Sarasota Design Company

04/11/2023

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03/21/2022

I love Shakespeare. You know I come by that honestly because my mother was an English professor back in the day, but I digress. ART. It's the very first thing you should think of when you're designing a room. Why...because everything coming together in an interesting, pleasing and effectual way is a...

03/09/2022

I love Boho, the whimsy of it makes me happy. If I have a client who wants something a little bit out of the ordinary that looks like it wasn't born yesterday, I'm all about it. Maybe it's getting older, but I think the world needs to be just a little more relaxed and unconcerned with so much perfec...

02/06/2022

We hardly ever think about it unless we're building a new home or moving into a new place but only then because it's empty and we actually see the effect of it. Yes, it's LIGHTING and it matters. Lighting fixtures have traversed a crazy broad spectrum in recent years. They run the gamut from King Ar...

01/29/2022

WHAT’S RUGS GOT TO DO WITH, do with it?
What’s rugs but a second handed notion. 🙄

Back in the day rugs were a highly prized item, either an original Oriental or a respectable imitation. But the 1960’s changed all that with the advent of olive green wall to wall. Then there was s**g of course, which made a relatively dynamic comeback: Shout out to Pottery Barn Teen.

RUGS were and should be, ART. Done well, they can change the whole dynamic of a room. And in fact, Sarasota has a store called Rugs as Art where they do a ridiculously great business. In fairness there is so much tile down here they can hardly help themselves.

Now, it would seem that rugs have become a mere afterthought in decorating. They come in every flavor of gray and neutral. Shout out to Pottery Barn big people. Add some blue and you can have the neighbors over without shame and still get the kids to soccer on time….once you paint. And in truth, there is nothing wrong with that scenario. There are plenty of other things to stress about besides what your floor is wearing.

But the true test of whether a rugs works is SCALE. And in fact, most rugs are notoriously underscaled. Why? In my experience it has to do with cost. The fact that the price goes up about 60% from an 8x10 to a 9x12 can deter the average American shopper and, even the not so average. It’s the loom sizes. This along with the fact that Homegoods, provider of rugs to the masses, doesn’t carry as many larger sizes.

I have never met a 9x12 I didn’t like in the average American living room. Ya know why? Because rugs should technically go at least 6” under the front of your sofa, and about 2 feet out from each side of the sofa to encompass the side tables. Then it should also catch the feet of other chairs in the room landing roughly about one foot in front of the entertainment piece. Get the tape measure! 🧐

The truth is that hardly anything you do in decorating will add as much new life, style and color to a space as a rug. There is isn’t a much better way show you how it changes a space than with 3D.

Do you agree?!

01/23/2022

The Hidden Room…
Originally, the entrance was a linen closet and the bedroom was supposed to be accessed from the main living area which I thought was a little hard on privacy and potential noise level.

So we created an entrance through the linen closet and put a beautiful coastal armoire in it for the bed and bath linens. It’s hard to show the scale in pictures but it really works nicely.

Armoire
Bed
Chair
Dresser chest
Bed lamps
Lamp
Hall Lights
Fan
Door hardware

01/19/2022

WHEN IS WHITE...RIGHT?

Everyone loves the idea of painting white as in Sherwin Willams Extra White, Pure White or Crisp Linen. And why wouldn't we, they all sound so refreshing and in fact, cleansing even.

Some of us are getting just a little tired of the gray we thought would be so serene that now looks kind of dull, in truth. But is white or any variation of it really the answer you're looking for to give your home that new and updated feeling? Maybe.

Every white is an animal of its own and once you get it home, like that dear little rescue dog, it may not feel quite at home in your space just yet. White has a mind of its own. It may go nursery yellow or gray or even the much dreaded pink...which apparently is a win in a prison; calms people down, just sayin.

White, like any other color, has a cool side, a warm side and a positively sterile side that may not look so good with one; the furniture you did 5 years ago and two; your furniture style, let's say anything in cherry.

What any light color will do is draw attention to the other elements in the room. Let's just say it "highlights" them. That's why when you see white in a light and bright spartanly furnished loft apartment, it looks ever so airy and wonderfully spacious. And the furniture doesn't look too shabby either. Literally.

In fact, most of what you see is picked up, carefully picked out and fluffed up for the photo shoot. I don't know, I think that's only life if you don't work from home, pick up every single night and never inherited your grandmother's furniture.

And hey, what color is your cabinetry? White? What color of white? Is the umber in the base of the white you fell in love with at the paint store going to make your cabinetry look gray and dingy? And we haven't even talked about flooring.

So if you're peeling those white paint chips off your wall right now, I can't say I blame you. But if you are ready to throw off all restraint, out with the old and in with the new...YOU GO WHITE... GIRL!

* In the photo below is a Client's home I did in Venice, Florida.
The color on the wall is one of my favorites with its fresh, sun catching warmth with undertones of gray: Egret White SW7570