Posts Tagged ‘Interior Design’
Orange Hills – Interior Design Project
I’ve recently started a new interior design project in a beautiful gated community of Orange Hills in Orange County, California. My client has asked that I begin the design for the family room, dining nook and kitchen so that they can move in as soon as possible. I’ll continue designing the rest of this 7,000 square foot home once the main areas are designed. I wanted to share the interior design project and some before photos, conceptual design ideas and the floor plan to journal my progress from beginning to end. The family room is approximately 18′ x 29′ and the ceilings are 14′ high. Decorating a large room can be a bit challenging and I need to make sure the scale of the furniture is not over powered by the oversized space.
The Design Concept
Family Room Mood Board
I’ve decided to go with an elegant and sophisticated design. The furnishings are transitional in style with very clean lines. The furniture pieces have an arched leg and the fabrics, rug and accessories have a circular theme. My clients taste is very neutral…tone on tone. So I’m keeping things neutral on the walls and introducing a pale blue to bring in some color. The finishes on the furniture will be a medium brown and very clean with no distressing.
The Canvas
Side Window Wall
Family Room - Bar Area
Family Room - Fireplace Wall
The walls are a ginger yellow and the floors are a polished cream marble. I would like to add a grass wallcovering in the recessed squares on the ceiling and also on the fireplace wall. I think this will help this large room with contrast, texture and giving it a more intimate and cozy feel. The window treatments on the far wall are going to be tricky because of the size. I’m thinking a very large motorized woven shade flanked by non-functioning drapery panels and a soft, box pleated valance in the same fabric as the side panels…a striped silk. The blue rug will set the furniture off of the light colored marble floors and bring some color and softness to the space.
The Floor Plan
Family Room - Floor Plan
The Furniture Details and Budget
Sofas – Custom – $6,628 each – 33 yds fabric required for both
Sofa Fabric – Stroheim & Romann – $160/yd
Chair – Custom – $3,906 – 9 yds fabric needed
Chair Fabric – Beacon Hill – $168/yd
Coffee Table – Fremarc Design – $4,037
36″ Lamp Table – Fremarc Design – $3,987.50
Benches – Baker Furniture – $2,535 each
Lamp – Arteriors Home – $540
Barstools – Century Furniture – $2,490 each (w/ leather)
Rug – Surya (Custom 12′ x 15′) – $5,040
Window Treatments – $9,670
Total Family Room Cost - $62,258.50
I’ll keep you updated on the progress of this interior design project. I’m estimating 6-8 weeks to completion since most of the furniture is customized with sizes, fabrics and finishes. What do you think of the interior design concept? Do you have any special tips for decorating large rooms? What interior design projects are you working on? I’d love to hear from you!
There’s nothing like the combination of turquoise and orange to make a room come alive. Although not a color combination you see every day in the interior design world, if you want that pop of color, this just may be the color scheme for you. These two colors tend to take me to the beach. They also remind me of a Caribbean trip I took a few years back to Old San Juan, Puerto Rico with the vibrant exteriors of the homes there. So whatever it is, I’m drawn to it and when I find my perfect dream beach bungalow (pictured below…I wish!)…these two colors are going to get a room all to their own.
Turquoise and Orange on the Beach
- My Dream Beach Bungalow
What a life! Can you imagine waking up here and having your morning coffee!? Here are a few beach inspired interiors using turquoise and orange…
I love the pale blue walls in this room with the black and white artwork. These two colors work great as just an accent against the bright white wainscoting and sofa. Gives it such a crisp and clean look.
- Colors Pulled from the Sea
This is a color palette from design-seeds.com. This is a great website to come up with some beautiful color palettes. This butterfly fish has all the colors in it to inspire and create a colorful beachfront retreat.
This is so beautiful! I’m liking the color of these walls too…with the embroidered sea fan on a piece of burlap in a shadow box as artwork. The driftwood gives it a natural and organic feel.
Another color palette inspired by a grouping of seashells.
This vignette has such an eclectic feel with the combination of unique pieces. The orange elephant legged console table stands out beautifully in front of the aqua blue and white striped walls. The seashell lamps give just a touch of a coastal feel.
A modern take on coastal interior design with the streamlined white lacquered console table and frames showcasing sea fans. Walls in a dark brown faux linen finish makes these lighter pieces really stand out.
This is a great new feature that I found from Sherwin-Williams paint company. Go to www.letschipit.com and drag the “chip it” button to your toolbar. Now you can turn any picture, on any website, into a palette pulled from over 1,500 paint colors. Pretty cool huh!? So I took the picture used above and clicked the “chip it” button and voila, you’ve got your paint colors. How about “Obstinate Orange”? 1. (adj.) obstinate firmly or stubbornly adhering to a purpose, opinion, or course of action. I guess this orange is on a mission! Orange ya glad I pointed this out!? Okay focus again…
Asian Fusion Interiors using Turquoise and Orange
This bedroom design uses the color combination in a bold and vibrant way. Compared to some of the other interiors that go on the lighter more subdued end of the spectrum. I like both, and this room has a zen-like Asian flare with the use of the figurines and the pagoda style lamp base.
Here’s an Asian inspired living room design, but this palette is much softer and serene looking. The Chinoiserie throw pillows are set atop a classic french style sofa covered in a casual burlap style fabric. The gold bamboo coffee table adds another element to the interior design.
Bedroom Interiors using Turquoise and Orange
This bedroom design uses the blue on the walls and accents with orange pillows and drapery. Just enough without overdoing it.
This bedroom has a lot going on but I love the dark brown walls and the striped ceiling. It has a tropical feel with the palm linen print headboard and drapery, white caned bench at the end of the bed and the zebra rug.
A complete contrast to the previous bedroom design, this bedroom sets off the colors using the bright white walls and floors. Very clean, crisp and fresh!
This vignette brings the ocean inside with the use of shells on the table. The zebra ottoman introduces an African flare. Kind of a juxtaposition of styles but it works. Where’s the turquoise you ask…I know…so we’ll just say there’s a drop of blue in the wall color! 
I absolutely love the color of this door! This is the type of vibrant color you see in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Again, I used the “Chip It” button to create the palette for this photo.
Another vibrant combination of these colors. Most of the rooms using this color palette do the turquoise on the wall but if you want to get bold try reversing it. This room looks like it wood be on the other side of the door above.
What a great painting to backdrop this white sofa. This is inspiring me to get out my canvases and paint! Just in case you’re not inspired yet, here are a few mood boards to get you going…
Turquoise and Orange Inspiration
Love the drapery in this room with the coral border design. Pillows with a great pattern and some gerber daisies to complete the look.
Turquoise and Orange Fabrics
These fabrics are from the Indoor/Outdoor Taza Collection…a lot of great designs for your outdoor furniture.
So with all of this turquoise and orange inspiration, I know I’m ready to start a project using this color palette. Have you used these two colors in one of your projects? I’d love to see what you’ve done using these two beautiful colors.
Image Sources: Pinterest, Houzz, House of Turquoise, Morgan Harrison Home, Lonny, EJ Interiors, Emily Followill, House Beautiful, Design Seeds, Elle Decor
Do you know what Search Engine Optimization is?
Well don’t feel bad, we didn’t either until a few months ago. So let me give you a brief introduction of what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is. Basically, SEO means that a website or pages on a website are created and optimized so that search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo can find them when someone is doing a search for a specific keyword. Proper search engine optimization of your website over time will generate more potential clients and leads to your business by reaching a higher placement in the search engines when a keyword is searched. For example, since I am an interior designer in Orange County California, we had our site optimized using specific keywords like “Orange County interior designer” and incorporated these words into the content and tags of the pages on our website. Not only did this help the search engines find our pages easier, but the pages were “optimized” so that our page lists at the top of Google for a particular “keyword”. Here’s a video that explains a bit more about search engine optimization (SEO)…
It is important that you focus on a list of keywords that are relevant to your business and to the market you wish to attract. There is a science to this that continues to change and evolve based on the search engines algorithms and formulas. There is a lot to learn about all the different strategies used to get you listed on page one of the search engines for a specific keyword. That is why our design firm turned to SEO for Interior Designers for some help. After doing a bit of research, what we realized is how important it is to keep a website constantly changing and evolving with new content. This will keep our customers coming back to our site to find fresh and new things. We selected SEO for Interior Designers over many other companies doing SEO simply because they tailor and customize websites and SEO campaigns especially for the interior design trade and architects. Click on their logo below to learn more about the company we can’t stop raving about.
Here’s what they do:
They research relevant keywords for our design firm and create “Search Engine Optimized” pages using those keywords. These keyword optimized pages have driven more traffic to our website and business as they are designed to rank in the top 10 spots on Google searches.
They also trained us to manage our own website. We used to have to call our web designer to update everything. We couldn’t add or delete a product or even a photo to our portfolio. Because of the difficulty in making these changes, our website became stagnant and outdated. For many years our website was simply lost in cyberspace and really only visited if we handed out a business card with our web address on it. Now after a few training courses from SEO for Interior Designers we can blog, add and delete content and keep things new and exciting for our customers. In just a few months you can see the amount of traffic that we have generated. As a matter of fact our visitors have doubled every month since we began 3 months ago and leads and phone calls have followed. From nothing 3 months ago to now 3,039 Pageviews!
3 Month Traffic to our Website
SEO for Interior Designers offers affordable internet marketing services and web design for interior designers nationwide. So contact them today and they’ll get your website generating leads for you! It worked for us and it will work for you.
Interior Design Showroom Bliss Linens
One of my favorite places for home furnishings, bedding and home accessories in Orange County, Calfornia is Bliss Home located on Pacific Coast Highway in Corona Del Mar. The owner and interior designer behind it all is Ohara Davies-Gaetano. If you’re an interior designer or just someone looking for inspiration, there is always something new, fresh and exciting at this store. It’s easily seen from the street with its bright orange painted storefront. All of the pieces there seem to have a story behind them. The finishes are impeccable and only achieved by time and weathering. From old stone pots to coral and sea life, one is bound to be overstimulated visually by all there is to see. And not only are the pieces beautiful they are arranged and set up in wonderful displays and vignettes. Some of the other highlights of the store are the luxurious bed linens and pillows. The way they’re made up makes you want to jump right in. Many of the walls have bright beautiful colors of Venetian plaster and the entry wood floor looks like an old distressed, hand painted fresco.
- Aqua Blue and White Clock Vignette
This is one example of the many beautiful vignettes you will see. Here a large rustic clock in white and aqua blue backdrop this vignette flanked by old rustic candle sticks and coral.
- Coastal Living Room Design
- Coastal Living Room Design
Using the same color palette as the photos above, neutrals with an accent of aqua blue give this coastal living room design a pop of color. If you’ve got a beach cottage you’ll love this place for all of the sea and ocean artifacts they offer.
- Butterfly Artwork and Zebra Ottoman Vignette
Nature is brought into this vignette with butterfly artwork and a zebra ottoman
- Transitional Dining Room Design
In this dining room design, rust colored leather chairs surround a large, dark wood table. The modern, abstract art mixes nicely with the juxtaposition of the old distressed columns.
- Tall Armoire Vignette
Love the scale of this armoire with the detailed front doors and the large wooden spheres.
- Rustic and Neutral Vignette Design
Another beautiful example of one of the many displays…love all the neutral colors, finishes and the large giant clam.
- Shelving Unit Vignette
An iron shelving unit shows off more sea inspired accessories.
- Blue and Green Bedroom Design
A colorful bedroom design using blue and green bed linens and pillows.
- Bliss Store Display
A rust sofa is backed by an antique mirror displayed in the Orange County interior design showroom
Now that I’ve given you a little taste of this Orange County interior design showroom, do yourself a favor and go check out what interior designer Ohara Davies-Gaetano is up to. Trust me you won’t be disappointed and more than likely you’ll leave inspired with new ideas.
All photos via Bliss HomeOrange County interior designer Chris Givan takes a field trip to Bliss Home in Corona Del Mar, California. Interior design topics such as living room design, dining room design, bedroom design, Venetian plaster and butterfly artwork are featured.
With the hectic and stressful lives that many of us lead today, the bedroom is a good place to escape, unwind and recharge. So many times a bedroom ends up being a place of clutter and disarray instead of a haven that it should be. If you dream of turning your bedroom in to a world of tranquility, then why not start today. As one of the top interior designers in Orange County we can assist you with the bedroom design of your dreams.
Modern Bedroom Design in Black and White
There are many advantages of working with a professional kitchen designer…
Designing your ultimate kitchen should be well thought out and planned. Before you begin your project, spend some time looking through interior design magazines and books to gather all of the ideas you’d like to see incorporated into your kitchen design. Once you have a clear understanding of what it is you’re trying to accomplish, look into consulting with a kitchen design specialist. They will be able to help you work through the interior design process, bring ideas to the table that you hadn’t thought of and in the long run prevent you from making costly mistakes.
Hamptons Style Kitchen
When should you start staging your home?
The process of getting a home ready to sell should begin before the realtor is brought in. Too often the home seller waits until the last minute to seek advice about the staging of the home.
Show-ability = Profitability
You live in your home but you are selling a house. The first step is to remove the personality of the current owner so that potential buyers do not feel they are just “visiting” someone’s house, but that they are looking at their new “Home”.
A $100 value – Call us today and set up an appointment at 714.542.5213
Christopher James Interiors (CJ-interiors)is one of the premier interior design firms in Southern California. The firm has been helping homeowners turn their dreams for a beautifully designed home into reality since 1994. Whether it’s new construction or a remodel, we will design your home to match your taste and lifestyle. Our team is devoted to understanding your individual needs and ideas to ensure that your vision is realized from the design conceptualization stage to the final installation and construction of the project.
- Interior Design/Decorating (all rooms)
- Exterior Design
- Remodel Design
- Home Staging to help sell your home
- Custom Furniture Services (placement and selection)
- Custom window treatments/drapery
- Commercial Design
- Space planning (perfect for small business)
- Hospitality Design (hotel and restaurants)
- Paint Services (selection of colors, faux finishes, murals, venetian plasters)
- Flooring – wood and tile (selection and installation)
- Electrical/Lighting Services
- Art/Floral Arrangements (selection and placement)
- Wall units/Cabinetry/Built-ins
Our team is made up of licensed professionals who provide top-of-the line, reliable, and guaranteed services while offering competitive bidding. Please Visit our showroom or Contact us:
Take advantage of our complimentary ($100 value) and see how easy it can be to turn your design dreams into reality.
A taste of our work:
BEFORE AND AFTER:
“We love our home and could not have done it without you! You truly understood our lifestyle and taste and turned it into more than we could have imagined.” Kris J., Villa Park, CA
Chris Givan, Owner and Head Interior Designer of Christopher James Interiors. “Customer satisfaction is not only our priority, but what we thrive on. I will make sure that this is accomplished in your project by maintaining a high level of communication with you through every step of the Interior Design Process. I welcome you to visit our showroom or browse our website to to learn more about our firm and the services we offer. Our design styles include contemporary, transitional, Cape Cod, traditional, French country, Tuscan, California Ranch, Montecito and the currently popular Tommy Bahama look. But it’s always a style interpretation that’s unique to each homeowner. Please visit our Portfolio to view more examples of our work and our Products section for specific items for your home.”
Thanks for stopping by and we hope to be working with you very soon!
Additional services we offer: Interior design, interior decorating, new construction or remodels, room design, furniture selection and placement, custom furniture, wall units, built-ins, accessory and art selection and placement, floral arrangements, silk plants and florals, custom bedspreads, children’s rooms, home staging, kitchen design, offices, libraries, conference rooms, paint selection and color consulting, painting, faux painting, murals, wall paper, floor coverings, tile, marble, travertine, wood floors, carpet, custom area rugs, lighting, window coverings, window treatments, shades, blinds, shutters, custom draperies and valances, verticals, kitchen remodels, bath remodels, granite selection, stone and ceramic tile, exterior design, environmental design, landscape design, retail, restaurant design, commercial design and small business design, Venetian plaster, Venetian plasters, home staging to sell home, drapery, interior decoration
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