Colors

Color has the ability to communicate with our emotions and affect our psychological state. Color can inspire, energize, soothe, and enliven.

With that said, I am going to go through different colors and try to explain the way the affect spaces and the people that use them...

RED is an intense color that is often associated with energy, strength, power, determination, and passion. It can increase your breathing rate and raise your blood pressure, therefore enhancing metabolism. In a productivity sense, red can make people more cautious and detail oriented, which will increase productivity.

ORANGE combines the energy of red with the happiness of yellow, and represents enthusiasm, excitement, creativity, success, and stimulation. Orange should not be used in places that are meant to be calm and relaxing (aka bedroom or living room), but would be excellent in a kitchen or gym.
YELLOW is the color of the sunshine and represents warmth, joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow has the ability to enhance concentration (legal pads and post its...), and speed up the metabolism. It is also the hardest color for the eyes to take in, so when overused, it can have a disturbing affect- causing babies to cry and people to lose their temper.

GREEN is the color of nature and is easiest color for the eyes to adjust to. It can improve vision, stability, and endurance while creating a calming effect when used in large expanses. It is pretty much suitable for any room in the house! (hence the reason my house and office have green rooms...)

BLUE , the color of the sky and the ocean, has the opposite connotations of red, promoting tranquility and calmness. It can also symbolize trust, loyalty, wisdom, and faith. Blue has the ability to make a space feel clean and calm and to slow down the metabolism.

PURPLE is the color of royalty and connotes wealth, luxury, and sophistication. When used as an accent color, it can create depth in a space.

WHITE symbolizes purity, and innocence (Brides...). White also portrays sterility and cleanliness, which can most often lead a space to look cold and boring. It also shows dirt quickly and is hard on the eyes because it reflects light.

BLACK is intimidating and powerful and represents the absense of light and color. Black can symbolize aggression, formality, elegance, evil, and death. Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but should only be used as an accent because in large quantities it can be oppressive.

Modern Classics

A modern interior may mean many different things to different people. To some it may mean a stark, clean lined space......to others it may mean a colorful space age looking space......however you visualize a modern interior, I believe that everything in a home should be done in moderation. When I design a space that is meant to feel modern and contemporary, I ALWAYS mix pieces from other era's or design styles. Mixing in some eclectic treasures, or modern takes on classic furniture is definitely one way to avoid being overwhelmed by a certain design style.

Many furniture designers today are recreating classic furniture designs from the past with a modern touch using modern materials and construction methods. These modern classics have the ability to transform a cold modern space into a timeless and elegant.

Baroque-ish detailing on the table

Rennaissance style headboard

Modern versions of the wing chairs that were originally created to keep drafts from making people cold in old houses...

Kanye West's home

While looking through Interior Design magazine, I came across a little spread that I found really interesting. The article was on Kanye West's LA home, and much to my surprise, isn't ANYTHING like what I would have expected from such a lush party boy. I was pretty impressed....

Until I saw this masterpiece....

which was what I expected in the first place.

Today's task: Hanging curtains...

I took off work today to take care of my puppy Layla, who got spayed yesterday, and felt like a complete waste of life not being able to leave her alone all day...we watched everything on the DVR, took a nap (since she was in so much pain she kept us up all night), and ate everything in the kitchen. By about 4 o'clock I was feeling like a fat lazy loser and decided to tackle one of the projects that I had asked Eric to do...

So with my trusty sidekick (Layla), I got everything together that I would need to hang curtains in the study. I know what you're thinking...wth, how hard can that be? BUT I had to put the rod up too... I've seen my dad do it a few times and decided it would be easy enough to figure out. Here is the step by step process--I fully expect that ANYONE can do this!

1. Get everything together. The curtain rod usually comes with a little package that contains screws, anchors, and the bracket. You will also need a drill with two different drill bits, a screw driver, a hammer, a level, a tape measure, a pencil, and a ladder (or a stool...).





2. Using the bracket (which has holes for screws) and a tape measure, mark the spots on the wall where the holes should be drilled.
3. Find a drillbit that looks to be the same diameter of the anchor that comes with your curtain rod. Put this drillbit into the drill. Holding the drill straight against the mark on the wall, put pressure on the drill and make a hole in the wall. This isn't a race...sometimes the slower, the better so the drill doesn't slip creating a hole much bigger than intended (I could be talking from experience...)
4. After the holes are drilled, hammer the anchors into place.
5. Using the drill with the phillips head bit, screw the screws into the anchors about halfway and then put the bracket into place. Continue tightening the screws. Depending on the size of the bracket, you may need to use the screwdriver to tighten the bracket against the wall.
6. Put the curtains on the rod and then tighten the finnial at the end.
7. Hang your curtains
8. Clean up all the dust :)


The curtains I bought are white transluscent linen. I am not a fan of regular sheer curtains that look like they belong in a lingerie drawer, but love these. They add a softness to the room that certainly wasn't there before.



They also have a little cutout pattern creating a vertical stripe...which can help the room look taller!




Stay tuned for the rest of the projects in this room...

In love with this gothic table from Urban Archaeology... granted it is a little pricey, but you can spend more on the focal pieces and skimp on simple accents.

This dining table would go well with any classic style simple chair (so the table remains the main focus).

I love the simple clean style of this Alessia chair...if only it came in the same wood finish as the table top!! An easy way to get around this issue is by staining the table top since the main focus on the table is the latticework structure.

Welcome!!

Welcome to the Material Girl Design Blog!!

So this is the first official post to the blog...I have never been one for blogging, but am mildly obsessed with other people's blogs--hopefully I can live up to the hype.

I recently purchased a website from BluDomain and I am going to begin designing it as soon as they give me all the links...hopefully by tomorrow?! I will post another message as soon as www.materialgirldesign.net is up and running!

I am VERY excited to start this chapter of my career and thank you all for being here with me :)