Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Depending on your personality, opening up your kitchen storage can personalize your design or enhance a design theme.
Next time you feel bored with your kitchen, consider opening things up with open shelves. Inexpensive and easy to install, these shelves are making a comeback in kitchens. An easy way to add additional storage, open shelving can be as simple as a couple of spice racks above a stove or as elaborate as a system that fills an entire wall with no upper cabinetry. Can you live in the open? As appealing as open shelves look, they require a certain temperament and personality. Remember, everything is exposed — including broken or chipped dishes and all those mix-matched beer mugs. Before installing open shelves, conduct a stress test. Open all of your cabinet doors. Are you comfortable with what you see? If so, move forward. If not, perhaps you …
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Area designers show why gray is the new neutral.
Never has the color gray shone as bright and bold as in this year’s Washington D.C. Design House. The annual Design House, open to the public now through May 13, features the work of the area’s top interior designers. This year they transformed a 10,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom estate in Spring Valley into a showcase of ideas. While some designers went with a trendy bright orange or pale blue, gray is by far the hottest hue. Perhaps the most stunning use of gray is in the family room, designed by Daniel K. Proctor of Kirk Designs in Baltimore. Proctor created four 8-by-4-foot architectural panels and mounted them on the wall behind a charcoal gray sofa. The panels give the room a sense of depth, while concealing a doorway to the kitchen…
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Retailer offers paint-by-number approach to home decorating and entertaining.
It’s spring. Flowers are blooming and parties are being planned. Budding flowers and warmer weather usher in the perfect time for home entertaining. Perhaps second only to the holiday season, this time of year features many festive occasions, including bridal showers, Easter brunch, Passover, graduations and spring galas. Often people want to host parties, but the anxiety caused by the need to get it right makes some put off entertaining altogether. Have no fear. If you have extra time on the weekend, Pottery Barn in the Market Common Clarendon wants to help you unleash your inner Martha Stewart. The store is hosting a summer open house from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. It will be an informal guide to creating tablescapes and summer party ideas…
38.8884
-77.09169
Pottery Barn
2700 Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA
/articles/pottery-barn-has-home-entertaining-tips-in-store
1279869
/locations/6667161
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Stained, decorative glass can illuminate interior design.
When you think of stained glass, images of grand cathedrals may come to mind. But stained glass is used in everything from interior doorways to fireplace screens. Whatever your style, stained glass -- as well as the less expensive alternative, decorative glass -- can illuminate your interior. Stained glass has been used since antiquity. By the turn of the 10th century, this art form became associated with grand churches, usually depicting Biblical scenes. Today stained and decorative glass are being incorporated into contemporary design, often depicting more modern images. “Why try to recreate the past? You can do that if you’re working on a period piece, but I’ve been really fortunate to have clients amenable to contemporary work,” said …
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Unique tables add drama to interior design.
Whether dining, end, coffee or console, too often we opt for the ordinary when it comes to choosing tables. Big box furniture retailers even offer coffee and end table package deals: three tables, all the same, boring and bland. Avoid the dull. Select a table worth talking about. Add a touch of whimsy with a Rubik's Cube-inspired table designed by Parvez Taj. The acrylic table is a 14-inch cube and suitable for indoors or outdoors. It features a socket for a 60-watt bulb, which lights up the multi-colored table. Picture this table next to a large blue sectional dotted with pillows in the various cube colors. James Dewulf, the concrete artist who brought you the ping pong dining table, created an optical illusion with his leaning coffee …
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Landscaping tips for urban dwellers.
Peruse magazine shelves, libraries and bookstores for outdoor living ideas, and you will find most publications dedicated to landscaping ignore people who live in condos, townhouses or single-family bungalows at arm’s length from their neighbors. I live in Shirlington, where my “yard” is smaller than the average flower bed in Great Falls. Whenever I speak to landscaping experts, I ask, "What about us?" You know, those who enjoy the concept of landscaping, despite being land deprived. I'm talking about people like those who live in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, where outdoor spaces are measured in square feet, not acres. “Containers,” said Kimberly Lacy, host of HGTV’s "Curb Appeal: The Block." Lacy, who was recently in the Washington area…
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Find interior design inspiration in area home tours, design houses and model homes
Sometimes the hardest part about redecorating is finding inspiration. Magazines, blogs and television shows offer motivation, but nothing beats seeing great design up close and personal. A tour of a design house or model home brings professionally decorated interiors to life. Like test driving a car, touring local design houses and model homes offer you a chance to touch fabric textures, feel sofa cushions and inspect kitchen cabinets. Being able to walk inside a luxury shower gives you a perspective that may be skewed by photography methods used for print or online publications. The Washington area has two prominent dream house tours in which the interior designers are on hand to answer questions. If you really like what you see, …
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Asian design styles go beyond Japanese and Chinese
When people think of Asian Design, many picture Zen-like Japanese furniture. But Asian design includes an array of styles as varied as the countries that make up the continent. From ornate Chinese chests to light-weight rattan, Asian design can be incorporated into any room, no matter what your style. Asia, the world’s largest continent, includes countries as culturally different as Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia. But the most Western-like country, Japan, has the most influence on what many Americans think of as Asian design. Japanese design uses natural materials, water features, straw mats, bamboo, stone and neutral color palettes, and most of the furniture is low to the floor. The Japanese did everything on the floor and rarely used …
Monday, February 6, 2012
Innovative ways to hide technological eyesores in interior design
Seems like with every innovation comes aggravation. Technological advances in home electronics have created this challenge: How do we incorporate technology without sacrificing home aesthetics? The availability of affordable flat-screen televisions meant we had to dispose of our 500-pound tubes and find ways to mount the flat screen without ripping out walls. And what about all those chords and cables hanging everywhere? Luckily, designers and furniture manufacturers are keeping up with technology. They are designing sleek entertainment stands that hide all the components, like those available at BoConcepts. Some televisions come with stands and look great sitting on top of a credenza, which can also house components. Credenzas are long …
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Accent chairs can be showstoppers in any room.
Accent chairs usually play second fiddle to sofas. But choosing the right chair and placing it in the proper spotlight can elevate an accent chair from supporting role to scene stealer. Traditional, contemporary, modern or antique, accent chairs come in many styles and can play many roles in a room. When covered in the same or similar fabric as the sofa, accent chairs help create a cohesive look, anchoring a color theme. When providing contrast, accent chairs may help define or divide a space. The following tips will help you chose the right accent chair to create the setting you wish to design. Create Drama Add a vibrant color wingback chair across from a neutral sofa to provide drama. Which color? Pick a color that pops out at you from…
