Old With The New

Today you will find me over at IAMTHELAB with my guest post on incorporating vintage items with your design.  I met Brett Torrey from IAMTHELAB during our #IntDesignerChat on Twitter, which takes place every Tuesday.  I was happy to write for his readers and have been enjoying his posts as well all about handmade.  

I am also honored to be a part of his style council! 

Now, Go read my post here!  Here is a peek at one of the images....

How Many Designers Does It Take?

It is always interesting to get a group of designers in a room to decorate a space for an event.  For our ASID Design Excellence Awards Dinner and Annual Social, we all had to brainstorm a little to put our well thought out design in action. 

ASID Designers coming together

There are always changes that happen when the installation day arrives and I think we handled it well.  We certainly had a great finished product!

ASID Design Excellence Dinner

ASID Design Excellence Dinner tablescape

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Award Winning Design

This weekend, my local chapter of ASID held our Design Excellence Awards.  I am so happy to announce that my bathroom submission won second place!

 You have seen these before but here are the photos of the winning bathroom:

I was up against some great competition, First place winner, Laura Neuman and Third Place Kerrie Kelly.  I am fortunate to have such a wonderful chapter of designers as my colleagues.  More to come on the event itself....

Bathroom photos by Steve Folino

Dining In Style

Dining Rooms and Nooks can be very high impact places in a house's design, depending on their location.  I recently completed some refurnishing of a client's Dining Room and Nook.  The Dining Room was directly off the entry and turning the corner into the Kitchen you look directly into the Nook, so these are highly visible spaces.  It's important that these places are not only functional for everyday eating but also for entertaining.  A lot of social gatherings center around food so the eating areas get a lot of exposure. 

Here is the dining room with it's stunning long table that comfortably seats 10.  One of the design parameters was that 10 placemats could lay nicely on the table without overlapping.  Luckily, this room was the perfect size to permanently accommodate the long table (128" long).

Dining Room

Dining Room with custom tablecloth

 Adding correctly proportioned art and back cushions to the existing benches made the Nook a more inviting space.  Previously, a line of throw pillows were used to cushion the back but they made it difficult to slide in and out.  These fixed cushions supply a small pop of blue color on the buttons that is accented throughout the home.

Nook with custom tablecloth, pillows and back cushions

With family or friends, my clients can now dine in style!

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Color Seasons

Each December, Pantone publishes its color of the year, which I usually am prompt to report.  They also release each season's colors.  Pantone mostly dictates to the fashion industry but there is usually a quick trickle down into interior and home fashions.  The colors we see in our fashion magazines we also want to see in our shelter magazines and on the shelves of our stores.

I recently took a look at the Fall colors to see an overview of what is currently showing now that we are already in to September and then a look at the Spring projections.  I found them to be very similar, naturally but the subtle differences do reflect the change in the season:

Fall 2012 via Pantone

Spring 2013 via Pantone

Spring has left out the browns and greys and has a more crisp yellow and blue tones.

Do you pay close attention to the seasons' colors or do you stick to your favorites?

White Hot

I have been very attracted lately to "white hot" interiors and photos.  Bright Whites with saturated indigo and fuchsias.  The contrast of hot and cold colors is very refreshing, bright and cheerful.  A cool splash in the pool on a scorching day. 

I remembered that I had this book by Tricia Guild.  While this book is over 10 years old, I think her color principals in here are still pertinent.  White is timeless and never out of fashion.  Such beautiful, exotic imagery and text throughout the book.  The photography is captivating.  I find myself drawn to them often for inspiration or just to refresh my eyes - like sorbet cleanses the palate.

How do you feel about "white hot" interiors?

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Looking Good

I have been reviewing my finds from my trip to Las Vegas Market and still am finding a lot of inspiration from these great items.  Let me share some of the good looking pieces I am loving:

Which is your favorite?

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Photos by Rebecca Ward