Trendy Tricks & Tips

It's an ideal time to freshen up your home and try 9 Hot Decorating Trends...

1. PRINTS ON STEROIDS

This season look for textiles with large repeat patterns. Embrace the motifs of nature in a big way. Graphic prints are the rage, from big bold flowers to stylized branches. The scale is so big it can appear sculptural.





2. VINTAGE LUXURY

Old made new again! Unique vintage articles add a touch whimsy and style to any decor. Great for the budget conscious and even better for the environment.















3. WALLPAPER is back...it adds depth, color and pattern to a space. Available in so many new styles you have to see them to believe them!





4. METALLIC on vanity cabinets, walls and ceilings. Accents and accessories in silver, mercury glass, mirrors, and crystals.

5. THINK PINK!

Raspberry tones, pinky reds and coral shades are the in colors for home fashion and look fabulous married with chocolate brown.



6. GREY IS THE NEW BLACK

Clean tones of cobalt, slate, charcoal and gray flannel will dominate. Pair it with orange or fuchia!
















7. AVIAN CHIC...all things bird related.

You will find bird motifs in fabrics, accent pieces and wall art everywhere you look this year.












8. WOOD

Tree trunk tables, carved decorative bowls, wood motifs called faux bois.









9. HOME MADE APPEAL

With a focus on earth friendly living, anything hand made, environmentally friendly or made with natural organic materials. The texture of knitted and stitched handiwork is cropping up in ceramics, on furniture and wall decor.













Look around your home today and see what new trend you can incorporate into your existing spaces...you may surprise yourself!

Ask Stacie...

Q: Hi Stacie, Is there a guide or formula to how much space you should leave between your furniture? -D

A: You should always treat the wall around a piece of furniture like you would the matting around a picture. Do not try to fill up all the space around it. Leave enough space around your furniture so that a person can move about it freely. Also be sure there is enough space to pull out a chair in the dining room without hitting the walls. Here are a few guidelines:

COFFEE TABLE: Allow18 to 24 inches between the sofa and coffee table

TV VIEWING: Comfortable TV viewing- is three times the size of the screen. (i.e: to comfortably watch a 30" TV screen you would need to be seated 90 inches a way).

DINING ROOM CHAIR: Allow 24" to 30" between the back of a dining room chair and the wall.-

BED: The clearance between the bed and wall should be at least 24 inches

Solid Granite or Granite Tile

When clients are on a budget and need to consider all money saving options, I gladly give my opinion. In almost every "Update/Stage Project" counter tops are an issue. Most frequently the question is whether to go with solid slab granite or granite tile.

Both have positives and negatives. I of course, love to use solid slab granite when possible.



The cost of slab granite FAR exceeds the cost of a simple granite tile. The top kitchen to the right is a "Stage Update", where the client wanted to do the MOST for the cheapest amount possible. We priced both options and decided to go w/the granite tile due to how far we needed to stretch the budget. Also the location & size of the house was a factor (Would buyers expect solid granite? Would installing solid granite "over-build" the house?) . The kitchen had blue Silestone to begin with..."blue anything" is never a good selling point! We chose a simple Venetian Gold granite tile to replace the 'ol blue and it instantly brought the kitchen to a more neutral ground that is pleasing to look at for most buyers...at a fraction of the cost of slab granite (thousands less!).

Other important Notes:
*Grout lines, grout color and choice of how to seal the granite or granite tile is important as well. *The "edge" choice is limited when using tile as opposed to a fabricator cutting a chosen custom edge.
*The depth of granite tile is considerably different than that of slab, which takes away strength of the stone...and can lead to cracking more easily.



The second case we have is a client that was doing the same thing, a "Stage/Update". Only this client's home was in a location a home should not have "less than" solid granite counter tops. It had a very high end granite to start with, but again it was BLUE! The dreaded color of homes for sale! For budget purposes, we picked a generally low level, neutral granite called St. Cecelia. Very popular because the colors and pattern can fit in with MANY styles. Going with the color choice we kept our cost down. The truth is, most granites are the same depth, it's the rarity of the color or pattern that makes the price go up! Granite vendors often have "Levels" to grade their granite supply. From Level 1 and up...even in Lowes they have levels for their granites offered. But if you ask the right questions, you can find that most often the difference is not in the size, weight or depth, it is the color and pattern that is sought after and cost the extra bucks!

This new granite costs less than the owners original "blue pearl", but looks a million times better for the purpose of "showing a home on the market". Buyers are totally turned off by anything that makes them feel automatically "bad" in a space...Kitchens are SO important and having a blue counter top, no matter how expensive it originally was, will not be a strong selling point and most likely will turn buyers "off". We were able to salvage the old blue pearl granite in solid pieces and use it in the adjoining pool house, a rightful place for that color! Re-purposing the hi-end granite outside was a great investment and use of color and materials.

Both clients in these two instances were very pleased with the outcome of their choices based on the criteria of their homes and projects.

Granite in any form is a wonderful and amazing product from our Earth. If you ever have the chance to just go "shop" for slabs of granite in a real granite yard, you will be amazed at what comes out of the quarries and into our spaces. The marble, onyx and granite specimens cease to amaze me with all their color, little blobs of fossilized something-r-other and the way it is all perfectly preserved. Some people can't see the true beauty behind these remarkable pieces of stone, even say they "hate granite"!! God is truly The Master Creator and so, so, so much more creative than we could ever be! Just look at a slab of marble and think of the story of " David" (the statue) that Michelangelo sculpted...It was a big piece of marble passed from Artist to Artist to create a statue for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. It was weathered, worn down and left for someone to make it all it could be. "Michelangelo worked under the premise that the image of David was already IN the block of stone he was working on — in much the same way as the human soul is found within the physical body".
I LOVE that story! Not only do I find "stone" interesting because of it's physical traits & useful nature...it is the relation to myself. How I am like weathered stone, full of blobs of something-r-other, but yet I can be sculpted into something wonderful, polished, purposeful and stand the everyday tests of life all because someone saw what was IN me. :)

I have several local granite fabricators and granite yards I can recommend for your projects if you are in need of bids or more information.