Tips for" Softening" your Rooms - Recap

I'm back...honestly I have to say, it's so hard to be faithful to blogging when all my time is tied up being faithful to client projects. I know that those of you who have a design business out there can surely relate, right? I tend to get caught up in all the "details" of each design project...for hours each day! Believe me when I say this...there are tons of details in this business!  Some people use to tell me that it "must be nice to be a designer and work with all that pretty fabric and accessories all day long"....uh hum, yea right!  It's not just about the "pretties"....that part is great, but there are so many other aspects of it behind the scenes that nobody ever sees...or perhaps can even fathom.  But, I do promise to pop in here with the blog as often as I can...so please keep stopping by.

For a few weeks we've been talking about ways you can 'soften' your room.  For a little recap of a few things, today we will take a photo of a room that I used as an example of a 'hard and cold' room in the beginning of this series...and we will add to the room what elements we've discussed so far.

Here was the room...

Same room...with a little help!

Elements added:

*Window valances (only shown on part of the windows here)

*Rug (added one in the Great Room towards the back-right side of photo!)

*Pillows (can be used in Dining Room chairs and in Great Room)

*Greenery and Florals (used on table, countertops, and in Great Room corner)

It's simply amazing how just a few extra 'touches' can totally transform a room into soft and cozy! What element do YOU think added the most to this room?

More on "Room Softening" later!

Have a "Simply Irresistible" Day!

Ta-Ta!

Today's FAB Finds for the Office

Not sure just how many of you readers were hit by the snow and ice last night, but in case there are some of you then today's the day to work from home...and maybe 'add' some new home-office finds!

    

  

  

    

    

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

As you can see...there are plenty of great ideas for any style home-office.  So which items could YOU add in?  Be sure to go check them all out over at Joss & Main today.  You may just 'transform' your entire office!

Have a "Simply Irresistible" Day!

Image Credits:  Joss & Main

*I TRY TO CREDIT ALL IMAGES, IF THERE ARE ANY PHOTOS OR IMAGES HERE THAT ARE NOT CREDITED CORRECTLY OR YOU WISH THEM TO BE REMOVED, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL GLADLY OBLIGE. THEY ARE BEING USED HERE FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF DISCUSSING INTERIOR DESIGN. THANK YOU!

Our Life...

via

I saw this and couldn't resist sharing it with you...it is SO true.

It's so very easy to get stuck in life...same town, same house, same job, same driving route, same restaurants, same daily schedule, same design style (oh yes, I've seen it) same...same...same!  Same is easy.  Sometimes you don't even have to think because you are so programmed to doing the same thing the same way, right?

Let 2014 be your year...of CHANGE!  Change is hard (I can attest to this), but it can be a really good thing (I have indeed found this to be true). What could use a change in YOUR life?  Dare you???

Have a "Simply Irresistible" Weekend!

FUN Client Challenge - Progress Update #2

Thanks for stopping by again today!  I thought I'd now share with you the design styles we are using for this entire house of custom window treatments that we decided to share with you.  Want to see?  We are excited that you can go through the process with us!

Great Room

Just ignore any additional 'notes' you may see on sketches for our workroom!

 Dining Room - except not using trim in here

 Master Bedroom - Bay Area

Shown here with Cascades UNDER swags (give my clients the choice!)

Again, ignore our 'ramblings' with the sketches please!

 How it will look on their window...with choice of Cascades OVER the swags...which, by the way, is the 'look' she likes best so this is what it will be.

 Single Window in Master Bedroom

 "His"  Home Office

 Laundry Room 

Colors in fabric really don't show up well here

Kitchen

 Guest Bathroom

This is Indoor-Outdoor Fabric because this is a window INSIDE of the shower.

 Guest Bedroom -1

We will decide this week IF using trim or not - she isn't sure yet if she wants it or not.

 Guest Bedroom - 2

These draperies will be shorter as they will hang down to the window ledge behind the leather headboard she has...see below (yes, greenery that's there will GO!).  We will have cream bedding and pop this fabric above again with a custom dust ruffle and a couple pillows on the bed...FUN pattern!

That's it all except for the Master Bathroom sketch, which I have saved in a program that won't let me download to this and I just don't have the time to re-save this morning!  Sorry, but hopefully you'll get to see the finished window treatments in the end.  Now, we are pricing the job, selecting the hardware (depends on finishes and projections needed, etc.) and then we'll move on to...all the purchasing of the fabrics....work-orders for the workroom with all the gazillion details, etc.....!  There is NEVER a dull moment around here, that is for sure!  We LOVE what we do!

We hope you will be back for more on this design project.  I thought this would be a great time to show you this stage of the process since we've been talking about how window treatments 'soften' our rooms....no doubt!

Have a "Simply Irresistible" Day!

All images and designs are the sole property of Alpha & Omega Interiors.  Please do not use or copy without written permission from Alpha & Omega Interiors.  Thank You!

FUN Client Challenge - Progress Update #1

As you know I showed you the BEFORE photos of a design project we just recently started here.  We have been doing lots of work behind the scenes...want to see a little of it?

As you know...when working with fabric selections the entire studio and office can get to looking like THIS...floor and all...because there can be so many directions with fabric that you can take the project.  

This is one, of many, phases I put my heart and soul into...to have asked all the right questions (hopefully!) to determine the tastes and styles and pattern likes and dislikes, etc....of our client.  So, I pull out many choices that would work, but then I go through the process of elimination to fine-tune it to what I believe that client would like best.  I do give them a couple of choices usually and I ALWAYS let them know at time of presentation that I want THEM to be happy so to just let us know if we 'missed it' at all and we'll gladly go back and fine-tune it even more.  THIS is a key step in making and keeping HAPPY clients!!!

Once we feel we've got it together enough to make a presentation to the client we start by ordering memo samples of the fabric.  Then, we do our inspiration board, which happens to be only fabric right now for this client.

Can you tell how the rooms already have a 'flow'...just from the fabric selections?  That is important and we keep that in mind too.  However, all the choices weren't on the board and I was well-armed with several others (especially for the Master Bedroom and Office that I knew would work). 

Also, the other two Guest Bedrooms didn't fit on this board above ...so I had another partial inspiration board for those fabrics...as well as a few other choices in books to show (if necessary).

The pink in this bedroom in being pulled into the room to fit with the colors in the art in that room that she has...and she wanted to "make a bold statement" in this room too.  The far left fabrics were choices to go with the one room that she already had custom bedding in...which had to be a 'keeper' in that room of course.

Here is that Guest Bedroom....with her paisley bedding she has....can you guess which fabric she went with for the draperies (and we're adding a custom dust ruffle in the same fabric to also go with her bedding to repeat the fabric in the room again!)  Bottom right STRIPE - a small cutting of it only is on this board, but it is beautiful in her room.  We both liked the wider stripe better...and we felt we needed to go with a stripe in this room.

Here is what we are using in the other Guest Bedroom to go with this...

This picture also has the blue in it...and the blue in the fabric is just enough 'grey blue' to work with this.  She's happy...so I'm happy!

I don't know why I started you in the back guest bedrooms....oh well, too late now!  We'll just head on around to the great room now...come along!

Remember her furnishings?  (Just FYI...we will be tweaking some accessories in this room after we get all the work-orders for the draperies done!)

This is the gorgeous fabric that is going at that huge sliding glass door area (will be to left of this photo) and the style will be something like this...(yes, this is a photo of her window too and the fabric was downloaded so she could see the finished vision!)

So now that I've shown you that...I'll just show you the final inspiration board with all of the fabric selections for these other rooms....final fabric selections are...

Bottom left - Great Room as shown above

Top left - Dining Room

Top middle - Breakfast Nook

 (which looks like this and I had ordered her a 1/4 yard to see full repeat of this fun fabric....below)

Top right - Laundry Room

Middle/Center of Board - Hubby's Home Office

Bottom Middle - stripe - Master Bedroom

Bottom Right - Master Bathroom

(to tie in with MBR and also that picture that threw the blue into that room!)

There is no yellow in the fabric (nor the MBR) but I think it will be fine...she has other yellow accessories in this bath...and we will be adding 'things' and putting something up above this picture to 'raise the eye'.

And...it looked great with the Master Bedroom fabric...

So...how did YOU enjoy being a part of the process of this interior design project?  I hope you enjoyed it and will be back when we share the window treatment....STYLES we'll be using!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to...

Have a "Simply Irresistible" Day!

Images are all the property of Alpha & Omega Interiors.  Please do not use or duplicate without written permission by Alpha & Omega Interiors.  Thank you!