DESIGNING YOUR GUEST BEDROOM

Theguest bedroom should be comfortable enough for guests to feel at ease and athome while they are in your house.

The guest bedroom can be one of themost important rooms in the house; it helps your guests form an opinion aboutyou and your style. The room can also show just how hospitable you are to yourovernight company.

The guest bedroom is often not aslarge as the master bedroom and may, in fact, be the smallest bedroom in thehouse, it is important to make sure that your design for the room doesn’t makethe room feel cramped. Keeping furniture simple and not too overpowering canhelp keep the room feeling open and large.

Arranging and decoratingyour guest bedroom can be a challenge, but by using a peaceful palette, greatlighting and simple-yet-smart storage solutions, you can meet the challengewith style and ease.

If you don't have a separate room for guests, carve a cornerout of a multipurpose room; like your home office, studio or even your familyroom. So think daybed, ‘pull out’ couch, or upscale futon. Select colors that are relaxing and gender neutral, such aswhites, earth tones, grays or even certain pastels.

This is the perfect time to read my pastposts on color palettes, window treatments, lighting and various interiorstyles. And you can always email me questions.

Creating a welcoming guest bedroom (or area) makes visitors feel welcomeand comfortable, even though they may be far from home.

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Contact me with any questions at andrea.halleywright@gmail.com

Or visit my Facebook Page for more ideas https://www.facebook.com/pages/DesignSense/231561176902564

COLOR: A MAJOR ELEMENT OF INTERIOR DESIGN

Occasionally it’srefreshing to see interiors that are airy, light, and bright. While dark colorscan be exciting and dramatic, lighter colors tend to be more soothing. Oftentimes, clients request warm colors for the sake of having some richness to theirrooms. Yet, this past week I did a paint color consultation for a client’s newhome where we went with “barely there colors” – paint colors almost devoid ofanything but a hint of color.  Sometimes it’s nice to “lighten up!”

-fromMaterial Girls home design blog

Some facts about color, it is a major element of interior design, however,every individual sees color a little different, and this changes with age,mood, energy level, and surroundings. Color can vary, as it’s processeddifferently by computer monitors and cameras, as well as, your eyes and brain.Color affects your emotions and biological systems such as heart rate and brainwaves.

Color affects your moods and physiology. Wechoose colors based on their meanings in our lifestyles. Whether it’s yourliving room, bedroom, bath or kitchen, the overall color scheme will determinethe ‘feeling’ or emotions of that room.

So, as the Material Girls said, “Lighten Up”! It needn’t be white onwhite, just ‘lighter’ will lift the mood of your home and it’s occupants.

Contact me with any questions you may have at andrea.halleywright@gmail.com

Or visit my Facebook Page for more ideas and pictures: https://www.facebook.com/pages/DesignSense/231561176902564

RANDOM FAVORITE INTERIOR DESIGNS

         Today I am sharing my random favorite interiors. 

A white on white room with white washed interior doors.

A well balanced monochromatic living room is harmonious.

                And a couple of great interior design quotes.

Concrete paint washed walls with hardwood floors is both modern and dramatic.

Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story,

 not just to sum everything up.

- Tate Linden

The story is the yellow couch that pops color into a  monochromatic room.

A story of luxury, integrating the outdoor space with the indoors.

The basic rules of proportion and scale are unchanging. They are 

reinterpreted according to the needs of the time. I like

simplicity and believe in restraint.

Above all, there should be harmony-of proportion, line

color and feeling. The most important element in decorating is the

relationship between objects - texture, color and meaning.

None of these is in good taste in itself but only in relationship to where 

it has been placed and what purpose it is to serve.

- Eleanor McMillen Brown

Proportion and scale in an electic dramatic space.

A story of harmony in a neutral and balanced living room.

There is a dramatic relationship between the objects - color, texture and meaning. 

A neutral room with just a pop of color enhances the object's relationship.

Black, white, grey color schematics and scale of objects creates a story.

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andrea.halleywright@gmail.com

Light wood, light colors and simplicity of furnishings is a perfect relationship.

Making a home

I do not know about you, but the older I get, the more I feel home is that very spot on earth, the place, where I do not need to have to conform to anything, do not have to fit in, but do so love to be utterly comfortable, that I will be able to forget the year I live in....
Like a shell, fitted to my body and soul. No need to compete, certainly not anymore to be at the designing front line at all times. Not living in 'up-to-the minute' decorating trenches.
I want to slide through time, looking at old things and new ones, living side by side, lay my hands on chipped china with a past and cutlery with patina. It's my history. 

Moss from the forest, driftwood from the beach and lavender from the market...

I love to remember years gone by and dream up future days. 
Often I buy things because they remind me of things I've almost forgotten. Books, letters, photographs.
I particularly love old photographs, not only of family or friends I know, but people from long ago. Somehow I connect.

The Savannah bride from 1919 found a new home here.

I want to live with all the books I have read and all the leaves and flowers I have pressed, the stones I collected and the cicada, picked from the drive way years ago, which I love to see under glass. 

Some of my collected vintage books and old letters.

Since I was a child I have collected old books and letters. 
There are small drift woods from my first tropical vacation and the baby shoes and dresses from the children, collected in small boxes in my tiny closet. I can't bare the thought of them in the cold or too hot attic.
I feel Georgian in my four poster bed and Edwardian at my desk. 
I acquired new bedding a few days ago, absolutely 'now', and somehow it fit's right in with the old things and vintage prints I found at a New York flea market years ago. No need to change anything else.

Fourposter a la mode!

I often dream of big changes, but I take no severe steps to make them. Something holds me back. Gently, I feel history's pull. I am not lazy.
I think myself back to the nineties, when we bought the red leather couch and matching chairs with it, reminiscing about my thoughts back then, of all the little hands going to mess with them....Now I laugh a little about the matching part, oh well....so what! The little hands have become big hands, almost over night!

Feeling rather English here...

With all the pink going on for years, these might feel dated to some, but they aged gracefully, small scratches telling stories of dog paws. I cannot part with any of them. They are all well loved. They are somersault proof.
Call them classic....timeless.
Changes come slowly in our house. It's not that they are not welcomed, but I consider these changes more like growing. Growing up and growing older. A carpet here, some pillows there. A lamp moves from the family room to a bedroom and back to the dining room. Like old friends, they are trustworthy and yet often feel like new!

Through our dining room window two years ago. Little has changed.

The dog has claimed the ottoman as his prime spot, which sits right in the middle of our music room. It is the room where we read, talk and play piano. I have tried to change his place, so I could have a coffee table, but then, why shouldn't he be there, when we gather round? He too is comfortable. The table moved close to the piano....

A little cramped, but we all want to be in here!

For years I wanted to change things, but now, that I am slowly able to do so, I feel like not really to want it anymore....

80's kitchen made to work!

Well, I can part with the "historic" bathrooms (here I draw the line - no pictures)  and the freaky old kitchen with broken hinges and missing doors (hence the skirts), but the changes do not have to be gravely. It would not work with the spirit of the house. 
Maybe it's because we are in the middle of life. Not starting out with all new plans and not old, to not want to change anything at all anymore. But comfortable in the middle. Having achieved equilibrium....
It's a wondrous feeling.
As I opened the latest 'Elle Decor' last night, what did I find? Suddenly red everywhere! Sofas, chairs, walls.... I guess we made it through a trend loop! Old is new again! But do I really care? 
Perhaps I should wait with that kitchen a few more years....
Is not this real life?






All images by V.Zlotkowski