RoomPlanners Inc

Room designers often talk about vintage style. But the style is as associated with fashion as it is interiors.

Like vintage rooms, vintage fashions show an affinity for muted, nostalgic colors and for the past, with a preference for 19th century Victorian ideas rooted in medieval values. In short, vintage fashion has a fairytale quality that exaggerate stereotyped, idealized  views of femininity.

Though the vintage wardrobe is much modified from its stage-coach-and-glass-slipper connotations, vintage fashion today is still charming and old-fashioned and tied to the most romanticized looks from the past.

Vintage fashions often integrate dressmaker details, buttons, ribbons, lace eyelets and layered fabrics. Iconic vintage fashions include flared skirts. floral dresses, high collars, leg-wear, laced boots, pointed toe shoes, long gloves, pearls, heart lockets, brooches and chokers (a generous use of jewelry is a  hallmark of the look), as well as French braids and chignons.

Inspiration for the look can include the simple floral dress with floppy straw hat... the buttoned-up Gibson-Girl look, the dramatic evening apparel of the late 19th century Belle Epoque, the pretty Laura Ashley looks of the 20th century, or the eclectic, one-of-a-kind mixes of vintage fashion ideas today.

See more examples of vintage apparel (...and an interesting look at the style's development), along with examples of vintage colors, vintage interior design and vintage arts, by downloading our vintage style guide.

Need interior design help applying vintage style to your rooms? Download our vintage decor guide, including vintage wall color paints, vintage furnishing ideas, vintage home decorating ideas photos and do-it-yourself decor ideas and more.

If you love one-of-a-kind things... or like to breath new life into old things, your personal style may be vintage. This nostalgic approach to design tends to be charmingly eclectic and casually elegant...with undertones of Victorian or English Cottage style.

Learn more about vintage interior design with our vintage décor guide. Like a recipe for your room, it offers interior design help and guidelines for choosing vintage furnishings, vintage wall paint colors and materials, as well as room-by-room tips for creating your own vintage looks. This 15-page, full color downloadable decor guide ($12) features dozens of color photos and practical ideas... bringing together all the ideas and information you need to create a memory-filled, one-of-a-kind home.

Want to learn even more about vintage style? Discover what’s behind this nostalgic lifestyle approach, and see how it influenced color, fashion, art, music, culture, furniture and interior design over time with our downloadable style guide. This 15-page, full color guide ($10) will help you recognize and translate vintage preferences into stylish choices for home, apparel and lifestyle.

In a sea of home furniture design showrooms at the High Point Furniture Market in North Carolina, it's fun to come across one that's really unforgettable... and that inspires new color design ideas! 

This fall, our top pick was Bernhardt Furniture. See if you agree that their display of furniture and artwork is living proof that a little drama is never a bad thing... and that, these days, color and art are as valid an inspiration for design as any past or present furniture style. More eclectic looks, it seems, are here... and modern interior design ideas are meeting head on with romantic and old world design.

Bernhardt's overall theme was Baroque-style passion and romantic, theatrical intensity... played up with way over-scaled art, gutsy hues and unexpected mixes of style, scale and color. Furniture styles mostly contrasted art styles (...from Baroque to neo-classic to Romantic to contemporary) - but became compatible with a clever melding of color or texture.. and an overall simplification of furniture shapes that let the artwork's brushstrokes stand out.  

Check out the eclectic mix of design and ideas in this first room design layout. White leather - a modern 20th century idea - is applied to an updated 18th century wing chair with antique nailhead... and seen against a 19th century painting...

Below, bright  turquoise leather chairs and toss pillows contrast a stark white sofa... softened by the complex grays and taupes, and intricate brushwork, of an oversized art canvas.

Below, the deep raspberry hue from a late 19th century-style painting is repeated in the chairs around this table. Note the mix of chair shapes and styles - from rectangular-back and oval-back on the table's sides to the wing chairs at both ends. Side chair-backs feature a chalkboard cover... so you can skip the place cards on the table!

Contemporary art inspires the room setting below... with the atmospheric blue-green of the skirted chairs drawn from a 20th century work. Instead of hanging a small piece of art above this elegant glass-top console table, this piece of art - divided into six panels, fills the entire wall behind it - creating an instant focal point!

The warm, brassy tones of the living room below are mirrored in the theatrical neo-classical scene in the art behind it. By not repeating the painting's deep red tones in the living room furniture arrangement, our eye is drawn to the artwork - and the elegant camel-back sofa that frames it.

Warm orange-toned toss pillows, drawn from this smaller, but equally theatrical painting, spice up a pair of white wing-back sofas.

Vintage-style houses...  they conjure up charming, one-of-a-kind Victorian designs with multi-storey, storybook architecture.

But there's a lot to like about vintage interior design, too... from its typically irregular room design layout to its charming character - often the result of that storybook architecture! But if your home didn't come with built-in charm, there are ways to re-create perfectly vintage interior design ideas. 

Below are favorite  ways room designers create a vintage look - even when there isn't architecture to match. The more of these you create in your home, the more nostalgic and one-of-a-kind your home will feel. (Check out the photos below, too!)

* a wrap-around porch, sunroom... or sunny corner filled with wicker chairs

* quirky nooks & cozy alcoves (or a private corner) for a reading chair or desk

* prominent woodwork and tall baseboards - painted white or stained a mahogany finish

* a well-appointed entrance hall - with a bench, hooks, fresh flowers and a pretty picture

* bay windows or window seats filled with pillows... or again, just a desk placed in front of a window!

* fireplaces… ideally one in every major room!

* tall, double-hung windows covered in lace curtains or lightly-patterned sheers

* doors with oval windows or oval moldings

* wallpaper on every walls... with an allover pattern, usually floral!

* skirted vanities or kitchen cabinets... or curtains used instead of doors

* hardwood floors covered with faded area rugs in any size

* muted wall paint colors that look nostalgic and pretty

* picture-filled walls... the more pictures the better - hung close together in any shape or size

* unmatched furniture with a historic quality

For an in-depth look at vintage style, check out the current issue of our home decorating magazine. Or download our 15-page vintage do-it-yourself decorating guide.

Vintage colors... the most nostalgic of our nine color palettes - look like they’ve been around for awhile. Inspired by the muted, mature colors of late summer, these romantic hues feel complex, shadowy, melancholy and quietly elegant.

Dreamy, subtle and quiet, vintage colors suggest a hazy, filtered view of things - influenced by the enigmatic hues of lamplight on aged surfaces such as antique plaster and flowers. Room designers often use these hues, with their tender, grainy effect, to recall the faded hues of ‘period’ rooms from a more elegant past. The muted look of these hues suggests they might have once have been brighter, but now show the tarnished or faded effects of age, weather, sunlight or wear. 

The vintage palette also reflects the ethereal, shifting effects of light and weather that fascinated impressionist painters. Think paintings by Degas and Monet. Used together to create fabric and paint color combinations, they reinforce each other's nostalgic mood.

How a vintage color feels is as important as its hue… and no other palette plays with our emotions quite like this one. We experience a full range of reactions around these sentimental hues... from aloof and melancholy to mature, romantic or quietly contented.   

For more information on vintage room colors and moods, and vintage interior design, download our vintage style or vintage decor guides.  

To see all nine color palettes, and to learn about color application by interior design themes, download our Color + Mood module.

One of TV's favorite room designers, Candace Olson was at the furniture market in High Point, N.C. last month. Here’s what we she told us about her signature style and home furniture design ideas.

What’s behind her unique design style?

“My clients come to me for specific looks,” Olson says. “Most of my clients are asking for something a little more contemporary, but they don't want it to be cold.” She admits that her home decorating ideas have a contemporary quality, but they're also intended to be casual and comfortable.

“When I say contemporary, I really mean classic contemporary. You just can’t beat classic core quality pieces... and I want my pieces to last, to be something my clients can live with.” For that reason, Olson's clean, pared-back looks are often rooted in traditional ideas. “Traditional designs are beautiful for a reason," she says. "Their scale, proportion and timelessness aren’t just beautiful; they’re familiar." That's part of their comfort, she explains, citing the warmth that comes from seeing details you recognize – a camel back sofa, a chandelier or a classic pattern. She even compares recognizing a familiar, or traditional design element, with recognizing an old friend in a room full of strangers. But even old friends need to reinvent themselves, she says. ”You want to see that your old friends are looking fresh and new rather than old and crusty!” 

Traditional design, Olson says, is a springboard for her signature style… and it has a lot to do with reinterpreting traditional designs with modern interior design ideas…whether updating or stylizing (simplifying) details or outlines, or changing the scale. ““Damask isn’t traditional anymore if it’s supersized,” she insists.

What’s behind her room colors and moods?

“My color design ideas are inspired by my Canadian roots, she says. “They reflect Canada’s vast lands of weather and its diversely different seasons," she says, with everything from stormy sky palettes and warm stone hues to wood tones inspiring fabric and paint color combinations. But it’s not just Olson's fabric and wall paint colors that are nature-inspired; she also loves to bring natural materials inside, from raked  woods to stone. “Natural materials are really important in contemporary design, and color choices are key to the work I do – it helps to pare things down and create clean lines.”

Where else does she look for interior design inspiration?

"My client’s lifestyles play a key role," she says. “My room design layout ideas respond to family needs, and how people really live. “My approach to design is…well, real – with the kids, the dogs, the chickens and the husband. I'm a realist,” she admits, in part because she has to be. Her work is seen by millions of people.

“Form and beauty have to include function. A tight back sofa, for example, isn’t fussy; it’s maintenance-free because you don't have to get up and fluff cushions.” Olson also welcomes the opportunity to work with what clients already own from the past... and she’s also partial to furniture that’s ‘ridiculously comfortable’.

“I'm always telling my clients that design is an investment, time, energy, money… and it’s incumbent on me to give them the best design value for their dollar.” But it’s also a two-way street, she says. Designers need to understand clients, and clients need to say yea or nea to a designer’s ideas. “It’s amazing how savvy consumers have become,” she adds. “In 1989, when I got out of design school, there wasn't the proliferation of TV shows and design education opportunities that there is now.”

What does she see as the most exciting home style trends?

Fashion turns fast today and a lot of exciting things are happening, Olson says, including more tufting, jewelry-inspired hardware and pearlized surfaces. “It’s fantastic the way the light hits an iridescent surface." 

She notes especially the trend that began a few years ago to add some shimmer and sparkle to fabrics. “So many people are buying solid color furniture fabrics today,” she says, adding that "surface textures and details animate those solid colors.”

There’s also a trend to ‘non-committal metals’ – that middle ground between gold and silver that she calls glint.  “It’s silver with warm undertones.”  

But when it comes to trends, Olson recommends selecting classic furniture pieces first, reserving only about 10% of your budget for the fashion-forward elements that freshen things up or add some sparkle.

Have you ever wondered why the most famous house style from the Victorian era (... the reign of Queen Victoria) is the Queen Anne style? If so, here's the scoop...

Victoria (1819-1901) was the Queen of England in the last half of the 1800s. This was the Victorian era; that mid– to late-19th century period when Queen Victoria ruled the great British Empire. This was also the era of the industrial revolution and the machine age… which may seem ironic or surprising     considering how delicate and ornate the Victorian era turned out to be! 

Anne (1665-1714)  was the Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland in the early 1700s. Perhaps due to her support of arts and science, her name was used by British architect Richard Norman Shaw during the Victorian era to label his own artistic style.

Home builders in American during the Victorian era may have been  inspired by the work of Shaw—and similarly labeled their buildings 'Queen Anne'.

But with their addition of spindles and other architectural details, America's 'Queen Anne' houses grew increasingly elaborate… and quite different from 'Queen Anne style in England.

Even more ironically, the informal, asymmetrical designs of both British and American 'Queen Anne' styles were nothing like the actual building style during Queen Anne's reign!

Notice, in the portraits below (Queen Anne on the left, Queen Victoria on the right), how much more elaborate things got in the 19th century 'Victorian' era!

To find out more about Queen Anne home styles and Victorian design... and how both continue to inspire ideas about vintage interior design, check out the latest issue of our home decorating magazine.

Of all the vintage house styles, Queen Anne is undoubtedly the most charming… and certainly the most popular. (Oddly, the Queen Ann home style was named during the reign of Queen Victoria! Find out why in the current issue of our magazine.)

Asymmetrical and whimsical, this vintage house style borrows details from storybook homes from the 19th century (...that borrowed ideas from medieval castles!)

Here are common ‘vintage house’ features.. the fairy-tale features it's become so famous for:

· asymmetrical design (...irregular shapes; one side of the house doesn't match the other)

· steeply-pitched, or irregular, roof lines

· a prominent chimney

· double-hung windows

· bay windows (perfect for interior window seats!)

· dormer windows that poke out of the roof line

· decorative details, including turrets, braces, brackets or other ‘gingerbread’ details

· deep-set or wrap-around porches (with space for plenty of wicker chairs!)

· white railings and white picket fences

· English gardens, rose gardens or climbing ivy

· flower boxes, always over-filled!

For more information about vintage style... including vintage interior design and vintage wall paint colors, check out the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

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Detail-rich, colorfully-painted Victorian homes—known today as “painted ladies”—are littered across America. But these vintage architectural gems are uniquely connected to the city of San Francisco... thanks to the Gold Rush building boom, plenty of local redwood, and some local artistry.

The flurry of home building in San Francisco after the 1849 Gold Rush coincided with the Industrial Revolution—and the influential reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria. Between 1849 and 1915, nearly 50,000 of San Francisco’s new homes were built in Victorian and Edwardian style. Plenty of local redwood allowed for extra architectural embellishment not seen in European styles.

Most of the large Victorian mansions of Nob Hill were destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake, but modest examples survived in other parts of the city. During the World Wars, many of these vibrant houses were painted battleship gray using surplus Navy paint; others were demolished. But a colorist movement in the 1960s transformed many of the city’s remaining historic Victorian homes into the “painted ladies” we’re so fond of today... following the lead of San Francisco artist Butch Kardum—who brightly painted his own Italianate-style Victorian home in 1963.

San Francisco’s most famous "ladies" are six Victorian houses on Steiner Street in Alamo Square, known simply as "Postcard Row." These vintage homes are regularly seen in tourist promotions and have been captured in a myriad of movies and TV shows!

Want to read more about Queen Anne homes, vintage interior design and vintage room colors and moods? Check out the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

Despite the color orange's many variations (...fifty shades doesn't begin to cover them), this warm, vibrant hue is never more top-of-mind than when we're around fall leaves, squash, pumpkins and Halloween. 

Orange makes us feel active, friendly, warm, flamboyant, happy and resourceful. It's been known to strengthen our appetite, increase our courage & boldness, and make us feel less inhibited, stuck-in-a-rut or fearful.

As orange is toned down (darkened) or muted (grayed) - as it often is for room color design - those effects may be weakened a little... but orange is always a warm, friendly and socializing hue. 

Orange is also a particularly chameleon hue on the paint color wheel - going from bright citrus orange to deep rusts and even browns. 

Here's a quick summary of orange room colors and moods (with sample wall paint colors)... 

Orange feels contemporary when it plays at the extremes of the color world, whether very bright or very dull. Modern rooms work well in brightest, color-saturated oranges such as tangerine or carrot. Chic rooms, with their understated sophistication, look stylish in dramatically muted orange hues like champagne. Organic rooms that integrate zen-like features work best with oranges that have been almost neutralized, such as cafe au lait.

Orange feels casual  in muted versions... whether muted by gray, or deepened a little. Vintage rooms, with their antique or nostalgic furnishings, work best with faded-looking orange hues, like cameo and terra cotta. Rustic rooms suit wholesome orange colors from vegetable gardens and the rural countryside.. think pumpkin and chestnut. Global rooms with their unusual artifacts or one-of-a-kind furnishings work with spicy oranges.... think umber, paprika and sienna.

Orange feels classic and formal in pretty, jewel-toned or mature versions. Couture rooms work well with pastel tints that recall flowers, soaps and ice cream... think coral and caramel. Classic rooms inspired by impressive Italian and Greek details or proportions require deep, saturated versions... think jewel-like hues like amber or turmeric. Traditional rooms with their old-world, well-bred or intellectual moods call for bronze, copper or brick.

Want more interior design inspiration? Or to learn about color? Check out our downloadable color guides and decor guides.

Think your personal style may be vintage? See if this sounds like you!

If you like vintage fashions and vintage interior design, you value personal expression and authenticity more than popular or trendy ideas.

You don't want to live an ordinary life. You prefer to live outside the tedious realities of life and often disregard the rules and  formulas everyone else lives by. You like to do things your own way and dislike anything that’s routine or impersonal. 

You’re nostalgic about what’s overlooked, ignored or rejected by the modern world. What others cast off as imperfect, useless or ‘yesterday’s news’ is pure treasure to you. You rescue the past or the unwanted in order to make it into something beautiful or personal.

You look for deeper meaning in everyday life and everything things. Others view you as sensitive, creative, idealistic and passionate.

People who like vintage style tend to be the most nostalgic of the nine Environmental Personality Profiles and interior design themes. They thrive on the beauty of yesterday and breathe new life into what’s old, unique or imperfect.

Like vintage people, vintage art, fashions, furnishings and room colors and moods reveal a fondness for history.  Vintage objects are collected slowly and carefully over time… and each tells the story of a unique life.

Learn more about vintage style - from it’s impact on architecture, art and wall paint colors to its continuing influence on apparel - with our downloadable vintage style guide.

Find out more.

Room designers are sometimes asked to describe the scariest room they ever saw. So, in honor of Halloween, here are seven rather ghoulish decorating practices, along with simple ways to make them less… hair-raising.

1. Pictures hung too high! There’s little that’s more mysterious to a designer than pictures hung in the middle of the wall, or near the ceiling! Unless your pictures are large enough to fill up a wall all on their own, connect them with furniture by hanging them not more than 3-8” above a sofa, table, chest or bed.

2. Small pictures on a big wall. A small picture is a beautiful thing, but on its own, it vanishes! Group it with other small pictures or hang it in a small space—above a chest, leaned against the back of a bookcase, or vertically stacked with one or two other small pictures on a narrow wall.

3. Too many angles. Angles add a dynamic quality to a room, but take care not to carve yours up with too many of them! If you like an angled-furniture look, keep pieces at the same angle, so they connect at a 90-degree angle. If you angle just one piece, make it the biggest one in the room, such as the bed or sofa.

4. No conversation cluster. Nothing makes a living room furniture arrangement look more dismembered than furniture lined up along the walls! Instead, create a square- or rectangular-shaped conversation group (rather than an odd-shaped one), where pieces face each other and everyone is seated within a 10-12 foot area. If your room design layout is long, mask the problem by creating the conversation group at one end, and a secondary ’room’ in the leftover space—a quiet sitting area with two chairs, a desk or a game table.

5. Relationships gone bad! Objects that are out of sync with the space they occupy will never rest-in-peace! Banish this problem by using products that have a similar shape, or  proportion, as the area around them. For example, use a rectangular coffee table with a sofa and chair (they create a rectangular shape), hang a tall picture on a  narrow wall, place a long centerpiece on a long table... and so on.

6. No focal point. A room without a focal point can look dull and lifeless. A focal point is a room’s ‘main idea’... or the reason the room exits. In the bedroom, it’s the bed... in the dining room, the table… in the living room, the fireplace (to gather around), the sofa (to get comfy) or a picture window (to see the views). Whatever your focal point is, orient the rest of your furniture around it… and make it larger than life with artwork, accents or an area rug that complement it.

7. Floating furniture. Furniture sitting alone in the middle of a room can look a bit alien! ‘Anchor’ your furniture placement by clustering other items around it—such as an area rug below it... artwork above it... and accessories or plants next to it.

This article was published in TrendWatch, Ashley Furniture HomeStore's monthly home decorating magazine. To receive their free online magazine with do-it-yourself decorating ideas, fill out the Email signup entry box on their home page.

Love vintage interior design but don't live in a nostalgic Queen Anne-style or other historic-style house? No problem... here are 9 simple ways room designers add the look of history to a home!

1. Picture Collages! Vintage rooms showcase collections of artwork above a sofa, table, stairway or along a hall. Rather than hanging matching frames in a row, vintage rooms mix and match many frame sizes, shapes and art subjects randomly, but closely, together.

2. Slipcovers & skirts! Slip-covered chairs and sofas are pure romance and nostalia…  recalling casual summers in the country! Skirted beds and tables, plain or ruffled, are equally suited to vintage rooms.

3. Artful lamps. A vintage lamp is rarely a plain, bland or white-shaded one! Vintage lamps often reveal the hand of a crafty person—whether by using shades with handsome stained glass, wrapping a shade in a pretty fabric or adding fringe at the bottom... or using small shades with two– or three-tiered bases that resemble old-style candelabras.

4. Rattan & wicker. Wicker furniture is ideal for a vintage living room, sunroom, bedroom or dining room. Indoors or out, a wicker chair offers the perfect place to lose yourself in a good book. Natural, white or whitewashed finishes are favorites.

5. Aged surfaces. Vintage means old and loved! Faded, crumbling or otherwise worn and aged-looking effects recall finer things and more elegant times. Think dressy fabrics that are tattered or worn, surfaces that simulate peeling paint or stone-y effects with a complex layering of color and texture. (Muted wall paint colors also add to the effect).

6. Floral prints. No proper vintage room is complete without a few references to the outdoors, especially flowers! Floral wallpaper is a favorite, along with floral-themed art, fabrics and rugs… or fresh flowers in vases and pitchers. 

7. Ovals & curves. The oval designs and gentle curves of vintage style first inspired Victorian jewelry, including hand-held silver mirrors and cameo pins. Soft romantic shapes are always favored in  vintage rooms, from shapely cheval mirrors to oval clock or picture frames and floral patterns.

8. Writing desks & vantiies. A slender writing desk recalls a time when women had the time to ponder life, write in their journals or pen a letter! With a mirror above, (preferably an oval one), this versatile piece also makes an ideal dressing  table or vanity. Pair with an elegant chair or  skirted stool.

9. Old-style faucets. From claw-foot bathtubs to old Victorian-style faucets… old-fashioned plumbing is a must for vintage baths and kitchens. Choose old porcelain-style sinks and tubs... and faucets with hand-held sprays and crisscrossed handles labeled ‘hot’ and ‘cold’.

Read more about vintage style in the current issue of our home decorating magazine.Or download our vintage style guide... filled with room photos, paint colors, furniture ideas and one hundred room-by-room vintage-style house decorating ideas.

We have the Victorians to thank for the ‘vintage' interior design; the most charming and whimsical 

of design styles!

This quirky, whimsical and sentimental style is known for its charming clutter, antiques, floral wallpapers, nostalgic wall paint colors and eclectic room design layout. But despite its collection of old-fashioned ideas, there’s little about vintage style that’s stodgy… thanks to its roots in a rather creative era!

Vintage style is mostly inspired by the Victorian era; that mid– to late-19th century period when Queen Victoria ruled the great  British Empire.

This was also the era of the industrial revolution, or the machine age… which may seem ironic or surprising considering how delicate and feminine many products of the Victorian era turned out to be! But along with ways to reproduce any historic look with the right equipment, this machine age also produced a deep nostalgia for the simpler times of the past...and medieval, or Gothic, ideas were particularly popular. (Many of those ideas are still at the root of vintage style today.)

A variety of Victorian home styles developed; the fanciful Queen Anne style (with its medieval-inspired asymmetry, turrets, steep roof lines, etc.) among the hottest of style trends. This house design hit its stride in the 1880s and 1890s, especially in North America, when home builders and room designers developed highly decorative, affordable architectural parts that could be transported across the country on the country's new network of trains. 

Vintage ideas today can refer to anything ‘retro’, though pre-20th century ideas are the most enduring. Along with  antiques and heirlooms, vintage style suggests a free association of historic ideas… creating an eclectic, eccentric—but always charming effect!

Vintage style still draws on a fascination with medieval ideas—but includes our impression of the 19th century Victorian lifestyle itself as well. Drawing on that in the 20th century, Laura Ashley, Rachel Ashwell and others popularized vintage ideas from the Victorian era with tea-stained floral prints and shabby chic® furnishings. And simulating the ubiquitous 'cozy clutter' found in 19th century English homes always feels comforting and familiar.

Inspiration for vintage design can come from anywhere today; anywhere, that is, where nostalgia for a ‘lost past’ exists, where imperfect is valued over perfect, and the old is more valued than the new.

Read more about vintage style or vintage do-it-yourself decor in our downloadable guides. Or check out the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

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A Queen Anne house... a Degas painting… a pair of laced boots... a white picket fence. Is there any design style quite as captivating as vintage style?

If you like to breath new life into old things, your personal style may be vintage. This most nostalgic of home interior design styles is charming and whimsical.. .with undertones of romantic 19th century European styles. (... we have the English, in general - and the Victorians, in particular -  to thank for the most charming vintage looks.)

This sometimes quirky and often sentimental style is known for its cozy clutter, its appreciation for pretty details, its eclectic tendencies and for its fondness for collecting old things.

See our summary of vintage style's influence on architecture, colors, fashion and art... in the current issue of our home decorating magazine. If you love the look, get all the vintage-style interior design inspiration you'll need with our downloadable  vintage style and vintage décor guides.

Click on the magazine photo or here to open this issue!

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House Beautiful's 2012 Kitchen of the Year recently revealed the latest interior design concepts in kitchen design. One of the biggest concepts? Weathered materials meet chic colors.

Room designer, Mick De Guilio, cleverly warmed up the glossy white, high-tech design of his 2012 Kitchen by using heavily weathered materials in the adjacent dining room - including a simple parson-style table in weathered wood. Holding the two together was the room's shell - chic white wall paint colors, white-trimmed windows, ebony-colored floors and industrial lighting.

The round iron wheel chandelier (Ralph Lauren) over the table “centers the space,” says De Guilio.... nicely contrasting the refined stone and polished metals seen in the kitchen and drawing our attention to the seating area. The casual, mismatched chairs reinforced the relaxed quality.

On top of the table, a natural-colored, washed linen runner and placemats, with ticking stripe pattern, add a utilitarian French Laundry you might find in French Country interior design.  A simple white pitcher with white flowers  - sophisticated, but understated - draws on the painted white walls and reinforces the daylight-infused look of the room. Simple tumblers and earthenware plates are perfect with this look.

The chunky distressed-wood table, with its rustic, grainy grooves and wire-brushed finish - add to the chic simplicity. The dark ebony finish on the wicker chairs (Frontgate) draws in the kitchen's sophisticated dark accents, but also brings an outdoor quality indoors. The overall look shows traces of cottage interior design ideas, but the dark-light color scheme adds sophistication.

For more kitchen design ideas... and to see photos of the entire House Beautiful interior (including details of the kitchen, pantry and seating area) see the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

House Beautiful's 2012 Kitchen of the Year recently revealed the latest style trends in kitchen design and new products. This year’s popular “dream kitchen” was constructed in Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of midtown Manhattan for five days of public viewing this summer.

The kitchen showed a hot new design movement: mixing the weather-worn and the luxurious!

“I love opposites… and the dynamic they create,” says Mick De Giulio, designer of this year's kitchen and adjacent living area. He believes the unexpected mix of rustic and refined can create a room design layout that's simultaneously dramatic, warm and informal. 

His choice of dark wood floors to contrast white kitchen counters and cabinets certainly do add drama… while a casual warmth, airiness and "more informal feel" was added with a weathered ceiling and Scottish fisherman influences (including the shiny nickel and glass maritime-inspired lighting pendants above the island are both chic and nostalgic, dressy and casual.

In the adjacent sitting area (below), a chrome-like mantel, chic white upholstery and sophisticated dark flooring contrast painted rafters, exposed bulb lighting and a rustic wrought iron ring chandelier by Ralph Lauren.

“Light” is one of the most important elements of a kitchen,say De Guilio, and his use of whitewashed rafters, white wall paint colors and a skylight infuse this room with natural daylight. The wide rafter planks and bare lighting fixtures add a raw and rustic feel to this organic kitchen, contrasting the polished and shiny surfaces seen elsewhere.

For more kitchen design ideas... and to see photos of the entire House Beautiful interior (including the pantry and dining room interior design) see the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

House Beautiful's 2012 Kitchen of the Year recently revealed the latest style trends in kitchen design and new products. This year’s popular “dream kitchen” was constructed in Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of midtown Manhattan for five days of public viewing this summer.

According to celebrated kitchen and room designer, Mick De Guilio, the biggest difference in today’s kitchens is that “people are living in them”.

“All of your living can be in your kitchen space,” says De Guilio, who created a room design layout with a comfortable sitting area adjoining the cooking and dining spaces. A fireplace, flat-screen TV and casual furniture in natural linen and raw wood add to the casual, but sophisticated styling. The fireplace wall was a “Scottish fisherman” inspiration (... a  theme also seen in the maritime lantern-style of the light pendants). It was sculpted into several layers and depths (and covered with the linear Palladium Noir tiles by Ann Sacks) to avoid a flat-looking, overpowering mass of stone.

Placing the TV above the fireplace is a growing trend in homes today - since both are focal points (and will otherwise compete with each other!). But making them work together is a challenge (the TV often has to be placed too high for comfortable viewing). In this kitchen, the fireplace and mantel were kept low and horizontal so the furniture could be placed close by. The asymmetrical placement - with the TV to the right of the fireplace - and a trio of planting pots that reinforces the horizontal line of the mantel is fresh approach to this TV over the fireplace trend. The placement of furniture also helps take the focus off the TV. The three seating pieces are oriented to each other (for conversation!) as much as to the TV.

This 'living room furniture arrangement' next to a kitchen is pretty inviting! It also makes a natural conversation grouping, with two armless chairs and an armless slip-covered loveseat/settee adding to the relaxed, easy-going ambiance... held together with a rustic table that's the same width as the loveseat. 

Notice how the tiled wall's design subtly integrates storage for wood.

For more kitchen design ideas... and to see photos of the entire House Beautiful interior (including the full kitchen, pantry, seating area and dining room interior design) see the current issue of our home decorating magazine.

Just saw the movie, Arbitrage, with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon... an entertaining thriller that might make your own day-to-day problems seem rather small. I didn't care for the ending, but loved Gere's and Sarandon's bedroom, seen quite a few times throughout the movie. 

I don't have many details on the set design - though it's said to have been shot in the 20,000 square foot house of the director's father, Dr. Henry Jarecki in Grammercy Park, New York.  

The large room was covered in cool silvery blues and taupes - accented with white - along with lush, triple-fullness drapes and sophisticated classic-contemporary furniture. A dramatic scene toward the end of the movie showed one angle of the bedroom in good detail. (Click here, or on the photo, right, to see the clip.) Notice the elegant furnishings - the two-toned dresser, the subtle, elegant wallcoverings, plush taupe rug, elegant writing desk and the leaning wall mirror just inside the closet.

The headboard was especially beautiful - a diamond quilted number that covered the entire wall behind the bed, giving the room a classic-contemporary - and very chic quality -  that worked perfectly with the rest of the furniture. 

The movie set design offers great inspiration for master bedroom decorating ideas... and worth a see!

House Beautiful's 2012 Kitchen of the Year recently revealed the latest style trends in kitchen design and new products. This year’s popular “dream kitchen” was constructed in Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of midtown Manhattan for five days of public viewing this summer.

As part of the magazine's annual luxury, inspiration kitchen, kitchen designer, Mick De Guilio, designed a separate kitchen counter station - titled “La Mattina” (in the morning), to the side of the central cooking area. This generous space included easy access to dishes, a blender, toaster, coffeemaker and more. It's 'perfect for mornings', he told us... with a convenient, well-equipped countertop designed "to get you on your way".

A clever part of this 'morning' zone was De Guilio’s appliance garage (below). An extra-deep counter-top allowed for a sliding tiled backsplash panel that concealed counter-top appliances. And if that wasn't impressive enough, check out the handmade tiles on the backsplash wall and the wall behind it (Davlin from Ann Sacks). The tile’s luminescence is a result of pressing white goldleaf between two pieces of glass. "It's one of the most  beautiful tiles I’ve ever seen,” De Guilio admitted.

Above the counter, floating glass shelves were held in place with a wafer-thin stainless steel structure. ‘Thin' metallic edges were repeated throughout the kitchen, adding to the overall ‘lightness’ of the room, and reflecting the natural daylight.

Adding color to a mostly white and neutral-colored kitchen (...and one of the more exciting kitchen color ideas I've seen in a while) was a celestial blue sink!

For more kitchen design ideas... and to see photos of the entire House Beautiful interior (including the full kitchen, pantry, seating area and beautiful dining room interior design) see the current issue of our home decorating magazine.