Decorate Your Tabletop: Spring Has Sprung!

Haviland's Rose Centifolia

Have you noticed how April showers usually always bring May flowers? Well, it's true this year as a bumper crop of floral designs are now gracing new dinnerware collections.

Coeur Rouge Dinner Plate from Anthropologie

Evenings in Quinto Dinnerware from Anthropologie

Crate & Barrel's Lotta Melamine Plate

Interior design aficionados and our students in the Complete Course in Interior Design should be aware of seasonal decorating trends, and floral themes pick up steam appreciably when the weather turns warmer.

Amour En Cage Tea Cup and Saucer from DeVine

Collage Peony Dinnerware from Lenox

Pottery Barn's embroidered floral Sierra Dinnerware

Click on each photo for more product information, and think spring this year as you aim for chic spring tabletops that wow your family, friends, and design clients.

Butterfly Floral coupe from DeVine

Anmut Bloom Dinnerware from Villeroy & Boch

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Inspiration: Nature Calls

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Alice Matsumoto from Vancouver, BC, Canada has a ring shop and has kindly given us permission to inspire our jewelry lovers at Sheffield with her discoveries. In this post, Alice focuses on rings inspired by nature.

These shapes aren't just inspired by nature — they're colored by nature, too, in the form of dyed paper. Rings by Greek jeweler Silina Pandelidou.

Bonus

UK jeweler Karen Fox is inspired by "architecture and urban landscapes" rather than nature but she, too, has a paper ring. This piece is from her "Pleat" series.

Even more jewelry:

• Julia Magr (Germany) - paper pebbles
• Natalie Gock (Australia) - modern metal
• Evelyn Pelati (Connecticut) - contemporary silver

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Event Planning: You're Going to Love This Peachy Kids Birthday Party!

Love the simplicity of this peachy 4th birthday party from Michelle Sterling for her daughter, Avery. Click here to see Avery’s 2nd birthday party. And this is perfect timing as a number of you asked for more “realistic” DIY birthday party ideas, in addition to those planned by moms who are event designers. We couldn’t agree more! This one is adorable and do-able. The best kind.

The inspiration for the entire party started with that fuzzy orange cat, affectionately known as “cat ball” around the Sterling house. These guys have been a favorite of Avery’s since her first steps. One actually makes an appearance in her 2nd birthday photos!

How cute is this idea for a party activity? Cheerios and lifesavers on pretty ribbon, inspired by an idea in this book. Easy enough for small hands of all ages.

Click to read more ...

Graphic Power: Diamonds & Stripes

June and July Stripe pillows, courtesy of Pine Cone HillWhat do Annie Selkie, warm breezes, cool linens, and ocean blues have in common?  They all evoke the perfect summer vacation home!  But you don’t need to have a vacation home to achieve this sunny, relaxed atmosphere – just a few additions or replacements to your interior design will create the look.

Annie Selkie is a textile designer and owner of several companies, Dash & Albert and Pine Cone Hill.  Together they bring affordable rugs, bedding, and pillows to the home.  Above we have a summery June and July Stripe pillows from Pine Cone Hill, complemented with their herringbone matelasse coverlet. 

striped rugs from Dash & AlbertSelkie also designed a wide range of striped rugs in bright colors and varying stripe widths. There's one for every color scheme you may choose! The diamond rugs have different styles. The tribal rug below is Rhapsody in a woven wool material.  The multi-color diamond is the Harlequin and is a woven cotton rug.  The blue and white diamond is an indoor-outdoor rug in polypropylene – great for beach homes that have a lot of wet traffic. 

rugs from Dash & AlbertWe have discussed other graphic patterns in previous posts – take a look at Graphic Power for more inspiration and ideas.

Interested in learning more about accessories and floor treatments?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories. 

So What's Going on with Rugs These Days?

Bidjar Muted Chrome rug by Jan Kath

There's one subject we love to teach in our Sheffield School Complete Course in Interior Design: spotting trends and how to incorporate trends into a client's overall decorating scheme. We don't want to be slavish to the "latest thing," knowing that it will be kicked to the proverbial curb next year, leaving the client with a tired "so last year" interior. 

Grafitti-inspired Tagged rug by Jan Kath

The secret, of course, is to carefully incorporate accessories and other easy-to-replace pieces that are trendier with more solid signature furnishings in a room. You won't want to trade out a sofa or dining room table, but you won't mind swapping artwork, a vase, or a rug to keep the room current and fresh.

3D plush Mienterra rug from the Terra collection by Stepevi

Which brings me to rugs. If you've been an astute observer of industry trends lately, you might have noticed that rugs aren't following the norm. Like many design categories, they're breaking out, and now we have many companies coming out with categories called Contemporary Rug Art. Art you walk on? Well, why not?

Caucasian Silver Frost from the Deluxe Collection by Calle Henzel

We know that flooring is a basic design component in any room. They provide color to a room, texture, and utility. Utility? Try living in a New York City apartment where everyone is piled on top of one another; if you have wood floors and you don't have rugs down, you'll soon get complaints (so utility can equal both comfort underfoot as well as vital sound proofing).

Aldo Taccono Intense rug from Second Session Collection by Calle Henzel

I've chosen some of my favorite modern rug art pieces, and you can click on each image for more product information. Stay current with rug trends (and other design trends)! It's surprising how much things are changing.

Rugs from the Diamond Dust / Nordic Raw collection by Calle Henzel

If you're interested in learning more about interior design and decorating trends, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.