art,  blogging,  coffee,  decor,  design,  wine

Feels Like Home

November 17, 2010 /

I’m thrilled to have the talented blogger and decorator Doreen Creede from Style Maniac guest posting today on Glossing Over It about interior design. Decor is something I admire and enjoy, but I don’t have any background in it, so I was thrilled when Doreen agreed to say a few words about her own approach to a designing a room:

Candlelight glows against the soft brass of my vintage coffee table; its mirrored surface gleams with glasses of garnet wine, platters of creamy goat cheese, and bowls of savory sundried tomatoes.  Shoes have been kicked off, pillows smushed behind backs, lights dimmed low, music turned up high. Flames lick against logs stacked in the fire until embers glow orange while conversation and laughter go on through the night.

This is the image I have when I redecorate my living room. It doesn’t start with paint colors, fabric swatches, catalog clippings, floor plans, tassels, trims.  All that matters, but it comes later.  What comes first is figuring out what things are most important to me.  Knowing that I want new friends to feel as comfortable and welcome as close family.  That on a regular basis I’ll need to shove furniture aside to create an impromptu dance floor.  That I like small groups, sit-down dinners and overnight guests.  And that the same space must work when it’s just my husband and I snuggled on the sofa watching a movie, clacking away on our laptops or reading a good book.

Your scene might be the same.  Or it might be very, very different.

Which is why when someone asks me for “just a quick opinion” on decorating I hesitate to answer.  Because a space can be arranged and made lovely in an infinite number of ways.  But to transform it from just another house into your home—well, that requires getting to know you.

And money, you are probably thinking.  Yes, decorating can be expensive.  Yet it doesn’t have to be.  Often it’s about what you take away rather than what you add.  Using what you have in a different way (or a different room) rather than getting something new.  Buying the right piece, with an overall plan in mind, rather than just grabbing what’s on sale.  And spending time, thought and effort before you spend a dime.

When it works, when practical meets pretty, and fabulous  functions well, the result is a space you want to come home to, a space that makes you happy.  A space that brings your very own scene to life.

Doreen Creede authors the lifestyle blog Style Maniac, and is owner/partner of the interior decorating firm The Redecorators LLC .  Her design work has appeared on HGTV and in homes from New York to Florida.

To redecorate her open plan living space Doreen rearranged the furniture, removed a slipcover, put  fluffy faux fur floor pillows on the sofa, turned a bar cart into a side table, stole a funky pedestal piece from her office and velvet chairs from the dining room.  The room now nicely accommodates both evenings of dancing/wine drinking with friends and blogging/wine drinking while her husband watches football, baseball, hockey … and the fire glows on.

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