Use Fall Fashion Trends to Re-fresh Your Room.

I must admit, I am not a big fan of most television design shows.  The quality of the work is often shoddy and they don't show the months of work that it takes to produce a completed room.  That being said, HGTV has lots of fans and especially popular is their reality series, Design Star.  Last Sunday night HGTV crowned its newest Design Star, Emily Henderson. Emily wants to host a show that takes cues from her client’s fashion sense and turn it into a style statement for the home.

Emily Henderson, HGTV's new Design Star

 Thom Filicia, formerly of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, had a show on the Style network called Dress My Nest which is also based on creating a space from a clients fashion style.

Thom Filicia

This is a timely concept, as more and more, the design industry is following the lead of the fashion industry. Each year the furniture market offers pieces in color stories, textures, embellishments that can be seen on the runways in New York, Paris and Milan.

In this blog post, I thought it would be fun to look at what is going on in the fashion industry for Autumn 2010 and talk about ways to incorporate those ideas to refresh our own homes as we anticipate cooler weather. One of the most talked about fashion must –haves for fall is a camel hair coat. This classic material never goes out of style.

Max Mara's take on the camel hair trench coat

One way to incorporate this look into your home is by adding a camel hair blanket to your bed, or

as I plan to do, add a camel hair pillow or two to my sofa.

Another fall fashion trend is embellished sheer materials. Peek-a-boo clothing has been with us for ages, but now, the more embellished the better.

True to form, the for-the-home market is offering its take on  embellished sheers for your windows, a quite beautiful version, don’t you think?  In the summer, I love my windows open to the sun, in the winter, layering in a sheer under window panels adds warmth, visually and literally.

The final fall fashion trend that we will explore in this post, is the ever popular animal print.

Thanks Chic Chocolate for the image.

I am of the opinion that every home should have a little animal print somewhere, even if its in a rug

Ballard Design

or a throw.  (I plan to add this throw in my family room when the weather grows cooler.)  How fun to snuggle under something soft and beautiful!

Williams Sonoma throw

That’s it for today. Next time, we will address metallic’s, leathers, and men’s suiting. Until then, what fall fashion trend are you going to incorporate into your home this autumn?

Thinking Outside the Box...

A recent client wanted her dining room to reflect her love of bold color, tropical dreams, and flights of fancy. This is a really great kind of client for a designer to have. We had a lot of fun along the way but the room presented several challenges. The first one was the narrowness of the space. The room was 16+ feet long but only 11 feet wide. The client already owned a narrow dining table and Paris flea market chairs. The chairs are adorable but low. They needed a cushion to bring the seat up to the proper height to dine. Custom cushions in a hot pink fabric were just the thing, both functionally and in a fun decorative sense. The window provided our next issue. At the end of the room was an asymmetrical bay window with not three windows, but a fourth, on the next wall that demanded to be included in the treatment of the bay. Helser Brothers French Poles took care of that issue beautifully, thank goodness.

Helser Brothers saved the day with their French poles.  Custom pink cushions bring the chairs to a proper height.

The next challenge was the area rug. The homeowner owned the area rug and liked it, but the colors were dull and muddy. This homeowner really prefers clean, clear color and yet refused to abandon the area rug. We chose a clear color pattern on the window treatment bringing in the pinks and greens that she loved while adding a gold colored linen leading edge band to the panels. These bands helped tone down the playful fabric and helped tie in the area rug to the design.

Banding on the leading edge

Finally, the client needed some way to fill the long wall behind the table. We needed an affordable solution and again, she wanted something really different. At the Spring 2010 High Point Furniture market, Holly Blaylock of C. R. Laine furniture had used birdcages on the walls in the company's showroom. When I saw this long wall in my client's home, her tropical leanings and the dining chairs, I knew what needed to be done.

Mike Barclift, master installer and "fix anything" guy.

I contacted Holly and found her source for birdcages. I had my installer, and fixer of anything, Mike, to cut down the largest birdcages for them to fit in depth. We arranged them on the wall and filled them with flameless candles to provide a soft, safe, candlelight during evening meals. The result is an out of the box dining room that embraces it's narrow proportions, offers up a tropical setting and provides whimsical flights of fancy for a delightful and happy homeowner.

The completed room

Decorating Dorm Rooms...

There is a funny back to school commercial that starts with a recording of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".  That ad has made parents all over the country smile in recognition of the fact that the end of summer marks a return to schedules and some semblence of order.  If you have a college bound kid, you are probably singing a different tune, like how do I make a small dorm space function for my child?  Dorms act as sleeping spaces, study halls, social lounges, multi- media centers, and storage facilities all in a very small space.  Fortunately, many retailers are offering color co-ordinated storage solutions that work with a young adults sense of style.

In addition to co-ordinated and creative storage, don't forget to make use of vertical space.  Wall hooks or tack strips provide lots of options.

One of the problems with dorm rooms are blank, boring walls.  That can change now that there are wall tatoos.  These stickers come in a wide variety of designs and colors and can instantly add color and personality without being permanent.

Dorm rooms can be comfortable and fun if you help your student maximize storage, go vertical with your design and add personality with color and focal points like wall stickers or your favorite art or art posters.