Design Dazzler

Designer of the Month

November 2008

 Tracy Lynn

Style On A Shoestring

This room was designed for two little boys in the Carlsbad area. One of the biggest challenges I faced as designer while working on this room was how to fit two different age groups into a limited area while keeping the floor plan open and flowing. I chose a neutral color for the walls and let the bedding and extras do the rest for the room. The outcome is one of my favorites. It turned the room into a casual but well organized “beach-themed” room with plenty of room for the boys to grow and change. The colors and decor scheme leave plenty of room for the two boys to grow without having to make drastic changes to the overall color and design scheme. To me this is a very successful design plan. In this economy, most people don’t have the money to remodel their children’s rooms every other year.


As the mother of two little girls, I particularly enjoy designing and decorating children’s rooms. The client obtained bedding. The accessories and wall art were purchased from various local retail stores.
 
I started my design company about 6 years ago in the San Diego area after friends admired what I had done to my own home. Since 2003, we’ve added 6 design consultants. My husband left his job as a financial planner a couple years ago to work part-time at Style On a Shoestring and help raise our two daughters.
styleonashoestring.com

You guys rock.

We’re so geeked out about our new space — I want to leave work right now and just go sit in it for another hour. We LOVE it.

Thanks!!!

DAVID TRAINA DESIGN

You have the whole Thanksgiving feast planned, but now what in the world are you going to do for a centerpiece? Do you want a centerpiece that is creative, inexpensive, and most importantly, easy? Here are some ideas to help add that pizazz to your table that will have your family and friends admiring your creativity.

One of the easiest, is the Cornucopia Centerpiece. Go to your local craft store to purchase a simple wicker basket. With this you can do a variety of displays. You can overfill it with real fruits and gourds, or you can use plastic. Just fill your basket to overflow and let them spill out onto the table.

Also, a great way to decorate with your cornucopia is to use silk flowers and leaves. While at the craft store purchase a Styrofoam block or ball and silk flowers and leaves in fall colors with long stems. Push the Styrofoam in the wicker cornucopia basket so that it is firmly wedged inside. You may want to trim down the foam or add more as needed. Simply push the stems of the flowers and leaves into the foam so that they emerge in a decorative arrangement at the opening of the cornucopia.

Another creative way to use your cornucopia is to overflow it with different breads, such as, rolls and muffins, or whatever bread you may prefer. You can also add some silk leaves around the cornucopia and bread. This creates a marvelous edible centerpiece.

You can also use a beautiful wicker basket that you might have at home, instead of the cornucopia. Maybe add some ribbon in fall colors. It can still look just as beautiful with the three previous ideas.

If you want centerpiece that is a little different, then try using a large, hollowed-out pumpkin instead of a vase to display a fall floral arrangement. Scatter clusters of berries, nuts, and autumn leaves around the base of the pumpkin. Adding a couple of mini pumpkins to the table would also look nice.

Instead of hanging a wreath on your door, use it as the base of a centerpiece for your Christmas table. Use simple decorations to coordinate it with your home decor or tablesetting theme. You’ll see how simple it is to create this beautiful and traditional Christmas Wreath Centerpiece.Find a large tray or platter, or cut a piece of heavy plastic to place under the wreath. This will make it much easier to move the wreath centerpiece to change the tablecloth or rearrange the place settings. You’ll be protecting the finish on your table at the same time.

Materials for Christmas Wreath Centerpiece

• fresh pine wreath
• decorations                           
• bow

Follow these simple steps to make your wreath centerpiece:

• Place the wreath down on the table, tray, or platter.
• Decorate the wreath by sticking ornaments, pinecones, or floral picks into the wreath.
• Arrange ribbons or garlands around the wreath.
• Place one or several colorful bows around the wreath for added color.

Special tips for fine-tuning:

• Use decorations that have wires attached. They can easily be stuck into the greens of the wreath.
• When arranging the decorations on the wreath, be careful not to scratch your wood table. 
• For a different look, place several large pillar candles into the center of the wreath.
• Pile large pine cones neatly into the center of the wreath.
• Form a pyramid of colorful Christmas balls in the center of the wreath.

 Do you have twin beds in one room? You can custom design these headboards with fabric to suit individual tastes and spruce up the room. All you need is fabric, measuring tape and a staple gun.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Lay your fabric out on the floor with the front facing down and lay the headboard on top of it, also face down.

2. Trim the fabric so that it extends 10-12 inches beyond the headboard on all sides.

3. Starting at the middle of the top edge, pull the fabric over to the back of the headboard and staple down using your staple gun. Repeat at the middle of the bottom edge, pulling fabric so it’s taut but not stretched.

4. Do the same for the side edges, stapling the fabric at the center point.

5. Working out from the center toward the corners, staple the fabric to the back of the headboard every 6-8 inches along all four sides.

6. At the corners, fold the fabric as though you are wrapping a present, then staple down creating one folded seam at each corner of the headboard.

Decorating a small space can be a real challenge. If you use the design tips below,  small spaces don’t have to be a liability when decorating your home. 
1. Use light colors on upholstery, walls and all major furniture pieces, including entertainment units.  Use a monochromatic color scheme so that the space appears to visually flow without being obstructed.
2. Use glass top tables or acrylics instead of solid woods. Since the glass is “see-thru” it will give the appearance of space.
3. Opt for furniture that “floats” it will create the illusion of more floor space. No toe kicks, no sofa skirts or blank space at foot. Look for furniture keep in mind that size does matter. Small spaces will feel cluttered and overwhelmed with standard size furniture. Look for apartment size sofas, tables and other furniture. This will make it so easy to decorate small spaces.  Remember to take along a tape measure because what looks small in the showroom may be way too large for their home.  Know in advance the size of the space you have to work with.

4. Floating wall shelves are attractive and do not take up precious floor space.
5. Keep the space well lit because darkness makes rooms appear smaller than they really are. Use mirrors to bounce light around small rooms. The mirrors also multi-task as they create the illusion of more space by visually enlarging the room.
6. Plan for multi-purpose furniture such as storage ottomans that serve as seating, storage and as a table top. By purchasing the multiple use ottoman you have essentially freed up the space it would take for a small table with storage capability.

 A full-mirrored wall will optically expand and add glamour to a room. There are some some things to look out for, though. A mirror is there to reflect what is in front of it, so be careful what you reflect. A mirror on a dining-room wall might be wonderful, but not so if it reflects dirty dishes in the adjacent kitchen. A mirror in a hallway might open it up a bit, but not a nice view if placed across from a bathroom door.

Mirrors spread light in a room and add sparkle to dark corners. Cut up strips of mirror placed adjacent to each other give a festive effect to the room as objects dance off the mirrors in interesting ways akin to a kaleidoscope.

A collection of small mirrors can add great interest to a wall. They can be of several shapes and sizes and, if framed, the frames can carry a theme such as sun, moon and stars. All silver frames of various shapes or all wood frames of different sizes could be another unifying theme for framed mirrors on a wall.

A mirror on a mirror in a bathroom adds a feeling of creativity to the standard mirror-over-the-sink idea.

If you’re thinking about decorating your porch and yard for the spookiest night of the year, you can do it without having to spend a lot of money. Here are a few low-cost ideas for showing your Halloween spirit to the world:

You can get rolls of yellow Caution tape (the type you see at crime or disaster scenes to keep people out of certain areas) fairly inexpensively at most hardware stores, and if you put it up around the perimeter of your yard, accompanied by a sign that says something like “Fright Scene: Enter at Your Own Risk.” You can enhance that spookiness even more by replacing your regular porch light with a black light bulb. Adding a few Halloween-oriented items like skulls and ghost figures that glow in the dark will be even more effective.

If you want your pumpkins to last longer (and even to be reusable when you scrap your Halloween decorations and begin decorating for Thanksgiving), don’t carve them. Paint them with acrylic paint. You can create an infinite variety of faces or scenes, and your pumpkins will last much longer. There’s also none of the mess involved with carving them. Place your pumpkins in groups of three to five of varying sizes and shapes. It makes for a much more effective display.

A little paint can go a long way in creating great-looking tombstones, too. You can paint simple boards grey and then use black paint to add silly or scary epitaphs that will delight visitors.  

You can create some wonderfully spooky scenes in your windows by cutting out silhouettes of the various Halloween icons, such as black cats, witches, and skeletons, out of construction paper. When it gets dark, your windows will take on a lovely macabre look when the light is blocked out by those eerie objects.  

Simple scarecrow-type figures, topped with rubber Halloween masks, can also be effective in adding some scare factor to your front porch and lawn. Just stuff a shirt and pair of pants with straw or leaves, add the mask, and you’ve got an instant horror figure for just a little time, imagination, and very little money.