New ‘era’ for interior design

The newly formed Association of Myanmar Interior Designers hosted its first seminar last week to foster cooperation and improvement within the industry and introduce itself to the public.

The seminar was held on August 4 at the Myanmar Engineering Society in Hlaing township, Yangon.

U Saw Phyu Thein, a patron of the association, said part of the purpose of the seminar was to introduce the association – which was formed in January and has 40 members – to the public, as well as to provide a venue for sharing information between companies and generations.

Written By Htar Htar Khin

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Interior designers work with color, design trends

What’s hot? Gray walls.

What’s not? Formal living rooms. Seriously. .

Those are just two of the 2013 home design ins and outs spotted at the Parade of Homes, which starts Friday, as well as on HGTV, cococozy.com, Pinterest and in decorating magazines.

Some trends work here. Some are snubbed big time.

The Parade of Homes is a perfect time for home-design daydreamers to tour the newest offerings by local builders as they pick up the latest interior design and home layout trends and mentally redecorate their own homes or plan for the future.

Written By Linda Navarro

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Using social media for home design

This monthly feature focuses on local interior designers and their ideas for choosing color schemes, furniture, art and an overall design style or scheme. Today we focus on San Luis Obispo’s Alli Addison who established Alli Addison Design in 2011. Her services include interior design, exterior design, outdoor living spaces, color consulting, new construction and remodels, e-design services and room refresh services. You may contact her at 714-3086 or through her website, http://www.alliaddison.com. Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/AlliAddison; Houzz: http://www.houzz.com/pro/alliaddison

There was a time when finding home décor ideas involved combing through stacks of shelter magazines with a pad of Post-its.

Written By Rebecca Juretic

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10 Questions With… Christophe Delcourt

Paris-based designer Christophe Delcourt applies his precise vision not only to furniture, but also to hospitality and retail interiors. After studying theater, the self-taught Delcourt opened his first studio in Paris in 1988 and began to produce coveted interiors, lighting, and furniture, including the Scoop, Rive Droite and limited-edition, ecoconscious Legend lines for Roche Bobois. Interior Design spoke with Delcourt on the occasion of his latest furniture launch at Avenue Road in New York, where new pieces designed in collaboration with owner Stephan Weishaupt channel the craftsmanship of the French Decorative Arts through exquisite materials utilizing tanning, tinting, wood smoking, and metalworking. Keep reading to find out why Delcourt believes sofas are the most important item of furniture.

Written By Meghan Edwards — Interior Design

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High Design and Intrigue in Colorado

The owners, Darrell Weakland, 61, and Mary Weakland, 56, purchased this property in the village of Cherry Hills, a suburb of Denver, for $4.95 million in 2010. Built in 2004, this stone, brick and stucco home is inspired by Italian villas, Mr. Weakland said, and, in some unconventional ways, by author Dan Brown’s novel ‘The Da Vinci Code.’

To see pictures and the full article, click here.

Written By The Wall Street Journal

Interior design: More than 50 shades of gray

Forget about the title of that racy best-seller. Color expert Kate Smith says our eyes can distinguish more than 500 shades of gray.

That makes gray exceptionally versatile for interiors, and it’s a big part of why gray is being used much more frequently in kitchens, bathrooms and even nurseries. “Gray has an ability to show an undertone of every single color,” says Smith, a Rhode Island-based color forecaster and industry consultant who writes SensationalColor.com.

And while grays are, foremost, blends of black and white, the combination gives gray advantages over other neutrals.

Written By Kimberly L. Jackson/The Star-Ledger

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At Home: Design duo’s tips on how to survive remodeling

Some married couples work together in business. Some couples remodel together. Jennifer and Steve Clark, heaven help them, do both.

The Clarks, who have been married seven years and have three kids, not only team up to renovate properties, but they also regularly tear up their own living space.

I don’t mean to be discouraging. I’m all for couples collaborating on home improvement. I personally have built or rebuilt three homes with my spouse. Of course, we now live in separate states, so you see how that worked out.

Read more here.

Written By Marni Jameson

Home design trends that will win over buyers

(MoneyWatch) Just as fashion changes the way we dress, new trends in design captivate builders and buyers and alter the way we live.

But unlike bell bottoms or thick-rimmed glasses, these trends take much longer to develop. Some design elements in a home, such as a captive kitchen, become less popular over decades, while others, such as air conditioning, become necessities.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its “2012 Characteristics of New Housing” report, which provides annual statistics on the kind of homes buyers are snapping up as well as the kind of homes builders are building.

Written By ILYCE GLINK

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Decorating tips to help you stay cool

Summer slipcovers and straw rugs. Ah, doesn’t that sound nice? So simple. So cool. So summery. That’s the chapter title from the late interior designer Mark Hampton’s celebrated decorating book, in which he also mentions bamboo blinds, bare floors, white flowers, muslin fabrics and green and white striped awnings.

Certain items in our decor look or feel cool on hot summer days. I thought of this while jingling the ice cubes in my near-empty glass of iced tea the other day, watching the cat stretched out on the glass-topped coffee table. Nearby, in the hallway, the dog was napping on the ceramic floor by the front door, possibly dreaming about a refreshing swim in the lake.

Wait, that would be a nightmare for him. He doesn’t like the water.

Written By  Susan Martin

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8 Decorating Don’ts That We’re All Guilty Of… But Are Totally No-Nos (GIFs)

Designing a home is an art: It takes time, patience and sometimes a few bad choices before we get it right. And although we love looking for inspiration for awesome ideas for our interiors, we thought it would also be helpful to identify the most common blunders.

From cramming too much stuff in our spaces to making bad accessory choices, scroll through the top eight decor DON’Ts below.

1. Hanging curtains that are way too short or too long. Ideally, your window treatments should just hit the floor or pool by only a couple of inches for a current look.

Written By  Shana Ecker

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