For fans, HGTV and the Food Network have a lot in common. They’re both channels that provide insights to help you decorate and cook better. The connection has grown stronger recently when a major food firm hired several of HGTV’s celebrity decorators to “design” sandwiches for clients on various condiment commercials.

What do you suppose could happen if this trend continues? It would be fun to see what various Food Network chefs would come up with as ideas for decorating.

Let’s start with Paula Deen. Her southern country style would be a great fit with warm heart pine flooring. The glow of wide planks in a rich golden brown matches the color of fresh-made flapjacks and maple syrup, and pine flooring looks more like home with a few spills and small scratches from her dogs’ paws.

The rest of the room is all about comfort and food. Some open shelves could hold her cooking staples, while a big round kitchen table with old-fashioned cushioned ladder back chairs would hole the whole family while giving table space for all the great dishes she whips up regularly. Finish up with some deep upholstered furniture with a variety of country-style patterns, just made for napping when you’re full. With a room like that, let’s hope Paula will invite us over soon!

The first blog in this series covered creating warmth in a room by adding soft surfaces. In this post, let’s take a look at how to sharpen up a space with too many soft surfaces.

Traditional styles lend themselves to soft surfaces. Carpeting provides a good look for a traditional approach to decorating. Often rooms hold lots of overstuffed furniture and plenty of pillows. Tables are curved and in the dining room, tablecloths are standard and dining chairs have cushions.

If a room feels too soft, a few simple steps can sharpen its corners. Look for opportunities to include accessories in metals and glass. Consider wood window shades or shutters to sharpen the space without losing a traditional look.

One of the best ways to cut back on softness is to cut back on furniture and accessories. If you have space between elements in a room, the softness is tempered by the walls and the extra room.

Soft surfaces add warmth and welcome to a space. Balancing them with a few hard-surfaced items helps the softness stand out.

Many people find it difficult to take their rooms from “fine” to “designed.” This is often because we love one color, type of surface, or look and don’t build in enough contrast. Drama comes from the shift from light to dark, soft to hard, and the juxtaposition of various textures and colors. Let’s look at one of the most common challenges – softening a room with too many hard surfaces.

The preference for hard surfaces often reflects modern taste. Hard surfaces are sleeker and more streamlined, with tile or wood floors, simple lines on tables, few pillows or other accessories. Even couches and chairs lean toward more tailored lines. This can create a beautiful room that feels almost like a sculpture. However, too many hard surfaces without some softness to balance them can make a space feel cold, even to the point where voices echo.

A few simple changes can make the space more inviting without compromising the style. How about a thick rug in white shag or even leather strips? Think about hanging a contemporary tapestry or quilt on the walls in place of framed art. A table runner will soften and warm up a sleek table, and contribute to its style and look. How about a stack of two or three tailored floor pillows in a corner to contrast with the hard-surface floor and provide extra seating?

Bringing in softer surfaces won’t compromise your modern style; instead, it will bring the sculptural feel of your room into focus by providing contrast!

Reader Question:

I have a small half-bath downstairs that has no windows for natural light. How do I decorate this to make the space inviting?

Answer:

A bathroom like this may seem like a challenge. In reality, it provides a unique opportunity to be creative and daring in your decorating. The small size allows you to spend more per square foot on flooring and other options without breaking your budget.

What you need to do is change your perspective. Move your thinking from small to special. You can create a “jewel box” bathroom by making choices that help the room shine.

Hesitant to use color? Here is an opportunity to experiment. Consider glass tiles on one wall. If you prefer a neutral finish, look at some of the decorative tiles with texture. Pull the sink backsplash all the way up to the ceiling. Like granite? With the small countertop in your half-bath, you can probably find a piece at a good price.

Forget about a medicine cabinet. It’s really not necessary in a guest bath. How about a dramatic mirror with lots of personality? Consider a pedestal sink also. The extra visible flooring will make the space seem larger.

Finish up your jewel box with just the right light fixture. Think outside the box – how about a small crystal chandelier? Finally, experiment with paint or even wallpaper in a daring pattern – not too dark – and you will have a guest bath that will get your company talking!

Summer brings childhood memories home more than any other season. Whether you spent your summers on the beach, on a farm, or in the city, you can grab those memories and the feeling of summer and create a room that reflects the best of the season.

Summer is all about living outside, and tile is the best flooring choice for handling the inevitable dirt and dust tromped in. Water from the dripping feet of kids just in from the pool, and spots from melting popsicles clean up in an instant on tile. Consider putting the same tile on both your family room and patio, almost erasing the distinction between inside and outside.

What are the colors of summer? You can go for the golds – bright yellows to deep oranges that reflect the vivid sunlight. Or take the opposite direction and let cool sky blues refresh your space in the heat. Whatever you choose – keep it bright and don’t be afraid to mix and match many colors and patterns, just like a pile of beach towels thrown in a corner.

If your upholstery is dark, how about getting white canvas slipcovers? They’ll brighten the space and make it easy to clean up summer’s messes. Tumble a variety of throw pillows on top, and your room thunders with summer.

Wrap your summer space in beach accessories to finish up. A collection of shells in a big jar or scattered on a pile of sand on a glass-topped table bring the beach to your home, even if you live in the Midwest. Celebrate summer, both inside and out.

Summer brings childhood memories home more than any other season. Whether you spent your summers on the beach, on a farm, or in the city, you can grab those memories and the feeling of summer and create a room that reflects the best of the season.

Summer is all about living outside, and tile is the best flooring choice for handling the inevitable dirt and dust tromped in. Water from the dripping feet of kids just in from the pool, and spots from melting popsicles clean up in an instant on tile. Consider putting the same tile on both your family room and patio, almost erasing the distinction between inside and outside.

What are the colors of summer? You can go for the golds – bright yellows to deep oranges that reflect the vivid sunlight. Or take the opposite direction and let cool sky blues refresh your space in the heat. Whatever you choose – keep it bright and don’t be afraid to mix and match many colors and patterns, just like a pile of beach towels thrown in a corner.

If your upholstery is dark, how about getting white canvas slipcovers? They’ll brighten the space and make it easy to clean up summer’s messes. Tumble a variety of throw pillows on top, and your room thunders with summer.

Wrap your summer space in beach accessories to finish up. A collection of shells in a big jar or scattered on a pile of sand on a glass-topped table bring the beach to your home, even if you live in the Midwest. Celebrate summer, both inside and out.

Ready to take a chance on color? Here are some tactics for increasing your likelihood of success.

Decided to add a color or colors to a room, but not sure where to start? Take a peek in your closet to get color ideas. The colors you pick to wear will generally translate into the colors you want to live with in your home. Take a general look and see if two or three colors are your favorites. Among those, choose pieces of clothing that have the colors you like best, and bring them out into the space you’re thinking of redecorating.

This may sound strange, but your next step is to lay out the clothes in various locations in your space. Does that corner need a burst of orange? Would the sofa look better with a red or green throw pillow? Move the fabrics around until you have a combination of colors that works for you.

The next step is using those clothes to create a color base for the room. Take the clothes to your closest paint store, and look for paint chips that come closest to matching the fabric colors. Tuck those chips in your purse or pocket – you now have color samples you can take with you to select fabrics, accessories, and other color elements in your room. And your clothes can now go back into your closet.

Using your paint chips as samples, start shopping. Do you need new draperies, accessories, rugs? Remember to balance colors across the room. They can create focal points or highlight a space, and color will always make a room more inviting and interesting.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and call us for help!

Understanding Color Part 3: Color Blending from Room to Room

Now that you have that dream home with a great room approach, are you feeling concerned about how to use color? One color can feel boring, but too many different colors in one space can cause color overload. The easiest way to handle this decorating challenge is to select three colors that work well together, and feature one of the three in each space: kitchen, dining room and family room.

Not sure which three colors to use? Start with the furniture you already have, and decide which colors you want to keep that will work in the space. The next place to visit to choose color options is an upholstery fabric store. You will find many patterns that feature your three colors together, and you may find one that you can use as a color tool. Make sure you set your colors against your flooring and paint choices, to make sure they all work together.

The next step involves determining which color will be the focal color in each space. Do light cabinets in your kitchen beg for a dark, rich contrast color? Could your dining table’s dark wood benefit from a bright color? Is the sofa anchoring your family room covered in a dark red that will be a perfect choice for one of your three colors? Once you locate your focal colors, use curtains, pillows, table linens and accessories to pull those colors across the entire great room’s space, so that areas are clearly defined, but everything links together.

If you missed Part 1, click here and if you missed Part 2, click here!

Understanding color part 2:


Warm vs. cool neutrals – which choice works best for your home.


One of the best ways to take a room in a cooler or warmer color direction is by bringing in cool or warm neutrals. Warm neutrals consist of tans, gold and beiges, as well as warm blacks. Cool neutrals include white, ivory, gray and silver. Blacks can come together as a cool neutral if the undertone is cool. Also, ivories that lean toward cream become warm neutrals. When you’re not sure if a neutral is warm or cool, look for the undertones: blue for cool and orange or yellow for warm.


Neutrals are like the sky in a landscape painting – giving you room to let the colors of your space stand apart, and letting the eye rest. If you want to take a chance with a monochromatic room in neutrals, think carefully about textures to add the variety and personality that color normally provides.


The term neutral sounds like the tones can be combined without thought, but clashing neutrals is possible. Compare all the neutrals with each other when developing a room’s color palette. A neutral flooring choice frees you to experiment with color in paint, furniture, accessories, and other easier to change decorating choices. Be sure to bring samples home when making the final decision, or bring a room’s color samples with you when making your selection. Choose the right neutral, and you are well on your way to creating a room that works for you.

Did you miss part 1? If so, click here to read part 1 and stay tuned for part 3!

Understanding Color Part 1: Warm vs. Cool Colors

For most of us, color is simply a matter of taste. You may be drawn to reds, blues, greens, or browns without questioning why. When you start decorating, it pays to consider colors a bit more deeply. Some colors almost seem to approach you in a space, drawing you toward them. Others appear to be calm, receding. One reason for this is that warm colors seem to stand out and approach you while cool colors have a more distant feel.

You may not have heard about warm or cool colors since art class in grade school. Here’s a quick catch-up. Warm colors are yellows, oranges, and related colors such as orange-reds, yellow-greens, and browns. These colors are termed warm because they seem like the colors of a sunny day. Cool colors, such as blues, purples, turquoises and some reds and pinks with a blue undertone, match the color palette of a rainy or foggy day.

As the “approachable” colors, warm hues draw the eye, and tend to seem inviting and invigorating. High energy rooms such as dining and family rooms can benefit from a warm color scheme. Cool colors are more calming, and invite quiet and reflection. Bedrooms work well with a cool color scheme, calming you down and possibly even helping you to sleep. This is one reason why yellow is not recommended for an infant’s room. The color is too distracting and energizing.

For most rooms, a combination of warm and cool tones works best. Warm colors can be overwhelming without a bit of cool color to reduce the color noise. However, a room containing only cool colors may appear to be unfriendly. Adding only a few warm colors can change a cool room immediately, because warm colors have a stronger visual impact than cooler ones.

When you’re ready to change the colors in a room, first determine whether you want it to be lively or peaceful, and choose your colors accordingly. Does the balance of warm and cool colors work right now? If so, stay on the same side of the color wheel when you make your adjustments. If the colors of a room aren’t working, consider the balance of cool vs. warm colors. Do you need to cool it down or warm it up? Make a few color experiments with fabrics and accessories you already have at home, to help you decide the changes you need to make.

Stay tuned from Part 2 and Part 3 coming soon!