Holiday Decorating | by a Salt Lake City designer

As the weather starts to cool off I start thinking about holiday decorating. One thing I used to have a problem with was how to decorate my house for the holidays or seasons, and not have to change everything in my house to make it match. If my regular decor isn't fall colors, how do I add those great fall decorations? How do I make the red and green of traditional Christmas decor work in my space of pale blues and creams?

One way to do this is to change out the throw pillows on a cream colored sofa and add a cozy throw along with candles and a tree. That would feel like a holiday space, but how about selecting holiday or seasonal decor that actually goes with your design? 

No one said that your holiday decor had to be red and green or that your fall colors had to be orange and yellow! I love fall! I love fall colors, but I don't want to live with those colors all year around. I also don't live in the country, so the homey style fall decor of baskets, pine cones, colored leaves and pumpkins won't exactly go with my downtown urban condo. So I had to find a way to get the feeling of fall in my decor without feeling like I put a barnyard in my less than rural surroundings!

When you enter our condo the first thing you "en-counter" is a large kitchen counter! To me, this is the best place to set the "tone" of the space. If it is clean and clutter free, the rest of the space feels more open, if it is crowded with piles of mail, keys, and all of the other things that we carry in, the rest of the condo could be empty and it would still feel cluttered. So, this is the first spot I wanted to decorate, thinking that if I can put the "flavor" of fall here, the rest of the space benefit from the aroma, so to speak! 

I don't have a great number of spaces to add decor of any kind, practically every inch of my tiny space is filled and has to be functional, but I love the changing of season and I love having a little touch of change inside to reflect the changes outside. I try to find decor that doesn't scream the season to you, but gently puts you in the season's frame of mind.

Now, for my husband, it's not autumn, it's football season, and it would be fine with him if we decorated the entire space in red and black and covered it with University of Georgia memorabilia! Ain't happening! But what I did was use decorations that went with the color scheme I already had in place and had a more "contemporary" fall flair!

My bathroom is teals and browns and I found this beautiful blown glass pumpkin in those colors and I think it looks awesome, without changing the style of my bathroom.

Now fall is not necessarily about pumpkins, but it is about wonderful rich colors. The best part of fall to me is the changing of color and the crisp air, it just smells different than any other time of year. I wanted to bring that into my space as well, so in the kitchen, I gave a little nod to the purple wall and used it as my inspiration for color.

I found beautiful candle holders that have a dark purple paisley/floral pattern on them. They aren't typically a fall decoration, but the color was wonderfully reminiscent of deep fall leaves. I paired them with deep green, gold and purple flowers. The flowers are in a julep cup which is pewter and I just loved the tie in to these little turkey salt and pepper shakers. I didn't feel like the items I added were necessarily Thanksgiving, but rather that I could have them here all through the fall and it would feel fresh and timely.

I'd never thought of grapes as being fall colors, but I absolutely loved the way these grapes were the colors in the candleholders, and the colors in my kitchen. I also didn't think of the kitchen as being fall colors, but it just worked perfectly! Adding scented candles in pumpkin spice or whatever scent you associate with fall, will make your home instantly feel more festive.

Now, I said that fall is about color, but my bedroom isn't and I still wanted just a touch of fall decor in there, and I found the perfect little touch. I had found this little ceramic pot of cream roses and I love the romantic feeling of it in my bedroom, so when I found these ceramic cream pumpkins, I just had to add them to the space.

I'm not suggesting that you should add holiday or seasonal decor to every room in your house if that's not your taste, I'm simply suggesting that there are ways of doing so without changing the style, look and feel of the space you've designed in which to live or work. Interior decor and design is about structuring the space for the lifestyle you want to live. It's about reflecting who you are and what you love in your surroundings. So, if the season is one you love, or if you just want to have a new look and feel to your space, then don't be afraid of adding that seasonal touch, but make it all yours!

Today (or Inspiration 2.0) | by a Salt Lake City Designer

Well, folks, I've been in SLC for just about two weeks. Well, two weeks and two days...but who's keeping track? I have to say that starting this blog has been the highlight of coming here. I feel good about it and am certainly enjoying learning what it's all about! I am very thankful to my friends who have helped with technical,  as well as, emotional advice and support.

The past couple of days have been tough for me. I'm feeling the closeness of the walls in this space and frustrated at the lack of "creative" space. I have ideas and a desire to be creative, but I don't have space to do crafty things and believe me I've rearranged the furniture in here so many times we finally just left the sliders under it so we didn't have to pick it up again!

In my tiny (rented) living room I have one long wall that is painted eggplant! I don't own anything eggplant and I'm not that big a Donny Osmond fan! When I was in high school, this would have been my dream room, but now, not so much! What have I done with this eggplant wall, you ask? I ignored it. Decorated my space with the colors and things I love and acted as if the wall was not even there. I don't know if it "works", but it's worked for me, until  a couple of days ago when I realized I've been sitting here for days, blogging and reading emails and other blogs and all day long I stare at the eggplant wall!

So, yesterday I decided I was going to do something creative that doesn't require a great deal of space but gave me a great deal of space in which to work. I had to see something other than the four walls in here, especially the purple one! I went on an inspiration trip! It doesn't hurt that I'm in one of the most amazingly beautiful places I've ever seen. But, you can find the same kind of inspiration wherever you live! We rented a jeep, took off the top and hit the road to explore the beauty that is around us! (I'll post lost of photos to my Facebook page)

Not only were the varying landscapes awe inspiring, I got inspiration from a somewhat unexpected place. We stopped at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort for lunch and I got a great idea from the halls on the way to the restroom!

Sundance Resort

There are simple black-and-white photos in wood frames in collages down both sides of the hallway. They are framed in various sized frames, some with mattes, and from various time periods.  What is hard to tell in this shot is that between the sets of photos are quotes painted on the wall.

I had taken so many beautiful photos of waterfalls, lakes, trees and flowers on this little journey and nothing inspires me like written word, so I couldn't wait to get home and put this inspirational idea to work!

I always have lots of black frames. I buy them en masse! When I see framed artwork on sale (cheap) and I don't like the art, but the frames are in good shape and especially if there are mattes included, I buy all I can afford. These are great for putting together collages and can be used over and over. So, I had all the tools to make my idea come to life!

One detail that I really liked about the photos in the hall was that they had noted on the matte, the date and subject of the photo. This is such a great idea. I love that you can see the photos and know when and where they were taken.

Now, I like to change the art on my walls with the season, and being able to just print new photos and change them out regularly is something I do, a lot! But, the notes on the mattes are written in pencil, the graphite has a lends a nice look and it's changeable, so I didn't have to give up my ability to reuse!

I have an all-in-one photo printer, but you could also print your photos inexpensively at some grocery and discount stores where they have digital printing stations. If you like black and white you can print them with a regular printer.

I use plain printer paper for most of my pictures, but I have used textured photo paper, glossy photo paper and even canvas that is cut to go through your printer. I don't invest in expensive paper, because I know I'm going to change them out again in a few months. My wonderful husband had to hear about how this was going to translate into the art at home, and he not only listened, but he helped me create the look when we got home!

I, typically, only use black-and-white photos in my black frames, but I just loved the way the aspen trees looked against the green ferny floor of the forest here. The water and the sky, the green leaves and the blue berries were just a great compliment to the black frames and white mattes. Perry, who has great handwriting, printed the date and locations on the mattes.

I interpreted the inspiration of the quotes on the walls with a printed and framed quote that I found online when I did the research for this blog. The quote is by Ernest Hemingway. I had already decided on the name of my blog and "googled" it to see what came up, and this quote is what I got! I love it!

"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration..." ~ Ernest Hemingway

So, here's how I translated the entire inspiration! Now, it's not going to stay on this purple wall, it will go back on my entertainment center, but I wanted to you to see the inspiration next to my "Deep Purple" nightmare!