones can give your space more visual interest while also creating a more eclectic style that is favored by many designers today.

When mixing woods, pay attention to the undertones of the color just as you would when mixing paint colors or fabric colors. Cherries and mahoganies have red undertones while maple has a more yellow undertone. These undertones will be more noticeable when you mix your woods.

Beautiful Dark Wood Flooring

Posted on April 24, 2012 by creatingyourspace

When decorating a room from the floor to the ceiling, you have the chance to coordinate all the design elements from scratch. Unless you are doing a home remodel or building a new home, one or more of these design elements will already be in place when you decorate the room. If you like your flooring, be sure to incorporate it into the new room design rather than ignore it.

If the flooring is ready to be changed for either wear or style, think about putting a darker color on the floor. Dark stained woods, including ebony stains that read as black, are a very popular choice for wood floors. These dark wood floors can add drama to a space and anchor it.

Darker carpet can achieve the same effect. Darker carpet will also hide the dirt more but not the lint or pet hair so you might need to vacuum more often if you have pets. Darker colors like those seen here can act as neutrals in a space as well as greys and browns.

Pair darker floors with lighter walls to balance out the deep color if you want an airy feel to the space. Go with deeper neutrals and colors on the walls if you want the space to feel cozy. Darker floors that are either wood or carpet can help ground white or light furniture in the space. A dark color area rug can designate a living or dining area in an open floor plan with lighter floors.

Beautiful White Bedroom Decor

Posted on April 23, 2012 by creatingyourspace

An all white room can be a bastion of calm and peace. Or it can be a stressful battle against paws and kids. All white kitchens feel crisp and clean. All white family rooms might not be the best choice in decorating. On the other hand, an all white master bedroom can indeed be an oasis of calm and serenity.

This all white bedroom is layered with various shades of white from crisp designer white to whites tinted whispers of grey. The layering is what gives this room a finished looking design rather than an unfinished or even boring look of stark white. Along with layering shades of white, texture plays a role in making this design work.

Pure white bed linens stand out against more grey tones of white on the bed frame and walls. The subtle contrast between the two whites is enough for the eye to differentiate. The bench at the foot of the bed and the nightstands are also painted in the palest of greys.

Texture can be found on both the bed and floor. A shaggy, sheepskin or Flokati rug adds texture to the smooth wood of the floors. Bedding contrasts between smooth cotton sheets and a more textured coverlet. Smooth walls and floors contrast against the texture of the rug and bedding.

Uncovered windows to the left of the bed and above it flood the space with natural light. Combined with the snow white palette, this gives the room an airy and light feeling.

From the Floors Up

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