Friday Finds: How to Play with Patterns in Small Spaces
It might seem counterintuitive—but if you have a small space, pattern can actually make it come alive and seem bigger, not smaller and cluttered as you might expect. Using patterns in small spaces can offer you a chance to show your personality and take risks. Since it’s a small space, it’s less of an investment in time and materials.
Let’s take a look at how you can play with patterns in small spaces to add pizzazz to your home.
Incorporate wall coverings.
Today’s wall coverings are nothing like the wallpaper from back in the day. New versions are like pieces of art with amazing colors and design. You can use wall coverings with bold patterns on an accent wall to give a small space an artistic feel or unexpected feel of luxury.
Some people are born with a gift of knowing color and style. They sense instinctively what would look perfect in this space or that, what color would add a pop of visual interest, what neutrals work best in what lighting. Thankfully, for the rest of us who don’t have that innate knowledge, there’s help.
Hirshfield’s offers in-home color consulting, where a colorist comes to your home, sees your house’s layout and furniture and discusses your personal style, preferences and wishes for the space. The call lasts a little more than one hour. After the visit you’ll get a color plan mailed to you and a $20 gift card toward a Hirshfield’s paint purchase. The cost is $150, and color stylist Belinda Dietrich says that her clients tell her it is a valuable service and worth every penny.
Dietrich recommends that homeowners think about specific areas they want to focus on so that they can best use their time with the stylist effectively. They should spend some time beforehand visualizing the mood they want the space to imbue—cozy and intimate, bright and energetic, luxurious or elegant. Dietrich might ask her customer to find one thing they love in their space as an inspiration or focal point. Read the rest of this entry »
Your home says a lot about you. Both inside and out, it is a reflection of your style, personality, and the family who lives there. Making sure your home is an accurate reflection of you is exactly what our Hirshfield’s color specialists are trained to do. Painting the exterior of your house is a very large project that you want to get right on the very first try. If you’ve already made a trip into the paint store to admire the thousands of paint options, you may be seeking an expert to give you specific color suggestions that match your home and personality.
An exterior color call typically starts in the interior of the home because the inside of your house is a great reflection of your style. A color specialist will also take time to interview you as the homeowner to ask you about your color preferences, and even take into account the existing colors in the neighborhood so that your house stands out from your neighbors’, but still complements the look of the neighborhood. Finally, your color specialist will evaluate the permanent or semi-permanent fixtures around your home, such as windows, fixtures, and landscaping like plants, trees, or front walks.
After the consultation is complete, the specialist presents 4-6 color options to choose from for the main color of the house which covers 70-75% of the exterior. Accent colors are then chosen for the trim and remainder of the home. Your new exterior color will change the look of your house– and hopefully make your neighbors just a little bit jealous!
To see one of our Hirshfield’s color specialists, Kathy Basil, explain the exterior color call process, check out the video below:
Hirshfield's Color Club 