My most recent design job…

I just finished up on another VERY exciting design job. With each new opportunity I am finding more strength in this creative process. More than anything it is a great feeling to see your clients happy. These clients are a breeze to work with. I met Russell and Jill Branyan over a year ago when they bought one of my listings.  We have been planning on me doing some design work for a while, but Jill (aka Supermom) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in October.  That combined with their travel (Russ is a professional baseball player) and two other kids put us back a year. So here we are, it’s time to get them settled. The Branyan’s home was very well thought out by the original owners. They have great flow throughout the main level but the request was to coordinate all of their current home accessories (including new art work, and family photos) with their old items. This is an exciting task for me because you are putting to use items that seem to have no purpose, yet they tend to fill in just the right space, or add color to that bland wall. Like I do with each job, I went out on a hunt, nose to the ground and found incredible deals for all 3 rooms. Over the next week, I am going to share the tips of what made the transformation of each room add space and functionality but also the defining factors that make the soul of the room and homeowner apparent. I personally do not get excited about formal living spaces, but this formal living room blossomed in to a calm, yet colorful pallet of beauty…

Click on images to enlarge (once enlarged click again to see full size photo).

This room is primarily a sitting room. Formal living spaces many times are never used, but this particular room is directly off the right of the main entrance to the front of the home. Because it had built-ins painted green, it had a tendency to be more flexible and comfortable than a stiff sitting room. The problem areas were; the furniture layout, size of the clock on the mantle, and combining new pieces with old on the built-ins while maintaining a more formal flow. These are the guidelines I used to transform this room. Hopefully you can use them for your rooms as well:

1. With the clock on top of the mantle being so large, I needed to simplify the mantle pieces and add weight to the bottom. I added two round platters on easels, with a lit candle in front of them beside the clock. The glass is a nice contract from the rustic wood, and the candlelight reflecting off the platter is very calming. Anytime you have such a large piece you have to be careful not to add more distracting pieces with it. You can see in the before picture the vase with white flowers in it is not very noticeable, and the larger items with such a large clock tend to be over stimulating where you can’t focus on anything. The new vase placed in front of the fireplace has width and height that will draw the heaviness away from the top and balance it out.
2. I pulled the large chair and ottoman away from the corner in order to open up the room. You can see in the before picture that the 2 leather chairs are blocking the invitation to the room. When planning your furniture around small spaces, make sure the walk way is unobstructed in order to show space. Never place the back of furniture in a walkway unless it has much more open space to walk around the pieces. The round table was in the opposite corner. The floral piece was on the mantle, so I added some blue to create more contrast and color, and there you have a great view of the main wall.
3. The area rug was off centered so I pulled everything out and centered the rug. Once I added the new pillows to pop some color and distract from the heavy leather, I added a runner to the glass table to soften it up. 

That will be it for today. Stay tuned for more tips, and the rest of the project, including the homeowners response. My goal is to provide you with easy steps to make your home more enjoyable. When you can’t figure it out, that is when you call me!

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Until next time,

Nate from www.NatePostDesign.com