Here are some of the elements we can add to invoke a romantic feel to our rooms without painting walls or investing in new furnishings.

• Soft fabrics
• Faux furs
• Soft ambient lighting - hopefully you have various light sources already in addition to the typical overhead lighting that can be too bright to invoke that romantic feel. And hopefully you have dimmers installed to control what lighting you have.
• Candles (a different light source, of course!) 
• Flowers

Whether you use them in art, paint, and/or fabrics, this color palette will bring a sense of energy and richness to your space. 

There is a rug for everyone. You just need to take note of two basic points when picking the quality of your rug - Construction Type and Rug Material. Jaipur has this great page that describes various construction types and common rug materials which can help you pick the right type of rug for your budget, how you use your space, and its exposure to elements like  the sun, moisture, pets, and human traffic. 

I often see size as an easy mistake made by homeowners choosing their area rug. It typically ends up too small looking like a postage stamp in a sea of larger furniture or an island under a coffee table or bed with far too much space left rug-less around it. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I found this rather pleasant blog post by Allisa Jacobs that talks size and more!

Rugs we use underfoot can be quite artistic, so consider rug art for your walls, too! This blog post will tell you how and where to hang your rug as art.

Color theory notes: Warm colors include shades of red, orange, and yellow. Some explanations here are taken from an article by Kate Stanton for 99 designs.
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Red is associated with passion and energy. This can be good or bad depending on whether the passion is love and the energy is excitement or whether the passion is hate and the energy is anger or fear. Do you ever feel hungry when in a red room? Restaurants are in on that idea! It's often difficult to pick the right red when painting a room and I feel it is because this color can turn on you with the type of lighting and other elements brought into the space. When the right red is chosen, watch the magic!

Pink is a tint of red. It is more innocent, playful, and sweet. It can be romantic and light. MIx in more red and blue and watch out for hot pink to squash the innocence and drive up the excitement.

Orange is our social friend - energetic, enthusiastic, lively, and happy. It gives off energy like red, but is more inviting and cheerful. You'll find many brands use orange in their ads to invite you to take action. (I'm guilty here! My website has always used orange as part of its branding due to having Autumn in its name!) 

Yellow has been know to evoke thoughts of sunshine and joy. It's optimistic and spontaneous and makes people happy and feel positive. It often is used in areas where you want to promote conversation and friendship.

Wood tones will warm up those cool colors and give you an even different vibe. Dark wood can make your space look more refined and elegant. Light wood tones can give you that Scandinavian look or more rustic look depending on the amount of orange tones in the wood.

Generally, the larger the pattern the more modern look you will get. These options give you so  many chances to pull out accent colors for the rest of the room. Side note - Don't let small areas like bathrooms make you think that wallpapering will be easy. It will definitely pack a punch aesthetically, but installing around a bunch of built-in fixtures might be something you just want to leave to the professionals!

Now let's explore the symbolism and meaning for these 2 cool colors - straight from AI (just keeping it transparent!)​

• Blue: Represents trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
• Green: Symbolizes growth, harmony, and freshness, and is associated with safety, nature, and health.
• Blue-Green: Represents serenity, healing, renewal, and the nurturing qualities of water and Earth. 

I've always promised my blog will provide tips, tricks, trends, and inspiration. This year I focused on design dilemmas and I hope you gained some tips, tricks and inspiration from one or more of my posts. (See links below.) I'm still working on the focus for 2025, so stay tuned by signing up for my newsletter if you are not already a loyal follower. So what's left? Trends! I typically put together my forecast for you, but there are already so many opinions out there that I thought I'd just give you a few links to browse from my internet search.

• I love how Shea McGee combines home decor and fashion in her look into 2025 trends. https://studio-mcgee.com/2025-design-trends/
• Texture, color, and ALL your favorite things is the direction I'm seeing on the Veranda website. I've heard it again and again over the past few years, that more is more. I haven't personally jumped on that band wagon, but when done tastefully and mindfully it provides a way to celebrate your collections and all the things you love. ​https://www.veranda.com/home-decorators/design-trends/g63074247/interior-design-trends-2025/
• Better Homes and Gardens points out that retro and sustainability go hand in hand. Trends for combining classic pieces with more up to date furnishings help us keep materials out of land fills and who doesn't love a touch of Mid-Century magic! ​https://www.bhg.com/furniture-trends-2025-8745267

Remember that trends are guideposts and typically come and go. Use the guides to help you find what you love so that even when a trend goes away you will continue to be proud of your space for sometime after.

Here are the links to the design dilemma posts from 2024 in case you missed out:

• Lighting
  
• Furniture Placement
  
• Reconciling Style Differences
  
• Wood Trim - Should it be painted or not?
  
• Where to start your design project

2024 has been a year I've dedicated to design dilemmas. I have one more post to do in November. I'd love to get your ideas on what you want to see me address in the last blog post of the year. Send an email, call, or write a comment. Enjoy the fall weather while it is still somewhat warm (here in the Midwest)!

There are various classical styles that raise natural wood to the highest level - Craftsman, Mid-Century, and Tudor to name a few. The stain can range from very dark to very light. All of these do not favor painting your wood trim.

I've seen a whole lot of builder basic wood trim from 70's through the 90's (and I'm sure beyond!) I don't feel badly about recommending painting your basic thin baseboards for an up to date look unless it is so extensive and cost prohibitive to paint it all. In the project below, there was some elevated wood trim combined with the thinner baseboard trim, but it extended throughout the home. My recommendation was to keep it stained and paint the walls of the main living and entry areas as well as to remove the thin 1980's look on the soffit midway up the wall. Adding stained wood to that soffit gives the room a more cohesive modern craftsman look.

Now let's go to the side where painting makes your space look clean and crisp. There are a few ways to go. Paint the woodwork a contrasting color to the walls for a jolt of energy. A current trend is color drenching a room where the walls and trim (and ceiling) are all painted the same color giving a cozy vibe that can feel like a warm hug or set a moody vibe. 

If you are torn between painted wood and preserving wood in your home, there is no reason why you can't have the best of both worlds. Choose an element, such as baseboards, or doors, or window trim. Keep one of those elements stained and paint the rest. Just be consistent throughout your home. 

Add a comment to this post to tell me what side you're on - paint it or stain it or a combo. And it's okay to change your mind over the years. I recommend following your heart over following trends. Have a wonderful summer!

Now you live together.
What can you do to combine your styles or reconcile the differences? ​

 Finding common ground is the key. How to do that may not be easy. It might take several conversations. I have an exercise or two that can help. But first lets take a quick look at a few questions you can ask to see if you land on something you agree on: 

1. Is there a color palette you both like?
2. Is there a style you both like?
3. Is there a single piece of furniture you both like?
4. What about a restaurant, or a movie, or someone else's house!? You might be able to take clues from the coloring and style represented in those places for your room design.
5. Is there a feeling you each agree the room should invoke? Happy, funky, moody, studious, luxurious...the list can go on for a long time. Keep brainstorming on the adjectives and you might find one or two you can agree on.

No agreement yet? Let's see if the exercises that follow help.

Exercise 1: 
Each of you collect pictures of items you would like to see in your room and print them off separately. You could make a card game of this if you are handy with picture editing tools. Otherwise, just rip out magazine pictures and keep them to yourself to start.  Then you play the game by having one person pick the type of item, for example, a bed assuming your design project is for a bedroom. You each lay out the pictures you both collected and talk about the elements that drew you to those pictures. Continue taking turns calling out the next item.  Taking turns can help each person to have a sense of control and might even reveal a furniture piece that one person thinks is important and the other never even thought to include. Try to agree on which picture wins over for that particular item and set it in a 'keep' pile. Set the other picture in a 'maybe' pile and move on to the next item. Hopefully in the end you will have a group of 'keep' pictures that will guide your decisions and purchases and will result in a room you both will love.

If not...

Exercise 2: 
This exercise gives each person an assignment for a set of elements in the room with the remaining elements being assigned to the partner. Decide on which elements in a room are most important to each of you. For example, if designing a bedroom (again) here are some elements that need to be assigned - bed style, bed linens, window treatments, flooring, lighting, seating, wall treatments, ceiling treatment, architectural applications, hardgoods.

Take turns in the order of application finding pictures of items you individually like but that you think will pair well with the items already chosen. This can be done over a period of time or a dedicated time where you both can do some googling to find what you would like.

Bring it all together and talk about why you chose each item.  Yes, both of these exercises are designed to start the conversation to understand what each person values and, again, to find common ground. Don't forget upholstered items can have the bones one person likes and the fabric the other person likes. Patterns that one person likes can be applied with colors the other person likes.

I decided to use this second exercise as a case study. In this study, I picked a male partner that likes Craftsman style and a female partner that wants a more romantic, Victorian style. Below are the elements assigned in the general order of installation that show what this his/her partnership might choose based on the styles they like.  

It is interesting how when the other person took on the different elements, their choices can shift the entire design style. Notice that HIs was very craftsman-like in the first mood board, but turned midcentury in the second. What is common in both His boards? Straight lines, wood details, and predominately neutral colors. The Hers elements remained more consistently romantic (maybe less Victorian and more traditional) across both boards with the curves and airy qualities of her choices.  Both mood boards for both people show an interest in wood elements, some painted and some not. The challenge then is how to combine the elements to arrive at a room that both HIs and Hers will love!

Sifting through the items and putting them together was even more interesting. The resulting style was not Craftsman or Victorian, but more of an island style with tradition, comfort, and romance taking the stage! ​

Everyone's home is unique, of course, so the following tips are general guidelines designed to help you think of solutions you may not have already thought of. I'll be focusing on living rooms to keep this blog post at a comfortable reading length! Drop a comment on this post if you have an awkward layout related to another room type.

Many homes have fireplaces on an angle so let's use that as an example along with 2 other walls that have obstructions to placing furniture directly in front of them.

• Start to think of the space in front of the fireplace as if you have your furniture on an area rug and we play with turning the entire setup in different directions.
• Let's also assume you are not in need of placing your television above the fireplace mantel at this point.
• Each option shows the same furnishings with one swap in room 2 - 2 chairs, 2 side tables, 1 love seat, 1 coffee table, 1 console table, 1 wall mounted television, and 1 floor lamp.
• Each option is a room with an entry at the top, a large window at the bottom, and the fireplace on the angled wall. ​

Placing furniture can be a challenge, but trying out different arrangements is the least expensive decorating you can do. Enlist some helpers so you don't hurt yourself in the process. Live with the new arrangement for a while before you give up on it. It may prove to be more functional than you think.