As the days get warmer, we start looking forward to spending time outdoors with friends and family.  Take a look at your backyard and ask yourself:  is it ready for entertaining?  In the past North Texans populated their outdoor spaces with chunky furniture full of curvy lines and busy patterns.  Today’s look is lean and low: instead of rocker chairs and puffy cushioned sofas, retailers are selling couches and cushions with simple shapes and angular frames.  Chairs that look hand wrought are popular and the thinner the frame the better.  You can go modern and keep your colors neutral gray or sand, or punch them up with injections of blue.  Either way it’s time to dust off the patio set and spruce it up for summer!

 



 
 
What’s on the horizon for home décor trends?  That was the subject at the recent Sherwin-Williams 2017 ColorMix at the Dallas World Trade Center. Megatrends such as national mood, international migration, technology and sustainability are all analyzed and turned into color themes that influence not only big retailers, but ultimately what we crave in our own North Texas homes. The trends of the future for our homes will be:



Noir: Rich saturated color tones like eggplant, jade and midnight serve as a dramatic backdrop for the sensuous luster of gold, and moody neutrals.

Holistic: Cool blues pair with blush rose and browns to create a light airy aesthetic. Sustainable luxury and hand crafted items take center stage.

Intrepid: Self expression is the name of the game with fiery, energetic colors like violet, bright yellow, and acid green.

Unbounded: Global migration has blurred borders between peoples, and this is expressed in earthy mustard, deep ocean blues, and coral.



Pick an appealing idea above and add an accessory or two that brings that aesthetic into your home, and you will be on the cutting edge of home fashion!

 

Research shows that carrying unwanted weight, and living in unwanted clutter seem to go hand in hand.  Many times both make us feel out of control and too exhausted to attack the problem.  Take the kitchen for example:  When the countertop is full of papers, or even decorative items, there is no clean space to prepare wholesome and healthy meals at home. With a restaurant’s chips and queso just a 5 minute drive away from most of us in North Texas, we can pack on the pounds quickly.

So how can you get started creating a beautiful and orderly home?

• Create a neat and cheery entry way
• Have only 1-3 objects displayed on any horizontal surface
• Clean the kitchen and clear the counters each night before bed

For more decorating and organizing tips, visit www.justthethingdecorating.com

Texas Style in Transition

When Southlake was developed twenty years ago, the builders of our homes gave the people what they wanted: lots of texture and visual interest.  They used stone, brick, rough hewn wood, hand scraped floors and textured walls and ceilings.  The original owners bought these homes with glee, layering on the Tuscan colors in vogue: gold, red and sage green. 

Cut to 2016 and the mood in home interiors is quote different.  Beginning in California, then spreading to the East coast, the Midwest and finally Texas, the trend has turned to lighter walls, cooler hues, and smooth, glassy textures.  So where does that leave us?  How do we take the chunky Texas look we loved and update it if we don’t want to do a full scale remodel? Here are four areas to focus on:

1)    Lighter walls.

Pale, cool colors have replaced the saturated tones of the past decade.  Consider a cool gray-blue for a bathroom, a warm gray for your living space, or a grayed green for your living room.  All these colors play well with the stonework in most local homes.

2)    Blue accents

One quick way to refresh your home is to remove all your red accents.  Replacing them with a few blue ones really perks up a space and helps it look current.

3)    Painted woodwork.

The fact is that 85% of people prefer white trim over wood trim.  To some this is sacrilegious.  But too much dark woodwork can really close down a space and make the home feel dated.

4)    Unified flooring

No longer is “a flooring mosaic” a positive.  If you have carpet, wood, and tile all on the same floor, you may have a mosaic of your own. Bite the bullet and make all your living areas hardwood.

We should love our homes and feel comfortable in them.  But it is also important to realize that some day you will need to sell your home, and the buyers will want a move-in ready home that looks like the one they see on HGTV and in magazines. Local real estate agent Susan Gilchrest says, “We have so many people moving here from outside Texas. With so many corporate relocations and companies expanding their operations in Texas, Southlake continues to see a huge inflow of people, especially from California and the east Coast.”  If you are going to have to do those updates before selling, why not do them now so YOU get to enjoy them?

Now that spring break is almost behind us, it's a mad dash to get it all done before summer!  Have you ever asked yourself, "What's the benefit of hiring and interior designer?"

This article summarizes the benefits to you:

Though it might seem like interior decorators are a luxury reserved exclusively for the rich and famous, interior decorators work with people of all budgets.  Homeowners sometimes wrestle with the practicality of hiring a decorator, wondering why the should spend the money when they can do the work themselves,  But just like homeowners might hire professional electricians or landscapers, hiring a professional interior decorator can ensure the job is done right, within budget and completed within a reasonable amount of time. 

Those who have already invested quite a bit of money into their homes but want to add some finishing touches would be wise to hire interior decorators or designers.  Homeowners often have no ideas where to begin when attempting to establish flow from room to room in their homes.  Decorators can help homeowners tailor the interior of their homes till the homes produce the desired vibe.

Hiring a designer can help a person avoid making potential costly design errors.  And aesthetically appealing house also can increase the home's value, setting a property above others in terms of appeal.  Even though the designer will charge a fee, the investment may be well worth the expense when the room is done right the first time. 

Interior decorators have numerous resources at their disposal.  Fine tuned to the world of design, they understand which trends will come and go and also which design ideas have staying power.  In addition decorators will be in touch with vendors in the industry, connecting homeowners with the best of the best in terms f providing furniture, housewares, photography and additional special touches that help make a house a home. 

In addition to expertise and resources, interior decorators have eyes that will be trained on things homeowners might not have noticed or even realized can be done.  A designer may envision removing a room to create more space or knocking a wall down to let more natural light into a room. 

Designers and decorators are trained to think differently and spatially to achieve concepts homeowners may never have envisioned for themselves.  They can help tell stories through design and improve spaces immeasurably. 

-Northwest Florida Daily News 3/8/15