Summer Solstice

Despite temperatures already reaching the mid-to-high 90s, today is the official first day of summer! Summer is the time to sit on the porch, relax and watch the sun go down. Don't worry we have some tips and tricks to get your outdoor space a great place to relax and enjoy the summer.

This is an amazing outdoor space Wamhoff Development and myself collaborated on. Can't overlook the custom Summer Classics furniture!

1) Outdoor furniture doesn't get the comfort of air conditioning

There are a wide variety of outdoor furniture companies that sell products in all sorts of price ranges.  Outdoor furniture and fabrics have to endure much more than just normal everyday wear and tear.  They have to endure rainstorms, hot hot hot temperatures, and chlorine or salt water from your pool or beach. Take a moment to assess what sort of beatings your furniture is going to take and check out different products and their reviews.  What may be great for high heat may not live as well in close proximity to salt water...

Check out Summer Classics for some of my favorite outdoor furniture!


2) Sunbrella, Sunbrella, Sunbrella

If you are getting furniture with cushions, but sure that it is OUTDOOR rated fabric. This will ensure that the color does not fade in the sun, mildew won't grow after a rain, dyes won't run after an afternoon swim and then lounge. Sunbrella is the most popular brand outdoor fabric, and it's my favorite. Their collections have lots of  great colors and patterns to chose from. Plus when they get dirty you can literally just hose them off!



3) Know how to take care of your furniture

Outdoor furniture requires a little different maintenance than your indoor sofas and chairs.  For example, most manufacturers recommend vertically orienting your cushions after a rainstorm or good washing is the best way to dry the cushions.  Make sure to check manufacturers suggestions for cleaning and maintaining your new stuff.

Happy Designing!
Erika and Erin

Awesome Wood Console!

During some point of every project, I find something for a client that I would love to have in my own space.  Some of those items are no brainers, perfect pieces of furniture in my personal style.  Others, surprise me! Like this console.  Check out this one of a kind piece one of my clients ordered from Phillip's Collection! 

You got it - it is a giant hunk of wood :) But it is quite extraordinary!

www.philipscollection.com

This is one giant piece of Makha wood, a hard tropical wood. Here's what the Phillips Collection says about their beautiful piece...

"The Makha wood is a rare hardwood, highly prized for its outstanding finish. The wood is hard, heavy and dense and develops a beautiful patina as it ages. Makha is finely figured and typically reserved for use in fine musical instruments and luxury car interiors. The base of the Makha tree is especially valued due to the massive burls that grow in the root system"

Here's the amazing piece in it's new home!

Redesign the Pre-Made Furniture

I have seen as of late, a new trend on Pinterest that is pretty cool. It's called Ikea Hack! It comes from the blog, ikeahacker.com which used to be ikeahacker.blogspot.com.

It's pretty cool. It give you way to take Ikea products and change/re-purpose them to fit your own unique needs!

Take a look at these awesome makeovers!

pinterest.com

pinterest.com

 - Erin

How to Hang Curtains

There are all sorts of different types of window treatments out there. Some very good, and some very bad. But how do you avoid the bad ones. Well with a few tips and tricks you can get the best looking window treatments you have ever had.

Home Remodel Project

1) The higher you mount the curtains the taller your room will look.
High ceilings have been though to be a luxury. To make you ceilings look taller, you should mount your curtains as high as you can. This will draw the eye up. About 6"-12" under your crown molding is good, but remember if you think it is going to look funny don't do it. It's your house afterall.

Townhome Project

2) Don't go too short.
Premade panels only come in certain sizes, while custom can be whatever. When mounting premade panels be sure not to go to short. Yes the higher you mount the curtains the taller the room looks, but having curtains that stop a foot short of the floor, kind of defeats the purpose. If you are doing premade be sure to mount them so that they are about .5"-1" off the floor.

Girl's Room

3) Don't go overboard.
Curtains can soften and add warmth to a room, but remember like with all things not to go overboard. For instance, if you have a lot of patterns in your room already, think about doing a neutral curtain with a fun trim. Or if you have a lot of neutrals think about doing a fun print to spice up a room.

Semi Custom Home Project

  - Erin

By Design's New Website!

This week saw an exciting change here at By Design Interiors. We had the launch of our new and improved website, thanks to our new Marketing Manager, Mrs. Jamie Jones.

The new website looks great and has a ton of pictures for potential clients to look at for inspiration and show off how awesome all of our designers are. We are all really excited to share it with everyone!

You can check out our revamped website at www.bydesigninteriors.com

 - Erin

Round Top Antiques Market

Twice a year, the small town of Round Top, TX hosts a HUGE antiques market.  The show started over 40 years ago at a barn and now has grown to one of the largest shows in the US. People come from all over to both sell and buy furniture, antiques, lighting, bedding, accessories, and eat some amazing kettle corn. 

Click here to learn about about the show.

Ever since I've moved to Texas, I have been told that going to Round Top is a MUST do.  Finally, at the last minute, I decided to grab a friend and drive the short two hours to get my antiqueing on!

There are several permanent shops in a 20 mile radius around the town of Round Top.  But hundreds of temporary vendors make their way and set up tents out in the middle of the neighboring fields. You drive up to a collection of tents, park, walk around, buy stuff, then load your car and drive to the next set of tents. 

Here are some of the cool things I found....

A furniture maker was taking old alcohol transport boxes and turning them into side tables.

This large tent smelled so fresh when you walked in; their lavender spray made me want to curl up in one of their amazing beds. 

I almost bought this guy - but decided I couldn't hole him in storage for months or possibly years until I can find space for him.

Cute house converted into a store.

Hand painted side table.

I almost got this too! It's an upholstered chair made from an old wine barrel from the 1960s! There was a coordinating coffee table and sofa to go with it :)

The market is every spring and fall... it might become a regular thing on my to do list!

Color Trends 2013...Where Do They Come From?

Ever wonder where trends come from? I do. Like the Harlem Shake...Come on people it's not that funny. But for those of you who have ever wondered where color trends come from. Look no further.

There is a company out there call Pantone, and their entire company is about selling color. They literally have a name, number and swatch for about every color there every was. Not only that, they have gadgets that can read a color and tell you its name and number.

Yea, so what? Well not only does this company sell color and color related products, they create forecasts of the next big color of the seasons. They analyze the markets in fashion and homes. Based on that they give out their predictions every season.

So wonder why there is all of the sudden emerald green every where? It's not because of the new Oz movie (which was pretty good p.s.). It's because Emerald Green was named Pantone's Color of the Year for 2013, and was featured in both the spring and fall color trends forecasts.

pantone.com

pantone.com

pantone.com

So if you ever want to know what the next big color is going to be check out pantone.com, and get the inside scoop.

 - Erin

Powder Bath Awesomeness!

Powder bathrooms are typically boring. They have white walls and white plumbing fixtures, and probably a really cheesy picture somewhere trying to add a little interest to the room. But it doesn't have to be that way!!! A powder bath can be a space to express yourself and go a little crazy!

On a recent project with Wamhoff Development, our client had this thought too! They really let their personality show through and created a space that not only showed who they are but amplified the rustic theme of their home.

Powder Bath

Now, this is just ONE idea. You can do anything you want in a powder bath. It is a small space, so splurging a little on tile or wall paper wont break the bank. And remember to have fun and make it your own.

 - Erin

Your TV can do what?!

Ever been lying in bed, trying to watch TV, and you can’t get a good view without giving your self a neck cramp? This happens to me all the time. You want to lie down but the only way you can see the TV is by propping yourself up on a ton of pillows or twisting your neck or doing one of those half crunch things that you did in PE class.

Well there is a solution! It’s called hidden vision TV mounts. This device mounts your TV on the wall above your head board. It looks like a picture frame, and the wires and every thing are hidden, which is even better.

source - hvtvmounts.com

The side that shows is an actual picture. Instead of having a big black hole that a TV can look like over the fireplace or above your bed, it looks like you have a framed piece of art. And it fits any LCD or LED flatscreen TV.

But the most awesome thing is when you want to watch TV the mount extends out from the wall above the bed! This means that you can watch TV while lying in bed.

I don’t know about you but I think that this is definitely an awesome way to watch TV in bed.

 - Erin

Rockin' Little Boy's Room!

Ever since I can remember, I have loved window seats. So, when a client approached me wanting to add a window seat to her son’s room, I might have shown more excitement than her or her son. Her older traditional home had some great architectural details including the perfect set up to add built-in bookcases and a window seat to her small son’s space.

We measured, we sketched, we drew and then it was time to open up the walls and see what the original builders had left us to work with. To our disbelief, the wall cavities were perfect and in a few short weeks, we had some pretty spectacular shelves and seats thanks to a great contractor and his craftsmen.

The crisp clean shelves needed a little “vavoom” so the client and I decided to add a geometric black and white pattern to the backs of the bookcases.  After scouring through wall covering books and not finding something, we turned to fabric. 

One fabric book set our imagination soaring with brightly colored geometric patterns and stripes that will dot the space in pillows, window treatments and other accents. 

 I may have initially been more excited about this room than her son was, but he sure is loving the end result!

Trapped between a floor and a king-sized bed!

Of course our job as interior designers is to make a space functional; it is what every professor and mentor preach and it’s what every client wants.  

Function first, then layer in the aesthetics. 

But, we all know that when we are looking through design magazines, we’re attracted to what is beautiful, elegant, different and "edgy."  

We ‘oooh’ and ‘aahhh’ at those picturesque spaces because they are just that…picturesque.

Now you’d think that the job behind creating all of these amazing spaces is glamorous and trendy.  Our edgy design style is reflected in everything - our spaces, our clothing, our lifestyle and the way we work. 

However, designers go through a lot of blood, sweat, and well, anything else we can muster to create the perfect space for our clients.

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Take for instance, placing a rug under a heavy king-sized bed. 

No easy task for even the strongest of muscle men, yet there I found myself squeezing under a solid wood bed frame and shimmying between the support stands to pull the rug using my minuscule triceps while my installer lifted one side of the bed frame as high as he could for as long as he could (which amounted to about 10 second spurts).

That's me! Trapped under the bed!

Really tight squeeze!

What makes things even more complicated? 

I couldn't move once the bed is set down on top of me. 

So, then I’m trapped under the bed until the next lift- where I simultaneously shimmied, pulled, 

and positioned the rug for the quick 10 seconds.

Pulling a design together is not always as glamorous as they make it look on TV, 

but we sure have fun doing it and the end result is always worth the hard work; 

even when it requires crawling in tight spaces 

Oh, the things we do to make a space beautiful!

The finished product !!!