Interior Redesign and Home Staging Blog

Rediscovered Rooms Featured

Redesigned Rooms

Linda Sinclair of Rediscovered Rooms in Nashville, TN was one of the decorators recently featured in an article on “Painting With Light” in the May-June issue of Greater Nashville House & Home & Garden .

Done in a Day Decorating Featured in Consumer Report

Done in a Day Decorating

Laurie Heffernon of Done in a Day Decorating of Marlborough, Massachusetts was featured in a consumer report May 14, 2009 on Boston’s Channel 4 station WBZTV.  The link to the story and the video is http://wbztv.com/consumer/cheap.renovations.how.2.1009655.html.  For videos click on “watch “ at the end of the story and on the “related” box over the video screen”.

The Right Home Can Heal You

I know it seems a bit far-fetched. Shouldn’t we be taking antibiotics, medicine, and vitamins for better health?  However, more and more research is leaning toward the healing effects of a functional home where you are surrounded by things you love highlighted in a beautiful way.  A warm, comfortable home where we feel at ease reduces stress, which helps our natural immune system fight disease.

Let’s look at some of the things that cause us stress in our home:

• A home that doesn’t work functionally. We don’t have a spot to do our crafts; we constantly have to move everything from one room to another to find a place to do something; there isn’t a place to comfortably fold the laundry; we don’t have enough storage space.
• A home that’s not balanced or doesn’t flow – we just don’t feel good in rooms where the visual weight of things isn’t balanced, or where we are blocked by furniture.
• A home where we constantly look at things we dislike (examples are gifts and inherited possessions that we keep and display because they’re expensive, but they don’t bring us any joy.)
• A home that’s filled with clutter. Think of the stress when you can’t find what you want at a moment’s notice?  Or when you constantly have to sort through a pile of clutter to find something, then finally go out and buy a new one because you can’t find the old one?
• A home where there’s work to be done. Every time you look around, you see that window that has to be replaced, the door falling off the hinges, the wall that has to be repainted.

By contrast imagine coming home and getting a little lift when you go through the door.  Imagine just looking around your rooms and loving your home.  Imagine feeling relaxed and comfortable in your home; and imagine the joy of finding whatever you want at a moment’s notice and easily being able to do the tasks you need to do in your home.

It’s time to get our health back by having a home we love. We deserve it.

Interior redesigners help you create that home you love using your existing furnishings.  It’s not decorating.  It’s creating a home that is functional, warm and inviting and fills your heart with love.

Val Sharp is the founder and past president of the Canadian Re-designers Association and the author of “The Art of Redesign – 5 Simple Steps to No-Cost Redecorating”. She instructs people in starting their own interior redesign and home staging business. If you want to become a redesigner or home stager, or you want more information about Val and her book, stop by www.sharpredesigns.com

Accentuating Accessories

Accessory:  an object or device not essential in itself but adding to the beauty, convenience, or effectiveness of something else.

Accessories are the finishing touch when designing a room.  Accessories help define a room’s character.  They can be collections handed down through the family, memorabilia, and keepsakes from treasured vacations, handmade objects from school projects, or decorative objects that coordinate with your furnishings.  They can also be everyday objects repurposed.

Placement of accessories is very important. Scale, balance and proportion are key.  Small rooms are best with minimal accessories – typically smaller scaled.  Larger rooms are best with more substantial accessories – typically larger scaled.  This also applies to niches, built-in shelving units, hutches, etc.

When displaying accessories, group them according to color, theme, shape, size, and function.  Display accessories in an organized manner, otherwise they will appear cluttered.  Consider layering accessories to create highs and lows for visual interest.  This is especially important when working with a grouping of accessories that are of the same height.

If there are several different collections to display, consider rotating them on a regular basis - seasonally, annually, etc.  By alternating, you will enjoy them all the more.

Top Five Ways to Accentuate Accessories…

1)    Display by using odd number of items – 3’s and 5’s.
2)    Cluster similar items (textures, metals, woods, glass, etc.) for a cohesive look.
3)    Shape on shape – use round accessories on round tables and square accessories on square tables.
4)    Size on size – use large accessories on large furnishings and small accessories on small furnishings.
5)    Create height by using books, baskets and/or decorative boxes under accessories.

© Star Interior Solutions 2009
Erica Starich is a certified Interior Redesigner and Real Estate/Home Stager and the owner of Star Interior Solutions, an award winning design firm serving South Metro Denver, Colorado.  Please visit her website www.StarInteriorSolutions.com or contact her at 303-909-3491 or erica@StarInteriorSolutions.com.

Redecorate Your Home : No Construction, No Painting, No Mess

Redecorate Your Home

You know when they reveal the newly renovated rooms on shows like “Trading Spaces” and people cry, jump up and down, and cover their mouth with their hands in shock? A redesigner gets that same reaction in their clients’ homes without spending one cent!

Redesign is the art of doing a one-day makeover in your home, using your existing furnishings.  The basic tenets of feng shui are balance, harmony and being surrounded by things you love.  This is what happens when your home is redesigned.  A redesigner uses design principles such as flow, balance and scale to ‘design’ your home and highlight the things you love.   Your home should reflect your personality, and this is what a redesign does.

Often people think they need to buy new things to have a home they love. However when the furniture is properly placed, the art hung in just the right spot, and the accessories artfully arranged, they find they don’t need to buy anything new after all.  They love it just the way it is.

Many people can waste thousands of dollars on new furniture that doesn’t work in the room. Getting a redesign first will stop that.  A redesign will set the foundation for your home.  Then, if there are one or two pieces you still need to buy, you will know exactly what to buy – how big, what color and where it will go.

In order to redesign your home, you need to start by taking everything out of the room.  This gives you a clean-slate perspective.  Remove the furniture, all the art on the walls, and all the accessories.

Proper furniture placement is the most critical part of designing your home. Often people buy new accessories or even art, trying to fix a room.  It doesn’t work.  If the furniture placement is wrong, it doesn’t matter how many accessories or pieces of art you hang, it still won’t work.  Your furniture must be properly placed, balanced in the room, with a cozy conversation area facing the primary focal point of the room.

Once the furniture is properly placed, you need to add the lighting. Many homes don’t have enough lamps.  There should be at three lamps in the room for adequate ambient light.  These three lights should be placed in a triangle, to get light throughout the room.  In addition, you should have reading lights near chairs or sofas where people read, a light for sewing, or working at a desk.  You can also add some nice accent lighting to highlight special pieces if you wish.

Now that you have the furniture and lighting placed, you can add the art. Art should be hung to work with the furnishings in the room.  Most art is hung too high.  Remember that art is viewed from a seated position everywhere in your home except the hallway and foyer.  It should be hung 6-10 inches over the piece of furniture under it.  You also need to pay attention to the colors in the art and the furniture.  Hang art to work with the furniture under it.

Now you can add the accessories (or jewelry) in the room. Again, pay attention to the art and the furniture and use your accessories to work with the art and furniture.  This will create beautiful vignettes throughout your room.

There is no greater delight than a home you love to be in, and one that you’re proud to show your friends.  You probably already have everything you need for that wonderful home.  It just needs to be put in the right spot.

Val Sharp is the founder and past president of the Canadian Re-designers Association and the author of “The Art of Redesign – 5 Simple Steps to No-Cost Redecorating”.  She instructs people in starting their own interior redesign and home staging business.  If you want to become a redesigner or home stager or you want more information about Val and her book, stop by www.sharpredesigns.com

Decorating With Plants

Do you have plants all over your home because you love them so much? Or do you think plants are too much work? Whether you are one of these people or somewhere in the middle, you may be amazed at all the wonderful ways you can use plants to decorate your home.

I often see plants that seem to have taken over the room.  Grouping a number of plants together in one or two spots makes a huge statement with the plants and helps you appreciate them more.  It also leaves space to appreciate the other things in your home.

The other rooms I see are the cold, sterile rooms with no plants at all. Greenery adds life and interest to a home.  Any room looks better with some greenery in it.

Here are some tips for incorporating plants into your home:

1    Use large plants as if they were pieces of furniture. Make sure they are in balance with the furniture pieces in the room.  Large plants or trees can help achieve a sense of height in the room.

2    Make a triangle of 3 large plants in the room.  Or if you only have 2 large plants, put them at a diagonal.  Placing items at a diagonal is more pleasing to the eye than if you put them on the same side of the room.

3    Rather than putting a plant in the corner, consider centering it in a space, like you would a piece of furniture.  It will have much more impact. For large plants, try to leave a foot of space on either side to show it off.

4    Group plants on the floor for greater impact. Use plants of differing heights and volume to make a ‘statement’.  Put some on stands or small tables to help you with height.

5    To visually create two rooms out of one, you can place a large plant or group of plants extending from the wall into the room to create an invisible wall.

6    If you use artificial plants, choose those with small leaves; they look more real than ones with large leaves.  Group real plants and artificial plants together.  It will help the artificial plants look real.

7    Accent large plants by placing a light on the floor and aiming it at the wall behind the plant.  This creates a dramatic silhouette of the plant against the wall.

8    If you have a piece of furniture too small for a space, you can put a plant beside it to visually expand the width of the furniture.  A plant will also soften the sometimes sharp lines of furniture pieces.

9    Small plants and greenery provide wonderful texture in a room. Use them as you would accessories in bookcases, on mantels, with tablescapes, and incorporated among personal photos.

10    Plants in or near the bathroom say ‘spa’.

Try a few of these tips to see the effect they have on your home.  Your friends will think you called in a decorator.

Val Sharp is the founder and past president of the Canadian Re-designers Association and the author of “The Art of Redesign – 5 Simple Steps to No-Cost Redecorating”. She instructs people in starting their own interior redesign and home staging business. If you want to become a redesigner or home stager or you want more information about Val and her book, stop by www.sharpredesigns.com