My TV room ottoman has a new life and a bright look thanks to a repurposed vintage tablecloth. I repurposed a vintage tablecloth — natural linen with royal blue cross stitch embroidery — to recover an ottoman and I love the stunning result. The tablecloth was embroidered by my step-aunt Jeannie and my mom may have passed it along to me. While clearing out things in my basement … [Read more...]
Blue and White Backsplash Styles
Blue and white kitchen backsplash tile style varies from flowers and folk figures to geometrics. These days, blue and white backsplash chic is geometric. That makes it versatile since geometrics can go in most any direction. One road leads to patchwork [top] wonderfully expressed in the Novecento tile collection from Made a Mano, a tile house located in Copenhagen, London and … [Read more...]
Pale Neutral Kitchens
Serene and inviting, pale neutral kitchens take steps beyond white in a few subtle ways. Pale neutral kitchens are done in light muted colors that often defy description. In discussing the mellow kitchen she designed for a house in California [top], the great Barbara Barry explained to House Beautiful magazine that the kitchen had been bright white but she felt it needed a … [Read more...]
Crayola Colored Woodwork
Chartreuse windows and bordeaux red door frames show how far crayola colored woodwork can go. Top New York designer Jeffrey Bilhuber must have been inspired by his 8-year old son judging from the crayola colored woodwork he used in a New Jersey farm house. The home was featured for its colorfest qualities in the February issue of House Beautiful. Sprawling, imaginative and … [Read more...]
Open Kitchen Shelves
Kitchens are more interesting as rooms when they are move away from fortress cabinets to open kitchen shelves. Think of it this way: no other room in the house has furniture lining every inch of every wall, floor to ceiling, so why should the kitchen? I think it’s time to let go of the “gotta hide it” urge and allow serve ware, cookware and other accessories to be displayed as … [Read more...]
White Cottage Kitchen
A white cottage kitchen with restored vintage appliances offers a great blend of old and new. In a renovated Northern California beach house, Benjamin Moore’s Snow on the Mountain paint was used as the icy white coating on the ceilings, shelves and cabinets -- a blizzard like treatment that's often found in Scandinavian kitchens, too. White marble counters help keep the … [Read more...]
Salsa Dancing Kitchen
Orange kitchen cabinets are muy caliente thanks to a great paint color and some very cool tile. Questions about paint color can dominate any discussion – color is that powerful. In the case of this bold and original kitchen, color is topic number one. The beautiful inset orange kitchen cabinets with concealed hinges are painted in Benjamin Moore Aura Salsa Dancing. The walls … [Read more...]
Layering Striped Walls
Anything hung over horizontal striped walls tells me automatically to 'stop and look'! Big horizontal stripes – especially black and white – are such a statement on their own that adding anything to striped walls requires real thought and careful planning. I’m not so much for elaborately layered interiors with very few exceptions. My hankering is always for a focal point in a … [Read more...]
Wallpaper Ceiling Kitchen
A wallpapered kitchen ceiling adds tone-on-tone pattern that is repeated with tile. The all-white kitchen trend peaked several years ago but the look just keeps on coming. So these days, keeping a white kitchen from looking generic requires a special design strategy. In this New York City apartment, designer Christina Murphy used tons of bright color and bold pattern -- … [Read more...]
Shoe-Centric Closets
One long-running joke at my house is about my shoe closet. Yes, I’m a shoefanista, plain and simple, and because my collection has been in the three figures ever since I was a teen, an accessible and efficient shoe closet was a must-have, then and now. Looking around, it’s clear I’m not alone. The thing is, shoes can eat up acres of precious closet real estate so it’s always … [Read more...]
Pattern Behind the Shelves
Bold pattern behind shelves is a detail we’ve been seeing since wallpaper swept back into style. I like pattern behind shelves in principle but feel it should be approached very carefully since it’s not for every room. At best, it’s a great way to “fill” shelves without adding clutter. At worst, it can pull attention away from a primary focal point to one that should be … [Read more...]
Vintage Gold Leaf Mirrors
French gold leaf mirrors are classic, versatile decorative elements at home in any room. Decorating advice often given to those furnishing a first home is not to rush: don't buy just to fill a space. It's better to wait, saving to buy better quality pieces adaptable not only to location but style. Antique and vintage gold leaf mirrors fall gracefully into this category. Aged … [Read more...]
Chocolate Bath
Now that I have your undivided attention - no melted chocolate, just brown paint in this master bath! The master bath in this Illinois Victorian is contrast of brilliant white and chocolate brown. Not widely used since the 1970s, brown is returning to home décor and in a big way. In this master bath, he upper walls, and the ceiling, are painted a dramatic dark chocolate brown … [Read more...]
Decorative Wrought Iron Staircase Railing
[portfolio_slideshow id=17960] These inviting entries feature wrought iron staircase railing -- from simple to swirly. The foyer is a focal point in many homes, and the space of first impressions. Nothing is more elegant than an understated staircase and one of the most handsome is a wrought iron staircase railing. That's why a custom wrought iron staircase railing can stand … [Read more...]