Tag Archives: Interior Design

To match, or not to match, that is the question!

Maybe you’re ready for a living room refresh, or you’re moving into a new home and wanting to redesign your spaces; in either scenario, you’ll have to make a lot of decisions around matching and clashing items. Will you have one color stain throughout the room, or can you mix and match woods? Will all finishes be the same, or will you include a variety of metals? Can you mix in rattan, wicker, or other vintage pieces, or will that look funny with modern lighting? Here are just a few tips and tricks around when to match (or not!) while designing.

FURNITURE SETS

Ten years ago, the average person owned a matching furniture set: a three person couch, two person loveseat, and a single chair or two. Each piece had the same fabric and pattern, and sometimes even came with similarly style end tables and coffee table. These days, matching furniture sets are still available, but we are fans of mixing and matching furniture. Choose a comfy sofa in a neutral color and add two colorful or patterned accent chairs to add some flare to a room. Another big trend right now is pairing a colorful sofa, often velvet fabric, with matching vintage accent chairs. What joy and life color can bring to a room! Here are a few examples of mismatched furniture sets.

sofa and mismatched chairs

Ballard Designs

Mismatched Sofas - Good Idea, Or A Colossal Mistake? - Laurel Home

Studio McGee

Living room curtains in a blue floral pattern in comfortable living room

Ballard Designs

METAL FINISHES

Clients often ask, or even question, this next piece of advice: it’s okay to mix metals and finishes! We don’t want you to go too wild with variety, but it is okay to have two or three different finishes in a room. Try to mix warm finishes with cool finishes and avoid putting two similar tones together such as chrome and brushed nickel. The great news is you can pair black with any finish! Here are a few examples of mixed metals in kitchens and bathrooms.

Love this beautiful timeless kitchen design with white cabinets, a coffered ceiling treatment, and a mix of brass and polished nickel metal finishes - kitchen ideas - kitchen island ideas - kitchen lighting ideas - gorgeous kitchens - kitchen trends - mixed metals - brandon architects

Jane at Home

Bria Hammel Interiors

Leclair Decor powder bath

Maison de Pax

WOOD TONES

You’re probably starting to notice a theme to this post – it’s okay to mix and match when designing your home! The same goes for wood tones, it’s okay to have a little variety in your design! With wood, it can be helpful to have one main wood tone, perhaps the hardwood flooring or color of trim, and add an additional accent or two with a different tone. When matching wood tones, try to have grain patterns look similar, or match the finishes – glossy with glossy, rustic with rustic, matte with matte, etc. With wood, you also want to match warm and cool tones if the colors are very similar, or go for a large contrast in tone, almost opposites in color. Here are a few examples to bring these ideas to life:

how to mix wood tones - california cool living room with sofa and wood accent chairs

My Domaine

Chris Loves Julia

Curated image with Ansel Rug, Royce Side Table, Arlo Chair, Gulf Shores, Lebon Floor Lamp, Eileen...

Studio McGee

Mixing and matching in design provides interest and warmth when done well. If the process of choosing feels overwhelming, we’re always here to help with our interior and re-design services!

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

DI”Y” Design

In our last post, we started a series on how to find inspiration for design. If you’re anything like me, there is one place I can always turn to, without fail, if I need design inspiration — Target! Walk into a Target store this week and you’ll see their new spring décor series with designs from Threshold Designed with Studio McGee, Hearth & Hand with Magnolia, Opalhouse with Jungalow and more. With the turn of a season (I know, wishful thinking, we’re definitely not to spring yet in Minnesota!), I am always antsy for a bit of a home refresh, and when I went to the store this week, I fell in love with this pillow and thought it was the perfect inspiration.

Floral Block Print Square Throw Pillow with Tassel Zipper Mauve - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 8 slides

Target

Maybe you see this pillow and think, ” So cute! I could never integrate pink in my home.” Or perhaps, “Great, I found a super cute pillow, and it is the opposite of everything neutral in my home, so now what?”. One of the many things I love about Target’s home goods is they set consumers up for success with accessible do it “yourself” design ideas. They provide an abundance of pieces that play happily together, so all you have to do is choose your favorites and bring them home!

With the help of Threshold Designed with Studio McGee, let’s design a spring, bedroom refresh. Look at the pillow and you’ll see a beautiful color palette for our room: shades of mauve, sage and tan.

Target has a wonderful eucalyptus plant, in multiple sizes, we can add to a dresser or night stand. This will highlight the sage in our pillow.

Medium Eucalyptus in Pot - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 5 slides

Target

Another piece I adore that accentuates the sage is this beautiful ceramic vase. Pair it with the eucalyptus or set in on a pair of hardcover books on your night stand. It’s also perfect fodder for a built-in bookshelf!

Round Ceramic Vase Green - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 7 slides

Target

Our last splash of green comes from this fabulous, velvet ottoman. Tuck this piece at the foot of your bed or under a large window.

Vernon Ottoman - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 10 slides

Target

To begin to pull our mauve and sage palette together, let’s add this incredible landscape study to the mix. If you look closely, you’ll notice it even has shades of mauve you also find in our pillow. This print remind us of the final color for our design — tan!

24" x 18" Landscape Study Framed Wall Canvas Antique Gold - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 10 slides

Target 

Surround bolder color choices with neutral items and it they quickly become more digestible; they bring small splashes of personality versus causing a room to feel bright and overwhelming. Choose a variety of neutrals, and with various textures. Not everything has to match perfectly, it’s okay, and even preferred, to integrate different shades of tan!

Heavyweight Linen Blend Collection - Casaluna™

Target

Made by Casaluna, grab linens from their Heavyweight Linen Blend Collection. I appreciate their ready-made variety of textured blankets.

Toss a few throw pillows into the mix. Grab what you like, as long as it’s nuetral!

Linen Square Throw Pillow - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 6 slides

Target

Oversized Oblong Boucle Woven Stripe Decorative Throw Pillow Khaki - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 12 slides

Target

Set a pair of white, ceramic, matching lamps on matching nightstands. Threshold’s Lomita Rattan accent tables would be a perfect addition.

Ceramic Assembled Table Lamp White - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 22 slides

Target

Lomita Rattan Accent Table Natural - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 11 slides

Target

To round out our bedroom design, we can add a few additional pieces of neutral décor. Toss this funky circle object on your dresser or bookshelf as a bookend.

Circle Object - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 1 of 10 slides

Target

Integrate one of Threshold’s many calming candles.

 Clear Glass Cypress & Juniper Candle White - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 6 slides

Target

Hang this beautifully curved mirror both for function and to help your new space seem even larger.

23" x 36" Metal Curved Top Mirror Gold - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 5 slides

Target

Voila! We have ourselves a revitalized room to welcome the spring season! It’s okay to feel like you don’t quite have an eye for design, or if you look at the items curated in the post and think, “I never could have pulled this together!”. The beauty of stores like Target, Pottery Barn, West Elm and others is they’ve done a lot of the design work for us. Experts have already professionally selected and organized the items that correspond well. Next time you see something colorful and bright that you absolutely must have, go for it! surround with some similarly colored pieces, wrap it in an abundance of neutrals, and consider your DI”Y” design a success!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

 

 

 

Find Your Inspiration

We are starting a series on how to find inspiration for design. We can often feel beholden to current trends on social media or what’s available in the Target home goods section (don’t get me wrong, I’d happily use everything in that section, all of the time, everywhere, in my home!), but what if we learned to take something we truly love – a painting, our favorite blouse, a photo from our most memorable vacation – and bring it to life in our home? That’s our goal – functional design we love, that breeds life and love and warmth in our everyday.

With each post in the series, we will break down our inspiration into color palettes, materials, décor, and other elements of design and apply how they could be used in your home. We’d love to hear from you! Send us your inspiration – we’d love to use what you love to teach this series! Send pictures to katya@ahomerevival.com.

Let’s start with my favorite painting by Salvador Dali, “Girl at the Window.”

Source: Salvador-dali.org

What colors do you notice? What patterns do you see? How is light used in this photo? What elements catch your eye or hold your attention? How does the print make you feel?

For me, this painting is a reminder of the years I lived in Spain. It evokes a sense of slowness in me; calmness, the opportunity to rest and reflect. Iberian culture is built around gatherings and coffee and community – Spaniards are skilled at enjoying the moment and feeling accomplished if they succeed at completing even one to-do in a day. These are sentiments I’d love to cultivate in a kitchen – a calm, relaxing, beautiful place to gather with friends. So, let’s design a kitchen!

The Tile Shop

The cream colors and ocean waves inspire this Retro Lino Ceramic Subway Wall Tile by The Tile Shop.

Lowes

The blue hues of the girl’s skirt, as well as the ocean, provide inspiration for aqua, diamond cabinets on the lower half of the kitchen walls.

Lowes

To balance the blue cabinets, we’ll add matching cabinets, in Agreeable Gray, to the top half of the kitchen wall, and a brushed oak center island.

Décor Pad

For the walls and countertops, we’ll add bright, white elements. Its easy to miss, but there is the slightest sunray illuminating the left side of the window, adding movement and brightness to the painting. I want to replicate the same lightness in our kitchen.

I’ve selected Snowbound by Sherwin Williams for our wall color, and we’ll use a beautiful, warm, quartz for the countertops.

Sherwin Williams

Great Lakes Granite & Marble

The piece de resistance of the kitchen will be the Balboa Counter Stools with Surg Stripe Coastal Blue covers by Serena & Lily. The blue stripes, introduced by the girl’s skirt and the lines of the curtains, complete our design.

Serena & Lily

Other design elements taken by “Girl at a Window” can be added throughout the kitchen with coastal elements such as:

  • Rattan lighting
  • Sandy textured ceramics
  • Plants
  • A white, stucco stove hood
  • Iberian inspired dishware

Add a fancy, Illy, espresso machine, and perfect your array of tapas, and you have yourself your very own Spanish, communal, oasis!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival