Design a Balcony, Patio, or Porch that You’ll Love to Use

We decorated this front porch on a Dallas home with faux bois benches by Currey & Company.

Balconies, porches, and patios are enviable design features for a home. But designing an outdoor space comes with its own challenges. You'll need to ask yourself: do you want to design around a view? Create privacy? How will you provide shelter from the elements?

Balconies, especially, are often small. Some people just put out lawn chairs and aren’t sure what else to include. If your Dallas home has an outdoor space that’s a little underutilized, here are some ideas on how to get the most out of it.

General Outdoor Space Guidelines:

A good first step to designing an outdoor space is to research outdoor-friendly furniture materials. Wrought iron, teak, and resin wicker are all common in outdoor decorating. You should also look for cushions that dry quickly and can stand up to the sun's rays.

A lantern chandelier helps to illuminate this outdoor area we designed for a University Park chateau.

Lighting is very important for these spaces, especially if you like to enjoy your balcony, patio or porch as the sun is setting or in the evenings. Look into pendants, sconces, string lights, or lanterns, and remember that bulbs with a warm color are preferable here to bright white.

An easy way to add color to outdoor spaces is to decorate with vases, potted plants, and pillows. Don’t forget to dress up the floor too. A patterned area rug adds comfort underfoot, but graphic floor tiles can introduce a lot of flair too. If privacy is a concern, you may need to add a screen lattice with climbing plants, a tall potted plant, or a shrub.

Tips for Balconies:

Space is premium on balconies, so think about how you’ll be using yours and plan accordingly. If you like to eat dinner out on the balcony, then obviously you’ll need a table; if you’re only going to be reading or enjoying an occasional cocktail, you can get away with just a comfortable chair and a small ottoman or drink table.

Take the opportunity to install built-in seating if your balcony is still under construction. This way, you won’t have to worry about furniture being knocked over by the wind.

Tips for Porches and Patios:

The brown-and-white-striped cushions seen here complement the earth tones in the stone exterior of the house.

As with balconies, consider how you’ve used your porch or patio so far. This is especially important for front porches. Is yours a living space? Or is it a transitional space into your foyer? Either way, it’s important that your outdoor furnishings blend with your interiors and also complement the paint colors on the outside of your home.

An outdoor area, such as this one we designed in Kessler Park, should have a variety of seating options that are all equally comfortable.

Most people who have porches feel like they don’t use them enough. Make sure to buy seating that is comfortable for you and your guests, or else you’ll rarely use it. Porch swings with cozy pillows, deep-seated Adirondack chairs, and rocking chairs give you a variety of options that are both relaxing and durable. Your largest piece of furniture should face outwards, while the rest of your seating in a conversation group should face towards it.

The red painted door brightens this shaded porch and makes it feel more inviting.

A small front porch is still an important opportunity to make a good first impression. If your porch is shadowy, brighten things up by painting the door a lighter color than the rest of the home, then add a new door-knocker. The door should ideally be the focal point of the porch or patio, so flank it with symmetrical plants or furniture on either side. If your door is on the right or left rather than in the center, lead a visitor’s eye to your door with a lineup of potted plants.

A ceiling fan will help the residents of this Dallas home enjoy their outdoor seating area even during hot summers.

Swapping accessories out with the seasons adds a lot of charm to your porch or patio. Include throw blankets on the outdoor furniture so you can enjoy the cooler months outside, too. A ceiling fan is also a smart investment for making your porch comfortable in hot summers.

If you have trouble getting your outdoor space to harmonize with the rest of your home, consider hiring a designer. Despite being called ‘interior designers,’ many of us consult with our clients about their outdoor areas too. A professional will know the best way to take advantage of your space and create a porch, patio or balcony you'll enjoy in all seasons. You can reach out to us by calling our Dallas office at 214-232-9501 or sending an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.

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Creating a Coastal Cool Style for Your Weekend Getaway

Accessories made of rope, like this mirror frame in a Cape Cod style bathroom, are a great choice for coastal style.

Coastal interior design style has many admirers for a reason. It’s unfussy, relaxed and casually elegant all at once, and its combination of neutrals and cheerful colors appeals to a wide variety of tastes.

Not everyone who wants the look lives by the coast. Some people have fond memories of vacationing at the beach and want to bring that nostalgia into their current home. Coastal is also a popular theme for individual rooms, such as guest bedrooms, children’s rooms, and powder rooms. You may find the following design pointers useful if you’re designing a themed room, own a beach or lake house, or simply want to bring this carefree look into your Dallas home.

Feel free to mix different shades of blue in your coastal room. This room features navy, indigo and cobalt blue patterns.

Narrowing Down the Coastal Look You Want

Before you start shopping, take a moment to decide on what kind of coastal interiors you want for yourself. Do you like lots of patinas and distressed finishes, or a sleeker contemporary look? You should also be aware that there are different regional styles to draw inspiration from. “California coastal” is more modern with understated colors and subtle tone-on-tone patterns. Floridian beach house style has brighter colors (such as turquoise) and more nautical accessories.

The Best Colors for Coastal Homes

The classic colors for coastal style are white, blue, and sea green. The blues can be in almost any shade, from robin’s egg blue, to turquoise and navy. Your neutral colors can be sandy beiges, creams, and storm grays. Although coastal style is almost always light and bright, navy would also be a perfectly appropriate choice for a moody accent wall.

This Cape Cod bedroom in a Dallas home we designed uses rough textures but soft bedding to keep things comfortable.

That said, you are not strictly limited to blues and greens for color. Some warmer colors that can be incorporated into a beach home are muted oranges, bright reds, and terracotta, which brings the Mediterranean to mind.

Incorporating Natural Materials

The next step to designing a coastal home is choosing natural materials. You’re drawing inspiration from a natural environment—the beach—so your design won’t hit the mark unless you can bring nature into the indoors.

Rough textures are a must, and there are many easy ways to incorporate them. For furniture, go for painted finishes, wicker, or rattan; for rugs, choose sisal or jute; and then add woven baskets and linen bedding. Driftwood is currently very popular because it reinforces the nautical theme without being too cutesy. It can be used in many different ways: for example, as a base for a glass-topped coffee table or as bookshelves and organizational boxes.

To contrast the rougher textures of the wood, rope, or rattan you may be using, include smooth textures: metals, glass (especially sea glass), and ceramics. Gold hardware pairs nicely with white, blue, and gray, which are all great cabinetry colors in a coastal kitchen.

The hardwood floor and soothing neutrals in this dining room give it a coastal feel even without nautical accessories.

There is a reason you don’t see carpet in beach houses. Sand is hard to clean out of it, and carpet will also get musty in humid environments. For these reasons, hardwood or natural stone floors, with rugs to soften footfalls, is the preferred choice for flooring.

Adding a Touch of Nautical Whimsy

The most common pitfall with coastal design is overdoing the theme. In decades past, homeowners loved to go all-out with oars on the wall, sailboats, seashells, and crab print everywhere. This kind of look is now considered kitschy and dated.

Some of the nautical accents in this bedroom include the seashell on the bedside table and the coral drawer pulls.

A contemporary beach house should be subtle with the theme. A few nautical accents is more than enough. One way to make a room feel more nautical without being too overt is to add striped patterns. For your seating areas, mix and match decorative pillows with different patterns to create a relaxed and carefree look.

Anyone with a beach or lake house will want to see as much of the view as possible. Even if you’re not actually living on the water, treat the windows in your coastal style home the same way: by letting in lots of natural light. If you need blinds for privacy, go for wooden ones.

While there are a lot of things to consider when you’re aiming for a coastal look, getting them right is a worthwhile goal. A well-designed beach house can make you feel like you’re on vacation every day. And in today’s world, building your own personal oasis is more important than ever.

If you want to make sure your coastal room or residence is on-theme but still classically elegant, feel free to reach out to our design team. For more information, call our Dallas office at 214-232-9501 or email us at info@chambersinteriors.com

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Expert Tips for Choosing Paint Color in Your Home (Guest Article from Redfin)

The following article was originally written by Emily Huddleston and published on Redfin. It features paint color tips from a variety of painting and design experts, including Margaret Chambers.

As you probably know, painting a room or even a single wall in your home is a project that can have a major impact on any space. But with the entire rainbow to choose from, picking the perfect paint colors can be an overwhelming task. The good news is, we’re here to help. We asked painting and design experts from San Diego to New York to share their best tips and tricks for choosing paint color for your home. Check out what they had to say.

Never pick your paint color first. Figure out where you want to pull inspiration from whether it be textiles in your home, fashion trends, or your surroundings in nature. Then move on to test your colors in the actual space where you’ll get an accurate feel in terms of the natural and artificial lighting. – Fresh Paint by Garman Homes

Use toned colors. Successful paint color is always “dirtied” with brown or gray. When you fan through a complete paint chip deck with hundreds of color gradations and subtle color shades, select less “pure” colors. Toned colors are much more palatable in a large scale. The best blue and green paint colors will have quite a bit of gray in them, good yellows will have quite a bit of brown. – Lorain Design Associates

Think of paint color like a mood ring. Every house will have its own mood, or variation of color, based on its exposure and lighting. Both natural and artificial light change how we see color. A lovely beige in the morning may be a sickly green at night. Place paint samples on all walls in a room and check them at different times of the day. If there are artificial lights in the room, turn them on and see how the color is affected, this way you can better see the final color results. – iPaint and Contract

Consider lighting. If you intend on upgrading any lighting in the space, double-check your selected paint colors after the new lighting has been installed if possible. Colors look completely different under different types of lighting. Unless you’re using the exact same bulbs in new fixtures, the color is going to change. – SG23 Design

Get ideas from the fabrics in your home. Your patterned fabrics can be a great source of color inspiration, so take a closer look at them. You can quickly decide on a neutral wall color by looking at the secondary color in the largest pattern in your space. For example, if you have an area rug that is mostly gray with some streaks of ivory, then ivory paint can be a good choice for that room.  – Chambers Interiors & Associates

Look outside. There’s no better color inspiration than nature itself. Start by looking through the windows of the space you’d like to paint. Do you want to complement or contrast the colors you see? Also, a nature or garden walk can help you identify colors you find attractive. – Home Works Painting

Select paint by the rule of 3’s.

1. The field color: This is the color, typically a neutral, that is the background for everything. Clean and bright whites, steady and true grays, cool or warm tones – these all influence the vibe you want in the room.

2. The trim color: Is this going to be a neutral or high contrast option? Ask yourself do you want to see it or do you prefer they be quiet?

3. The accent color: This may or may not be paint, it may be wallpaper, drapery, pillows, area rugs, or other accents. However, you should always consider the “pop” of color that you want to incorporate into the scheme before settling on a paint palette.

Don’t forget about the paint finish. The paint finish, or sheen level, impacts the paint’s color, mood, and tone.– K. Smith Interiors

When choosing your colors, get both one shade darker and one shade lighter. Once you have gotten samples of your choice, coat several pieces of standard white paper and place it on different walls throughout the space getting painted. The colors will react differently with sun and shade. This will ensure you are happy no matter the weather. – Go Green Painting

Find your favorite color vase or piece of art and then color match. Since it may be difficult to drag that piece of art into a store for color matching, you can purchase a color match tool on amazon that uses an app on your phone. Digitally scan the color with the tool and the color names will generate, along with the brand of paint to match that color. – Savvy Interiors

Never take an internet recommendation without testing the paint color in your home and on each wall. There are eight thousand Pinterest posts that will tell you Revere Pewter is the best paint color ever. Yes, Revere Pewter IS a fantastic paint color and we have used it many times. However, it changes from home to home and room to room within the same home. It’s always best to test the color in your home to determine if it’s the right color for you and your décor. – Beautiful Habitat Design & Decoration

Play around with painting your front door and shutters. By doing so you can easily change the look of a good neutral color running throughout the rest of your home. These areas also tend to be easy to paint and can add all the front character you need, especially when combined with some details like landscaping, flowers, and porch décor. To help visualize different color schemes, take a quick photo on your phone from squarely in front of your house and use a photo editing app or program (Canva is easy and free if you aren’t a Photoshop user) to overlay transparent colored rectangles on the door or other places you are considering painting. – True Design House

Have some fun and paint the ceiling. Playing with paint really begins with your ceiling (or as we designers call it – the fifth wall). By keeping your wall color neutral, and adding a pop-of-color, a fun wallpaper, or even a patterned stencil to your ceiling, you can creatively add personality to your space. If you want a more rich and elegant look, we recommend painting the walls, as well as the baseboards, crown moldings, and trims with the same rich, saturated color. This gives the room the appearance of additional height and makes the molding stand out in a whole new way. – Grey Hunt Interiors

Do a virtual consultation. In an increasingly digital age, virtual consultations are a huge advantage in any industry. Especially when they’re free. No matter where you are in the country, a virtual mockup is a great first step before this crucial home improvement. Consider a virtual mockup – through Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore – before your next professional paint job. - Mission Painting and Home Improvements

Alternatively, consider hiring a professional service. Regardless of your experience level, it’s always a good idea to consider hiring a professional painting service for several reasons. A good painter can offer expert guidance and save you time as well as the hassle of prepping your space and cleaning up afterward, not to mention the high-quality finish. – Robinson Painting

Designing a Luxury Guest Bedroom

Adding ottomans to the end of this bed gives guests another place to set their bags or fasten their shoes.

Do you plan to host your friends or family this year, but feel like your guest bedroom could use an update? With the right look and the right shopping list, you can recreate the feel of a luxury hotel in your own home. To update an existing bedroom, here are some guidelines for achieving the most comfortable experience:

It’s not uncommon for old, tired bedding sets to be relegated to the guest bedroom. Consider investing in new sheets with a high thread-count. If your mattress is uncomfortable or lumpy, you can put on a memory foam topper or mattress pad to make it feel like new. A thick area rug under the bed will give guests something soft to step on when they rise for the day, especially if you have hardwood floors.

Although this guest bathroom has many different patterns, the cool white-and-gray color scheme helps it feel calming rather than busy.

Sooner or later, most homeowners are tempted to use their guest bedroom closets for overflow storage. If you do, don’t forget to make space for your guests’ things before they arrive. When sheets and towels have been left undisturbed for a long time, they may develop a slight musty smell. Change the sheets and pillowcases, and wash and dry the towels in the bathroom too.

Your room should be well-lit so guests can comfortably read. However, you’ll also want it to be as dark as possible at night so guests can get a good night’s sleep. To achieve this, you can either install blackout curtains or leave a sleep mask on the bedside table.

Just because you don’t have a designated guest bedroom doesn’t mean you can’t create a restful guest space. An attic can be a perfectly good guest bedroom: if your ceiling is sloped, make sure to choose furniture that sits low to the floor to make the ceiling seem taller. To repurpose your home office as a guest bedroom, add a daybed, or include a full-sized bed that is partitioned off with a curtain. Even if you do have a guest bedroom, consider adding a work desk anyway. A small desk, lamp, and chair give your room a “hotel” feel.

Pictured is a seating area from a guest bedroom we designed. With the drink table on one side and a pharmacy lamp on the other, it makes an excellent reading corner.

If you’re designing a guest bedroom from scratch, here are some additional points to consider:

Think ahead about who you’d like to invite over. Will you be hosting couples, or family members with children? Make sure you can accommodate their storage needs and sleeping arrangements.

If you anticipate having families with children over, or a pair of single friends, you’ll probably want to fit in twin beds rather than a single queen or king-size bed. Another consideration: will you be allowing guests to bring a pet? If so, keeping food and water dishes and a pet bed on hand is a thoughtful extra touch.

If you can, include at least one comfortable sitting area or reading nook. Guests will appreciate having a place to retreat to and relax besides the bed that isn’t in a communal living space. Padded benches at the end of the bed are another option: they add a place for guests to sit and tie their shoes or set down their bags.

Guest bedrooms should be as self-contained as possible. Include a TV and full-length mirror if you can. For the ultimate in luxury, look into having heated floors installed in the guest bathroom.

Having a landline phone on the bedside table is helpful for guests when their cell phones are low on battery, or when you live in a remote area with spotty cell phone service. Include some books (preferably light reading) or recently published magazines on the bedside table too. Some people have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar beds, and those guests will appreciate having the reading material available. Your bedside table lamp should also be bright enough to read by.

Of course, the best hotel rooms are not only comfortable but tastefully designed. You’ll want yours to be a beautiful room that guests remember, too. A distinctive or unusual headboard is one way to make a statement. Decorative pillows, rugs, and throw blankets are also a good opportunity to add a burst of color.

The fabric on the curtains you see in this Preston Hollow guest bedroom originally belonged to the client’s mother. The purple, apple green, and black in the curtains was a challenging color scheme for us to work with, but ultimately lead us to create a unique result.

Other ways to add personality to your guest bedroom include decorating the wall with a gallery of artwork, choosing a colorful wallpaper, or picking a theme for the room (nautical is a popular theme for guest rooms). For an extra luxurious feel, outfit your window treatments with rope tiebacks or simple valances. When it comes to color schemes for guest bedrooms, you can either go light and bright for a clean and refreshing look, or dark for a cozy, cave-like feel. To design a romantic bedroom, choose deep, rich colors.

The key to being a great host is to anticipate your guest’s needs before they do. Here is a checklist of items to include that help you go the extra mile:

·         Bathrobe, slippers

·         Water bottle and drinking glasses

·         Fresh flowers

·         Luggage rack

·         Pen and paper

·         Books and magazines

·         Note with your Wi-Fi password

·         Small clock (make sure it doesn’t tick loudly)

·         Hair dryer, travel-size toiletries

·         Snacks (such as a bowl of fruit)

·         Charging station for electronic devices

·         Coffee pot

·         Ironing board and iron

When your bedroom is close to complete, stay a night to test it out. Did you sleep as comfortably as you would in your master bed? Were you missing anything?

Inviting guests into your home gives them a glimpse into your own lifestyle. If you keep these design tips in mind, your guests will not only enjoy their stay, but admire your great taste too.

If you could use a professional touch to help your guest bedroom go the extra mile, consider hiring an interior designer. To schedule a free consultation with us, call our Dallas office at 214-651-7665 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.

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Plan Your Home Lighting Like a Professional

Featured here are a pair of Murano glass lamps from a dining room we designed in Kessler Park, Dallas.

In previous articles, we’ve talked about how important balance is to interior design. Lighting is no exception. Even the most beautifully designed rooms will look unbalanced if they’re poorly lit. To help your decorations look their best, you'll need to light each room with care.

If you’re furnishing your home from scratch or working on a major remodel, walk through the house and ask yourself along the way: ‘what are the primary functions of this room?’ Odds are that you’ll want task lighting for your study, but mood lighting for your bedroom. Make sure to plan ahead your desired color temperature for the lighting in each room, too. Lower temperatures are warm and yellow, while higher temperatures are closer to blue daylight.

As a general rule, task lighting should be three times brighter than the rest of your lighting. Recessed lights
and pendant lights are reliable solutions for this. Another place where you may want to install task lighting is above the countertops in your kitchen (in this case, under-cabinet lighting strips can be very useful).

In this photo, you can see both the study hall and the dining area for SMU’s Kappa Alpha Theta house. We lit the seating areas for the study hall with brass chandeliers. To the right, the dining room is illuminated with a series of recessed lights.

On the other hand, mood lighting is typically created using a balance of many softer light sources in the same room. Including dimmers in your plans will give you more flexibility to control the brightness levels. A popular new trend is to install one light switch that controls all the lights in a particular area or room. These “smart lighting systems” are preferable because having one switch on the wall looks cleaner than having three or four together.

Make sure that each light fixture is performing a specific task, whether it's highlighting an area, creating
depth, or illuminating a cupboard. There's a saying that "if you light everything, you light nothing." Although it’s tempting to plot lights throughout the room, you do need shadows to create variation and atmosphere.

Pendant lights help to illuminate the sink area in this eclectic master bathroom we designed in a downtown Dallas high-rise.

Lighting can also establish focal points in a room. Use recessed lighting to draw the eye to a central seating area or a piece of art over the fireplace. If you have a gallery of artwork in your hallway, make sure each piece is equally lit. Just make sure not to project light directly onto a mirror, as this will create glare. Instead, highlight the mirror frame with a series of wall-mounted lights on opposite sides.

The overall shape of your room should have an influence on the kind of lighting you choose. Lighting can even compensate for a room’s less desirable features. For example, low-hung pendant lights make ceilings feel taller, while up-lighting will make the whole room feel larger and more impressive.

A chandelier is always an eye-catching lighting solution. For a traditional look, place a chandelier over the dining room table to draw attention. However, in a contemporary home you may want to use a pendant light (or group of pendant lights) instead.

The owners of this Plano residence asked us to update their home with a transitional style. You can see how we complemented traditional and modern pieces together in this dining room. The chandelier, with its fine details, has a more traditional look.

If you read our last article about harmony in design, you can guess that it's important for lighting fixtures to harmonize. Use multiple kinds of light fixtures in each room for variety and interest, but make sure the fixtures also match your decorating scheme. For example, Japanese paper shades typically look best in either modern rooms or Asian-influenced ones, while an antique crystal chandelier could look out of place in the same room. An antler chandelier is a classic choice for a rustic country home.

That said, maybe you have a room that has a little too much harmony, and could use contrast to break things up. In this case, consider making a statement with your lighting. A black iron chandelier would add a lot of impact to a room with a light and bright color scheme.

Whenever possible, get a designer to help you with lighting needs. Much has changed in lighting just in the past few years, and a professional can help you navigate the latest technologies. You'll be glad you went through the extra effort to give your rooms a beautiful glow—after all, a room that is well-lit, is well used. To schedule a free consultation with us, call our office at 214-232-9501 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.

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How to Use Rhythm and Harmony to Design Great Rooms

The words “rhythm” and “harmony” likely bring music to mind, but these are also terms that interior designers like myself use to describe our work. If you’re a Dallas homeowner and have ever wondered about what it takes to design a room that is both cohesive and interesting, you’ll want to study up on both of these design principles.

Many homes have architectural details that add built-in rhythm to the room. This is the foyer of the SMU Theta sorority house in Dallas, which was designed by Fusch Architects, Inc. and decorated by us. The elegant staircase curves as it rises up, inviting the visitor’s eye to follow along with it. Gold and yellow accessories create another kind of visual rhythm in the sitting area below.

Rhythm:

You can lead a viewer's eye throughout the room by repeating a pattern or color among your furnishings and accessories. This kind of visual flow is called rhythm. The use of rhythm can be subtle: for example, a particular shade of yellow in a painting could be echoed in the pillows on the sofa. By distributing that color or pattern throughout the room, you are creating visual "movement" and balancing your color scheme, too.

The owners of this home we designed in Kessler Park displayed their collection of African artifacts in the kitchen. The pieces are united in color, but have slightly different shapes and sizes.

Any repetition of elements in a room can create rhythm. For example, a group of art prints along the wall, a series of matching lighting fixtures, or a row of candles on a mantle all establish rhythm through repetition. However, not all of your repeating accessories need to be identical.

You can also create interest through progression, in which you line up your accessories from large to small, small to large, or even from light to dark in tone. A series of similar but differently-sized vases in an entrée way is a charming example of progression. Featuring a basic shape throughout the room is another opportunity to create rhythm. For example, an oval-patterned wallpaper can be accentuated by an oval-shaped mirror.

Keeping repetition and rhythm in mind will guide you to make smarter purchases as you furnish your home, because it encourages you to create cohesive groupings. If you’ve tried to incorporate rhythm, but the room still feels “off” somehow, remember to step back and let your eyes naturally follow the lines of the room. This can help you identify where changes should be made.

A pink, toile-patterned wallpaper adds movement and rhythm to the walls of this formal dining room in University Park, Dallas. This dining room is part of a home decorated in a traditional English cottage style.

Harmony:

Another way to achieve balance in your interiors is through harmony, in which all the elements of your space relate to each other in a pleasing way. When there are too many different colors, shapes, or textures in a room, the result is visual chaos. A room has harmony when almost everything in it is part of the same color family: in other words, a monochromatic color scheme.

The living room shown above is from a transitional home we designed in Plano, Texas. The color scheme for this house is made up of calming neutrals, while a variety of textures and patterns add interest to the space.

While a room with contrasting colors and rhythm is exciting, a room with harmony is especially restful. So monochromatic color schemes are a great idea for rooms you want to be able to relax in, such as the bedroom. A symmetrically designed room will also feel more harmonious than an asymmetrical room.

If you are just beginning to furnish your Dallas home and aren’t sure how to proceed, pick one item or visual element you definitely want in your room, and then design around it. Be careful not to get too carried away, and make sure to leave room for ‘negative space.’ Negative space gives interiors a calming quality, and too much clutter can take away from that.

This Dallas dining room is a great example of a room where negative space makes the room feel more open.

You don't have to make everything in your room all of one color to achieve harmony. Distributing similar textures throughout your room will achieve a similar effect: from coarse textures like brick and timber paneling, to smooth textures like polished concrete and glass.

The danger in creating a harmonious room is that without the right amount of contrast, you can end up with a boring design. A smart designer will know how to add just the right amount of variety while still maintaining a balanced look. If your monochromatic color scheme feels too “matchy-matchy,” you’ll want to introduce other colors.

Here is the formal living room from SMU’s Kappa Alpha Theta house that we featured earlier. We used a bright multi-color scheme for this room: golds, greens, and aquas are found throughout the room, and echoed again in the large floral painting over the sofa.

When it comes to multi-color schemes, many interior designers follow the 60-30-10 rule. This rule is designed to guide you in distributing the right amount of color in each room. 60 percent of the room should represent your dominant color, 30 percent should be your secondary color, and the last 10 percent is for accents.

Now that you've read about a few examples of rhythm and harmony, hopefully you can approach your interiors with a fresh eye and see where you can make improvements. If you’re overwhelmed by the size of your project and could use an expert opinion, consider reaching out to our interior design team for a free consultation.

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Swedish Design and Decor Tips

Achieving the Swedish Design 'Look'

When most homeowners in Dallas hear the words, "Swedish interior design," they probably think of the internationally successful furniture chain, IKEA. Of course, there is more to Scandinavian design than just modern-style furniture.

Among interior designers, Swedish style is known for its soothing colors, painted wood furniture, and lack of clutter. This style became more popular in the US during the 1950s, because it shared traits with midcentury modern design. Today, Swedish design style still has plenty of fans. Younger homeowners are often attracted to the style's marriage of "shabby chic" and traditional elegance.

The Style of Swedish Interiors

Swedes live with long daylight hours in the summer, and long, dark nights in the winter. During the winter especially, they want to bring as much light into their homes as possible. Floor-to ceiling windows, crystal chandeliers, and gilt mirrors help reflect light around the room and make winter days a little more cheerful.

Another design choice that helps make Swedish interiors feel more open and airy is wood flooring. The wood is almost always either white, pine, or birch. Carpeting is nowhere near as common in Swedish homes as it is in other styles that can be found in Dallas.

Although Swedish design is best known for its palette of whites and grays, many Swedish interiors have an accent color as well. Robin's egg blue is a popular color throughout Scandinavia. The preference for blue is one thing that makes Swedish style stand apart from American midcentury modern.

Swedish Antique Furniture

To design a Swedish style home, especially a traditional or transitional home, it helps to know about Swedish antique furniture. These pieces are often referred to as "Gustavian furniture," named after King Gustav III, who reigned in Sweden from 1771-1792. Gustav spent a lot of time in Versailles with King Louis XVI, which is where he was exposed to the neo-classical style growing popular in France. 

Gustav loved what he saw and brought elements of it home with him. Swedish handmade furniture produced during his time borrowed forms from the French and English, but left out hand-carved Rococo details. The result is furniture with artful, but clean lines. Gustav's taste trickled down to the gentry, who in turn influenced the lower classes.  Swedish country homeowners would paint their wood furniture because they could not afford the expensive woods Gustav used in his palatial homes.

Many interior designers associate Swedish style with white and gray painted furniture, however some true antiques were actually painted in pale blue or green. Blue and white gingham was the usual pattern for upholstery and linens.

There are a few furniture styles that were unique to Sweden. One of these designs was the iconic Swedish Mora clock. Mora clocks were produced in the town of Mora, in the Dalarna province, from the late 1700s through the 1800s. Some desks were produced with a built-in Mora clock on top, but these are hard to find today.

Buying Swedish Antiques

Be warned that Swedish antiques can be difficult to authenticate because some of them look newer than they actually are, or have been repainted since they were first built. That is why having an expert in antiques and buying from the best dealers is so important. If you do want to start collecting authentic, high-quality Swedish antiques, connecting with a dealer in Sweden can help you secure them.

At Chambers Interiors, we offer a European buying trip service called Tour Decor. We use our close relationships with top dealers overseas to help you find the best antiques at wholesale prices. With an itinerary just for Scandinavia, Margaret Chambers works alongside her partner, Lea Barfield, to find the perfect pieces. If you are interested, visit Tour Decor's site to learn more and see photos from our latest trip - www.tour-decor.com

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How to Mix Different Wood Tones and Finishes

As a Dallas interior designer, one of the questions I sometimes hear from homeowners is, "How do I mix and match different sets of wood furniture?" Gone are the days when everyone bought complete sets of wood furniture in the same finish, sometimes even matching their hardwood floors. Today, it is more common - and economical - for people to layer different furnishings they have collected over the years. If you're a Dallas homeowner who finds the idea of mixing different woods daunting, here are some suggestions to get you started.

First of all, if you do have one of those "all-matching" sets, there's no need to throw it all out. Consider painting one or two of the pieces to create variety. You should also distribute the pieces throughout the room instead of putting them together on the same side. Imagine a room with a set of light-colored wood on one side and a dark set on the other. The room will surely feel "unbalanced" to anyone who enters. To combine two different kinds of wood, you will need to break things up.

One of the ways interior designers balance different woods in a space is by creating visual buffers. For example, if you have a large table in one wood, and floors in a different wood, the contrast between the two can be jarring. Place a rug under the table to make a softer transition. White paint and exposed wood are a classic combination: spacing out your wood furniture between white areas can either break up a matching set, or create calm between contrasting woods. If you suspect that you might actually have too much wood in one room, introduce more hard surfaces like metal, glass, and acrylic.

What if you want to actually highlight the differences between your wood furniture? A key point to remember is that some contrasts are more 'acceptable' to the eye than others. Interior designers usually contrast light versus dark, or smooth versus rough, but not 'warm' versus 'cool.'

A warm-colored wood will have undertones of orange, red or yellow. Meanwhile, a cool colored wood will usually have a grayish cast. If you have trouble identifying a piece's color, find the lightest tone in the grain, or try looking at the piece from a distance. Generally warm colored woods, like yellow pine or dark red cherry, will go together better than they would with gray woods, regardless of finish. 

This master bedroom has a very harmonious color scheme, but on closer inspection, there is a good deal of contrast introduced in the different wood finishes and colors.

If you have a wood furnishing that you want to highlight, like a coffee table, armoire or buffet, you can surround it with a different kind of wood to turn it into an impact piece. Besides color, texture is an opportunity to create contrasts between woods: smooth versus rough, painted versus unpainted, or fine grain versus large grain. The shape of wood furniture pieces can also create cohesion or contrast. Smooth lines contrast against curves, while simplicity contrasts with carved details.

The checkered wood floor provides a striking geometric contrast to the ornate curved furniture over it in this French Country home.

If you're building or remodeling your Dallas home and haven't chosen your hardwood floors yet, here are some things to keep in mind. Generally, a lighter wood will make for neutral flooring, as long as it isn't too red or yellow. The advantage of neutral flooring is you can introduce medium or dark-toned woods without worrying if they will clash too much. Similarly, dark toned woods without a strong color can help to ground a space.

As a rule of thumb, you should not use more than three kinds of wood per room. The "80/20" rule we interior designers use can be useful here. 80% of the wood in your room should be of a similar color or finish, while 20% can be a contrasting accent wood.

Hopefully you can now look at your wood furniture with a more exacting eye, and see combinations - or potential contrasts - that you couldn't see before. Otherwise, an interior designer can always help you bring out the fullest potential of your wood collections.

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