Changing Rooms

I usually guide other people with decorating their houses but the week I had the joy of actually working on my own home! My boys (ages 11 and 8) have had this beautiful toy room/ playroom for years. It is a spare bedroom on the first floor and it has the largest brightest windows. I designed the toy room for a great place for them to play.

Well... that is one of the design lessons/mistakes I learned from personal experience. The kids never play in the play room. They have always pulled the toys to the room we are in. Toys end up in the TV room or the dining room. Lately toys are in the hallway - the best place to zoom the cars or play dodge ball. My home office space was the former laundry room. (We moved the washer/dryer to the basement years ago). It is a fairly small room with one tiny window.

All this to say that this last week we began the big switch-a- roo. I will get the big bright corner room. The toy storage room - because that is really what it is - will be the smaller room closer to the action (aka TV room) .

The first step was moving the toys out and stripping the wallpaper. Now the toys are piled in the living room so I have to chant to myself everyday "It is only temporary".

One of the design lessons I want to pass on is to not be afraid to switch rooms and make the house function to meet your family needs. You don't have to use the rooms as they are labeled in the original house plans. Have you made any changes to how your rooms function or are "labeled"? Has it made a difference? I would love to hear about it.

I am a subscriber to the magazine "Home". Lately I have been disappointed in the content. But the issue that I received a couple days ago is awesome. The issue was celebrating the magazine's 25 years. One of my favorite articles was "25 years of Comfort and Style". It was so fun to see photos from the early 1980s. The biggest difference from the older photos to now is definitely the busy patterns. The look now is clean and crisp. Today we have more geometric and less busy florals. Here is a photo from that issue. Can you guess what year it is from? (answer at the bottom of this entry)

The magazine also has a fun article about TV shows and how those interiors have changed over the years. Think about the "Brady Bunch" interiors versus the "Cosby Show "interior, or the "Friends" set.

Think about your house now or what it looked like 25 years ago. How do you decorate differently? If you were to name a TV set your house is most like, what would it be?

(answer: 1983)

Combo Decorating Styles

I love getting a peek into other peoples' lives. Now I get paid for seeing how they live in their homes. One of my favorite questions to ask homeowners is "How would you describe your style?".

I get a variety of answer but I always smile when they give me combination answers such as "I am traditional with an eclectic mix". I don't like houses to have one specifically labeled style. I think the home's style looks more authentic when it grows and develops. I think, therefore, the homeowners are more interesting if they mix it up and let the style develop as they do.

One of the best phrases a client gave me was describing her decorating style as 'Mixture of Pottery Barn and Fisher-Price".

I personally would describe my style as American Mission with Paper mountains (usually those mountains are just mole hills but the editing and revisions of my book due next week - they mounds are growing)

How would you creatively and honesty described your home's style? I would love to hear about it.

Fun Decorating Phrases

I recently returned from a national decorating conference. It was a lot of fun and inspirational. Here are the top fun decorating phrases that a speaker said during their presentation.

Sherwin-Williams did an excellent presentation on color forecasting. As you may know, much of interior color palettes originally came from fashion first. The speaker told us that while brown is still dominate in fashion, soon black will return so.."Black is the new black" was my favorite phrase from her.

A cheery women from the south talked about window treatments. Fabric and textures at the window really can complete the room. Her phrase.... "Looking at a bare window is like looking at a bare light bulb" Love that!

My last new fun decorating phrase was in regards to preparing a house to sell and staging it. The average potential buyer will look first look at a house in 6 minutes. The quote: "Looking at a houses is like speed dating - you like it or you don't"

Do you have a favorite saying about decorating? I would love to hear about

The drooling designer

Well let me start this story a couple days ago. About a month ago I had a tooth repaired but this week the pain in that same tooth was getting worse. My appointment was for Friday morning before a noon meeting with a new client. I thought - no problem - I am a "can do it all" type of woman.

I'll go to the dentist and onward to the client. I could not sleep that night because of the pain. I did not have breakfast - mouth too sore. I had lots of Novocaine and plenty of yanking and pulling on my cheek to get to the disobedient tooth. Reapply my lipstick and off to the client I go...

The clients I met with were a lovely retired couple as nice as could be but they were having electric and air conditioning guys over for estimates on repairs. So at noon at almost 90 heat with no breakfast, no sleep, and now a puffy cheek, I was not in peak form. I explained I just returned from the dentist and I normally don't speak or look like this. I, of course, began to give them my fabulous decorating recommendations but speaking was difficult out of only one side of my mouth and I was feeling slightly weak. The lady of the house possibly had hearing problems because she was watching my lips as I spoke - or maybe she was watching me drool I am not really sure.

About now we our touring the large family room addition but the walls of the room are becoming closer and everything went a little gray around the edges... I quickly sat down and asked for some water. Careful so I don't let water slide out the side of my mouth, I get my wits about me again and finish the consult.

We wrap up the meeting and I hurry to my van and crank the AC and head home for soft food and a nap. From what I remember, I am pretty sure I gave them good advice but next time I think I'll try not to be a drooling "can do it all" designer.

Favorite Decorating magazines

One of my favorite decorating magazines is "domino". It is fresh, hip and inspirational. The only minor complaint I have is that some of their decorating suggestions are a little on the pricey side. What is your opinion of domino? As an avid magazine reader, I often have magazine mountains. How long do you keep magazines? What magazines are "keepers" for you?

How to kill a sale

One major component of The Home Stylist is staging a house to sell. I have seen many different types of houses and housekeeping styles. In a recent house I staged, I talked to the homeowner about packing up clutter, removing wallpaper - the usual. But I also said for this house there is one recommendation that you really must do if you want to sell the house. In fact without changing this one issue, you are in fact killing the sale. That issue was the need to remove the cat's litter box from the kitchen. I know - yuck! I love cats and have one myself. But there is a place for cat litter and it is not in the kitchen where you want it to represent the feelings of cleanliness, freshness and food prep. The cat/home owner would not put the litter box in the basement so we compromised by putting it in the bathroom. Just one example of the delicate issues I need to talk to home owners about!