LOOK!
If you are ready to start your interior design project, it is also the time to open your eyes and starting looking at everything around you. You never know what might be a cue for your inspiration, but if you are not observing you might just miss it. A common characteristic of artists is that [...]
How to get Shagged Today
Shag carpet was “in” during the mid1960’s and throughout the1970’s. Most people think of shag pile as the perfect complement to vintage style interiors. The Design Directors of INSTUDIO think of groovy “long haired” shag as a plush luxurious carpet or rug that can add depth and texture to most design styles. In neutral or [...]
INSTUDIO Answers Questions on COLOR
Fregosi & Company Paints has supplied Benjamin Moore Paints to San Franciscan’s for three generations. The new color gallery store at 1812 Polk Street marks the third conveniently located store. INSTUDIO Design Directors take advantage of their sunny studio being geographically located almost exactly in between the Benjamin Moore Showroom in the Galleria Design Center [...]
INTERIOR DESIGN QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Design Plus Consignment Gallery & the Interior Design Directors of INSTUDIO come together to present a free public discussion and demonstration of creative interior design solutions for the home. Design Plus offers a plethora of gently used home furnishings, art and accessories. Match your design style whatever it is with items from Design Plus and [...]
So You Like Yellow!
The color yellow is usually associated with bright and cheerful, sunny and light. In some cultural traditions, for instance in many Native American cultures, it is the color that represents our spiritual nature. Its complimentary color is purple which is generally viewed as an intense color. Surprisingly, many people do not think of yellow as [...]
Get off the Chair & Design your Room
October already and before you know it the holidays will be here. Family and friends will soon be knocking at your door. Now is the time to spiff up your interiors with a little paint, some wallpaper, a new rug, hardwood floors, tile, crown molding, a new furniture arrangement, new window treatments, and maybe some [...]
Online Design Direction, Updating a Kitchen with Paint
Do-it-Yourself design clients can purchase online interior Design Direction through instudio-sf.com. The following dialogue is between Design Director: Samuel Fleming Lewis and Client: Maureen who was looking for that perfect gray for her kitchen walls. Maureen: I need help finding the correct grey wall color for my kitchen. I have cherry wood cabinets, small stone tile [...]
CULTURE, COMPOSITION, COLOR & COMFORT
Why does Buddha seem so serene? Is it secrets of relaxation and meditation? Is it the placement on a dark polished wood chest? Is it the warm glow of the lighting? Or does the juxtaposition of the abstract art beyond Buddha create a calming vignette that pleases the eye? These questions and many more will [...]
The Subtlety of Color
Hesitant to use paint colors you love because you believe they are too strong? This can be true depending upon what you want to achieve for your interior design. Many people tend to shy away from purple, yellow or green. However, if we look to nature we have a beautiful canvas of how these colors [...]
Contemplating New Interior Design?
Interior Design is more than just moving your furniture into a room and expecting it to reflect how you live and your personal style. How the furniture is arranged determines not only how the room is used but how we interact with family friends and pets. This is where a good furniture plan overrides design [...]
What Makes Your Design Unique?
Copying a design that you like may be flattering to the originator but does the style really fit you? Model, singer, muse and style icon Grace Jones blended her unique physical image along with designers, stylists and photographers to produce a portfolio of one-of-a-kind visuals that reflected her over the top personality and style. When [...]
Be a Design Rebel with a Cause
Developing personal interior design style can be a rebellious act in that it takes strength of character to ignore design trends to create rooms that reflect who you are. Finding your style requires looking at furniture, art, lighting & accessories from various sources. While the internet and established furniture stores can provide foundation furnishings what [...]
Going Minimal
Made popular by Joseph D’Urso of New York City minimalist interiors made a statement in the 1970′s, and continues to be a noted interior design solution. Minimalism works great for lofts, small spaces and when you don’t have (or want) a lot of stuff. It keeps the look clean, and if done right, very interesting. [...]
It’s Abstract
Abstract art gives you glimpses. It frees the viewer to imagine, ponder and wonder. The black & white painting titled “Floppy Remorse” by artist Stephen Kladder is just such an abstract work of art. One can discern some text: but what does it say? Images can also be discerned, but what are they exactly? It [...]
Why INSTUDIO Designer Directors read Interior Design Magazines
Designers with a strong point of view can easily live without ever looking at a design magazine. Sitting down with a new magazine becomes a guilty pleasure that allows us to view the work of other designers whose aesthetics we admire. The pages actually become a community of creativity, rooms, products and homes that we [...]
The Monochromatic Room
A monochromatic color scheme uses a single color throughout to develop a room design. Paint or wall finishes, floor finish, rugs or carpet, window treatments furniture and upholstery fabrics are all slight variations of the same color. The overall effect is expansive; monochromatic color schemes make small rooms seem larger. Large rooms gain a luxurious [...]
7 Floral Designs from a Bountiful Bouquet
Supermarkets, organic grocery stores and farmers markets offer flower bouquets which combine a bounty of seasonal greenery and flowers. For a reasonable price a large vase can be filled with leafy greens and flowers to add color to a room. Seven different floral arrangements were composed by the design directors of INSTUDIO using one $15.00 [...]
Design Enhanced by Color, Art & Accessories
A high-rise Condominium can be a blank slate of crisp white walls and beautiful new hardwood floors. The space is personalized by a thoughtful furniture plan that reflects how the homeowner intends to use the rooms. After the plan and furniture selection, color, art & accessories give the room personal style. INSTUDIO Design Directors thoughtfully [...]
Is More Really More?
Deciding when enough is enough is a choice determined by personal style and taste. A room enhanced with abundant layers of interesting extraordinary furniture, art, textiles, collections and colors can be a waking dream for someone who loves every piece used to compose the room. The same room can be a daytime nightmare to someone [...]
Getting the Most out of Your Space
When space is at a premium in your home, true for many big city dwellers, getting the most out of your space is crucial. Creating multi-functional spaces helps, i.e. a dining room with a wall of bookcases that can also function as a library. Another way to maximize your space use is look again at [...]
DESIGN PLUS CONSIGNMENT GALLERY
What happens to beautiful stylish well cared for furniture, accessories and lighting when a change in design style demands new furnishings or perhaps your existing pieces won’t blend within the new décor of a room? They go to a home furnishings consignment store like Design Plus that offers a responsible option for someone else to [...]
Compositions in a Room
Residential interior design and decoration is built upon four basic layers of elements within an overall composition that personalizes living space. The first layer is the Interior architectural space or room. The second is the defining details of the architectural space. The third includes floors walls and ceiling or the “shell”. The furniture plan and [...]
Experience Architecture & Design at the Museum
Furniture Design, Textile Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design & Lighting Design can usually be found at Museums of contemporary art. Curators of Architecture and Design focus their progressive thinking on practices across all design disciplines. Museums act as a time capsule for what was contemporary decades ago and what is considered cutting edge design today. [...]
Wood you Recycle Floors?
INSTUDIO Interior Design Directors have developed a design library of interior finish materials that is always in a state of evolution. When researching recycled flooring materials INSTUDIO requested information from Pioneer Millworks a company that has a specialty in reclaimed & sustainable wood flooring. When Portland, Oregon based sales representative Ross Burtness was in San [...]
