{friday finds: the best of high point market}

Powerful colors, pretty pinks, mixed metals and luxurious velvets are some of the trends to watch after our Hirshfield’s team visited the High Point Market Spring 2016.

Kathy, Greg and Taylor represented Hirshfield’s Design Resource at the Market, which is the world’s premiere home fashion event. Here is a look at some of the latest designs, ideas, and innovations they saw during  Market.

Power Clashing

High Point Spring Market 2016

Strong colors and strong patterns pushed the envelope at Market Week. In the past, you would see a single design element, say a fabric or piece of art, as the power player in a room.

Prevalent at spring market were entire rooms filled with saturated colors from the wall to the floor, to the fabric used on a sofa, all the way up to the ceiling.

{friday finds: beautiful botanicals and fabulous ferns}

Even as the cold weather begins to hit, there’s nothing more beautiful than interior décor that is stylish and chic, and even brings a hint of lush nature indoors. We’re not talking plants that you have to care for every day, but stunning wallpapers that bring the outdoors inside.

Nature has been a strong influence and source of inspiration for decor this past year. The beautiful botanicals, fabulous ferns, and pretty palm leaves have seen a resurgence in popularity. The iconic palm leaf style actually originated from Martinique Banana Leaf wallpaper, which was created by decorator Don Loper in 1942 for the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The bold wallpaper has since been transformed to more classic looking styles that can be used for any room and not just upscale Beverly Hills hotels.

Is that the lovely Lesley Ann Warren?

{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:

{diy trees and wreaths}

8 Unique Holiday Decoration Ideas

Let your creative juices flow this season by decorating for the holidays with a little sizzle and festive flair. Whether you have a small space, a large loft, or just want to break free from the traditional tree in the corner, we think you’ll be inspired by these exciting and unique holiday decoration ideas!

Grab a cup of coffee or a pot of tea, and take a peek at some of these do-it-yourself trees and wreaths:

Chalkboard Tree

Tight on space but have huge holiday aspirations? This chalkboard paint wall will take your breath away. A little paint, chalk, and a string of lights can transform any room into a Christmas scene.

Onekindesign

{friday finds: easy decorating tips for fall}

7 Ways to Spruce Up Your Home This Season

Fall is marked by loss of daylight, as we glide from the equinox to the winter solstice. Seasonal decorating can help take away the sting of that loss of sunshine.

Here are seven simple tips to brighten and lighten for fall:

Welcome the Season

Wreaths made of gourds, colorful leaves, squash, twigs, pinecones and bright twine set the tone for the season. Using ‘found materials’ adds a personal touch. Welcome the season, as well as your guests, in fabulous fall style with a homemade wreath on your door.

Living Rich on Less

Paint Your Pumpkin

Turn your favorite seasonal squash or gourds into ghostly decorations with a few strokes of leftover white (or any light color) house paint. These look great on your front steps for outdoor use, or your fireplace mantle for indoors. Consider stenciling your house number on a large pumpkin as a fresh way to mark your turf. 

Cottage and Vine

 

Frame It

Take fabric or wallpaper scraps and cut pieces large enough to fit a medium-sized frame. Find a location on your wall that needs a boost of light and hang it!

Make It Sparkly

Trace a leaf on the side of a large terracotta pot. Fill in the leaf outline with durable glue, and sprinkle with sequins. Voilà – bright, seasonally appropriate color! If sparkle isn’t your thing, you can easily paint designs onto your smaller pots for a warm welcome outside your home.

Don’t Give Up On Your Porch

Add throws, blankets and plush pillows to your wicker furniture and you can extend your front porch season. Nothing beats a sunny but cool day for a refreshing nap. Choose earthy fall colors to add warmth.

Switch Out Your Table Coverings

Change it up by switching to fall coasters with leaf or pumpkin prints. Table runners and napkins can be mixed and matched in solid fall colors or prints. A subdued tablecloth becomes the background for a colorful fall feast.

Chalk it up

Wall-mounted chalkboards are great for quick notes or schedule reminders. Add a festive fall border and orange chalk, and see if there is an artist in the house.

Get crafty, soak up the season, and most of all, have fun with your fall decorating this year!

WARNING: Decorating can lead to entertaining. Proceed at your own risk!

Since Frank and Elizabeth Hirshfield opened their first store in 1894, it has been our mission to do the best job possible meeting customer needs and solving customer problems. Hirshfield’s. People and products you can trust.

{wallcovering wednesday: when to go retro with wallpaper}

Retro is Relative

Your children might think of the 1990s as retro, while your grandmother is nostalgic for the 1930s. For you? Maybe the 1980s are more your style. So whether it’s the bold colors and psychedelic patterns of the 1970s, the delicate florals of the 1930s or tiny geometric designs of the 1950s you’re looking for, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

{what color should i paint my room?}

Benjamin Moore’s Design by What Matters Inspires Color Selection

You’re painting a room in your house and you’re not sure what color or colors you should use. You’ve read magazines, spent hours on Pinterest, friends and relatives have opinions and your head is swirling. You’re stuck. So you head to the paint store to ask the experts, “what color should I paint my room?” The question is impossible, because paint color is so personal, even emotional. You ultimately take home some paint chips to imagine what they might look like in your space. This too is a dicey proposition. Maybe the actual color looks terrific splashed up on your walls, maybe it’s a nightmare. Well, painter, the folks at Benjamin Moore have made it easier with a new online personality quiz designed to help you pick colors that agree with your preferences and lifestyle.

Courtesy of designbywhatmatters.com

{customize your furniture}

Create your custom-crafted Vanguard Furniture at Hirshfield’s.

Vanguard Furniture available from the Hirshfield’s Design Resource gives you the opportunity to truly transform your home. Vanguard Furniture’s artisans hand-apply all finishes in the USA; taking careful steps to make sure that each piece has the care and attention that is required to enhance the natural character of your furniture. No two pieces are the same – every piece of furniture is truly unique.

Make any Vanguard upholstery or case piece identified with a paintbrush icon uniquely yours. Simply select your wall paint. Then choose from three distress levels and complementary sheen choices. There is even a base stain choice! Vanguard will paint your piece to that exact color specification, distress level, sheen choice and base stain selection – it’s that simple. There are hundreds of colors to choose from, and now Vanguard and Hirshfield’s can make any of them YOURS. The possibilities are endless.

{friday finds: how to photograph a before and after room}

It’s not as easy as it seems to photograph your home. More goes into it than a click and a flash. If you’re trying to show home improvements in before and after shots, it is especially important to photograph the room in it’s best light for the after shot. There are some tips to accentuate the positive changes you have made. These photographs are meant to emphasize what a wonderful job you’ve done transforming the drab to fab!

A side-by-side comparison shows the vast changes you can make to a room.