PPL! The Cheapest Design Elements For Your Home!

  

 Now what do those letters stand for? Paint, Plants and Light. "PPL" Remember those three letters as the cheapest decorating tools in your design arsenal.

I have found that those three items can change a look of a room more quickly, and less expensively than almost any other element.

Paint is always an obvious change in any room but lighting, and plants were a surprise to me.

This is how I discovered what a difference a plant could make in a room...........

 One day I took out two plants that I had in my living room to water them at the kitchen sink. As the plants were draining in the sink I walked by the living room and I actually gasped! 

The room that had looked warm and inviting now looked cold, and empty. What??!! How can two $10 plants make such a difference? Well trust me they did. 

I discovered that plants would then become one of the elements I could always afford  in my decorating arsenal.

Now for lighting, this is a vast subject so I will touch on the high points. Do you know how many light sources an average room should have?

 I read a little formula a long time ago that said  find your square footage (example 12ftx16ft = 192sq.ft) then multiply your square footage by 1.5 (192 x 1.5 =288) so that means your room will need 288 watts of lighting sources.An average room should have approx. 4-5 lamps.

 In my own family room that measures 17 x 20 I have 6 lamps,2 sconces and 2 uplights in the corners. 

Do you have enough lighting sources in your room? Most people don't so don't feel badly about that, just become a little more aware and it will help you see your rooms differently. I am going to show you a few rooms that have a good use of "PPL".

 The first picture is done by Brown Design Inc, now imagine this room painted in the wrong color, no plant, and maybe only the bedside lamps. Boring!

 Look at how many lights just in this one section of the room and the color of the paint keeps the room simple and fresh. 

Without that one plant and the bouquet of roses on the nightstand  the room might actually look bland. This is a great example of using "PPL"

In this next room the lighting is amazing. The over sized chandelier and the use of the strip lighting above the cornice molding absolutely breathtaking. Take away one of those lighting sources and the room is not nearly as spectacular.

 Notice the use of the plants, if those were not in the room the room would not have as much life to it. The subtle color keeps this room soft and inviting. I love the "PPL" in this room.

In this next room  we have an all white kitchen with some great old school lighting fixtures, perfect choice for the look of this room. 

The plants in this room come in the form of a beautiful floral bouquet and a bowl of crisp green apples on the counter top.

You see, bringing life to a room with plants doesn't always have to be the potted variety.

This is a bright and cheerful room with a lot of good natural light, but that did not stop them from putting two lamps on the console table, and a great overscaled lantern above the black table.

 The plant life here is of the potted variety but they are placed in just the right areas to make your eye travel around the room to the pops of the fresh green.

So remember PPL, Paint: is it time to make a change? 

Plants: Do you have any in your room? Lights: Do you have enough in your room?

 

 

The Family Room Reveal and A Story

   

Where do I begin? I guess at the beginning……..

There was once a family room, a very nice family room. “ It is just not ME!” said the magical girl that saw pictures of rooms in her head……

You see this girl had a plan, an ongoing plan for many years. She was just waiting for the right time to start the ball rolling.

She only had a few obstacles, time, money, and an unwilling in-house handyman to make her vision come to fruition.

She would drop hints of her desired plan along the way for several years, until one day the in-house handyman was willing to go forward with her plan.

First this sofa had to be changed out from this……..




To This………

She had waited a verrrry long time to get her blue and white ticking sofa. She had her ottoman rebuilt to her design specifications, and recovered to use as an ottoman, or a coffee table.

Of course a new rug had to be chosen, and this girl just knew a black and white striped rug would be perfect for her. 

Many did not agree in the house, but she realized they did not understand her vision.

You see this girl has magical powers, she has visions, visions of entire rooms beautifully decorated.

Next there just had to be changes made to the mantel………

The antique Victorian over-mantel was no longer going to work with the new clean lines, and fresh look of the future family room so……..

The Dismantling of the Mantel began……….

Up the ladder her in-house handyman went ,and then the mantels fancy top came down.

After a lot of planning, and stacking of moldings the girl and the handyman agreed, this was a cleaner, fresher look for the new family room…

Now the Victorian lighting is all wrong so we have to come up with a solution. Since the girl has a vision she  knows the look she wants, but has to do a trial, and error on three lights…..

There was a clear winner in her mind, and yet she still had some in the house that did not agree.

She stuck to her vision and the lights went up………

By now the new white chairs had been added along with a re-do of an existing small arm chair in a darling buffalo check…..

The girl’s smile was getting bigger and bigger with each new piece.

Next there had to be some changes made to the brick on the fireplace wall.

Now this is where we had a bit of a pause in the story. 

You see the live-in handyman had a deep spiritual tie to the brick. The girl found out it was against his religion in the handyman world to paint brick!

Oh dear this is a big problem for the girl so she comes up with an alternative plan.

He is willing to move forward with this plan. The side panels of brick will be covered with a wainscoting treatment……

There were new accessories arriving……

MIRRORS

Uh-Oh! Too much going on with the existing floor lamps. Something has to change.

Meanwhile the live-in handyman is busy working on making the mantel look just like the girl wants, except for one detail…

The brick around the fireplace opening….

 He decides to sit a spell and ponder what to do next?

Pillows are arriving, a new lamp to go in front of the new bright white mirrors arrives, and it is perfect in the girls eyes…..

The live-in handyman even painted an existing side table navy blue for the girl, trying to make her happy…...

Everything is looking just like the picture the girl had in her head except the last bit of brick!!

THEN……….

A design miracle occurs!!

The ever so handy live-in handyman finally sees the girls vision…..

So my dear friends we have gone from this.…


And from this to this……..

To finally arrive to a much awaited destination to the picture of the room in the girls magical head……

Now to most this story would be over, but there is still more to come.

For some reason the magical girl that sees pictures in her head has a few more ideas to be added!!

As always …………..

A special thank you to all of you who have followed along with this long journey. I so appreciate your reading, your in-put and your compliments. You all made this journey a lot more fun for this magical girl who sees pictures in her head, and for her live-in handyman.

 

 

All My Summer Pillows Are Here!!

   

Bringing in pillows in patterns and colors that remind me of summer is always a fun time of year for me.

Since we have some very hot temps in the summer I like to add cool colors to my family room.

Blues and Greens are colors that are cool in nature and remind  of water.

Now that the family room has been redone  I have many options to choose from.

This year I chose the blues and greens……..

This is the board I made up with all the patterns for my summer look.

The black and white is the rug, the blue ticking is the sofa. These pieces will remain a constant throughout all of the seasons.

I had two square pillows made out of the green and white fabric (Schumachers Chenonceau) They measure 20 in square.

The blue buffalo check has a green linen 1/2 in. flange for contrast and I had it made into a 14”X24” lumbar pillow.

I offset the lumbar pillow in order to make it not look to contrived. Putting it in the middle looked too staged for my aesthetics.

The green in this image is not as bright as it appears in person, but the sofa and the blue pillow are reading pretty true, at least on my monitor.

The fun thing about my summer pillows and my family room is my backyard patio is tied into the overall scheme by the repeat of the colors, black and white stripes, and cobalt and white.

I have two seating areas, one for lounging around the pool and at night sitting by the fire in the chimnea. The other is where we eat breakfast and dinners.

Our backyard area is truly an extension of our living space.


Just a little update on my family room. Now that all the pillows have arrived I am ready to show you the reveal of what we have done so far so stay tuned!!

Wishing you all a wonderful Spring week!!