Are You Balanced or Artfully Mixed Up?

No, this is not Psychology 101.  I'm talking symmetry vs. asymmetry.  It seems that we humans have an innate tendency to fall into one of  two camps -- keeping things very orderly and balanced (in our decorating) or preferring to mix things together without the need to have things match.  Successful design keeps a foot in both camps.

Since I mentioned Psychology 101, I will say that in my experience, some people really are wired so precisely that they would be physically uncomfortable in a room where the chairs didn't match, the lamps flanking a sofa were different, or a vignette didn't seem orderly.  An entryway like this one, above,  from Country Home Magazine may make a "symmetrical person" flinch, because things are "off".  In fact, it is a charming, welcoming vignette.  But, my point?  We are who we are,  and in decorating, neither is wrong.  Both symmetrical and asymmetrical design can have a purpose, evoke a feeling, or set a tone for a space.

To keep this post focused and orderly, :) I'm going to show you images of symmetry in design, and save its counterpart for another day.  Symmetry, along with providing balance in a space, also invokes a feeling of formality, even in the most casual of spaces.

Southern Living

This dining room, above, is fantastically symmetrical.  Notice the chandeliers, the trees, and everything on the table.

Southern Living

 The symmetry in this dining room, with its rough-hewn wooden chairs and table legs, is instantly more formal because of the balanced arrangement of accessories.

Country Home Magazine

 Check out the art wall and it's asymmetry -- it lends a casual feel to the room, while the matching, symmetrically arranged chairs bring instant order and formality.  Same with the matching chairs, below.

Country Home Magazine

 Both of these living room images artfully mix the symmetrical and asymmetrical to give a funky vibe.

Southern Living

 Gorgeous!

A healthy mix of both styles in a home is what keeps it interesting.  Too much symmetry, it feels stuffy and uptight.  Not enough, it can feel disorderly.

So, do tell, what innate camp do you fall into?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

A Peak at a Friend's Edgy Home

Do you have a friend who makes you laugh so hard, you sometimes question getting together because you know your cheeks will hurt for hours after?  That's my friend Glen.  We got together this afternoon to talk about doing his dining room over.  My face aches.

But the dining room makeover is for another post.  I want to share a peak into the home he has created with his partner Mario.  It's cozy, masculine, and a bit edgy.  I love the way he's done some things, and I thought you'd like to see it.

The house is done in strong, dark colors like black, brown, and gray with relief from white trim and other things throughout.  Here is a shot looking from the kitchen into the entry room that greats you when you come in the back door.  I love the continuous reflection in the mirror.

Here's an angle of that entry room.  Isn't that Robert Allen fabric on the door gorgeous?

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Now the living room...

I love this eclectic wall on the opposite side of the room, although, being the control freak that I am, I told him the mirror has to come down a little to relate better to the space. :)

Now, check out how Glen created a "headboard" out of drapes...

The headboard wall of drapes was an inspired idea, because this is the window behind it...

In the morning, to let light in when they want it, there are drape holdbacks on either side of the window.  I wish these pictures showed the true, rich gorgeous colors of this room!  Here are a few more angles.

Great texture goes a long way in a home, doesn't it?

I'll be posting from time to time about the progress on the dining room.  I know we'll have a lot of laughs along the way -- I hope we can get it all done!

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Creating Interest at Different Levels

My client's family room is the perfect example of needing to decorate, accessorize, and add texture at different levels within one space.

Look at all the planes in this one room.  After the highest point was dressed with artwork that the client fell in love with (over an exceedingly high mantle), the windows in the room were all treated to great texture with woven-wood blinds.  At the next level -- the hearth.  Keeping accessories at eye level or below in any room  helps establish a relationship between furnishings, those accessories, and you.  It helps envelope you with atmosphere. 

Here, I rearranged her furniture so that her matching chairs flanked the fireplace.  Before, the very high hearth was empty, offering a cold, not-so-cozy feeling in front of the fire.  A beautiful chaise was to the left, and there was no chair to the right (they were flanking the entrance to the room, making it easy for your eye to miss them as you focused on...the focal wall!).

Now, by adding a mossy green velvet ottoman, a plant, some books and a candle stick at eye level (and easily accessible), the once empty and chilly hearth now feels like an active part of the space.  It serves as a table, inviting you to grace it with a cup of tea. 

Above each chair, on the side walls, are beautiful floral giclees.  Make sure to hang artwork low enough so that it maintains its relationship to the furnishings nearest it.  Too often, we see artwork floating out on a wall, lonely, desolate, not talking to anything around it.  It feels adrift, and that can end up being the feeling you get in the space -- unconnected.

While my client isn't fond of a lot of "stuff" on her surfaces, we did have fun gathering some items from around the house to style her new bookcase (with a remote lift-system tv hidden in the middle section!  Lucky girl!).  Here is a peak...

When you consider your own space, look at all the different levels, or planes, within it -- do they talk to each other and contribute to the atmosphere you're after?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Happy 80th Birthday, Dad!

 My Dad.  My best memory is of him taking me to the movies on a bitter cold, snowy day after my morning session of kindergarten.  We went to see Lady and the Tramp.  It was the 70's, and my dad was laid off, so he was around a lot.  I remember him taking me into the theater and as we were just about the only ones for the afternoon show, he left me under the watch of the older gentleman behind the popcorn counter, as he went out with borrowed newspaper to cover the car windshield.  I wasn't afraid, standing there at the window, watching him by myself.  It was the 70's after all.  A different world, then.  I remember the feeling of how he just took care of everything. He was so smart not to let the windshield freeze.  My dad could do anything.  I can recall every minute of those few hours.  Special.  Just. So. Special.   And now, he's 80 and I'm still 5  (ok, not 5, 20....). :)

Dad and my Mom, his bride of  54 years.

So, for two days last week, you endured my Party Prep posts, and I thought I'd show you a bit of what I served.  Cooking is a joy for me, and an extra one for this occasion.

My Butternut Squash and Crab recipe you can find here.

I did some petite croissants filled with lobster (a favorite of Dad's).  I used only a teeny bit of mayo to hold the meat together, some salt and pepper, and then drizzled each sandwich with warm butter before serving.

Veal Saltimbocca also made the table, and I did some with chicken, as well, as my girls don't like veal.  The recipe for this can be found at the bottom of my very first post, Welcome to Sofas & Sage, here.

Then there were some oven roasted potatoes with garlic and parsley, along with a few other dishes.

Thanks for following along during the party prep, and for helping me to say Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turns 80 today, October 13th.

Here's to many more!!

Dad, at 80, me, still 5.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Tree House Escape

Gotta love a good friend who thinks about your blog when she's out driving with her kids!  Here are some tree house pictures from a yard in Rhode Island, in a town by the water.  She stopped to ask the owner if she could take some pictures, and he offered a tour.  Enjoy!

Can you imagine the joy this would bring to your family?  And, what a great place to escape to when you can't take another minute of the craziness of life! :)

Have a great day.
Talk to you soon,
Carol

Choosing a Rug with a Client

No matter the style, a rug should enhance the furnishings of a room.  Sometimes, it is the inspiration for an entire room design, sometimes it is added later as the room evolves.  Occasionally, a room can stand on its own without one (read my post on this, here).  Today, while dropping off some pillows we had done for her family room, my client Donna asked for my opinion on a rug for the music room.

The chairs and side tables we had ordered for the music room recently arrived, and Donna, who had told me she was going to wait on a rug for the space, had suddenly changed her mind and called to tell me she'd purchased a rug, but didn't know if it was right.  Her rug guy, Fahad, was bringing some additional rugs for her to look at.  This was the first one, which she loved and had lived with for a week, but wasn't sure if it was the one.

When I came in the house, my first reaction was "wow!"  that's a gorgeous rug!  You would think that would be a great response.  Not necessarily.  Unless you want your rug to be art on the floor as a focal point, a rug, like all the other pieces in a room, ought to help produce a reaction of "wow, what a gorgeous room."  It should play together with the other pieces -- not having to match exactly, mind you, but each should make the other look good, not steal the show.  So, we looked at some other choices.

Fahad laid down three rugs with beige grounds and hints of red in them, which talked to the drapes (but were too bland and weren't enhancing anything), and Donna's heart still went to the first, more vivid and formal one.  The red just spoke to her.  I should have photographed every one he put down, but I didn't (duh!).  In the end, it came down to the initial red one, and my favorite, a more muted, softer, and somewhat more casual piece.

It's hard to see from the picture above, but the new introduction, on the right, is so much softer in the room. It calmed the whole room down, while speaking to, but not fighting for attention with, the drapes.  The new brown velvet french chair, which will live to the right of the armoire (along with new artwork and floor lamp), is shown below in a close up of the newer rug.  This picture really shows a truer sense of the warmth of this rug.

Yum.  Unlike Donna's initial choice, with it's more vivid color, tight pattern and ivory border, which seemed too formal, this one speaks to the casual, warm elegance of her European-inspired home.  It also conveys a warm, "come sit" feeling she wanted the room to have, as it's where her daughter's practice the piano and guitar.  I'll hear in a week or so what the final decision is.

On the topic of how a rug should enhance a room, but not steal the show, check out Maria's living room rug on her blog Colour Me Happy.  I think it is beautifully balanced with the other furnishings of the room (I thought it would be a fun look at a great rug in an entirely different style room.)  Click here to see what I mean.

So tell me, does your rug steal the show, or does it make everyone else look good, too?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Party Prep Day Two...

So, my pal and I  were off again, ready to wrap up the food shopping...

His attention is on a squirrel!

After making the rounds at the fish market and the grocery store, we went home to start cooking and building the buffet table.  First on the list, making a floral arrangement.  I went outside and cut some tree branches for fall color, some fading fern, a few hosta leaves, and some coleus.  It's amazing what you can do on a budget -- think outside the box.  I'm sure everyone has a gorgeous arrangement waiting to grace a table, right from their own backyard.

I added the sunflowers I'd bought the day before.

Then it was time to start building some interesting height on the table.  Easy to do -- just grab some sturdy items from around the house, and make sure to put heat protectors on them if you'll be putting hot food there.

Now to add some fabric -- I often get fabric remnants, like this toile, and use them either layered over another tablecloth, or on their own.  This is a great budget-stretcher -- you get all kinds of table coverings for a lot less than a collection of finished tablecloths (and what people notice is the color and pattern, not the fact that it's a piece of fabric!)  Just be sure to have neat edges, or tuck them under.  Next, the flowers and some plates.

The table will end up with several heights of serving plates -- doing this makes your guests feel special, I think.  So much more interesting than a bunch of serving pieces spread out on a table with a small flower arrangement flanked with candles.  Then it was time to start on the dining table (oh, and do a lot of cooking in between all of this!)

Not super exciting,  I must confess I was running out of steam, with the cooking and of course, balancing family life on my day off.  I felt like Kipper at this point...

After following me around non-stop all day in the kitchen, the stress just got to be too much.

Wrapping up a day of prep, I put a pot of mums in the living room for a little fall color.

Ready for my dad's 80th birthday party!  Stay tuned for some photos of the food, and of course, the birthday boy!

Talk to you soon,
Carol