Taming open shelves

 Are your selves like mine?  They start out beautifully arranged and over time bits and pieces of things end up store there, and soon you have a  messy jumble.  If you are someone who can relax in a space no matter what is going on in it, perhaps a jumble of objects  doesn't bother you.  I'm not like that.  If my environment is in a mess that is how my head feels. 

Here are 5 great tips to  bring order to unruly  shelves.

Vary sizes of objects 

 

One of the simplest rules when arranging vignettes is to have a range of object sizes for variety.  Some should be small , some medium and at least one piece that is large. And remember to layer to create interest.  Put a tray at the back and then stack  books and a small object on top of them. If you layer artwork make sure it is actually visible.  There's nothing more annoying than using art work in a display and then covering it up.

Use repetition

Tim Barber LTD Architecture & Interior Design

 

 Rachel Freeman

Repetition, when used well, creates a strong design. Choose several elements to repeat throughout the bookcase/shelving. If you have one stack of books laid horizontally, repeat this arrangement in at least two other places.  Use small sculptures, boxes or vases and rest them on top of a pile of books or magazines.

Keep it neutral 

 

Style at Home

When you have a range of objects to store,  one of the best ways to keep things looking pulled together is to choose neutral colour schemes.  I love white objects for this purpose. You might also consider silver, brass, wood etc.   There's a lot going on in the space above, but because everything is white or very pale, a cohesive look is achieved.

 This neutral scheme allows the homeowner to display stored items in an interesting way.  Also notice that the organization on each shelf is organized in two sets with both having equal visual weight.

This is as neutral as you can get in both theme and colour scheme.I love the repetition of bottles and books with variety achieved through shape.

Keep interesting elements at eye level

 

 The Glitter Guide

This is an easy one and it really makes a difference. When you walk into a room , you tend to see what is at eye level first.  Don't forget about "seated" eye level  too.  Keep boring objects toward the bottom.  Also remember that if you have a line of books or really dark objects they will have a lot of visual weight and should rest at the bottom of the display.

Create relationships

 

 Garrison Hullinger Interior Design Inc.

 

Amber Interiors

Choose a common element when you arrange shelving.  It could be similar colours, shapes or content/theme. Choose objects that relate to one another in colour and/or shape to create unity. Vary the size of objects and make sure they relate to each other in some way. In the images above the common theme is containers interspersed with art work.

Timeless design

San Fransisco based designer Jiun Ho creates rooms that are harmonious and balanced by using textures against clean lines, simple fabrics and inviting shapes. I am attracted to his interior spaces because they re so well thought out and the scale of everything always seems right. Symmetry and restraint play a prominent role in all his work.  If I had to describe his interiors I would say they are tranquil,  classic and timeless, three characteristics that make beautiful interiors.   He describes his work as   " ... all about style rather than fashion, all about relaxed living rather than studied formality." 
 

 The quite simplicity of this entrance is perfect.  Some might consider it too stark, but I always find clean lines and minimalism  invite one to relax.

This small kitchen space uses an island to increase storage and provide an eating area. Although the cabinets are a darker colour, the lighter walls, floor and  seats balance the darks nicely. 

There is an overall lack of "objects" here,  but those that are chosen have perfect scale for the room.

In his palettes  you usually find one colour as an accent  used with darker neutrals - in this case  brown red . In the rooms below it's a rich gold.

 

 These two rooms share the fireplace and you can peek through from one to the other.  Perfection. Again darks are broken up with a significant amount of light and the lighting is provided by clean lined fixtures with bold scale.

How do you feel about these rooms?   Do you have a favourite?

10 Tips for decorating a small living room

It's a fact that  in many of today's new home builds, either your living room or family room will be a smaller  room.  There are many things that can be done to help visually enlarge smaller spaces. There are ways to use darker colours and larger scale furniture in smaller spaces, but their successful use takes a trained eye.  If you want to decorate a small room  with confidence the following ideas are easily applied. 

1.  Choose light  furniture with simple lines

Houzz

There's only one thing I would change in this room. With everything else  so light , I find the darker wood of the table somewhat harsh.  Something lighter would be more cohesive

Choose furniture first and look for pieces that are light in colour and have legs. Lighter colours occupy less visual weight and legs provide an unobstructed view of the floor, allowing the space to appear more open.  Coffee and end tables in metal and glass also allow the eye to move through the pieces consuming little visual space while dark wood furniture has the opposite effect.  The cow hide ottoman above works because it is overall light and has great legs. It also serves to connect the tones of the wood pieces in the room.

2.  Choose a lighter colour scheme 

 Maria Killam

 Neutral colours mixed with  lighter shades of blue and  green  work well in a small living area.  Cooler colours recede  thus giving the impression of a larger space. . Use hints of  brighter colors in  accent rugs or pillows. The golden accents above warm up this space.  Small spaces work best with a three-color (or less) palette as in the room above.  If you love texture consider using a monochromatic scheme.   Bare  wood floors in lighter wood tones also add to a clean, flowing feeling.  Dark floors have the opposite effect.  Unfortunately the current trend for darker floors often causes many problems including closing in a space. The dark mirrors at the end of this space enlarge it.  Which leads me to ...

3.  Use mirrors effectively

 source 

Mirrors can make a small space look larger but it's not that simple.  They function best by reflecting light. That can be the light colour of the wall or refleced  light. Be aware of what gets reflected in your mirror by standing in different positions in the room.  I have seen mirrors actually decrease visual space because they reflect the wrong things.

4.  Emphasize  vertical lines  

source

We often forget that a room has a vertical axis. Add things to the space to encourage your eyes to move upward from the furniture.  Floor lamps, large vases with tall twigs, full length draperies, long  mirrors, vertical paintings or stacked paintings, mantles, tables with multi- layered  arrangements etc. are possible choices.Did you notice the large mirror on the end wall?


5. Match the furniture to the scale of the  room  

A.S.D. Interiors

If your room is small, choose smaller scale furniture.  Armless chairs, apartment size sofas, small sectional etc. will make the room appear  more spacious. Consider a bench rather than a conventional coffee table or a glass or lucite table as in #4 photo.  Don't get carried away with this and  end up with  clutter by using too many small items.

6.  Choose multifunctional furniture  

 

 Heather Scott Home & Design

 One of the best ways to deal with limited space is to choose  dual-purpose furniture, e.g., a pair of ottomans can double as coffee tables, with storage inside; coffee tables with a lower shelf can hold baskets, books, covered boxes for storage; consoles with doors make tidy hiding places, bookshelves used as a sofa table when you can't walk around the sofa, etc.   

7.  Build in storage 

 
source 

Give a small space  character and maximum function with a bank of custom-built cabinets in a light colour.  Built in cabinets and shelving triple storage options.  Keeping the colour of built ins light will increase the visual space. Arrange objects on open shelves in an artful way.  Leave lots of open space and vary the sizes and shapes of decorative objects. 

8. Harmonize  large pieces of furniture

 11 eleven 

If you have a  sofa or sectional that you need to keep and it dominates the room,  paint the walls  a shade that is just a bit lighter than the upholstery . The eye will move  across the room rather than sticking on  the sofa. In the room above a stone wall harmonizes with the sofa and the warm yellow from the wall is picked up as accents.

9.  Control clutter

Design Shuffle

Find interesting ways to store the objects that are needed in a room, e.g.,  storage cubes, baskets, covered decorative boxes, ottomans, etc. This room has a lovely wicker basket which serves as an end table.  On the shelf  is a fabric covered box and the coffee table has a lower shelf which can be used to store books, boxes, baskets etc.Sometimes the more space you have the more objects you accumulate. Keep shelving organized.

10. Layer lighting

 Cecile Lozano Interiors

Lighting is important in any room but even more so in a small room.  Keep window  treatments light and airy so that the natural light can shine through or have drapes that can be pulled back to let the light flood in. . For evenings or when there is minimal natural light use additional lighting to maximize each area of the room. A dark corner is a great place for a floor lamp or an accent table with a lamp for reading.   Wall sconces take up little space and can be used to highlight a certain areas of a room. Lights over artwork add an additional layer of brightness and highlight the artwork.  I try to have at least four  levels of light in a room- natural light, dimable ceiling lights, floor lamp or sconces, and  table lamps. Do a visual check to see if the four corners of your room have adequate light.

Many of these ideas will work in much larger rooms too.  The most important thing to remember is to select furniture that is the right scale for the space you are decorating. 

10 Iconic furniture designs

Continuing on from my previous post, I'm exploring some of the iconic furniture styles that were designed mid century and still are sought for  contemporary decor. Here are 10 of my favourites.

Eero Saarinen Womb Chair

 Dijeau Poage Construction

 The beautiful Womb Chair, designed by Eero Saarinen for  Florence Knoll in 1948, is  available in many vivid colours. This green is perfect with the pale floors and gray walls. 

The Eames Molded Plywood Chair

 Amoroso Design

Time  Magazine called The Eames Molded Plywood Chair "the best design of the 20th century" and it continues to be a staple into the 21 century. It was designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1946 for Herman Miller. 

Arne Jacobsen Series 7 Chair 

 CWB Architects

 Arne Jacobsen designed this chair in  1955. The curves  move your eyes in a restful rhythm and there is such softness to the overall look. I love the colour of these  particular chairs and the shape has always appealed to me.

Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair

 David Lauer Photography

Arne Jacobsen designed the egg chair in 1958 for the Radisson Royal Hotel. I visited Prague this past summer and this was the style of chair in one of the lounges.  They are super comfortable.

 George Nelson  Platform Bench 
 

 SBaird Design

The  George Nelson Platform Bench manufactured by Herman Miller

You see the George Nelson Platform Bench quite frequently in trade magazines .  It is very versatile and works equally well as a coffee table or a bench.  Place it in a hallway, at the end of your bed, in an entrance where space is at a premium.  or in a living room. 

Florence Knoll  Lounge Settee

 Lucy Interior Design

This beautiful,  white Florence Knoll  Lounge Settee fits perfectly in this tiny space. The straight lines, tubted back and seat provide all t he detail that is needed to see why this is a  highly popular design in the 21 century.   

Isamu Noguchi Coffee Table 
 

source

  Isamu Noguchi tables are widely available and relatively affordable. They were in constant production from 1947 until 1973, and then returned to production in 1984, and  are still available.  Because of its rounded triangular shape it works well with one edge parallel to a sofa and the the other two edges facing two chairs on angles.  I have also seen it used to great effect with a sectional sofa and a chair arrangement. 

Wegner Wishbone Chair

Have you ever seen The Wishbone Chair in anyone's home?  It is i probably the most popular Hans J. Wegner chair because its rounded style fits with so many other different styles of  furniture. .  This  designer  began his career as a cabinetmaker and then spent time as a furniture designer with  Arne Jacobsen's architectural practice. The Nelson Pendant light is another iconic mid century design. 

Nelson Bubble Light 

Urban Homes

The first Nelson Bubble Light was designed by George Nelson in 1947.  They are hanging shades comprised of sculptural wire skeletons covered in translucent plastic. There are a variety of forms including: the Propeller, the Cigar, the Crisscross, the Ball, the Saucer, the Apple, the Pear, and the Lantern which are still in production today.

.Cherner Armchair  Side Chair

Rachel Reider Interiors

Norman  Cherner designed this beautifully curved chair in 1958 and it went out of production in the 70'd. His sons started producing them again in 1999. 

Do you have a favourite?

 

Make mine MCM

  I'm a baby boomer who  loves a sleek, open and slightly boxy look and  hates "do dads".  I was chatting with a  friend the other day and  praised  the mid century modern  (MCM)  period in home decor and was met with a quizzical look.  "Ah", I thought a good topic for a blog post.

Just as the name implies, this style  spanned a period of roughly thirty years  in the middle of the 20th century, from the mid-1940s to 1970. This fresh aesthetic developed  after  the Second World War when there was a desire to  recast earlier design to be more in keeping with  the bold new world that was expected. 

  HGTV 

Mid century modern  took from the simplicity of Scandinavian design and gained inspiration from the earlier Bauhaus style in Germany. During that period of time architects like Frank Lloyd Wright were designing  using organic, natural shapes  and bringing a whole new aesthetic to design.  This was also the era of mass production of furniture and accessories which made them more accessible to the average family.

The elements of MCM I like best are the  pared-down forms, contemporary patterns and  natural materials. 
I like to pick and  choose aspects from this design era and mix them with contemporary pieces. The 50's space age look - metal and mesh chairs,  sunburst clocks, bubble lamps and pole tension lights- is not to my personal taste, but I love to see it paired in someone else's decor. 

If you want to reference a mid century modern look in your decor consider the following: 

 Choose round and sleek

by Gary Hutton

 

Saarinen Executive Chairs, a Florence Knoll table and a PH Pendant create the ultimate mid-century dining area.   The MCM  look is  about spaciousness and light. Think lots of windows, minimal walls,  clean and sparse styling with eye-catching elements.   The rounded lines and monochromatic colour scheme here produces a very calming look. I particularly like the tone of green which is similar to the wall colour in the room below.  Versions of George Nelson's bubble fixtures are still found in today's decor.

 Margaret Ryall

 Even mid century styled  rectangular furniture often had slightly  rounded edges as seen in this  hand crafted dining room furniture.  

 Explore Medium Toned Wooden Furniture

 David Lauer Photography

Niche Interiors

  As this era was about embracing nature, lighter  woods such as teak, oak and fir made their way into living rooms. 

Use  mid century modern  materials 

While the use of wood was a prominent feature of mid century modern decor, man made materials were just as prominent. Plastic including Bakelite on table tops, along with Plexiglass and Lucite, were all the rage.Other common materials wer  molded plywood and  wire mesh.   A good example of  how plastic was molded and is still popular today is  the tulip chair by Saaranin.

Ken Gutmaker Architectural Photography

Use bold textures and colours 

 Kristen Rivoli Interior Design

There are so many mid century modern designs that are still popular today that I'll need another post to do them justice. Stay tuned. 

Furniture Facelift

It's unbelievable how a coat of paint and new hardware can turn an old piece of furniture into a hot new addition to your home.  Much to my husband's dismay I am not someone who  becomes faint at the thought of painting solid wood.  The way I look at it, furniture may have served you faithfully for years, and it deserves a facelife as it ages!  Besides, painted furniture is all the rage these days.  So get out those colour chips and find a dresser or table to bring to life.

Pops of colour in furniture play the same role as pillows or area rugs in your decor.  It's a great way to move colour around a room or to create a stunning focal point.

Check out these pieces and more on my Pinterest board. 

Turquoise/aqua is a very popular colour for painted furniture.  It is a very "usable" colour because it would fit in with most colour schemes as a lovely accent.

Corals and oranges are very popular for  a pop of colour.  Of course oranges are all the rage in 2012.

Royal purple is one of my favourites.  Buying new hardward of cleaning the original adds drama to a piece.

Don't save your bright colours for furniture.  A current trend is to have a coloured island.  This is a daring choice. 

Stenciling is an added embellishment for painted furniture.   I particularly like the matt/gloss look of this black  dresser. It would work in any decor.  Just do your stenciling with gloss varathane.



The blog Censational Girl  has great examples of painted furniture as you can see from the gems below. The colour choices allow the pieces to fit into any decor as a beautiful soft accent.

I love this  soft greens which would have a place in many decors.

 This beautiful lavender gray stripe is so simple, soft and utterly appealing with white furniture. 

Detailing adds to the overall look of a piece and this one has it in spaces. 

There's lots of painted furniture in both my homes. Everything in my summer house except for the kitchen table is a colour.  That's because every piece of furniture is second hand.  What better way to feel free to paint it up!

This is a  table left over from the era of the fully draped  table .  It is fun and funky in my summer house. 

The wicker chair in my kitchen was spray painted and the cabinet was built to store phonebooks, mail etc. The colours blend in and warm up the BM Rockport Gray walls.  The cabinet is BM Lennox Tan my favourite warm goldenish beige .

 My solid oak coffee and end table took on a whole new life when I painted them BM Kendall Charcoal.

I hope you have something that is calling out for a coat of paint!