Friday, July 31, 2015

Decorating with Color

We were overwhelmed by the amount of color that we saw in April market in High Point and are starting to see a shift from all-neutral rooms to extremely colorful interiors. We have been slowly incorporating more saturated color tones in our designs for our clients and have tips below on how to add more color into your life and your home!

PAINT

One of the most cost effective and impactful ways to bring color into your home is with paint. This month our "Southern Gems" jewel tone palette includes the colors Navy, Emerald, Coral, Raspberry, and Dark Gray. Our "tried and true" paint colors are below that we have used in several homes that look amazing and really change the mood of a room.


Dark navy blue stripes make the statement in our client's dining room
We used Ben Moore's Hale Navy HC-154 in our client's dining room above in both a matte finish and a satin finish to create tonal stripes on the walls. This is an easy paint treatment that gives you the look of wallpaper without the hassle or expense.

Charlotte Blogger Emily Clark's new china cabinet with a pop of Emerald Green 
Emily Clark just posted on her blog about using Sherwin Williams Alexandrite SW0060 in the back of her china cabinet above and it looks amazing! Read her full blog post here. We agree with her about blue, green and white being a classic color palette!


We combined Sherwin Williams Dovetail SW7018 paint, metallic grasscloth wallpaper from York Wallcoverings, chair rail and paneling for a sophisticated and moody feel in our client's sitting room above.


This room in The Lennox Hotel in Miami really uses a punch of Emerald Green on the walls for a huge impact. This room has quite a few strong statements including its wall color.

Our color choice of Sherwin Williams Lagoon SW6480 is being painted in one of our client's sitting rooms with a leaf green, natural woven textures, and white palette. We got the inspiration from this Williams Sonoma Home catalog shot that had the exact feel of the room that she was looking for.

This room shot from Williams Sonoma Home makes dark teal walls look airy and relaxing

LAMPS

Colorful ceramic lamps are coming back and they are easy to find and purchase online. This is one our favorite ways to bring color in a room without it being a huge commitment. We purchase ours from Robert Abbey Lighting, but LampsPlus.com has a huge selection that also allows you to select printed lampshades to coordinate.

Just a few of the swatches of colors of lamps available from Robert Abbey Lighting
 We've used Robert Abbey's Audrey table lamp in two teal and lime green projects that we've completed and have found that it looks great in both colors!

Robert Abbey's Audrey table lamp in Steel Blue
Robert Abbey's Audrey Table lamp in Citron
Coral table lamp above from Lamps Plus Color Collection
The coral table lamp and striped shade we choose for the guest bedroom above helped bring a little added color to this modern and bold design.

PILLOWS

Of course one of our favorite ways to bring color into a space is with our custom pillows that we add for every client project. We're so excited to be adding more color, including Emerald Green, to our New South Home line this Fall, especially based on the success of our Fleurish Raspberry pillow we featured in Mallory Fitzsimmon's One Room Challenge this Spring.


Our "Be Our Guest" and Fleurish pillows have been some of our best selling items this Summer!
You can shop Mallory's collection of pillows and window treatments here - we'd love to make some for you!!

More COLOR is available NOW including our new Emerald Green options!

The navy blue and coral color collection is our Southern version of classic orange and navy combination. Our Geraniums and In Knots pillow covers above just pop off the simple white bedding and blue velvet headboard for a bold statement.

NATURAL ELEMENTS

With the amount of gray and neutral colors out there, we have been bringing in the color green as the strong pop of color with natural elements such as preserved boxwood and moss. Here are two projects that we recently finished up that have dark gray walls and neutral furnishings, but we added in pops of Emerald Green through accessories to give the rooms a pop.

We keep talking about it because Preserved Boxwood is one of our favorite decorating accessories!!

A mixture of moss, berry, and faux grass balls fill up the two tiered bowl on the buffet above


More moss balls and a geometric green pillow in our client's neutral sitting room

Just one large moss ball and some succulents added to this custom wet bar in our client's sitting room

BOLD COLOR

This Spring's One Room Challenge in the blogging community really showcased some talented ladies. Some of the most popular and talked about rooms where the ones that featured LOTS of color. Two of of the spaces that we were drawn to are by Jennifer Griffin from Dimples and Tangles and Haneen Matt from @haneens_haven on Instagram.

Jennifer incorporated the colors Emerald Green, Raspberry, and Cobalt Blue to makeover her master bedroom for a bright and cheery space. She managed to make these colors that are so many times seen in teenagers bedroom sophisticated by the modern prints and patterns she used. Read her full blog post HERE, but below are some of our favorite highlights!




We love her space and can't wait to hopefully see one of our Emerald and Raspberry monogram pillows in there one day!

Haneen used bold colors and patterns to update her home office. Deep Navy Blues, Gold, Raspberry, Orange, and Citron are found in her space. She managed to create a cohesive look even with all of the colors prevalent in the design. We'd love to be able to work everyday in a room with such punch!






We'd love to see your rooms and how you've incorporated color in your home! Feel free to e-mail us or tag us in your photos on Instagram @newsouthhome. We'll be reposting rooms all month featuring color and would love to feature yours!!

-Melissa and Taylor

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Reupholstery Makeover

We recently worked with a client who had a lot of heirloom furnishings and wanted update them for their new home. We used both fabric and paint to give a new look to their furniture and love how these simple changes completely changed the look of the furniture.

Before pictures of chairs:



Most people find that the cushions in older furniture has broken down over time as both of the seats above are flat. The great news is that all upholsterers can reconstruct your seat to add more padding and foam to make your seats more comfortable and rounded looking. 

When considering reupholstery, you will need to think about following items:

1. What fabric will you recover your furniture in? 
  • Is it durable enough?
    • There is a fabric durability rating of "Double Rubs" that you can find on many fabrics. This basically means the number of times you can get up and down on a sofa without the fabric breaking down. We recommend 30,000 "Double Rubs" for upholstery that gets heavy use, such as your family room sofa, and at least 10,000 double rubs for more decorative furnishings, such as a living room chair.
  • Does it have any stain repellant capabilities?
    • Sunbrella and some outdoor fabrics have some good stain resistant capabilities. There is  a great fabric line out there called Crypton that is a new technology that has true stain repellant capabilities. It is a great consideration if you have small children or pets in your home.
2. What type of trim should I use?
  • Classic Self Welt or Double Welt Cord
  • Decorative Trim
  • Nailhead Trim
  • No Trim
Classic Self Welt - Cording covered in matching or contrast fabric
Double Welt Cord - A row of 2 self welt cording
This happens to be our "Going in Circles" Charcoal fabric!
Decorative Trim - This is a Gimp Trim we used here
Nailhead Trim
No Trim
3. Do I need to have the cushions or foam seats remade or improved by your upholsterer?

We love how these pieces turned out with our new updated fabric and finish choices!










You can shop our fabrics online at www.newsouthhomecouture.com to give your furnishings a fresh new look!! Our Linen Weave Natural is featured on the dining chairs above (80,000 double rubs - SUPER durable!) and we are thinking about adding the turquoise and blue trellis print to our fabric options for Fall!

Shop -> Designer Fabrics and Swatches -> Designer Fabric by the Yard

-Melissa and Taylor