Dreaming of a Dressing Room?

Dream and Dream Big!

Have you ever thought about having a dressing room? If so, What would it look like?

I was recently asked what my dream dressing room would look like and I immediately started day dreaming... and thinking Glamour...

First of all,  I would want a dressing room with a BIG window and a view so that I could begin and end my day looking at the outdoors. I want to feel happy and organized when I walk in, so with that being said lets get down to the nitty gritty of what I am dreaming about:

There are two must haves in my ideal dressing room. My first would be enough storage so that I could have two separate areas done by season - one side for Fall/Winter, the other for Spring/Summer. My second must have would be a vanity with a beautiful mirror and an additional 10XX lit mirror where I could sit and do my makeup.

I would have a special place for my shoes, placed on shelves with LED lights so that I could see and appreciate each pair.  I would also have a special place for all of my handbags so that I could display them and enjoy each one. I just love the way California Closets designs their closets. The closet pictured below would make me "Ohhh so happy :)".

California closets

Because function is of the outmost importance in great design,  a good closet system with plenty of storage and hanging areas would be required. Somewhere within the storage I would love to have an ironing board hidden in a drawer, accessible for a last minute press and easily put away.

Lighting is critical. In addition to recessed lighting I would add  beautiful light fixtures like the one pictured below in a grouping of three pendants.  I love this pendant from Arhaus, its so delicate and feminine just the way I would like to feel in my dressing room.

The walls and ceiling would be covered in wallpaper.  I love the way the Auburn wallpaper by Anna French complements the pendants. I can already see it coming together.

And the finishing touch would be my place to sit and do my makeup with a beautiful vanity and mirror. This mirror made of pressed metal has an antique metallic finish which plays off the pendants and ties the mirrored vanity featured below together to create a unified look.

Plume Mirror

Can't you just imagine it? I love it already!

I love glamour and fashion and purses and shoes and I love to just to dream and Dream Big!

Thomas Pheasant for Veranda Magazine

What does your dream dressing room look like? I would love your comments.

Colorfully yours,

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Black History Month

This month we have been celebrating Black History Month.  In honor of the artist, Romare Bearden who was born in Charlotte, we visited an exhibit at Charlotte Fine Art Gallery and viewed many of his wonderful pieces on display.  I love his style, especially his use of collage, lithograph and subtle colors.

Bearden lead an interesting life as an artist, case worker for the Harlem office of the New York City Department of Social Services and served in the United States Army.  He was also a musician and co-wrote a song called Sea Breeze that was recorded by his high school classmate, Dizzy Gillespie. 

   He married when he was 46 years old and along with his wife, Nanette, who shared his interest in 

   the arts, they created The Bearden Foundation.  Always a champion of young minority artists, this 

foundation provided welcome assistance.

Romare Bearden working in his Long Island Studio

Romare Bearden died in 1988 at the age of 76.  Romare Bearden Park opened in downtown Charlotte in 2013.  This beautiful public park hosts art displays, concerts and many other activities. The Charlotte Christmas Village is sure to be a tradition as the park is transformed into a German-style market for almost a month after Thanksgiving.

Romare Bearden Park
Will Belcher Photography

Living in Charlotte, I've visited Romare Bearden Park several times.  It was interesting to take some time and research it's namesake, one of Charlotte's best known artists.  I learned a lot and will enjoy getting to more about him and his life.  You can view some of his work this now through March 4 at Charlotte Fine Art Gallery in South Charlotte.

What do you think about Romare Bearden's art? I would love to know

Colorfully yours,

How do you make color powerful?

It's so amazing to me to see how much in common my oil painting class has to do with the work I do for clients. In thinking about my abstract painting  class, the similarities with the power of color just hit me. So, I asked myself... " How do you make color powerful and how does that relate to our spaces?"

Curt Butler Studio

It all goes back to the color wheel... yes, it's that little tool that teaches us so much about the relationship of colors. The one we either know how to use or not.

In painting, the colors we use to create beautiful pieces of art all relate to color theory and yes, to the Quiller Wheel. ( To understand more about the color wheel read on.) I would try to explain it, but you should probably just read about it.

So, to answer  " How do you make color powerful and how does that relate to our spaces?"  We can begin by selecting a dominant color. This is the hue that dominates about 60% of the color used. In our homes it tends to be the color we use on our walls as the background color.

A subordinate color is one that is used the least amount and tends to be about 10% of the color. In home interiors this color is sometimes the "pop" of color that we add to a room through accessories.

An intermediate color is one that is in between and is a neutral hue. In paintings, it is taking the dominate color and making it a neutral one.

At some point in this equation we have to find a neutral color to tie everything together and avoid visual chaos. It is selecting a color that is neither bright or strong and is used in about 30% of the room, it's the one we typically use on the trim.

This beautiful room by Heather Garrett Interior Designs describes exactly what I am talking about:

1. The dominant color is the apricot colored wallpaper taking up about 60% of the color in the room.

2. The subordinate color, the light peach is used as the accent color or the pop and it represents about 10% of the color.

3. The intermediate color comes in the shades of browns we see in the floor & furniture such as the table, the chair tacks and the shades of antique brass. Yes, even the color floor matters when combining colors in your home.

4. The neutral color is the tan color hinting to a touch of peach you see on the chairs and on the trim, which is about 30% of the color.

Heather Garrett Interior Designs

Don't forget, Color is a Powerful Tool.

How confident are you using color and did any of this make sense to you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Colorfully yours,

Happy Valentines Day! As we celebrate this Valentines day  I can't help but remember decorating Valentine boxes in elementary school to be filled with cards from classmates. With these boxes came lots of cards and so much candy. This brings me to a little fun fact on one of my favorites:  SWEETHEARTS Who doesn’t have fond memories of these  little candy conversation hearts full of sugar? Did you know  they actually have a shelf life of five whole years? Each year, consumers purchase up to 14 million pounds of Sweethearts, which equates to almost 6.7 billion individual hearts. That's A LOT of sweethearts! The Sweetheart manufacturers also pride themselves in keeping up with the latest love lingo. Amazingly they continue to introduce  about 10 new sayings each year to stay current with the market. In addition to loving all of the sugar in these sweethearts I also love all of their COLORS,  which brings me to the subject of February's newsletter. "When color Clicks" Enjoy! When color clicks   Have you ever put colors together and they just did not seem to work even though you initially thought they would. There is a big reason as to WHY and that is explained through color theory. I am not going to go into a lot of detail into color theory because that is a very detailed topic that I continue to study and learn from. I will however give you an example that I hope will help you to understand how and why colors click.    Analagous colors on a color wheel are three colors that are next to each other. When these colors are used together they match well and create a serene and comfortable feeling, for example the blues and green pictured below.   When you add the color directly across the color wheel you are using  a split complementary which give you a POP of color. If you were to add orange to the blues/green you would have a beautiful palette to work from. A note of caution: Using all of these colors in equal amounts simply creates chaos so choose one color to dominate and a second to support it. The third color is used (along with black, white or gray) as an accent color or pop. This same theory applied to interiors is how beautiful rooms are created. As I was painting an abstract using analogues colors and adding the split complementary as my accent, my colors clicked. Once I got my colors and their values right, the painting all came together. By Yours Truly http://rosadestinteriors.com Remember, colors don't just work together because they do, there is a lot of thought that goes into it. Let me know if you need help with your colors. TWEET ME, TEXT ME, FOLLOW ME OR SHARE THIS IF YOU LIKED THIS NEWSLETTER