{interior trim 101: five fool-proof whites for all your rooms}

Picking a trim color can be tricky. You want one color to tie all of your rooms together, but you also need to complement the colors in each of those rooms.

The answer is off-white, right? Not so fast.

If you’ve ever tried a white with a green undertone in a pink-toned room (or maybe cream with red undertones in a blue room),  you realize that all whites are not created equal. Some are much more neutral than others.

So, we turned to experts from our Hirshfield’s stores —Sherry from Baxter and Faye from Woodbury — for some of their favorite fool-proof whites that will work in any room.

{friday finds: how to create the perfect home office}

Home offices are certainly popular. After all, working from home is convenient and efficient. But creating the right kind of workspace can be tricky. So, if you’re looking to carve out some office space at home — or improve what you’re already using — here are our tips to create the perfect home office.

Scribner Desk from Vanguard Furniture | Hirshfield’s Design Studio

• First, find the perfect location. Repurpose an unused room in your home, but make sure you are aware of what’s nearby. If you know you need peace and quiet to work, then the guest room next to the playroom may not be the best spot. Be aware of your working style and go from there.
• Don’t have an extra room? Try claiming the space under your stairs. A pretty chair, a work surface attached to the wall, and a cork board for pinning inspirational images are all you need to create a fun and functional home office.

{interior decorating: when to save and when to splurge}

Interior decorating is fun. But it can also be expensive. If you start to redo a room, it feels like the budget is never big enough for all the things you dream up. So, where should you splurge, and just as importantly, where can you save? Kathy Basil is the manager of our Hirshfield’s Design Studio, and she has some great advice: “I do my investment piece first, and then I work from there.” Every room is different, but for a living room, Kathy suggests starting with the rug and the main piece of furniture — and saving on accessories.

When To Splurge

“You have a budget, and you spend it where you need to spend it and you save it where you need to save it, but every room, in my opinion needs to have an investment piece. Or a couple, if you can.”

“I want a great rug,” she says, “and I’m going to spend some money on this rug, because if I buy an inexpensive Olefin rug (made with a polypropylene fiber), it’s going to look good for a few months, and then it’s going to compact and collect every bit of dust around it. And it’s going to stop looking good, and I’m not going to be happy.”

Vanguard Furniture available at Hirshfield’s Design Studio

{real kitchen remodel: connecting colors, cabinets and window treatments}

Your kitchen is the center of your home. It’s the hub of activity, the congregation place for your family and most importantly, where you break bread with others close to you. So, when undergoing a kitchen remodel it’s not uncommon for homeowners to explore updates to the surrounding living spaces. One of the easiest and most significant updates that can be made is the color of the walls in the kitchen and the adjoining rooms.

The colors you choose for those areas depends on a few key factors. Our family recently bit the bullet, threw our lives into turmoil, underwent a kitchen remodel, and updated paint color in two rooms. In determining the new colors, we took into consideration 4 features of our home:

{design inspiration: tips for dark colors in interior design}

Interior paints are available in more colors than every before, so why not use the whole spectrum when painting your home? Dark colors may be scary to some, but they can add drama and character to your space. In fact, if you have an overly spacious and impersonal room, you can reign in the space, with dark bold tones for the walls, and an even darker ceiling. That will give the room a “homier” feel.

Contemporary Home Theater | jamesthomas Interiors

Another way to visually shrink a large room is to divide the wall space horizontally with a chair rail. Paint the upper and lower portions different colors.