Plants/Gardening « Lovejoy Designs

Holiday Dinner with Sarah Palin and Kate Middleton

Posted on December 16th, 2010, in Color, Decorating, DIY, Entertaining, Holidays, Interior Design, Plants/Gardening

Are you hosting a dinner for the holidays? Lovejoy Designs teamed up with award-winning floral design studio, Tangerine Creations. Orly Kohn and her staff put together amazing, sophisticated creations for weddings, special events and parties. I am lucky enough to be down the hall from her studio. Every day I get to walk by her door and see unique and fresh designs coming to life.

So in the spirit of the season, Lovejoy Designs and Tangerine Creations joined forces to create some centerpiece concepts for your holiday entertaining as well as some tips for how to execute a beautiful table.

When I was in design school, we had lots of clients. All of which were completely fictional… One time I designed for comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and another time was Today Show host (at the time), Katie Couric. A room needs a point of view to be designed effectively and that was the whole point of these exercises. Now I have real human clients who I work for that give me endless inspiration and points of view. However, for these holiday creations, I decided to pay homage to my former professors and design around a couple of women in the news.

Two headliners; enter Kate Middleton and Sarah Palin.

PRINCE-WILLIAM-KATE-MIDDLETON-OFFICIAL-ENGAGEMENT-

Much like the rest of the world, I am in awe of Kate Middleton. Her engagement photos done by Mario Testino are so elegant and tasteful. The first centerpiece is designed for her and William’s Christmas feast.

For an elegant place setting, keep it monochromatic. Here, our color palate was grey, white and silver. Most of us don’t have a house that is staged for the bright greens and reds you see during the holidays. Instead work with the interior you have and pull colors from it.

We used ivory colored Spray Roses and Kale.

I was searching the Martha Stewart website and came upon this really pretty napkin ring. You can use any color ribbon and it really was not hard to make! The instructions are here.

However one feels about Sarah Palin, we cannot deny that this woman is busy. With 5 kids, a new book out, a TLC show and regular appearances on news shows, she is on the go! This centerpiece is created for the person that does not have the time to spend creating a fussy table. This one screams easy by scattering carnations and Ranunculus, pods and Ilex berry around the table. We planted an amaryllis plant and yelled for Sarah’s large family to come for dinner!

We used magnolia for the place card here. Magnolia leaves have such a beautiful color to them. The underside has a light brown tone to them with a vibrant green top. We took the leaf and placed it on the salad plate with the place card resting on it.

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Lovejoy Designs Believes

Posted on September 29th, 2010, in Art, Color, Decorating, Feather headdress, Interior Design, Lighting, Paper goods, Plants/Gardening, Textiles, Upholstery, Wallcoverings

September 22 is the official day of fall and even though it is 80 degrees out, one can sense that cooler days are ahead. Fall always makes me think of new beginnings. Lovejoy Designs has been in existence for 2 years now and boy have I learned a lot. There are aspects of design that I believe in so I decided to take a stab at my top ten. I am sure that this list will evolve but as of September 30, 2010, here are some thoughts…

Ifyou see a piece of furniture, a carpet and you immediately can see a million homes for it; buy it. You will probably never fall out of love with it.

How many times have we all been enamored by a deal only to throw that thing away a year later. Good design is done by skilled hands. Let’s not let machinery take over so that we forget the beauty that can be created with hands.

I spend about 80% of my day staring at items on a computer screen but getting Elle Décor in the mail and tearing out pages stirs up inspiration better than right clicking…

A dim room is nice if you are having a romantic dinner for two but not if you are doing your taxes or writing the next great novel.

Whether it is a comfortable chair by the window or a chaise in the garden. Create a place that is calming to you and go there every day.

A room is made even more successful when attention is paid to detail. A brilliant polished nickel table lamp with a antique rubbed brass detail a trim along the edge of a dining chair, a leather band on a sisal carpet always bring a room to a new level.

Cashmere, Wool, Lambs wool, Vicuna… a blanket in any of these is so functional and pretty thrown over the arm or back of a chair.

The key to many successful rooms lies in the paint on the walls. Paint is so crucial. Take your time selecting it. Put lots of samples up on the wall and view them at varying times of the day. You’ll get the right one with a patient eye.

At first thought white is white, right? But then you see that there are so many whites! Grey whites, green whites, whites with traces of blue… the list goes on. Here in a kitchen designed by Victoria Hagan, she got this white just right.

Houses are meant to be lived in! It won’t be long before your dog schlepps in dirt over your new sisal rug or a dinner guest spills pasta sauce on the newly slip covered dining room chair. Those pictures you see in shelter magazines are beyond gorgeous but they are staged to look pretty. Come back in a year and that room will have a few less perfect pleats or nicely pressed drapes.

Especially when they are a spontaneous gift from your husband. A big bundle of gorgeous peonies on a coffee table or foyer table will brighten up any room.

Pink_Peonies_living_room

A couple more love’s…

Grasscloth Wall Coverings

A room by Palmer Weiss

Personalized Stationary

Good Quality Bedding

Revamped Vintage Chairs

Statement Making Lighting

Linen wrapped coffee tables, side tables anything linen wrapped…

Shagreen Side Table

Antique Mirror

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Wallcoverings and a Hike, an unlikely pair..

Posted on August 30th, 2010, in Decorating, Interior Design, Plants/Gardening, Wallcoverings

“To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature .” August Rodin

I was once again reminded of how much the topic of design is percolating in my brain at all times while on a hike with my husband. We were visiting the Oregon coast and stopped in the coastal town of Cannon Beach, most notably famous for being the setting of the movie, Goonies. There was a 3 mile hike that was through a densely filled forest with lots vegetation and honestly everywhere I looked, all I could think about was wallpaper…

Where do designers get their inspiration? If you ask, a very common answer is “nature”. And it couldn’t be more true. If you open your eyes to the colors of the nature around you, there can be tremendous inspiration for color palettes, textures and shapes. I saw a bundle of white birches with low lying green plantings and pinecones and thought; there is a color palatte, shades of grey, white, browns and pops of green! A lot of product design can thank nature too and that is where the wallpaper comes in..

My first sighting was of ferns. They were the ground cover for most of the 3 miles, obviously loving their lush partially sunny environment.

Ferns Farrow and Ball

This gorgeous Farrow and Ball wallpaper immediately came to mind! Available in a myriad of colors, this is a fern shape stylized. I have yet to use it in an interior but a dying too.

farrowandball

Another low lying lover..

Leaves, Katie Ridder

Interior designer, Katie Ridder, has a lovely line of wallcoverings that is reminiscent.

On our way back down the mountain, we came into a forest that might as well have been the inspiration for this wallcovering below..

Trees Lee Jofa
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There was a whole bed of these pretty flowering species.

Flowers

The yellow background of this wallcovering gives the flowery imagery a different feel.

cole and son cow parsley My advice?

If you have a vacant room with white empty walls staring back at you, you might easily raise the question, where do I start!!? Take a walk! Keep your eyes open to the colors and textures and I bet you will come back with design engines firing..

all wallcoverings shown available for purchase through Lovejoy Designs.

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