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Sometimes I’m surprised by the attention The Decorologist (the blog, not the person) gets – the contacts I make with people is kinda astounding, especially when it brings unexpected opportunities.  If you are addicted to design and decorating and/or read design blogs, you have probably heard of  Houzz.com.

Houzz is the internet’s largest database of design and decorating ideas – it’s an amazing site full of inspirational rooms by over 60,000 top designers.   Way before Pinterest, Houzz gave us a way to collect images in ideabooks for reference when remodeling and decorating our homes.  They also provide awesome articles about how to make your home look fabulous.

Houzz contacted this little ol’ Nashville decorator a couple of months ago about writing some of those awesome articles for their site, and today my first article debuts!  It’s the first in an eight-part series about how to create a specific mood or feeling in a room.  This series is going to be chocked full of my best tricks-of-the-trade, the first one focusing on how to make a small room feel larger.  I guarantee if you follow my advice, you can add visual square footage to any room! 

So here’s the link: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2212033/list/Mood-Makers–Small-Rooms–Spacious-Feel

This is not the title that I came up with – I’m seeing that I’m going to have to give up a little control because of editing and all that jazz.  It would be great if you left a comment on the article or add any tips you have for making a space feel bigger.  Me, a paid writer?  Who knew!

via Houzz

So many houses I enter have a builder grade entry fixture.   You know it needs updating, but after awhile you simply stop noticing it.  You continue to look away and buy pretty furniture and accessories for your home instead.  But every time someone comes in your front door, it’s there:  too small, brass, and hung too high.  Like this one that used to hang in the vaulted entry one of my client’s homes:

photo taken from 2nd floor – door is below the artwork

New entry lighting doesn’t have to be expensive – it just takes a little bargain hunting with an eye for on-trend design.  I found this updated entry light for my client for around $100 at Lowe’s.   And we hung it substantially lower this time – it looks better this way, and it provides better light to the space!

Gorgeous inverted bell jar light fixture from Lowe’s

The stairway of this house suffered from the same malady as the entry hall – a small, sad, brass fixture in a vaulted stairwell:

too high, too small, too brass!

The solution for that malady was to find an updated fixture that coordinated with the entry fixture and was in the same finish (iron).  This is what I found:

better scale, timeless style!

I also installed a family gallery grouping down the stairwell, and we added a window seat where plants used to perch at the landing.  Much happier to ascend and descend this stairwell now!  Never underestimate the power of a good light fixture!

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And this is it:  The heart wants what the heart wants. 

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Courtney became the girl everyone loved to hate. Ben knew that choosing her was going to be very unpopular because of her difficulty getting along with 24 other girls who were in competition for the same man (???)  To be honest, who wouldn’t have difficulty with that one? 

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Anywho, Ben went with his heart even when he knew it wouldn’t be popular.   We all know that black is not a popular color for kitchens:

This happens over and over, doesn’t it?  Jake and Vienna, Brad and Emily  - we all screamed at the television, “You are making the WRONG choice, you big dummy!”

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Maybe you feel like the big dummy because you have a collection that no one else “gets.” Or you have a certain piece of quirky furniture that no one understands why you love it.  You’re afraid of what other people will think.  You even know certain people won’t approve.

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Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants.  In the end, it’s your life and your home, right? You’re the one that has to live in it.  You made your bed, now lie in it.  And enjoy!

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In working with real clients in real homes, I don’t get bogged down in what design trend is hot or not.  However, I am going to tell my clients if they have something going on in their home that makes it look “dated” and is holding them back from having a beautiful space.  So here’s my top 5:

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1.  Tray and coffered ceilings with the banding painted in an accent color.   When tray ceilings first became popular for dining rooms and bedrooms, multiple colors and contrasting banding were used to make people take notice of the trayed effect.  That looks so dated now.  It’s like,  ”Look at me!  I’m a tray ceiling!!!”  No duh.

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2.  Accent or contrasting color under the chair rail.   There are other options below the chair rail that I will expand on in a future post, but just know that if the wall above it is yellow you shouldn’t paint the wall below it red.

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3.  And that last picture reminds me:  Windows wearing ballgowns.  Festoons, jabots, valances, and all other fancy/puffy window treatments do nothing but block your light and make a scene.  Elegant, simple panels highlight the view and your architecture, as window treatments should do.

I Really Hate Even Putting This on My Blog

4.  Matching sets of furniture.  That goes for the living room combo:  sofa/loveseat/chair with matching side tables + coffee table, all in the same style and wood finish.  And that goes for the complete dining room or bedroom set.  It’s just a lazy and uninspired look.

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5.  Unused or under-utilized spaces.  No one needs three living areas or a dining room that is never used.  Transform your unused space into a library or office – anything but leaving it utterly wasteful.

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You didn’t hear me mention the owl trend, the horse trend, the antler trend, the words-as-decor trend.   Because I will not be the one to walk into your home and say, “Oh, you must get rid of that horse art – it’s sooo Spring 2011″! 

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Those fun little trends aren’t what date your house and drag it down.  Year-by-year, you don’t have to be on the cutting edge of design.    But there are some important things you can do to stay in the current decade. 

Now, do you agree or disagree with MY list?

Upon entering we do have a rather large and traditional tree in our front window, filled with family and vintage ornaments.

Yay, me!   I’ve even gotten a fair amount of presents already wrapped and under the tree! 

This is my living room and fireplace mantel:

I love this pink floral arrangement I found a TJ Maxx  a few years back.

I’ve been collecting vintage deer for years and love to display some of them on my mantel.

They also seem to find their way to other vignettes about the house. 

I even have a large reindeer that my mom bought from a store display when a hardware store closed in the 1980′s.  Do things from the 80′s count as vintage now???

I really love pastels paired with vintage gold.

I love to use large vintage mirrors to reflect other pretty parts of a room.

Here’s my pink tree, of course!  I’ve only had this one a couple of years – found it at Big Lots.

I found about 10 of these pink bird ornaments while antiqueing with a friend last week!

This is my dining room this Christmas.  In the past, I have set the table with the Christmas Lenox my uncle has given to me over the years.  This year, my table has a simple forest vignette and the Lenox Christmas plates are stacked there informally.

This is small vintage tree I’ve had for some time.  I found the vintage gift boxes for a song at an estate sale years back.

Here’s the back corner of the room with a winter vignette in turquoise, green, and gold.

I love using mica snowflakes to create a wintery scene like this one!

And of course, I have to include a stack or two of vintage books!

I have several old winter landscapes I prop here and there at this time of year.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  I have one other special Christmas “decoration” that I created, but I am saving that to show you later this week.  Stay tuned!

 Boy’s Room Before

 The boy loves his Pottery Barn bedding and is a big sports fan – so I made sure that was incorporated into the new plan.

 Pottery Barn Kids’ American League Bedding

He also had his heart set on this baseball lamp, so that had already been ordered.

 Pottery Barn Kids

With those two pieces decided, the next thing to choose was the wall color.  I suggested a warm gray – Benjamin Moore’s Ozark Shadows.   The existing bed and the back of the bookcases (not pictured) will be painted Benjamin Moore’s Bedford Blue.  This is the Inspiration Board that helped my client visualize the finished room based on my recommendations:

My client is an artist, so I suggested she paint her son’s initial in varying fonts and sizes as a way to make the dresser a statement piece.  The industrial hanging light fixture and the reading sconce add interest at a bargain price (the stainless steel fixture is under $30 from Home Depot).  I also included a resource list of all the items on the board, plus a floor plan so she would know exactly where to place all the furnishings and art.

This is the second Virtual Design I have done for this family – over the last couple of months, I have been working with  mom via email and phone designing their finished basement into a special getaway that will appeal to both children and grown-ups alike.  It is near completion, and I hope to share that transformation with you soon!

I layed out these gorgeous plates on my client’s bed this week, working until we got an arrangement we both liked.   This is what I came up with – it’s kind of like an inverted Christmas tree shape over her dresser:

I also did a plate grouping for her on a small wall in her office.  I chose three sizes and two different patterns to create a grouping that worked with the colors in this room.

See how the colors tie into the gorgeous rug?

Of course, you may want to hang photos or other items on your wall in a grouping.  Again, you should start by trying out some variations on the floor.

I was dealing with different shapes and sizes here, but the black frames united the whole grouping.  I hung these in a client’s house over the summer:

Pay attention to the shape of the wall space you want to fill.   What can you do with two slivers of walls between doors? 

Let the shape/size of the wall space be your guide when determining how to hang your items.  Tall, thin wallspaces call for tall, thin arrangements like this: 

Make sure you gather things to hang that mean something to you.   I put together this grouping from one client’s collection of her grandmother’s art and some other items that held special meaning to her family.   When displayed as a group, your collection makes so much more of a statement than it would if it were scattered around a room. 

The most important tip I can give you is to be brave – don’t be afraid of putting a few nail holes in the wall!   Creating art groupings requires creativity, an open mind, and fearlessness – just go for it!

Oh, and if you live in the Greater Nashville area and really screw it up, admit you need help and call The Decorologist.

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 1. Start by paring down so the focus can be on the things you really love.   Then group these things in a cohesive, interesting way.

2.  Let in some light.  Antique interiors are often characterized by heavy, frilly window treatments.  Getting rid of those and replacing with simple but minimal window treatments lets the sun shine in on the rich woods and fabrics.

3.  Choose a new background color.  You can usually tell what decade in which a room was decorated by the undertone of the wall color.   Choosing a new, updated color that coordinates with your antiques is a great way to freshen things up.

You will see in the following before and after photos how I applied these 3 secrets.  Here is the “before” of my client’s home office:

 Office Before

A lot of clutter + pinky-mauve walls + window treatments that completely block out light (never mind the bookcase in front of the window) = an underutilized room.  What I love about this before and after is that the only things that had to be bought were some simple window panels and a gallon of paint.  Get ready for the “after.”

Antique Office by The Decorologist

 So now that you know my secrets, see what you can do to fall in love with your antiques again!

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Ballard Designs has several in their current catalog, like this one:

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The colors of the horse art I’m seeing are usually muted and natural, making this art easy to incorporate in most homes.  Here’s another one from Ballards that has a little more color:

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Horses are lovely subjects, but do you think this kind of art will look a bit out-of-trend in a few years?

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I’m also seeing a horse statues and bookends coated in lacquer, like this one from ZGallery:

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I stumbled upon these vintage horse lampbases on Etsy.  Maybe there are old horse accessories that could be modernized a bit to capitalize on this current horse craze?  LOVE this color green!

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 What do you think of the horse/equestrian trend?  Yay or Neigh?  Sorry, couldn’t resist

1.  Stay true to who you are.   With children no longer in her home, this client was ready to redesign her den and make it a warm and welcoming place to hang out with her husband and enjoy informal gatherings with their friends.   This is where we started:

Her style is traditional, but casual.  A new design doesn’t necessarily mean a new style.  Rather than going for a completely different style that didn’t fit who she is, my client wanted a fresh, updated kind of traditional.  Here’s the after: 

2.  Get over it and paint the wood paneling.  You may have noticed in the “before” that the fireplace was surrounded by wood paneling.  We all know how I feel about wood paneling.  My client thought that the gray tiles at the bottom of the fireplace needed to be ripped out.  As soon as I saw the fireplace, it was obvious to me the problem was the paneling and the brass insert, not the gray tiles.  I encouraged her to have the paneling painted and to change out the insert before ripping out those tiles.

You can see that the tiles weren’t even the problem!  They blend in just fine now, don’t you think?  Ok, on to the next tip:  3.  Let go of the things you don’t need or want.  Clutter is a downer.  And just because you have an exercise machine you’d like to keep in your room, doesn’t mean everything around it has to go to pot.

This alcove is so much nicer, even with the exercise equipment!  With a pair of bookcases already in that area, it just made sense to carve out a little space for a cozy reading nook. 

 4.  Replace frilly window treatments with simple, elegant panels.   It’s time to face the music:  window valances look outdated. 

Put the focus on the view and the architecture of the windows by mounting simple window treatments outside of the windows to make frame them and make them appear larger and more important.

5.  Group family photos and nostalgic items to reduce clutter and create a sense of importance for those memories.  A “designed” room doesn’t mean you should get rid of family photos or memorabilia.    Just rethink how you display those items.  Grouping them in like frames and hanging them in a cohesive group makes them an important focal point.  This kind of grouping is a big improvement over the photos hung in the photo earlier (2 pictures up).

6.   Arrange your furniture so that the seating faces each other.  Even when the room is primarily for television-watching doesn’t mean you can’t create a space that promotes true conversation and relationship.  This seating arrangement addresses both focal points (the fireplace and the television), but is still oriented in such a way that emphasizes the importance of the interaction of the humans who may be in the room.

 What are your best tips for updating or designing a room?