Interior Design Ideas - Incorporating Feng Shui Part III

Feng Shui can help create an atmosphere of 'welcome' and make your living space more inviting. We laid out some quick tips to implement Feng Shui into the home in recent posts, now we’ll cover the most important room to focus on: the living space.

The living room is the focal point of the house and the center of entertaining and family fellowship. Above all other rooms - it should be the most welcoming room in all of your home. For most of us, the living room serves not only as the greeting room when guests come over, but also the main space for our families to thrive - toy trucks, video games and dolls normally lay sprawled across the floor. It doesn’t have to be hard to make this versatile space more friendly - these interior design and layout tweaks will show you just how easy it is to make a change that is very impactful.

Electronics: It all starts with the TV. Don’t make the TV or other electronics the focal point of your living room, instead hide electrical equipment from view when not in use by using cabinets and other furniture for storage.

Face to Face: It’s also a good idea to “marry” furniture together, meaning set up furniture to face each other so that conversations can happen naturally within the room. Make sure that the furniture in your living room is appropriate to your own personal style, so browse the best furniture lines before making a decision.

Deck the halls - but where? Hanging objects on walls at the same height, as if lining them up on a horizontal line, can make walls seem much longer and ceilings much taller. When hanging artwork, look to create grids or shapes with pictures that can make the hanging frames art within themselves.

Go light on the doo-dads. Stray from using too many decorative items  or small home accessories outside of your main furniture or small collections or items grouped together. A side note, too many pillows on a couch can be downright overwhelming!

How have you made your living space more 'inviting'?

Interior Design Ideas - Incorporating Feng Shui Part I

We all want a home that looks beautiful - but it must also feel right. A home with personal energy flows well from room to room, with each room offering it’s own personality.

By learning the principles of Feng Shui, a Chinese system of harmonizing environments and elements - you can create any desired atmosphere in your home.

Let’s start by covering some simple things you can do to implement Feng Shui into your home today:

Be Clean 
Simple. Clean your home. Nothing makes a home look more inviting and welcoming than a clean living room with some magazines laid out upon a coffee table. Keep the clutter out, by organizing your things and keeping things where they belong.  Dust the floorboards and ceiling fans and change the light bulbs on the porches to create a more safe and visible atmosphere.

Be Strategic and Open Channels
Don’t leave furniture or items in the middle of rooms or entryways, these can block the "flow" of energy that moves into the home. Do you have a wall or dead end in your home that seems out of place? Add a floor-length mirror to create an illusion of a bigger room or space.

Add Shapes and Colors
Shapes and colors are both core elements of design and can do wonders to a home to revamp the interior design. To stay strict to Feng Shui principles, use rounded or oval tables and white plates to allow the food to be the focal point of the meal and room. Opt for wooden tables and soft fabric chairs instead of glass counter tops or metal table tops.

Have you tried any of these in your home? Stay tuned for more Feng shui principles you can incorporate in your home today to help create a personal energy in your living space.

Halloween Decor - Interior Design That Is Classy AND Creepy

Halloween is the first opportunity of Fall to decorate your home and your home's exterior, and participate in a fun and frightening annual tradition. Some entertain in their homes for this haunted holiday, and others more likely just entertain themselves by looking at the spooky settings and hair-raising handiwork of those in their neighborhood.

But has Halloween gotten too scary?

We personally aren't big fans of the super-gory, but every-popular Halloween trend of putting brains, blood and guts on the front porch to terrify the children of the neighborhood. What happened to the cleverly creepy use of pumpkins, wood and webbing?

We were poking on Pinterest - and found several 'classy but creepy' design elements that fit beautifully into our idea of ghoulish greatness - without compromising your interior design.


Decorating a staircase (above, left) or a mirror (below) with wood, webbing and lighting can add major drama to an entry way. You don't need the terrifying torn and bleeding body or the lifelike human organs to feel the spirit this Halloween.

This year, send a message that Halloween doesn't have to be that scary. Keep it fun, keep it light - and keep it simple. Stick with mummies, skeletons, spider webs and jack-o-lanterns; it's in the details - but skip the entrails.

(all images from Pinterest)

Dining Through The Holidays

The dining space of any dwelling often represents the real heart of the home. Dining rooms bring together family and friends for sustenance, celebrations, and are a place or warmth and connection that nourish the body and the soul. The dining room is a unique place that reflects your family heritage, and makes new friends feel at home.

Choose your décor for this special space from the heart. You can create a warm, but fashionable room that invites and excites.

The dining table is the natural focal point of the dining area. You could choose from a world of shapes, styles, sizes and even materials when selecting your dining room table. Make use of fresh florals as your centerpiece for a stunning display of nature in all its elegance. For efficient use of space, and an extra-close dining experience, try replacing one side of your dining chairs with a bench. This ‘communal seating’ is a trick of the trade in the interior design world to add more space.

Lighting creates the ambiance for the room. Whether your space is filled with flecks of reflected light from a distinctive chandelier, or is less formally and more dimly lit by trendy wall sconces, your lighting can be flexible. Depending on your lifestyle, or the occasion – you might opt for the glow of an alabaster light or choose to make full use of natural light, if you have windows in your space.

Your furnishings, fabrics, accessories and lighting can transform your dining area season to season, reason to reason for a charmingly elegant space to gather.

Image from Christopher Guy (Dining Rendering) for more details on this collection click here or contact J. Douglas Design.

Celebrity Bedrooms We Love

Hours in front of the camera, being chased by the paparazzi, signing autographs for adoring fans...of course, every celebrity needs a swanky place to recharge after a long day. The private spaces of these stars are as diverse as their talents, taking high-end interior design to a whole new level of style and comfort. Last month we took a turn through some kitchens with famous owners. Today, we're strolling through a few celebrity bedrooms we love.

Meg Ryan's Master Bedroom

We love the glassed peak in Meg Ryan’s light infused bedroom on Martha’s Vineyard. The simple charm of the barn style sliding door and the heavy custom-made trunk create a rustic feel. We love the white-washed walls that lend a feeling of never ending light. What we especially love is the very personal touch of a stack of favorite books at the end of the bed. We can just imagine grabbing one and climbing into that comfy bed at the end of everyday.

SJP and Matthew Broderick's Retreat

Clean white curtains and walls, and an over-sized bed that brings to mind big fluffy white clouds makes Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s nightly retreat a heaven on earth. What we love are the punches of color reflected in an aqua Christopher Spitzmiller lamp, a blue vase, and apple-green vintage armchairs. That pile of pillows looks especially inviting.

Nightly Escape of Ellen Pompeo

After a long day on the set, sometimes you just want to escape to new worlds. Ellen Pompeo of Grey’s Anatomy enjoys a well-traveled look for her Hollywood Hills bedroom. Pompeo found the bed at one of her favorite Parisian stores, Caravane Chambre 19. The true magic in this room is in the details: an antique Egyptian wall hanging, Moroccan-style brass lamps, an Indian throw, and 1950s West African pillows from Hollywood at Home. Five countries represented in one room-now that's an escape!

What do you love about these rooms? Anything missing that you just couldn't do without? Share with us in the comments.

If you're ready to create your own personal escape, you can't go wrong with enlisting a little help. Our interior design services are just what you need.

Story inspired by an MSN feature. Photo credit: Elle Decor