The old adage “rules are meant to be broken” is truest when it comes to interior design. The best design is the one that flaunts the rules. We cannot be afraid of making a mistake or feel we have to follow conventional wisdom. Every room has its own personality and is as different as the person who lives there. Those who color outside the lines show the most imagination and creativity. Those who walk the straight and narrow leave nothing behind to be remembered.

Here are 5 rules you’ve probably been told that you need to forget:

1. Don’t mix and match patterns. – It’s easy to live with solids or throw in a stripe or a floral, but you need to go further. If you feel uneasy with mixing more – then stick to a palette like just white and black or go to the opposite sides of the spectrum, like orange stripes with purple plaids. Mixing patterns adds visual interest and texture to a space. So go on and put that plaid with the leopard print. Cover dining room chairs in mismatched fabrics. Pile on contrasting sofa pillows for that lived in, at the beach kind of look.

2. Bedrooms are bedrooms, kitchens are kitchens. – In today’s world we live in every room, we eat in front of the TV, we use our devices in bed. So who says a room has to fit a mold? If you want to put a love seat in the breakfast area, do it! If you want to make your formal dining room the living room, go for it. This is especially true in an urban lifestyle. Space may be at a premium – use it wisely, give up on believing in labels. I have a client who has her piano in the entry. Why? Because she likes the light there and it makes her happy. You gotta go with that.

3. Use light colors in a small room. – Wrong! Small rooms demand impact and to hold their own with their larger siblings. A powder room in chocolate brown or high gloss pink says “look at me” and draws you in. Bold color statements give an identity and give the space that wow factor your home needs. Same with small rooms and furniture. Place one big chair and a table – keeping it simple but larger than life. Far better than too many small pieces, just a few actually enlarges the visual.

4. Stick to one style or period. – Well, yeah, if you want to be boring and have your room look like you bought it right off the showroom floor! Mid Century Modern and antiques look great together. Contemporary art with your Grandmothers Chippendale will give your room that one of a kind, unique look that tells the world you know what you are doing! Give your rooms character and have fun with it. Infuse your home with multiple styles and if you are hesitant, start small – a bookcase of old and new books with old family photos and a contemporary accessory gets you going!

5, Keep your rooms symmetrical. – One sofa, two matching chairs and a coffee table. That’s pretty much what we are taught. I’m a pretty OCD person myself, but asymmetry can free your soul. Hang art work to one side of the sofa, instead of right in the middle. Move your bed off-center to accommodate different size night tables, even different eras (See Rule 4). I love large windows with drapes swooped to one side, a la Lauren Bacall, leaving the other side open for the woodwork to show.

If you love it, bring it home. Have fun – be creative – go ahead, break some rules. And then make your own!

Although for many on the East Coast and the Midwest, summer may still seems a long way off, here in California we are already experiencing warmer day and more sunshine. I know I’m ready to pull up the blinds and open the windows and let the light and fresh air in.

Your home may also feel that it’s tired of closed up and wants to breath. Now is the time to look at ways to add freshness and vigor to your rooms and embrace the change of seasons.

Here are 5 great ideas that will chase away winter and get your home ready for spring:

Put away that old heavy comforter and invest in a brightly colored throw or coverlet for the bed. This season I’m seeing a whole new approach to prints and patterns. Stripes are always easy to mix and match with solid sheets and fun flower patterns reminiscent of the 1970’s are crazy fun and will add a smile to your face.

Pull out glass containers, vases and bowls. Here again, color is what’s happening. Don’t be afraid to experiment. In a garden window mix canary yellow, apple green and melon orange glass objects in different sizes. Don’t worry yet about adding flowers or fruit to the bowls and vases, let their color and shape alone be the interest factor.

Get Passionate for picture frames. So many of us put a photo from a holiday or vacation in a frame and there it sits, growing stale, for years and years. Take a good look at your frames, whether they are on a shelf or the piano. Discard dark colors and heavy woods and replace them with shell borders, glass on glass and brightly hued plastics. Not only will you see those photos in a new light, but the patterns and colors will brighten up the whole room.

Invest one new furniture piece.  We can’t always afford to throw everything out and start new, but often just one fresh item can change the whole room. This season wicker is making a big comeback – a colorful rocker or an ottoman/pouf in a colorful pattern is a quick inexpensive way to make a tired room look refreshed and brighter.  Small “drink tables” are always easy to find in so many styles, from metallics to stone top to wood and fit just about anywhere.

Open the windows. Heavy drapes collect dust and drag down the whole room visually. Now that we are seeing more sun, change them out for woven shades, billowy linen panels or just take them down and enjoy the view! Here color and pattern work wonders, allowing the sunlight to shine in, enhancing a basic window – taking if from drab to fab.

It’s already April! If you close your eyes, you can feel the change in the air.  Spring is right around the corner. Are you ready?

After a recent visit to Scandinavia and seeing how well they cope with short winter days, I learned about Hygge, the art of staying cozy, happy and positive during the winter months.  During this extra wet California season, we need this more than ever!

Capture as much light and sun as possible in these 5 easy ways:

1) Grab a Sunny Spot – Pull your favorite chair up to a window or glass door.  Not only can this be your personal refuge for reading or enjoying the change in seasons, the chair captures warmth from what sun there is and makes you feel comforted and safe. Just 30 minutes a day sitting there will give your body the amount of vitamin C it needs to keep your mind alive.

2) Let the Sun Shine In – Open up the window treatments.  Many of us grew up with the concept that to keep the cold out, close blinds and drapes.  This is not only unnecessary but makes our rooms darker and dismal.  If you have double paned windows, you don’t have to worry about heat loss and the morning sun is the best for starting your day off right.  In the winter, take down valances and cornices to expose as much of the window as possible.

3) Winter White – Scandinavians knew the secret to surviving winter darkness.  Living without sun for months on end made them experts.  Their secret was effective use of color.  White painted furniture and white washed walls made any room bright and cheerful, no matter how black the night (or day!).  Use light colors; add white, cream or linen colored pillows and throws around the room.  Ban dark and harsh colors from your home.

4) Grow a Winter Garden – You may not be able to plant outdoors, but this is the time for flowers and plants inside.  Succulents in a long wooden bowl in the kitchen window do great and add the green you crave. Start an herb garden! Bring home an orchid or bromeliad for the table and watch the smile it brings to your family’s face.

5) Get Motivated – Now might be the best time to plan ahead. Start thinking about changes and renovations you’ll be doing when it warms up. These gray days inside don’t have to be dismal – start that list, collect those links, talk to your designer, architect or landscaper – get them lined up and scheduled and on the calendar. It’s always nice to be ahead of things.. when spring comes, you’ll be ready!

Add your personal suggestions below.  Love to hear from you!

I wrote my first list of trends in 2013, 10 years ago.  Here we are almost to 2023 and how have they changed? Always so many new thoughts, ideas, concepts and creative designs.  I can only imagine what the new year will bring, and excited to see where the industry goes and what imaginative and fun rooms we will see.

Here are 3 trends I predict will be big in the new year.

Warmth makes a triumphant return: For the past few years we’ve seen bright colors make a huge splash… the lime greens, oranges and bright blues have become ubiquitous, as have all gray and white rooms.  I hope to see less of these cool colors and warm, homey hues make a comeback.  Look for browns, tans, and khaki to be used in rooms and on walls inside and out. Think the color of sandy beaches or animal fur.

Color by Sherwin-Willaims

Getting lost in big upholstery: Big, soft and enveloping furniture will be everywhere.  Sofas that are deep and over stuffed will help us forget the world outside and the stress of life.  We’ll want to sink in and be lost in comfort and tactile fabrics. Look for curvy and sexy sofas and chairs. Shape is the new thing – getting away from hard corners, stiff cushions and scratchy materials.

From Daily Dream Décor

Escaping the tech world:  In 2023, there will be a backlash against a TV in every room.  We will find that we need a place to decompress and escape, and there will be a big push for rooms that are tech free… quiet and peaceful.  I’d like to see libraries and rooms for reading and meditation becoming the must have in every home. We’ve learned a few things from the pandemic, having to all coexist in the same space. Quiet and calm is what we need now.

Happy New Year – Thrive In Your Space!

This post first appeared in 2014 – but every year people ask me for it again. So, another encore – HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Many of us live in a haunted house and don’t even realize it.  I don’t mean haunted in the traditional sense; like the kind you go to on Halloween or an abandoned mansion you may see in the movies.  But, our homes can be and often are haunted by the ghosts of our own furnishings.  We tend to keep possessions and stuff we don’t really need anymore.  Look around you…  do you still need to display that trinket you bought on your vacation in 1985?  How about the framed wall hanging that says “Have A Nice Day” your Aunt Ruth gave you for a housewarming gift when you moved in 20 years ago?  It’s time to go through and refresh your accessories.  Edit out what’s old and just a dust collector.  Arrange like things that are precious to you in a collection, not spread over every surface.

Another way you may be living in the past is your upholstery.  When was the last time you had those chairs recovered?  Maybe it’s time to stop living with what you liked when you first moved in and just haven’t really looked at in many years.  Over time, upholstery fades and discolors.  Wear and tear from a busy family really can take its toll on furniture.  Paint colors will change over time and can look dreary and drab.  Try freshening up those rooms with a modern color or new wallpaper.

Pictures and artwork can also really make your home feel dated and old.  Your tastes have probably changed, you might like abstracts now but just can’t part with the landscape you bought at a garage sale a few years back. Maybe there is art you’ve had since college, and it has memories.  But those memories might be holding you back, keeping you in the past.. when you should be looking to the future.

It’s easy to go day-to-day thinking that next year you’ll buy a new sofa, or paint the den or have that painting reframed.  But days turn into months and months into years, and before you know it.. you are living in a home from yesteryear.. Yes, a haunted house!  Haunted by old, used and sad furnishings and colors.  Make a change before those ghosts decide to just take over.

So, this year, go visit a real haunted house, don’t live in one!