Give your sofa a facelift: Refresh Your Home: Soft Goods Update

 
Keeping with our monthly theme of ways to refresh your home, another fantastic way to easily change the feel of your living room is by replacing your existing pillows and soft goods with a fresh new flair.

Size & Shape
The major pillow shapes are square, rectangle, bolster and round so consider your sofa shape and what would complement it or even bring some excitement and soften angular lines.  It’s also important to consider what size you would like and the feel they will bring.  Larger size pillows can give a comfortable, lounge-like feel but pillows that large on a smaller couch can look off.  Consider your proportions!

Color & Pattern
Consider colors that will complement your existing space.  We love to mix patterns as well for a fresh, fun look.  When mixing bold prints, we recommend incorporating neutrals to soften and create harmony!

Quantity
Don't overwhelm your sofa with pillows.  Sometimes less truly can be more.  If you need to move pillows around to sit comfortably, you know you have too many.

Via Residence Style

Via Harper's Bazaar

Via Lady Sadie's

Via Decoholic

Via Sarah Sarna

Don’t forget, not all pillows are made equally!  From choosing a pillow fill with longevity to quality fabric, there is a reason why there can be such price discrepancy.  We hope this post helps and as always, we want to see your project!  Post your transformation or if you’re still on the fence and need a little more inspiration, check out our Pinterest board!

Have a great day,

Need a makeover? Refresh Your Decor

Refreshing your decor and staging vignettes can be an excellent way to breathe life into your space.  Simply rearranging the possessions you already have in a thoughtful and artistic manner can create that ‘magazine cover’ look.  Here are some tips to help you reposition your favorite pieces into polished vignettes.

Consider Your Existing Space
Coordinating color or adding thoughtful splashes of color, texture, and pattern through books, objets, vases, and other keepsakes that you enjoy.  Similarly, they can complement the theme or style in your room.  It’s always great to display in odd numbers!

Consider Your Lighting
Staging a vignette in an ill-lit area can defeat the purpose.  Consider adding a light fixture to complement your vignette, which will draw more attention to your thoughtful creation.

Variation
Consider varying heights and sizes to add visual interest.  Similarly, you can create depth by layering the depth of your display items with some more prominent and some playing a more supporting role in the background.

Via Lonny

Via Waiting On Martha

Via Robert Brown Interiors

Via Tompkins Lloyd Interiors

The Design Files

I hope you enjoyed our quick tips to setting up expert vignettes.  We would love to see pictures of your own project!

Have a great day,

Refresh Your Home: Expertly Hung Art Work

Creating an expertly hung art wall can be tricky but extremely rewarding.  A polished art wall can transform an ordinary room into an extraordinary room.  It’s also an opportunity to enjoy the pieces that can soothe, excite, or even take you on a trip down memory lane.  Here are a few tips to begin considering moving things around.

Select Your Pieces Wisely
Your artwork should complement the feel of your home.  Consider the color, style, and texture of both the artwork and your framing when refreshing your art gallery.  Use your artwork and framing to complement the finishes in your space.

Eye Level Is Key
Your artwork should be at a comfortable level so that you do not have to strain your eyes to see it.  So, if the members of your household are particularly tall or short, pick the ‘eye-level’ heights that suit your lifestyle.

Test It Out
If you’re still having trouble envisioning what your art gallery wall will look like or would like to attempt a more eclectic gallery look with different sizes and shapes, consider giving it a dry run.  Pick up some trusty brown craft paper and cut out your shapes.  Assemble according to your plan with a temporary adhesive then stand back and check it out.  This can also be a great jump off point to hang your final selections as your grid will already be laid out!

Via The HomeBunch

Via Driven By Decor

Via Domaine Home

Via West Elm Blog

Via Simple Details

Rehanging artwork can transform your room, so pull out those prints you’ve hung onto for years and let them delight you and your family everyday!

Have a great day,

Refresh Your Home: Window Treatments Edition

A stunning way to give a room a facelift is to refresh your window treatments.  Window treatments can be just the key to giving your home that polished, sophisticated look.  It’s one area we advise putting emphasis into and taking into account when creating your budget.  With so many choices it can be difficult to figure out a starting place, here are a few ideas to get the juices flowing!

Function
A great jumping off point can be figuring out just what you need the window treatment to provide.  Is it a bedroom where you are hoping for a blackout option?  A dark space that may be enhanced with a semi-sheer treatment that allows in natural light? Without this step and simply jumping in, you may end up with a treatment that does not suit your needs.  

Aesthetic
Whether it’s color, shape, texture, or pattern, try to hammer down a few of your top priorities to revive your space and that works with your existing choices.  This will be especially easy after you’ve figured out the function you would like the treatment to serve, as that will narrow down your options.

Getting It Right
Picking out the appropriate size to have a floor skimming or puddling look with just the right stack can make or break your window treatment.  Executing the look in a polished way requires planning.  Here are some of our own favorite projects!

Via Lush Home

Garrison Hullinger Interior Design

Via The HomeBunch

Via HomedIt

Via House of Turquoise

I am a huge fan of polished window treatments because they add to the total look in such a stunning way!  Check out more inspiration on our Refresh Your Home Pinterest board!

Have a great day,

Refresh Your Home: Bringing the Outdoors Inside

Of course we are all anxious for the weather too cool down but the warmer weather allows us to spend much more time in the beautiful outdoors.  What better way to refresh your home than to bring natural elements into your home to foster a healthier home more connected with nature year round.

Just like furniture, adding plants to your home should serve a purpose and define the space, like softening harder or more angular lines.  Feng shui advocates positioning a plant in the entryway of your home to bring the energy of nature into your home.  Furthermore, we love vignettes incorporating a mirror with plants in front, so you are able to appreciate the beauty from multiple angles.  And for those of us who don’t have tons of time, consider low maintenance plants like succulents or cacti.

Via Apartment Therapy

Via Interior Junkie

Via Chatfield Court

Joy Tribout Interior Design

Via Carla Aston Design

Do you have favorite plants to for you home?  We would love to hear how you bring natural energy into your home!

Have a great day,

Refresh Your Home: Tips For Blending Households

  It can be a big challenge to combine your own tastes with another person, especially when working on blending your existing pieces with those your new spouse.  When moving forward with this process, honesty and compromise are the key to successfully bringing your tastes together to create a home that embodies you all as a couple. It’s common for the nester in the relationship to take the reins, but to achieve this process to everyone’s satisfaction.  A good place to begin is to decide what pieces will stay and which will go and to make a list of new acquisitions that require both of your approval.  Also, deciding on the larger picture and getting more specific can be extremely helpful.  For instance, deciding on color, texture, or pieces of furniture you require can be a great jumping off point.  Here are some more tips to make the successful transition!

Incorporate Both Genders
Using both masculine and feminine shapes and colors can be a great way to represent the tastes of everyone.  They will also balance each other out to create visual harmony.

Reimagine The Things You Have
Your spouse may have a sofa in a hue that really just doesn’t work for you.  But the wonderful part of quality furniture is they will last for decades and can be reupholstered or painted to suit your evolving tastes and needs.  Reupholstering or painting existing furniture can be a great way to refresh what you have instead of making costly new acquisitions.

It’s About YOUR Family
Brainstorm as a couple the mood, feel, or aesthetic you all would like to have.  You can create an interior that is worthy of the cover of a magazine but what does that matter if you both don’t enjoy it and doesn't feel like your family's home.  Consider your collective tastes and fill you home with things you BOTH love.  This will create exactly the fresh start you are both looking for.

Via HomedIt

Via Elle Decor

Via Architectural Digest

Via South Shore Decorating

I hope you enjoyed our post today!  Blending households can be a tricky process but at Rosa Dest Interiors, we have worked with couples blending households and seen the process through to the excitement of all members of the family, which is truly one of the most thrilling parts of being a designer.  For more inspiration, be sure to check out our Refresh Your Home Pinterest board.

Have a  great day,

Refresh Your Home With A Fresh Coat Of Paint!

One of the most simple and stunning ways to refresh your home without undertaking a huge renovation endeavor is rethinking your current paint colors.  A simple coat of paint can completely change the mood of the room, can enlarge the perceived size, invigorate, and even relax you.  It can be just the change to make you re-examine that tired old room!

Think About Your Mood
One of the most important things when planning a paint refresh is to understand what mood you would like the space to give off.  For instance, painting a fun saturated hue for a children’s playroom will create an atmosphere of energy, creativity, and excitement, which is not the mood you may want when considering a tranquil and restorative space like your bedroom.  Start with the feeling you would like to have when you’re in the space and build from there!

Consider Your Lighting
Understanding how your lighting, both natural and artificial, will interact with your paint color is key to pulling your home refresh off.  We have said goodbye to our incandescent bulbs of old, which were our best ally at mimicking yellow-y, warm candlelight and now rely mainly on halogen and LED that provide a much cooler, blue shade of white.  Selecting a cool grey paint color with blue undertones for a room with lots of artificial cool LED light could bring out much more blue than you had hoped.
 
When In Doubt, Test It Out!
The previous two tips may make sense in theory, but sometimes how do you know unless you give it a shot?  And that’s exactly what you can do!  You can easily get a small jar of your prospective paint color and paint a large poster board or even a large swatch right on your wall.  Give yourself a few days to think on it and be sure to check out the colors at different times of day to see how it interacts with your natural and artificial lighting and don’t forget to have the girls over for wine on Thursday night for moral support!

Via Sherrill Canet Interiors

Via House Beautiful

Via Elle Decor

Via House Beautiful

Via House of Turquoise 

        I hope you all enjoyed our exploration of color today!  I hope it inspires you to think about refreshing your home this fall!  

Have a great day,

August Newsletter: Refresh Your Home

        As we bid farewell to July, it seems like time as flying as we roll into August and another school year.  It's this time of year I love to think about refreshing spaces.  It's at this point, you can appreciate more functionality throughout your home with those hectic mornings racing against the clock.  Even more, enjoying the look and feel of your home can boost you more than your morning cup of joe and relax you more than a glass of wine after a long day.  So this August, we challenge you to take a look at your home.  How can you refresh your space to serve you better? 

        A face lift can be anything from rethinking your paint colors and accenting with soft goods or it can mean a total reimagining of the space with full renovation to boot! Seeing your space come to life through thoughtful subtractions and additions can create that polished look with all the comforts your require.

        Mud rooms continue to serve as a catchall for the house to keep your house decluttered but without thoughtful planning, this area can become it's own chaotic beast.  Identifying your needs can help you understand the changes to be made.  If you're an 'on the go family,' a pet-loving home, or gardening enthusiasts, your needs will be phenomenally different.

Via HGTV

Storage

No matter your lifestyle, a little extra storage never hurt anyone!  The key to getting organized and staying that way, is to create dedicated storage that helps you cut down on the clutter and keep everything easily accessible.  Think hooks, shelves, cabinetry, baskets, bins, and cubbies!

Family Hub

When your mud room is located close to the kitchen, this can become the homework destination!  Close enough to ask questions and keep your eye on things, but removed to allow for concentration, creating a desk for homework or organized mail center can be just the ticket to a functional space.  

Have Fun With It!

While a mud room is an excellent utilitarian space, don't forget aesthetics!  It's the boost you'll get walking out the door in the morning and the deep sigh of relief when you return home.  Consider this in the context of your home's design style and grow from there.  And as always, don't forget the details!  

Via StyleMePretty

DON'T MISS OUT!!!

Design Studio: Kitchen Remodel Edition

Join us for breakfast and the first of our Design Studio series workshops at Carmel Country Club!  Our kick off event will be dedicated to the hub of the house-the kitchen.  Learn tips and advice from our panel of design experts to transform your kitchen from the planning stages to a finished project.  We will also explore the latest trends and styles in kitchen design from 2015.  Hosted and moderated by Rosa Plaza Dest of Rosa Dest Interiors, LLC.  Expert panel to include: lighting guru Beth Harris of Southern Lights, Inc, Pam Greenwood of Harkey Tile and Stone, and Trent Hasting of Andrew Roby General Contractor.  We look forward to seeing you and feel free to invite a friend!

Date: October 2nd, 8-12

Location: Carmel Country Club

Tickets: $25/$35 Member/Non-Member Pricing

Please RSVP to Rosa Plaza Dest by Friday September 25th to rosa@rosadestinteriors.com!! 

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Have a great day,