When it comes to decorative terms, “French Provincial” is more or less “French Country”. This style of interior decoration from the French provinces came to the forefront during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Decorating the French provincial kitchen entails either rough and whitewashed walls or smooth walls that are covered in beautiful wallpaper.

The floors are not left out as plain terracotta, hexagonal and reddish colored tiles, are used or alternatively, intricate laying of clay tiles that are colorfully glazed. The furniture used is all painted and other times, straw seated chairs are used. One thing that makes this pattern of decoration unique and popular is the adoption of bright fabrics which could range from tiny floral designs to wide paisley designs.

To achieve that traditional kitchen look while decorating the French provincial kitchen, the walls of the kitchen are painted in warm and milky white. What if milky white is not your favorite color? No need to fret, you can alternatively go for violet blue, muddied sea green, washed out ocher or even light gray.

The cupboards are not left out. Your cabinets should be below the countertop with open shelving pattern adopted which allows you to display your collection of glassware and crockery.  There are lower cabinets that are designed with doors while others are open and in such cases, the home owner mounts colorful printed cottons across the cabinet’s opening. In decorating the French provincial kitchen, you may decide to wax the raw wood used or paint the cabinets with milk colored paint.

A French provincial décor offers a welcoming warmth which makes it terrific for gathering around the kitchen table.

Open concept room design is a popular design decision in new homes and renovations. Done correctly, open concept creates large, open spaces that retain dedicated space for different functions. A contemporary dining area adjacent to a sleek, open kitchen feels like one large room. The dark kitchen cabinetry recedes into the corner to anchor the kitchen.

Open concept allows for larger furniture pieces, like a long rectangular white dining table that seats 10. Clean lines of the cabinets, counter, buffet and table keep the space feeling contemporary and create a clean background for art and accessories. One large scale art work, like a photograph or print, anchors the wall but doesn’t take away from the open, airy feel like a gallery wall of many artworks might. White walls are balanced by light floors further offsetting the dark cabinets in the kitchen area. A white counter top of quartz or Ceasarstone ties the kitchen in with the rest of the space. Large floor tiles with thin grout lines have the feeling of a single slab, making the space feel larger.

In a contemporary space, clean lines are key. Recessed lighting carefully placed around the space creates zones of lighting that optimally would be on dimmers to change the look and feel of the room as needed. A central pendant or chandelier over the dining table would also work in this space.

Even a contemporary space needs some personal touches to feel like home. Flowers in sleek vases add color and texture to this sleek dining room and kitchen.

Chinoiserie is not a thing of a traditional past. There are a many ways to achieve a modern-chinoisere style. Modern styles differ from traditional Chinoiserie, by the simplified factor of minimalism. In today’s Zen environments, less is more. The proof lies within the peaceful atmosphere created.

Modern Chinoiserie is very balanced and simplified with mixtures of natural elements. Geometric/Symmetrical motifs and forms are placed in an asymmetrical, yet balanced manner. Furniture and accents are lacquered in bright bold colors, such as red, royal blue, emerald green etc. The bright colors add a modern flare to this style of design.

Plants and grasses are the types of greenery used to enhance the natural feeling you are achieving. Bamboo stalks and other grass type plants look natural in a smooth plain (or antiqued) piece of pottery. Various earth tone terracotta planters, work neatly within a Zen atmosphere. Plain or antiqued glazed terracotta adds a simplified modern element. Choose smooth, round, and clean shaped planters; further achieving the modern sense of Zen.

Hints of carved wood motifs should be found in small detail, on furniture and accents. Water is also widely used in these spaces. Water promotes peace and creativity. Adding a smaller water detail can be achieved thru the use of tabletop fountains, wall mount or freestanding water features.

Designing a Modern Zen space will most likely remain aesthetically pleasing and last in a classical manner that never goes out of style, just as the ever-classical style of traditional Chinoiserie.

Let artwork set the color palette for a room. Choose a large scale work of art and create a colorway based off of the key colors in the painting, print, or photograph. Or in this case, a vintage school map. Vintage maps have wonderful colors and can inspire a colorful room, like this living room.

Neutral tones in flooring and walls allow accessories and accent furniture to carry the color. A neutral area rug on dark wood floors anchors the seating area. Investment pieces like rugs and big furniture, like a sofa, are best upholstered in neutral, solid fabrics. As the seasons and your taste change, colorful pillows and throws can be added or changed to suit the mood or style. Neutrals can include whites, grays, tans, browns or black. Accent chairs and other small furniture pieces, like ottomans and side tables, can be great opportunities to add color to a room. Blue side chairs in this living room are a cheerful addition.

Throw pillows, objects and lamps can be found in a rainbow of colors. Vintage, antique or vintage inspired pieces give a room character. Pick one, two or three main colors for a unified look. Based off of the wall map, blue, yellow and green are the accent colors for this room. These colors are carried throughout, including the throw on the side chairs. A mix of pattern on the sofa’s throw pillows adds further interest to the room. Mixing patterns keeps things from feeling too staged or overdone.

Using color to unify two spaces is elegantly achieved in this living room designed by Candice Olson.  Many newer homes are designed with open concept living, dining and kitchen areas and older homes are being remodeled to open up walls to create multifunctional spaces.  These open concept spaces can present a design challenge as they have different functions and needs.  This living room and dining area achieves a uniform look, yet the spaces maintain their individuality.

Shimmery blue damask patterned wallpaper on both the living room and dining room walls is the biggest design element that unifies the spaces into one cohesive design.  The wallpaper is a soft color that works for both areas.  Accent colors of gold and pale gray also flow between the two areas. Cream and gold can be seen in the chandelier and table lamp of the living room as well as the gold tones of the dining room chandelier.

The crown molding from the dining room is continued into the living area.  A single flooring choice, in this case wide plank wood floors, flows between the areas making the space feel bigger.  Light area rugs anchor both the seating area in the living room and the dining table. The rugs are not exact copies of each other but have a very similar hue to them.

The cream on the sectional nicely relates to the soft fabric room divider.  This pair of curtains hung between the spaces creates a soft divide that helps frame the individual spaces while maintaining the open feeling of the rooms.

Black walls are dark and scary for most of us.  Painting or wallpapering a room in black is definitely a bold design move, but can also be elegant as well as dramatic. This dark, moody foyer proves that black walls can be beautiful. Black may only be for the brave when it comes to wall color. Why not be one of the brave?

The slight shimmer to the wallpaper helps to reflect light and reveal the subtle pattern. Trimmed in crisp white, the walls recede and make the small footprint feel bigger.  Shimmer and pattern keep the wallpaper from looking like blackboard paint or flat paint, both of which are current trends in design. The lattice pattern is also a popular pattern in today’s designs. You can find it on fabrics and rugs as well as wallpapers.

Glossy finishes to the black painted mirror and trestle base table help them stand out in the dark space. A mirror brings more light into the room by reflecting natural light and light from the classic glass pendant.  The clear glass pendant adds light but doesn’t try to compete with the pattern of the wallpaper.

White accents, like a ceramic garden seat, add spots of light as well as provide contrast.  The dark wood floor suits the moody space. A white painted floor would lighten up the foyer dramatically, and change the entire feeling of the room. White flowers and a white matted framed work of art add additional spots of contrasting white.  Try out a few of these tips and see how far you want to take it!

When it comes to choices of flooring, the options are endless especially now that flooring trends tend to become more and more interesting and out of the ordinary. You are not only to the limited to the traditional types like vinyl tiles and hardwood floorings. If you happen to go for unique styles and long to add a new twist to their home, you can get as innovative as you want.

One emerging trend in flooring today is called handscraped flooring. Handscraped flooring is sometimes mistaken as distressed flooring; although they are similar in a lot of ways. In fact, handscraped flooring is a type of distressed flooring. However, they differ in how they are made. Distressed floorings are manufactured by machines while handscraped floors are, needless to say manually created. Essentially, this technique has been used by trained craftsmen, one group called the Amish wood workers way back during the 19^th century. They take great care when it comes to their work and they produce quality products.

The great thing about handscraped floors is that no plank is the same. unlike  the distressed types that are machine milled. Machine milled ones follow a certain pattern so each plank looks the same. They may mimic uniqueness but if you have a keen eye, you can easily spot a machine made from a handscraped one once the floors are installed.

If you plan to have handscraped floorings installed, we recommend that you use darker woods since they can bring out the best in your floor by enhancing the lines and grooves on the wood.

Dark and light, matte and shiny. Contrasts add interest to a room. This dining room uses contrast to create some unexpected design twists. Dark walls and light furniture flip the more common formula of dark furnishings against white or cream walls. Flat and reflective surfaces mix things up to create contrast between textures.

The dark walls make the room feel dramatic and intimate. Dark floors continue the dramatic, yet cozy feel. These dark colors are the perfect offset for the crisp white furniture. The glossy white buffet, table and chairs are the focus against the darker backdrop of browns.

The grass cloth covered walls have loads of texture. This texture contrasts against the high gloss polished surfaces of the sleek white furniture. The mirror’s reflective surface is another bit of sparkle against the flat texture of the wall. High gloss paint trim and a dark, polished floor add further shine to surfaces.

Pale blue glass lamps complement the contrasting gold of the curtains, chandelier and mirror frame. The cool blue gives a nice contrast to the warm tones of the browns and golds in the room. A single red object on the buffet completes the triadic color scheme of blue, yellow and red.

Rather than rely on pattern and tons of color, this modern dining room uses contrast to create an inviting, sophisticated space. There is a subtle pattern of brown and white on the chair seats and with the chair backs, but otherwise solid swaths of color dominate the space.

Prior to deciding on flooring ideas for the home office, it is important that you remember floors cover a vast amount of space in the home, the type of flooring you choose for your home office will go a long way to make or break the entire design or decoration of the room.

Based on this, it becomes necessary that you consider the level of traffic that will be associated with your home office. If the traffic is such that it will be heavy, it is better to use a type of flooring that is durable and can stand the test of time and traffic. Using a carpet is not the ideal choice in this case since steady traffic tends to make the carpet look dull with time. What then are the best flooring ideas for the home office?

If from your evaluations, the traffic into your home office will not be much and secondly, you are on a tight budget, carpet becomes a solid option for your home office. From your evaluations, the traffic to your home office will be much and you wonder what flooring option that will last for you. This calls for hard flooring ideas for the home office.

Research has shown that most of the hard flooring options are durable and last for a long time which makes it worthwhile if you need home office flooring that will last no matter the level of traffic in the room. You can either choose any of the stone, tile or hardwood flooring options.