For this blog entry, I'd like to showcase the personal style of my home a little bit, and talk about how we've put things together in a couple of our rooms.
First of all, the living area...
Our primary living space here is where we do most of our relaxing as a family. As you can see, we have the original clay tiling that's pretty common out here in Arizona -- it helps keep the room cool during our summer months. Our primary piece in this room is a large sectional sofa purchased at The Room Store, one of the local chains. It is a corduroy-like fabric, which also was a conscious design choice, given that leather and vinyl upholstery can be very uncomfortable when the temperature gets about 100 degrees.
We've accented this room with an area rug for color, which also matches the tapestry on the wall behind. (Bottom picture, left side) We've also added a few end tables and a coffee table for warmth and functionality. Last, we have a few wall decorations here. A couple pictures, the aforementioned tapestry, and a "C" for our last name. All told, we are pretty happy with this space... but we are always on the lookout for new items and new accents to keep our personal space fresh, new and exciting. (So long as we aren't breaking our piggybanks open to do it!)
The next space I'd like to talk about is the kitchen. The blinds and window-treatments came from the previous home-owner, but the rest of the design here is strictly our flavor. My wife and I prefer a more traditional kitchen, but we have been forced to work with the designs that the builder had on this space. Namely, you may notice that there's no pantry in the kitchen here to work with -- but there ARE tons of cabinets! In terms of our home's style, my wife and I took (and continue to take) a lot of pride in the way our personal influence comes into play. We learned quickly that we couldn't always afford the things we saw in fashion magazines and other celebrity-driven culture, but the internet really helped us understand one thing: There are always economical ways to design your home that won't break the bank.
Pictures That Inspire Me (from a design perspective):
So let's talk about a few things that inspire me. All of these pictures I found via a basic Google Image Search, but I've also been known to pull in designs from sites like Pinterest, HGTV.com, CrateandBarrel.com, PotteryBarn.com, and other design-specific sites.
1) Clean, Symmetrical Cabinetry. It's hard to go wrong with design choices of deluxe cabinets -- particularly because we struggle so much with our own. The lack of a pantry in our space has stymied us on more than one occasion, so in our dreams, we'd love to have cabinets similar to the ones shown here.
2) Granite Counters. We actually re-did our countertops when we moved in, because we recognized that the counters were so important. These are gorgeous, and I like the eat-in kitchen bar too.
3) Large Kitchen Islands with Seating. This is actually one of the areas where our home could use some marked improvement. There's not a lot of space at our island currently, and while we do have two bar chairs there, it certainly would be great to expand upon this space one day.
4) Sectional Sofas with Chaise Lounges. Our sectional sofa is a relatively new additional to our home, as we added this back in January. Previously we had a three-piece sofa / love seat / recliner set, which did not really fit our needs or personality very well. The new sectional allows us to be together in relaxation as we watch a movie, or simply surf our personal devices and laptops together in the same room. It's a great addition to our home and we are happy to have it.
5) Bright colors and vibrant color schemes. Our home currently is a little muted, as it's been designed with earth-tones and relaxing colors. This is fine in areas like the front rooms where we receive the majority of our visitors, but I find a lot of inspiration in rooms that break away from the usual drab and dare to do something different, like the one below.
6) Vaulted and/or high ceilings. We have some nice ceiling designs in some of the rooms of our home, and it certainly can help pull the eye in some unintended directions. We've attempted to design with that in mind. As you can see by the picture below, ceilings can really help give a room character by breaking lines and forcing the eye to see things in new ways.
7) Wood blinds. The existing blinds we have had since we moved into our home are currently on their last legs -- and they've enjoyed a good run. Lately I've been interested in seeing unusual and innovative new ways people are using wood blinds in their home, as I know my day of replacing the ones we have is fast approaching.
EXERCISE! "Grant Re-Does His Living Room"
In this exercise, I'm going to spend a little time redoing my living room from the ground-up. As I've said before, I don't think there's anything terrible about our current living space... but this would assume that A) money is no object, and B) I'm constructing it from scratch instead of doing it all piecemeal as we've done over the years.
So let's begin with the most important piece -- the sectional sofa.
1) SECTIONAL SOFA/CHAISE from THE ROOM STORE
MSRP: $2,499.00
If I might be honest, I originally looked at some of the higher-end sectionals on CrateandBarrel.com, but ended up coming back to units advertised by The Room Store, due primarly to how much sharper and cleaner they looked. The quality on the CB units will undoubtedly be *marginally* better, but were also literally being advertised at twice the price. I will be just as happy with this unit as I would one from CB. This unit looks warm and inviting, and will more than nimbly fit my design style and space easily.2) BENCHWRIGHT COFFEE TABLE from POTTERY BARN
MSRP: $699.00
A great piece. I'm a sucker for dark woods, and the design -- undertable shelving as well as drawers for smaller items like remote controls -- equals a stylish yet still functional piece. I'd be exceedingly happy with a table like this, particularly paired up with matching end-tables for each side of the sectional sofa.
3) AMISH HANDCRAFTED ENTERTAINMENT CENTER from COUNTRY LIVING
MSRP: $2,687.50
More and more people are getting away from entertainment centers -- choosing instead to mount their flat-panel televisions directly to the wall -- but when done right, an entertainment center can help not only draw the eye aesthetically, but also help conceal a lot of the accessories. Items like cable/satellite tuners, DVD and Blu-Ray players, game consoles, movies, and -- worst -- pesky cords can all be arranged and kept from view, making for a much cleaner experience for all. This unit is especially nice, but not too overpowering. You don't want the entertainment center to dominate the room, and this one does a good job of keeping everything straight without creating a spectacle.
4) NAPOLI STERLING WALNUT CEILING FAN from MINKA AIRE
MSRP: $629.99
In a place like Phoenix, air flow is key -- and the name of the game is "go big or go home." This unit from Minka Aire is going to keep air flow circulating in this primary area of our home, and it's going to do so with whisper-like precision and understated class. It's a good unit that should last for the life of the home.
5) ALL-OVER CORAL AREA RUG from POTTERY BARN (9' x 12' size)
MSRP: $849.00
I might be inclined to look at something a bit more economical in the area rug department, should money be an object in this exercise... but if we're playing like it isn't, this is a great rug. It should pull in accents from the couch and the other items in the room, and provide a nice soft respite from all the clay tile. Plus, it's from Pottery Barn, a name I trust and a quality that I know will be good for years to come.
As I look back through the images, and the places where I find inspiration, it's interesting to note that I'm not quite as brand-loyal as I once thought. I managed to find pieces from all over, and despite the fact that my couch probably isn't from a store with the "name brand" value that Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn has... it's still a good piece, and it fits with my design aesthetic a bit more efficiently than anything PB or C&B has on their shelves.
In any case, I hope this gives you a look at how the Chastain home is constructed, and how we'd construct it again if we had to do it all over again.
In closing, here's a picture from a local news broadcast, which reminds us all -- be careful what you ask for in this world, because there's always a chance you might just get it.
Nice job on Blog #3, Grant :)
ReplyDeleteDo you find that designing and decorating is easy or hard for you? Why?
When you compare your "inspire" images with the images you chose for your "actual" makeover, do you feel they are similar or different? If different, why?
Thank you!
One more question for you... What three words would you use to describe your sense of
ReplyDeletestyle/design? What does each word mean to you?
Thanks!
Hi Allison,
ReplyDeleteI don't find the actual act of decorating all that difficult -- what I *do* find difficult is being able to afford the things I want! I have an innate sense of what decorations would work based upon my personal style, but a lot of it is also making sure I'm not bringing in elements that I will be unhappy with over a longer period of time. For instance, bringing in a table that I initially love but then get tired of in a couple years. So that part is less ideal.
In terms of the images I chose for the actual makeover opposed to the inspirational ones... I'd like to think the style of the pieces I chose are relatively in line with one another. The inspirational pictures, however, tended to be ones that wouldn't necessarily work within the confines of the space I occupy. While I'd love to have those gorgeous kitchen cabinets in the first Inspirational picture, the fact remains that from a spacing perspective, I really couldn't have them. It doesn't stop me from desiring them, though, and perhaps if I move to a new home in the future I'll be looking for a space that can accommodate more of these kinds of upgrades.
The three words I would use to describe my sense of style and design are:
1) Functionality. I have an innate desire to ensure that my home furnishings aren't just attractive. There needs to be an underlying function to each piece as well. A case in point would be the entertainment center that I own, as well as the ones I pointed out in this blog entry. EC's are large units, and can easily look out of place if solely used as big cabinets. However, from a utility standpoint, the EC isn't simply just a place to store your television. It draws the eye to a focal point of the room, and allows you to showcase smaller decorative items as a center point of the room itself.
2) Traditional. I enjoy a lot of the earmarks of traditional decorating, such as classic wood grain, brushed metal and solid construction. I don't usually get as much out of art deco styles and modern-looking construction. To me, the home is supposed to be a warm and happy place, and part of that sense of comfort is making sure that people feel relaxed when they come inside. Soft deep couches and chairs, warm furniture styles, and comfortable surroundings is kind of the name of the game.
3) Warmth. I realize that given my surroundings in Phoenix, "warmth" can mean a variety of things. But as I touched upon in my last descriptor, warmth is also the sense that you are at home even when you're not in your own home. This can be a hard sense to approximate, but it's a driving factor in everything we buy and bring into our home. This isn't to say that the pieces we have in our house are older or non-contemporary. If you look at the pictures of our living space, we definitely have nods to modern convenience, but ultimately the goal is to help people relax and enjoy themselves.
Anyway, I hope this helps explain my thought process a little more thoroughly!
Very helpful! Thank you, Grant!
ReplyDelete