Posts Tagged ‘Georgia Interior Designers’

Outdoor Decorating Ideas

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

  Design The Perfect Outdoor Space  

 

 

By Cynthia Aiken

 

 

Whether it’s a place at the beach, a city loft with a roof top French Country garden, or a mountain top getaway overlooking a woodland garden beside a mountain brook… we need our own private outdoor sanctuaries. By planning and designing your outdoor rooms; you will be able to enjoy the fresh air and beauty of being outside. So let talk about how to design an outdoor room.

 

 It’s that time of year when we move our lifestyles outside to enjoy our wonderful southern climate.  But with the mild winters we experience, the use of outdoor rooms has become fairly commonplace year around. For example, porches have become an integral part of our homes. Many of them are covered in such a way that we can enjoy fireplaces, decks and terraces most of the year.

 

By creating our own private outdoor spaces, places we can unwind from the busy lifestyles so common today, and find a place to grab a moment of relaxation. One can easily grasp the romantic concept of an Italian country home soaking up the sun by incorporating a Loggia to the back of your home. It’s the perfect outdoor living room and space for outdoor dining. It’s also fun to plan an outdoor room, whether we put a fresh coat of paint on grandmother’s antique wicker or give a fresh new look to a treasure found at a local flea market; whatever creates a cozy unique space, a room of our own. Adding a touch of the French County Interior Design to your outdoor room can also really make a warming statement.

 

 

So many outdoor sanctuaries now have soothing water features so why not plan to create an outdoor room that really captures this natural form of relaxation. A water feature will draw you out into the yard.  It just makes wonderful sense to have a place at home where we can go to enjoy our own private retreat and with all the durable fabrics that are now designed to withstand any kind of weather, we can be as comfortable outside as much as we can inside. Our outdoor gardens and living spaces have become just as essential as the spaces inside our homes. So we should always look for inventive ways of expressing our Outside Decorating Ideas in a functional but pleasant manner.

 

It is always interesting to visit the High Point furniture market in the spring to get a feel for what’s hot for the coming year. This year the influence was on outdoor living. We now have so many wonderful choices for outdoor furnishings that look great and continue the comfort we love so much. Weather resistant and UV stabilized fabrics made of 100% polypropylene make outdoor entertaining easier than ever. There are so many beautiful worry-free performance fabrics; our outdoor rooms can now be as beautiful and comfortable as our indoor rooms. This is welcoming news for us Southern Interior Designers.

 

Create outdoor spaces that beckon you to come and sit. Create more comfortable and inviting porches, patios, and yards. As a designer, I encourage my clients to always have places in the home that make you feel good, places you will use; because, if you do, you’ll love your home even more..  Extend indoor comforts outside to increase your home’s living and entertaining space. Adding outdoor rooms will increase the square footage of your home, and bring a much higher resale value. Finish a porch, deck, or patio like a living room, using fabrics and finishes that can withstand the elements. It means so much when you find a place where you can feel that sense of solitude, whether it’s a small table in the garden or a shady setting for summer lunches, or a special place to start a busy day with your morning coffee, or an area for hosting a large dinner party… Outside entertaining is not only special, it can be magical. You’ll feel like you’re being transported to another place by using simple outside decorating techniques.

 

But an outdoor room doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be as simple as a pair of Adirondack chairs positioned under the canopy of a vine covered trellis, just a simple haven where one can enjoy the outdoors. It’s not necessary to travel to the beach or the mountains to find a sanctuary. For many of us it can be a room in our home or a secluded shade-covered edge of our garden.   A porch also brings back the home-sweet-home feelings and memories of childhood.

 

I’m dedicated to designing rooms that function. If a room is friendly and comfortable, people will use it. Whenever you feel you need more living space, look just outside your door, you’ll find the perfect space for outdoor living by adding the magic of the outdoors to your home.

 

For more information and more outside decorating ideas; please visit my Interior Designer Catalog  at http://www.cynthiaaikeninteriors.com . Together we can create something great.

 

 

Email me at caiken1@windstream.net if you would like to discuss a decorating idea or dilemma.  This is another in my series of home INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS from your Atlanta Interior Designer; I hope that you use them to help you create an outdoor room for your home.

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INTERIOR DECORATING IDEAS AND TIPS

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

INTERIOR DECORATING IDEAS FOR YOUR GEORGIA COTTAGE

 

 Written by Cynthia Aiken

When you think of Style, what do you think of? Do you think of your own personal style in a sense of how you live in your home?  Whatever your style, it should be the transforming of rooms with four walls, furniture with four legs into a home that is unique, personal, and a rewarding place for you to spend your time. Your personal style could be Country French or English Country, Traditional or Modern, Mountain Lodge or Cottage Style.  Decorating, contrary to popular opinion, isn’t easy.  It takes work – the hard work of knowing what you love.  Cottage Style Design is a marriage of the chic and the comfortable, the beautiful and the truly livable.  Home is a word that says warmth and familiar surroundings.

As a Atlanta Interior Designer, I guess my signature style is rich colors and comfortable surroundings. I couldn’t live without color.  I love layers of color, texture, and pattern, carefully controlled so that nothing looks too matched.  Colors that re-create the amber glow of firelight and candlelight are so pleasing to live with.  Every French Country room should have a little romance.  The color glow of candlelight adds romance and coziness to any room.

Create a since of intimacy within a spacious room.  When the seating area is anchored by a large patterned rug and the sofa is placed directly in front of the fireplace, it creates a sense of intimacy to a room. English formality paired with curl-right-up comfort is a great combination for any room.  Choose a sofa deep enough to curl up in, “though you want your feet to touch the floor when you’re sitting up.”  Last on the list of decorating decisions should be drapery fabric, which should never steal the show.  I like window treatments of the same texture weave as some of the upholstered furniture or a fabric similar to the color of the walls.  The focal point of the room should be where the people are…. curled up in front of the fireplace.

Look carefully at decorating magazines.  Clip what you like, make files and educate your eye.  I always ask new clients to start a file; look at pictures of rooms you like.  What do you want to see as you enter your home?  In decorating, it’s important to create comfort and elegance.

What Color Do You Like?….

I love color, but I also love to have a room in my home that has no color.  There is nothing more pleasing to live in than an all white room.  I used to think white was too luxurious, too un-inviting.  Then I realized that true luxury is something beautiful to look at, no matter what the color.  It’s important to have different shades of a color.  Otherwise, a room looks too thought-out and it doesn’t have any style of comfort.  Essential to any wardrobe are accessories, and accessories are equally important to the wardrobe of a room.  In summer, accessorize a white room with cut glass, crystal and silver.  In winter, create a cozier setting with piles of books and cashmere throws.  Let silver tarnish so it will softly reflect candlelight. When a room isn’t overstuffed with furniture, I like to fill a wall with Cottage Wall Art.  For example, above a fireplace I love an oil painting, as big as you can fit.  The texture combined with the architecture of the mantel or surrounding stone is a perfect combination.  A mirror surrounded by four botanical prints avoids geometric precision.  The prints can hang a few inches below and above the mirror.

I love decorating with red; you should always have a red chair or red pillows in a room because red makes shy people feel better.  Red creates energy, passion, and love of life.  I love English Country homes where pieces have been handed down for generations.  Create rooms to have an illusion of inherited character by choosing pieces that don’t match, such as a leather chair, another chair tufted, with little castors on its front legs.  Side tables in a mix of shapes and woods give the feeling that you’ve collected the pieces you live with.  Mix painted aged black finishes with aged ivory finishes, and then add a piece of painted green or red.  This mix of finishes will change a stuffy, formal room into an inviting cozy space.

Whatever style you like, choose the things you love, and remember your home should always reflect your personality and your lifestyle, and should always be comfortable.

Visit my website to see photos of some of my designs. Just click here to see my catalog.

Email me at caiken1@windstream.net if you would like to discuss a decorating idea or dilemma.  This is another in my series of home INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS from your Atlanta Interior Designer; I hope that you use them to help you create a home interior that makes your home comfortable.

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How to Decorate with Wall Art

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Home Interior Art Ideas

 By  Cynthia  Aiken

 

Home Interior Art is the single most important accessory for decorating any space. Art brings color and texture into a room. Wall art is what pulls the entire room together. When I decorate a space, I can’t wait to hang the artwork, it’s where the room comes to life. All the details of a room can evolve together to achieve a perfect ambiance when you make the right choices for art. Fine art plays an important role to the design of a room, it’s a very personal part of my design, this is where the personality of the space is completed. As an Atlanta Interior Designer, I know how important the artwork is to finish the space. It is also the best way to bring in dramatic color and texture.  Luxury is something beautiful to look at.  Original art is a luxury, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.

Look around the room; find the most important places for wall art. These pieces of art will have the most influence in the room, so put a lot of thought and make choices you really love.   There are many different mediums to choose from when selecting art. Original oils are the perfect choice to use over the fireplace, this becomes the focal point of the room.  If an original oil painting is not in your budget, you may consider an artist-enhanced gicle’. A gicle’ is a signed and numbered print on canvas of an original painting, the artist will paint over the print adding texture and brush strokes. A good gicle’ looks very much like the original.

I like to place  art in unexpected places; for example, in a room filled with windows I like to hang art on a window frame in the center of the window.  Botanical prints look good when you hang them from floor to ceiling on a narrow wall. A small oil painting in a wide frame looks good when hung above a doorway. Using small paintings in bookshelves mixed with accessories is a great look. 

When you see the same pictures on the wall month after month, year after year, the eye has no surprises and loses interest. It’s important to move your pieces around from wall to wall as well as from room to room. I have a friend who is an artist; she is always selling paintings and moving new pieces as she replaces paintings that are sold. I always have a refreshed feeling as I enter her home because interest is created by her change of art.

As pictured, a keeping room furnished in a French Country Cottage style using brightly colored fabrics is completed with a poppy landscape adding a strong punch of color and focal point to this room. The hand striped walls of a guest bedroom are accented with a large original floral oil painting. A room with a collection of the same theme creates much interest and shows a personal side to decorating. The walls of this paneled study are filled with different oil paintings and hand colored prints of dogs.  This room creates much conversation. It’s okay to mix different mediums in the same room. A collection of Home Interior Art becomes a gallery wall; interest is created with different style frames.

 

View our large collection of Interior Wall Art by Clicking here.

There are lots of galleries for selecting art.  If selecting the perfect art for your home is overwhelming, I suggest you work with a professional with the knowledge of choosing the perfect piece of art for your home.  This is another in my series of home INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS from your Atlanta Interior Designer; I hope that you use them help you decorate with art. 

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INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

COLLECTING IS ONE OF LIFE’S LITTLE PLEASURES

 Written by Cynthia Aiken

All of us enjoy the “hunt”, wandering through street markets and fairs, browsing in antique furniture shops and bazaars in the hope of finding a treasure, which may or may not be valuable, but a treasure, which will certainly enhance a room. Collecting can be a fun experience. I have always collected blue and white porcelain. The joy of blue and white is that it can cater for all tastes and pockets. You can enjoy priceless jardinières and pots that are valuable investments or you can salvage broken pitchers or chipped bowls to use as flowerpots and vases – worthless in commercial terms, but much loved and treasured objects in daily use. If you are prepared to buy damaged or repaired blue and white china, you will find pieces for next to nothing that would be worth a fortune undamaged.

As an Atlanta Interior Designer, my clients often ask, “ I have this collection, but how do I display it?” China perfectly positioned on a hutch is one of the most traditional but still most successful ways of displaying such objects. How you choose to display your collectables is just as important as the collection itself. A small collection of decorative objects looks larger if it is arranged on shelves with a mirror backing, and in a small room this will also give the illusion of more space. A hutch is one of the prettiest ways to display china, if space is limited, use a wall-hung plate rack. I once had a very small dining room in a weekend cottage, I hung a very large pine plate rack and filled it with layers of blue and white porcelains, it made the room feel more spacious and created a lot of interest.

One of the most effective ways to display glass is on glass shelves in front of a window. The light coming through the window gives the glass so much more life and clarity than when displayed against a solid unreflective background. Keep the shelf supports to a minimum and your glass collectables will appear as if suspended in mid-air.

The most dramatic way of displaying home interior art is to create a gallery wall. Hang art from floor to ceiling. Ignore the color scheme totally and fill the walls with a rich collection of oil paintings of all shapes and sizes. I particularly recommend heavy frames creating an effect of dramatic richness. Even if pictures have a common theme, their style and medium can vary enormously. Detailed watercolors, faded prints, contemporary and period oil paintings of related subjects create an interesting collection. A guest bedroom decorated in a dog theme creates an inviting space for guests.

ollecting plates can reflect an English country design. It’s a very relaxed easy style – English Country Style is very easy to live with – It’s a classical style.   Whether new or old, plates add a comforting look to any room. Plates are one of the collectibles especially important to creating a cottage style decor. All of the plates need not be the same pattern. In fact, it’s the mix of patterns and sizes that creates a collected-over-time appeal.  Charm a tabletop by displaying your favorite hand painted plate upright on a stand. Turn a skinny strip of wall into a canvas for cottage style by hanging a row of plates vertically on a wall. A collection of plates of varying sizes becomes the focal point of a room when the plates are mixed with antique botanical prints or hung surrounding a mirror.

Personal collections always welcome you home. The more personal the details, the better, a tabletop filled with small, framed family photos recount the past and relate a story of personal history. Frames do not need to match or repeat the same finish. Create a look as if you’ve spent years collecting.

When decorating with collections, keep your collections together, if spread around they don’t make much of an impression. A beautiful room can be transformed by beautiful collections. I try to have a vision through my clients’ eyes so that the end product reflects their personalities. I love to incorporate the collections my clients have. I design houses that have some drama and originality, but I never sacrifice comfort. Personal collections create a comfort zone to any room.

Visit my website for more great ideas.

This is another in my series of home INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS from your Atlanta Interior Designer; I hope that you use them help accessorize your home. 

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