Young Couples' Starter House Tour - Chile

Snapshotjourneys.com - Vina del Mar, Chile

Jay Johnson - Our Design2Share interior design expert Irwin Weiner is traveling to Venice, Italy with a client. Tough assignment. We can't wait to see his photos and check out the fab resources he'll bring back for us! In the meantime, I did a little bit of traveling - down to Chile.

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Professionals Plan Your Design Job

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - It's part of the culture we're living in to believe that we are empowered and enlightened people who can tackle anything . . . and, in the words of Sinatra, "do it my way." I appreciate empowerment, but too often I see potential design clients who don't appreciate all the training, skills, and special knowledge that goes into what an interior designer has to offer.

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Salute to French Interior Design

Maison Darre

Irwin Weiner ASID - Back in 2007, fellow designer Nicola Chernicoff and I shot a video on European vs. American Design. Guess what? It's still valid; European designers are more relaxed, infinitely less afraid of color, and appreciate color and whimsy more than American designers.

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Websites Devoted to Color

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - Color is a gut-level, highly personal experience. I recommended "green" for a client's room, and saw his face turn into a contorted mask. "No way!" he said. "Anything green reminds me of hospital walls." One person's calm, energizing, positive color experience will mean disaster and horrors to another. When decorating, please yourself and choose colors you can live with day in, day out. But don't feel you have to stick with what's on the walls or in your furnishings. Some tips:

• Seasonal changes: Decorate with two color palettes a year - a spring/summer and a fall/winter scheme. Choose colors for furniture slipcovers, pillows, lampshades, and area rugs that give a lighter warm-weather feel and a darker, comfier cold-weather feel. It's good to shift the color palette and mood in your home.
• Wall impact: It's an old chestnut, but it's true that paint is the quickest way to decorate. You'll get huge impact if you paint your walls with color, color, color. I'm not a huge fan of accent walls, however. They tend to shrink the room and remind me of amateur room makeover shows on TV. Here's a lengthier blog post I wrote on Adding Color to Your Walls. Enjoy!
• Ceilings, too: I hate white ceilings in rooms with low ceilings and brightly painted walls (like putting a Tupperware lid on the room); paint walls and ceilings a unified color for bigger impact. Go a few shades lighter for the ceiling versus the wall color, but keep it unified and you'll be happier with the end results, I promise you.
• Love of color: There are blogs and other websites devoted to specific colors! If you're a fan of black and white, for instance, then go to Black and White Delight for inspiration! House of Turquoise may be your best bet if you're a fan of turquoise and all shades of blue. Go to the Decor by Color site, and you can select colors that suit your taste - or explore colors you may be timid about - in blogs and stores devoted to inspiring interior design based solely on color. This is a great way to get decorating ideas.

Enjoy this video of talented designer Karim Rashid talking about color - he's a huge fan of pink! - from TheHome.com.

 

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