Wednesday, February 03, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
What is the feeling of the room? You should utilize colors that fit your emotional desires for the room. If you are looking for a restful room, such as a bed room or family room use colors with a darker color which relates to the restfulness mood (brown, greens, blues). If the room has an active mood utilize colors such as reds and yellows to create the perfect atmosphere and feeling you get when the room is in use.
It’s your room and the colors you select should reflect your emotions and the feeling you want to display. Emotion decorating is an important part of who you are and what you want your rooms to represent. Remember you live in the rooms and they should be you and who you are. There is no right or wrong.
Cheers,
Jan
Window Bonnets
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Set the mood for your room by utilizing contrasting colors. Set a high contrast room by the use of light and dark color contrasts (example: burgundy and gold). This will definitely define the formality of the room.
The use of contrasting softer colors (pastels, yellows and light colors) or low contrast will define the soothing qualities or mood of the room.
The use of contrasting colors such as black and white (which are defined not as color but the addition or subtraction of color) will set the very formal feeling while the use of, say, white and beige, will enhance the calmness of the room. If you use black and white but want a room with a restful atmosphere try adding a grey tone to create a low key, calm feeling.
With the use of contrasting colors you design and create the mood.
Find more examples in our Living Room Gallery:
Cheers,
Jan
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Can’t decide about the color scheme? Let the room decide. What is your dominate pattern? Is it in the drapes, the upholstery, a Southwest rug? This is ever so much easier and less expensive than painting the walls some really super color and finding that nothing in the room really goes with it.
Let’s say your southwest rug has reds, greens, earth tones. For example take the 60% red, 30% greens and 10% earth tones, or maybe 60% green, 30% earth & 10% red, just make the 60 that color that best says “you.”
Sounds simple, so what’s the catch? Colors are driven by the market… remember the olive green and harvest gold of the 60’s, the 80’s seemed to have a blue undertone to everything. The reds had a cool “blueness” to them, and the greens could be best be called sea foam (green with blue undertone). Thankfully today we enjoy a trendy undertone of yellow, thus producing “sage” greens, “hot” reds and “lilac” blues. Keep this in mind as you select your color scheme.
The Window Bonnet cornice pictured at the top takes a part of the pattern in the fabric from the sofa to cover the center. It is a great match for the color scheme and "feel" of the room, see more pictures at this link:
Cheers,
Jan
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Ever look into a room and wonder why it just really seems to look great? Most likely it is because the designer or decorator has used the 60/30/10 rule regarding color. Simply put 60% is the hue, the dominant color unifiying the room, 30% provides the visual interest, and the last 10% provides that "bling", i.e. the room sparkle or that visual kick in the rear that makes your eyes widen and that smile come across your face. How and why this rule seems to work is anyone's guess. Possibly the dominant color makes you feel grounded, the interest lifts you to say "Okkkk, this works" and that final bit takes you by surprise, makes you smile maybe even exclaim "Wow!" At any rate, how we can translate this for those of us who are not designers, decorators or color experts but just want our homes to look good, feel good and get comments from our guests. From the folks at hgtv.com, they have the perfect metaphor, try this and see what you think:"60% of a dominant color
30% of a secondary color
10% of an accent color
When you think about it, this color breakdown is similar to a man's business suit:
60% of the outfit's color is the slacks and jacket
30% of the outfit's color is the shirt
10% of the outfit's color is the tie
Translated to a room setting, it typically means:
60% of the room's color is the walls
30% of the room's color is the upholstery
10% of the room's color is, say, an accent piece or a floral arrangement"
Now if you put our cornices in perspective to this design tip, use the cornice to bring in the uphostery with an accent color. Or use the cornice top and bottom to bring in the walls or flooring and the center of the cornice to add the "bling." If you have concerns, 9 times out of 10 if you go with fabrics and colors that just make you feel good, you will have won the decorating battle and created a great look. Afterall you want to feel good in the room. Use those fun trims like beads and tassels to zing the bling into your cornice and thus the room. The possibilities are endless.
So relax, take a look around the room. Take the couch throw pillow along, a sample of the tile, a paint chip of the walls, even a scrap of the upholstery fabric and head off to the local fabric store and see what will make your perfect cornice decor.
Let me know how it works out....
Cheers
Jan
Window Bonnets
http://www.windowbonnets.com/
Check out our gallery of homes.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
The Window Bonnets cornice kit is decorated by cutting three strips of fabric (your choice, any fabric will work) to cover the top, middle, and bottom contours. Match your floors, your walls, your couch, your rooms can only be enhanced by your choices. This blog will give you some tips and tricks about measuring and calculating your required fabric strips for the design you have chosen.You will be using fabric strips to cover each contour of your window cornice.To determine the length of your fabric strips
Smooth look:
Take the width of your Window plus 27”.
Gathered look:
Take the width of your Window plus 27 and multiply that by 2 to 3 depending on how “full” you want the look to be. NOTE: 3 times the width works best with thin materials. Thick materials work best at 2 times.
Pleated look:
Take the Window plus 20” and multiply by 3. Pleating takes more fabric than the other looks.
To determine the width of your fabric strips
Check the Diagram below for the height cornice you have purchased to determine the width of your strips.
In addition for a ...
Smooth look:
When using a very light-weight fabric you may want to cut it adding 1 1/2” even 2” to the asurement so when you tuck it into the groove it makes for a tighter fit. With heavier fabrics (i.e. upholstery or drapery fabric) the 1” should be wide enough. Sometimes you will need to trim that down just a little also. But do any extra trimming of the strip after you have it tucked into one side of the cornice.
Gathered look:
Add up to 3” to the measurement shown on the applicable cornice diagram depending on how puffy you want the gathers to look.
Pleated look:
Add only 1” to the measurement shown on the applicable cornice diagram.
Fabrics with patterns If you are using fabric with a pattern preventing you from cutting strips the length of your cornice, either “match” the pattern or use a decorative touch to cover it.
Fabric Strip Hints
To match lightweight patterned fabrics use the fusible tape and overlap 1/2”, press to fuse so the seam does not come apart. To match heavier patterned fabrics, take a piece of lightweight material, cut 1 1/2” length and the width of the pattern material. Place this piece on an ironing surface, and cover with the fusible tape. Now trim the patterned fabric edge cleanly and “butt” fit the two pieces together over the lining material. Press carefully to fuse. Once up these seams will be invisible.
Other Bits & Pieces
When decorating your cornice, cover the top and bottom rolls first, the middle second, and the back last if covering that part. Generally speaking it is a bit more difficult to work with very thin fabrics as they do not hold tight in the tuck groove. In the center tuck grooves the double material thickness usually holds both tightly. But where the material seems loose (in the back tuck groove), get some cording at the hardware store that is a bit thicker than the tuck groove. After tucking the fabric, push the cord into the groove to hold it tight.
