before and after decorating

Throwing Caution (and Your Home’s Floorplan) to the Wind

May 16, 2011 By Kristie Barnett 29 Comments

I typically begin Design Consultations by walking through the home and talking with my clients about how they use their space and how it functions for their family. And more times than not, I find that people let their home’s floorplan dictate how they live in it. Even when it really isn’t working for them! In this home, we actually switched around 3 rooms - today I’m going to share 2 of them.

Random House Floorplan

This is the dining room before I started switching everything around. This room is carpeted, which doesn’t make it ideal for a dining room – especially when there’s a space open to the kitchen that is hardwood (it was being used as a living room). The homeowners LOVE color, especially bold color. They favor modern design, but with a retro twist. They are artlovers, as well, and the husband is a gifted artist, so it just seemed as though their home should have the feeling of an art gallery. Art galleries typically have a neutral backdrop so that the art really stands out – so we decided to mute the background a bit and add bold punches of color.

Dining Room Before

The homeowner had a desk tucked back in a corner of her bedroom where she used her computer. As we talked, it became obvious that with two small children, it would make more sense to have her office area in a place where she could monitor family activity better as she worked. So, we started moving around the furniture . . . [Read more...]

Guest Room Make-Over

September 17, 2010 By Kristie Barnett 15 Comments

I have a recurring client who has grown daughters and grandchildren who live in Memphis. When they come to Nashville, she wants them to have a nice room to stay in at her newly-built home here. Trouble is, her guest rooms were filled with leftover furniture and accessories. She wasn’t in a position to buy new furniture, but wanted me to spruce up the rooms with things she already had. This is where we started with the first guest room:

DSC 3953 Guest Room Make Over

This room had to include the bed, dresser, and a baby crib/toddler bed. There’s a balcony off this room, and the green plastic chairs had been brought inside for some reason. We obviously needed to pull those out, as well as that black chair with the UT emblem.

A Neo-Traditional Kitchen Make-Over

January 20, 2010 By Kristie Barnett 6 Comments

It’s “Before and After” time! This is one of my favorite kitchen updates. It started out nice enough: butter yellow walls, white cabinets and appliances, nice wood breakfast table.

DSC 5700 A Neo Traditional Kitchen Make Over

Warm Up Your Living Room for Fall

November 3, 2009 By Kristie Barnett 5 Comments

I admit it. I know the trees look pretty, but I hate this time of year. Shorter, darker days. Dropping temperatures. Heavy, itchy clothes. Summer’s more my thing. What I do like is warming up rooms for fall. Adding color, laying in some pattern, and layering texture can really add warmth as the temperature drops. Today I’m sharing a recent room redo using only the client’s own belongings to turn up the heat in a cold living room.

Autumn tree 300x240 Warm Up Your Living Room for Fall

A Living Room Update

October 3, 2009 By Kristie Barnett 2 Comments

Today I thought I would share some Before and After pictures of a recent living room update. Actually, it’s a living room/dining room combination. My client wanted an update and wasn’t sure where to start. She had nice furniture in neutral colors, so I suggested we change the wall color, rearrange furniture, and add interest with lighting and accessories.

Here’s the Before from one end of the room:

Living A Balanced Life in Your Home

August 18, 2009 By Kristie Barnett 2 Comments

You want to make your house a home? A place that soothes and comforts you and your family? A place of order, beauty, and wonder? I’ve got a few thoughts for you to ponder.

You gotta live in your WHOLE house. There’s nothing sadder than a lonely room. Spending time in each room in your house on a regular basis can generate a more balanced life. I find many people spend most their time in one or two rooms of their house. Most people use their dining rooms a few times a year, at best. If you have the rooms, it’s such a shame for them to go to waste!

Please excuse me, but I can’t completely separate myself from my past as a psychologist: Each room should serve a practical AND emotional function. It will serve you well to heal those disconnects, establish new practices, create new routines, and benefit from the proper utilization of your space. The effort creates a more balanced, satisfying life. Doesn’t it kinda make you feel guilty not to use that one (or more) certain room(s) in your home? Start tonight and actually serve dinner in your dining room.

A Lavender and Gray Bedroom Makeover

August 4, 2009 By Kristie Barnett 5 Comments

This is a picture of how my bedroom looked when we moved into this house 8 years ago. Dark green walls, very bad floral border, ceiling fan. Oh my. The first thing we had to do was strip down that border, which was apparently put up with superglue.

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