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Interior Design: How to Decorate a Smaller Living Room…

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019

Because I’ve personally had to deal with the challenges of downsizing from a house to a much smaller maintenance free space I wanted to share 3 ideas for visually enlarging your smaller living space.

Karen Mills' blog — Interior design by Karen Mills

1. Lighten up Your Color Palette In this living room we went from dark and heavy furniture and finishes to light and airy. Why? Because lighter colors reflect light instead of soaking it up, creating a lighter room that lives larger. Here we reupholstered the chairs in a light neutral color, installed lighter fireplace tile, painted the walls Shoji White by Sherwin Williams, introduced a lighter rug, and then darkened the floors so the furniture would appear to float in this lovely room just beyond the front door. But if you prefer a darker moody vibe, then as an interior designer I recommend you select wall colors and furniture in a similar darker color that will make the walls disappear.

2. Select Furnishings That Seem Visually Lighter. In this living space we reupholstered a dark heavy sofa that overpowered this room into a solid light gray color which makes the sofa here work. In addition we lightened up the fabrics on the dark chairs, and layered in a light color rug along with light walls, a lighter ceiling fixture, and fireplace tile. Then finally we purchased lightweight furniture – a coffee table, end table and mirrored cabinet that don’t take up any more space visually.

2. Add lighting – By placing the large taupe sofa in the sunlight against the taupe gray walls it visually begins to shrink in scale, while the white chairs against the window bounce light around the room. A mirrored cabinet in back and several lamps also add light and life to this space.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 3 Tips for Translating Your Fashion Style…

July 20, 2019July 18, 2019

July 13, 2018

I shared this post last summer but just wanted to post again because its a great way to get inspiration for your interior. As an Interior designer clients often tell me they lack inspiration for their room design. To solve that dilemma we often start by looking at the clothes they love or favorite furnishings. So if you’re having the same trouble deciding what to use for your home’s inspiration why not start with your closet!

Model and photographer Haley Johnston

Here is a great example of how to make a fashion statement into an interior statement.

Karen Mills — Styling by Summer Ann of Girlsinmadras.com

Haley’s love of florals comes through in the vase of flowers and fresh spring/summer color scheme of fucshia, green, and blues in the accessories on the table and in the glass cabinet to create a classic southern hospitality style.

To successfully transform your room using a favorite outfit as inspiration start by taking the dress or main part of the outfit and using it (color or pattern/color) as your focal point. Then begin to layer in other components as additions such as purses, shoes, and accessories while trying to keep the same sense of style.

The red dress worn by Haley translates easily into this sexy dark and moody entry shown here. The red artwork, a focal point in the room, repeats the color of her red dress while the black wallpapered walls by Ralph Lauren add to the sophisticated style.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 5 Tips for Creating an Outdoor Oasis

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019

Want to make your outdoor space more beautiful? Here are 5 ideas for enhancing your outdoor room!

photo to explain point — Photo courtesy of B&B Italia

1. Create a cozy outdoor area for lounging or entertaining by grouping seating in a cozy arrangement. Add end tables, coffee tables, outdoor lamps, and an area rug to make it live like indoors. Here in this outdoor area the seating area is centered around the coffee table to create an inviting place to have conversation.

to explain point — Design by Karen Mills

2. Bring in one of kind vintage items to show off your personality. In this outdoor porch area, my clients introduced a table base they found along with stone top for the coffee table to create a one of kind space.

3. Layer in different textures to keep the space interesting such as wood, metal, wicker, or plants. Here in this outdoor room a wood roof and decking provide texture along with wicker seating, fabric cushions/pillows, woven rugs and a metal table to create a visually compelling space.

4. Add a water feature to create ambiance and to reduce outside noise from neighbors or the street with a small bubbler, hanging fountain, or even tabletop fountain. Here in this outdoor a pool beyond provides the water feature that could also include a waterfall or fountains.

shows example — Photo courtesy of Schumacher

5. Add height to your outdoor space. One of my favorite ways as an interior designer to add height to my client’s outdoor spaces inexpensively starts with tall drapery panels on a pergola or porch or a potted tree that can be brought outside for the season.

For my own outdoor oasis, I designed a beautiful outdoor pergola with grand white Greek columns covered with climbing flowering vines and a curved header between snuggled inside a beautiful berm of trees with thick cushioned seating underneath.

Have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July holiday with your family and friends!

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 3 Tips for Refreshing Living Room with…

June 13, 2019June 13, 2019

One Day Makeover Tips

If you haven’t updated your interior for 5 years or more, it may be time for a refresh. If your budget doesn’t allow you to start completely over, why not opt for a one day makeover instead?

In this photo above our interior design firm reupholstered an existing sofa and chairs to freshen up the space along with refinishing the kitchen table top and updating the room’s finishes including the floor, light fixtures and walls.

If you’re ready to refresh your space, here are my top three tips!

Interior design by Karen Mills

1. Create an inviting floor plan that emphasizes your focal point whether its a fireplace or bed, for example. If you don’t have a focal point, design one yourself by grouping items together such as a sofa table or chest with a piece of artwork overhead plus a table lamp and/or tabletop decor.

In this room the client started with a favorite piece of art over the mantel and we replaced the fireplace tile along with upholstering the existing chairs and ottoman to create a fabulous new look!

To explain idea — Interior design by Karen Mills

2. Shop your entire house for furniture/furnishings you can use in your room. Keep those items you discover in mind as you start to put together your room, bringing ones you think might work to a staging area nearby.

In this living area, the client wanted to keep an existing coffee table that had been passed down through her family in the interior design of this living room so we had to ensure we had similar warm hues – the outdoor fireplace beyond, to create a cohesive feel with the antique table.

Interior design by Karen Mills

3. Add a pop of color with accents throughout your room with pillows, art, drapes, decor or an area rug. Remember, you can repaint or re purpose items to use in your refreshed roomtoo. In this great room the client wanted to keep the mermaid art over the mantel so we tied in the furnishings to the art by layering in orange and blue pillows along with luxurious blue drapes beyond.

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Interior Decorating: 3 Tips for Transforming Room From Blah…

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019

Does your interior feel “blah” or boring even though its filled with furniture? Often the reason a space looks unfinished is because rooms either lack the key ingredients to make them come alive or the key ingredients aren’t placed in a way that creates harmony and variety. So here are my 3 tips to transforming your interior ordinary to extraordinary!

1. A Color Story – The first thing usually missing is color and I don’t necessarily mean bold color, just a lack of cohesive color throughout. In this bedroom design even though the grayed out blue hue isn’t dramatic by placing it on the headboard, bedding, bench, and drapes it creates a calm and quiet color story for the person who will sleep there.

In contrast this dramatic living space by Kravet above shows how you can create drama in a room by using bolder colors like the warm reds used throughout to draw your eye around the room along with the blue that plays a supporting role and nice contrast in the interior design.

2. Accent lighting – Having ample accent lighting in a space makes it more inviting and interesting. And as a general rule, you need at least three or more lamps in every living space to add ambiance to your interior design.

3. Groupings of large accessories – Most people buy smaller accessories which when grouped together often creates a feeling of clutter, adding tension to your space instead of ambiance to your overall interior design. Instead strive for a balance of accessory sizes with more emphasis on large than small. And when placing items together think about taller placed behind wider or grouping like items together like these ocean items placed on the tray here.

Another key to successfully accessorizing includes selecting colors, styles, and textures that will enhance your design and grouping accessories together to create vignettes or points of interest throughout your space. For example when I’m adding the final touches to a project as an interior designer, I often mix not only sizes of accessories but also textures which gives the vignette or grouping a more interesting mix.

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Interior Design: 3 Tips for Sprucing up Your Outdoor…

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019

How to Take You Outdoor Room from Blah to Beautiful

Who doesn’t love this time of year – warmer weather, food on the grill, and great parties outdoors! But when it comes to outdoor gathering often our outdoor space need a little sprucing up. Here are 3 tips for adding a little pizzazz to your outdoor room.

1. Add a pop of color with pillows

Here in this photo from Lexington Furniture sunny yellow pillows enhance the yellow chair cushion color to create a wow factor in this neutral spac.e

2. Layer in textural decor

Texture in a space is critical – it softens the hard surfaces and creates interest. In this photo the large blue green vase on the hearth adds a pop of color while the branches inside add texture along with the orange flower and napkins.

3. Make it Personal

When you’re decorating or designing a space its important to add your own personal touches that show off your personality. On this covered porch the homeowner had a painting done on wood and picked up an iron table base to give this outdoor room a one of kind look.

The same holds true for this outdoor patio space where a vintage trunk on wheels has been re purposed as a coffee table. Other personal touches on this patio include a vintage candelabra and wrought iron table that was handmade. To see more about this patio design, click on the TV segment below

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 3 Ways to Make Your Living Room…

March 23, 2019March 23, 2019

If you’re like me you’re ready for warmer weather and cheerful colors. Here are 3 ways to make your room feel lighter and happier.

1. Add bold pops of spring color

One of the easiest ways to add spring hues begin with bright colored pillows. Other simple ideas could include removing dark heavy drapes, adding white cotton slipcovers to your upholstery, or replacing a heavy darker rug with a sisal one.

In this room bold patterned pillows create a dramatic contrast against the white sofa and custom blue green drapes beyond while the red orange flowers and artwork add to the tropical look.

2. Introduce fresh flowers and/or plants

Nothing says spring like a bouquet of fresh flowers, a beautiful orchid or live plants. Here in this outdoor living room the orange flowers pick up the color in the napkins, creating a cheerful spring look.

Karen Mills' design blog — Interior design by Karen Mills

3. Swap out dark furnishings for lighter ones when possible

If you have a lighter area rug like the one pictured here that you can swap out for a darker one, the entire room can be transformed from winter to spring. White coral and a rope glass lantern with a blue candle enhance the spring/summer feel along with the light airy pillows and fresh plant beyond.

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Interior Design: 3 Big Mistakes People Make in Living…

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019

Lack of a Focal Point Often the best spot to emphasize in a living space is the fireplace or great view outside but if you don’t have those options, create a vignette (grouping) of furniture/accessories that will grab your attention. Then group your upholstery around the focal point to emphasize it. Here in this living room a focal point was created on the back wall to entice people into the space for a closer look.

2. Purchasing Over Sized Upholstery Or Too Many Pieces Have you ever decided you wanted to buy a new living room grouping but didn’t bother creating a floor plan or measuring the space first? Suddenly your furniture arrives and the furniture takes up so much real estate you can barely walk through or don’t have room? As an interior designer I can’t tell you how many frantic calls I’ve received from homeowners requesting help with their space planning only to discover the wrong furniture was already purchased and they want me to fix it which we know is impossible. In this living room, the right size furniture was used and strategically placed to not only enhance the focal point (fireplace) but also leave ample room for someone to pass through.

3. Selecting The Wrong Wall Color After working on 1200+ interior design projects I see this mistake happen more than any other. We might want to blame a decorating network like HGTV or DIY for making us believe that picking paint colors is easy but I think its because the general public doesn’t realize how much a color can change when it goes from a tiny paint swatch to an entire room or house. In this room, we selected the paint color during day that not only coordinated with the finishes and furniture but also played well with other rooms in view.

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INTERIOR DECORATING: COLOR TRENDS 2019

December 6, 2018

2019 Color Forecast for 2019

Color is an equalizing lens through which we experience our natural and digital realities and this is particularly true for Living Coral. With consumers craving human interaction and social connection, the humanizing and heartening qualities displayed by the convivial Pantone Living Coral hit a responsive chord. Lea Eiseman, Director of Pantone Color Institute

The impact of the annual color forecast by the Pantone Color Institute reaches much further than what you might imagine covering a wide range of industries from interior design and fashion to cars and appliances to name just a few. Why? Because their forecast is considered to be the one to follow for what’s new and next. But today I want to include a couple of other color forecasts for 2019 along with sharing color trends I see as an interior designer for the future.

As you read through this color forecast look for similarities because I think you might notice an overall trend this year for color.

Calm, composed and effortlessly sophisticated, Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year 2019, Metropolitan AF-690, exudes glamour, beauty and balance.

Benjamin Moore company

A warm terracotta color with ancient, elemental roots, Cavern Clay SW 7701, is our 2019 Color of the Year. Cavern Clay is a nod to midcentury modern style, but with the soul of the American Southwest, which together creates a desert modern aesthetic. Sherwin Williams Company

My Color Forecast: Warm Vibrant Colors

Red, black and white color scheme

Even though I’m still a big fan of warm grays, I have to admit I’m a little bit excited to see warm vibrant colors and bold color combinations coming back into vogue. Red has been huge trend this year in fashion, especially with black, white or other vibrant colors like golden yellow, bold blue, and persimmon.

Golden yellow or mustard will be popular also along with a return to more traditional tobacco colored in leather, suede, and other materials like this wall pictured above.

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Interior Design/Interior Decorating

Interior Decorating: 3 Tips for Coordinating Mismatched Furnishings

October 26, 2018October 25, 2018

Do you have a collection of mismatched furniture that feels unfinished or undone? Read on for my 3 interior designer tips for creating a cohesive look in your room.

1. Repetition – To coordinate two pieces of mismatched upholstery, unify both pieces by repeating a color from one piece to onto another with a pillow or throw. Here the blue green color of the ottoman was repeated in the pattern on the pillows, while the artwork brings everything together including the gray velvet sofa in the foreground and the new tile on the fireplace.

2. Introduce a new design element – A piece of artwork overhead or nearby accessories with both colors can also serve as a way to bring two different colors of upholstery together effectively. Here in this family room the blue center of the pillow is repeated in the blue candle nearby while the white seashell picks up the white upholstery.

When creating vignettes of accessories in your space whether its for a tabletop or shelves, try to place objects of various heights, sizes, texture, and shapes together to create a cohesive whole. Normally placing the taller narrower items at back with shorter wider items at the front works best.

3. Layer a rug underneath – Placing a rug underneath your upholstery helps create a cozy grouping of furniture like this living area but it may also pick up colors from one or several pieces of upholstery. Here the brown chair color is repeated on a pillow accent color and coffee table while the yellow and gray hues in the rug are mimicked again on the sofa and pillows.

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