Posts Tagged ‘decorating ideas’
Friday, November 26th, 2010
Global style is eclectic, exciting and inviting, all characteristics that you would want when decorating a family room. Because it celebrates travel to exotic places and the diversity of the world around us, it will add some visual spice to the room where you’ll be hanging out with family or entertaining friends. The great thing about any kind of eclectic style including global is that is can be as sophisticated or relaxed as you would like.
Thematic Design Focus
Because inspiration for global/exotic style can be found in the materials, designs and customs of tropical places like China, India, the South Pacific and even the Caribbean, that are culturally unique to one another, pick a theme or design focus based on one country, region or landmark. To evoke a general, expansive tropical flair that is not thematically oriented, choose living room furniture, accessories and/or accent pieces that utilize exotic patterns or incorporate organic elements such as seagrass, wicker, bamboo and rattan that hearken back to their exotic origins.
Be Bold
Since it can be bright, colorful and “noisy,” when decorating a global style family room, decide where you would prefer to concentrate the color in the room. Should you wish to have a lot of brightly colored fabrics and/or rugs in the room, stick with a more neutral or earth-toned palette for the walls. The color in a global styled room should be layered throughout the space, but you don’t want to go overboard – the key to a successful global style family room is balance.
Be Organic
When selecting furniture for your global style family room, while it is important to emphasize diversity, you will want to find a happy medium between western and non-western furnishings, so that you and your family will be comfortable while watching a movie or gaming. Two or more furniture pieces should be made of or include accents of organic materials like seagrass, wicker, bamboo and rattan. Stone and shell accents are perfectly acceptable as well.
Be Creative
Accessorizing a global style family room will really allow you to express yourself. Global styles allows you to create the exact mood that you want for your family room – it can be formal in the traditional sense with splashes of color or visual teases like a wood drum end table and rattan chair backs/armrests; chic with a causal vibe; or laid-back contemporary. When accessorizing a global style family room, layering is important: blending textures, colors and finishes is what gives a global style family room its international flair and appeal.
Tags: decorating ideas, family room décor, Family Room Furniture Ideas, global style, global/exotic style, international style, living room furniture, world style
Posted in Family Room Furniture & Design Ideas, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Living Room Furniture & Design | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
It’s not bad, but when you look around your living room it feels as though there’s something missing. Whether you decorated your living room in a hurry; didn’t know what you didn’t know about decorating; or just didn’t care then but you do now, using a travel theme to add a little spice to your décor might be just the ticket. A global or travel theme will add a sense of adventure to the room that is the place where you relax, entertain friends and hang out with family. If it’s a little sophistication you’re after, travel theme decorating ideas can also give your living space an international flair.
Inspiration for a travel theme décor can be found in the places you have visited, places you would like to visit or tropical locales that you would like to explore when funds and/or vacation time allow. Since you will be adding your travel theme to an already furnished living room, there are still a variety of living room furniture ideas that you can explore to give your living space the feel of a world traveler. Accent furniture that has a globe or trunk design creates visual interest.
If a travel theme appeals to you, you don’t have to be a jetsetter or a world traveler to incorporate memorabilia from exotic places when accessorizing your living room. Use stacked vintage suitcases or steamer trunks as plant stands or conversation pieces. Framed prints of famous places like the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower or the Venice Opera House are great choices for wall art. Media storage cabinets, home bars, console tables and decorative items such as clocks and wall sculptures fashioned after cultural icons like a British telephone booth and the Eiffel Tower appeal to our sense of adventure and curiosity about the world around us.
A travel theme provides a wealth of inspiration that will turn a bland or uninspired space into a fun and focused living room that can reflect a trip to the four corners of the world without leaving the comfort of your home.
Tags: decorating ideas, global style, living room decor, living room furniture ideas
Posted in Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, How To & DIY Furniture, Living Room Furniture & Design | No Comments »
Friday, September 10th, 2010
An eclectic style bedroom contrasts new with old; trendy with classic; distressed finishes with highly polished surfaces. It has the feeling and appearance of being transitional in nature. Eclectic style has the added advantage of being totally unique to you; the embodiment of your tastes and experiences. It’s also about layering and the use of different textures for maximum effect, which is perfect for decorating a bedroom, because it’s such a personal space.
When decorating a bedroom eclectic style, the spotlight is on you, the person doing the decorating. Since it’s all about mixing and matching different design and style elements, start with furniture ideas you like or plan to buy two or three new pieces of furniture in different interior design styles you enjoy, like a transitional style platform bed, a contemporary chandelier or floor lamp or a traditional nightstand. In addition to grouping furniture pieces of different styles together, an eclectic décor also gives you the freedom to use accent furnishings in surprising ways. Putting an accent chest like the Butler Specialty Artists’ Originals Console Cabinet in Tiger Stripe Finish in the bedroom is bold and dramatic.
While an eclectic style bedroom should look mixed and matched, it shouldn’t look cramped, cluttered or jumbled. Ultimately all elements – walls, furniture and accessories – should be balanced to make your interior design individualistic yet warm and comfortable. An easy way to accomplish this is to pair each element with its opposite. For example, each antique or reproduction piece in the room should be matched with something contemporary or retro. If you would like to create a really dramatic mood in your bedroom, use contrasting elements instead of furniture pieces and accessories that complement one another.
Carefully combining traditional, transitional and contemporary styles together will create an eclectic look and feel that is sophisticated and trendy, while being totally unique to you at the same time. Don’t forget that this is the one room of your home that should be a sanctuary; while it should be visually interesting, it should also be designed to relax and refresh. When decorating a room, but especially when decorating a bedroom, a particular mood is largely due to the delicate blending of soothing neutral and earth tone palettes with splashes of bold or unexpected color. Because of its diverse nature – a less formal approach to the use of color and shape – eclectic style possesses a casual elegance that is ideal when decorating a bedroom.
Tags: Bedroom Furniture, bedroom interior design, decorating ideas, eclectic décor, eclectic style, eclectic style bedroom, furniture ideas
Posted in Bedroom Furniture & Design Ideas, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles | No Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
The living room is often the first room in your home a guest or visitor will see. Nothing makes guests feel welcome faster than walking into a well-designed living room that perfectly reflects you and your family’s style and personality. The overall effect of an eclectic style living is an interior décor that is unique to your home, because you can choose how relaxed or sophisticated you would like it to be. By selecting furniture from different sub styles ranging from traditional to contemporary and anything in between, you can focus on including furniture pieces into your living room design regardless if the “match.” This is the ultimate appeal of decorating a living room in eclectic style.
Color your World (or at least the living room)
Implementing eclectic style in your living room allows you to contrast soft neutrals of earth and sand with warm, bold colors like fire engine red, vintage rose, intense golds and oranges. This can mean anything from painting the main walls earth tones then adding an accent color in bright orange or vintage rose to one wall to choosing accessories from different period styles. The way you use color in an eclectic style living room should definitely include laying shades and hues throughout the room by piling the sofa with accent pillows; selecting curtains in a different fabric from the other principal fabrics in the room such as the upholstery for the sofa and armchair; and adding a colorfully patterned area rug that will give the room more texture and definition.
Choosing Eclectic Living Room Furniture
When furnishing an eclectic living room, start with a focal point, which can be an architectural feature such as a niche, built-in wall unit or a wood burning fireplace. It can also be a piece of furniture like an entertainment center, bookcase wall or an electric fireplace.
Choose a sofa that has plenty of “character;” one that will blend easily with a variety of styles.
The secret to a successful eclectic living room design is to provide the senses, especially the eye with dramatic contrasts, like a vintage chandelier or vintage floor lamp with a contemporary area rug comprised of geometric shapes. Contrasts that pair the unexpected together – a modern polished metal floor lamp with a 1930s velvet button tufted sectional – create visual surprises that add texture and interest.
The reason eclectic style living room ends up being so personal and exclusive is because it is the result of an imagination, creativity and resourcefulness that is unique to each person. While there are supposed to be a mix of styles – that’s the whole idea behind an eclectic décor design – all elements should “play nice” with one another. To prevent an eclectic style living room from feeling busy or “disconnected.” you can ensure visual cohesion by doing one or all or a combination of the following:
- Regardless of the styles, furniture pieces and/or accessory items, repeat shapes and textures throughout the room
- Especially if furnishings are different colors or possess different finishes, replace the handles and/or drawer pulls of your living room furniture case goods; this will lend each item commonality
- Particularly when furniture and collectibles are from a variety of eras decades or even centuries apart from one another, be when accessorizing; “connect” items to each other through a distinctive feature such color or shape.
- If there are too many different kinds of finishes (including colors and textures like matte, distressed and highly polished) in the living, choose the furniture pieces that appear the most “jarring” and refinish them to match at least one other piece in the room.
Tags: decorating ideas, eclectic décor, eclectic style, eclectic style living room, living room furniture, living room interior design
Posted in Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles, Living Room Furniture & Design | No Comments »
Friday, August 13th, 2010
Eclectic style is appealing to many people because it isn’t just one style, but rather a pleasant mix and match of a number of different elements and influences. And because it’s the one style that is unashamedly not bound by rules, it is a good place to start if you’re consciously decorating a room or living space for the first time. While there may not be prescribed rules for eclectic style, when planning a dining room interior design, there are some general guidelines to keep in mind so that everything works together and even though different elements are involved, the overall effect ends up harmonious.
Balance
A dining room can often end up naturally eclectic. When furnishing a dining room, of course the most important piece of furniture is the dining set. You chose contemporary style for your dining area because the lines were casual and relaxed, and you could easily blend it with the kitchen which had been already decorated. Once the dining table and matching chairs have been bought and used for awhile, you might want to repurpose a dresser as a sideboard or add an armoire or china cabinet that was given to you by a favorite aunt. The styles don’t match, but that’s okay. It’s eclectic. The first trick to eclectic style decorating is balance – balance the contemporary dining table with your aunt’s traditional china cabinet; the oversized traditional cabinet with a transitional sideboard; the bold wall color with earth-toned or neutral upholstered dining chairs.
Furniture
Furniture for an eclectic dining room should include a variety of profiles, lines and finishes. But again, keep balance in mind. While you want to mix and match more contemporary furnishings with traditional reproduction pieces, you will want to do so in moderation. Yes, there are no rules, but for eclectic style to really work, moderation and even restraint can save your dining room interior design from becoming too busy or even making the space feel claustrophobic.
Finishing Off
Eclectic style allows you to create the exact mood that you want for your dining room – it can be formal in the traditional sense; chic with a causal vibe; laid-back or dramatically sophisticated. Layering is important: a clever blend of textures, colors and finishes give an eclectic style dining room meaning and depth. When accessorizing, don’t forget to pair a collectible pottery jug with an antique-style porcelain piece; window treatments, rugs and furniture fabrics are a mix of materials like silk and wool; and a variety of finishes like distressed wood finishes matched with wrought iron and brass lamp bases.
Tags: decorating ideas, dining furniture, dining room interior design, eclectic décor, eclectic style
Posted in Dining Room Furniture & Design, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Design Question
Hi Heather, I have just moved to a studio apartment in the city and I’m tight on space. As you walk in the door, to the right is the kitchenette and to the left is the bathroom. Straight ahead is the bedroom area and it’s all in one space. The furniture I have is a double bed, wooden chest, a bedside table and lamp, a computer desk and chair, a small table for 2 along with a bamboo mat.
I want a Japanese style because of the lack of space in the unit as its size is of two normal sized bedrooms. Can you help me with any ideas?
Design Answer
The first trick to decorating a small space is to think cozy instead of small. You don’t want too much furniture in the space, because that will make it cramped. But you can err on the side of caution, too, but having not enough of the “right” kind of furniture; by that I mean the right number and right type of furniture pieces that will make you comfortable and your home welcoming.
The second trick to decorating a studio apartment is to choose furniture that is in scale. Many people make the mistake of thinking “small” instead of compact. When buying bedroom furniture or living room furniture for small spaces think dual purpose like a futon, which can double as a sofa and a bed; entertainment center, dresser or armoire, as focal points in the room. Make sure that you have enough room to move around each piece of furniture; that you will have enough room to pull out your desk chair when sitting at the computer; opening drawers; or accessing cabinets, etc.
More Tips for Decorating Small Spaces
Japanese style is a great choice for studio apartments, because lines are simple, walls are typically unadorned and colors are earth tones or soothing neutrals.
Add a large framed mirror directly opposite either the window or the door; this will help to make the space appear larger.
Select furniture that includes some type of open design like chairs with ladder backs; headboards with a lattice or openwork pattern; open style bookcases or storage shelving units; or tables with glass tops. By selecting furniture that isn’t “solid” (as in dense) looking will also help to make your living space look larger.
Thanks for writing in. Stay tuned next Monday when we tackle another interior design question. And don’t forget to keep sending me those emails!
Tags: apartment living, Bedroom Furniture, decorating ideas, decorating small spaces, free design advice, Japanese style, living room furniture, studio apartments
Posted in Bedroom Furniture & Design Ideas, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, How To & DIY Furniture, Living Room Furniture & Design | No Comments »
Friday, July 9th, 2010
Whether it has a sophisticated look or a tribal village vibe, global style is eclectic, taking cultural elements from all over the world and merging them into a colorful, exotic palette that is richly textured. While the appeal of global décor style is to incorporate the artifacts and collectibles from your own world travels, it’s not a prerequisite. With local shops and boutiques bringing the world to our own back door, it’s easy to design and decorate a global style bedroom.
Since it can be bright, colorful and “noisy,” when decorating a global style bedroom, it is important to emphasize diversity while create a relaxing and rejuvenating bedroom environment. The appeal of this eclectic style can be largely attributed to how color is used and layered throughout the room. Choose where you would like to concentrate the color: if you would like to use a bright and bold color palette for the walls, plan on more neutral or softer shades for your bedding, curtains and area rug; when accessorizing with bright colors and fabrics, paint the walls with earth tones or neutral tints.
Once you have picked your color scheme, you are ready to select the global style furniture that you would like for your bedroom. In addition to cultural diversity, global bedroom décor focuses on natural woods, fabrics and organic elements. Think tropical woods like mahogany, teak and walnut for beds, nightstands and other types of bedroom furniture; fabrics like silks and wool for curtains, accents pillows and rugs; and organic elements like shells, wicker rattan and sea grasses for decorative accents on furnishings, lamps and accessories. No matter how sophisticated a décor look you are striving for, the overall effect should include subtle rustic elements that have a hand-crafted appearance.
To accessorize a global style bedroom, layer texture upon texture. This can include handmade wood candlesticks; a bedside lamp with a brocade shade in rich colors with gold braid; an upholstered chair or bed bench in woven fabrics of natural materials. Many shops, retail stores and boutiques offer unique collections of area rugs, sculptures, carved wood boxes and accent pillows that are original artifacts or reproductions with a tribal or ethic design elements. You don’t need to be a world traveler to enjoy the eclectic appeal of a global décor bedroom to get the bedroom interior design that best expresses your style and personality.
Tags: Bedroom Furniture, decorating ideas, global décor, global style, international style, wood bed, world style, world style furniture
Posted in Bedroom Furniture & Design Ideas, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles | No Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Global style is a comfortably eclectic way to decorate a living room. Because it’s a design theme that celebrates travel, you can pair a modular style sofa that has a contemporary European cosmopolitan vibe with an end table like the Butler Specialty Designer’s Edge Hammered Copper Drum Table that has the appearance of hand-crafted artifact from a far-flung region of the world. A global style living room emphasizes natural fibers, both as an upholstery fabric and a construction material for furniture. Natural fabrics and organic elements such as silks, velvets, horns, shells, wicker and rattan are used to layer the living room in texture, creating visual interest. A global style living room can range from the highly sophisticated to the casually exotic.
Decide where you would like to put the color. One of the “textures” used in the process of layering a global style living room is of course color. But too much can make your décor “shout” and while you want the space to be interesting and energizing, it shouldn’t be overpowering or busy. If you choose a neutral color sofa, then add color to the walls and tie the sofa into the décor design with brightly colored or intricately patterned cushions. If you go the other route and paint the walls a paler or neutral shade, select a richly colored sofa, armchair, recliner and/or loveseat.
When accessorizing a global style living room, select oversized pieces like a sculpture, vase or urn that will make a statement. Wall art should be large-scale and display exotic or tribal themes. Accent cushions, candles and other miscellaneous trinkets should be arranged throughout the living room in such a way that warm, spicy shades are balanced with a delightful mix of soothing neutrals and organic elements.
The living room furniture you purchase for the room should be predominately made of wood, typically exotic or tropical woods such as teak and mahogany. For an “authentic” global feel, one or all of the living room furniture pieces should have wicker, rattan, shell or stone decorative accents or panels. The Kenroy Home Capri Oil Rubbed Bronze with Shell Accents Table Lamp is a perfect example of how organic elements can be easily incorporated into a global style living room design.
A global style living room has the air of belonging to a well-traveled citizen of the world. It has an easy, eclectic look that can be as sophisticated as you want it to be. A tribal drum provides inspiration for a coffee table; a handful of shells are transformed into a stylish table lamp; natural fibers woven into an intricate zigzag pattern makes an area rug a focal point of the room. But it is the unique way that a global style living room is layered that transforms it into your own creation.
Tags: decorating ideas, global décor, global style, international style, living room furniture, sectional sofa, world style, world style furniture
Posted in Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles, Living Room Furniture & Design | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
If travel appeals to or you like to memorabilia from around the world, global style might be the interior design for you when decorating a dining room. Like shabby chic or French country, global style is an eclectic decorating style that takes its influences from around the globe. And for this reason, it is also known as international or world style. A global style dining room can reflect a trip to a Moroccan bazaar, market day in a village in India or a street market in Sri Lanka.
Gobal style is a growing interior design trend because it appeals to our sense of adventure, exploration and curiosity about the world around us. This trend’s popularity is also due to the “global village” our world has become – no corner of the globe seems beyond our reach. And as we move from one place to another, irregardless of borders, the cultural mosaic of any one particular geographic area is constantly evolving. Inspiration for a dining set like the Stanley Furniture Sunset Key 7 Piece Cinnamon Bay Dining Set tables can be found in objects from some exotic location of the world. And because of this, global style is rich in textures, colors and shapes. Decorative motifs like palm leaves, pineapple tops and exotic animals or tropical flowers are common.
When choosing dining furniture for your global style dining room, think natural fibers for upholstered dining chairs, window treatments and area rugs; teak, mahogany and other tropical woods for furniture pieces like a dining table, buffet or china cabinet; bamboo, rattan and tortoise shell as accent materials for tabletops, case goods and chair back inserts. While the overall appearance of global style furniture can range from the sophisticated to the rustic, its predominate characteristic is a hand-crafted look that comes from the use of a distressed finish, natural materials such as cane or rattan or matched veneers in a distinctive pattern.
Wall colors can be as bold or as muted as you desire. Reds, purples, oranges and golds would be a good starter palette for inspiration for a global style dining room. Accessorizing is easy – choose framed prints (or select pictures from your own collection of photographs) of exotic locales. Upholstered chairs can be made of brightly colored woven fabrics; fabrics for window treatments might be made of silk, brocade or damask. Layer the room throughout with objects de arte like ceramic elephants, Indonesian masks and oversized iron candlesticks. As with any eclectic style, and global style is no exception, the way you design and decorate your global style dining room will be totally unique to you.
Tags: decorating ideas, dining furniture, global décor, global style, international style, wood dining table, world style, world style furniture
Posted in Dining Room Furniture & Design, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas, Interior Design Styles | No Comments »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Design Question
My husband has two children (12 and 15) from his previous marriage. When my stepchildren come to stay for the weekend, one sleeps on the sofa downstairs in the family room and the younger one sleeps in the guest room on the main floor. It’s not a good arrangement. I would like to do something about it but don’t really know what would be best. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can create a space that will work better for both the kids and us?
Design Answer
Even though it might be “just for the weekend,” it is difficult for children to belong essentially to two separate households. It can be disorienting, uncomfortable or a little strange. You do, however, have two things working in your favor – you have a second bedroom and you have a family room. With these two components, there are several things you can do, any one of which will help you create a permanent place in your home for your stepchildren that will be accommodating, welcoming and most of all theirs.
The first thing for you to consider is eliminating the guest bedroom and renaming it “the boys” room. When your stepchildren come to stay with you for the weekend, they should plan on sharing. Putting them in the same room rather than having them sleep in two separate places will perhaps make dealing with a second household a bit easier.
Take the opportunity to do this redecorating project as a “team.” When converting your guest room into your stepsons’ room, don’t do it without them. Let them choose the color for the walls. When it comes time to accessorize the room, take them shopping; let them help you select the bedding, curtains, area rug, etc.
Measure the room to see how much actual space you will have to work with. What teenager or young boy doesn’t like a bunk bed? If they will be the only ones using it on a regular basis, bunks beds would be a good option, especially if it is a smaller sized room. Should you do have need of a guest room and there is space for twin beds they would a better choice in terms of functioning as the boys’ room when they are there and as a guest room when they are not. Twin beds would also allow you to establish definitive areas for each child – you could dress the bed in complementary bedding rather than matching bedding, further distinguishing each boy’s “place” in the room.
In the family room, if there are already bookshelves or some type of storage unit, rearrange the shelves so that your stepsons can store some of their belongings such as movies, games, etc. If there is room in the bedroom, consider adding a bookcase or cubby storage to encourage them to leave some of their possessions so that they don’t have to tote these types of things back and forth between houses. It will also help make it homier and more welcoming.
Tags: decorating for kids, decorating ideas, free design advice, interior decorating, kids bedroom, kids bedroom furniture, stepchildren
Posted in Bedroom Furniture & Design Ideas, Home Decor and Design Ideas, Home Decor Design Ideas | No Comments »
