Favorite Things - Outdoor Seating

Spring is in the air! The Denver area had a blizzard a week ago today and now we are looking at nearly 80 degree temperatures. These first balmy days of Spring always make me yearn for a great place to sit outdoors. I've found some beautiful seating from Charleston Gardens to answer that call!

Charleston Gardens Bench

 Travertine Table and Clingencourt Chairs

Harwick Bench

French Bistro Set

Camelback Bench

 Regency Bench

 I feel inspired to start sprucing up my outdoor spaces, how about you?

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design  www.beautifulhabitat.com

Metal Lighting that says WOW

Bradley Hughes provides an exclusive product line of furnishings fashioned from exceptional materials such as acid mirror, colored glass, hand-forged iron, exotic wood and stones and hand-finished concrete. All products are proudly manufactured in the USA. Here is a selection of their light fixtures that are sure to add drama and beauty to any room.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

100th Blog Post - $100 off coupon

This is the 100th Blog Post for Beautiful Habitat! Thank you for joining me with each post! I hope you've been informed and inspired to create your own Beautiful Habitat.

I've been thinking about this post for days, wondering how to best mark the occasion. Ironically, March is already a significant month for me. This month I celebrate a birthday, another year of marriage to a wonderful husband, and a 3rd year of business in Colorado.I feel so incredibly grateful for each of these fabulous occasions.
To share that gratitude, I am offering $100 off of design fees on any project for the first five blog readers to schedule a design consultation. All you need to do is be one of the first 5 people to contact me and agree to have your project featured on the Beautiful Habitat blog. If you are in the Denver/Boulder area, I can meet up with you in person. If you reside in another area, I can consult through emailed photographs, with some measuring on your part. Email me today to schedule your consultation today!

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

St. Patrick's Day Inspiration

Happy St. Patricks' Day. In honor of the holiday, below are several rooms featuring the color green. Green is a very versitle color which can be high impact or calming and everything in between. Use it for a pop of color in a room or as a whole theme. Below are ideas to get your started on your own green room.

This soothing green bedroom was designed by Alessandra Branca and featured in the October 2009 issue of House Beautiful.

 This tiny kitchen makes a huge statement in a bold green lacquer. Even the roller window shade and refrigerator are green. Design by Miles Redd. Featured in July 2009 issue of House Beautiful.

 If a green theme is just too much for you, try a pop of green on a large piece like a sofa. This room, by Jonathan Adler was featured in the May 2009 House Beautiful.

What better color than green for an out door room? Greystone estate show house, Veranda Magazine.

 Veranda also featured a great round up of green fabrics and wall coverings for spring. More information on each fabric can be found on the Veranda website.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Artistic Time Pieces

Daylight Savings Time is upon us. I enjoy that our evenings will be full of more sunshine. I am not enjoying the first Monday morning after "Springing Forward". It just feels like I've gotten up an hour earlier. In honor of the time change, today's post features several artistically crafted clocks. Clocks seem to be dying out in our culture with the clocks we have at hand on our phones, computers, microwaves... I even have a clock on my pedometer. However, these clocks are equally beautiful and functional; just as much art pieces as time pieces. Enjoy!

Each clock is available through The Artful Home and each artist offers several clocks in addition to those shown here, some offering other pieces. To see more work from each artist, click the link on the artist name.

The first three clocks are by glass designer Nina Cambron.

Flower clocks are by artist Emi Ozawa.

Metal Artist Leonie Lacouette creates many geometric patterns in steel, brass, copper, slate and wood.

 John McDermott is the artist and furniture designer behind the two wood wall clocks featured below.

 Husband and wife team Ken and Julie Girardini are the creators of the flowing and bending metal clocks below.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design  www.beautifulhabitat.com

Before & After: Window Treatments 4

Happy Friday! I'd like to close out this week of window treatments with before & after's from one of my favorite transformations.

Before:
 My clients had just replaced their windows with energy efficient upgrades, leaving us with a blank slate. The windows are truly unique in this home and nicely trimmed in wood. Sun and heat control were an issue.

The goal was to provide protection, and emphasize the tall ceilings and unique windows.

The adjoining dining room needed to coordinate with the living room, while also providing a flexible solution to block sun, while still allowing opening the treatments and taking advantage of the view.

After:
We added functional cellular (honeycomb) blinds to help with heat and light control. The blinds could be pulled up completely, making them practically disappear into the woodwork.
For soft treatments we added tall (12ft) curtain panels to emphasize the height of the ceiling.

The curtains are staionary (aka "dummy panels), meaning they don't move, but are in place purely for aesthetics.

We used two fabrics in the panels - a multi-color stripe and a solid green. This green was used throughout the entire first floor of the home and the stripe took our color up a notch.

In the dining room we added a cuffed valance in the same green and striped fabrics. Using only a valance softens the angles of the window while still keeping the  view fully visible. To provide the light control, but access to the view, we opted for the Privacy sheers from Hunter Douglas.

All sewing work in this room and the others highlighted this week, was completed by Artisan Concepts.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design  www.beautifulhabitat.com

Before & After: Window Treatments 3

Window Treatment week post #3 will focus on children's rooms. Often when I am called in for children's rooms, my clients want something that has a young and fun feel, but that will also continue to grow with the child. They do not want to redecorate the room with every phase of the child's life, but just to change out a few pieces. This room is no exception. But today, I'll be focusing on the window treatments.

Before:
This room was a fairly boring guest room in a new home. When I got there, the window treatments were the disposable temporary paper shades from Home Depot.

After:
We livened up the whole room and windows with color. The child was just under 3 years old at the time we created this room. A primary consideration with the window treatments for kids is safety. It is best to have shorter treatments the cannot be grabbed and pulled down, and nothing long, in which a child may get caught.Safety first!

We opted for valance treatments and wood blinds.The valances were created in a faux London blind style. They are meant to look like the fabric could cover the whole window and is lowered and raised by the ribbons.It gives a gathered look at the bottom.

We chose a colorful striped fabric. Other elements of the room can easily be changed out as she grows, while still coordinating with the window treatments because of the many colors within the fabric.

Have you seen great window treatments in a kid's room? Email me and I'll post them here!

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Before & After: Window Treatments 2

It's Window Treatment week at Beautiful Habitat.I love soft window treatments and the many ways in which they can be used to transform a room. I'll be highlighting examples all week, so stay tuned.

Before:
This bedroom window had the basic wood blinds and some boring sheers. The room was painted a blue to darken the space and brown and cream colored accents were used. Overall, the room felt uncoordinated, unsophisticated and a touch too feminine for one half of the couple.

After:
Using my client's original color scheme of blues and browns, we started with a striped fabric that we turned into a beautiful arched upholstered cornice. We took the cornice up to the ceiling to make the small room feel taller.

Light and heat control were a problem with this room, even with the wood blinds. We accompanied the cornice with chocolate colored draperies in an ultra suede fabric, which were also lined. The heavy, lined fabric blocked the additional light that the blinds let in. To further customize the draperies and coordinate them with the color scheme, we added trim stripes near the bottom of each panel in cream and blue.

 The window treatments solve the light control issues and helped to pull together the decor that my client's had already added to the bedroom. They had a good start, but needed the finishing touch. The room is now a good balance of masculine and feminine, so both he and she are happy and comfortable in the space.

I hope this give you ideas for incorporating window treatments into your spaces!


Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Before & After: Window Treatments 1

I am often called in on client projects to assist with Window Treatments.Sometimes clients are overwhelmed by the thought of selecting window treatments - and it can be overwhelming on your own.
However, more often, clients have selected hard window treatments (aka blinds) and aren't aware of the benefits of adding soft window treatments (draperies, valances, cornices,etc.) in addition to the blinds. Soft window treatments can serve functional purposes including light and heat protection, echo reduction and noise absorption. Soft window treatment also add an aesthetic value to many rooms. Window treatments can be used to soften a room, to frame a beautiful view, to add more color to a space, to enhance the theme of a room, and even to visually balance uneven windows.
This week I'll be focusing on several window treatment before & after's. I hope these posts will help to demystify soft window treatments and inspire you to enhance your rooms with some creative applications.

Before:
Unlike many projects, this client actually had soft window treatments when we started in the family room. However, the home backs to a beautiful golf course view and the swagged valance and furniture placement did nothing to enhance this view. Also, the beige fabric was a little dull and blended too much with the wall color.

The adjoining kitchen had no window treatments. and a metal screen was used to block the uglier part of the view to the deck railing.

  

After:

To frame the view, we added more colorful fabrics in a more substantial treatment, while removing the large sectional sofa. This treatment includes 2 flat top drapery panels on each end. The valance is an inverted box pleat with scallops in each pleat.

  

 In the kitchen we created a double-width flat panel with a cuff at the top.This achieves our goal of blocking the view of the deck railing, while still keeping the natural light and access to the door. In addition, the similar treatments coordinate the kitchen and family room for a better flow.

  

And because the original window treatments were in good condition, we recycled them in an upstairs home office that had only wood blinds. This softened the window edges and gave the room a more elegant feel.

  

Tune in the rest of the week for more ideas on window treatments. As always, if you have questions or want additional details - contact me via the comments, at my website, or by email.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Favorite Things - Wild Pencil Sculptures pt 2

I found some information on the artist, along with some additional photos.

The artist is Jennifer Maestre, who cuts the pencils into 1 inch lengths, sharpens the tips, and drills a hole on the other end to make it a bead. She then sews them together into the amazing sculptures. Maestre was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and attended the Massachusetts College of Art. 

http://inventorspot.com/articles/pencil_art_14270

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration  www.beautifulhabitat.com

Favorite Things - Wild Pencil Sculptures

I recently received these photos via email, and was amazed. These are all sculptures made from hundreds of pencils! I love the creativity, both in the out-of-the-box use of materials and in the wild forms of the sculptures.Unfortunately I cannot give you artist information or a website as it wasn't included in the email and I've been unable to track by any means. Still, this is amazing, out-of-the-box artwork that I simply had to share. I'm hoping a reader out there just might have details on this art and the artists to share with us all. In the meantime, enjoy these wild creations!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Do you know anything about this artwork or the artist? Drop us a line with the details!


Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration  www.beautifulhabitat.com