What’s your style? Transitional or Traditional?
Hello! I hope that you are doing well. I am in sunny South Florida at the moment. The weather is absolutely perfect! I promised to offer a series of blog posts that will help you begin to understand your true design style. This will help you avoid mistakes, stage fright, and help you get on with creating amazing interior spaces in your home. If I were a betting man, I would say that for most people, they know of traditional and transitional interior design. For this reason, we will start with these styles. Are you ready? Let’s GO!
DISCOVER YOUR STYLE
Hello! I hope that you are doing well. I am in sunny South Florida at the moment. The weather is absolutely perfect! I promised to offer a series of blog posts that will help you begin to understand your true design style. This will help you avoid mistakes, stage fright, and help you get on with creating amazing interior spaces in your home. If I were a betting man, I would say that for most people, they know of traditional and transitional interior design. For this reason, we will start with these styles. Are you ready? Let’s GO!
Are you the kind of person that doesn’t really like to have to follow strict rules? You always say, “I don’t need to measure this….I am just gonna eye it.” You like the freedom of creating the rules as you go? Well, if this sounds like you, you may just love transitional design.
In essence, transitional design is simply the blending of (2) styles in the same space that creates (1) cohesive design. In residential interiors, this would be modern and traditional elements. There is so much freedom that comes with transitional design. This gives you the ability to place many various elements until you find what works best and feels great for you--not the world design elite. When done correctly, transitional residential spaces can be luxurious, comfortable, polished yet approachable.
This sounds great Timothy, but how do I make it happen in my home? To start, work with simple lines. Avoid things like rolled arms on your sofa and accent chairs. When selecting lighting, casegoods, and accessories shy away from ornate items, think warm yet clean selections. Finally, think modern and fresh when working with accessories and art.
What about color? Well that depends on the mood that you want to create. For a soothing and comforting look consider 4 to 5 tone on tone colors all fairly light. If you want a moody experience, go with 4 to 5 dark rich colors, all in the same range on the color wheel. When it comes to color and transitional design the guideline is consistency. Particularly with color found in paints, stains, metals, fabrics, and wallcoverings be consistent. This doesn’t mean everything should be the same or matchy. In my design practice, I encourage my clients to be more constrained when it comes to color, and more adventurous with the shape and sizes of everything else in the room.
Finally, transitional can go very Bohemian, without proper color planning.
What about selecting furniture? Ok. One of the amazing things about transitional interiors is the unexpected simplicity that is balanced coordinated mixes of all the elements in the room. Keep your lines similar and complementary. Consider the straight arms on all the chairs. Things like parallel matching sofa and sofas paired with (2) swivel chairs are the anchor for an award winning transitional family or living room.
When selecting your fabrics, again think complementary and coordinating. The sky is really the limit when it comes to all the fabrics and textiles you can introduce. If I could offer a major point to great design, I would say nothing should look out of place, and random. Every piece can be unique yet relate to the next. There should be harmony and balance.
Some of my favorite ways to make every project stand out are by incorporating great window treatments and accessories. With accessories, I tend to recommend a mixture of quality high and low end pieces. Think groups of (3) elements for styling your bookcases and table tops. Think crisp and fuss free. If you entertain, consider things that I call, “conversation starters.” Your With window treatments, sold color simple heavily lined drapery panels are the way to go for sure. If you want to add a little formality to the space, consider adding fringe and tapes to your pillows and panels. Have you considered adding a cornice board? This is a great way to file the sometimes awkward spaces between the tops of windows and the ceiling.
As you can see, transitional spaces are one of my favorites to speak on and to create! While there are fewer rules than with many other styles, the keys are consistency and more or a tonal/ monochromatic approach.
Timothy? When you say traditional are you speaking of my grandmother’s furniture? No not quite. If you find yourself shopping with brands like Ralph Lauren, Bottega Venetta, St. John, Chanel, and even J. Crew--you may be drawn towards traditional interiors in your home. If you live on the east coast, I am sure that you have experienced traditional interiors. In fact, if I had to bet, it is quite possible that many of your favorite movies and television shows feature amazing spaces done in, you go it a traditional design style.
When I think of traditional residential interiors, I think of elegance, livability, beautiful fabrics with muted patterns. In many of my projects, when clients opt for traditional spaces, we feature dark ornate finishes, darker stains, rich Jacobean hardwood floors and elaborate details. If you watched Scandal week after week and you just knew that you wanted to move to Washington DC and purchase a home in Chevy Chase, Adams Morgan, or Kalorama--yep you just might be a lover of traditional interior design.
So...Timothy I follow you but I want to know what makes for strong traditional interiors. No problem. To begin, you are likely to find deep ornate, crown molding, baseboards, and trim. If you know that you are a traditionalist, when purchasing or building your new home--be on the lookout for arches, columns, and elaborate mantels and fierce places.
When it comes to furniture, you will want to include more curves, rolled arms in your sofa and chairs, and don’t forget the curved lets. Many of the major pieces of furniture will most likely be heavy highly detailed antiques or reproductions. On the east coast we use a lot of queen and chippendale pieces.
As a professional, when I assist a family with traditional residential interiors, balance and symmetry are very important. Remember in transitional design, I repeated complimentary over and over again? Well, with traditional spaces, you will achieve balance and symmetry by having things that match. Matching sofa, end tables, lamps, nightstands, all help to ground the space they lay the foundation for, you got it--a more traditional living space.
When we speak of soft furnishings and textiles, you use heavy fabrics like velvet, mohair, linen, leather and silk. Your chairs and upholstered pieces will likely have lots of tufting, ruffles, nailheads, and rounding piping.
What about color? While it is totally possible that you will use whites and creams when designing a more traditional space--its highly likely that you will be using dark red, green, navy blue and dark brown. For many people that staple piece will be the much loved brown leather sofa. Have you considered a Chesterfield sofa? To finish things off consider mixing solids with paisley and plaid.
One last thing, window treatments tend to be heavy, rich and elaborate, You will often find plantation shutters paired with heavy silk drapes or ornate rolled roman shades.
Wow, we covered a lot in this post. How are you feeling? If I could offer any advice and simplification, I would say that transitional interiors will have lighter color, less formality, and less “matching” elements. If you love formality and earth tones consider a more traditional design style.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
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That's all for today folks.
What’s your style?
I wanted to start the year off with a bang. More likely than not, the first call that I have with future design clients is centered around confusion. They don’t know what they want. Rarely do they know what things cost, and they are usually stuck on what their style is.
DISCOVER YOUR STYLE
Happy New Year Everyone! I trust that you are ready to take 2021 by storm. Are you ready to invest in yourself like never before? Are you preparing to take great action to achieve all the goals you set for yourself year after year? I certainly hope so! Trust me, I am knee deep in action and progress.
I wanted to start the year off with a bang. More likely than not, the first call that I have with future design clients is centered around confusion. They don’t know what they want. Rarely do they know what things cost, and they are usually stuck on what their style is. HGTV and all the magazines are pushing the Virginia Farmhouse look, but they live in Austin and have no connection to this style. The turmoil between trends/what’s hot and what my clients are naturally attracted to create so much suffering.
I have to be honest, this is the single most likely thing that will have you parlyzed about what to do next or where to begin while decorating your home.
Over the next few weeks, I am posting a series of blog posts to help you determine your style. The amazing thing about interior design is that while there are guidelines and recommendations--there are no hard fast rules to creating spaces that are both visually appealing and functional. With proper planning, vision, and budgets of course we can make just about anything work.
Just because you live in a traditional Georgian home, doesn’t mean that your interiors have to consist of traditional color palettes, furniture and lighting. We can do amazing things with resources and vision! One other thing that is important for you to understand is, great design is about concept and how each element relates to the next. What are you saying Timothy? Your great Aunt Susan’s very traditional dining table, can be paired with ultra modern dining chairs covered in the most appropriate and luxurious fabric...and guess what---IT WILL WORK. We can then take those traditional chairs that you just don’t want to get rid of, refinish and recover them. Maybe we use (2) in the hallway, (1) in the office and (1) in each guest bedroom. Do you see what we have done here? We have created an example of how something may not in theory be your style, but with planning and creativity we can turn them into something amazing--and your style doesn’t have to be a limiting factor.
Still confused? Stay with me over the next few weeks. I promise to have you roaming around your home confident and clear about what your style really is and how you can go about creating the home that you have worked so hard to purchase.
If you are certain that you don’t want to miss any of this great content that is coming, be sure to click the button below to sign up for my newsletter and blog post alerts. Be the first to know when I post anything new and exciting on my blog. Remember, the sooner you gain clarity, the faster you can go into action creating the home of your dreams.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
Join our community of over 5000 readers and receive a well curated mix of inspiration, education, and resources on all things related to curating the home of your dreams.
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Good bye for now!
3 things you must do to ensure your new home is actually custom.
Many of us enter the process of building a custom home for various reasons. For some, they no longer want to live in the traditional master planned community. There are times that we have outgrown our current home and we just don’t want to leave our neighbors and community behind. In these situations, it is common to tear down our existing home and build a new custom home. No matter the real world reason that makes custom home building the logical solution, we really do want a home that looks good.
EDUCATION
Many of us enter the process of building a custom home for various reasons. For some, they no longer want to live in the traditional master planned community. There are times that we have outgrown our current home and we just don’t want to leave our neighbors and community behind. In these situations, it is common to tear down our existing home and build a new custom home. No matter the real world reason that makes custom home building the logical solution, we really do want a home that looks good.
In this blog post, I want to share the 3 simple things you can do to lay the foundation for a custom and luxurious home. If you haven’t met with a builder--take note. If you are mid construction and you wonder if you have left out anything in your planning--keep reading. Finally, if you are weeks from completing your new home and you just don’t feel that spark and excitement you had hoped for--I have advice.
It really doesn’t matter how big your new custom home may be or where you have chosen to build, there are a few design elements that you can include in your project that will make your home feel luxurious and elegant.
Wallpaper
If you know me, you know how much I love wallpaper. Many people will begin the process of designing a custom home with an accent wall here and there. Many of you will go a little further to do a custom paint color in the dining room. That’s it. That is where the color and richness that your walls can bring to your home--ends. This is in fact unfortunate. Most people think that when you paint the walls, or add wallpaper to your home you are limiting your options. This is not true. If you wonder, what will I do after I become tired of the blue wallpaper in my master bathroom--you should certainly continue to read my blog.
In this day and time, wallpaper is the thing. There are so many options that there is bound to be a solution that works well for your home. Today, you can purchase wallpaper made of grasscloth, silk, and cork. The patterns available range include retro graphics, murals, botanicals, asian inspired, animal skins, and beyond.
Let me be very clear. I am in no way saying you should have wallpaper in every room of your new home. Not at all. Thought should go into scale, pattern, and the overall design concepts you have in mind. In my design practice one of the services that I offer my commonly is helping homeowners develop a color palette for their new home. While we may start with wall color for all the rooms, we quickly work our way into wallpaper as an option and then direction for fabric choices to consider and you begin to purchase fabric.
Are you completely clueless about where you should install wallpaper? Here are the most common rooms that I use wallpaper in my design practice:
Formal living room
Formal dining room
Powder room
Laundry room
Mudroom
Master bedroom
Guest bedroom
Office/Library
The options are limitless. If you are considering adding wallpaper to your custom home build, I highly recommend you have professional measurements before you order. Finally, you must hire a professional wallpaper installer that is familiar with the type of wallpaper you have chosen.
If you opt for non-vinyl grass cloth, you will see seams in the installation.
Lighting
You have probably heard me say this before, lighting is the jewlery added to every room. One of the best decisions that you can make early in the design process is to plan and budget for quality upgraded lighting. This upgrade does include the electrical systems and wiring that go in to place behind the walls and ceiling.
Lighting itself has the ability to completely transform a space and create a mood. I have to say, even if you work directly with a custom home builder for your floor plan, material selections and finishes--consider working with a lighting designer. In most markets, there are great lighting showrooms with highly lighting experiences that can help you understand your floor plan, lot selection and the considerations you should consider. In my design practice, rarely do we use standard flush mount lighting. I am a fan of LED recessed lighting, chandeliers, pendant lighting, and scones in some combination in every room.
If you are spending 18 months building your dream home, you don’t want to end up with a dark hallway that is drab during the brightest moments of the day. How would 2 recessed architectural LED lights installed at a 30 degree angle flooding the walls with light have completely changed the vibe and feel?
You want to develop a lighting plan well in advance. Simply adding a chandelier to a walk in closet, dimmers throughout, and extra pendant over the kitchen island after bids are in can add thousands of dollars to your budget. ; It may seem small, but it will cost considerably more to have an electrician come back out to hardware lighting after the walls and ceiling have been closed.
It is possible to purchase the most amazing furniture, rugs, window treatments, and accesories but your home will feel incomplete without quality light fixtures. I highly recommend adding a nice mix of various forms of lighting in your new custom home. By blending modern lighting technology, dimmers, and a diverse range of fixtures you can ensure that your new home has luxurious custom feel.
Upgraded Trim
In the early years of my career I watched builders charge considerable amounts of money for the most basic houses. In many cases, these houses had no window trim! The last recommendation that I can offer is to upgrade the trim level in your home. There are various areas that you can focus that will give your home the high end custom feel that you really want, but still be unsure about how to achieve.
This is an area that you can truly make your home exciting and one of a kind.
Crown Molding-Adding crown molding to the hallways, foyer, and literally every room in the house add so much detail. These beautiful pieces visually blend the transition from the wall to the ceiling. There are so many different styles and thicknesses to consider.
Baseboards- This is where the floor meets the walls. You could say baseboards are the crown molding of the floor. Elegant shoe molding and baseboards of great thickness and height will add so much detail and richness to the house. Don’t go too large or small. The height and thickness should be proportionate to the scale of your space.
Kitchen Cabinets-When finishing out your kitchen cabinets the taller the cabinets the better. In my design practice in most cases we opt for 42 inch upper cabinets at a minimum. Adding extra elements to your cabinets like crown molding, spacers and filler between each cabinet, and applied molding to the face of the cabinets themselves as well the vent hood will add so much beauty and elegance to your kitchen.
Paneling-Paneling the walls of your more formal space will add so much allure and character. You can panel at chair rail height, three quarters the ceiling height, or the entire room on all four walls, floor to ceiling. There are so many different styles and patterns to consider. If you don’t have the budget for extensive millwork, I would highly recommend paneling the first formal room off your entry to the right. You can have so much fun with paint and stain to make this truly one of a kind.
Coffered Ceilings-This is a great way to add detail to your ceiling. While many people may consider coffered ceilings to be more traditional and found in Prairie and Craftsman style homes, this isn’t always true. There many modern and contemporary homes that are beautifully done with this architectural element. Just as with paneling, there are so many patterns that can get created. You don’t have to stick with the traditional square boxes on the ceiling. In my design practice, I love to add coffered ceilings as a way to ground and anchor massive open concept spaces that everyone loves today. We have had great success with running coffered ceilings from the kitchen into the family room.
There you have it. These are just a few techniques you can use to make your custom home feel more upscale and luxurious.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
Join our community of over 5000 readers and receive a well curated mix of inspiration, education, and resources on all things related to curating the home of your dreams.
Click here to sign up for this amazing free resource.
What you should be looking for in a custom homebuilder--it is probably not what you are thinking.
Building a custom home is not an easy task. It is very easy to be wowed by the fancy trucks, glossy marketing materials, or showhouse the hottest builder in your town possesses. While you want to end up with everything you imagined in your new custom home--do you want to have a heart attack in the process? Do you really want to spend 12-18 months working with someone that turns your stomach and emotionally takes you back to middle school gym class? Most people wouldn’t pick a mate purely based on looks. It is more likely that you will blend physical appeal, personality, character, and work ethic/career stability.
EDUCATION
Building a custom home is not an easy task. It is very easy to be wowed by the fancy trucks, glossy marketing materials, or showhouse the hottest builder in your town possesses. While you want to end up with everything you imagined in your new custom home--do you want to have a heart attack in the process? Do you really want to spend 12-18 months working with someone that turns your stomach and emotionally takes you back to middle school gym class? Most people wouldn’t pick a mate purely based on looks. It is more likely that you will blend physical appeal, personality, character, and work ethic/career stability.
There are many textbook questions floating around that you should be asking your potential custom home builder; I want to share the things that you should pay attention to that can’t be fluffed. Anyone can develop canned or scripted answers.
What should I be looking for in a custom home builder? Here you go!
Communication
Many people say, “communication works until it no longer works”. This is very true. I am starting this post with one of the most important character traits that you must find in a custom home builder. Excellent communication is a non-negotiable. Every member of your team should be able to respond to you with answers, updates, insights, or ideas within a 24 hour period of time. During this time the problems at hand may not be resolved but an acknowledgement is not too much to task. An understanding of the needs that need to be met while a solution is in the works--this is due to anyone. Every member of your team and the builder’s team should be able to communicate effectively when things are going well and during difficult times.
You do not want to end up with a home builder that ignores your calls when times are hard. You do not want to work with a home builder or anyone that disappears on Thursday afternoon and there is no way to reach anyone from their office until 9 a.m. on Monday. When deciding on which builder you will work with, it is important that you ask about communication standards. In addition if you call the office the receptionist, cad operator, purchasing agent all should communicate and conduct themselves in a professional and courteous manner. Period.
Finally, pay attention to the way you speak to laborers, vendors, employees, and consultants you introduce to the equation prior to signing a construction contract. This can be very telling of how they will engage you during the construction of your custom home.
Collaboration
Many years ago, I had a design professor tell me that while you “can” do anything you can’t do everything. Thank you so much for this advice Professor Tate. I am well aware of my skill set and while I bring to the table when helping my clients design the most amazing custom homes. Ask any designer or architect, they will tell you one of their greatest challenges is dealing with home builders that think they are in fact designers. While they may possess the talents, interests, and passions--most likely they have not been hired to design your home. There are of course custom home builders that offer “design-build” series. This is often very practical in most cases--but the builder isn’t performing all these tasks alone.
Planning, designing, and building a custom home is truly a group/collaborative effort. It is very important that your home builder works well with others. Just as every member of your team, respect, compassion, and understanding should be very important to you. When selecting a builder, I highly recommend that you work with a builder that is capable of putting his/her ego aside and plan your needs at the top of the priority list. You may be wanting a French Chalet and if your builder thinks it is the absolute worst idea--the biggest mistake and waste of money to build; it isn’t his/her choice to make.
I have professionally witnessed sabotage from within the key players of a home building team. It does happen that home builders feel they call the “shots” and have the final say. When selecting a builder look mature adult behavior. While you are out shopping for tile, appliances, and lighting--which I know you will do on your own even if you work with an interior designer; drop your builder’s name to a few representatives. Be quiet, listen to what they have to say. Their words, facial expressions, and reactions will tell a story of how this person conducts themselves and works with others. If you are able to access various trades people--even better.
Strategic
For many people that opt to build a custom home this is their 3rd or 4th home. For others this will be their forever home. You have most likely saved, worked and dreamed for 10 or 20 years to reach this point in life to build a home that is everything you dreamed of. The way the home should work on paper versus how it actually functions on dirt can be completely different. Your architect can draw and tweek your construction plan for weeks and weeks. You interior designer can design your kitchen, bathroom, staircase, exposed beams and beyond to perfect on the computer. Well, when it comes to building it--it just might be as easy to manifest as we would hope. You may run into site issues. You local municipality may have an issue with the one thing you told yourself you could not live without.
What am I saying? You want a builder who is incense hired to implement your vision for your dream home which is designed and drawn by your architect and interior designer--to be capable of pushing through. Your builder must be capable and willing to develop strategies to overcome challenges that will come up while building your custom home. Your builder’s first response should not be the resort to what he thinks is best simply because it is easiest and keeps the job moving. I am in no way saying that you will not have to make some concessions along the way. You should not end up with a home that your builder wants you to have simply because it is faster, easier, and more profitable for his firm.
Flexible
No amount of planning or communication will prevent issues from coming up while building a custom home. As a client, you may enter the process confident that you want a front entry garage and at some point you realize that your architect and interior designer were correct in urging for a side entry. Things will go wrong. Plans will change. Items will be back ordered. Change orders will need to be made. Period. You want a flexible builder that is dedicated to serving you as the client and ensuring that ultimately you and your family have the home of your dreams. Period. Just because your builder has been building custom homes for 50 years and you come into town demanding a certain level of design, construction, quality, and style--you deserve it. If you are interviewing a builder has a rigid perspective on size of home, design style, construction techniques--basically he wants to tell you how things will or should be done CAUTION. I am in no way saying that you should ignore the advice of your builder. As an adult, I am certain that you understand the difference between being guided versus being bullied simply because these decisions make life better for them and not you.
Organized
Building a custom home is a very tedious process. There are 1000s of moving parts involved in this process. You want to make sure your custom home builder is organized and neat. It is highly important that your job site be neat and organized from the beginning to the end. This will limit the risk of injuries, penalties that may be imposed by the HOA or the local municipality. Not only will your neighbors appreciate the organization--they just might judge you as a potential new neighbor as well.
Organization will ensure that your builder and site superintendent will know what has been delivered to your jobsite--when and by whom. This will help to keep your project moving along on schedule and prevent you having to order replacement items that happen to get lost in the shuffle. This alone will help keep you on budget.
If a potential builder shows up to meetings less than prepared, confused and flustered--this could be a warning sign. It is important that to remember that building a home is a multi-disciplinary effort. There are many talents and skill sets that make for talented builders. The finished product alone should not be the barometer.
When deciding to build a custom home, yes, portfolio, experience, relationships, education, affiliations, are all important when evaluating home builders. This is not enough. Character goes a long way.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
Join our community of over 5000 readers and receive a well curated mix of inspiration, education, and resources on all things related to curating the home of your dreams.