Inspire: 2013

Happy New Year!! As per tradition for four years now, I have created my inspiration board for the year of 2013:

You can take a look at past years here.  If you feel so inspired, I would love to see your own inspirations for 2013.  Feel free to post a link to yours in the comments or on my facebook page.

2013 Pantone Color of the Year Is...

And now the moment we've all been waiting for!  Pantone has announced that the 2013 color of the year will be Emerald!

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This beautiful green is easily paired with other jewel tone.  It has a hint of blue and Pantone has shown some great color ideas pairing it with periwinkles and ocean blues.

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I know green is not for everyone.  Does it work for you?  May this green is a forshadow that there will be more green in our wallets??  Let's hope so!  Go green!

Images via Pantone

Biomimicry and Design

What is Biomimicry?  It's the observation of nature's structure and method and implementing it in man made designs and materials.  I was sent the link to this interesting video on Biomimicry from my Interface flooring rep.  I thought it was worth sharing:


What is Bomimicry? video link

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