Decorating Tips: Wall Decor

If you're looking for a different way to decorating your walls - take a look at these wall accessories. Instead of the usual paintings or prints, go for three-dimensional accessories.  Above we have a variety of floral decor, the silver and red flowers are made from metal and available from Joss & Main. The turquoise carving is from painted teak. Below we have colorful ceramic tiles with a raised sunflower motif - from Hayneedle. 

For a classical theme, try plaster relief panels.  This graceful urn from Restoration Hardware could top a fireplace mantel.  If you want an exotic theme, turn to this intricate Islamic pointed arch plasterwork from Hayles & Howe.  The panel can placed over a door or simply by itself on a wall. 

(Urn Plaster from Restoration Hardware)

Islamic arch from Hayles & Howe

If you really want creative control and a variety of configurations to choose from, take a look at the Wallter panels from Inmod.  These are light weight shapes that can be painted and positioned into different designs. Below is the Retro Hex shape and the Retro Teardrop shapes. 

Wallter Panel from Inmod

Wallter Panel from Inmod

Interested in learning more about accessories?  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.

http://www.inmod.com

Home Decorating Trend: Asian Meets Contemporary in Interior Design

Asian accents at Two Buttons Gallery, Frenchtown, NJ

Interior designers are always looking for trends to help guide their clients through the choppy waters of tastemaking. Trends, as we know, can be good and bad. Trends, if they're too "trendy," can come and go quickly, leaving your design project looking dated and so last year. But other trends are strong design currents that may be good to follow because they make good sense and are design-worthy styles. One example is combining Asian accents with contemporary furniture. This makes sense on many levels.

• Asian accents add international flair to interiors, as well as providing decorative points of interest.
• Contemporary furniture oftentimes borrows lines and motifs from traditional Asian furnishings, so there's a definite harmonious blend of new and old when combined with Asian antiques and accessories.
• The West has been fascinated with the exotic styling of Asian decor for centuries, and this trend is a natural carry-forward and fresh update of our decorating heritage. 

Click here to read my latest piece for Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace, where my design partner and I interview bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband Jose Nunez; they own a large import gallery in New Jersey, and you'll like Liz and Jose's advice about how to select good Asian accessories for your home and design projects. To accompany the advice in the article, I've selected a few contemporary furniture pieces that will style well with Asian antiques and accessories. Click on each photo for more product information.

The perfect display of Asian accessories: the Collectors Cabinet from Global Views

Jiun Ho's Hans Night Table is a sleek pedestal to display Asian treasures.

Functional coffee table from BoConcepts - sleek lines, Zen profile, go well with Asian accessories

Shiny metal clads the Terra Console from West Elm, a perfect surface to display accents!

Global Views' Cathay Arm Chair has a sandblasted finish that makes this Asian piece contemporary, ideal for an Asian throw.

If you're interested in learning more about interior design and decorating, 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.

Let's Go Home Decor Shopping at the MoMA Design Store!

Jessica Carnevale Stretch Chair (2010)

I wonder how many of our interior design students and home decor buffs like to go window shopping through catalogs. I receive so many each week, but I browse through them all, and do so voraciously.

Jason Feinberg and Alyssa Zeller-Feinberg Gummy Bear Light (2011)

It's fun to see what's newly available for the home, and in particular, I love the influence of international design trends on our formerly "Martha Stewart" American design scene (not to take anything away from Martha; we owe her a debt of gratitude for establishing a high standard for American decor and entertaining, and she still sets the bar in many ways for the U.S. vernacular).

Matisse "Polynesie Le Ciel" framed print

But I digress - catalog shopping! Here are a few of my favorites from the Fall 2012 MoMA Design Store catalog.

Makoto Komatsu Crinkle Bag Vase (1975)

Click to read more ...

10 Decor Favorites: Asian Styling at Bungalow 5

Shanghai 2-Drawer and 2-Door Cabinet

Home goods and furniture companies are preparing their fall collections, and we've been receiving previews of what will be coming your way in the consumer interior design market. Today's collection previews to the professional design trade will trickle down to stores and design clients' homes in the future. One trend we noticed from the new collections from Bungalow 5 Furniture is a focus on Asian influences. In fact, with mirrored furniture like the Shanghai Cabinet (above), we're getting an interesting mash-up of Hollywood Regency glamour injected into more traditional Asian styled pieces.

Legend Temple Jar

This will definitely help designers fit these Asian-inspired pieces into a wider variety of decorating schemes: the mirrored looks will go well with practically anything in the range from contemporary to traditional, while truly eclectic spaces will benefit from a sprinkling of Asian accents. A good rule of thumb: if the colors and forms of the pieces are harmonious and appealing, relating well to other elements in the room you're decorating, then go for it! Here are a few more Asian looks we found in the upcoming Bungalow 5 collections; click on each photo for more product information.

Kyoto Lamp

Roxanne Covered Mei Ping Jar in Turquoise Glazed Porcelain

Shanghai Console

Click to read more ...

5 Tips and 5 Rooms - How to Accessorize a Space

New York is considered an interior design world capital, and we're fortunate to know some of the finest design firms in the City. We talked with Benjamin Bradley and David Thiergartner of Bradley Thiergartner Interiors, and asked them if they could share some of their top tips for accessorizing a room with our readers.

Room 1: Riverside Drive Living Room - accessories harmonize with important art deco furnishings

1. Be detailed from the start of any project. Rooms, even small rooms, require certain elements and almost always more moving pieces than are fully understood by the client. This adds up in both time and cost. Each element or labor or material on its own may not seem financially significant but as the tally ticks, clients can become nervous at the bottom line cost. When accessorizing comes at the end of a room project - after key furnishings have been selected and the architectural bones have been worked on - some clients have decorating fatigue and may not want to go the distance to accessorize. Cut fatigue off right at the start of any project by giving a very complete and detailed design presentation upfront. Show how the room will look with accessories as well as the basic elements.
 

Room 2: Soho Entry - the power of a few well-placed accessories2. Show incremental results. When a client can “see” their home coming together, they get excited. It is our job to keep the excitement going. Keeping the job at a certain pace also helps. Once a client is engaged, they oftentimes become used to the outlay of cash but are also seeing results at the same time. We all want something for our money! Go room by room and show what a completely accessorized space looks like, and keep going with that momentum throughout the rest of the job.

Room 3: Hampton Showhouse Bedroom - an oversized end table helps to pile on the accessories

Click to read more ...