orange ya glad there's orange…

My mother the nurse used to say that we crave what we’re missing in our bodies, so I must be missing some Vitamin C in my decor, ’cause I’m craving the colour orange. This time last year, I did the same thing (see my Hooray for Orange post). I was fixated on orange and yet, there’s still not a speck of it in my home (except of course my hair…which is orange, not red. Why do we call orange hair, red?)…tsk, tsk, tsk.

Jonathan Adler has a wonderful way of combining seemingly disparate patterns and colours in such pleasing combinations. The blue, orange and coral really balance the intensity of the chocolate brown walls.

photograph by Jessica Antola via Style at Home magazine

I can’t help staring at the rug in this room. It’s so beautiful and just the right degree of orange. This room was done by Cristi Holcombe of Charm Home Design.

photo courtesy Cristi Holcombe

Here’s another vignette by Cristi. Just look at those beautiful drapes….sigh

photo courtesy Charm Home Designs

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know I adore Designer’s Guild. I dream of having DG window coverings flowing in summer breezes throughout my mansion some day!

photo courtesy Designer's Guild

Quick…where does your eye go first? Uh huh…the orange pillow…whether you like it or not.

photo courtesy Designer's Guild

This could work. An orange phone would be the perfect little pop of orange in my kitchen. Love the vintage chic vibe too! Oldphones.com has lots of great phones.

photo via Habitually Chic

Enough about me. What’s your favourite colour? The one that your eye is always drawn to? The colour that just makes you feel good?

happy summer happy color…

Can you hear me sighing with relief? It’s finally summer! Although the sun isn’t shining here, we’ve been promised a peak at it later in the week. When I think of summer, I think of color, so what better post than one on color in decor? I’ve collected an eclectic assortment of colorful rooms.

My inspiration for this blog is a bungalow designed by a fabulous Canadian designer, Jonathan Legate.

Photograph by Stacey Haines for Style At Home

I can see myself living happily in a room like the one above. The combination of warm buttery yellow walls with just the right red–especially the striped chair–and the gorgeous black toile drapes is such an inviting combination! Just the right degree of cozy & drama.

photograph by Stacey Haines for Style at Home

I think I finally get it…fabric is king! Look at how fantastic this room looks with that fabric. I might not give it a second look if I was leafing through swatches, but a designer like Jonathan has the experience to see the big picture and understand how it will make a room shine. Yet another example of why it pays to hire a designer.

photo courtesy Benjamen Moore

Pottery Barn’s summer paint colors for Benjamin Moore are really interesting. As paint chips, they don’t jump out at me, but once I see them in a vignette, they’re fabulous. The brown, blue and red in this room somehow manage to seem light and airy. Go figure! At this point, I think you’ve got a sense of how color-challenged I really am…lettin’ it all hang out here on the pages of this blog.

photo courtesy Benjamin Moore

I just think this cozy turquoise room with the gorgeous-smorgeous bedding is the cat’s meow! I’d never leave my bedroom if it looked like this!

photo courtesy Lonny magazine

You know me…gotta get a little orange in here somewhere. This appeals to the modern side of me.

photo courtesy Midwest Living

For some reason, I’m craving a mojito and a fan! I doubt that Mark would actually join me on this verandah for a drink…hmmmm…wait a minute..!

photo courtesy Elle Decor

This rosy red is “in” right now. So if you want to be super cool (just like me), rose is the color for you! I just can’t decorate with it, ’cause it would be a major clash with my red hair–I’m  a big believer in decorating with the colors that flatter you! My mom would probably claim that horizontal stripes on chairs make you look wider…hmmmm!

photo courtesy Benjamin Moore

photo courtesy Lonny magazine

The boldly colorful couch and the gold gilded picture frame remind me of some of the decor I’ve seen in Britain. It just says, “sit down and we’ll have a really good chat”.

I’m hopeful that this summer will be full of color. Full of friends. Full of fun!

green-eyed beauty…

Who says it’s hard being green? Not me! Next to pink, I think my favorite color is green–particularly Kelly Green and Chartreuse. It’s just lucky for me that green is hot right now (not that’s I’d really care if it wasn’t). Here are some examples of wonderful uses of my second favorite color. Brandon Barre is a talented photograper, and I love, love, love his work. He gets to work with some of my design crushes (including my BFF Candace Olsen. Candace, call me. Let’s do lunch). This is one of his exquisite shots. I love the acid greens with black–drama, baby, drama!

photo by Brandon Barre

Oh, okay…I’ll show you another one of his amazing photos! Isn’t this divine? The dark flooring is the perfect contrast against the seafoam walls.

photo courtesy Brandon Barre Photography

This is such a gorgeous wallpaper. When it comes to decorating, one of the most important principles is to choose your upholstery fabrics first and choose your wall color last. I always believe in exceptions, and, in this case, I would choose the wallpaper and then work in the rest of the decor around it. Don’t ya just love that sweet bamboo-esque chair? Bamboo is hot, hot, hot right now. (I have the feeling that somebody’s going to email and say “That isn’t bamboo, you twit!”)

photo courtesy York Wallcoverings

Tobi Fairley is very talented designer. She puts a fresh twist on traditional design, and I’m always giddy when I see her rooms in magazines and websites. Green and silver is a fantastic combination, but leave it to Ms. Fairley to come up with the brilliant idea of using both metals as accents with kelly green!

photo courtesy Tobi Fairley

And what would a blog be without a little jhooshing from Designers Guild? Nottin’ I tells ya! Ahhhhh…green and pink…sigh! Wouldn’t a beautiful little silver aluminum table or a mirrored table look goooooorgeous between these little glamour girls?

photo courtesy Designers Guild

Okay…so we’ve now established that I love green, but let me qualify my appreciation a little. I can hate green too (hey, Gemini, can’t help it). I just want to be clear that I can HATE every single color on the spectrum if it’s used poorly. This is an example of the type of design that draws strong negative reactions from me (I apologize to everyone who loves it). If this is your cup of tea, that’s great go for it, but I just won’t be able to visit 🙂

photo courtesy House Beautiful via Lipstick on Your Teeth

Now that we got that out of the way, back to something divine. This lovely room from Country Living magazine.

photo courtesy Country Living Magazine

Now get out there and get some green!!!

shine never gets old…

Dear Silver,

Don’t go changing, to try and please me. You never let me down before. Don’t imagine you’re too familiar, and I don’t see you any more!

Forever yours,

Jennifer

Some things just never go out of style, and silver is on top of the list! I always follow trends with interest, but I don’t always go along when things are declared “over”. Although the design pundits declare it “in” and “out” regularly, it really never goes out of style. I figure, if you love it, then it’s in style…at least at your home it is!

(Nobody panic! Silver has not been deemed “out”. I’m just sayin’, if that were to happen, I’d have to deem “them” stupid.)

photo courtesy Coburn Architecture

photo courtesy Laura Hardin via Houzz

photo by Designs by Shoshana via Houzz

photo courtesy Country Living

photo by Amoroso Design via Houzz

photo by Celia James via Houzz

photo courtesy Apartment Therapy

Call me crazy, but I doubt everyone is going to freak out and change all their fixtures to bronze, just because someone decides chrome is so “last season”. In my opinion (and really that’s all that matters, right?), I think silver is a versatile neutral that packs a style punch!

window dressing eye candy…

I have been living in the same home for ten years and I think I’ve got a problem. I don’t have any drapes–shriek!!! Don’t panic, I’ve got blinds and the whole world is spared from seeing me when I get up in the morning–shriek!!!! It’s just that I have a bad case of can’t-make-up-my-mind-itis. I’m stuck on which way to go; therefore, I go nowhere.

My Victorian-style house has a large turret, which means I have a large bay window in the living room and another in our master bedroom right above. You might think a turret is “precious”, but it’s a design curse!! The thought of having to finance six drapery panels instead of two has frozen me in fear of making a huge style mistake that costs an arm and a leg. Do I go neutral? Do I go patterned? Then I think about the couches and the whole idea gets tossed out the window (I can whip up a pun even in the midst of intense drapery dilemma).

In my self-taught opinion, window dressing is like mascara. You can trowel on all the make-up you like, but if you forget the mascara…march right back in that bathroom missy! Drapes finish a room–they’re that magical something that just makes a room sing. Imagine any of these rooms without them. They just wouldn’t have the same oomph, would they?

courtesy HGTV

HGTV

design & photo by Kishani Perera interior designs