Color

Choosing color is a wonderful way to express yourself, your lifestyle and can really do a lot to your home or environment.

What better inspiration can you have than Mother Nature! As a nature lover, I always enjoy the color combination of flowers, grasses, trees and my own house reflects what I like. The colors I use on my interiors flow to the exterior using light green and woodsy color and brown. Not everyone favors those colors and would favor more upbeat and darker colors.

Also, I belong to the Color Association of America and get their latest newsletter discussing colors. What is interesting to note, the fashion industry also changes colors by season-fall, spring, winter and summer and the trend can go on with other design - web, graphic, interior and architecture.

As a subscriber of several architecture and design magazines, I found the pictures from

House Beautiful worth sharing. Above are some pictures that show inspiration and color combination when decorating.

First picture is a family room and brown is the predominant color- perfect for a more traditional conservative look.

Second picture is a dining room using neutral color but punctuated with vibrant color-red apple and blue artwork.

Third picture is one of my favorite, a vibrant orange cactus flower close to gray moss.

Fourth picture is a bathroom using light green which is refreshing and makes you feel clean.

Color can also evoke feelings and set you in a mood.

• Red can make you passionate and have more energy and also used by Chinese for good luck on New Year (see my picture on a Lunar Year celebration at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA).
• Green is a very relaxing color and refreshing. That is why citrus like lime scent is popular on bath and beauty products. Also, if you want to extend the look of your interior to your exterior and you have a lot of trees, vines, plants with green color, paint your interiors with green and shades can vary even with trees.
• Blue is a soothing and calming color. Clouds and water are blue and this color is popular in a bedroom especially if the person likes the beach. I personally like blue and use of shells in a bedroom since my happy childhood days were spent on rivers and beaches.
• Yellow is a color used to get attention. Whether you dress up in yellow, people tend to look at you and same if this color is used in a room. Dark room or space that don't have a lot of light are the spaces you can color as yellow but shades again will vary depending upon how much attention you want on that space.
• Orange is perfect color for warm people. I decorated a new house in Buena Park, CA for a couple who just got married. Orange color is welcoming and perfect for entryways and hallways.

I like going to model homes whether they are in California or Las Vegas, Nevada. One strategy to make your homes look bigger is to use one shade of color all throughout and make the accent, furniture, decor on the colors you like. This strategy works especially if you plan to sell or not stay long on your house.

Color is such a big topic for designers and you can either make your home stand out and get the "wow" factor or you can really ruin the look of your home.

Till next post. Hope you like this post.

Use furniture appropriate to your space

Again, clutter and busyness in a room is not really functional and appealing to people.

One of the smart way to make your room functional and love living in that room is by choosing the right furniture. When you go shopping draw and measure your space. Your drawing does not have to look professional. Think about what you want to use that room i.e. entertaining friends and families, relaxing and watching tv or a place to read quietly or a more formal room to have company or a kitchen that you want people to linger. Shop, measure the furniture you like and make sure the furniture fits your space/room.

Color, texture, size and shape and use of decor all play in the scheme in making your room the way you would like it to be. I will discuss these areas more on my future blogs. The room could look glamorous like a celebrity. I am a subscriber of Architectural Digest and celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Ralph Lauren and Michael Jackson's homes were featured. However, a space should be created for a specific purpose and lifestyle like yours.

If you have a big house and you like comfy and chunky sofas with lots of pillows, these sofas will blend well with your home. Shown is a Verandah sofa available at Laguna Design Center. If you favor contemporary style, furniture at Roche Bobois can also be a good place to check out http://www.rochebobois.com If you want to see more on modern living go to the Dwell design show http://dod.dwell.com/?gclid=CMialuaatqkCFQUGbAodlElGMA I have been to their show last year but I can't this year due to prior commitment.

Here are some pictures to drive my point.

Effective Use of Space

Just got back from dinner in one of my favorite restaurant Kappo Honda with my daughter's family and thought I continue my post.

If you are savvy enough to build/fix things, you can also have built-ins so you will have more space. Gamble House, one of the architectural landmark -craftsman style house in Pasadena had a lot of built in cabinets using mahogany. The use of built-ins made the house more elegant and spacious. I encourage everyone to see Gamble House http://www.gamblehouse.org A photograph is shown and this picture is one of my favorites. Also, when I was at one of the completed houses at El Dorado Ranch - San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico, one of the houses had an open plan- living room, kitchen, entertainment area are all in one room. A built in sofa made of local materials was used and with the help of proper decor, the house looks awesome.

More ideas to share later! Good night/day to everyone reading my post.

Decluttering and Organizing

One of the best ways to make your house look simple, elegant and pleasing to the eye is to declutter and organize before you proceed with your interior design.

It's like chewing a big chunk of meat that needs to be chewed in small bites one at a time. We have to declutter and organize room by room.

But first of all, have at least four containers - bags, baskets or bins depending upon how much items you have. Separate what you want to discard, keep, donate or reuse/mull over whether to part with it or them.

Before you delve into the project, you can also buy appropriate containers/furniture so you can organize what you have decluttered. It's always exhilarating to see a finished job right away. Therefore, if you have ready containers/furniture you can place the items appropriately to each container or furniture, it's heaven!

Depending upon your budget you can go from $1 to $1000. Use $1 bottles from Dollar Tree or Osh to organize and above are some pictures I found on home made simple using jars and ice cube tray used creatively. The use of ladder to hang magazines and a shoe organizer to hang toiletries was also creative. Also included are bookcase with glass covers I found in Ikea that I personally use (my husband and I are bookworms) and a dresser to organize your clothes from Laguna Design Center (a design center for design professionals) in Laguna Beach, CA.

Should you want to pursue and make every room of your house simple and elegant I can always help you with the design and purchase. Depending upon your lifestyle and budget, we can make your rooms functional and elegant. The use of color to match your taste and additional decor to complete your project is also part of my expertise.

Enjoy living!

Summer 2011 Time to beautify & organize your home

Summer is here. What would you like to do?

• Clean and organize. How do you start and finish your project?
• Paint your room, the whole house inside or outside but don't know how to start- color that match your decor, furniture and at the same time be pleasing to you.
• Ideas to make the interior design flow to exterior design
• What style should you use - contemporary style or traditional or historic style
• How can you enhance the beauty and function of your home to have a better value
• Where do you get decor, appliances, furniture that will fit your needs

Follow me on my blog and I will provide you tips and ideas.

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Benita - an experienced interior designer. My blog will cover design inspiration, interior design ideas, use of green products and contribute to using sustainable design having been exposed to LEED. I love going to design shows, color association seminars and art exhibits. If you follow my blog you will experience going to the places where I have been where I will share what I observe and learn including new cool trendy products.