Merry Christmas!

Photo courtesy of point click home.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season that is full of laughter and lots of time with the ones you love. Merry Christmas!

Cheers!

Jacqueline

My Favorite Accent Chairs

Accent chairs are the perfect place to add colour and pattern in a room. They are usually small in scale and can be unique or unusual pieces. Because they are smaller than armchairs, they don’t use a great deal of fabric to cover them. For this reason, I usually suggest using a patterned or bold fabric to add punch to a room. They can be easily reupholstered and the low yardage required means that you can use a more expensive fabric without breaking the bank!  They also don’t need to be exquisitely comfortable because they are accent pieces and not meant to be sat in for hours upon hours. The perfect place to use them is in front of a fireplace or bookcase, in a bedroom or even in an entrance and if they are small enough, they can be moved throughout the house for extra seating if you need it in a different room.  Think of the accent chair as the interesting guest at the party that you need to invite to keep the conversation going! They are colourful, one of a kind, and attention-grabbing!

Here are my top 10 picks. Believe me, I had a hard time narrowing this down to 10. There are so many beauties to choose from!

1)  This little lovely is from the Thomas Pheasant collection available through Baker Furniture. In Calgary, Baker is available through Eisenberg’s Fine Furniture. The low back and seat make it surprisingly comfy and I like that you can swing your legs around and sit sideways with your elbow leaning on the back. Because it is button tufted, a solid fabric in velvet, silk or mohair would look incredible.

2)   Thomas Pheasant also designed this Greek Lounge Chair for Baker Furniture. It is completely unique but classic and elegant. Because of the detailed wood frame, the fabric should be very subtle if it has a pattern. This chair would look phenomenal from the back.

3)   This accent chair can also be used as a dining chair. It sports a really interesting wood frame with a handle at the top and is almost sculptural in form. Here’s a little tip – a chair with an interesting wood frame needs to be stained a colour that is in contrast with the fabric so that it becomes a feature. This chair is also available through Baker and is called the Jacques Garcia Malmaison Chair.

4)   How sweet is this? I adore the fun shape of the upholstered back. The Alexandria Chair by Hickory Chair is perfect for a hallway. Again, because of the distinctive frame I would suggest using a bold coloured fabric with minimal pattern. You can get this chair through Maria Tomas in Calgary. This is one of my favorite shops and other interior designers in Calgary love it too.

5)   Hickory Chair also makes the Hollywood Chair and I think it is glamour personified. The great thing about Hickory Chair is how you can customize their pieces to suit your own taste. This model is shown with upholstery tacks along the bottom, but you could skip those and instead choose a patterned fabric with lots of personality. Personally, I am a huge fan of upholstery tacks so I would probably choose a simple fabric and upholstery tacks that stood out against the fabric. Couldn’t you just see this in a bedroom upholstered with soft rose silk velvet with chrome tacks? So elegant!

6)   This next option is simple and has a retro feel. Use a fabulously patterned fabric on this chair. Its simple lines would enable it to carry just about any fabric you select. That is what makes it so great! It is called the Franklin Chair and also manufactured by Hickory Chair and designed by Mariette Himes Gomez.

7)   Vanguard makes this chair called the Josephine. It is really small and simple, but super cute! It would be a great option for a bedroom or a spot where you don’t have a lot of space. Designers in Calgary purchase Vanguard Furniture through Domaine Fine Furniture and Design.

8)   Bondars is another great furniture shop in Calgary and they carry Barbara Barry Realized by Henredon. This Bracelet Chair is very elegant and feminine – everything that you expect from Barbara Barry. This chair has a generous seat and therefore is quite comfortable if you like to curl your legs under you.

9)   The Marcy Chair by Kravet is available through interior designers. The scalloped arm detail is so pretty and you could upholster this chair in practically anything. Its light and graceful legs are a nice counter balance to its heavier top.

10)  Last but certainly not least is the Aria Game Chair by Kreiss. This chair is simple but it is beautifully crafted and has perfectly balanced lines and grace. The frame is walnut which has a wonderful grain. This chair is also available through Bondars in Calgary.

Accent chairs add punch and personality to rooms. Look for pieces that incorporate button tufting, upholstery tacks, wood frames or pieces that can be upholstered in bold patterns. Accent chairs can be a little different then everything else in the room and that’s what keeps interiors interesting. Have fun with them!

Cheers!

Design Books

Over the holidays I look forward to the quiet time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  One of my favorite things to do is to pour over design books and magazines while sitting toasty and warm by the fireplace. I think this tradition began when I was a child. Santa would always leave a magazine in my stocking and on Christmas morning after all the frenzy of gift opening was complete, I would sit quietly with my magazine. It was pure joy! Even today, I always make sure that I have some new design books to read so that I can continue this tradition. It is a great way to get inspired for our own design projects for clients before the hectic New Year begins. Here are a few books that I have on my wish list.

Kelly Wearstler’s new book “Hue” looks great. I have her previous book “Modern Glamour – The Art of Unexpected Style” and it is sensational so I am sure that this next volume will not disappoint. She is so glamorous and her rooms are cutting edge and chic. A perfect combination!

Suzanne Kasler is a designer from Atlanta and her elegant designs are featured in “Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors”. I am a great admirer of her furniture design for Hickory Chair and I am sure that this book will be filled with wonderful pieces and great design inspiration.

“David Hicks: A Life of Design” looks fabulous.  He is a design icon – a legend. Enough said.

If you love glamour then you will love the designs, furniture and fabrics featured in “Nancy Corzine: Glamour at Home”. Her interiors are always feminine and elegant. I love checking out her design showroom in the Merchandize Mart in Chicago when I am looking for new products to bring to my Calgary Interior Design projects.

Lately I have come across the work of Jan Showers from Dallas. She creates very alluring rooms and I am so excited about her lamp collection which I mentioned in a previous post. It looks like her book “Glamorous Rooms” is full of interiors to drool over.

Here’s one that we were featured in this year!  Spectacular Homes of Western Canada showcases amazing projects across Western Canada, and we were so honored to be included in this publication along side some other very talented designers in our region.

I hope you enjoy the quiet times during the holidays. If you are a design junkie or just looking for some inspiration for your own home these books will certainly provide lots of gorgeous interiors for you to get lost in and will be lovely additions to your library. Happy Holidays!

Cheers!

How to Make an Easy Floral Arrangement

There is just nothing like fresh flowers to brighten your interiors. I adore having fresh flowers around me and I find arranging them to be relaxing and rewarding.  I often create flower arrangements for the photo shoots of our interior design projects in Calgary. Here are my tips on creating a lovely arrangement like the one in the photo above.

This particular style of arrangement is really easy to make if you have the right tools handy. All you need is pretty container, some floral oasis (the kind that can be soaked in water), a knife, and flowers!  When you are choosing your flowers go for a variety of bloom sizes, textures and shapes.  Think about mixing roses, lilies and mums together.  If you are worried about putting different colours together, try using a single colour like coral or yellow.  A floral arrangement in a solid colour is so vibrant!

Start by soaking the oasis in water and then cutting it to fit into your container.

Begin with one of your flower types.  I love roses in these arrangements because of their saturated colour and they open so majestically.  I chose yellow roses for this arrangement.  Also, I think it is more effective if you bunch or group several blooms together.

I used 2 dozen roses in this arrangement.

Add in each flower type one at a time.  In this arrangement I added some lovely lilies that were a citrus yellow.  Mixing the differing shades of the colour you choose makes the arrangement more interesting. There were five stems of lilies used in this arrangement

Next I filled out the arrangement with alstroemeria . This is a great flower to use because it is inexpensive and really fills up the arrangement.  It is really important to keep turning your arrangement as you go and make sure that the proportion feels good.  It doesn’t have to be completely symmetrical (nothing in nature is!) but it should be balanced. I often will push in or adjust the positioning of the blooms to get the size of the arrangement right. In total, this arrangement took eight stems of alstroemeria.

I thought this arrangement needed a bit of contrast, so I used a simple white crysanthamum with a chartreuse center.  Since each stem of the mum has multiple blooms they are hard to control.  I tend to chop off each bloom individually and group them together as shown.

Fill in the blank spaces with mums and add some greenery at the bottom of the arrangement.  Simple!

This arrangement will be used during a photo shoot of our client’s new kitchen. The flowers are quite tightly packed together so that they make big impact in the pictures. I thought that the yellow would look amazing with her cream cabinets, grey walls and French Country style.  Here are some more photos of the finished French Country kitchen.

For inspirational floral arrangements check out these websites which are some of my favorites!

Blush Floral Design from Connecticut has a gorgeous website with amazing photography.

Hilary Miles out of Vancouver has a great gallery of simple arrangements.

Calgary interior designers like myself often use Anne Patterson’s Flowers when we need the professionals to handle the arrangements!

Style Me Pretty is a wedding blog featuring fabulous floral ideas. I love perusing their postings for arrangement ideas.

For over the top floral inspiration check out Preston Bailey’s website.  It’s absolutely incredible how he transforms a space.  The events he creates are breathtaking and awe-inspiring!

Cheers!

French Country Kitchen

We just completed the renovation of this lovely Lake McKenzie home in Calgary.  We had previously helped this client with an addition several years ago so we were thrilled when they called us back in to help them with phase two of their renovation. However, there was an interesting development.  Since we had last worked with them they had been relocated to Scotland and currently the Calgary house was being rented. They decided to return to Calgary and wanted a large part of the construction finished before they returned.  This meant that we had to communicate over email and phone calls, ship samples of finishes to them and use the internet to illustrate our ideas and plans.  Logistically, it was going to be tricky!  The scope of work included enlarging a second floor bedroom and attached bathroom for their teen daughter, refinishing the ensuite, turning the existing living room into a dining room, and completely gutting the old kitchen and expanding the new kitchen into the old dining room space.  Whew!  It was a lot of work but we were ready for the challenge!

Here is what the main floor of the house originally looked like.

Here is the new layout for the main floor.

This kitchen is vastly improved by expanding into what was once the dining room. For a client with four children it was important that the kitchen be large and functional.  One of our client’s major complaints about the old kitchen was the tiny pantry and appliances.  This plan also incorporated a butler’s pantry area between the new dining room and kitchen and small desk for computer use.  Two islands were designed to keep good flow throughout this massive space.  This kitchen is divided into distinctive functional areas – prep and cooking zone, a clean up zone and a storage zone.

Our client adored kitchens that had French Country flair.  She showed me many inspirational photographs most of which featured a mixture of cream and wood cabinets and a range with a stone façade and mantle.  I was excited about the stone surround as it would be a gorgeous focal point to the room.  We went with the Wolfe dual fuel 48” double oven range.  Since we were making the range a major design factor in this kitchen it was important to use something very substantial and eye catching.

Here are some photos of the finished product!

Denca Cabinets took our design drawings and created these beautiful cabinets for us. We have worked with them many times because of their attention to detail and careful craftsmanship.

We suggested using leaded glass cabinets between the Subzero freezer and refrigerator and had them made locally. They really help to emphasize the old world look of this kitchen.

Since our client likes to bake we wanted to incorporate a lower countertop that was at the perfect height for rolling dough.  We dropped this end of the island to 33” instead of the standard 36” height to accommodate this.  The counter tops on the islands are Juperana Amber from Icon Stone and Tile. We used a dark antique finished countertop called Picasso on the other counters.  It was important to have some contrast between the cream cabinets and the stone counters on either side of the range and between the fridge and freezer.  This particular stone has a silky matte finish which is absolutely stunning!

The stone around the range looks great! We used some niches on either side for easy access to spice racks. The pot filler is a Moen model.  The backsplash tile has a really subtle crackle finish in the glaze.  We switched the tile layout in the niche above the range to a herringbone pattern for an understated look.

Kohler makes beautiful farmhouse ceramic sinks. I love the simplicity of this one.

The desk makes use of the angled space under the windows.  There was an area that was previously used to house a china cabinet which we incorporated into the pantry. Aren’t we so clever! Pantries are a necessity, but so much nicer when they are not obvious!

The bench seat was added during this renovation.  We had some pillows made from outdoor fabrics so that they would not fade in this sunny location. The pretty cream and black floral is available through Stroheim and Romann. The fabric used on the bench seat cushion is called Kersika by Jab. Using outdoor fabric indoors is a little trick that we employ often when we are worried about fabrics fading. They are also great to use in family friendly interiors because they are so easy to clean.

This kitchen truly is something that we are all very proud of. Our client is absolutely thrilled with it. Creating a beautiful and functional space that is just what our clients wished for is the best part of designing!

Cheers!

Decorating with Apothecary Jars

I never get tired of using apothecary jars when I am decorating my client’s homes! I think it is because there are so many wonderful things that you can fill them with so they never get boring. Apothecary jars are a great way of displaying a collection of items and controlling clutter. I get asked all the time about how to incorporate them into your décor so here are a few tips.

We renovated this apartment for a Designer Showcase in Calgary a few years ago and wanted to add some great colour to the island of the kitchen. The apothecary jars filled with fruit worked wonderfully! Insiders tip #1 – Real fruit can start to steam up if the jars are in a warm location and the lid is on tight. Be prepared to replace the fruit often!

This is a photograph of a grouping of jars that we placed in an interior design project in Calgary after we had finished a kitchen renovation. Notice that we used fake fruit to avoid the steam problem! (Hey, at least we learn from our mistakes!). Insiders tip #2 – Use a variety of sizes and heights of jars as well as a variety of items inside them.

Apothecary jars can be used in bathrooms too. In this master bathroom design we placed some jars filled with sponges, lavender and cotton swabs. Insiders tip #3 – Even everyday items can look interesting in beautifully shaped containers.

I love this grouping of everyday bathroom accessories! It makes the mundane look like museum pieces. So elegant! These containers are from Pottery Barn.

One of the best things about decorating with apothecary jars is the ability to change what you are displaying inside them depending on the season. I recently came across this lovely photograph via My Domicile Style. I adore the holiday greens in the jars, and I am going to try this look out myself this year! Insiders tip #4 – Change up what you are displaying to keep your décor interesting.

They look super filled with candy on an accent or hallway table. I could also imagine using buttons, corks from wine bottles or vintage rhinestone pins. Insider’s tip #5 – Use brightly coloured or interesting objects that you have collected for an unexpected display.

What a great way to serve your Christmas cookies! I adore this idea which was featured on Apartment Therapy. I can also see using apothecary jars at a kid’s birthday party filled with colourful candies. How fun would it be for each guest to fill a little goodie bag for themselves before they headed home? The candies wouldn’t last long, but the sugar rush would go on for hours! Insiders tip #6 – Use apothecaries for artfully serving cookies and candies buffet style.

This just screams springtime! I know it’s only December, but I’ve got my eye on this idea come March! Check out Lady Lovona’s Cabinet of Curiosities for a how to on creating this gorgeous plant display. Insider’s Tip #7 – Try using your apothecaries to create a terrarium.

Hope this has inspired you to use your apothecary jars in some interesting ways to add charm to your interiors!

Cheers!

Lamps

Lighting is what creates ambiance in a space.  When we are designing a home we like to pay special attention to the lighting plan and make sure that we have ample ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. Even with a comprehensive lighting plan we still encourage our clients to add lamps in their rooms as well.  There is just nothing better then a lamp when you need to add a punch of colour or texture in a room.  Lamps are beautiful accessories and part of what makes a room look complete. Here are a few examples of pretty lamps we have used in our projects.

I am a huge fan of layering artwork with lamps.  It completes the vignette and is warm and charming.

This ceramic lamp works wonderfully with the warm colour palette we created in this family room.  It is casual and colourful!

In the bedroom the rule of thumb is that the bottom of the lamp shade should be just above the height of your shoulder when you are sitting in bed.  This provides the proper amount of illumination when you are reading.  This lamp is quirky and fun.  It looks great with the patterned wallpaper behind it.

Here is another example of a ceramic lamp looking lovely in this arts and crafts interior. I love the way the lamp highlights the texture of the silk upholstered walls.  This house is warm and inviting and the ceramic base of this lamp adds to that feel.

This amazing Italian blown glass lamp is from Circa Vintage Art Glass here in Calgary.  The colour and form are extraordinary!

Here are a few more lamps that are too beautiful for words!!

This lamp from Jan Showers is a stunner!  I think it is made of yellow onyx.  Incredibly glamorous!

Here is another example of a Jan Showers lamp.  The colour of turquoise is so intense.  This would be a showstopper in a room!

We have used this pretty marble light fixture from Circa lighting a few times.  It is simply elegant.

Since Calgary is an oil and gas town, Calgary designers often do work with oil and gas execs. I could see using this fun lamp in a home office!

Another great company that makes fun and colourful lamps is Shine Everyday. This yellow lamp has great scale and texture. The bright yellow is so unexpected!

I hope this post gives you confidence to have fun with your lamp choices.

Cheers!

Jacqueline

The White Cabinet and Wood Island Combination

Kitchen design is something that we love helping our clients with. Here in Western Canada one of the most popular looks that we get asked to create is a mixture of painted and wood kitchen cabinets. It is a fabulous style and can look either modern or very traditional. One of the easiest ways to pull it off is to use painted cabinets on the perimeter of the kitchen and wood on the island. Here are a few of our own projects with this classic mixture of finishes.

In this Mount Royal home in Calgary we designed a kitchen in keeping with the age and charm of the home. The kitchen features a painted cream perimeter and a dark stained maple island. Two of the most unique features of this particular kitchen are the hidden pantry between the paneled Sub Zero fridge and freezer and the location of the fireplace in the kitchen. The backsplash is a basket weave pattern of Crema Marfil and Emperador marble from Tierra Sol Ceramic Tile here in Calgary. It really ties the cream and dark wood cabinets together.

This next kitchen we designed has not only the dark stained wood island, but also a wood hood fan that matches. We used a granite countertop on the island and limestone on the remaining countertops. In this kitchen since we had soaring ceilings we decided to use an oak library ladder that rolls along the upper cabinets and enables the user to reach the highest cabinets. We purchased the ladder through Richlieu Hardware and stained it to match the island. It also is the most distinctive feature of this kitchen. I love the way it turned out!

Often we will use a cream or ivory colour for the cabinets but sometimes we want to create a sharper contrast or a fresher palette. The next example illustrates how a true white cabinet achieves this. The island in this kitchen is really a piece of sculpture! We wanted this island to appear as a piece of furniture so we designed very intricate legs and even added nickel sabot feet to accentuate them. There is a beautiful arched and beveled glass detail in the cabinets over the fridge. The high contrast of the wood island and very white cabinets is so striking – I love how this kitchen turned out!

We were honored when one of our client’s homes was recently featured in the Alberta Ballet Home and Garden Tour . This is a wonderful fundraising event where select Calgary Interior Designers and home owners open their doors so that the public can tour some of the most beautifully designed residences in the city. The kitchen in this residence is absolutely stunning. I think it is largely due to the amount of light that pours into this space. The client wanted a mixture of modern elements and traditional detailing. Again, it merges a painted perimeter and wood island. It really is one of my most favorite projects that we worked on.

I think that the painted and wood cabinet combination is so timeless and elegant. Even though it is the most popular look for kitchens, every one that we create is unique in its own way. There are so many different ways to reinvent this classic style to keep it interesting and fresh!

Cheers!

Jacqueline