home decor

  Margaret Ryall We all have our Christmas rituals and mine usually start December 1st..  I  always make something for my entrance first.   I am not one to overdo things.  I re-use what I have or forage in  my garden or the gardens of friends. Then I added some LED lighted twigs and silver balls and a hit of mesh ribbon.   The purple connects with my front door. The blown leaves remind me that we are between seasons. Margaret Ryall  Each year I allow myself one  or two new purchases and send at least one small bag of assorted objects to a local charity shop.   I'm extravagant this year with two purchases.  I've been looking for a plain wreath to change around each year and found this great one with LED lights  for 25% off at Canadian Tire.  This year the theme is snow flakes and silver... just because.    Margaret Ryall  This year I embraced our new Target ( very near my home) and purchased three...

The four corners of a room are often a no man's land when it comes to design.  I am not saying that you have to fill up every corner with something, but I am advocating thinking about your space to determine if  it might need to look more "fulfilled". Here are some of my favourite solutions: Art  Using Art to fill an empty corner Margaret Ryall  Usually you can't walk right up to art you place in a corner,  so choose something that can be read from a distance. This lovely matted and framed wood sculpture is stunning for corner purposes.  It brightens up the space, fills it nicely, provides a backdrop for the dark table and lamp base and is a bit of a conversation piece. I was so excited when it was hung on my clients' wall.       Kristen Rivoli Interior Design This colourful mid century modern space needs art work to match.   It creates another layer for the space that invites the eye to roam and then return to the equally colourful...

 Decorators get all kinds of requests for services from furniture layout to full home designs. I like the variety of smaller jobs with  the ones that go on forever.  Two of my favourite tasks are rehanging art to best advantage and providing the last layer of accessories in a home. Sometimes I get to do both in the same house! Over the next several posts I want to provide a glimpse into the thought processes I use when accessorizing a client's space.   Think about it as adding the icing to an already great cake. If you do it for your own home or as a professional service, the task is really the same. You have to juggle design principles with individual taste (both decorator& clients) and existing elements in the home.  Sometimes homeowners have  objects  to incorporate in the design and other times you may  start with a clean slate.   As a decorator, I find  a  clean slate  more difficult  because I want to c...

Hopefully you are into blue!  Blue seems to be a dominant colour in Pantone's colour forceasting for  both spring 2013 and upcoming 2014. Here's how it's playing out....  Monaco Blue (Spring 2013)  Dazzling Blue (Spring 2014) Two blues, but with great differences.  I can't say blue is a big favourite of mine, but I am really into Monaco blue because it is a warmer blue that is approaching navy. I don't think it is a blue that you would  catagorize as trendy. Perhaps timeless would be a better descriptor.   Dazzling Blue seems to be a colour that will not be  around for the long haul.  It is cold, quite exciting ,and lends itself well to accessorizing.   It isn't exactly a colour you snooze to.  Could you have it on a wall?  Not me, but there are those who would.   You could use it a little or go whole hog and saturate your space with it.   Welcome to the world of dazzling blue....   source  .... pu...

No it's  not a scandal!  Nothing juicy really.  I got to thinking about the artful display of throws when I came downstairs this morning to find this jumble left from the night before.    I am interested in comfort and function as well as style.  While this throw gets used almost daily it  also adds to the overall feel of our family room.  In terms of design, the main attraction when I  first saw it at Costco  was its texture and muted colour;  I knew  it would sit nicely on my family room sofa and not disrupt the pattern play of the two pillows.  Margaret Ryall Here is where it first lived when I brought it home.  After several new furniture purchases the chair has moved to another room and the throw and pillow are now on the sofa. As you can see, it still serves the same design purpose  as on the chair by adding texture. Apart from function, here are some of the reasons a throw might be a good purchase for you...

  What's your interior design aesthetic?              " "What's that you ask?  Design aesthetic? Should I have one ?  Perhaps I do! "  This is not a question I could have answered in my teenage years, but it was those early years that laid the foundation for what I would come to understand and appreciate about design in my adult life.  I believe our  interior design aesthetic (aspects of interior environments we are attracted to) is developed from what we've been exposed to  through our life experiences:  the house we grew up in,  homes of friends, your home town, reading, travel, and various forms of  media, etc.   The road to my house just before my birth My house age 8  Is this a town that raises a design conscious gal?  "Yep!"   How did that happen? I was exposed to very functional decor growing up in a small town in Newfoundland in the the...