Dining Room Furniture Designs

A Few Words About Buying Dining Room Furniture

If you’re planning on purchasing new dining room furniture soon, you have a big decision to make. The furniture will be in your home for a long time and will become a part of many family memories. How can you determine what dining room furniture is right for your home?

Pick Dining Room Furniture That Fits Your Lifestyle

Is your dining room more of a multifunction room than just a dining room? Do the kids do their lessons at the table? Do you use it as a workspace for craft projects? Is this where family and friends gather to play games? If so, you may want a more casual style for your dining room. The popular pub-style tables teamed with bar stools could be a good choice for you. You can seat up to eight people equitably around the table with no designated head or foot.

If you occasionally need a larger, more formal space to entertain, consider a table that has butterfly leaves. The table will expand to allow additional seating, but the leaves fold up and store conveniently within the table itself when they aren’t in use. No need to find special storage space for these leaves.

If you entertain often and your dining room is reserved strictly for dining, there are many elegant options available. Finding a set of dining room furniture that has a matching hutch or sideboard to store china and linens is a beautiful solution to your needs.

Dining Room Furniture Fashions

Dining room furniture is as varied as the families that use it. Your dining room furniture should reveal your personal style. You can find dining sets that are sleek and contemporary, ornately traditional, or rough hewn and rustic. Do you want the dining room to have a cohesive feel with the rest of your home? If so, dining room furniture that coordinates with the architectural style of your house and the décor in your other rooms will achieve that affect. Of course, you can always add some diversity. For instance, a metal table usually looks contemporary, but choosing one with curved legs will add more formality to the room. Style choices are plentiful. You’re sure to find one perfect for your home.

Dining Room Furniture Designs

Category › Dining Room , Furniture

: : my Swedish friends .hans & tina. were just here visiting. they stopped by new york city as well and found the .highline., a section of old railroad tracks raised above street level that have been turned into a park and opened in June 2009. what a cool idea! I'll have to give it a try next time I'm in NYC.

photos from .here.

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Knitting 101

This year for Christmas presents I am knitting a few scarves for special gift giving. My Grandmother taught me to knit when I was 5 and I have continued to knit on and off over the years. I love going into yarn shops and feasting my eyes on all the colors and textures available. On my last trip to the yarn shop I was captivated by this most exquisite shade of teal blue. It is a blend of wool mohair and silk, and knits up as soft and light as a spider's web. I love working with bamboo needles. This scarf is super easy. Cast on as many stitches as you need to make the scarf the width you want and then just knit every row until it is long enough. For this season extra long and very narrow scarves seem to be all the trend.

Happy Knitting If you have any knitting projects on the go please leave a comment [here].
PS I am going on a plane trip...does any one know if knitting needles are allowed through security??

Helpful Videos:
Knitting 101 Casting on Stitches
Knitting 101 The Knit Stitch
Knitting 101 Casting off Stitches
Knitting 101 Knitting Tips

Patricia Gray is an award winning Interior Designer in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who blogs about
"WHAT'S HOT" in the world of Interior Design: New and Emerging Trends, Contemporary Design, Modern Architecture and Travel,
as well as how your surroundings can enhance the world around you.
© Patricia Gray Interior Design Blog™ 2009

Category › Christmas , Knitting 101

Victorian Home Decorating

Victorian Home Decorating

Victorian Home Decorating

Renovating a Victorian home can be an exciting and challenging project. To remain authentic a Victorian home should never have any white gloss paint on woodwork, quite simply because it hadn’t been invented and was therefore not used! If you want your Victorian house to replicate its originality steer clear of white gloss.

The Victorians did love paint and used it on walls, ceilings and woodwork to inject colour into their rooms. They also had relatively strict codes which they followed meticulously if they wanted to impress visitors.

The main focus was in the parlour. This is were all guests and visitors would be taken to sit. Parlours were crammed full of objects of interest which the owner had collected from their journeys abroad. Exotic stuffed animals, birds and insects were displayed in elaborate glass domed cabinets which varied in size according to the creatures being displayed.

The wall of the parlour were usually divided a third of the way up with a dado rail. Although many people nowadays like to strip the paint from these and leave the natural wood exposed, the Victorians always painted them. Paint was a relatively expensive commodity and to leave it unpainted hinted that you were not very well off financially.

The top half of the wall would have highly elaborate wall paper. Beautiful intricate designs such as those by William Morris were the order of the day. The lower half of the wall was typically painted in a coordinating colour. Variations of green and deep red was very popular choices.

Category › Decoration , home design

Interior Design 101

Patricia Gray in BC Home Magazine 
Talks about Design 101

BC Home Magazine Design 101

BC Home Magazine Design 101 cont.

BC Home Magazine Design 101  


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BC Home Magazine Design 101

PATRICIA GRAY INC is an award winning interior design firm writing about lifestyle and
WHAT'S HOT in the world of interior design, architecture, art and travel.
2011 © Patricia Gray | Interior Design Blog™

Category › BC Home Magazine , Design 101 , In the News , Interior Design 101 , Vancouver Interior Design

Kitchen Lighting Decoration

Kitchen Lighting Decoration

Kitchen Lighting Decoration

Whenever the talk is about decorating the kitchen, one of the aspects that most of the people tend to overlook comprises of the lighting. However, since a person, more specifically the woman of the house, spends quite a lot of his/her time in the kitchen, good lighting becomes one of the most important features of the overall decor. When it comes to kitchen lighting, it is vital to ensure that not only is it enough, but also that it is not too excessive. At the same time, it should go well with the architectural details and overall decoration theme of the kitchen. Let us explore some ideas on kitchen lighting.

Category › Decoration , Kitchen , Lighting

Home Interior Bedroom Furniture Design

Home Interior Bedroom Furniture Design

Home Interior Bedroom Furniture Design

Everyone has different taste, and that often gets in the way of decorating your home after marriage. You each like different colors and styles, and the one room that should be your own private love nest becomes the object of bitter design battles. How can you work together to choose your bedroom furniture and accents so that you are both happy with the results?

Of course, the first word that comes to mind is compromise, which makes most people roll their eyes in disgust. To be honest, compromise is not always the right way to go. If you compromise, each party often ends up uncomfortable with some aspect of the design. He hates the ruffled curtains, and she hates the stately wrought iron beds and armchairs. There are better ways to go about coming to an agreement on your bedroom accents.

While it sounds like a difficult task, you should really consider nixing any ideas from either party that irritate the other. Instead, you need to focus on common likes and dislikes. This can be a long and tedious process, but you will come to a point where you can determine what will please you both. For example, neither of you likes the color pink, so there will be no rose, lilac, or other shade of pink in the comforter, on the pillows, or anywhere else in your bedroom. However, after browsing several catalogs offering metal bed furniture, wooden headboard accents, and every brass canopy bed you can imagine, and walking through several furniture and accessory stores, you find that you both like rust colored accents. Now, you can find a bed skirt and perhaps matching window shades in this color that please you both.

Category › Bedroom , Furniture , interior design

retro colors

: : I'm browsing a lot of wedding blogs these days and came across these .love photos.
I just love the colors, their outfits and the old gas station they chose for the photo shoot. and where can I get that orange skirt?

found on .snippet & ink.

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Modern Living Room Furniture Set Pictures

Modern Living Room Furniture Set

Modern Living Room Furniture Set

Category › Living Room

Contemporary Home Furniture Design

Contemporary Home Furniture Design

Contemporary Home Furniture Design

Straight lines with curving edges, a splash of color here and there, and of course, a little bit funky! These are all terms associated with trends in contemporary furniture. But for the first time, the trends are heading into a new curve; they’re heading into the newfound realm of “practical.”

When using the term “practical”, it’s important to think more along the lines of a “useful” practical than a “sensible” one, that is, something that has a purpose and doesn’t waste anything (including time and money). There are a few things that have fueled this change, including an uncertain economy, global warming and environmental issues, increases in fuel costs, and terrorist threats around the globe and in our backyards. The results? A subtle trend that people feel safer at home; so they stay there and invite friends over for dinner parties and barbeques, have family movie night at home instead of driving out to the theater, and are buying more environmentally-friendly products made from renewable resources.

Long gone are the days of mono-seating in the family room, unless of course the chair is one of the high-tech, surround sound home theater devices with all of the latest doo-dads like cup holders built-in. Matching ottomans provide not only a place for you to put your feet up, but handy storage compartments for remotes, DVD’s, and other paraphernalia used in this recent trend.

Category › Furniture , interior design

Interior Design Furniture

Creating a Beach Theme Bedroom

Some people just can’t stand the thought of summer being over! If you are one of those people, then try creating your very own beach-theme bedroom, to enjoy for the entire year. When transforming your bedroom into a beach-theme, keep in mind the simple things in life. Adding too many nautical items will only clutter the room. Think of how a beach would look; simple, airy and relaxing.

You want to create a simple and relaxed atmosphere, as if you were just relaxing on a beach or island somewhere. A few simple ideas and easy tricks will have you on your way to a tropical paradise in your room.

Wall treatments

Use colours that will relax and soothe. Pastel shades of green, blue, yellow and beige are fabulous choices to use on the walls. Adding a bit of bold with black or dark wood frames is also a nice touch with these colours. Choose basic wallpaper or do it yourself with a faux wall idea. Using sponges and textured fabrics to paint with will create this look wonderfully!

Category › Furniture , interior design

never stop

: : I never stop being inspired by .sasa antic. here for h&m home

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: : story hotel stockholm : :

: : I found out from .emma. that a new hotel has opened in Stockholm. A hotel with a .story.

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Efficient Framing for House Plans

Fine Homebuilding has a new article on the future of framing house plans. For many years we have been framing houses basically the same way. And this way is not necessarily the most energy efficient or material efficient. The article makes the following recommendations to increase energy efficiency and to reduce material and labor costs at the same time:

• use 2x6 wall framing at 24" o.c. (in lieu of 16" o.c.)
• use 1" rigid foam insulation in lieu of traditional sheathing
• eliminate headers where they are not necessary structurally - where they are necessary size them properly (it is common practice to use the same size header throughout)
• eliminate all the corner framing - let the drywall hang loose or use clips
• use header hangars in lieu of jack studs
• eliminate one of the top plates

I happen to agree that all of these ideas are good energy savings tips. Some builders however would argue that they are not necessarily cost savings. For instance eliminating one of the top plates may complicate the drywall installation. Eliminating the wall sheathing means using other methods to ensure shear strength. So before you implement any of these ideas on your new house make sure you talk through the implications closely with your builder. I also suggest having a residential structural engineer look at your new lightly framed house to make sure it won't tip over when the big bad wolf blows on it.

You can see the entire fine homebuilding article at "The Future of Efficient Framing"

Simple,Unique, Small House Plans Cottage, Craftsman and Modern Home Plans

Category › cottage house plans , green house plans , house plans , simple house plans , unque house plans

Japanese Home Interior Accessories

Japanese Home Interior Accessories

We have a wide variety of Noren, a Japanese cloth room divider, wall hanging, doorway curtain or a window curtain.Please come have a look and see if you can find your favorite noren to give your house a Japanese touch. The word noren usually refers to split curtains hung in front of a shop. It was used to keep out the sun and dust but now since it often has the shop's name written on it, it serves as the shop's sign as well. However, Noren are commonly used in private homes as well (such as the ones featured in this section) as space dividers or decorations They come in many different sizes, colors and designs.

Category › Accessories , home design

Modern Bathroom Glass Decoration

Modern Bathroom Glass Decoration

Onyx bathroom collection by Stemik living is a perfect example of amazing modern and minimalist furniture. The most attractive part of this collection is a black glass furniture set. Glossy black doors are perfectly accentuated by aluminium frame, which changes this furniture into a real art masterpiece. Straight and pure lines in combination with the black color look awesome and could help to create a modern and refine bathroom design. As white lay-on washbasin as black integrated one could perfectly fit for this glass furniture.

Category › Bathroom , Decoration

Design Challenge for a 2000 SF House Plan

Lately I have been getting inquiries for modestly sized new home designs that feature main floor master bedrooms. A search of the web reveals a gazillion main floor master bedroom plans - but most are massive or ugly or both. So I decided this might be a good opportunity to design a new plan fitting this unique need, and to illustrate for you a little bit of the design process at the same time. So let's get started.

The design process I use typically involves the following phases:

• Programming
• Schematic Design
• Design Development
• Construction Documents

Today we will start with Programming. Programming really means just identifying a list of functional needs and qualities that you would like to see in your home. I'll start with a list that reflects the kinds of requests I have been receiving.

• Modest plan size - as close to 2000 square foot as possible.
• Open floor plan - Living, Dining and Kitchen spaces very connected with each other.
• Mudroom with space for hanging coats and sitting for putting shoes on.
• Laundry space should be on the main floor.
• A main floor master bedroom with walk in closet and bath. The bath should have a walk in shower, but not necessarily a tub (the days of the jacuzzi tub seem to be over).
• Spaces that are functional, but not over sized.
• A reasonable sized entry porch.
• A screen porch with spaces for eating and sitting.
• A main floor powder room.
• Possibly a den or away room - if space allows.
• An attached 2 car garage - possibly with some additional storage space.
• 2 additional bedrooms on a second floor.
• A shared bathroom for the 2 upstairs bedrooms.
• A basement that could allow future expansion space.
• Beautiful home but not overly complex. Should be reasonably economical to construct. The house plan should be simple, yet unique.

That's a pretty good list for now. But I wanted to leave room for your thoughts. So please feel free to comment. Did I miss anything? Throw your 2 cents in.

Next posting I will update the program with your relevant comments - and we'll see some initial design thoughts.

Category › cottage house plans , home design , house plans , main floor master bedroom house plans , simple house plans , small house plans , unique house plans

Bookshelves in Interior Design

30 of the Best Bookshelves

Books are such a wonderful way of personalizing your space. Who doesn't love to be surrounded with all this wonderful inspiration. I think rooms with bookshelves are some of my most memorable spaces. Everyone feels comfortable in these rooms and they are rooms where you want to linger. I have a girlfriend who has a monumental bookshelf in her dining room. I always love to sit at the table across from the bookshelf so I can peruse the shelves between the dinner conversation.

"Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read."
— John Wooden

I have categorized the following pictures of bookshelves into 7 sections:

1. Bookshelves in Living Rooms

Bookshelves in Living Rooms - Dominio

      
Bookshelves in Living Rooms - Poliform

Bookshelves in Living Rooms - Homes and Gardens

Bookshelves in Living Rooms - Domino Magazine 

Bookshelves in Living Rooms -BHG 

2. Bookshelves with Library Ladders

 
Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Interior Design Alberto Pinto

 
Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Interior Design Tom Scheerer

 
Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Diane von Furstenberg source unknown

Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Ikea

 
Pierre Chareau's Bookcase from La Maison de Verre by Dominique Vellay
Bookshelves with Library Ladders - photo via Apartment Therapy

Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Southern Accents

3. Bookshelves in Offices

 
Bookshelves in Offices - Interior Design Briger and Briger

 
Bookshelves in Offices / Bookshelves with  Library Ladders - Interior Design Alberto Pinto

 

 
Bookshelves in Offices - Domino

 
Bookshelves in Offices - Interior Design Mary McGee

4. Bookshelves in Dining Rooms

Bookshelves in Dining Rooms / Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Charles Page

 
Bookshelves in Dining Rooms - Elle Decor, Photography William Waldron, Interior Design Glickman & Teng

 
Bookshelves in Dining Rooms - Interior Design Antonia Hutt

5. Bookshelves in Kitchens

Bookshelves in Kitchens - Vitsoe

 
Bookshelves in Kitchens / Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Interior Design Cecconi Simone

Bookshelves in Kitchens - photo via Purple Area

6. Bookshelves in Bedrooms

 
Bookshelves in Bedrooms - Interior Design Source Unknown

 
Bookshelves in Bedrooms / Bookshelves with Library Ladders - Interior Design Source Unknown

 
Bookshelves in Bedrooms - photo via Girl Meets Glamour

7. Bookshelves in Stairs

 
Bookshelves in Stairs - source unknown

 
Bookshelves in Stairs - Design by Wilson and Associates Architects 

 
Bookshelves in Stairs - Design by Levitate Architects via Home Interiors 
 

These bookshelves line the stairs up the third floor of the Fallingwater house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Bookshelves in Stairs - picture via Flickr

What is your favourite room to display books in?  Please let me know by leaving a comment.

 

PATRICIA GRAY INC is an award winning interior design firm writing about lifestyle and
WHAT'S HOT in the world of interior design, architecture, art and travel.
2011 © Patricia Gray | Interior Design Blog™

Category › 30 of the Best Bookshelves , Bookshelves , Short List