My Favorite (And Least Expensive) Way To Make A Bed

Bedding can be surprisingly expensive, and no matter how much money you spend, you often end up with a bed that looks:

•  too fussy, with lots of pattern and pillows, or

•  pretty generic and even hotel-beige, or

•  untouchable, with fabrics that you guard from the dog and the kids

Here is my favorite way to make a bed that looks interesting, is budget-friendly, and is easy to make and maintain:

1. Choose a simple comforter or duvet as the main cover of your bed. Ideally, this layer should be easy to clean (which is why I prefer removable, washable duvet covers over a down duvet).
2. At the head of the bed, have your two sleeping pillows (in fresh pillow cases) behind two decorative pillow shams.
3. In front of the two shams, place either a single decorative pillow that makes you smile, or one long body pillow in a cover that is the accent color of the room. 
4. At the foot of the bed, fold a blanket or quilt in the accent color of the room. Try to make this a durable element too, ideally washable, and something you’d want to pull up over you on colder nights. 

That’s it. To sleep you just remove the two shams and the single decorative accent or body pillow. In the morning you straighten the duvet and foot blanket and replace the three pillows. Now, if that is still too many pillows for you, just make sure your sleeping pillows are fresh and fluffy and that they are covered in fresh sheets that compliment the room, and then use the single body pillow for your accent. That can be enough on its own (and is, in fact, what I have in my own home, seen here.)

If your bed is a pain to make every morning, you probably won’t do it, but if you are craving an elegantly made bed, try this technique - it can be the best of both worlds! 

Here’s to being happy at home!

Want To Use A Bright Paint Color On Your Wall? Learn From This Home Depot Ad

Flipping through decor magazines is a great way to find inspiration for your next room makeover, and the ads can be as illuminating as the articles. 

This Home Depot ad shows a great example of a successful way to use a bright color on your wall (here, a clear Caribbean-style teal) without having an over-powering room. 

The key? Nearly every other element in the room is neutral. Natural woven blinds, pale grey couch, Sisal rug, white trim, brown and gold tables… Aside from the couch pillows that tie directly to the wall color, even the accessories are gentler, more muted versions of the bright teal wall color. 

Understanding this balance is useful in two ways: If you are burdened with a bunch of beige furniture that you didn’t really want, using a vivid wall color is a great way to create a lively room without investing in new furniture. Or if you are starting from scratch in a room, you know that you can choose basic, neutral furniture and pair it with a personality-filled wall color that you can easily change down the road with the times, or your mood.

Have fun decorating, and here’s to being happy at home!

Can Color Increase Satisfaction in the Bedroom?

Since we are embarking on our honeymoon as this is published I have travel on the brain, so I thought I’d share a little bit about what I look for when I am booking a hotel, and how it relates to how I think about bedroom design. 

My most favorite hotel that I have ever stayed in is the Opus Hotel in Vancouver, BC. It is gorgeous! The rooms, instead of being boring hotel beige, are painted colors like luscious reds, electric ocean blues, and deep, sexy charcoal grays. I walk into those rooms and automatically feel sexy - waaaay sexier - than I do in a boring beige room. Seriously, check out their rooms - yum!

What is amazing to me is that more hotels don’t choose to use vibrant color on their walls - it’s just paint, and nearly everything else in the Opus rooms are more standard hotel choices. 

What’s even more amazing to me is that so few people take the time to make their own master bedrooms sensual retreats. Even folks who spend time and money creating welcoming living rooms, inviting guest rooms, and adorable kids' rooms often neglect their own bedrooms.

That is so silly because of all the places in our home, the bedroom more that any other rooms sets the tone for our days. We wake up every day in our bedroom, finish every day there, too - it is an integral part of our daily experience of life. In that space we love our partners, wrestle with our kids, cuddle with the dog… why not make it an embracing, comforting, sensual space instead of a plain white box filled with junk mail, laundry, and unread magazines?

So join me in the spirit of romance. I’ve chosen all my hotels in Italy for our honeymoon with excitement and romance in mind, why not make sure it’s at home in our everyday spaces, too?

Here’s to a romantic season of love, no matter what the calendar says!

Beat the winter blahs with bright bedroom colors

For those of you who know me personally, you know I regularly wear a bright red rain coat, a peacock teal fedora, and sometimes a mustard yellow scarf.  I get compliments all the time on all the colors, and I usually respond by saying that this is how I counteract the winter-gray weather we have in Seattle from November to, well, June.  It's like carrying around my own little bouquet of bright red tulips!

If you suffer from the blahs in this winter season, you can use the same trick in your home to chase away the gray and bring in some sunny weather.  Check out this mustard yellow duvet set I found not long ago at West Elm.  Just that splash of sunny gold takes the black and grey bed to a warm and happy place! 

What is so great about this way of splashing in color is that it isn't a big commitment. Unlike tile or counters, or even a whole sofa, a bedding set can be swapped out by the season to change up the look and feel of your room.  It can let you play and experiment with otherwise over-the-top colors. Try a rich plummy purple, or an electric blue, or a juicy apply green!

Have some fun with color as the holidays come to an end, twinkly lights are packed away, and we settle into 2014.  Create your own sunshine and welcome the new year with a smile on your face!

The right paint color can help you move on from divorce

So you are divorced, and you are sitting in the living room looking around at the house you once shared with your ex. All the memories of your past are staring you in the face. Everything in that room echoes with memories.

Being surrounded by your past is not a good way to move forward, but you're not in a position to move. What can you do?

When that happened to me I got out the paint. I painted every surface a new color, and moved the furniture around so that I literally had a new perspective - on the room and on life. By making these simple changes inside my home it made me feel like a fresh start was possible, and gave me the courage to make bigger changes (like starting Rivalee Design).

In the last five years I've helped my clients do the same thing. One lovely lady had spent four years staring the stuff her ex left behind, until she hired me to come and help clear out the baggage.  With every box that went to goodwill I watched her physically lighten, and she began to smile more easily.  Another energetic gal had moved into a new condo of her own after divorce, but was feeling sad and blue because the space felt so impersonal and beige. We brightened her space with pumpkin colored paint and a zebra rug, and helped her create a space that felt just like the new 'her.'

Making over a room make not feel like the obvious answer to how to move on from your divorce, but it's a small, safe way to create change in a life that needs some new answers, and give you the courage to move forward in bigger ways, too.

Mood changing colors: Benjamin Moore's Soleil

The sun has come out this week in Seattle, and you can feel it in the brightness of people smiles.  It brings out the sundresses, the convertibles, and the iced lattes, and everyone is just a little friendlier than usual.  Just like the sun is able to brighten a person's mood, color can, too.  One of the most obvious happy-colors is, of course, yellow.

Yellow is the color of optimism, brightness, cheery attitude and mental clarity.  It can promote creative, clear, upbeat thinking and decision making, ease depression, and encourage laughter.  It's not for everyone, of course, and the wrong yellow, or yellow for the wrong person, can increase irritability and hyperactivity.  But as with any color, used well, it's lovely.

Benjamin Moore's Soleil lifts the mood atop of grey Sparrow and creates sunny harmony in this dining room.

One of my favorite yellows is Benjamin Moore's Soleil.  When a client tells me they want a yellow room, it is one of the first places I look and so often, it is perfect. I have used it to create a warm and happy dining room, a sophisticated and joyful bedroom, and an inviting and warm home office.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's quite yellow.  When you put it on all four walls you are not going to wonder if you ended up with a yellow.  But unlike the many (too many) yellow paint colors out there, this one won't scream CAUTION at you.  It won't get bitter or sharp.  It won't get babyish.  It's just... right.  Give it a try, or write to me for a couple of my other favorites.

Have fun, and don't fear color.  It's just paint!