New clients assume that the size of their decorating budget is in direct correlation to how happy I and they are with the finished product.  This is truly not the case.  For example,  I recently completed a one room project for a young woman living in her first house.  She had a spare bedroom that she was using as an office but she wasn't happy with how it functioned or how it looked.  She was interested in moving the desk into the closet so that the rest of the space could be used as a lounge/study.  You can read about and see the transformation of the closet in the blog I posted on April 25th (Converting a Closet to an Office).

Before
Before

A few paychecks later, she was ready to furnish the rest of the room.  My client had a few pieces she definitely wanted to keep: an art-deco wing chair covered in black leather with white piping, some of her artwork, and her pink dress form.  I was happy to accommodate these requests.  I also suggested keeping the hot pink Ikea bookcase. By turning it on its side, we were able to use it as our media console and still have storage for books. A budget friendly solution.

I often consider furniture made for children when furnishing small spaces. In this case, we used a love seat in a light gray fabric with tufting detail from PB Teen. Using a "teen" company allowed us to find a piece that was smaller in scale (just what we needed for this petite lounge).


To go beside the love seat, we found a three tier glass and brass table from West Elm.  The three glass tiers gave us the function we needed without making the space feel crowded, while also relating to our Ghost style chair in the desk area.  A white ceramic lamp from Z Gallerie atop the glass table provides light and some feminine curves. The only other piece of furniture we purchased was West Elm's Martini table in white.  This petite table provides a place to set a glass or the remote but keeps the space feeling open and can easily be moved to anywhere it is needed.

The final touches are what really put this room over the top.  The hot pink and cream toile drapery in a Robert Allen fabric gives a nod to our Parisian mural on the desk wall.  Pillows in the same fabric really pop on our gray couch and bring a little pink to that side of the room.  A few more gold accents were added for sparkle and the client's artwork was hung back on the walls.

I love the way the space turned out and so does my client.  I've had clients with bigger budgets but this room is one of my favorites.  We were able to give her an office and a lounge in 120 square feet, marrying function and style. It seems perfectly suited for a young professional woman.  The pink little girl's room all grown up!

When describing a room, magazines will often use the word “Timeless” to capture the elegant and everlasting quality of a space. How do we design a room to be “timeless”? What is the difference between good design and great design?  In the coming months I will start a series of blog entries on 20th century rooms and what makes them appealing to us today.  I will also suggest changes that could be made to bring the rooms into the 21st century. I hope that this will serve as a guide to anyone seeking to understand how design works, the trends involved, and where things change and where they stay the same. 
Living Room by the late Mark Hampton
Photo by Durston Saylor for Architectural Digest
Published in 1996

Classic pieces are understood to last, but what makes a piece a classic? Trends are best used in small amounts, but where can I use them and still keep my room looking updated and current? This series of rooms will be a fun way to explore these and other questions that a decorator can help answer. I also hope that this will give you general knowledge of some famous designers and what made them great.

Decorating a room doesn't have to be a never ending project, but it also isn't something that we can set aside for years at a time. In these blogs I hope to show you quick ways to keep a space fresh and new feeling, without having to start over every couple of years.