Here are some easy tips to decorate your home. Taking a few moments to think about your home will help you fully enjoy it.

Think about your home, and answer these questions:

1. What do you want it to be? If you want your home to be a tranquil oasis in a busy world, are your colors soothing or do they shout? If you want a fun place for friends to gather, do you have plenty of seating?

2. What are your main hobbies and activities? What do you need for these activities? For instance, if you have a collection that you work on often, get storage containers for it that can be easily opened or put away. If it’s a lot of trouble to get at your collection, you either won’t spend the time on it, or else might be tempted to leave it out and risk losing or breaking certain pieces.

3. Who will be using the space? How many people will be living there? What ages? It’s important for every person to have a space that’s their own.

Whether it’s a special chair, couch, desk or a section of a room, everyone needs ‘their space’. If you’re planning to do video aerobics, you’ll need room to move around in front of the TV!

4. What about your things? It’s easy to become very messy if things don’t have a place. A small filing cabinet is a must for many people – it’s a great place to store all the papers that you don’t know what to do with!

5. How much do you really need? Too much furniture makes a room seem crowded. The bare essentials are a couch and chair, a table and chairs for eating, a bed and place for your clothes. After that, think hard about what you need or don’t need. Will you really use that computer desk – or would you rather sit on the couch with a laptop?

6. Think about the traffic flow. You want to be able to walk anywhere in the room without bumping into furniture. Try drawing furniture placement on paper as a first step.

7. Pick a focal point - your Greystone Properties home has unique features. What do you want to see when your first walk in the room? If you have nice windows with great lighting, are you emphasizing it? Everyone feels brighter in sunshine.

8. Think about order and organization. Do you bring home work every day, or mail, or sports equipment? Where will you put it? A large bowl or box near the front door is a great place to drop mail until you go through it later.

9. Take advantage of free expert advice. Every store and every product line employs professional designers to put furniture and accessories together. If you’re unsure of your decorating skills, pick a design you like. Study how they did it either by looking through a catalogue or going to a store. It’s all there assembled and displayed for you. If you like the look, simply do what they’ve done!

As a San Francisco based artist and creator of beautiful things, I strive to design the details of my life so that my experience of beauty is enhanced to the maximum. It’s what I call Artful Living. One of my inspirations is beautiful fabric. What’s yours?

My business is sewing for custom interiors and I get great pleasure from working with exquisite fabrics. Flowing silks, crisp linens and the bright flowers of a waxy cotton chintz are a delight to the senses. My featured fabric from the house of Fortuny is one of my favorites.

What I love about my work is collaborating closely with clients to create the houses they want to live in and feel great about. Making everything from bedding, window treatments and pillows, I create something exquisite every day. I have extended the rich sensual experience of my work into my philosophy of Artful Living.

Artful Living can encompass the materials, the texture, the color and the form of the everyday items with which you surround yourself. Life is a feast and you can take every opportunity to enjoy it’s pleasures by enriching your daily experience with beauty. Live Artfully by:

Have Your Special Signature Piece - Take an everyday item like your handbag, your tote or a scarf and make it your special signature piece.

A unique expression reflective of you! For instance, one day in a great hurry, Babe Paley socialite and trend setter in the 50’s and 60’s, tied her Hermes scarf to the handle of her handbag thereby creating a fashion craze. Everyone who was anyone immediately did the same.

Uplift and Enrich Yourself in Small Details - It isn’t what you possess but how you make the most of it by presenting and arranging it. Consciously design your life as an antidote to the pervasive stress of the 21st century. Choose the details of your surroundings to uplift and enrich your life. Perhaps it is something that was made especially for you, or something that reminds you of a joyful time. Whenever I look at the small Florentine paper picture frame which sits on my bookcase, I am instantly transported to that magical shop under the Ponte Vecchio and the soft, warm light of a spring evening. What small item takes you to a favorite corner of the world?

Be Environmentally Friendly - Your artifacts can be fashioned from salvaged, recycled, reused or renewable materials. You might think that this does not sound sexy but you can have beauty and be kind to the planet at the same time. I reuse vintage Japanese kimonos to make beautiful pillows and totes. My clients love them because they are extremely limited pieces, made especially for them from high-quality fabrics with prints that are no longer loomed. It’s a real thrill to have your own custom pillow, tote or accessory in a fabric that will never be made again.

Be a Pebble in the Pond - As the ripples spread out from one small pebble dropped into a pond, you can give others the gift of Artful Living by simply embodying it yourself. Others will perceive and enjoy your increased sense of vivaciousness as you unselfconsciously go about sporting your signature piece. Just think of how good you feel when someone compliments you on your good taste and style. You can also artfully maintain the details of your work environment. I often benefit with improved mood and vitality by keeping a fresh cut flower (a red, orange or yellow Gerber Daisy is my favorite) in a small elegant Japanese ceramic vase. I keep it next to my computer and a couple of times a day or so, the color and fragrance affords me a wonderful contemplative get-away into beauty. It lets me refocus on my work with a renewed sense of vigor. You can experience the same benefits with your own personal artful design. By expressing the radiance that is your true nature, you will enhance your own life and the lives of others in surprising ways!
Get ready for an abundance of fresh ideas, energy and new beautiful items to enhance your living!

One of the biggest home decorating dilemmas is how to arrange your accessories, whether it be a bookcase, shelf, or tabletop. Here is a three step system that will transform your boring or cluttered spaces into charming vignettes!

Harmony and Contrast

When arranging a space with accessories, one has to keep in mind that the most important thing to avoid here is boredom! This has a lot less to do with the objects you choose than how you choose to display them. To keep an arrangement from putting the neighbors down for their afternoon nap, remember to keep a balance of harmony (things that feel like they go together, like similar colors or styles) and contrast (things that spice things up by being different…smooth against texture, round against straight line, et…) You want a bit of both in your arrangement. Perhaps you could create harmony by repeating a square shape or the color purple, and then add contrast by sitting a smooth candlestick next to a rough basket.

Scale and Shape

Make sure that the items you are using fit into their new homes scale…you don’t want one tiny paperweight on a large kitchen table, and you want to steer clear of using a huge ceiling high arrangement of flowers on a tiny end table. Most people tend to use things that are too small for their surroundings however. If you have small accessories you would like to display, but need to give them more oomph in the arrangement, try grouping them on a plate or a fabric covered box. You can also give them height by perching them atop stacked books or baskets.

Layer and Soften

Once you’ve chosen your objects for the space following the design principles above, now it’s time to layer and soften. Start with a larger, taller piece slightly off center…this will be the defining piece in your arrangement. Now work to the outer edges in layers…Add a taller background layer, a middle sized medium height layer, and your tiniest objects in the front. Keep the eye moving up and down as it purveys the arrangement from left to right for interest. Add some fabric or twisted ribbon to soften the edges of the shelf or table, to bring in color, and to highlight certain objects.

Above all, keep trying new combinations of items until you find an arrangement that works for you. Use things in unusual ways. Tuck flowers or a live plant into an arrangement that seems too static. Even professional designers will occasionally be surprised by trying things in a new way! And remember, if your arrangement still looks cluttered and lost, chances are you are trying to display too much. Develop a prop box or closet where you can keep some of your treasures, and switch them our a couple of times a year for a fresh new look without spending a dime!