Need an Update??

It seems that the pendulum in design does not swing slightly, but more with a complete and earth shattering paradigm shift.  Here in the Dallas area, we have been entrenched in the Old World design style for many years now, and like all things, it's getting old.  My clients are longing for a lighter and brighter feel to their homes, but  in this economy, few people can start from scratch with all new furniture and accessories.   So how do you change the style of your spaces without "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"?

Google Image

 If your color scheme is filled with dark colors, begin to eliminate one of the strongest colors from your scheme replacing it with the next shade lighter in the same family.  For example, it you’ve used a lot of reds,  start pulling in some lighter shades of terra cotta or peachy tones.  They will still work with the reds, but they are lighter and less intense.   Painting your walls a softer, lighter color is the easiest and least expensive update you can do.

Dan Marty

As you begin to replace furniture pieces around the house, replace the heaviest pieces first.  If replacing furniture is not in your budget just yet, choose to paint some pieces to lighten up their look.  It’s fun to have the juxtaposition of a large scale, heavy piece painted in a glossy white or a bright color, and it brings a different kind of drama to the space.

Debbie Lido

Refreshing heavy window treatments with light and airy panels will do the same things as a good face lift!  Instead of heavy tapestry and formal silk, think linen and lightweight sheers.  We're loving the woven wood blinds too!.  You'll have a radical transformation!

Many of my clients still love the "Traditional" look, but if you  take away some of the “goop” (That’s a design term for fringe, tassels, trim and basically heavy handed decorating), you'll freshen up the space without loosing that comfortable feel.    Most of the time just the process of editing your space will lighten it up.  Begin to incorporate some different colors into the mix so that the space will take on a different feel.  

Sally J. Designs

As you’re working through the process of making changes to your home, don’t leave behind the tried and true principles that make any room work….scale, balance, repetition and color, and it you need some help call in the experts to lay out a plan to get you started.

  

Sally J. Designs helps you to LOVE your home!

Contact us for in-home and on-line design and decorating services.

Where are you, Sally J?

It's official.
I have not died.  I am still here.
Let the posts continue!!

I'm sorry for being absent last week.  Some weeks just take the wind out of our sails, and such was the week I had. 

Do you do too much sometimes? Do you take on more than you should...mostly because you know you can? 

It made me start to think about how my design eye has changed over the years.  It's like I started out in the Victorian period...lots of stuff, lots of competition for what to look at...lots of busy-ness!

and like the Craftsman period that followed, I've needed to pare down and focus on the beauty of space and light and singular things that I love.

"Falling Water" house - Frank Lloyd Wright

Isn't that usually the way things go?  Especially in design, the pendulum doesn't swing slow.  It usually knocks us in the head as it's moving from one direction to another.  We get caught in the middle...not sure we're ready to leave the comfort of what we know, but ready for something new and exciting anyway.

As a designer, I never want my clients to be on the end of a trend.

Remember when this was new?  Oak cabinets, little blue flowered wallpaper and matching border?  How many homes built in the 80's go on the resell market still looking like this?

I think this is why we have so many painted kitchens these days.

Traditional Home Magazine

We go from dark to light, light to dark, cluttered to minimalist, curvy to straight lined, open to closed... etc, etc, etc.

So where in all the shuffling around do we find our own design aesthetic?
Is there ever a time when we stop chasing a trend and settle of what's "just right" for us?

Perhaps that's why we settle with "traditional" and "classic"....not because it's what we love so much, but because we just don't want to have to change it in 5 years.

This is beautiful.  We know that we can live with this for many years, and that pleases the husbands who can't believe what you spent to get this look. 

But is it US!

Do you wish to get on the Mid-century train for just a little while?

Kasey McCarty, Interior Designer

Or pehaps you'd like to visit the 60's again.  (Having lived with it the first time, I'm not sure I can do it, but Jonathan Adler is a master at it !)

Jonathan Adler

I have great remembrances of the Bohemian look from the 70's, and there's a large part of me that embraces that look even today.

Better Homes and Gardens

I am really in awe of people, designer and clients alike, who are sure of what they love.  They are sure of themselves enough to plant themselves firmly in one camp or another, regardless of trends and current styles.

That can be good and bad.

In the meantime, where I'm living today, I'm loving being here....

Lisa Caldwell Flake, Interior Designer

and here.....

Emily Walker, Interior Desiger

and even here.

Rod Mickly, Interior Designer

They say that life is a journey,

And so is design.