Interior Design Service available when you need it

At http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com, we offer a unique service for the homeowner who needs guidance throughout the decision making process when remodeling, re-decoroating, furniture buying etc.  You should see our inbox! At any given time it looks like this:

We answer our clients questions at their convenience, to give them the best advice we can without being there with them! It definitely makes the decision making easier and gives the clients much more reassurance to have a designer close at hand.

How it works: Contact us via our website, blog, facebook page ,or  phone. Tell us you are interested in the “consult as you go” package.  Have your ideas ready to discuss the scope of your project with our designer, pay the fee up front through your pay pal account, and the process begins. We’re here to help take the stress out or your interior design decisions, make your project functional and beautiful, and help you to streamline the process.

http://www.facebook.com/PBID.InteriorDesign

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Brutally Elegant Salvage

Brutally elegant salvage finds: http://pinterest.com/pbid/salvage-finds/

If you are partial to vintage finds for use in your interior space, if you love living with  time -worn patina, and especially if you love the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of  “great find”, then I want to share the above link with you.

Visit us today at www. Pinterest.com/pbid to get those creative juices flowing. And while there, I hope you’ll share some of your great ideas with me. As they say, “happy pinning!”

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Strategic Moves and Changing Design Trends

Recently I was going through my stash of design magazines from previous years. Sometimes you just have to clean out the old. But I always give them one last look and save the articles of  interest to my “tear sheet files.”  I have done this type of idea saving for years, and what makes it really interesting for someone in the design filed is to compare how things have changed. For instance, I have noticed that our current trends are for light-filled spaces. Gone are the days of heavy draperies crowding small windows and blocking the light. We used to call this “layering the windows”. I love natural light in every room. All of the window coverings I design these days maximize the natural light. In this photo (taken from Pinterest), there is something very beautiful about how the light floods the room! Note  the lack of window coverings on the large picture windows.

These days, our houses fulfill the need for more “open” interior space, more so than  residential interiors of 10 years  past. The heavy decorated look has given way to a much more relaxed interior. That’s a good thing; it means that the residents of the home can live in a less formal, multifunctional space which fits today’s busy lifestyles. Some of today’s looks that help to lighten a room are the use of fewer patterns and lighter-color background fabrics. We’re craving relaxed textures and more unique one-of-a-kind accent pieces. Table runners that were used to protect the wood surface have been stripped away, with the beauty of the wood left to make the room’s statement.

The three rooms featured here coincidentally all have white walls and neutral pallets, but currently we have seen a color explosion happening in paint, and bold wall color has become the basis for planning a room. 1o years ago we may have been timid to use chocolate brown on the walls or bold black, but that’s what’s so great about design that is constantly changing, evolving and moving in new directions.

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All photos courtesy of Pinterest and House Beautiful magazine.

Before and After, Its all about the vision

If you love to peruse  the design and shelter magazines like I do, you have probably noticed that they very rarely show you the before photos. I believe that showcasing the before and after project photos really shows the design team’s talents better than anything else.  Its all about the vision…

These 2 before photos show the original 1960′s kitchen and kitchen nook, which had not been remodeled since the home was built. We removed walls, raised the ceiling and created a cook’s dream kitchen for the new homeowners.

We were able to accomplish this without changing the footprint of the house!  The previously “closed” kitchen, compartmentalized by walls, narrow doorways and overhead cabinetry is now open to the dining room on one end and the adjacent family room on the other.  While preparing family meals, the homeowner can now stand at the kitchen island and be part of all the family festivities, while enjoying sweeping views of the backyard pool as well.

In the family room, we opened up the dividing wall with a sweeping arch, and relocated the fireplace to change the orientation of the seating and TV viewing in the room.

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2 Projects, 1 common goal: Feng Shui

Currently, I have the privilege of working on a professional office  space and a family’s daily living space in the heart of their busy home.  These are 2 very different clients and 2 totally different spaces for me to conceptualize. But I am excited because  each client has emphasized their desire to include principles of Feng Shui into the design.

Feng Shui is the ancient art of placement, with the main goal of calling in the good energy (chi)

into a space. It is believed that incorporating good energy into our interior spaces will bring abundance in all aspects of our lives.  As an interior designer, that has always been my ultimate goal for the spaces I create for my clients.

My client with the professional office space has consulted a Feng Shui master. He advised her about orientation of the building, the most productive area of the office, the least productive area, the overall flow of the space from the entry door, and how the five elements of Feng Shui (fire, earth, water, metal, wood) affect her in the most auspicious way. What she wants from me, as the designer of the space, is to incorporate his recommendations while making the office space functional and beautiful for herself, her employees and clients.

My client with the residential project has a strong belief in creating good energy in her daily life and specifically in her home. We are looking at making sure that the path ways into the room are not restricted, that the room is light, airy and uncluttered, and we are incorporating natural elements such as wood flooring and live plants.  Along with the Feng Shui concerns, it is my commitment to my client to make her family room functional and stylish to meet the needs of her growing family while making it comfortable to entertain guests as well.

“In particular, the energy of our homes, our offices, or any place where we spend a prolonged amount of time, interacts with the energy of our bodies to affect all the other related aspects of our lives, such as health, love lives and relationships, work performance, financial prosperity, and overall success.  This energy runs through our bodies, and our bodies interact with it at all times, whether we are conscious of it or not.”  This quote from Simona F Mainini, Dr. Arch in her book Feng Shui for Architecture.

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Changing lifestyles

I have been reading lately about the changing lifestyles that affect  the consumer demands for comfort in their homes, and I am very fascinated by it.  As an interior designer, its so important to know what these trends are that affect how I help my clients in planning their homes.

Each generation is readjusting their needs as a result of the recession we’ve experienced in the last few years.

• Baby Boomers are finding that they may just have to stay put in their homes, and consequently may need to reinvent the use of space for more efficiency. Many who may have thought about downsizing for retirement, simply cannot do that due to the changes they have experienced in their home values. They may be looking at ways to install in-law suits for their aging parents or opening up compartmentalized rooms to make bigger spaces for their extended family and hosting family gatherings.
• Gen X’ers are looking to make small spaces live large.  They’ve learned from their parents that they don’t need the big houses with big upkeep and big monthly bills.  Instead they put room function as the most important with open floorplans that can house multiple uses such as open kitchen /family room spaces that bring the outdoors in. They value the total exterior of their homes including front porches and backyard space
• Gen Now, the youngest group of homeowners, demand fluidity in their living spaces  and will most likely influence the rest of us with their unique solutions to open-space living. They value their career and their passion  for hobbies or outdoor activities and want their “shelter” to encompass all of their interests under one roof: work, play, social activities, family, function and storage conveniently and compactly.

Individuality, active pursuits, enjoying the outdoors, making way for family and casual entertaining seem to be a common thread in the desire for making our homes reflect who we are and what we value in our lives, regardless of which generation categorizes us.  What I have found in this research is that now more than ever, we are affected by the changing world around us and its this rapid change that has affected our desire for a more functional living space.

http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com         photography courtesy of Pinterest and selected to illustrate the design ideas suggested in this article.

Sustainability in residential interior design: A designer’s Interpretation

For many years, I have enjoyed a wonderful career as a residential interior designer. I love working with clients in pulling a room together, advising on remodeling their kitchens and baths, designing window coverings, and all of the other things involved in pulling a house together. My husband and I have moved and purchased homes more than 6 times in our marriage, so I have had the pleasure of working on new canvases each time. But what I have learned along the way is that its is important to work with what you have as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, its always fun to get new, and furniture doesn’t always fit nicely from house to house.  But I have managed to work with much of what I have by being open minded in my furnishings purchases and placement.

The purpose of this post is to get you thinking a little bit differently about sustainable design.  Each time you are able to re-use, re-purpose, or purchase vintage, you are thinking sustainably.

In previous posts I have described everything from energy efficient window coverings to sustainable fabrics and energy efficient lighting.  But strictly by definition, sustainable products are those that are responsibly manufactured using methods that do not cause harmful chemical to be released into the environment. Other factory produced goods considered to be sustainable include products that are manufactured of recycled content, products that promote energy savings within the home, and products that are made of reclaimed wood or re-purposed materials.

The definition of sustainable furnishings can also include antiques, re-upholstery and the use of existing furniture that the client may already own, worked into the context of a new design plan.

In terms of my own design philosophy, I have studied the REGREEN program sponsored by ASID and the USGBC which deals with sustainable remodeling.  At every opportunity, I try to incorporate these principles into my design consultations as a benefit to the homeowner. Who wouldn’t want their homes to be more energy efficient and save on their monthly heating and water bills?  But in addition to that, I believe in specifying multi-use furniture pieces that are easily movable from room to room or from indoors to outdoors. I believe that using pieces that are multi-functional, vintage and/or furniture pieces that may have had a previous life in another setting, blends well with the sustainable mindset.

photos courtesy of Pinterest and manufacturer’s websites. They are included here to illustrate the beauty of vintage and re-purposed furnishings.

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