If you have two rooms that open one to another, you can use color to coordinate the space. Today’s trend of open floor plans mean that living rooms, dining rooms, family rooms and kitchens may all open into another room. Coordinating color between the rooms does not mean that you have to exactly match wall colors and surfaces between the rooms. Playing off a coordinating color palette allows you to mix up the colors to create a flow of design for both spaces.

This home is a nice example of using color to create flow between the foyer, living room and family room beyond.  Red and warm grey can be seen in all three rooms in different shades and on different surfaces. Using these colors in all three rooms unifies the three spaces, making them feel part of the same design plan.

In the foyer the red of the Chinese lacquer chest is carried onto the area rug, which also has a warm gray in it.  The area rug is repeated in the living room, where the sofa is covered in a similar grey to the rug. The red in the rug is then picked up in the chair upholstery in the family room.  White and brown, from the wood accents, are also used in all three spaces.

Carrying the same colors throughout the spaces moves your eye from room to room and gives the entire design a cohesive and polished look.  Limiting the color palette to three or four colors will also help the flow between spaces.

As we meet up with our puzzled homeowner again, he is considering two paint options – the left option on the fan is actually a very dark gold. You can see the color’s origin when you look at the lighter shades and they appear almost yellow.

His second choice is among selections one, two, or three on the other visible color row. He doesn’t want to use the darker choices because they would blend in too much with the fireplace opening and the black trim on the windows.

This is a good first step, but if he heads right to the paint store and orders one of these, he is almost guaranteed to be disappointed for two reasons. Paint chips are printed and the dyes on the paper don’t match the dyes that make up the paint. This means that the color you see on a chip will not exactly match the color of the paint you buy.

The second reason comes from how the light comes into your home. Everything from the direction of your windows to the shape of a room will affect how a paint color will look on a wall, and different walls will make the color look different – sometimes darker or lighter, but sometimes even a different color. To see this, look at a corner where two walls and the ceiling meet. It’s likely that you will see three different tones, even if everything was painted the same color.

So our guy has to go to the paint store and pick up samples of the colors he’s debating about – and maybe a couple of others that are similar, along with an inexpensive foam brush for each color. Then once home, he needs to paint each wall with at least a one foot by one foot square of each color – leaving some space between the colors so they don’t reflect on each other. (If this bothers you, paint some white poster boards and tape them on the walls.)

As a final step, he needs to live with his choices for a few days, looking at them in the morning, afternoon and evening, and with natural light as well as with the home’s evening lighting. Over a short period of time, he will know which one he will be happiest living with. Paint is a very personal choice. It’s worthwhile to take the time to select what will work best for you.

When you have a room with neutral carpeting, simple moldings and no architectural features, your choice of wall color can be based on personal preferences without much if any reference to what is in the room. But in the case of the man in the photo, it’s more complicated.

Paint in this case has to work with the off-white stone and black opening of the fireplace, black trim in the room as well as the varied shades of brown making up the wood floor. Then he may have some furniture that will be going in the room as well as an area rug or two.

From the paint selection fan in his hand, it’s clear that he hasn’t yet narrowed down his choices. Realistically, the first step is deciding what specific color he likes. With this set-up, he could go light or dark, mid-tones and almost any color.

The trick will be getting just the right version of his preferences. Too dark and the floor and fireplace will stand out like a beacon. Paint it too light or neutral, the color of the wall currently, and nothing will come into focus.

Suppose we start with a brown – dark enough to blend with the richer tones of the wood floor while still light enough to keep the room from feeling gloomy. The floor has warm tones and the fireplace tones are cool, so the brown needs to balance cool and warm to work well with both pieces. To begin, this man needs to narrow his focus to several possible browns that meet these criteria. In part two, we’ll talk about how to go from the paint fan to the final color.

If you are frequent traveler, you’ve probably stayed in your fair share of hotel rooms.  The rise of boutique and designer hotels has pushed the design envelope on hotel rooms. Hotel design has evolved over the last few decades to become a great source of design inspiration for our own bedrooms. Luxury materials, sleek modern designs and thoughtful touches inspired by the best hotel rooms can infuse your own bedroom with chic design ideas.

The cookie cutter feeling of big chain hotels is not where we are finding our design inspiration, although those hotel rooms have benefited from the rising tide of hotel design. Boutique hotels, with their personal sensibilities are the leaders in hotel design.  Using modern furniture, classic designs, and even antiques in the rooms gives them the feeling of a guest room in someone’s home. Luxury linens with high thread counts, down comforters and a choice of pillows make these beds inspiring.

Added touches like chic bedside lighting, chandeliers and even floor lamps easily translate to a home bedroom. Thick carpet underfoot is great first thing in the morning. If you don’t have carpet in the bedroom, buy a large area rug for underneath the bed. Make sure it is large enough to extend far enough out from under the bed so that you can walk on it.

Next time you stay in a beautiful hotel, look around the room for inspiration for your own bedroom at home. You might be surprised what you find.

The Romans used mosaic as flooring for their homes and bathrooms so we have them to thank for the beautiful tile mosaics still being used in flooring and bathrooms today.  Mosaic is a natural choice to be used as flooring and walls in the bathroom.  It also makes wonderful accents with other materials.

A narrow strip of colorful mosaic tiles add interest to the wall in this bathroom.  The natural stone color of the larger tiles is given a punch with the deeper red tones of the mosaic.  This is also a great example of a more expensive material used sparingly for big impact at low cost.  Adding a strip of mosaic tiles made of tumbled marble or glass adds a touch of luxury to even the simplest bathroom tiles.

Mosaic tiles on the floors and walls can mean a lot of grout to keep clean.  Adding a mosaic tile border around the middle of the floor or stripes of mosaic tiles would liven up a plain floor.  In the shower, mosaic tiles can be used with natural stone tile, ceramic tile or porcelain tiles.  Tumbled stone mosaic tiles would have less impact than a glass or colorful ceramic mosaic.  A single row of mosaic tile used as a border high in the shower or at waist height, or both would work well.

Mosaics can also be used to decorate a mirror and bath accessories. Find a flat plain frame to fit your bathroom mirror and cover it with mosaic tile that you use elsewhere to help bring together the design of the bathroom.

This cool bathroom was designed by Sarah Richardson’s show, Sarah’s House. It has a lot of wonderful and stylish design elements that all come together to make it feel polished and styled. Let’s take a look at the major elements of the bathroom.

Use of natural stone. Both the floor and counter top are white marble with gray veining. This is a classic choice of hard surface for bathrooms. Using the marble on both the floor and the counter helps unify the design in a relatively small space.

The glass shower enclosure also helps the small space feel bigger. A shower curtain would close off the space and make the shower feel smaller. The glass opens up the shower space and lets it flow with the rest of the room.

Small tiles are used in an interesting way. Creating stripes of color with small square tiles makes a bigger impact than using all one color or even having a random mosaic pattern. Horizontal stripes help to widen the feeling of the room. The tile is also a nice way to introduce color into the room.

A non-traditional bathroom mirror over the vanity is a nice way to add style to a small bathroom. The round mirror also echoes the round vessel sinks. Both circles break up all the linear shapes of the room.

Silvery sconces complement the silver frame of the mirror as well as the nickel bathroom fixtures, including the faucet and shower head.

In a small space, such as a bathroom, all design elements need to be well thought out to make the room feel bigger than its small footprint.

This room takes advantage of a number of international elements while still providing a comfortable contemporary space. If you’re fortunate enough to have travelled and collected art and other items from a number of countries, take the opportunity to use them to add personality and your own touch to your home.

The wood floor and cream walls provide a good base for the variety of colors and textures featured in this room. Simple architectural elements such as the black molding and the wood surround on the door provide additional charm without distracting from the rich selection of international elements. The straightforward sofa, coffee table and ottoman also work well as a backdrop to the more design-rich pieces.

Let’s start with the light fixture. Most people wouldn’t think of buying a light as a souvenir from another country, but this unique look helps to set the stage for the room’s design.

Give up the idea of having elements match each other. When you purchase international goods, everything will be different, so celebrate that. Take a look at the two candlesticks on the coffee table. On the left an old carved wood carries a red taper that sets off the rich patina of weathered wood. On the right an intricate brass candlestick carries a warm cream candle. Similarities come from the rounded shapes and heights, but the differences work.

The throw pillows are in basic domestic fabrics, but they provide an opportunity to bring in textiles from other countries in the future. A rich area rug could be purchased here in the U.S. or possibly selected from a Turkish bazaar. When you begin with a good basic look of wood floor and earth-tone furniture, you can add those exciting international elements and make your home intriguingly yours.

A bedroom should be a calm oasis to restore your spirit at the end of a day and greet your eyes with harmony in the morning. This traditional style bedroom is awash with calm colors in antique white, grey and soft blues. All the colors fall within a similar range of hues, giving the room an almost monochrome palette punctuated with a few deeper accents.

When laying out a bedroom, find a focal point for the bed to face. This may be a window or fireplace. Often the bed is centered on the longest wall, but you can always center it between two windows. If you have more than one focal point, pick one and be sure to highlight the other. In this room, the beautiful windows have grey shades and cream curtains that frame them and create a focal point. Hanging the television above the fireplace keeps the focus on the fireplace rather than detracts from it.

Flooring in the bedroom should be visually pleasing but also pleasing to bare feet. Hardwood floors with a large area rug or wall to wall carpeting both work well in a bedroom.

Matching wall color, curtain fabric and carpet gives a room a polished monochrome look that can also be soothing if the colors are in cool neutrals. Using neutrals as the base colors allows for easy changes in accessories seasonally or as your taste changes. A neutral upholstered headboard can also be accessorized with a throw or slip cover.

Like fashion, kitchen design goes through trends in color, materials and style. For years the big trend in kitchen design has been beautiful wood cabinets, granite counter tops and traditional styling.  We’ve seen white return as a popular kitchen cabinet and backsplash color. And now we are seeing black and dark grays becoming popular choices for cabinets.  These dark colors create a dramatic space that can work in most style kitchen designs, from farmhouse to contemporary, traditional to modern.

Dark colored cabinets are trending to black, a range of grays, and deep navy. Dark chocolate brown is also being seen. What kind of countertops can work in a dark, dramatic kitchen? That depends on your own style.  Some dark cabinets are being paired with dark granite and marble, soapstone and even cement counters.  Others are using lighter granite, quartz and white marble to balance the deep color.

Floors throughout the home are going darker, as seen in the ebonized wood floor trend.  Kitchens are seeing this trend as well.  Dark wood floors, slate and other dark floor materials work well with the dramatic cabinet colors. A colorful runner or rug can incorporate color into the design as well as provide a comfortable surface underfoot.

When going dark in the kitchen, lighting is even more important.  Under cabinet and task lighting will provide enough light to work and highlight the drama of the room. Metal hardware will stand out against dark cabinets like the perfect piece of jewelry against a little black dress.

You offered and everyone accepted. You’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  Stop with the blood curdling screams. You’re not worried about the dinner; you’re worried about your dining room. Here are a few simple tips to update and restyle your home. Follow our directions and your guests will be calling you Martha.

Have a personal focal point. Your home is YOUR home. Display artwork that you love.

Paint your walls. This is the perfect time to update your color palette. Have you dreamed of a bold color accent wall? This is the time to go for it – or add some wallpaper. Wallpaper is an elegant way to change any room.

Lighting! Even if you don’t replace your light fixtures (which you could totally do!) you can also go an easier route and replace lampshades. Or skip electric lighting altogether and buy dozens of candles to light the room.

Remember your fifth wall – the ceiling. Paint the ceiling the same color as your walls, or paint it a contrasting color. Pay an artist to paint a mural or add decals to add another dimension to your room.

Seating – Add slipcovers to your dining room chairs. This is an economical way to change the feel of your dining room for each season of the year. Don’t feel like new slipcovers? Decorate chair backs with garland or ribbon. Add new and decorative throw pillows on your sofas and armchairs. Tapestry, hound’s-tooth and plaid are all good options.

Replace your area rugs. Pick rugs that are warm and rich in color. Remember that area rugs can be used to define a room or separate a space.

Don’t forget your powder room. Plush towels in seasonal colors and scented soaps are nice. Or go big and hang a chandelier, paint the ceiling gold or add a velvet curtain.

Our designers are full of great holiday decorating ideas. Just ask!