Inspirations- The Pink and Green family room, a modern classic design

Today's inspiration board is a pink and green family room. The large chesterfield sofa in olive green velvet prevents the space from being saccharine sweet. I have also used my rule of threes, to incorporate three shades of green and of pink so that the any one shade does look off.  The space is grounded with the neutral wallpaper, drapes, coffee table and lamp shades. Lastly, adding touches of gold and brass provides the spark. The real design comes in with mixing the prints by using a variety in scale, as well as referencing multiple cultural elements with the Greek key on the drapes, foo dog lamps, and adding a trunk for a coffee table gently references travel and worldliness.

If you see anything you want, you can click HERE to go to the inspiration board and purchase! If you love the mirror top side tables, I have a pair in stock and ready to go, just contact me.

Sapien bookcase- the quickest installation ever

DIY installation of the Sapien bookcase

I have put together many of the Sapien bookcases by Bruno Rainaldi- both the Design Within Reach and the CB2 versions. (Both version are designer by Rainaldi and both made in Italy) And having done so, I have a few tips on putting them together that I thought I would share... especially if you are doing it yourself!

By yourself seems like the biggest challenge with the weight of the shelving. The tips below should  make your this DIY much easier. Then, all you are left to do is stack it full of books.

The problem is that the bottom plate has to screwed in about 2 inches from the edge. The big tip is to raise the spline up enough to be able to flushly install the screws. Make sure to raise both ends the same so that the screws go in straight.

For the large bookcase from Design Within Reach you need 4 DVD cases, a blue-ray case and two of the shelves stacked. (Yes, that is that is "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" on the bottom. It's a guilty pleasure of a movie! )

For the small bookcase (CB2) you will need the 4 DVD cases and the blue-ray case.

Remember lefty loosy, rightsy tightsy to quickly install the screws. I like to tighten them, then place the shelving upright and checking for stability. Them lay back down and re-tighten.

Work in progress - the downtown condo

One of my current projects is a downtown condo. We are turning it into a jewel box of a contemporary boho space. The new sofa came today and looks great with the turquoise FLOR flooring, lighting, contemporary coffee table and the clients artwork.

The white sofa was necessary to support the heavily patterned carpet, bold artwork and the soon to be re-upholstered stools. The stools will each be a different fabric in pink, orange or pink and orange. A wonderfully bold color palette on a backdrop of contemporary white!

Additionally we are creating an ethnic patterned chalkboard wall in fuchsia and orange!!!! I am so excited about the wall. And, rare would you find the designer who spackles your wall while waiting for the sofa to arrive. I am a full service designer after all!

I felt very Kitty Barthomolew, whom I have always admired, while I was spackling and maintaining my manicure at the same time! She was one of the last Home Design-type show hosts who really knew what they were doing. Hopefully they will continue the path a technically savvy designer on TV.

Below are shots of my top fabric pics in situ and the fabrics choosen for the project. As always, if you are interested in design services or any of these fabrics, please let me know!

Fabrics selected for the project.

 Fabrics in situ as stools stored under the coffee table.

Neutral no more- adding color to your home interiors- part 2

The second part of my adding color to a neutral interior space address a family room/den area. (To see part one of the series click here). In this typical neutral cream to taupe space, I have chosen complimentary colors to accent the space in blue and red-orange. As in the previous space, I have used olioboard.com to create the space. This color palette can take a room to an Americana space, Eastern influenced space, or can go quite modern. I have gone with a hybrid of Eastern and Americana.

With the simple addition of changing the accent pieces I have taken the ivory walls, sisal rug and cream sofa to a brighter, polished finish with blue wing back chairs, on trend patterned pillows with blue and white, tones of orange red in the lamp bases and a bronze Brown cut work bowl with a blue lining. Could this space go further to add color? Surely, but for the color timid, this is a great start by adding small changeable color pieces and practically neutral blue chairs.

If you are interested in any of the item's on this board, I would love to tell you more about them! Simply drop me an email at LaurlSelf@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you.

leopard love

Source: onekingslane.com via Laurl on Pinterest

Leopard can be a difficult pattern to work with- too much is looks tacky, too little and it has no impact. This is a good example of a room that used leopard and pattern, without going over the top. Barclay Butera designed this space presented in Luxe Interiors and Design's Greystone Glamour and photography by Grey Crawford. The keys to this room is to keep the space neutral, add other patterns and place your leopard pieces as the support cast, not the lead role. The lead in this room is the large leather wing back chairs, which are modernized with the striped rug. The leopard chairs, flanking the windows, act as a pattern in the room, like the stripes and the damask.
This room also plays with scale. The landscape paintings are not only large, they fill the walls from floor to ceiling. They appear to visually dwarf the windows and in doing so, make this room about the room, not about the view.
Interested in seeing more leopard I love? Check it out here!