Design Savvy is a full service Interior Decorating and Design Consulting Firm, serving Dundas, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville specializing in Residential Interior Decorating and Design. Design Savvy offers many ideas and creative solutions to compliment the individual needs of clients while working within their budget, timelines and respecting your personal taste.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
It's happened! The new colour for 2015 has been announced. EVERY year since 1990, the Pantone Colour Institute has
nominated a Colour of the Year, forecasting which specific hue designers and
consumers will all supposedly be using, wearing, and buying for the following
12 months. Last week, Pantone announced that the 2015 Colour of the Year is
Marsala.
In a company press release, Pantone described the colour as
“a naturally robust and earthy wine red.” While last year’s Colour of the Year,
Radiant Orchid, “encouraged creativity and innovation, Marsala enriches our
mind, body and soul, exuding confidence and stability,” said Leatrice Eiseman,
executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute.
A rich colour, it's red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness. This
hearty, yet stylish tone is universally appealing and translates easily to
fashion, beauty, industrial design, home furnishings and interiors,” Pantone
proclaimed.
Below are some pictures where this new colour can be found.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Decking your Halls....
I am a little late with this post but since some of us are also a little late in 'decking our halls' I thought it may help. It always
seems to just creep up on us. This year I was at a little event where the theme for decorating this year is natural, red and gold. Well that should be easy to accomplish.
Natural Elegance
When it
comes to decorating, why not just enjoy the fun and anticipation.
Step back
in time to when things were much simpler. Come up with new ways to showcase
your treasured, current decorations along with adding new, simple refreshing
additions. Have fun decorating!
There
are many places to purchase décor items where you are not spending large
amounts of money. One of the most inexpensive decorating sources can be in
your own back yard or nearby parks – pinecones, fallen branches,
anything organic is environmentally friendly and looks warm and cozy. You can re-purpose items you already have in
a new and different ways. Since it is
only seasonal, the look or theme can change each year without purchasing an
entire new collection of decorations.
What fun! Here are some different
themes to ponder –
Natural Rustic/Organic Theme
- Greenery and pillar candles on
kitchen counter
- Tree decorated with fruit in
urn on kitchen table
- Small trees in baskets
- Grapevine or natural evergreen
Wreaths in all windows
- Tray on kitchen counter, which holds a small live Rosemary tree, paper whites and candle
- Large flat basket of greens filled with green apples, limes and pillar candle.
- Christmas tree decorated with strings of cranberries, gingerbread men, twigs, dried fruit – apple and orange slices, etc.
- Trays with greenery, and small votive & tea lights candles
- Collect fallen branches, trim your own evergreen bushes and perhaps some thicker birch type pieces and arrange in a tall glass cylinder
- Fill different sizes of glass containers or baskets with pinecones
- Fill several different size glass containers with cranberries and then add some fresh flowers or branches
- Bowls of fruit, nuts, pinecones
- Groupings of candles, especially battery operated for safety, among evergreen branches
- 3 large glass candles with greenery, cinnamon sticks and oranges
- Light Fixture decorated with
greenery
- Burlap wrapped presents in a
basket on porch
- Urns filled with greens,
sticks, fruit and lights
If you have a collection of Christmas Items why not showcase them -
Collection based theme –
Santas, Nutcrackers, etc.
- Santas or Nutcrackers grouped
with greenery and twigs around them
- Group of Santas or nutcrackers
on a bakers rack or shelving
- Christmas Tree with small
nutcrackers mixed among the other treasured ornaments you already have
- Greenery on table with large candle
Natural Elegance
- Sugared fruit on buffet
- Large glass with greens, cranberries and floating candles on Dining Table or Hall table
- Vase of greens, sticks and
amaryllis on counter
- Wooden (olive) trough with
berries and votive candles
- Amaryllis in glass with moss
and cranberries
- Greenery lit up on top of
kitchen upper cabinets
- Row of boxes on counter with
greens
- Amaryllis, orchids, paper whites, greens and candles in arrangement on kitchen island counter
- Sleigh with greens, soldiers,
green moss, trees and balls
- Christmas Tree with a color
theme of treasured ornaments you already have with perhaps a few new ones
added
- Tray filled with round
Christmas Balls with pillar candle in center
- Tall glass cylinders filled with small Christmas Balls
With the above options you can definitely add the three prominent options for this year - natural, red and gold to enhance your decor.
Try to take a casual and relaxed attitude to your decorating so that you enjoy it and leave leave more time for the fun part of these upcoming celebrations
– entertaining family and friends; community events; walks in the woods;
sitting by a cozy fire; making cookies with your children; decorating the tree
or whatever your heart desires.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Great Home Decor at Urban Barn
I recently visited the newest Urban Barn which opened a couple of weeks ago in North Oakville, in the Oak Park area and it is just lovely. Along with all the goodies they have also brought a little of Christmas as well. I lovvvvve Christmas decorations so I did manage to spend a fair bit of time perusing the offerings. Their regular lines are great as well. I absolutely loved this....
Below are a few of the Christmas Themes followed by their all season merchandise
Thursday, November 20, 2014
7 Rules for Under Cabinet Lighting - from renovaton bootcamp by Robin Siegerman
7 Rules for Under Cabinet Lighting
http://renovationbootcamp.com/7-rules-under-cabinet-lighting/
http://renovationbootcamp.com/7-rules-under-cabinet-lighting/
Under cabinet lights keep the counters from being dark
No lighting under the cabinets makes the work surface gloomy
Did you know that poor lighting in a kitchen can cause you
to have headaches, neck and shoulder problems and eye strain?
Did you also know that poorly designed lighting in a kitchen
can ruin the whole effect of your costly remodel?
Lighting your kitchen well can make the difference between a
room that feels warm and inviting, where friends and family love to gather and
linger vs one that feels gloomy and drab or clinical and sterile and makes meal
preparation a chore and a depressing experience.
Here are 7 Rules for undercabinet lighting for your kitchen!
Undercabinet lighting illuminates the work surface
After the renovation, even undercabinet lighting
UNDER CABINET
LIGHTING
My pet peeve is when people refer to this as “undercounter”
lighting. It’s not mounted under the
counter, it’s mounted under the wall cabinets to LIGHT UP your COUNTER,
therefore it’s UNDER—–>>> CABINET lighting.
Because the tasks you perform often use sharp implements and
blades that can lop off a digit or two, lighting up your work area is critical,
but there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind so you can keep your thumb
on your hand where it belongs:
1. The lights should
be mounted to the under side of the wall cabinet at the front NOT the
back. The idea is to light your work
surface, not the back wall. Since your
wall cabinets are half the depth of your base cabinets, mounting your lights at
the front of the cabinet will give you good lighting on the whole counter top, not
just at the back.
2. If you have
chosen a highly reflective counter top material like polished black granite, it
will look like a mirror when lit from above, bouncing terrible glare off the
counter top back into your eyes. So for
this kind of situation, use an under cabinet fixture with a lens that’s
frosted which will diffuse the lights so you don’t blind yourself and cut off a
digit!
3. Using individual
puck lights for under-cabinet lighting is not the best solution unless you
space them very close together so you don’t get “hot” spots under the light and
dark spots between the fixtures. This
causes your pupils to constantly be dilating and focusing and can cause
eyestrain and headaches.
4. LED strip
lighting will not be as bright as other types like halogen, xenon or
fluorescent, so you might want to use two strips side-by-side. This will double
your cost, but their life is so long, you’ll virtually never have to replace
them, unless you leave them on 24/7. Even then, they should last for a good 15
years or more.
5. Try to install
the light switch that controls your under cabinet lighting in the same place as
your general room lighting. You’ll get
aggravated very quickly if you have to run around your kitchen to hit the
switches to control various light sources.
6. Colour
temperature of your under cabinet lighting is going to affect how the colours
of your backsplash tile and counter top look. If the light is very cool (like a
fluorescent with a lot of blue in the spectrum), warm colors like reds and
oranges are going to look dead. On the
other hand, a cool light can make green or blue more vivid. Talk to someone who
knows lighting before throwing in any old under cabinet lighting if you’ve got
a backsplash or counter top you want to highlight.
7. Unless your
cabinets have a face-frame that creates a recessed cavity under your wall
cabinets, be sure your kitchen designer specifies a light valance. This is a
strip of cabinet-match material of about 2″ high that will hide the under
cabinet lights from view so you won’t be hit in the eyes with glare when you
sit at a kitchen table.
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