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!”

http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com

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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.

http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com

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Chairs! Live with Art…

Some very fun ways to make a statement in your Living Space!  These are both from from Anthropologie.

But the same thing can be achieved by selecting a chair frame (or finding a great one to reupholster),

then finding a beautiful large scale print or embroidered / crewel work cloth and a trusted upholsterer.

These  “statement pieces” may not suit everyone’s taste, but I love the creative inspiration of each one.

You can see the French influence, as the above photo was taken by my sister on her trip to Paris in 2011!

This one on the left is upholstered in a Fabricut fabric:  The Singing Tree in color:  Peacock

Vintage Styling

A common denominator is that all of these chairs have an

exposed wood frame, which can be painted or

stained, or left in a rustic natural state that enhances the sculptural lines of each “work of art.”

And from Pinterest, I have these final inspirations….

http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com

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Artistic Composotion / Art and Soul Expressions

A client recently asked me to post some design tips for hanging art, photography, and wall groupings. There used to be a lot of rules of thumb for this, but anymore the basic rule is that there are no rules. That being said, it is very important to keep in mind the scale and proportion of the room, as well as the style of the furnishings. If you are grouping over a large space or a very finite space such as an entry way (as shown in this photo found on Pinterest), pay close attention to the furniture placement as part of the grouping.

A wall grouping that is very busy and full of various frame styles fits more with a vintage style than a modern one. Odd numbers work well in this type of wall grouping and generally, the eye tends to feel more comfortable with the pieces that hold the most “visual weight” to be hung on the left side of the grouping. Notice in the photo on the right (also a beautiful Pinterest find), the wall display is very balanced in both color and style and has been methodically-planned to work  horizontally with the long cabinet in a transition area in the home.

In the photo to the left it is apparent that the furnishings in the room, bookcases and table tops, are equally as important for displaying art as actually wall mounting your art. I often feel this is the most charming way to display art, and it allows flexibility to move things around when you need a change. (Third photo also courtesy of Pinetrest.)

Here’s a list of guidelines that can help you in your quest to hang your treasured art:

• Use paper outlines of the sizes of the frames to help you visualize and decide on the ideal arrangement. Tape these to the wall and arrange and re-arrange until you find the combination that suits your eye. Once you have the right look, hang your art according to the placement of the templates.

On HGTV, Designer Candice Olsen recommended using blue painter’s tape to mark the area of the wall that you wish for the grouping to cover. This is a good lesson in proportion. Then, when hanging your art, keep it within the parameters of the painter’s tape.

Designer Barry Dixon recommends that to achieve balance with a group of pictures that are different in size and scale, draw an imaginary axis vertically and horizontally on the wall and make sure that the art has equal weight in each of the four quadrants.

Lastly, keep in mind to always hang things lower rather than higher and closer together rather than farther apart.

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Quick Project Re-DO: Update your frames with paint

Easy and Quick! Repaint an old picture frame to give your art a new look.

Sometimes you realize that things just look dated. You may still love them, but they are looking old and tired. I am referring to art and accessories. (I will not go there in another context.)

A quick fix is always paint. In this case, I took some much loved french photography prints and updated the frames in about an hour. I purchased a dark grey Restoration Hardware paint sample ($5-$6 approx for a small sample can) and simply painted over these 80′s gold frames. Since they are ART and hang on the wall, I didn’t even sand or prep them other than dusting.

2 coats of satin paint, and they were ready to rehang that afternoon.

Follow our blog for more creative re-purposing and quality time-tested interior design philosophy. 

http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com

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A Girl’s Gotta Have a Project

My creative side is always yearning for a new project. So, one beautiful fall afternoon I dragged and antique oak music cabinet into the back yard and began sanding the old, dated finish. Because the size of the cabinet was so manageable,  it did not take long before it was all sanded and smooth. Always sand following the grain on the wood.

Next, I cleaned off all of the dust and primed the cabinet with a good quality acrylic primer.

I let the primer dry over night, and then lightly sanded it with a fine sandpaper.

Next, I cleaned the cabinet well  to remove any trace of sawdust and painted it with a Benjamin Moore shade of paint AF-155 Weimaraner. I used their top quality “Aura” paint for durability in a satin finish. Note: Apply paint as well as primer following the direction of the grain of the wood.

I had a magazine photo of a cabinet that I liked, which had a warm rustic finish. I used this as my inspiration for selecting the paint color and how I wanted the finished product to look. I emphasize that it is important to visualize the desired outcome so that you are working from a plan.

I let the Weimaraner top coat dry thoroughly for 2 days, and then had some fun creating the rustic look.

I sanded off the edges using both my electric sander and hand sanding. I played with this look until I was satisfied and that the cabinet looked “naturally” aged.

Again, I thoroughly cleaned off any sanding dust before adding the final touch!

I used a Bri wax in dark brown, for a furniture finish that would make this piece look professionally refinished. The Bri wax is really great because it not only deepens the color, which adds another dimension of layering, but it creates a smooth waxed fruniture finish that protects the piece.

Follow the directions on the Bri wax insert. I lightly applied the wax to the piece, let it sit for a short time, and then buffed it a soft shine. Because I wanted to deepen the color, I applied a second coat of Bri wax a day later, and followed the same pattern of buffing to a deeper wax finish.

The whole project took about 5 hours and less than $45.00 for all supplies. View the end result:

Creative re-purposing by http://www.pbid-interiordesign.com

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Brutally Elegant Design

Eco-friendly interior design is brutally elegant!

I fell in love with this description of brutally elegant interiors in a recent magazine article, published in the June 2010 edition of Elle Decor magazine. Meg Ryan described her newly redesigned  beach house on Martha’s Vineyard as an expression of  brutal elegance. She is quoted  as describing her view of this design style as a place “where form and function are really obvious. There is nothing easily broken in this house.”
My design rules for living with brutal elegance and keeping within the sustainable design mindset:

• Live with comfort and style.
• Source what has been “gently loved” in home furnishings and accessories.
• When shopping for your home, don’t go for that which is trendy, but instead keep an eye out for that item that represents you. If it means something to you, it has a place in the room.
• Keep what is minimal and necessary to the room.
• This new “elegant” has a patina–a life story behind it. Let the meaning of the story unfold as you live with it.
• Let these words be your buzz words when designing brutally elegant interiors: comfort, versatility, multi-use, classic, aged, patina, re-purposed, time-worn, unique, simplistic.

What makes it brutally elegant?

• Pay attention to how the elements work together in a room.  For example, you can combine modern style seating with antique framed prints on the wall. You can use a dining table made of reclaimed wood with a combination of pre-owned painted and upholstered chairs for elegant comfort minus the formality.
• Bold statements with design choices that stand their ground.
• As in the photo represented here, think in terms of the beauty of re-purposing  something unique into something useful in your home. In this case, this is a working wheel from a windmill located just outside of Amsterdam. What a brutally elegant table or kitchen island it would make! The possibilities are there; just let your imagination run with it!

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