Interior Design/Interior Decorating – Page 9

Interior Design: 3 Tips to Creating a Comfortable Inviting…

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

Ideas for Making Your Living Room More Cozy

Karen Mills' blog — Interior design by Karen Mills.

1. Comfortable seating. As an interior designer I always recommend selecting upholstery that’s high quality with cushions that will comfortable to sit in for hours while ensuring your feet are able to touch the floor and the seat depth is right for you. Here we designed this seating area with high quality custom furniture that’s comfortable and inviting. 3 Tips for a Budget Living Room Makeover

rug sizing example — Overland Park interior design by Karen Mills

2. Create a Cozy Conversation Area When an interior designer puts together a floor plan for a living area, they should focus on designing intimate seating areas like this one shown to create a relaxing comfortable space. Adding an area rug underneath helps define the space and pillows enhance the feel. 3 Big Design Mistakes We Make in Living Rooms

3. Layer in texture Texture can be added with fabrics, soft window treatments, decor, rugs, or art. In this intimate living area drapes, pillows, and a throw bring texture into the space along with a fabric ottoman, tray, and artwork.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 3 Tips for a Budget Living Room…

November 13, 2020November 13, 2020

Do you ever feel like your room is blah or unfinished but don’t want to spend a fortune to finish it? Read on for my 3 tips as an interior designer to add a little life to your interior design.

Add Color Color can be painted on walls and ceilings or introduced with art, furniture or decor like this existing blue painting the client already had. A blue vase enhances the painting while providing an additional punch of color to our interior design client’s entry. Color may also be introduced with fabrics, draperies, rugs, or decor. 5 Easy Steps to Space Planning Your Living Room

Karen Mills' blog example of pattern — Interior decorating by Karen MIlls

2. Inject pattern – Introduce pattern with draperies or pillows like this photo of a living room. The artwork, drapes, pillows, and flowers also add a pop of color to this dramatic space. Tips for Giving Living Room a One Day Makeover

Karen Mills' blog texture example — Interior decorating by Karen Mills

3. Layer in Texture – In this living room, albeit an outdoor one, texture was layered in with flowers, branches, wood trays, and cloth napkin decor. Additional texture in this space includes wicker chairs, a wrought iron table base, a wrought iron bench base, and a stone fireplace.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Design: 3 Tips for Making Your Bedroom Look…

October 29, 2020October 29, 2020

example — Interior design by Karen Mills featured by Design Icons book

Choose bedding in a similar color to other finishes or lighter. In this master bedroom design, we opted for white airy bedding that bounces more light around the room while also nicely offsetting the dreamy light blue green wallpaper, hand knotted wool rug, and other reupholstered furnishings . In contrast you can also opt for darker bedding and walls to help the boundaries of the room disappear.

2. Layer in some furniture that feels visually lighter. In this bedroom space, we layered in some furniture with legs showing underneath along with a lighter wood bed, and light fabric on the chair to make the room feel larger. Light neutral bedding, a bed, light painted walls and a light chair bounce more light around the room also visually expanding the space.

2. Add fabrics and finishes with little or no pattern including bedding, walls, furniture, and flooring. In this bedroom the homeowner used tone on tone bedding, a white upholstered bed, an acrylic bench with invisible legs, and mirrored nightstands to help visually expand her bedroom.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Design: 3 Tips for Creating Rustic Glam Design…

October 23, 2020October 23, 2020

As an interior designer I’ve noticed a huge trend over the past several years towards creating simple spaces that are a wonderful mix of rustic and glamour. Here are my 3 tips for creating your own style of rustic glam.

Introduce weathered furniture/furnishings

Weathered style furnishings could include anything from antique/vintage brand new furniture in weathered finishes and styles that remind you of a farmhouse look.

In this great room a rustic wood coffee table and wire bin end table on wheels were introduced along with the casual cotton covered sofa and chair.

2. Add touches of white

By juxtaposing the white chairs in the eating area against the rustic table finish and shimmery light fixtures, a wonderful symphony is created that undulates between masculine and feminine in this relaxing space.

The family room beyond continues the rustic glam theme with its beach elements on the coffee table contrasting nicely against the tufted sofa and gold mirror beyond which feel more glamorous.

3. Layer in a glamorous element

In this kitchen area matching mini chandeliers provides the perfect glam touch to this older kitchen with updated finishes. The rustic table juxtaposes nicely against the marble in the kitchen to create just the right amount of tension.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

The Home of the Future

October 2, 2020October 2, 2020

An Interior Designer’s Tips for Building a Home That Can Adapt to Changing Needs

Homeowners are looking for a home of the future that’s not only functional and healthy, but also flexible and inviting whether its a home office (or two) for work/school, a gym, coffee shop, entertainment area (home theater), or a place to vacation at home. Read on for my interior designer tips on how to make your home easily adapt to your future needs.

When you’re designing a new home consider first how to create a clean healthy environment. Some options to consider include:

– a floor plan with a mudroom/laundry area and shower just inside the garage door where family members can get cleaned up before entering the rest of the house

– a high quality air purifying system that removes toxins including viruses and bacteria

– bathrooms with all tiled walls and ceilings that can be hosed down when needed.

– a floor plan that allows great cross ventilation of fresh outdoor air and for sunlight to penetrate further into the home.

Click now to continue reading our City Lifestyle article here.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Design: A Historic Kansas City Kitchen Remodel

September 25, 2020September 25, 2020

Are you dreaming of a kitchen like the after but your reality is the before?

BEFORE

AFTER

As I toured this historic high rise condo on the plaza in Kansas City for the first time as an interior designer, the reality of the situation was bleak. The condo hadn’t been updated for years and the maze of tiny crooked rooms made it difficult to imagine the beautiful open kitchen it could be.

To start I knew we had to enlarge the kitchen so we took over the tiny adjacent maid’s room shown above to gain a few more feet, knocking out that wall.

Our end goal was a large open inviting kitchen full of natural daylight that was classic like this historic high rise located in the famous Country Club Plaza so to start we tore down the existing entrance wall to open the kitchen up to the existing dining room and resized the mismatched windows in each room to be more consistent.

We also relocated the adjoining dining room to the over sized living area and made the former dining room a hearth area that opened into the kitchen.

To make the rooms feel more expansive but also timeless, we tore out the flooring in the kitchen and wove in new wood floors to match the existing wood flooring elsewhere.

Next we began to lay out a floor plan that included a gorgeous custom island along with designing custom flush mount European style cabinetry that was also functional and a lighting plan that would make the room pop.

On the right we designed a beautiful custom stove hood with lit glass cabinetry and large drawers underneath to hold pots and pans. Plus we took the beveled subway tile to the ceiling to add height and drama to the space.

In the back we designed a pantry area that disguised the crooked structural wall and added doors that opened to reveal a coffee station and appliance storage along with additional glass lit cabinetry.

On the left we created a bar area with a wine cooler, additional sink, and storage along with lit glass front cabinetry to hold glassware.

And on the island we added a thick mitered top to give the beautiful Cambria marble style top even more importance!

The result – a large open living/work space that lives large and is also functional.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Design: 8 Ingredients of Timeless Design

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 2MB-great-room.jpg — Interior design by Karen Mills featured in *Architecture Today Interior Design* book

So if you would like to avoid trendy decorating and have a more enduring design too, here is an informative article I wrote for Houzz . (Click link below to read)

8 Rooms with Staying Power

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Interior Design: 3 Big Mistakes to Avoid with Your…

September 14, 2020September 14, 2020

One of our biggest fears as a homeowner is that we will make a costly mistake when remodeling, especially one that could cost thousands of dollars. Read on for 3 HUGE MISTAKES I see repeated over and over as an interior designer who specializes in bathroom remodels

Poor Layout – One of the biggest keys when space planning your bathroom is to ensure it functions well for you. Not only do you need adequate space to move around and access what’s needed without bumping into things but you also want a beautiful bathroom that invites you in for a bathing experience. Here in this gorgeous custom bathroom, we added glass shower walls to make the space feel larger and lighter, while also creating a focal point beyond with a free standing tub and beautiful chandelier with plenty of space to maneuver around.

2. Too Trendy – Even though I love timeless spaces, I have to admit its fun to add a trendy element that’s new. But I only recommend adding a trendy finish if it either enhances the design and if its easily replaced without much expense like a back splash, wall paint, or light fixture.

In this lovely spa bathroom remodel not only did we open up the closed off spaces in this tiny master bathroom in a historic high rise, but we also went with a classic marble finish to create a more timeless look that could last for years instead of adding trendy accent tile that often dates a bathroom quickly.

3. Wrong Finishes – Wrong finishes can be anything from the wrong color, size, or pattern to how all the finishes (cabinetry, paint, tile, light fixtures, etc) come together to create a cohesive whole. The biggest problem I see as an interior designer are the homeowners who chose to do it themselves, but don’t have an eye for design. The final result? Thousands of dollars of investment in what may be beautiful cabinetry, tile, and lighting that just doesn’t play well together.

Here in this calming bathroom we selected finishes that were classic and simple in style to create a calm inviting space that will appeal for years to come.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

3 Tips for Keeping Home Sanitary

August 28, 2020August 24, 2020

3 Steps You Can Take To Help Protect Loved Ones At Home From Germs Now

As an interior designer I know many of our clients are looking for a home environment that will make them feel secure, safe, and sanitary without giving up beauty. Read on to learn my suggestions on how to create a cleaner home environment now.

Purify the indoor air. To begin install a high quality air purifier that will clean the air in your home on a regular basis. Select an air purifier that will reduce airborne and surface contaminants along with dust and dirt that may include bacteria or viruses like the Vollara unit I recently used on a home project that even removed the smoke odors embedded in the drywall. But don’t stop there. Remember to bring fresh air into your interior every opportunity you get whiles also having your air ducts cleaned regularly.

2. Remove contaminants before entering your home. Begin by mounting a motion sensor activated disinfectant cleanser bottle directly on the wall in your garage near your interior door to sanitize your hands before entering your home.

Next place a shoe rack in the garage by your interior door for depositing shoes that have been contaminated or purchase a small disinfecting mat that you can step onto before entering your home. Leaving items in the garage that need to decontaminate for 24- 48 hours before being brought inside can also be helpful in keeping contaminants at bay.

Other ways to help keep yourself and your interior clean include placing the clothing you’re wearing into a nearby hamper or washing machine as your enter the house and proceeding directly to the shower to wash off.

In this master bathroom we designed for a high rise building, we included tile on floors and much of the walls that can be scrubbed clean along with an adjustable spray arm that make the cleaning process easier.

Lenova kitchen faucet with an ozone generator

3. Create a More Sanitary Interior. By keeping the inside of your home cleaner you increase the odds that you will stay healthier.

According to the press release by Lenova, their faucets are the first conventional faucet line that is also an ecologically safe way to clean food and any other water-safe surface without chemicals. A small, thin ozone generator uses regular house current to produce ozone water (aqueous ozone), a natural disinfectant 100 times stronger than chlorine that kills 99.9% of common viruses, bacteria and germs. Adding foot pulls at the bottom of frequently used interior doors provide additional peace of mind.

Other ways to keep your home more sanitary include having your home cleaned regularly, using the sanitize cycle on your dishwasher, and opting for washable materials such as washable indoor/outdoor rugs or bedding made with natural bedding like this master suite.

In summary by simply purifying your indoor air, removing all contaminants possible before entering the house, and keeping surfaces clean you can create a home interior that’s safer overall for the whole family. Click now to read this article on City Lifestyle magazines nationwide.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Design: Recipe for a Successful Kitchen Design

August 22, 2020August 22, 2020

The Secret Sauce for Cooking Up a Beautiful Kitchen While Avoiding Costly Mistakes

If you’re seriously considering remodeling your kitchen, read my suggestions as a kitchen designer here first before tearing out walls or hiring a contractor because your kitchen’s a huge investment that can cost thousands of dollars to correct or years of regret if you rush into it and hire someone who’s not reliable or does a poor job. 3 Reasons Why White Kitchens Stand the Test of Time

First I recommend that you look for design inspiration in interior design magazines and online to get ideas of what you like so you can effectively communicate your vision to the team you assemble.

Next make a list of items you absolutely must have in your kitchen and another list of things you would like to have. If you’re not sure, start compiling a list as you use your kitchen everyday so your new kitchen will meet all your requirements.

Then hire an interior designer to show you how to layout a kitchen that’s both functional for your family and beautiful! Some interior designers can be had for as little as one-two hours to review your ideas, plus they will have great resources for contractors, architects, and trades people to help you accomplish your goal. 3 Big Kitchen Trends for 2020

Kitchen designers that don’t serve also as the contractor can also serve as a trusted advisor who will help with selecting contractors, making it functional, creating flow, coordinating finishes, assisting with lighting, and advising on the latest storage options to ensure your kitchen design looks great! And if you can’t afford an interior designer for the whole project, I would at least hire an interior designer experienced with remodeling for a couple of hours to help you create a master plan.

In summary if you have a professional create a master plan that’s not only functional and beautiful with good flow and coordinating finishes, you will have a much higher chance of success and loving the kitchen you’re in!

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If you feel someone you know could benefit from this helpful information, pass it on!