pull your sofa OFF the wall!

In honor of "pull your sofa off the wall month" I'm sharing some of my favorite client transformations with you.

Moving the furniture around in your rooms can transform a space in ways you cannot imagine until you do it (or hire somebody to do it!).

This wonderful client hired me to help with color, window treatments, accessories, flooring and while we were at it, we rearranged the furniture in this difficult living room.

The room had a large sofa, love seat and matching chair, in addition to a few tables. The challenge was a doorway on one wall, two windows on another and french doors on a 3rd.

We found a great arrangement during a "mini-redesign," completed in under an hour with the help of the client.

(before, the furniture was all placed against walls, but was too far apart for conversation;
oh, and there's the issue of the wall color, window treatments and carpet, but we took care of that too!)

(after, we removed the large upholstered chair and moved the love seat off the wall to form a conversation area with the sofa. Once the color and floors were complete, we accessorized and added an area rug to anchor the space).

(after, floor plan — we added a side chair and table across from the sofa and love seat.
this arrangement promotes conversation and leaves room for foot traffic from the doorway to the french doors.)


(before, love seat and sofa across from each other, but too far apart for people seated there to really interact).

(after, a place to sit and chat, with room for getting around and through the room).

Ideas for great spaces:

• Consider breaking up matching furniture sets to create a more modern look,
  
• Not all pieces from a set need to be in the same room and often don't always fit in one room (we moved the large chair to the master bedroom in this house),
• Switch pieces with other rooms to create great pairings with your existing pieces,
  
• Add a throw and pillows to break up a matching set that need to stay together.
  

One sofa remained against the wall, but the other pieces came out of hiding and joined the party!

If you have multiple openings (doors, doorways and windows) and traffic flow challenges in a room in your home, consider bringing your furniture off the wall — it can make a big difference and give your room new life!

happy decorating.

one day makeover in House Beautiful magazine

I've posted here before that I'm sort of a magazine junkie. One of my favorites, House Beautiful, arrived last week, with its pretty pink cover and a circle call out on the cover that says "The ONE DAY Makeover, Use what you have!"



Yes, that's right, the decor magazines are now featuring a service I call "redesign." You can see a portion of the article on their website.

It begins "who hasn't dreamed of a decorator riding into your life on a white horse and REDOING your living room before the day is over.....watch what he (the decorator) did in just nine hours in this ordinary living room, using what was already there."

Lucky for you you don't have to dream!

Happy redesign!

reduce + reuse + recycle = redesign!

I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon, so the fact that I provide redesign services and redesign is GREEN, does not mean I'm going green to be cool. Really. It's just a lovely coincidence that redesign is green and green is overly hip (and important) right now. Yipee for redesign!

On that note, I'd love to share my first redesign of the year. For this wonderful client, we used only what the family had in the house to recreate their best space. Take a peek.

family room before
(note the great built ins and window seat!)
family room after
(we created a conversation area, better showcased her treasures on the bookcases,
opened up the doorway, and added a hidden storage area behind the sofa!)
front corner before
(nobody sat in this chair because it was separate from the main seating area)

front corner after
(the tele is visible from all seating and doesn't block the door anymore)

fireplace before
(great focal point, but it needed some color and jazz)

fireplace after

(now with colorful art and visual interest)

a few more afters...

A few ideas for future updates include painting the walls a warmer, slightly darker yellow, adding new throw pillows and a blanket for an instant update, maybe adding a very large piece of art behind the sofa, replacing lampshades with colorful shades and adding a round coffee table to the room.

I always offer these suggestions with the note that rooms evolve over time and if you like your foundation and know what to look for in future purchases, you are in great shape. Now sit back and enjoy.

Going GREEN never looked so good

before redesign

Let me start by saying that I believe recycling is important, and not just because it's cool and hip right now. I like doing my part to help better the environment, but enough already with ALL of the articles and publications focusing on "going green." Seems every magazine that I subscribe to has had a "green" issue lately. I'm kinda feeling "green- schmean" (pronounced sh-MEAN).

after redesign

Imagine my surprise and dismay when I realized that one of my main design services, redesign, is a GREEN service. Yep, right there on my website I'm "going green" with redesign. I should be happy because redesign is a GREAT service, offering amazing results for little to no money. I realize that not everyone knows about redesign or understands it, so an obvious way to peak people's interest in it is by jumping on the "green" bandwagon. I'm not typically a joiner, but here I am joining.

Go "green" with redesign.

before redesign

after redesign

Here's how it works, in a nutshell. If you don't like a room in your house, you just can't get it "right," and have tried everything, instead of buying all new furnishing you schedule a redesign and we come in, clear out your room and reload it with your stuff (RECYCLING) and create a NEW room. Wow. Isn't "green" great?

before redesign

after redesign

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. This room produced very happy and "green" homeowners, much to my delight and "green-schmean" dismay!

What's the worst that could happen?

I've been a bit under the weather with a darn cold this past week. This has me behind on posting on my blog, on housekeeping (the little that actually gets done!), on hygiene (c'mon, you all let that slip while blowing your nose constantly), on working out, on work and heck, just behind on life in general. I realized today that I'm in a cold rut. Every night I've been wearing my comfy pants and laying around watching Friday Night Lights on my computer (guilty pleasure). I've been doing nothing.

I like comfy clothes. They are comfortable and way too easy to get used to. I had to toss them in the wash today to start to break the spell. I'm coming back. I'm planning on going at 110% tomorrow to make up for the time lost last week.

My rut got me thinking about my house, your house, our homes. Many of them are in a rut. A big fat rut. It's okay, it happens to everyone. Tonight I am encouraging you to do something about that rut. I know, there are more important things to do aside from un-rutting your house. (I don't really believe that, but felt I had to say it so you feel understood).

Here's the thing. Just like I tossed my comfy clothes in the wash you need to toss your rooms in the spin cycle. Mix them up. Rearrange your rooms. I call it redesign, but you can call it whatever you want.

Find a room in your house that you don't love, that's just okay, and take the art off the walls, take the small pieces out, the accessories, the rugs, the chairs and the tables. Move everything out that you can and look at your room in a new way.

Bring in new things, from other rooms. Yes, from other rooms. Think of all of your furniture as homeless and move it around. A buffet can go in a bedroom, a dresser in a dining room, that piece of art that's ALWAYS been over your bed can go in your office! Really, it's true.

I want you to make the room look different than it looked when you started. Break the rut. And don't stop with one room...mix up a few. What's the worst that could happen?

Think of it as recycling. That's the hip and environmentally friendly thing to do now. You're getting a new room out of your same old stuff! Wow.

What are you waiting for? Spring is right around the corner. Get ready. If you can swing it, buy new, fresh throw pillows to brighten things up. Add new curtains, bring in new green or yellow accessories, toss a new blanket on that chair, add different color lamp shades to your lamps. I'm going to get really crazy here and also add that you could repaint!

What's the worst that could happen? Happy redesigning!

Welcome!

Hi everyone (at least I hope there are a few people reading this!),

2008 holds a big resolution for me -- building a successful new business. I run AFP Interiors, LLC, an interior redesign, staging and decorating business. 

I'm all about decorating, design, color, furniture, paint and art and making it all function together in my home and for my clients. I've never met a room I didn't remember; it's a blessing and a curse. I'm excited to share my passion with others and hope to have some great chats about design for living.

To me that means we have to LIVE in our homes, not just make them look nice. How can we make our homes look good and function even better? Whether it's living with kids, pets, roommates or a combination of all three, it's possible. How do you make it work? What do you need help with?

I'll share my best practices for home decorating, how to work with and around obstacles and how to have fun doing it. 

Happy decorating....

April