Sink Your Toes into Something Wonderful

Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine the feeling that you get from the soft, velvety grass of a putting green under bare feet on a beautiful summer day.  Now, think about your warmest, most comfortable sweater wrapping its arms around you when it's cold outside.  Lastly, envision the feeling of sinking down onto a luxurious feather bed at the end of a long, hard day.
The sensations you've just imagined can be similarly evoked by a seemingly unlikely element in your home: your carpet.  When we cover our floors with carpet, we should be able to expect that it will provide us with the same softness, warmth and cushion underfoot as what we get from that putting green, sweater and feather bed,.
In addition, however, our carpets have to wear like iron and resist soiling, even though they are subjected to the harshest wear of anything in our homes.  Now, picture that warm fuzzy sweater, being trod on dozens of times each day!
Today's carpets are softer, have more variety of style, and are more durable than ever before.  They offer not only tactile comfort underfoot, but important visual warmth, texture and style to your rooms as well.
New technologies in the manufacturing process have enabled the creation of carpeting that has an unbelievable "hand", the design term referring to the actual feel of carpet or textiles.  In the past, such a soft hand was attainable only with fibers which were either exorbitantly expensive or which didn't hold up to normal wear.  Look for carpet fibers with the trade names of Tactesse, Caress, or EveryTouch, and you will be amazed at the difference in softness from those that don't use this new technology.
The style of carpet that you choose for your home is a critical factor in achieving the look you're going for, but also in performing the way you need it to. 
Traditional cut pile carpeting has always been and always will be a good standard style.  It works with every decorating style, from casual to formal, and is available in the widest variety of colors.  If you are bothered by seeing foot prints, traffic patterns, or vacuum marks, however, be aware that cut pile may not be your best choice.
Freize ("free-zay") is a style of carpet that debuted about 12 years ago.  It offers a cut pile construction, but with more tightly twisted, somewhat curlier yarns, which lend a more casual appearance and less showing of traffic patterns or vacuum marks than traditional cut piles.
For those of us who lived through the seventies, freize carpets initially may remind us of the shag style from that era, but don't let that dissuade you from choosing them!  Freizes look great, feel great and perform great in almost any style of room.
Another exciting development in the carpet industry has been the recent explosion in variety of loop piles, commonly referred to as berbers. For years, berber carpets have provided us with a great option in carpeting that is casual, durable, and resistant to showing traffic patterns.  However, its downside has been that it was not very soft, and its casualness didn't always translate well from room to room.
With today's newer styles in loop pile, berbers can go from ultra-casual to refined, and with the softness of the latest fibers they offer almost as plush of a feel as a cut pile.  Do be aware, however, that carpet seams will be more detectable with loop piles than with cut.
Once you've decided upon a carpet style for your home, pay attention to fiber content.  Polyesters are economical, olefins wear like iron, and wool is awesome, if your budget allows it.  The most commonly chosen fiber, however, is 100% continuous filament nylon, which will give you great wear and great value for your money.
Nearly every client that I work with on a floor covering project asks the question: "Which carpet will be most durable, and won't mat down in high traffic areas?".
What most of us refer to as "matting" or "crushing" of carpet is similar to what happens to our hair if we go several days without shampooing.  It's important to remember that carpet is made up of fibers, just like our clothing is.  When subjected to soil accumulation and constant pressure from being walked upon in the same spots, those carpet fibers simply lay down and stay there!
So, there are three factors which will go a long ways toward having your carpet look fresh and new for as long as possible.  First, purchase the best quality product that you can.  Look for specifications which reflect high face weight and high density.  These are indications of how much yarn is used per yard of carpet, and how densely it is woven.
Secondly, choose the highest quality carpet pad you can.  Your pad is to your carpet as shock absorbers are to your car, and it will pay for itself in the long run.  Do not just settle for the "free pad with purchase," as those won't be of a quality which will enhance the life of your carpet.
Lastly, regular vacuuming, at least once a week, will go a long ways toward maintaining that like-new appearance, just as shampooing our hair or laundering our clothes does, by removing the soil and fluffing the fibers.

Enjoying the Great Outdoors

One of my fondest childhood memories is of sitting on my grandparents' screened-in front porch on summer evenings, relaxing in their big old oak rocking chairs and watching the traffic go by, while Grandpa listened to a Cubs game and Grandma crocheted.  They lived in a town of only 500 people, so 'traffic' was rather a relative term, but nevertheless, the front porch was the place to be.
From our vantage point on the porch, we could observe just about all of the town's goings on.  We knew who was out and about, and all who were, knew to glance toward the Anderson's porch to see if Harold and Ino were available with a glass of lemonade and time to chat.
Back in those 'Mayberry RFD' days, folks spent much of their summer leisure time outdoors because it was cooler there than inside, and because it connected them with their neighbors.  Screened porches and rocking chairs were the staple of outdoor living. 
Several decades later, our outdoor living habits are significantly different.  Most of us have moved from the front porch to the backyard, and with that move we've brought along much more than just a couple of rockers and the portable radio.
One of the strongest trends in the design industry today is toward creating outdoor living spaces which provide many of the same amenities that we enjoy inside our homes. Truly comfortable areas for dining and conversation, as well as outdoor kitchens which accommodate full meal preparation and lavish entertaining, are becoming quite common.
A real driving force behind this trend is the desire of many people to create an escape from the busyness of life.  We're liking the idea of having a space where we can feel separate from the rest of the world, where we can enjoy the outdoors and the absence of the phone, computer and television. But, of course, we also want to be comfortable!
When I was in the 'dreaming' phase of creating our ideal outdoor living space, this is what my vision looked like:
Creating defined spaces in the great outdoors is a good way to accommodate entertainment of large groups, especially when varied ages are involved.  In addition to our existing two-tiered deck, I wanted to see a patio on the ground level, next to the garden.  Besides providing for a visual connection between the deck and the garden, this will allow for multiple activities and age groups to enjoy the outdoors together.
Comfortable furniture is a must, and the options today go far beyond a wicker rocker or webbed folding chairs.  All-weather metals, wickers and even some woods provide the basis for furniture which is beautiful enough to do double duty indoors, and fabrics which resist moisture, mildew and fading allow cushioning to be practical as well as comfy.
I was thinking a sofa, two chairs and a couple of occasional tables would make a great conversation grouping around my portable outdoor fireplace.  And for dining, a coordinating table with a market umbrella and chairs for six will be quite nice.  Because this is Iowa, a portable outdoor heater near the dining area will allow us to use this space almost until the snow flies.
Outdoor kitchens run the gamut from a simple grill, to a more elaborate set-up complete with sink, refrigerator, warming oven, food preparation area and cabinetry.  In my dreams, that would be really fun to have! However, I'm perfectly fine with a nice grill and a little prep space...and with the money we'd save, we can more easily justify building a pond and babbling brook next to the garden!

Speaking of which, water features are a great way to add to the ambiance of your backyard living space. Although not to be undertaken on a whim or without doing your homework, they can provide both visual and auditory beauty for your enjoyment, to say nothing of attracting flora and fauna that you might not otherwise have.
Now that our outdoor living space is complete, we could not be more pleased with how it turned out.  We have created a place for family to come and gather, where we can sit back, relax and enjoy the great outdoors. 

You may think that creating such outdoor living environments isn't realistic in a climate where cold weather monopolized our calendar, but the truth is that most years we can enjoy spaces like this at least occasionally for almost eight months out of the year.  In fact, Grandpa used to listen to both the first game of the season and the last game of the World Series from his perch on the porch.   

Stay Cool With These Summer Decorating Tips

With the scorching heat and humidity that we're currently experiencing, there's no doubt that it's August in Iowa.  There is something about this kind of weather that always takes me back to memories of my childhood....early morning berry picking in Grandma's garden, long days at the city pool, the welcome sound of the ice cream truck, slushies from the Dairy Queen.

It's funny how memories of hot, humid summer days in childhood seem pleasant and make us nostalgic for those times, however those same weather conditions in the present tense are mostly just plain miserable.  And most often we're even surrounded by cool, conditioned air, now!

When the weather is steamy outside, there are a number of relatively easy changes that we can make to our interiors, which will go a long ways toward making us feel more psychologically refreshed. 

Think about how even the sight of a warm fuzzy blanket in winter makes us feel all cozy inside.  In the heat of summer, you can use that same concept to get a wonderful sense of coolness, by placing pretty sheer draperies at your windows.

The vision of those light, ethereal fabric panels gently blowing in the breeze (even if that breeze comes from your air conditioning vents) conjure memories of waking on a cool summer morning in Grandma's farm house, with her curtains gracefully fluttering at the windows.

Speaking of those summer sleeping memories brings to mind the childhood habit of frequently flipping our pillows during the night, to temporarily experience the cooling sensation of the pillow's other side.

Playing off of that idea, try switching out your bed linens for summer.  Strip your bed's dressing down to the bare minimum by storing everything that isn't needed right now for warmth.

Then re-dress the bed in some fabulous, crisp new sheets and pillow cases.  Treat yourself to linens that not only look beautiful in and of themselves, but whose fabric has a really great 'hand', high thread count, and light, summery color too. These will become the basis for an entirely fresh summer look on your bed.

Next, remove the comforter insert from your duvet cover, fold the cover into quarters or thirds lengthwise and place at the foot of your bed for a very stylish new 'bed scarf' look.  Add matching pillow shams and throw pillows at the top of the bed, and you're good to go.

In your living and family rooms, think about creating more of a pared down look for summer.  Consider putting area rugs into storage, as well as dark or heavy-looking accessories. Swap your winter throw pillows for some that are lighter and brighter.  Move large houseplants outdoors.  Wherever and as often as possible, accessorize for summer with fresh flowers.

If you use candles, remove them from heavy candlesticks and place into a bed of sand on a platter or in a bowl, then scatter clear florist's stones or sea shells around.  Alternatively, float candles in water with decorative stones in the bottom of the vessel. 

We can create more of a cool, breezy feeling not only by making visual changes in our homes, but by alternating our other sensory input as well. The previously mentioned fresh flowers are one obvious and wonderful way to bring summer aromatherapy inside.  You might also want to utilize scent diffusers of one type or another,  choosing a light fresh air or linen scent.

Appealing to your sense of sound, place a really nice wind chime outside near a window where it will catch gentle breezes, and fountain indoors where you can enjoy the very therapeutic sound of trickling water.

No doubt about it; it's hot outside.  Thankfully, most of us do have access to air conditioning at least much of the time, and by making some minor changes to our interior decorating scheme we can cool down our psyches as well.  And, soon enough, we'll be thinking of ways that we can 'cozy up' our homes for the winter season. 

A Casual Dining Area is the Perfect Fit

Certainly one of the most hard-working rooms of our home is the kitchen.  By virtue of all that takes place, and the amount of time that most families spend in their kitchen, it truly is very important to create a pleasantly designed environment there.
But for all the time we might spend in this heart of the home, and all the importance we might place on making it pleasant, most kitchens present some interesting design challenges.  This week's featured room makeover is a prime example. 
Our homeowner was faced with the challenge of a kitchen area which was part of a generously sized great room, but in and of itself was really quite small and previously not very well defined.  In addition, harsh architectural lines made everything feel a bit too angular, and there was no real focus to the room.
As with any design project, we began by identifying how the client needed this space to function.  Aside from the obvious food preparation and storage needs, the family really wanted casual dining space, but their table and chairs seemed overwhelming in the rather small bay area beyond the kitchen's work triangle. 

Although the great room as a whole is quite large, the kitchen area just felt sort of 'squished' to one end of it.  We needed to better define the kitchen space, while also creating more of a sense of flow and unity to the rest of the great room.  And, we needed to make it feel a whole lot more bright and cheerful.
Without doing anything at all structurally, this room now looks like an entirely new space.  The real secrets to making it all work better are the use of properly-scaled furnishings, color, pattern and texture, and the all-important addition of visual softness to the room.
Where colors were all neutral before, a vibrant cornflower blue has been used on the walls.  Completing the color scheme with a sunny yellow, now upon entering the room the clients say they experience feelings of both cheerfulness and calm; very pleasing!
Marrying our two colors together and providing the pattern in the room is a bold buffalo check fabric, which is at once classic and casual.  This fabric was used to create a tab top valance with cute button embellishments and bottom banding, mounted upon crisp white decorative rods which follow the shape of the bay.  To create further softness and vertical eye movement, stationary side panels with coordinating tie-backs were the perfect choice.
When deciding how to dress the windows, we had to face the challenge of the disparity between the upward angle of the vaulted ceiling, the bow of the walls here, and the straight horizontal line created by the tops of the windows.
We chose to follow that horizontal direction with a straight topped treatment, to accent the bow by our choice of the mitered white rod, and then to play up the angled ceiling separately, by use of the bold blue wall color.  In so doing, we've accomplished many things: bringing color, pattern and cheer into the space, adding softness, and visually defining the kitchen and eating areas. 
To achieve a sense of flow, now, it was important to carry one of our kitchen colors into the rest of the great room.  Sherwin Williams' "Bee" color was the perfect way to do that.
Furnishings were the next important step, and two new pieces provided just the right touch.  A petite iron and wood bistro table and chairs provides for dining, while still keeping the space from feeling too crowded and closed in. 
Its European Country styling is repeated in a complimentary bakers rack, which repeats the wood tones but picks up our crisp white accent color.  The placement of the bakers rack, just around the corner from the bay, draws our eye into the rest of the great room and creates a real feeling of continuity.
Now, instead of feeling "cramped, blah and dreary" in their kitchen, our clients tell us it brings a smile every time they walk in.