Inspiring Idea: Multi-Purpose Dining Room May 5, 2008

I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of making a room functional beyond its obvious intention. For instance, I’ve always loved library/dining rooms. You can use the room to dine and entertain in, but you can also line the walls with library shelves to house books or create a home office. One room, multiple purposes.

Well, here is another clever use of space. I’m sure this is not a cheap table, but check this out. It is a custom made dining table that opens up to reveal a pool table! You can have a family meal, then take the lid off the table and the space becomes a game room. While the table probably costs a pretty penny, imagine the cost of a whole separate pool table room.

If you are trying to make the most out of a small house, consider ways to double a room’s usefulness! We don’t always need MORE room, we just need to be more clever with the space we have!

Country Homes & Interiors Feb 2005 via House to Home

Custom Made Pool Table by Sir William Bentley Billiards

Related Post:
Room Design: Where to Begin

Bright & Beautiful Blogging Tips May 3, 2008

Rudy Muller via All Things Bright & Beautiful

Happy weekend, friends!

A number of months ago my dear blogging friend Felicity from All Things Bright & Beautiful had the wonderful idea of putting together an ongoing series of blogging tips for new bloggers. She has such a sweet heart and caring spirit for new bloggers, I just knew it would be a success! Her blog is one of the most beautiful out there.

If you haven’t seen her interview and tip posts, you will be so impressed. I learn something new from her all the time. She has posted a very kind interview of me this weekend, as well as links to other interviews and tips bloggers have shared about their experiences with blogging. If you have a moment, please go pay her a visit and let her know I sent you!

I’m disabling the comments here so you can just pop over and visit Felicity!

I’ve also added some related links to the bottom of this post for your lazy weekend reading!

Tom Leonard via All Things Bright & Beautiful

Lazy Saturday Links:
Alfresco Dining (in honor of our Outdoor Room series!) by All Things Bright & Beautiful. To read, click here.
My interview on All Things Bright & Beautiful, click here.
For more blogging tips and ideas, visit All Things Bright & Beautiful sidebar!
For All Things Bright & Beautiful guest post here on The Inspired Room, click here!
For blogging tips from The Inspired Room, click here!

Sweet Escape: Let’s Swim With The Turtles!!! May 1, 2008

What have we here? I think this would qualify as a sweet escape…

I like.

Oh, hi friends! You caught me dreaming again. I know it is a bit fanciful to imagine such a sweet escape, but once in awhile you just have to throw caution to the wind and imagine the possibilities! And come to think of it, why should I just imagine it? Why, I say?! I’ve worked hard. I can see no reason that I should not just charge a trip like this on my visa card right now sell my mini-van and head off on an adventure!

I really want to jump in that water. Except for there is a giant turtle swimming in it.

I can picture it now.

Buh, bye, kids! We’ll see you when we get back from BORA BORA!!!

Who’s with me here, people?!

Where else would they bring you breakfast in a canoe? Bora Bora!

Blissful sigh.

Four Seasons Bora Bora

Related Posts by The Inspired Room:

An Adventurous Escape!

A Dreamy Escape!

An escape to a castle!

Escape to a Dreamy Horse Farm Estate!

Outdoor Rooms: Creating the Borders April 30, 2008

this old house

One of the things that really contributes to the success of an outdoor room, in my opinion, is when there is a certain amount of privacy. After all, when you are in your house you have both walls and windows. I think the same should be true with the outside. My husband and I have always had a notion that outdoor rooms should be closed off enough to offer the feeling that you are in your own private world, but be open enough to let others have the tiniest peek of what is inside. I think it is part of our romantic notion of living a fairytale life. When you can steel a little glimpse of something beautiful as you pass by, but not see the entire scene, it leaves room for imagination and draws others to the space.

house to home

By leaving portions of your rooms open, you are also allowing the room to be connected to the beauty that might surround the room. There is no need to close off a room if the mountains beyond are fantastic, if your neighbor’s cherry tree can be framed to be a part of your view, or if you want to be able to have neighborly conversations with those who pass by your front porch.

house beautiful

southern living by jean allsopp

house to home

Each space will be different in its need for privacy or openness. But with the right balance, your space will feel intimate and cozy enough to entice you into the space without making you feel claustrophobic once you get there.

house to home

Borders are what give an outdoor room a sense of enclosure. And without definition, we lose the sense of the space being a room. By using things like the side of the house, shrubs, potted plants or trees, benches, trellises, small posts, ropes, lattice screens, lanterns or fences to create various borders, we can start to create definition in a space. You can really be creative here in what you use to define a room’s border.

house to home

Homes and Gardens

I like to allow spaces to unfold as one wanders from room to room, rather than revealing the entire space all at once. This can make your space seem bigger than it is, leaving it a bit of a mystery as to where the yard really ends.

House Beautiful

Inspiring Ideas: The Shape of Things April 28, 2008

DECORATING MISCONCEPTION:
A common misconception with decorating is that if you love everything in your room, your room will magically work as a whole. I get calls all the time from clients who say “I know what I like, and I buy what I love, but when I get it home I am disappointed that it doesn’t work.” Buying what you love is generally a good idea, but to really make a room feel right, there are more things to consider than love. If it were only that simple! It isn’t always about loving everything you have, it is about how things work together. Decorating a room is like putting together a puzzle, and finding the correct shape of the pieces determines your success.

CONSIDER THE SHAPE OF THINGS:
One of the tips I often share with clients is that you need to consider the shape of things when you put together a room. So often rooms are made up of mostly rectangles. Rooms are rectangles, we have rectangular couches, chairs, coffee tables, end tables and rectangular rugs. We might love each and every thing in a room, but still the room feels awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes the reason it feels this way is because traffic through the room doesn’t flow properly if there are too many sharp angles. Especially in walkways, small rooms or tight spaces. Adding things that are rounded will make a world of difference in how the room will ultimately feel. Rounded backs on chairs, round ottomans, round rugs, curved corners and round tables will create a sense of movement that can transform a room into one that is more comfortable to move around in and more pleasing to the eye.

BONUS FURNITURE ARRANGING TIP:
Interestingly, some decorators put everything in a room on an angle in order to create drama and movement, as well as to get that “WOW THIS ROOM LOOKS DIFFERENT” experience. They place a rug on a diagonal and all the furnishings diagonally in a room. Let me just say here that while it does make the room look different, you want to be careful that you are not creating nausea with the new angles. A bunch of rectangles crooked in a room still can look awkward. Turning pieces of furniture in different directions can revitalize a space, and oftentimes some pieces do in fact look better at an angle, but I would proceed with caution if anyone tells you to turn your entire room on the diagonal. You might just end up seasick. If your room is awkwardly shaped and things feel uncomfortable, try adding in rounded pieces instead.

photo: Traditional Home online

Outdoor Rooms: Create Your Own Escape! April 26, 2008

Thought you might enjoy a peek into the backyard of a fellow reader! I completely gasped when Teresa sent me her photos! This property is MAGNIFICENT! I’d feel like I lived a resort everyday!

While not everyone can live on a property this expansive with such a glorious view and beautiful features, we can use whatever space we have to create a magical escape for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be big and glorious, it can be small and intimate. This is part of evaluating the space you have and deciding how to use it. If you make use of what you already have and use it effectively, you can conjure up a perfectly wonderful experience wherever you are! “Teresa” has definitely made the most of her space. I hope we are all invited over for a pool party!

This photos are the property of Teresa Andersen, click here to visit her blog! Thank you so much for sharing your lovely space with us, Teresa!