Name: Rosie
Location: Phoenix
Type: Renter
Why I use color: I have always chosen to use color in furnishing and accessories, because I want the warmth of the color to make my family and guests to feel comfortable and stimulated. I love to add to the areas unique pieces in lighting. Wall art is framed in monochromatic colors and textures to create a dramatic wall display. Furniture is uniform in style with a wing back shape, dining chairs are a mixture of colored leather, and sofa/chair have colorful fabric with a soft feel, dining table and end table are metal and glass. I also have a wood/glass cabinet, and the cherry color of the finish gives the additional warmth of color. Color on walls has always been a finishing touch that is an important asset when decorating. However, when living in a rental, painting the walls is not always an option people such as I take. When we purchase a home next year, I will paint the living and dining walls to accent my existing furnishings and art in the following Sherwin Williams colors. Gambol Gold, Funky Yellow, Nankeen
No disrespect, but... How does this home relate to the contest?
sorry but a big world of 'no'!
I'm sorry but it's terrible.
1. The fabric on the lounge chair looks very doctor's office waiting room to me. Nice color, bad design.
2. The art near the dining table doesn't go with anything. It's too pastel and dated.
3. The "contemporary" dining chairs look too 80's
4. Vertical blinds!
5. The art above the console is crooked, tacky and the wrong scale. The lamp seems random in style.
Overall, I think it just looks cheap and lifeless.
I don't get it...
I'm curious about those three lovely hanging orange lights in the first shot - how did you install those in a rental?
This all looks very 1980s to me. If that's what you were going for, then good job.
Lets try to work with what you've got here: nice lights (the orange ones). Nice dining room chairs. Funky black and white lamp shade. The sofa chair... I am sure it is comfy, so you want to keep it. Consider making (or buying) a cover for it. I think the colors of the nicer items could be your color scheme. As in the dining chairs (robins egg blue, white, black) and the Parisian cafe-esque lamp. And the orange could be your accent colors. Get TWO of your artwork/photos enlarged and put them on your walls. Paint your walls in your new home a simple color or two per room.
You can make it work!!!!
D
And REAL plants and flowers! Try jade- if I can't kill it no one can!
hire someone. fast.
I agree with the "work with what's here" idea. I think the carpet has a terribly blanding (if that's a word) effect; the whole room would look very different with wooden floors. It's a rental, so you don't have much choice on that, I'm assuming, but the decor would work much better without the carpet. The vertical blinds-- some kind of dramatic window treatment, instead of those blinds, and the room would come together and lose the generic feel. The funky black and white lamp is great, as are the three orange lights over the table-- those are lovely. And props for taking the chance to enter the contest; it takes courage to offer your home up for comment.
I liked your blog, btw. :)
...but where's the COLOR?
The orange lights are amazing I would love to know where I could get some. Your overall selection of lighting is wonderful.
I voted no. I don't see anything innovative or interesting here. In fact, my first impression was that these were "Before" pictures.
What little color there is doesn't work. The muted, golden-autumnal tones in the chair clash with the bright, relatively cool-toned colors in the artwork. They also don't harmonize with the cool metallics of the tables. The pattern of the chair's tapestry upholstery is very dated--it screams 1996--and stylistically it clashes with the industrial-modern tables and sleek lamps.
That arrangement of pictures and mirrors over the console table drives me nuts--it's a jumble. Grouping smaller works of art like this is a good idea, but they have to be arranged in a harmonious way. You can't just nail them up in any old fashion. The way the corners of those two frames are nearly touching is incredibly dissonant.
The furniture is boring to the point of anonymity, but you do have some interesting lamps. I like the black-and-white striped shade on the one in the second photo; it's by far the most interesting thing in these pictures. The drop lights in the dining room add a nice color, but they are much too small for such a tall space and are overpowered by the much bigger, brighter floor lamp in the corner.
I know that as a renter you're stuck with landlord-greige carpet, decorator-white walls, and those hideous vertical blinds. But there have been several rentals entered in this contest that transcend those limitations through the skilled use of color. This just doesn't do it.
Neat lamp in the second photo, but otherwise there just isn't anything going on here.
I agree with D. There's lots of work to do still, but thanks for sharing it with us. I think you can take the Picasso prints you have framed as a starting point- you have a lot of warm elements mixed almost 50/50 with cool. Increase the warmth and texture and the rooms will change a lot.
Rosie
I can see that you have somewhat of an eye for design, being that you are renting has place some limitation on what you are able to do I'm sure. Your lamps are what I draw my eyes to first as they are great. The Picasso and abstract picture are a great addition, I love the way you have used different color chairs in the dining room. I can see you have what it takes to use color in a variety of different ways. Keep up the work.
no.
this chair looks like it belongs at starbucks. actually this whole entry looks like some corporate headquarters of something.
Sorry, I just don't think there's enough color. Since you're renting, you probably can't paint and some apartments come with the blinds, so I'm not gonna rip you on stupid stuff like that. All your tables and lamps are really great. But I'd cover the chair or get it reupholstered unless you're really attached to the pattern. You seem to like those colors, but since none of the colors really stand out in it right now, I'd get it in one color. I think some sort of window treatment would really help. Even if you can't take down the blinds, I'd add to it.
i get that you're renting, and can't paint the walls, but why did you enter this contest? there really isn't any more color in this apartment than in the average renter's (or a starbucks, or a doctor's office, as some people have pointed out). i'm confused.
Ok I am sorry but a piece of art and a bad chair does not qualify as design.
Now take some of those colors from the chair and paint or throw some rich curtains up with some huge (like take up the whole wall pieces of art) and maybe you can be a contestant next year!
Gracie b
I live in an apartment and understand your challenges, I really like what you have done and wish I could think of ways to decorate the way you have. I am curious about your dining room lights as they are really nice. You are so talented to take something as blane as an apartment and do something like what you have share with us all.
i'm sorry, but i agree that this is very bland. you have some interesting elements in the orange and b/w lighting, but there's NO color otherwise. this room just looks soul-less to me.