Design is in the Details: How to Accessorize Like a Pro

1. Welcome and Introduction: It's just such an offer. Hi, I'm Erica fog woman, and I am thrilled that you've chosen to join me in my course. Design is in the details. The idea for this course actually came from you, my students, as well as my own interior design clients. Specifically, I have created this course to answer many of the common interior design questions that I receive in a number of different areas on a regular basis. As a result, I am confident that you will find this course to be extremely practical and helpful in your own interior design projects. So what is this course all about? Well, let me ask you this. Do you ever look at a room and save yourself? He knows something just doesn't look right, or it just feels unfinished. But you can't quite figure out what it is, especially when the furniture layout seems okay. The scale of the furniture pieces feels fine. And the colors using the room work well together. They get something still feels off. In that scenario. It's not uncommon for this feeling to be due to the rooms and details or perhaps the lack thereof. Now when I say details, I'm actually referring to a number of different areas. First, I'm talking about the actual accessories that we use in our rooms. Everything from faces and bowls and sculptures, two pillows, throws and plants. And I'm also referring to how we mix our wood and metal finishes, as well as the different moldings that we use in our rooms. All of these details, absolutely matter. How we use these details, definitely makes a difference. Now, you can definitely hire an interior designer to help you. And of course, as a designer myself, I encourage that. But if you're more of a DIY wire or you are a professional new to this field, then you are in luck. Throughout this class, I am going to share with you my various approaches and techniques in each of these areas so that you too can create beautiful spaces all on your own. And I will explain all of these approaches and techniques in such a way that you will be able to easily replicate them yourself. So, no more wondering, how do I go about decorating this coffee table, or let's says baseboard, do I need for my home? Or do these two different wood finishes work well together in this room? These questions and many more will all be answered over the next few hours. Now, before we jump into the course content, I always like to share a little information myself, especially for those of you who are new to my courses. I own my own interior design business called Erica Don interiors. I absolutely love what I do professionally. Not only do I have the privilege of creating beautiful and functional spaces for my clients. But through online teaching, I have found a way to share my knowledge with others and the very practical way for those who have interests in this topic, either as a hobby or as a profession. As this is exactly the type of information that I was looking for when I first started in this field. So whether you are an interior design enthusiast and aspiring interior design professional or already in this business. I thank you for joining me. Now, I'm sure you're anxious to go ahead and get started. So let's move on to the next lecture where I will be sharing with you specifically what you will be learning in this course. 2. Overview of the Course Content: While this is a fairly short course, it is definitely packed with useful tips and techniques that we designers regularly use with our clients. First in Section two, we're going to have so much fun in the world of accessories, You may have heard accessories being described as the jewelry of a room. I know I have heard that analogy many a time, but for good reason, accessories really are the jewelry of a room. It's like a great little black dress. Sure, the right dress can look fantastic on its own, but how much better does he overall outfit? Look when you add silver heels, diamond earrings and a fabulous necklace, it just takes it to another level, right? Well, it's the same with a room. You can have a beautiful sofa, gorgeous side chairs on a very cool coffee table, but it will just look better if you've decorated that coffee table well, with some beautiful accessories, you've added some lovely pillows to your sopa, and you've included some stunning artwork that ties all of the colors in the room. Together. It's just better. So in Section two, after we've talked about what accessories to include and why accessories are so important. I will then share with you my seven golden rules for accessorizing pretty much any surface in your home. And then we'll see those seven rules in action when I teach you some really easy ways to beautifully decorate your coffee table, your consul tables, Ah, fireplace mantle, a bookcase and your sofa and beds. Throughout this section, we will also have some assignments that will help put your newfound skills to use. In Section three, you will learn how to mix metal finishes with ease. Specifically, all share with you the actual guidelines that I use when I'm mixed, metal finishes in a room and then I'll share with you. Some fail safe ways to mix them in your kitchen as well as your bathrooms. As mixing metals in these specific rooms can sometimes be a little more challenging in section, for you will then learn how to mix wood finishes like a pro, starting with again the actual guidelines that I live by. When I'm mixed, wood finishes in my own projects. I'll also show you exactly how to identify a woods undertone, which you'll learn is the key to mixing wood finishes together successfully. Finally, I'll show you how to match the right pink color to your wood tones as this Conjour a Matic Lee affect how good or not a room feels in the last section, Section five, I will show you how various mouldings can actually transform the look of your home. Specifically, you will learn all about found bolding, baseboard window and door casing, chair, rail panel moulding and picture frame moulding. Now, you may be wondering, Is there really that much to talk about with regards to all of these moldings? Yes, yes, there is. And you'd be surprised. But instead of inundating you with way, way too much detail, I've gone ahead and condensed it down to just the key points you should know about, including where that particular type of molding should be placed in your home, the appropriate size to use what type of material is common and best, what color should you paint it, and what interior design, style or styles are appropriate for that particular type of molding? Once we're done with that section, I am confident that you will have a whole new appreciation for how important molding is to the overall look and feel of your home at the very end of the course. You'll then have a very brief quiz to test your knowledge on those other areas that we didn't cover. Through the exercises, you will notice that I have a course outline in the resource is section of this lecture that you can go ahead and print out to even jot down notes as you listen to the lectures only if you'd like. Of course, that said, the most important thing other than the have fun with this course is to remember that details do matter in design, so pick the details are important to you and let's start designing. 3. 5 Accessories Every Room Should Have: I created this lecture for those of you who find yourselves been overwhelmed at how many different types of accessories are available today for your homes. If you've ever walked into a home goods or any discount harm furnishings retailer, you know exactly what I am talking about. So to make your life simpler, I am going to share with you the five key accessories that I know will help to make any room look great. Now, I may not use all five of these accessories every single time in a room, but I know that I use at least four of these five every single time because it works. It's important to note that these accessories are meant to be spread around the room so that they can work together to either elevate the entire design of the room or help to beautify your furniture pieces. Here are my Fab Five accessories. In no particular order plants, artwork, throw pillows, decorative tray and something personal. Now, to help me demonstrate how these accessories can really elevate the overall design of a room, take a look at this family room that I designed in room stature. As we discussed each of these accessories in detail. I'll add that accessory to this room, and by the end it will be obvious why I've chosen these five accessories as my must haves. First up use plants, at least two areas of your room. This is definitely one design element that I use every single time. No exception, at least none that I can think of. Plans air so amazing they add instant color and texture to your space. They bring the outdoors in which we all love to do, and they help to purify your air. Naturally, what's not to love? So while one plant is great, too is just better. I typically strive for one tall indoor plant or tree in some corner of the room, sometimes to if I'm going for a formal cemetery around a console table, a fireplace, etcetera and the smaller plant on one of the tables in the room. It could be a coffee table, a console table, a buffet, a chest or a night stand. Now, if you have a black thumb and you just cannot keep plants alive, no matter what you do, then don't despair. Some of today's boasts of plants are really impressive. And if you're willing to spend a little money and purchase a great container to go with it , you too can have some beautiful greenery in your home. So do yourself a favor right now and find a way to add greenery. Toe all of the major rooms of your home. Second, include some artwork in the room that ties all of the rooms. Colors together now. Often we may have multiple pieces of artwork in a room, and, of course, they don't need to. Nor should they all match the color scheme of your room. And in fact, you can see that we do have some black and white photography pictures on the right side of this room. That said, it's great if you could have one or two larger pieces that pulled together the color scheme off the room like these two pieces over the console tables Do. Can you see it? This technique really helps to unify the room and create a sense of cohesion, not only for the color scheme but also for the overall space. Third, include a tray with three decorative items in your room for a family or living room. This could be on your coffee table for your bedroom. This could be on your night stand or for your dining room. This could be done on your buffet. It's amazing how great a simple tray can be. I go into a lot more detail about trays in my lecture on how to decorate a coffee table, but in short, find the trade of mimics the shape of your table and use three and Onley, three decorative items or three groupings of various heights on the tray. Here are three of my favorite fail proof combinations. A stack of books with a small decorative item on top, a candle in the small plants or flowers, a sculpture and decorative box or bull or a base. A few books with a small plant on top. And if you votive candles in this room, I've chosen to use a blue bull on top of a stack of books, a large candle and a small plant. Fourth, i always include decorative throw pillows on my sofa and beds. I never, ever leave a sofa with just the pillows it came with, nor do I leave a bed with just the pillows. Do you sleep on throw pillows are the perfect place to throw in your accent, color or colors or some fabulous patterns. Here you can see I've added in some solid and some pattern throw pillows on the sofa and the armchair. Fifth, and finally always include something that is sentimental or personal into your room. This could be a framed photo or a collection of photos, a memento from a favorite vacation or something left over from a major event in your life, like your wedding, such as Dr Flowers or Candles. While model homes are beautiful, they are impersonal, and that's not what we're going for in design. In fact, the major goal for designer is to try and capture the personality of our clients, and that's what you should strive for as well. In this room, I've added a family picture on the left counsel table and the stone based on the right side , which was purchased during a family vacation. Or so I like to think. And there you go, the five accessories that I nearly always include in the spaces that I design. Let's look at the original room one more time. Now let's look at the room with these five accessories added. Do you see how much more interesting this room looks now that we've had these five elements ? Great. Now you have an easy to use approach to liven up any room in your home. 4. Accessories Defined - What are They Anyway?: the word accessory gets used a lot in the world of interior design, both from professionals and nonprofessionals alike, and you may have noticed that not everybody has. The same definition for was actually considered on accessory. Now, as far as I know, no formal definition exists for what is or isn't an accessory. But I will share with you what I consider to be an accessory. So at least you and I are sharing a common language as you move through this course. Sound good, Great. First, let me explain it. Ah, high level what I consider to be an accessory First, it's an item that is easy to remove and or change in the room, meaning it's generally not a high ticket item like a sofa, for example. Also, accessories don't serve a major functional purpose in the room, like sitting or holding items. Now that automatically excludes any sort of seeding, including sofas, chairs, ottomans, chaise lounges, etcetera and it would also exclude tables such as consul tables, coffee tables and the tables, etcetera. So now that we've explained at a high level, what is not an accessory, let me now share with you on a Lord detailed level. What items I consider to be accessories. Accessories include such items as artwork, wall decor, throw pillows, throw blankets, anything that was placed on top of a table, including but not limited to bases, candles, bulls, books, sculptures, barware, trays, lanterns, collections, clocks, nature items, plants and flowers. Basically, you can tell that for the most part, these items generally don't serve a functional purpose, but rather their function is simply toe look pretty now I am sure some of you are wondering . But Erica, what about rugs, window coverings and lighting? Are these also considered to be accessories? Well, I can tell you that really depends on who you ask. Some designers would say that they definitely are accessories. Others designers would disagree and say they are not. That said, I personally do not consider them to be accessories for a couple of reasons. First, window coverings and lighting in particular, do survey functional purpose. Second, I consider these items to be must haves for a room. If you've taken my other class how to design a room in 10 easy steps, I spoke about how people don't often use these items at all in their rooms and I showed how dramatically these items can transform a room. So now that you and I have a common understanding of what accessories include, let's now talk about the importance of accessories in the next lecture, I'll see you there. 5. The Importance of Accessories: even in the most pared down of styles like contemporary Zen and Scandinavian accessories are still included. Accessories can often be the calling card for what type of style you have used in your room . Now, often the furniture you use will define the style, but not always, for example, on ultra contemporary so but can be used in the contemporary style, of course, but can also be used in the modern French bourbon, modern and Zen styles. So then, how do you define a style in the room where the main furniture pieces could be used in multiple styles? You know the answer. The accessories, of course. Look at some of these accessories. What style would you say they belong to? You got it right. If you said Western. Now look at this group of accessories. What style do you think they exemplify? Definitely the Tuscan or Mediterranean styles. What about these accessories? Definitely coastal shake. Right now you can see how accessories all on their own really helped to solidify a style in your home. Accessories also helped to add texture and mentioned to a room. We'll talk a little later in this course about how to layer accessories that are made from different textures to add interest. But this time I just want to emphasize the point that you can use accessories to add visual interest to nearly any surface in your home. I mean, how boring with a console table, Be with nothing on it or imagine having blank balls everywhere throughout your home. Most people can appreciate that this would be almost downright depressing. Even in home staging, where we generally remove all personal items and collections from a space to make it appealing to a wide variety of Homebuyers, We still use more generic accessories to make the home feel warm and welcoming. Finally, accessories help to tell a story about the people who live there. Often we like to display items from our travels or important events in our lives. For example, a framed poster from that epic concert you attended back in the eighties, a dried wedding bouquet or newborn photos of your Children. There is no doubt that's the most personal items or items that we've collected from our travel adventures, which are the most interesting and wonderful accessories that we have in our homes. Not only are they unique and often their one of a kind. But they're also deeply personal and serve as a regular reminder of the events that make up our lives. In short, you can now see why accessories played such an important role in a home they often help to define is style. They had texture and dimension toe a room or a surface, and they're often with at interest and individuality to a room, helping a room to feel truly curated. Which is just another word for a room that is thoughtfully put together generally over time . So now I hope you understand why you should never, ever forget about the all important accessories when designing your own home. 6. My 7 Golden Rules for Accessorizing: now if he has taken any of my other courses, you know that I like to focus on the science of interior design more than the art. I do this because the science is easier to learn and replicate them. The art, which typically refers to somebody's innate talent that is unique to that person and not really teachable. Now there is no question that interior design is an art. And to illustrate that point, there are plenty of interior designers who have never been formally trained but just have that amazing artistic ability. And that's great. But there is a lot more science in interior design than you may think. Both was formally taught. And when I've developed on my own, and that is what I strive to share with you in my courses, this course is no different. So that said, I've come up with my own seven golden rules of accessorizing to help you accessorize like a pro, all on your own. By following these seven rules, you will then have a framework by which to approach accessorizing any part of your home. So let's dive in rule number one generally look to decorate items in groups that share some sort of similarity. For example, a color palette, a themes or that share a purpose by grouping items that are similar in nature. The grouping feels natural and cohesive rather than just a random grouping of individual items, So this is pretty easy to do. If you're looking to accessorize a console table, for example, gather up all of the items in your home that would fit on that table. And look for items that share either a common color scheme, a theme or a purpose, and choose your favorite for your table. Rule number two. Use on numbers in a grouping. You may have heard that three items in the grouping is ideal, and I would completely agree. Arrange them so that the tallest item is in the back. Always when grouping these odd number of items, consider layering them, which is another common designer technique, for example, by simply placing item that's too short for a display on a book, a stack of books or a box, and you create some additional interest. Rule number three vary the scale of your accessories, meaning you don't want objects. They're all the same size. If they are that layer the items on top of each other. For example, place the item on a stack of books, a box for any other flat item to vary the height and scale of the objects like you see in this picture with the two mason jars. Also, don't just layer side by side, but also front to back, meaning layering smaller objects in front of larger objects. Rule for always. Try to use books in your room unless you hate books. But really, who hates books? I mean, even if you're not a reader who doesn't love a good coffee table book or a reference book, a gardening book or even a personalized photo book anywhere you get the idea. Books are one of my very favorite accessories to decorate with. I use them in nearly every room I design, whether on a bookshelf, a coffee table, Ah, console table, a side table or in the basket. Books are inexpensive and allow you to add color and height to your displays. They can be very inexpensive as well. I love to go to my local bookstore and hunt for new hardcover books in the bargain books section when using a stack of books as your decor. It's helpful if they share common colors or a common subject area like art design, photography, gardening or even science. Whatever you're interested in, Rule five make sure that some of your accessories reflect one or more of your main accent colors. It's very important, designed to repeat colors throughout a room so that the item feels cohesively part of the space. Ideally, a color should be repeated 2 to 3 times for it to feel part of the overall color scheme, take a look at this room in which the main accent colors are blue, green and yellow. You can see that they've repaired the blue all throughout the room. Specifically, we see it in the artwork. The accent pillows the tray on the coffee table. Throw blanket and curtains. They've done the same with the green and the yellow. As a result, can you see how cohesive and pulled together? This room feels great. Rule six includes something from nature in your display, such as flowers, plants, seashells, rocks, real or faux fruit etcetera in your displays. Items from nature are an easy way to add warmth and texture to a grouping Speaking of texture, ensuring that your iam's reflect different textures will always look better than all items reflecting the same texture. For example, a table full of polished items will just not look right. So in short, it's ideal if you mix some published items with some Matt items, as well as some more rough textured items. And those from nature are great for that rule. Seven formal symmetry always works what end out, particularly on the console table, bookshelf or a fireplace mantel. Use formal cemetery for those of you who may not remember formal symmetry. Simply news using the exact same objects on two sides, like two identical chairs on the other side of a fireplace, more of the same two plants on either side of a sofa or the same lamps on two sides of a console table. Formal cemetery always works to make a space or a grouping feel polished and completely pulled together. There you have it. My seven golden rules of accessorizing thes rules have served me well as a designer, and I know they will help you to, as you go through the remaining lectures on how to accessorize the various spaces such as a consul table, a coffee table book shelf, etcetera. Be sure to keep these rules in mind as well. 7. Decorate a Console Table: Ah, the ubiquitous, versatile wonderful console table. Oh, how I love you. Console tables sometimes referred to a sofa. Tables are hands down one of my very favorite pieces of furniture in a home for so many reasons. First, as I mentioned, they are incredibly versatile. You can use them in basically every room of your home from your foyer for your mail and keys. Drop off to your family room for lighting and accessories to your bedroom to service a vanity. I could go on, but you get the idea. This perfect little table knows no bounds. Second, there are so many different styles of super chic and ultra cool console tables you can absolutely find one that will work in any home, regardless of your interior design style. Okay, that said, Let's talk about how you conjecture array eight thes fantastic little tables in a systematic way. Specifically, I'm going to show you three arrangements that will work for you every time before I dive into the three approaches. One point I would like to make is that unless you're consul is being used behind a sopa in the middle of your room, you will be placing your consul up against the wall or a window. If it's up against the wall, make sure to incorporate artwork emir of some sort or wall decor above the console table to help ground the entire display. Make sure that the artwork or wall the core above your console table covers roughly 2/3 of the space above the table. That's how you will know it's appropriately sized for the space. Now, if you're table is up against a window, then you're all set because the view outside the window will act as your artwork. Hopefully, it's a nice of you. Okay, let's tackle approach Number one. Here we have a console table with a piece of artwork behind it. First, choose two identical objects better on the taller side. Great examples of this include table lamps, plants and bases. You will place these items on either side of your console table like this, then put either a nice stack of hardcover books roughly 3 to 5 or another object, like a decorative bowl like this on one side of the table. Now find the grouping of three items that vary in height, such as three bases. Three candleholders were three framed pictures and arrange them either in a circular shape , with the tallest being in the back or with the tallest item in the back and the other two items side by side in front of it. So you can see with this arrangement you've used formal cemetery and a grouping of three to create a pleasing counsel table vignette. Now let's look at approach number two using the same console table and artwork. Let's first choose a table lamp and place it on the left side of the console table. You could use another item as well. Just insure it's fairly tall. Now. You technically could place it on the right, but for some reason it just looks better when the tallest item is on the left side of the arrangement. Now I don't know the real reason why this is, but my theory is that because I'm right handed and most people are groupings look better to me when the largest object is on the left side, balancing out my right side dominance. Anyway, back to the accessories. Now you want to find another tall object, although one that is shorter than your lamp and place it on the right side of the table. This could be any number of items a vase of flowers, a plant, a sculpture of base, but something that has hate to it. In this case, I'm going to use a vase of flowers, then grab a stack of large books and placed them in the middle of the table with the largest being on the bottom and then find a decorative item to place on the stack of books such as a bowl, A figuring, ah, large seashell or any item from nature or anything that was fairly wide and short. But the key is to make sure that the stack of books and the item on top are not taller than your item on the right, and that's it so simple and effective. In this approach, you can see that I used the rule of three, since I have three main items a lab, a vase of flowers and the stack of books with the item on top. I vary the scale of the items I used books and I use the nature item. This is another easy, foolproof design for your console table, because we don't have that many items I would use this approach on shorter console tables in the 36 to 48 inch range. Now let's look at one final way to decorate your console table. This approach is just that had more complicated Onley because we're using more items, but once you see the formula, it's really easy to replicate. Here we have a different consul, and you can see that this council is in front of a window, so there's no need for any artwork for wall decor behind it. First, find the tall item for the center of your table again. This could be a flower arrangement, a tall base, a large plant or a unique sculpture just to name a few. In this example, I'm going to use a large flower arrangement. Then find to duplicate items that are tall but shorter than your center item and place those on each end of your table. This could be matching bases, matching candleholders or a pair of matching table lamps. I'm going to use a pair of matching candleholders now find two similar but not identical items to place in between the outside item and the centre item on each side of the table. This could be a pair of framed pictures to bases to candles or any to decorative items of your choosing. In this example, I'm going to use to similar vases that are slightly different in height. Okay, we're almost there. Now. Let's find a small grouping of three items. This could be three small boot of candleholders, three nature items, three little boxes, or again, any small three items that are similar or identical. In this case, I have selected three blue votive candleholders and I'm going to place them on the left hand side towards the front of the table. I've placed them on the left because they're going to be the shortest items in my grouping . And so placing them on the left near the taller base balances it out on the left side. Now look for one other interesting item that will go on the right side of the table. It could be anything you'd like, but should be shorter than the centre item and the identical items on each end of the table . In this case, I'm going to use a blue decorative bull that has a little taller than the votives, but shorter than the remaining items. Can you see how placing the slightly taller item next to the shorter based on the right balances out that side of the table? Great. Now, if you're loving the layered approach, you could go ahead and easily added one more layer by finding two identical items that are a little taller than your two shorter items in the middle and place them next to the items on the ends. You can see that. Just add in to read decorative boxes. Either of these approaches will work well and all comes down to what you prefer. And that's it. Pretty simple. Now that you know the formula right in this example, you hopefully have noticed that I use formal symmetry, the rule of threes, scale variation and items that share a similar color palette. Because there are quite a few items on this table, I would reserve this type of approach for consul tables in the 60 to 84 inch range. Now there are obviously many more ways to decorate a console table. My goal was to provide you with three fail safe ways to make your console table look great every single time, - definitely play around by mixing these approaches with each other and use the seven golden rules that you've learned about that I provide earlier in this course to create your own fantastic displays. 8. Decorate a Coffee Table: so you may be wondering what types of coffee tables should have accessories. Well, in my opinion, all coffee tables benefit from some decor. I mean, after all, the coffee table is front and center in our living spaces, so why not use it as an opportunity to inject some style into your room? So in this section, I am going to show you how to decorate three different types of coffee tables, rectangular coffee tables, square coffee tables and round coffee tables, because you would use a different arrangement for each of these. And often I find people do have a harder time decorating the square or the round coffee tables. So I am going to show you how. Before we get into the specifics, though, let me share with you just a few general guidelines. First, a tray is often your best friend when decorate a coffee table, as it's a very easy way to corral items into a cohesive grouping. I also like to use a trade that mimics the shape of the table. So, for example, if you have a square coffee table, I would use a square trade. If you have a round table that I would use a round tray, and if you have a rectangular table than you guessed it, use a rectangular tray. Now you don't have to do it this way, because, after all, design often comes down to personal preference. But I promise you that this approach does work really well. Second, make sure that least some or all of the pieces matched the scale of your coffee table, meaning a large coffee table decorated with small items will feel out of balance to your eye. Finally, I firmly believe that a coffee table should be functional as well as beautifully decorated . So this means that I like to leave space on my coffee table to place other items, like beverages or a bowl of popcorn, one of my very favorite sex. So as tempting as it is trying not to cover your entire coffee table with decorative items , OK, now let's get into the details. Let's first start with the common rectangular table. An easy arrangement is to find a rectangular tray roughly 1/3 of the length of the coffee table and add three items to it of varying heights. Ah, great combination could include a stack of books, a candle and some greenery, or try flowers, a decorative box and a sculpture. Really play around with this. Just make sure that the items are different in texture and height. To add visual interest, place the trade with those items on an angle, and you've just create a stylish yet very simple vignette. Now I'm going to show you two more options. Building off of this initial vignette. Take that same tray filled with the three same items and place it on one side of the table in line with the lines of the coffee table meeting with the length of the trail running parallel to the length of the table. Now take 3 to 4 coffee table books and place them on the other side of the table, with the spines of the books running parallel to the length of the table. Now, if you're table is a little wider than the average coffee table, then try using the same trade items on one side. The place three larger items next to each other, like this on the other side of the table. This could be three similar items of varying heights or to similar items that very in height and then another singular item. Just be sure that the items all coordinate in some way, whether that be in style, color or theme. In this example, you can see that the bowl of fruit on the right mimics the colors of green and white that we see in the items on the tray. The two bases are similar in color to the plant container in the tray. You now have three great options for your rectangular shaped coffee table. Okay, let's go ahead and move on to a square coffee table. You will see that will be following a similar approach with this style of table. Your first option is to try to find a square trade to place in the middle of the table. You can either place the trace straight, or you could place it at an angle again. Find three or more items to build that trey I same or because where coffee tables are often larger than your typical rectangular table, so you'll want to find a larger square tray to match the scale of the table roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the table. You could put in a pair of candles able at a stack of books with a small plant or a vase of flowers on top, that would look fantastic. Okay, now let me show you a second option that is really only suited for larger square coffee tables. In this example, you're going to be placing something in each corner of the table, not in the actual corner, but rather midway between the corner and the center of the table. These items could include a stack of books, a tray with a few items, one large decorative item like a bull, every decorative box or a basket. Or it could be two stacks of books, a tray with items and a decorative box. As you can see, you can play around with the items, but the arrangement is the same finally building off of this thing. Yet 1/3 and final option is to simply add in one tall element into the center of the table , like a plant, evasive flowers or a sculpture. Very pretty. And remember, anytime you include a stack of books, feel free the place other decorative items on top of them for added texture and interest. Last but not least let's go ahead and move on to the round coffee table, probably considered the most challenging to decorate, but I'm going to show you three easy ways to do this. Option one you can probably guess by now. Find yourself a round tray roughly 1/3 of the size of the coffee table and then place three items in it. As I describe in the other two examples, Option Two is to use a smaller round object, such as a plant in a round pot, and place a stack of books next to it with a small decorative item on top. Finally, if you have a large round table, look to add three items in a circle. These items could be a plant, a small tray with a few decorative items on top, a stack of books, a trio of candles, a decorative bowl or an interesting sculpture. The key here is to keep the items in a circular shape around the table. To mimic the lines of the table rather than fighting them makes sense. Great. Now, one question I am sometimes asked, is What do I do if I have a two tiered or a three tiered coffee table. What goes on the other tears. I typically use the same simple yet elegant approach every time because it works. If you have a two tier table, placed three stacks of books or magazines or three baskets on the second tier. If you have a three tiered table, place the same items that I just described on your third tier and then place two identical items on your second here. This could be too shallow bulls to matching baskets if you have stacks of books or magazines on that third tier or two stacks of books if you have three baskets on the bottom tier, this arrangement works nearly every time and will help the overall display to field chic, grounded and organized all things that I love. I hope you found this lesson helpful. 9. Decorate a Fireplace Mantel: Now let's talk about decorating your fireplace mantel. Well, that's assuming you have one, of course. But then, if you're watching this lecture, I am guessing that you probably do have one. Unless perhaps you're a new designer looking for ideas. Well, at any rate, you are here for a reason. So let's go ahead and get started. There is one very important question that has to be answered before you begin, and the question is this. Look at the room that the fireplaces in. Is that room more formal or more casual? This is important because based on whether that room is more formal or casual, it's good to mimic that look and feel on your fireplace mantle, given that it's often the focal point of your room. So let's start with a casual look. A couple of key guidelines for a more casual mantle. This to use informal symmetry and layer items in front of each other. So let's go ahead. Take a look at three different options together. First we have this being yet where we have a picture hung above the mantle, Then we have two objects that are similar but not identical on either side. of the picture, with a long, shorter item in between the two objects. Finally, by placing a couple of identical shorter items on the very ends toe actus filler, you definitely now have a great looking mantle. Take a look at the second option. We have three pictures overlapping each other, leaning up against the wall. Can you see how the Leaning Pictures definitely gives off a more casual vibe? Then we have a trio of candles on one side and a couple of decorative items on the other side to balance out those caper candles. Notice how these two items balance out the three candles because of the combined with of the two items, and that the item on the far right is a tad taller than the candles. You want the item on the fire right side to be comparable in height to the items on the left so it could be a little shorter, a little taller or the same. Our third well decorated mantle uses a near on the wall as the grounding piece for the Vinje. We then have a number of candles on the left, balanced out by a plant and a small sculpture on the right balance. Harmonious but still a casual feel. Okay, now let's take a look at Mantle. Vignettes there are more suited to a formal room. I find formal mantles actually easier to decorate because there are less items to use. Typically, Usually you want just a few standout items, and I would definitely recommend using formal symmetry and hanging something on the wall over the mantle rather than the leaning picture approach that we saw in the casual fireplace mantel vignettes. So let me show you what I mean. First we have this lovely thing yet that uses just three items. We have a picture over the mantle, flanked by two identical vases on each side of the picture. Very lovely. And how simple is that? Okay, let's look at our second option. This is leaving it that simply build on what we just did. We leave the same three items, but now we have had two more identical but shorter bases to the inside of the mantle. Again easy and very elegant. Our third option is only a tad more complicated. In this example. Hang Amir over the mantle with two identical tall candleholders on the outside followed by two identical vases of flowers next to the candles and then one unique decorative sculpture , a bull in the very center of the mantle. You can see that we have placed the items from the tallest to the shortest on each side. You could also swept out the middle decorative object for three identical or very similar smaller decorative items such as little figurines, little plans, votives or any other decorative trio that would work well with those items. Easy right Now that you know the formulas, I hope that you, too now feel confident to create these vignettes all on your own. 10. Decorate a Bookcase: making a bookcase appear well decorated, comes down to simple math or, more specifically, the right ratio ratio of books to decorative items. Most people usually have too many books and not enough to core. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking the same thing my husband thinks, which is Bookshelves are for books. I mean, it's right there in the name. And yes, well, I cannot disagree with that statement. I would simply say that you need to spread the love the book love. Instead of having all of your books in one place, spread your books throughout your home like I talked about in the lecture title My Seven Golden Rules for accessorizing. This solves two problems, of course. One. You can now use books as decor throughout your home and to you thinned out your bookshelf to allow decorative items to take your bookshelf from purely functional too fabulous. So what's the magic ratio you ask? Well, in my perfect world, it's a 60 40 split, roughly 60% books and 40% items that are not books. That said, you can definitely increase the book ratio, but personally, I would not go more than 80 20 ratio, meaning 80% books and 20% accessories. Otherwise, the accessory simply look like an afterthought rather than an intentionally designed space . Now let's go ahead and get down to the nitty gritty of bookshelves styling. First, do your best to Onley include hardcover books, soft covers. Unfortunately, just don't look good, particularly the small, novel sized books. I know you're asking yourself right now, but where do we put them? Well, I will tell you what I do with mine. They go in cabinets that have doors. For example. My night stand is fairly good size and happens to have doors on the bottom. So I keep many of my small paperbacks there. But really, any Cabinet will do or place and then baskets on your bookshelves, so at least they are hidden from view. So sorry. Small paperbacks. No offense. We love you, particularly sunbathing on the beach, but you simply aren't the best looking books on the shelf now, going back to the hardcovers. Often the book looks better after you remove the books. Leave for a couple of reasons. First books leaves air easily damaged and damage sleeves definitely don't look good. Second sleeves often have multiple colors on them, whereas the actual book cover is usually just one color, which helps to create a more calm, unifying look to yourself. Many people like to organize their books by topic, but if you really want to create a cool designer, look organize them by height or by color. It might drive you a little crazy to find the book you're looking for, but it sure we'll look good. That said, a good compromise might be to organize them in two broad categories for example, fiction versus non fiction, and then organize them by height or by color. That would look great, too. So what type of decor items do I include on my bookshelves? Definitely. Picture frames or framed art pictures and artwork are great here. That said, Don't go Crazy for a standard bookcase looked to incorporate just a handful of pictures or artwork in nice picture frames. I also like to include items that have a reflective surface that could be a mirrored item on item made from mercury glass or any polished silver or gold item. Clocks in a polished metal are a great example as well. You'll also want bookends for your bookshelf, since we aren't going to be covering every single shelf in books from end to end. So science of interesting book ends I often buy mine at places like home Goods or on Wayfair dot com. Also, you may want to include some sort of storage containers. This includes baskets, pales, for example, in the French country or farmhouse styles, hails look great and decorative boxes, just to name a few. So what are these storage items good for? Well, anything that you don't want to be seen. Obviously, this could include DVDs and even those paperbacks Brookside spoke about earlier. Also look to incorporate any keepsakes from traveling such a seashells, little sculptures or any beautiful objects that you have brought home. Finally, if you have any collections, they look fantastic if you're scattered them throughout the bookshelf as well. Sometimes you may not even know that you have a collection going on in your home as similar items just maybe scattered throughout your house. I recommend that you take stock of your accessories before you begin decorating your bookshelf. You might be surprised to find that you have multiple items that are quite similar and similar items always look great with grouped together. Remember, similar items don't have to simply share the same theme like birds or elephants. But they may also share the same shape, color or even texture. Grouped items definitely create a curated feel and give the items mawr gravitas, if you will. Another idea that I love is to hang something on the middle of your bookshelf. Either a picture or a mere. Just be sure to place either decorative objects or books that you rarely need on that part of the bookshelf that the mere or the picture is covering for obvious functional reasons. Finally, be sure to include some greenery you knew that was coming right here is where full plans work really well, because often you're going for small plants and mixed in with many other accessories. You don't have to have the absolutely best bow plants for this space, some decent. So greenery will work really, really well here. So now that you know what to add to your bookcase, I'm sure you're wondering Well, Ereka, how in the world do I arrange all of these items together? Well, of course I will tell you first, Arrange your books on the shelves now, Just at in your accessories. Okay, There you go. No, I'm just kidding. I realize that this is not helpful at all. Well, if you've taken any of my other classes, you know that I love to break down in tier design into step by step processes and formulas , and I'm going to do the exact same thing here. The wonderful reality is that decorating a bookshop well is all about using repeated patterns because the human eye craves patterns. And I am going to share with you the five most common and classic patterns designers use with you. Once you know these five patterns and all you simply need to do is repeat them randomly throughout your bookcase or your bookcases, and you will have a well designed bookcase. First, we have the vertically stacked books with 123 objects on the opposite side toe. Hold the books up. You could either lay a book flat, use a bookend, or use one or both of the decorative items as bookends. Second, you can create a horizontal stack of books with the largest book being on the bottom, of course, and then find one, the three items on the other side. One additional point with this pattern is that if your staff of books is on the shorter side, let's say less than half the height of the shelf, then definitely place a small accessory on top. Third, you can have a stack of vertical or horizontal books in the middle with accessories on either side, or flip that ratio and have two stacks of books on either side with an accessory in the middle. See the rule of threes in action here, Great Fourth. You can simply have an entire shelf of books like many people do, either stacked vertically all the way across the shell or perhaps three horizontally stack sets of books. Or you could do both me a horizontal stack of books on one side, with the rest of the shelf being covered. Gin vertically stacked books. Finally, you can simply have an entire shelf of accessories, but again keep the items in odd numbers to keep it looking the most pleasing to the human eye. Now, clearly, there are other approaches, but these five approaches will work every time. And now that you know these five patterns, you are going to start seeing them everywhere, you'll see them in your interior design magazines on Pinterest you name it again. As a final reminder, be sure to vary the pattern, meaning If your top shelf has a stack of vertical books on the left and accessories on the right, then do make sure that the shelf directly below that uses a different pattern to balance out the entire unit. All that said, one question you may have is, should you go with a more carefully cluttered look, meaning little or no space between items, Or should you keep a decent amount of space between your items? For me, it depends on what style you have in your room or home. For example, if your home leans more towards the contemporary or Scandinavian styles, then by all means keep ample space between your items on your shelves, as this is definitely more in line with this type of a static. But if you lean more towards English country or boho chic than definitely fill those bookshelves and add lots and lots of layers in summary, though, I think I'm more often utilized. The former approach allowing some space between items rather than the ladder for most styles. A general rule of thumb about displaying accessories on a bookshelf. Because bookshelves are generally on the larger side, large items often look better than small items, so all usually use one large item or just a few larger items of varying heights per shelf. If you choose to use smaller items, then I definitely recommend placing them in a tray to add visual weight to that grouping or place them on top of a stack of horizontally displayed books. Another way to add interest. Your bookshelves. There's two very the height of the actual bookshelves in the bookcase. If this is possible, this will also allow you place even larger items and books on some of the shelves. The only time I prefer the shelves to be lined up exactly isn't more formal spaces like a in home library for a traditional style, for example, finally, I'm gonna share with you three additional tips that you can use to make it look like a designer decorated your bookshelves. First, consider painting your bookshelves, the entire bookcase, the same color as your walls. This will give your bookshelves aim or built in look if they span the entire wall, especially, but it's not. At the very least, it will look intentionally design, which is always a great outcome. Second, if you'd rather not paint the entire bookshelves, which is a lot of work, then paint or wallpaper just the back of your bookshelves. If you use paint than a simple way to get this look a right this to paint the back of the shelves a color that is 2 to 3 shades darker than your wall color. I guarantee that will look great. Or another fantastic great choice would be to paint the back of your shelves one of your accent colors for the room. All of that said, if you have beautiful, more ornate with bookshelves, then I wouldn't recommend this approach. But if you have relatively inexpensive bookshelves than by all means, consider adding a pop of color or pattern to yourselves. And finally, my third tip is Adan's of accent lighting. Now that you have these beautifully decorated shelves, you'll want to show them off right? So either hang some track lighting to onto your ceiling to highlight the different items on your bookshelves. Or you could added some picture lights on the very top shelves of your bookcase to highlight the objects below. Magnifico all 11. Decorate a Dining Table: Welcome to the dining room. If you're anything like my clients, you fall into one of two camps. You either love your dining room or you are on the verge of ditching it as soon as you can come up with another use for your room. But if you're watching this lecture, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you love your dining room like I do. And recognise that because the dining table is the focal point of the room that you should probably know actually used absolutely style it just like you would any other horizontal surface in your home. To that end, this lecture will show you how to beautifully decorate your dining table. Whether you're table is rectangular, oval, round or square in shape, and they'll show you arrangements for both formal and informal rooms. Because these approaches are different now, you can certainly just place a single item, such as a flower arrangement or a bullet fruit on your dining table, regardless of the style of your room or the shape of your table, and many people do just that, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm sure that's not why you're here in this lecture. You're looking for different ideas, and I am more than happy to share those with you. Also, let me just clarify them, going to be focused solely on how to decorate your table for every day, meaning I won't be going over dinner party place settings or specialty decorating ideas, such as during the holidays. That said, many of these design techniques can be used during a formal dinner party with your place settings, although I always like to have candles during this type of event for ambience. So even if I've used one of these arrangements, I'll be sure to throw in some candles somewhere. Finally, I'm going to show you styling ideas for both rectangular or oval tables as well, a square or round tables, and I'll show you ideas for both casual and formal styles. Okay, all of that said, let me review some general guidelines with you. First, be sure to select objects that pull in the accent colors of your room, which can be found in places like your rug, artwork and window coverings. Also, you can create harmony not just by repeating colors from the room, but also by repeating any metallic finishes such as chrome, brass or bronze that you might see in your light fixtures. Drapery rods, chair legs, etcetera. Third, pay particular attention to the scale of your accessories, particularly if you have single or multiple chandeliers or pendants over your dining table . For example, oversized vases and candleholders for dining tables are still trending in a number of popular U. S retailers, but they won't look right if they are too close to the light fixture or fixtures above it. I usually go with a minimum of eight inches between the bottom of the light fixture and any object beneath it. This is a good starting point. You may want mawr or less space, depending upon your fixture and accessories on your table. Conversely, items that are too small don't look good either. Generally, larger tables need larger accessories, and if you're going to be using just one accessory, just ensure that it fits the scale of your table. Now let's talk about the best items to use when decorating a dining table. We have vases of flowers, of course, both riel anfo, but also plans including herb plants, decorative vases with or without stems, decorative bowls, fruit bowls, all types of candleholders, including taper, hurricane pillar, T, light votives and candelabras. Decorative canisters, apothecary jars, jugs, a glass close with or without a base. Small faux plants look great in here. Trays to tear servers, tea sets, cake stands and decorative salt and pepper shakers. Of course, if you have a rectangular table, let's not forget runners. And who says you can't throw in an interesting sculpture on your table? Especially in a contemporary home? Branches look great in Scandinavian and Coastal sheikh homes. A Bonzai tree would look cool in a Zen or a contemporary style dining room, going back to candleholders. Hurricane and lantern candle holders can also be filled with seasonal items like pine cones , mini pumpkins or year round decorative objects like mosque balls. Okay, now for the fun part, let's see these beautiful accessories in action. First, let's talk about decorating rectangular and oval tables, which are similarly shaped. Let's first talk about a casual look for your rectangular oval table. First, you want to aim tohave accessories take up roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the length of this table, with most vignettes nod number of items always looks great, such as three or five, and this is particularly true for a casual dining table. For example, you could use a plant and two candles, three identical plants or flowers, candles and they tray with a handful of items, like a plant and a cool salt and pepper shakers. Set or saw about the candles for a pair of canisters that fit the interior design style. You girls are throwing a runner, but definitely be sure to choose a more casual material like cotton or jute. Now, as much as I love symmetry for a more casual style, I generally prefer an asymmetrical approach. For example, try evasive flowers, a trio of different height candles on one side and a jug on the other side. Or you could use a variety of candles of varying heights staggered across the table rather than in a linear line. As far as the best flowers. For more casual table arrangements, I would consider tulips, lilacs, wildflowers and hydrangeas, thes air, all a great choice for more formal tables. Your decor looks great when it spans 1/3 to 2/3 the length of your table, and formal symmetry does work best. Let's start with one of the more popular arrangements, which includes a vase of flowers with a set of taper candles on either side or build on that by adding an extra set of candleholders. Hurricane or votive candleholders would work really well here. If you are loving the set of five accessories, consider alternating just two different items like we see here with the flowers and the taper candles. Speaking of taper candles, they are always a great choice for any formal style, and they look great on either side of flowers, a plant or a beautiful bowl. Other great arrangements with just three items include a two tiered server with matching flower bouquets on either side or to decorative glass bowls with flowers in the middle. Note how in the last two arrangements, the tallest item is in the middle. This is typical for a more formal dining table. For arrangements with an even number of items, consider for identical items like four flower arrangements or just two identical items, like to decorative bowls or two candelabras. Or try five taper candles in the center with flower arrangements on each side, as you likely noticed, roses are a favorite for more formal styles. But orchids are also an excellent choice. A formal table runner would look right at home as well. Now let's move on to square and round dining tables first for casual dining tables, I will very often use a circular arrangement of three items, such as a plant, a trio of taper candles and a football. Don't forget that with any display, height variation is definitely important. Other lovely options include a cake stand, which is a great place for pastries, decorative salt and pepper shakers and a small herb plant or flowers, a decorative castor and a candle. I also love a beautiful tea set with some flowers, all of which would look great in a tray. Or try a variety of greenery such as greenery, stems, boxwood and herb plants. Now moving on to a formal table. This is where one singular item really does work particularly well. A large, beautiful flower or plant arrangement is frequently used. I would recommend something more elaborate like we see here, but a sculpture or statue could also be used. Another great arrangement is 5 to 7 single bud vases filled with single roses, building on that display, you could surround the scripting with four small tea light or votive candleholders. Or simply try a grouping of different size taper candle holders. As you can see, there are many easy and stylish waste. Decorate your dying table for every day beyond the simple vase of flowers. Just be mindful of the shape of your table in the style of your room. I hope you enjoy this lecture. 12. Decorate with Pillows: I often get a little melancholy when I see a couch with just the pillows that came with the sofa, which are typically the exact same color and the exact same material. It is such a missed styling opportunity for your room, so please don't make the same mistake. Choosing the right pillows and the right configuration is much, much easier than you think. First, let's talk about the configuration. You have a few different, totally fail safe options available. First, you can go with an asymmetrical approach, which would mean one pillow on one side and two pillows on the other side. Or, if you have a large couch, use two pillows on one side and three pillows on the other. Just make sure they vary in size with the largest in the back. Or you can go with two pairs of identical pillows with the larger pillows sitting behind the smaller pillows or another great option is to use five pillows across the back of the entire sopa. You will use two pairs of identical pillows, one set that will be go on the outside, followed by another set next to those keep the size the same or similar, but vary the color and or the pattern. Then place one smaller pillow in the middle. Now let's talk about what type of pillows to buy first whenever possible. I nearly always purchased down filled pillows. Why, for a number of reasons. First, they have that plump look that you often see in designer magazines, usually with that karate chop look in the middle. They are also super comfortable Toe lay on, in my opinion, have you have a leather sofa? They will stay put better and they don't slide around Now, Polly Phil is a more affordable option, but they just don't look as good, in my opinion, although I cannot argue with the fact that they do provide better back support if that is a concern for you. Also, if you have allergies than Poly, Phil really is often your only choice. But if allergies are not a problem that a decent middle ground this to go ahead and purchase, both types use poly, fill in the back and then layer some downfield pillows in front of them. Okay, enough said about the interior. Now let's talk about the exterior or what the pillows should look like when it comes to what color or what pattern's definitely be sure to include pillows that have one or more of your accent colors as faras patterns. You can keep with the same type of pattern. For example, floral. Or you can mix it up between florals, geometric, abstract, etcetera, as long as you keep a common color palette. If you want something that's a little more glam than throwing a pillow in the metallic of your choice for that particular room, please be sure to change up your texture as well. Try mixing so covered pillows with faux fur or linen covered pillows, especially if you are staying with a monochromatic or a mutual color scheme. Finally, I always include a throw blanket on the arm of my sofa. It has texture, and since I am usually cold, I've often reaching for it at night. Now let's talk beds, heads air really much easier than you probably think you want to simply layered, alternated even and or odd numbers, but always ending with one pillow in the front, for example, presuming you have two large bed pillows with shams propped up on your back row, then you can place either too large decorative pillows in front of that with one small decorative pillow at the very front. Or you could go with a 3 to 1 approach where you placed three decorative pillows, followed by two more decorative pillows and then one small pillow in the very front, or even a 2 to 1 approach with two large decorative pillows, followed by two medium sized decorative pillows, and then lend small pillow in the front vitro, though, looks best when it's composed of the exact same throw pillow. So in the 3 to 1 approach the three pillows in the back or all the same. The two pillows in the middle are a matching pair, and then the pillow in the front is completely unique again, though, just like with what we discussed with the arranging the pillows on your sofa, be sure to have a common color theme if indeed you are mixing patterns. There are obviously other options for pillow arrangements, but this will make your bed look pulled together every single time 13. Hang Artwork the Right Way: I must admit that few things frustrate me Maurin the world of design than artwork that has hung the wrong way. It's really not that difficult. Once you know the rules and, yes, when hanging artwork, there are really good rules and guidelines to help you. So in this lecture we talk about what those rules and guidelines are for both single pieces of artwork as well as collages. You'll get an opportunity to look at some examples of artwork, hung the wrong way so you can spot the problems. And finally, I'll discuss when you should simply consider leaving your wall free of artwork. So let's get to it first. Here are the rules and guidelines to get you started. The first rule of hanging artwork is to match the shape of the artwork to the shape of the wall space to create harmony. For example, here we have a rectangular picture in a portrait orientation hanging in a portrait shaped rectangular space. This is one of my projects, and the wall ends here. So again we have a portrait oriented rectangular picture in a portrait shaped rectangular space. Now what's the shape of the space above the sofa right. It's a rectangular space, but this time in the landscape orientation. So we will look best hang artwork that is also in a landscape orientation. Now this face is a bit trickier. What shape picture do you think would look best here? If the bookcase and tall floor lamp weren't there, you'd simply choose a piece of artwork that is roughly 2/3 length of the sofa. I'll talk more about this. 2/3 rule in a bit, but you can't ignore the bookcase and the floor lamp. And in fact, these become the natural boundaries that helped to define the shape of the artwork. Hang in space. Can you see the shape now? You got it right. If you said a square, do you see how this artwork works so well in the space? Great. Now let's talk about how high to hang your artwork as I find that hanging artwork too high is one of the most common mistakes. I see artwork of nearly any size should be hung so that the vertical center of the pieces between 60 to 66 inches from the finish floor. Why? Because that is I level for the majority of people. Why is it arranged? Because not all artwork is the same size. Not all ceiling heights are the same height, and sometimes you're hanging artwork over a sofa or a console table, so you may have to go up higher than you normally would if there were not a piece of furniture beneath it. So 60 to 66 inches gives you a starting point, and you'll have to decide what ultimately looks right in your space, said another way. The 60th 66 inch arrange is the science of hanging artwork, and figuring out the perfect height within that range is the art of hanging artwork. The 62 66 inch rule is also used for collages or multiple pieces of artwork hung as a single installation. The midpoint of the collage should also be it 60 of 66 inches, so some pieces may be particularly lower higher than that. But when hung in the grouping provided that the center line of the collage is at 60 or 66 inches, you are in good shape. The other rule with collages is to hang your pieces roughly two inches apart from each other. You can go as much as three inches. But I wouldn't go more than that unless you're hanging only 2 to 3 pieces of artwork together. In that case, you can hang them a bit further apart, but usually no more than about five inches. Or they lose their cohesiveness and they start feeling disconnected. The best way to determine a collage layout is on the ground. Specifically, I always lay my pieces out on the ground to begin with, as it allows me to move pieces around till my hearts content. And I find the perfect arrangement without damaging the walls. If there is a piece that is the largest, I usually place it near the middle of the collage and then work outwards. Once I'm done, I'll snap a picture of the collage with my phone before I begin hanging them. I always have my hangar hang the middle piece first, so Aiken center it on the wall or in the space and then work outwards from there when hanging a collage along a staircase had the bottom of the collage follow the line of the staircase rail. My final rule for collages is this. A collage looks best when it has a unifying theme that could be the same color frame for every piece of artwork or the same type of artwork, such as black and white photography. Don't forget that collages can consist of not only artwork but other decorative items such as wall sculptures, Miers or basket. They should just fit the style or theme that you are going for now. I want to get back to the 2/3 rule I spoke about earlier. This rule applies, and we're hanging our work over a piece of furniture such as a sofa, a bad or a case good item, like a console table, an end table, a night stand, a dresser, etcetera. Artwork almost always looks best when it is roughly 2/3 the length of the item directly beneath it. It's that rule of thirds that's so heavily used in design. You also want to hang artwork between 6 to 10 inches over the top of the item so that it feels connected with the furniture piece below it. Okay, so that makes sense. But what do you do when the piece of artwork is 2/3 the length of the item over it? But when you hang it 6 to 10 inches over the furniture. It feels too low, like we see here, because the center of the picture is nowhere near 62 66 inches from the finish floor. Any ideas? Well, here are three good options. First, you could vertically stack some artwork over it. Second, you could place the artwork on the night stand and lean it back against the wall. This allows you to use the artwork in your vignette, but now it looks properly scaled to the space. Third, you could simply look for a taller piece of artwork, so that's more proportional to the space and then find another home for the other piece of artwork. Now you may be wondering, with all of these rules and guidelines, which one takes precedent when they are in conflict? For example, in this picture, we have the space over the fireplace that's just begging for some artwork. If you look at the shape of the space between the two sconces, it's rectangular. But a large rectangular picture does not look right here. Why is that? Because you cannot ignore the mantle, which is directly beneath it. If you ignore the sconces and use a 2/3 rule. You'd end up with something like this, which looks much better. So if the army is being placed directly over a piece of furniture or something comparable, such as a fireplace mantel, the 2/3 rule takes precedent. Now that you know the rules and guidelines we designers used, let's look at some pictures of artwork that are not quite right to see if you can spot the problems. This first example is a fairly easy one. What problems do you see? I see three obvious problems. First, the spacing between the pictures is much too inconsistent. Second, the staggered height just doesn't look right. It's too haphazard and chaotic because of sizes are all the same. A staggered collage won't work well, so it will look much more pulled together that simply hang them in a straight line a couple of inches apart. Third, the wall clock doesn't work here. It could work in the collage if they had different sized images, but it feels out of scale with the artwork. Let's look at our next picture, where we have a piece of artwork over a sofa. Again, what problems do you see first, it's hung too high. It's definitely not 6 to 10 inches over the back of the sofa. It's also not wide enough to meet our 2/3 rule, which creates our third problem. If you lower it to 10 inches over the sofa, the center of the picture likely won't be at the right height because it's not tall enough . It's simply too small for this space. Now let's look at our third picture. This one is better, right? It's definitely hung within 10 inches of the back of the sofa, and it's tall enough that the midpoint should be in that 60 of 66 inch range. But it's not quite white enough, in my opinion, but just slightly. If we could widen it just a little bit like this, we would have our ideal proportions. Can you see the difference? Great. Now let's talk about when you should consider leaving a wall or walls free of artwork. Often this technique is used when you want to create some negative space in the room, which is a deliberate design choice, particularly in styles like contemporary and modern French. The idea is that your levian area of the room such as a wall, a corner, etcetera empty in order to create some breathing room in a design, particularly when you don't want to distract from the focal point in the room, for example, in this dining room, leaving the wall free of artwork behind this eye catching light fixture keeps all of the attention on this fixture. So if you have a stunning light fixture in a dining room, you may want to skip the artwork behind it. Here's another excellent example of negatives. Face. We have this beautiful view out of the windows surrounding this blank wall. So by leaving the wall free of artwork, your view is naturally drawn to the outdoors, with nothing competing for your attention. Now let's contrast that with this room where we have two small pictures hung in between two windows. I really think this is a design miss first, because the space between the two windows is not that large, so you really don't need anything here. And second, because the artwork is acting as a distraction toe. Another beautiful view outside artwork is simply not needed here. It's not wrong, per se. I just think this design would be better without it along the same lines. Another reason you may want to leave some walls. Bear is when you have a strong focal point wall like we have in this bedroom. By leaving the walls on either side free of artwork, you are focusing the attention completely on this piece of artwork and the panelling behind it. Other reasons to include leaving your walls free of artwork is when you are using another type of all treatment on your wall already, such as beautiful wallpaper, brick stone tile, our panel moulding. This doesn't mean you can't layer artwork over a wall treatment, because, of course you can, but just know that you don't have to. Speaking of panel moulding. Sometimes a space within picture frame moulding is just screaming for a piece of artwork like we see here. Not on Lee is a center frame so much bigger than the surrounding frames, but you even have the space flanked by two sconces. Doesn't this feel so much better now? I know I feel better now. Let's contrast that example with this room again. We have a large picture frame moulding right behind the bed, but we don't need artwork here Why is that? Because the light fixture is a star of the show and the moldy and simply serves to help. Highlight is very cool. Fixture. The fixture acts in place of the artwork. Do you see the difference? Excellent. Okay, now what about when we have used paint to create a full or partial accent wall like we see here? Do you think artwork should be hung over this bed? You certainly could, but it's really not needed. The architectural interest of the molding, combined with the dramatic color change, creates enough visual interest that artwork really isn't needed and in fact, would distract from this very clean aesthetic and the harmony that is created with the winning combination of a dark grey focal wall, the dark grey drapes and the dark grey bedding. So to recap, match the shape of your artwork to the shape of the wall space. Hang a single piece or a collage so that the center line is between 60 66 inches from the finish floor. Keep collage pieces within 2 to 3 inches of each other. Ensure your collages have a unifying theme When hanging over a piece of furniture, use a single piece of art worker collage that is 2/3 the length of the item beneath it and hung six attendances above the furniture. And don't be afraid to leave a wall or to bear when it makes sense to do so. 14. Lecture 13 Where to Buy Accessories: 15. Learn the Guidelines to Mixing Metal Finishes in Your Home: in this lecture, I am going to share with you the five general guidelines that I use to effectively mix and match metal finishes for the main rooms of our homes, including the family room, living room, dining rooms and bedrooms. After I review my guidelines, all then share with you some examples of rooms done right that have used these guidelines. So first, let's talk about the five key guidelines that will help you in getting this right the first time. First, it's best to choose a dominant metal and then have the other metal finishes be supporting medals. This helps the room to feel more cohesive for small rooms. I generally stick to two different metals for larger rooms. I generally use no more than three different metals, but sometimes we'll go up to four, depending on the room. When I'm mixing just two different metals, I like to mix them in roughly a 2/3 1 3rd ratio, meaning the dominant metal represents 2/3 of the metal used in the room, and the supporting metal represents the remaining 1/3 of the metal used in that room. If I'm mixing three medals, then I'll take one of two approaches. First, either all have the dominant metal be roughly 50% of the metal in the room, with the remaining two medals compromising roughly 25% each or second. I'll still have the dominant metal represent roughly 60% of the metal in the room. But then I'll have a second metal compromise. Roughly 30 35% of the metal in the room, and the third medal will be used only one, maybe two items, which represents maybe 5 to 10% of the room, or what we can call the 60 30 10 split. Second. It's not only okay, but also recommended to mix warm and cool medals in the same space. When I say warm metals, I'm referring to gold, copper, rose, gold, oil rubbed bronze and brass. And when I say cool metals, I'm referring to silver chrome, nickel steel in pewter. Neutral medals include natural iron, gunmetal and other black metal's, and can be mixed and easily with any other metal combination, which is fantastic. You should also take advantage of the warm and cool undertones and decide if you're going to use the metals toe, either accentuate or balance the warm or cool feeling you have in the room. For example, you could mix chrome, nickel and steel in a room to accentuate an already cool color scheme. Or you could use brass and copper to balance the cool feeling that you have in the room. Both approaches are perfectly fine. It's all about the overall look and feel you want to create. Third, unless you're doing a feature wall of framed prints or wall decor where you are mixing items or pictures with different metals, it's important that you spread the different metal finishes throughout the entire room so that the mixture feels balanced. Fourth, you can and should mix different types of metal finishes such as polished Matt and Hammered . This is an especially smart technique when you are using the same metal color in a room, as this is another common way to add texture and visual interest when you are using a monochromatic metal color scheme, this'll in general. I like to use the same 3 to 4 medals throughout entire home for a more cohesive look, although if you live in a large home, you definitely could get away with an additional finish for two Now the powder room is one exception where you should feel free to use whatever type of metal you'd like, even if that's the only room using that particular metal. Why? Because the powder room is huff in the one room of the house where we push the design envelope and try out different design elements that we may not use in the rest of our home . Our powder room should be showstoppers, so feel free to take some chances there. Okay, so now that you know the guidelines I regularly use to mixed metals, well, let's now take a look at some examples of how this plays out in our designs. Take a look at this lovely French modern living room. They did a beautiful job mixing metals. Here. Gold is a primary metal, which you can see in the chandelier, the sconces on the far wall flanking the mirror, over the fireplace and on the legs of the coffee tables. However, they also have the floor lamp on the left side, which appears to be the gun metal finished, and we see a similar metal in the accent table in front of the fireplace. In this example, they've used the 2/3 1 3rd approach. They've spread the different metals throughout the room, and it appears that they kept it to two metal finishes. I also love how they've used both warm and cool metals, which reflect the warm and cool colors they've used in the space. It's a great pairing. Now let's take a look at this dining room. How many different metal finishes do you see? I see three. We have the obvious gold finished on the table legs and the chair frames. We then have what appears to be a chrome finish on the chandelier. But we also have the skylights, which are framed. The black metal, all three finishes co exist so beautifully. In this example, you can see that the dominant metal is gold, with the second most common metal being the black windows. Because they're so big and just the pop of the chrome in the chandelier, which illustrates the percentages I spoke about earlier, with roughly a 60 30 10% split in this example, they have mixed cool, warm and neutral metals. They've kept it to three different types of metal as well. For a final example, let's take a look at this family room. You can see that chrome is dominant metal being used in the legs of the coffee table, the floor lamps, the legs of the chairs and the curtain rod. But we also have gold as a secondary metal being used, which we can see in the picture frame on the far wall, as well as the nail head trim on the Ottomans under the console tables. Now, because I designed this room, I can also tell you that behind the camera there is a sculpture that has gold in it to balance out the gold being used on the far side of this room. In this example, I've kept it to two different metals, with roughly a 2/3 1 3rd split. I've balanced the two metals throughout the room, and I've used a cool and a war medal. Because the color scheme is primarily cool. I've used the gold toe help provide some temperature balance to the room. One final note about mixing metals. Please don't forget that you can bring in metal finishes in soft surfaces like pillows. This is a very easy way to add a metallic finish to your space 16. Mix Metal Finishes in Your Kitchen: In my experience, the kitchen is the one room of the home where people are most cautious and least likely to want to try to mix metals. The bathroom is a close second, and Hosni I'm not entirely sure why. If it works well in most the rooms of your home, why not your kitchen and your bathrooms? Now? I suspect it's because these are some of the costliest rooms of our home in design, and we just don't want to get it wrong. It's too expensive, but I'm here to tell you that you can absolutely do this, and as long as you don't feel the need to have everything match because some people do, and that's totally okay, then definitely try this out. Sometimes I find that clients feel limited by their stainless steel appliances. They think that as a result, they should have only brushed nickel faucets and pulls to go with them. The truth is that stainless steel appliances are so big quickest today in most homes that they almost disappear into the background, and you can absolutely mix any metal with these appliances. That said I in general, I do like to keep the finish of all the appliances the same. So either All stainless, all black, all why etcetera? And while I strongly believe you should buy the best appliance regardless of the manufacturer, so, for example, by the best range, the best refrigerator, etcetera. One thing to be aware of is that sometimes finishes, particularly stainless steel, can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, which is one of the main reasons people end up buying everything from just one manufacturer . So that begs the question, which is more important, matching finishes or buying the best appliances, regardless of manufacturer. Well, for me, it is definitely the ladder by the best appliance, regardless of who the manufacturer is, the stainless steel finish may and the varying somewhat that the end of the day functionality rules for me in this particular area. Now, only you can decide, though, whether form or function is more important to you in this area. So now let's talk about the best way to mix medals in your kitchen. One approach is toe. Have all of your functional medals in one finish, and then all of your decorative metals in another finished, for example, perhaps all of your lighting and your bar. Stool legs are in one finish, but everything else isn't a different finish. Another approach is to just have your lighting be in a different finish from the rest of the kitchen lighting, whether it dependence or a chandelier. Two is often front and center in the kitchen, and this is a great place to bring in another metal. And what's great about this approach is that it will definitely feel intentional rather than accidental, which is obviously not what we want. Let's go ahead and take a look at some examples of mixed metal kitchens. In this first example, they've chosen black to be the primary metal color of the space. We see it most prominently in the lighting and all of the Cabinet polls, but they have also thrown in chrome as a secondary metal, which we see in the legs of the bar stools and in the kitchen faucet. Finally, you see that they have a stainless steel range, along with what appears to be a stainless steel popular faucet over the range. This is a great example of the 60 30 10 split you can see that they have also chosen to use just cool and neutral metals, which helps to accentuate the overall cool feeling of this kitchen. Now let's take a look at our second example. What some sound that you it's that brass chandelier, isn't it? It's truly the showstopper in this kitchen, which has chosen to use a black metal for nearly everything, from the lighting to the hood and the range to the drawer pulls, which helps to really make that chandelier pop. I don't know if you noticed that or not, but they did also add in a brass kitchen faucet, which, in my opinion, they didn't really need to do it. But it works. Nevertheless, I love the mix of the primarily mutual meddles with the pop of the warm brass. Very nicely done. Okay, now let's take a look at our third example. How many different finishes do you see? I actually see four. We have the obvious stainless steel countertops along with stainless steel appliances, making this be dominant metal. Then we have what appears to be a chrome kitchen faucet and chrome bar stools. But of course we have that beautiful gold near over the sink. The fourth medal, which you may not have seen right away is the brass frame chuck board to the left of the sink. They did a nice job seem warm and cool metals, which creates a nice temperature balance for this kitchen. Given the cool colored brick and the warm wood floors, I hope these three examples have convinced you that it's a wonderful design choice. Toe mixed metals in our kitchen. 17. Mix Metal Finishes in Your Bathroom: now that I've shown you how to mix metals well in your kitchen. Now let's talk about how to do the same thing in your bathrooms. That said, there are some items in a bathroom that I would make sure to match. I personally recommend matching the shower fixtures and the sink faucets, preferably the same finish from the same manufacturer. But other than that, I'm going to share with you some easy to use approaches for mixing metals One easy in common way to mixed metals is to divide the room in half, separate your top half from your bottom half and then used two different metals. Specifically, use one medal for the bottom half, meeting your drawer pulls and then use a different metal for the top half, meaning your faucets and your lighting. A second approach I recommend, is to use the same metal for your decorative hardware and faucet, and then use a contrast ing finished for your lighting and your mere frame or frames. Third, and finally, another fail safe approach is to have everything in one finished except you're lighting, just like I discussed in the kitchen lecture. Let's go ahead and take a look at some examples of mixed metal bathrooms. In this first example, they have used the top half bottom half approach I just discussed. You can see that all of the decorative hardware in the bottom half of the bathroom appears to be in an oil rubbed bronze, while the top half of the bathroom, which includes the faucet and the pendants, are in a chrome finish. Can you see why this works so well? It's still a very clean look, but by mixing two medals, they've added some visual interest and dimension to this bathroom. Let's take a look at another example here. They decided to use what appears to be brushed chrome for everything that the mirror, which is framed in a dark metal. The result is that the mere is now a much more interesting feature because it didn't use the same metal finished as the rest of the bathroom. And for 1/3 example yes, I know you're all just loving that cool ostrich wallpaper, but if we tear ourselves away from the wallpaper, you will see that they've used to metals for this bathroom. We have the oil rubbed bronze faucet and toilet hardware along with the gold pulls on the vanity, the gold decorative object on top of the toilet and the gold framed mirror. The gold is a nice touch because it helps to visually warm up this cool color skin. I hope this discussion provide you with some needed inspiration for your own bathroom projects. 18. Learn the Guidelines to Mixing Wood Finishes: designers use some common guidelines when mixing wood finishes. And in this lecture, I'm going to share with you the Seven King guidelines that I regularly used to make sure my rooms look fantastic instead of frenetic. The first and most important guideline, in my opinion, this to make sure that you match the undertones of the wood. Wood has one of three tones. Warm, cool or neutral. Neutral tones, as you may guess, can be matched with warmer cool. But I recommend keeping warm with warm and cool with cool. In the next lecture, I'm going to show you how you can easily identify a woods undertone as sometimes. This can be tricky for some people. Second, just like we talked about in the mixing metals section, look to mix just two or three different wood finishes in the room and spread the different finishes throughout the room so that the room feels balanced more specifically. If you were to place just dark wood furniture on one side of the room and only light wood furniture on the other side, I guarantee your room will absolutely feel unbalanced. In general, I prefer to mix just two different finishes, but three different woods can also work. Also, just like with mixing metals, Try toe. Have just one would finish be the dominant wood and make up the majority of the room. Often this could be the Flory, or perhaps a few large pieces of furniture. This approach is by far the easiest and safest way to mix wood finishes. Third, feel free to either match the grain or mixed the grain well before you mix or match, you need to figure out Is a grain larger and or not Here, which will read, is more rustic and casual, or is the grain finer, which will read is more formal. Once you've identified the grain, then you can decide whether or not you want to mix it or match it. Mixing the different grains will add quite a bit of visual interest, but matching them will accentuate the style or feeling you have in your space again. Either is fine, but you need to decide ahead of time. What look you want to achieve? Fourth, Be sure to choose wood finishes that are definitely different. But complementary as this is much better than trying to match to wood finishes that are close but not exact, said another way. Not matching at all. There's much better than almost match. Why? Because by using this approach, the choice will feel deliberate rather than simply a design. Miss Fifth. If you have wood floors, use rugs to provide a visual break between the floor and the other would finishes that you may have on top of the rug, such as your dining table, your coffee table or other pieces of furniture. Sixth, try using a strongly contrast ing would color to draw attention to the focal point in a room such as your fireplace mantle, a dining table or a bed. Seventh. And finally using approach that will tie the different wood finishes together. How you ask. Well, not to worry. I am going to share with you three easy techniques that we designers regularly use to tie multiple wood finishes together in a room. The first technique is to include a piece of furniture that contains all or most of the wood finishes you are using. In that room, for example, you may find a piece of furniture with various wood inlays or simply a piece of furniture built from wood that has naturally occurring variation in it, such as Brazilian pecan or zebra wood. The second technique is to choose a strong accent color for your room, like red, blue or violet. Simply make sure that you scatter that color throughout the room in places like your drapes , your throw pillows, your throw blankets, rugs, lampshades and possible accent furniture pieces. The third technique is to use large amounts of white throughout your room, like we see in this dining room. Here, white is like a blank canvas and works well to meld different colors. Or, in this case, different wood finishes together beautifully. This could either be through the use of white walls, white upholstered furniture or just white furniture, and specifically we see in the stain room that they have used light and dark wood tones and a generous amount of white in the flooring. The dining table and chairs that the wood tones look beautiful together in this space, and there you go. You now have the seven guidelines that I regularly use when mixing woods in a room or a home. I hope you found this information helpful 19. Identifying Your Wood's Undertone: In the previous lecture, I discussed the importance of mixing woods that have similar warm or cool undertones. But I know from experience that sometimes people don't quite know what this means, or they simply have a really difficult time identifying the wood undertones. So in this lecture, I am going to go more in depth into the topic of undertones for those of you who feel like you need it. First of all, please don't feel badly if you have a hard time seeing undertones, because I let you in on a little secret, they can be hard to see, although the more practice you have doing it, the easier it gets. That said, let's first talk about what undertone actually is, and in order to understand what it actually is, we need to also talk about mass tones in mass tone is that main color that you immediately see when you look at a color? The undertone is a color that is often difficult to discern, especially when you're looking at a particular color by itself in isolation, however, generally the easiest way to determine a colors undertone this to compare it to other colors. That is when the undertone usually reveals itself. Sometimes the mass tone and the undertone could be very similar as the true blue color, but sometimes it could be very different. For example, in the color turquoise, which has a green undertone to it, makes sense. Great. So now let's talk about this. In the context of wood would have finishes that have a warm undertone likely will appear more red, orange or yellow. As we see here, wood finishes with a cool undertone will appear mawr, gray or purple, as you can hopefully see in these examples. If you see a beige undertone like we do here, then that is actually more neutral and can easily and mixed with either warm or with cool woods. There are a few different ways that I have used toe. Help me identify the undertone. The first and more effective way for me is to compare the wood sample to other wood samples . Generally, this approach makes the undertones pop out right away. Take a look at the same wood samples. We just looked out side by side. Can you see how much warmer the woods on the top row appear compared to the woods on the bottom row. And how about what? We throw the neutrals into the mix as well? Can you see how much warmer they appear next to the neutrals and how much cooler the bottom row appears next to those same neutrals? Excellent. Now, if for some reason, I don't have any other would or samples to compare it to another approach all uses to stand pretty far back from the piece of wood in natural sunlight, this allows me to read the color more cohesively meaning so it looks more like one color, and usually the undertone will stand out pretty prominently. Finally, another great technique I've used is to take a picture of the piece of wood. For some reason, photos will often make undertones stand out more prominently. One of these three approaches should work for you. If, after trying all three, you still cannot see the undertone than my advice is to ask a professional either someone at the store where you are at or an interior designer. Of course, now all of this might seem like a bit of work, but please believe me when I tell you that is very important to identify your woods undertone not just to mix and match different wood pieces effectively together, but especially in the case of purchasing new wood floors. Why? Because remember that a color or in this case an undertone will appear much more prominently when spread across a broad expanse of space. So, for example, if that sample of wood flooring has a red undertone like cherrywood obviously does, the red will be amplified once the entire floor is installed, like we see in this kitchen, which may or may not be a good thing in general per flooring, I prefer to choose a wood that has a neutral undertone so it can easily mix with any wood furniture. Or I will choose a wood floor with a slightly cool undertone, as I know that people in general tire of cool colors less quickly than they do warm colors . That being said, there are some gorgeous mahogany floors, which most people know has a red undertone. The bottom line is that it's important to know what undertone you will be committing to with your selections. I hope this information has helped. In the next lecture, we're going to be talking about how to choose the right paint colors for your different wood finishes 20. Match the Right Paint Colors to Your Wood Undertones: One of the most common questions I'm asked by clients is what paint colors go best with my wood floors, or what pink colors work well with the wood furniture that I have in this room. As a result, I am guessing my students may have the exact same questions. And so, in this lecture, I am going to share with you what I tell my clients now. Obviously, I can't be in your home, but I can tell you the guidelines that I use, which should help you to narrow down your paint color selections to those hues that will work best to enhance the beauty of your wood. Specifically, I'm going to share with you three different approaches that I frequently use. 1st 1 of the best paint color backdrops for would, particularly for medium and dark toned wood floors and or furniture, is white or cream. Regardless of whether the wood has warm or cool undertones, white or cream, if you prefer something warmer, really allows the different wood tones to shine beautifully in a room. Please don't be put off by white paint is too boring. White is the perfect counterbalance to nearly all shades of wood. My recommendation is to bring in other colors into your space through your accessories, your window coverings and your rugs. The second approach I like to use is to choose a paint shade that has the same warm or cool undertones as the wood in the room. So, if you're would has warm red undertones. A light warm neutral, like a warm gray, also called grace, will look beautiful as Willie. Warm brown paint color. Similarly, if you're would has yellow or gold undertones, then try a light tan or a beige pink color, both warm neutrals. If the wood has gray undertones, and I would choose a cool pink color like blue, green, lavender or gray for woods that are neutral in color. Beige tope Kathy your brown make great paint color choices, but truthfully, any paint color will likely work well with neutral toned woods. The third approach from I'm or Daring clients this to go with the complementary pink color to the undertones in the wood, for example, let's say that your wood has yellow undertones. Then you could choose either a pale lavender paint color or a deep purple pink color, as purple is yellow's complement on the color wheel. Conversely, if you see orange undertones in your would, you could then choose a paint color in his compliment color. In this case, blue, which will really make the wood flooring or wood pieces stand out in a surprisingly good way for red tone woods trying a muted olive green color very pretty for Florida? Or would that has a grey undertone? You may be wondering. What's compliment is, well, there really isn't one. So in this case, just do a contrast ing pink color based on temperature. In this case, gray undertows signify a cool undertone. Typically, so go with a warm pink color with which to contrast the cool tones again. This approach is not for the faint of heart, and quite honestly, it's much harder to pull off well. But it is a viable option for some. With all of these approaches be, one commonality that I often employ is to ensure that the intensity is very between my wood and pink color. If my goal is to highlight the wood, for example, if my wood is lighter in intensity, I will generally choose a darker pink color roughly 23 shades darker than the wood. On the other hand, if the wood is at least medium and tone, and definitely with dark wood, I will generally choose a pink color that is lighter in intensity, which is why white meat makes such a great pink color choice for dark wood. I used this technique in order to ensure that the beauty of the wood really stands out, said Another way. If you were to select a pink color that is the same intensity as the wood, the wood will generally just get lost in the room, which is OK if you want to minimize the wood that you have, but by selecting a paint color. In a contrast ing intensity, you have just use an easy, inexpensive way to highlight your beautiful flooring or your beautiful wood pieces. Now, all that said, sometimes this approach is trumped by other considerations. One important consideration has to do with the style in which I'm decorating. The room, for example, was styled like Scandinavian and coastal chic. Lighter woods are generally used along with lighter pink colors, so choosing that paint in a contrast in intensity is not what I would do if Dockery in these styles. Also, you should go ahead and take into account what sort of mood you want to create in the room . Lighter pink colors will create a more peaceful, serene feeling, whereas darker pink colors will create a more dramatic, sophisticated feeling in your room. In short, as with most things in interior design, there is fortunately or unfortunately not a one size fits all approach. Remember, though it is incredibly important to sample your pink colors before you commit because of pay. Color on a chip will always read differently than actual paint for a variety of reasons. But one of the main reasons is due to lighting. The lighting in the paint store is nearly always quite different from our lighting at home , so please test out your colors. The way I test out pink colors is to purchase a small sample for each paint color. I'm interested in paint a roughly two foot by two foot square on a piece of cardboard or white paper, and then I take them up on my walls. I'll also move them to different walls in the room over the course of a couple of days, so I have a chance to live with the colors and see them in different lighting, morning lighting afternoon and evening, which are all quite different from each other. Once again, I strongly recommend that you don't skip this step. Okay, Enough said. 21. Use the Right Crown and Baseboard Molding for Your Home: in this lecture, I am going to be discussing the joys of crown molding and baseboard. Why these two molded in the in the same lecture, you ask. Well, for me, crown and baseboard go together like red wine and breach ings. I typically don't want to have one without the other. More specifically, we have crown that lives at the top of a room and baseboard that lives at the bottom. Together, they create this beautifully packaged room and are truly the perfect design pair. So let's go ahead and start with the crown molding. If there is a king of Moldings, I would say that crown molding is definitely it not only doesn't live in the loftiest part of our rooms, but the variety we have in those sizes and styles is staggering. Crown molding has been used for thousands of years, dating back to the Greeks, who used crown molding in their architecture. Crown molding is definitely both on aesthetic and a functional molding. The aesthetic reasons are pretty obvious. Just look how pretty it is. It has the perfect finishing touch to a room softening the transition between the wall and the ceiling, and could even make your ceilings look taller if you pay the crown the same color as the walls and crown has great resale value. Have you ever noticed that if a house has crown molding, it's nearly always listed in the homes listing description? There is a reason for that. The vast majority of people love it. But even the fantastic aesthetic aside, Crown can also serve a functional purpose, namely to hide the mistakes where the paint has not been cut in perfectly on the walls are on the ceiling. Let's first talk about where you should place the crown molding. It's not uncommon for me to see homes where they have Onley installed it in the main rooms of their home, namely their living room, their family room, dining room and perhaps therefore year. But my recommendation is, if budget allows that you should definitely install it in nearly every room or every room of your home, including your bathrooms, it truly makes such a difference. For example, installing it in your master bathroom really elevates the overall look and feel of the space sheer elegance, and often it's unexpected in rooms like the Master Bathroom, which makes it all the more special. Now let's talk size. There is much debate on the Internet about the appropriate size of crown that you should use for your rooms. Now, if you've ever done a search on this topic, you will see that the determining factor as to what size crown you should use has to do with the height of your ceiling. And I completely agree with that fact. My concern with many of the recommendations online is that I feel that many of the sizes given are just too small. Specifically, you'll often see advice being given something like this. Use crown as somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 to 6 inches for an eight foot ceiling, 2.5 inches, 2.5 inches that is just downright nutty. In my opinion. Let's not forget that Crown is the king of all moldings and should be, in my opinion, a substantial piece of architecture in the room worthy of its title and large enough to be appreciated. So for an eight foot ceiling, my recommendation is to go with a minimum of five inch crown, but you can go as large as 6.5 inch crown. If either you like an oversized look, which I personally do, or if you're going to be painting the crown the same color as the walls, as this will visually minimize the size of your crown molding. So going up from there for a nine foot ceiling, I would use 6 to 7.5 inch crown, and for a 10 foot ceiling, I would use 7 to 8.5 inch crown for anything higher than that. Build up your crown with multiple pieces. Now what do you do if you have wildly different height ceilings throughout your home, as I happen to have well, go with the same style of crown as a style usually comes in multiple sizes, but size the crown appropriately to that room or space. As always, though, what size crown you ultimately choose should come down to personal preference. So be sure to get a sample, either from your local building supplier or moulding. Installers often have their own samples as well, and then have someone hold it up for you against the stealing so you can see how it will read from the floor. Remember objects always look smaller when there higher up. So I promise you that Crown will not look as large up against the ceiling as it does in your hands. In short, go big. I don't think you'll regret it. Now let's talk about materials most. The crown molding I see being used today is made out of lightweight paint herbal MDs, which is great because it comes pre primed as less susceptible to humidity and temperature , making it a great choice for bathrooms, as I discussed earlier, that said, you can certainly by crown made out of other materials like wood or plaster. But given how susceptible to moisture would is and how heavy and expensive plaster is, I'd stick with the MDF. That said, if you just love the look of plaster, you can purchase crown molding made out polyurethane foam, which looks like plaster but is lightweight and condemn finitely B A. D. I. Y. Project a bonus. The downside with this material is that it could be pretty pricey compared to some of the other choices in terms of what interior design styles to use crown molding. It really works with most styles today. Now that said, there are some styles I generally won't specify. Crown molding four. These styles include contemporary Scandinavian, urban, modern, mid century, modern industrial ends then as well. With some of these styles, you could use crown, but it gets a bit tricky on what style to use. I wouldn't recommend it for most people. Now let's talk about baseboard. We all have it well, almost all of us. And if we do have it, we definitely need it. And in case, it's not obvious why it's primarily used to cover the joint where the wall and the floor meat as it's generally not a very pretty sight without it. Why? Because contractors knowing that baseboard is going to be installed into the home generally aren't too concerned with creating a seamless transition between wall and floor. In fact, if you were to build a home from scratch and specifying no baseboard, your labor costs will definitely go up, as both the drywall and the flooring installers will have to be extra careful on that transition. The other important functionality that baseboard serves is you may be aware of this is to protect your walls from items that bump into them like your vacuum cleaners, your mops, your feet etcetera. So, in short, baseboard is definitely one of the most necessary moldings in your home. In terms of size is extremely important that you coordinate the size of your baseboard with the size of your crown molding. If you are using crown molding, essentially, they need to have a similar visual wait. In my opinion, I like my baseboard to be either roughly the same size is my crown, or about inch or two smaller. So for that nine foot ceiling with a 7.5 inch crown, I would look to years of baseboard somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.5 to 7.5 inches high . Make some fantastic now, in terms of materials, baseboard is available in many of the same materials that crown molding is available in, including paint, herbal MDF and would. But you also have high definition polymer system and high density polyurethane. Two great options, which looked very similar to wood buts, are hypo allergenic, impervious to rot, fully recyclable and stronger than would making these two materials a great choice, particularly for high traffic areas. Now let's talk about what colors you should paint your crown molding and your baseboard. Most people just paint them white, and that's definitely a great classic choice. But please, no, that's not your only choice. For example, as I mentioned earlier, painting your crown molding the same color as your walls is a great technique to make your ceiling appear higher. You can see some beautiful examples of this on one of my Pinterest pages. You could also paint them black, which gives a room a very sophisticated, timeless look. Four. Mix it up and put your crown black and your baseboard white. This is also a fantastic look, or you can also choose to paint both the crown and the base, a lighter tint or a darker shade of your wall color, regardless of what color you choose for your crown and your baseboard. One thing I do recommend, though, is to make sure that you use a color that has the same warm or cool undertone as your paint color on your walls. So if you choose to use white, make sure that you use a warm white If you're wall pink. Color is warm now. If your wall colors change from room to room and you have an open floor plan. I would use the same color on the crown and the baseboard throughout the home. Otherwise, your home will feel quite disjointed. That being said, if you do have an open floor plan, like many of us do, you can get away with using a different color crown or baseboard in closed off rooms such as your powder room or your master bedroom. Finally, in terms of Shane, the gold standard is to use semi gloss paint for your crown molding and your baseboard in terms of what style crown molding and baseboard you should use. As I mentioned earlier, I always coordinate the crown and the baseboard with the architectural style of the home, even if the furnishings you are using are a different style. So why would I do that? Well, for one, your front row style may change down the road, but your homes architecture is likely not going to change, So matching the moulding to the home ensures that your bolding will always look good seconds resale value. If and when you sell your home, buyers are going to think it's odd. If you're molding, does not match the architecture of your home, so do the right thing 22. Use Door and Window Casing to Add Character to Your Walls: The vast majority of new homes, at least in the United States, are built with door casing, but it seems few at least out here on the West Coast are built with window casing. Why, that is a good question that I simply do not know the answer to. But it's a design prime, in my opinion, when those without casing just looks so plain, so planned. So in my opinion, window casing is absolutely on upgrade worth doing. So why do we have casing Other than that make the doors and walls look prettier? Well, in the door casing, it definitely serves a functional purpose. First, as you may have guessed, it covers the gap around the outside of the door. But did you know that also provides extra stability to the door opening? Well, that's definitely a plus. Now let's talk in detail about window casing. It's good to know the different pieces that make up the casing, as you can absolutely customize each piece for a truly custom look. Now, there are actually many different pieces that make up a full case, but I'm just going to focus on the main ones. First. We have the casing which is what you see on the left side, the right side and the top of the windows. That's it's Platt against your wall. It acts kind of like a picture frame for the window. The pieces, they're on the inside of the window between the window and the casing is the window jam at the top above the casing. You can also choose to install a cap or crown. Next we have the stool, which is the piece directly on the bottom of the window, and the part of the casing extends furthest out from your wall. This is where you can set decorative items such as flowers or plants. Below that, we have the apron. Now let's go back to the stool for a minute. First, many people refer to this as the sill, but in actuality, the sill is Onley, seen on the exterior of the window, as usually sloped to shed water. Also, while the stool is often made of the same material as the rest of the casing, you can also choose to use marble, synthetic marble, ceramic or another stone material, which is not only unique and beautiful, but also doesn't stain like would can, which is nice if you would like to grow plants on your stools as you won't have to worry about water leaks and water stains. Now, in terms of size, this one is easy. The general rule of thumb, which I agree with, is to size the casing at roughly 50% the height of your baseboard. So with a six inch baseboard, you would use roughly a three inch casing for both your door and your window casing. Window and door casing is available in the same materials as crown molding and baseboard, including paint. Great MDF would polymer and polyurethane. So you may be wondering whether or not you should paint the casing the same color as the crown molding and your baseboard. Obviously, you can definitely do this, and I'm sure you've seen that. It's extremely common to paint the casing white, like most do for the crown molding and the baseboard. But again, this is a great design opportunity to do something different. I personally love the look of black doors with black door and window casing so elegant that said, I only like this look. If the window frames are black as well, another great look, especially if you are trying to make your rooms appear larger is to paint the door and window casing the same color as your walls. By doing this, it creates a seamless, unified look, whereas having the casing in a contrast in color breaks up the room visually and can make a room a small room, feel smaller. Also, like with the crown molding and baseboard. You could choose just to paint your casings a shade or two darker or lighter than your walls, even if you go with white crown and baseboard. Finally, one other great option for window and door casing is to stain it the same color or similar color as the wood surfaces in your house. For example, your flooring or your staircase color. One final question you might have is should your door and window casings be the same color ? Well, as far as I know, there's no hard and fast rule on this, but I firstly think it does look best if they are painted the same color. Finally, in terms of style, I highly recommend keeping the style of the casing the same between your doors and windows , and that is matched to the architectural style of your home. Just like we discussed with crown and baseboard 23. Use Chair Rail and Panel Molding to Elevate the Design of Your Room: Whether chair rail was born out of a need for form or function actually remains up to debate. Many people, including many designers, believe that chair rail was born out of a functional need specifically to keep the wall scuff free from chairs and other items banging into them. Now, on the form side, there are others who state that chair rail was actually created by Roman and Greek architects who used these chair rails to divide up the walls into pleasing visual proportions. Whatever the case may be, the fact of the matter is that they do serve both form and function. In fact, one additional functional use has to do with younger kids. For anybody who has Children, you likely know that younger Children often love to bang into the walls or write on the walls, or basically do their very best to, in one way or another, damage the walls in the most creative ways possible. But what's nice about chair rail is that it helps to isolate the damage. How so you ask? Well, we all know that young kids are short and can Onley cause damage to the parts of the walls that they could actually reach. In this case, it will typically be the wall below the chair rail. The result is that with time to fix up the walls and repent them or re paper them, you then on Lee have to worry about the bottom half of the wall or the area below the chair rail. Making this pretty easy, pretty great right now, despite the fact that Chair rail has some killer functionality, I personally love it for its aesthetics. It's a great way to divide up the space so you can use to different wall treatments one above the chair rail and one below, and the possibilities are endless. You can use to different paint colors, or go with paint and wallpaper or paint and panel moulding and bathrooms. You can use it to divide the tile from paint or tile from wallpaper. Again. The possibilities are truly endless. Now a common question I get asked is, How high should I install the chair rail? I recommend that you follow the lead of the ancient Greeks. Remember how I said that chair rail was believed to have been created by Roman and Greek architects to divide walls into pleasing visual proportions. Well, dividing wall into thirds is definitely a way to do that, so install your chair rail at approximately 1/3 the height of the ceiling. So for an eight foot ceiling, install it at roughly 32 inches from the floor. Chair rail absolutely look wrong if installed at the wrong height. So this is one measurement that I stick by. So where should you install chair rail? Honestly, it works well in any room, but I particularly love it in dining rooms, powder rooms and bedrooms. Chair rail is typically 2 to 3 inches wide, although it can be larger and today is often composed of paint grade MDF for wood in terms of color. In the vast majority of chair rail applications, the color is Can you guess it? Yes, it is white, white and more white. But again, it doesn't have to be. Here are two other great options for you. The first option is to paint the chair rail the same color as the paint color you have painted on the lower half of your wall, which I think gives us a clean, elegant book. Or the second option is to paint your chair rail the same color as your baseboard if indeed your baseboard is not white. Finally, in terms of style, you may be surprised to know that despite this moldings relatively small size, there are actually quite a few different chair rail molding styles available from thin and delicate, too large and ornate. So definitely check out the options you have available at your local home improvement store . And be sure to find the chair rail that coordinates with your other moldings. Now let's go ahead and discuss panel moulding. Pamela is a broad term that covers everything from wanes coating to be bored, which only goes roughly 1/3 of the way up the wall all the way. It's a full wall paneling, which goes from floor to ceiling. So let's first talk about the very popular wanes coating and beadboard paneling, which we often see in styles ranging from traditional and English country to coastal chic friends, country and farmhouse. Because when scooting and beadboard are typically installed with chair rail, it too is installed approximately 1/3 the height of your ceiling. Full cattle molding, on the other hand, is definitely installed higher than wainscoting and be bored and can go as high as a ceiling, as I mentioned previously, and sometimes we'll even be installed on the ceiling. Although this look is definitely not as popular. Pala moulding can be raised or flat with the rays PAL ing adding a lot more texture to your walls. A common type of panel moulding is picture frame moulding, which is a look of empty picture frames. You know, you've seen that words evenly spaced across the walls, typically both above and below your chair rail. I absolutely love this look in terms of material panel moulding was traditionally made from wood, but this is not a great choice for places with high humidity, which caused the boards to work and pop. And the paint is more prone to cracking, So M V F or medium density fibreboard is now a great choice. If you will be using the panel moldy, be sure that is moisture resistant material, like moisture resistant MDF and for outdoor use, use PVC, just like with all the other trim we have spoken about. Panel moulding is very commonly painted white and again you can't go wrong with this choice , but don't limit yourself the world is full of color. And, yes, you can use different paint colors on your cattle molding for be bored applications, you could paint the being bored the same or a darker pink color than your walls. And then you can either paint the chair, rail and based Ford the same color or go with the traditional white. So what I described so far are the mawr traditional conservative approaches. You can absolutely, absolutely paint your palette multi any color you wish provided, of course, that coordinates with the overall color scheme of your room. Remember, what's great about panel moulding is that it provides texture to your walls. So no matter what color you paint it, it can be a really great application for your walls from a style perspective panel moulding is commonly used in farmhouse, traditional and English country, but can also easily be used in French country, modern French and coastal sheep. So lots of options, which means you should definitely consider giving this great Wall treatment a try in your own home 24. Use Picture Rail Molding to Add Charm to Your Home: Oh, picture rail molding. You were once so popular, but then you fell out of favor in the 19 forties. But fortunately, you have made a minor comeback in homes today. For those of you who don't know, picture rail molding first became popular in the 19th century Victorian era and was traditionally hung closer to the top of the wall to serve a very important functional purpose, namely to hang pictures on as back then, homes had plaster walls instead of drywall, and those plaster walls were often hard to penetrate, and or they could easily be damaged when hanging artwork. Fortunately, today, we have both forgiving drywall and a huge assortment of different types of wonderful hangers, so picture rail is simply not needed. That said, picture rail is definitely still around and now conserve either a decorative or a functional purpose on the decorative side. It can be used to simply add textural interest to a wall or to help divide the wall into different horizontal layers. Or it can certainly still be used for its intended purpose, especially if you're someone who likes to regularly rotate artwork or you simply prefer to keep your walls nail free. Now let's talk about where to install it. You really have a couple of options here. The first option is to install it at around 12 inches from your ceiling. Or more importantly, be shorts and lying with the top of your window and your door casings. The second option is to install it roughly 1/2 inch or one inch below the ceiling or the crown molding. What you don't want to do, though, is installing at halfway between your ceiling and the top of your window and door casings as this creates an extra horizontal line on the wall that you won't like. Once it's installed, you'll then need to find the right type of hardware that hooks around the molding to carry the weight of the artwork with the wires, which, at least here in my area, can be tricky to find. You might be better off looking online. The typical size of picture rail is one and 3/4 inches as incredibly affordable. This molding also comes in many different styles to match your home and as faras pink color , I would definitely recommend painting it the same color as your crown molding or if you don't have crown than the same color as your baseboard. If you really want to stand out, though, you could paint a darker shade of the color on your walls. Your other option, if you don't want this molding to stand out, is to paint it the same color as your walls. While you could make picture rail molding work in a number of different styles, I personally think it is best suited for traditional English country and modern French styles. 25. Final Thoughts and Thank You!: congratulations. I am thrilled that you've complete the entire course with me. This was such a fun class to put together. And I sincerely hope that you not only enjoyed it, but learn quite a bit along the way as well. Now, apart from the practicality, my goal was that you now gained a much stronger appreciation for why the details in design matters so much and why room design will hear so much more polished and pulled together. When you take the time to focus on these details, all of that said, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to send me an email. I am more than happy to answer your follow up questions. Thank you again so much and happy decorating.