Flowers to Make You Smile

I am sitting here in the intense heat and decided to stop complaining about it and Google one my favorite subjects – FRESH FLOWERS. Of course there are a zillion and one ways to combine flowers to make all types of different arrangements, but let me narrow it down a bit.

Let’s talk about just plain pretty arrangements for any table – not gigantic, showy arrangements but pleasing ones you can place anywhere. I really love the look of different flowers all in the same color family. It makes for a cohesive arrangement that is more subtle but has depth when you examine all the different varieties. If you ever watch the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network, you will see she is a fan of solid color arrangements, usually in all white or orange. She will often use the same flower over and over in a large cluster, but I prefer different flowers.

You can really use any container, from plain glass where you see the stems, to a pottery piece or my favorite – something different you own, like a small tureen or pitcher or even your gravy boat you haven’t had out since Thanksgiving. Use your imagination. Fill the container with water, arrange the flowers in your hand to gather a perfect bouquet, freshly cut the stems, then place them in the water. You may need a few adjustments, but you can do it!

Here in Cincinnati, we have a number of good florists, but a truly special one is Robin Wood. Visit her amazing website to order, get amazing ideas and view her photo gallery. The pair of photos on this page are from her website and perfectly illustrate the single color theme.

Keep cool and think “flowery” thoughts!

Photos from Robin Wood Flowers

Outdoor Funscapes

I have been out researching some deliciously colorful tabletop acrylics and cloths to brighten and freshen your outdoor or indoor summer entertaining. Pretty much all the home merchandise stores that carry accessories have wonderful selections this year and I spent an entire morning taking photographs for you!

I visited Pier One (charming as always but a bit pricey), HomeGoods, Steinmart (again pricey and not a great selection) and I hit a home run at Macy’s. They have an amazing selection and a large section devoted to tabletop, beachy accessories like totes and sandals and a cool collection of beach towels. Good old Martha Stewart is up to her magic again and offers an array of colorful patterns and solids.

HomeGoods has a vast selection of pretty chair pads for outdoor furniture as well as a nice group of teak tables, chairs and benches. They also offer a colorful and inexpensive chair grouping made of woven plastic mesh with metal frames that come in bright orange, blue, red and yellow.

So many accessories can go into making your deck, sunroom or porch a fresh retreat. If you like soothing stick with neutrals, but if you want to have some fun try crisp white with the bright solids and always throw in a pattern or two or three. Buy some inexpensive jar candles – the little ones are about a dollar and come in so many colors and can be grouped on a table or at an individual place setting. Buy paper cocktail or luncheon napkins in solids if you have patterned plates or buy a two color patterned napkin – like a solid with a polka dot! A classic polka dot can make anyone smile.

Get your flowers planted and your hanging baskets purchased and you are on your way to beautiful summer fun.

Return! Reconnect! Relaunch

What’s the best thing about returning to Cincinnati? The answer isn’t Graeter’s ice cream or Frisch’s fudge cake, although that very well could be the answer. It is reconnecting with dear friends and enjoying their company for more than a 20 minute quick visit. The other best thing is the re-launching of Becky Barras Interior Design!

I always loved retuning to Cincinnati but it often seemed there were so many people to see I could never find enough time to really enjoy our time together. Now all of that has changed and I am so happy to able to leisurely spend time with my favorite people.

I have also been steadily and successfully restarting my design business. With some help from some wonderful former clients, friends and my connections in the real estate community, I am excited to say all is well and I will be writing about projects very soon. I will be going to the local design center and will bring you up-to-date info on all the newest fabrics, furnishings and wall coverings. There are so many exciting things going on in design and I am pleased to share them with you. I have been gone from Cincinnati for 7 years so many of my former clients have become current clients in need of an update, so I am thrilled!

We can explore together all the new large scale printed fabrics for draperies and upholstery and the vivid new colors schemes for spring and summer. There are also so many sturdy yet beautiful fabrics that are water-resistant for outdoor furniture. The colors and patterns are finally surprising and fun and not just plain navy, green or brown with a bland plaid thrown in. And of course this is the time to get all your outdoor and indoor porch areas spruced up so you don’t have to think about them for the rest of the season.

Stay tuned as these are subjects Becky Knows Everything really does know about!

Photo from Southern Living

Becky Knows Everything is Back!!

Hello everyone! I know some or all of you have been wondering where I have been and I am here to tell you BECKY KNOWS EVERYTHING IS BACK!

So many changes have gone on in my life since our last blog so I will try to summarize them for you – we traveled to Cincinnati and to Mom’s house for Thanksgiving, hosted Jimmy and Adie, Baby Andy and Mom for Christmas in Rochester, and I managed to live through Tuesday Morning’s holiday season and a tortuous inventory. Then all the really big news happened! WE FINALLY SOLD OUR HOUSE after showing it 165 times in three years and no, there really was nothing wrong. We were elated at that news as it meant MIKE AND BECKY COULD FINALLY RETURN TO CINCINNATI, which we both consider home.

I learned quite a bit along the way, knowledge I could easily have lived without. For instance, did you know if you show your home 165 times you have to clean it that many times too? I mean really clean it, not just the regular stuff. You can never go out without making the bed or cleaning up the kitchen or sweeping the front walk. I know many of you are really, really neat and keep beautiful, orderly homes 24 hours a day (are you reading this Kathy Schott?) but you surely cannot ALL be that way. This task really drove me nuts – that and having to constantly leave my house on short notice, but we did finally get through it. If I weren’t at Tuesday Morning you could often find me at The Outback’s happy hour killing time while strangers wandered through my home. The Outback’s coconut shrimp is delicious by the way.

The next thing I learned was that it is WAY better to have a company transfer you and the movers pack for you then for you to do it yourself. The hours I spent sorting and donating and selling and packing I will never get back but, we did get to come home in the end.

So now here we are living in a special place in downtown Cincinnati in a high rise with amazing city and river views. It is the perfect size for us. We are near all the new dining and retail development downtown and the best part for Mike is that there are friendly maintenance men who will fix ANYTHING cheerfully and quickly. Actually this is the best part for Becky too as now Mike doesn’t complain, or worse yet try to fix anything himself.

SO, I welcome you all back to BECKY KNOWS EVERYTHNG! Please stay tuned. There is WAY more to come as I have been reuniting with tons of friends and re-launching Becky Barras Interior Design. If you live near the Cincinnati area and need help with your design project, contact me today!

The New Fall Catalogs

I have been exploring the new fall catalogs for you and I have found a couple you might enjoy. At this time of year the catalogs are so plentiful, as the holidays are approaching and they are all trying to entice us to buy.

If you try Catalogs.com, you will find a wonderful resource of so many different catalogs. And you can pretty much order all of them for free. I have been getting catalogs for years – as a designer they were part of my everyday life and they seem to follow me no matter where I live. Just for fun and just for you, I scoped out a few new ones I wasn't that familiar with.

Image Design and Furniture Company was chock full of great home décor items. There are so many categories on the website for you to try, like florals, vases, accents, throws and home accents. Themed décor wasn’t great – too many roosters, jungle and rustic lodge stuff. I clicked on picture frames, decorative bottles and vases and I found a treasure trove of fun stuff. They also have a group of home décor gifts under $25 which is pretty great. The “Old World Italian” section has some cool home lighting and rugs. Give this one a try!

My next stop was a website called Layla Grace. Wow, do they ever have cool furnishings. They have a gorgeous group of nursery furniture (not that same old Toys R Us stuff or even Pottery Barn). Check out their “Staff Favorites” which includs a pretty wedding book keepsake and some great candlesticks. I think this website is a keeper and I have already ordered my own catalog. They are showcasing beautiful Dwell Studio fabrics which can be ordered by the yard. While the prices aren’t exactly inexpensive, they do carry ordinary things with extraordinary designs, like oven mitts and tablecloths.

Try some updates in your home for fall. Broaden your horizons and instead of just shopping where you happen to live, check out a few new home décor websites and order yourself a catalog!! Happy Fall.

Chairs, Chairs and More Chairs

Have you noticed all the cool side chairs out there lately? An article in our local paper caught my eye recently—they showed a photo of a chair covered in different fabrics with different wood finishes and it was amazing how the chair changed personalities.

I went scouting for chairs for you and there is a great selection. You can find stylish chairs with and without arms, chairs with high backs and low backs, ones that are really only decorative and others that are supremely comfortable.

There is a catalog out there you all should sign up to receive. It’s called Ballard Designs and it is full of up-to-minute styling for all sorts of things. Their current catalog has a display of multiple chairs on the cover available in different fabrics and finishes. Some of them may seem a little pricey but they sure can give you a jumping off point to figure out something creative for yourself.

I went to my favorite discount stops like Tuesday Morning and Marshalls and took some photos for inspiration. Haven’t you always wished you had one more great side chair you can pull away from the corner to seat that extra guest or use for a nice accent? I know all my clients always like this idea and here is your chance to make that happen!!

Wreaths for Your Door and More

SPRING IS HERE –at least in some parts of the country. Here in Rochester we had snow yesterday but we are always hopeful for Easter and all that spring brings.

At Tuesday Morning we have an amazing variety of spring wreaths in the store right now. They are so colorful and bright, made of geraniums, hydrangeas, apple blossoms and a wonderful mix of spring flowers.

Wreaths can be showcased in so many places. As a designer, I once had a client with twin daughters and we had a pair of wreaths made to go above their twin beds. The little girls loved them and thought of them as “crowns.” These tiny girls are grown now and their mom says they took the wreaths with them to college to hang above their beds as a little “smile from home.”

Of course your front door is the perfect place for a welcoming wreath but I have seen them all over the house. They can hang on the armoire door, in a powder room, a laundry room, a kitchen or on the side door into the garage that no one ever “decorates.” At the holidays, I have a matching pair of berry wreaths flocked with snow I hang side by side on my twin bookcases.

A wreath can hang over an entry mirror (suspend it from fishing line from a tiny nail midway into the mirror) or perfectly over a fireplace. Light it with tiny lights, to give you a happy glow no matter the season. Check out your local Tuesday Morning store to find the perfect wreath.

Remember, if you have wreath on your front door and a bird family tries to nest there, just put an artificial bird on the wreath and the live birds will think another one lives there. This is a BECKY KNOWS EVERYTHING SUPER TIP JUST FOR YOU.

That Parisian Look

You see it everywhere now, in rugs and lampshades and pillows and furniture. I am talking about the wonderful new look of linen with prints of Paris and French words written in both block and script.

These new/old items have become popular as accents anywhere in the home. Remember the rooster look of a few years ago? You could find rooster prints on dishtowels, tablecloths and napkins. And there were plates with roosters, cookie jars and giant accent roosters. So many of my design clients were into this look and it was difficult to convince some of them that we should stay away from the ordinary and look for the unusual. It is still out there but has diminished in popularity although there are still a lot of collectors out there still buying rooster.

At Tuesday Morning whenever we get in any merchandise with London or Paris prints they sell immediately. Last week we had a round ottoman with stained, turned legs that I quickly took a photo of for you as I knew it wouldn’t last. I was right – we sold it in 2 days. We currently have tea-stained linen pillows, some dishtowels and a few adorable small lamps with linen printed shades.

You can bring that little bit of Paris into your home without spending too much. Check out what is available online or in your local overstock stores! Au Revoir!

A Pretty and Functional Den

I was visiting Mom recently and she gets pretty much every magazine there is. She had a copy of the Dec. 2010 issue of a really good home magazine, Southern Living.

I spotted a room makeover in this issue and was really impressed with the attention to detail, palette and design of the room. The article appears on pg. 72 and is called “Meet The Hassingers.” It is a story about a couple that met and married and then had to mesh their own personal styles. I am not sure what happened to this world, but apparently men also have opinions on design and style. When I was first married this was all considered the woman’s prerogative and frankly, my own husband never cared what I chose.

But, it’s all different now and that is a good thing. Anyway, if you take a look at the “before” photos, they are comical at best. They feature two giant brown leather recliners and for added measure a huge green leather (pretty sure we are talking faux leather here) wing chair, a sad window treatment and a super-sized TV above the fireplace. This must have been his home, not hers.

The transformation is fantastic. The designer chose a soft neutral grey green for the walls, a large sailcloth sofa big enough for two or four with masculine tacks and then to feminize the space, added bright pink and green pillows, hot pink vases with roses and colorful art to the walls.

But what most impressed me was the window treatment. So many people are skittish about anything but beige fabrics and this designer chose an ikat design drapery in a green, red, pink and gold palette. It totally pulls the room together. The TV is still atop the fireplace, which is ok since there are other interesting things to focus like the jute rug, artwork and accessories.

Of course, I have a few areas I would have treated differently. While the fireplace is not centered on the main wall and is flanked by bookshelves, I think the choice of recovering books with white or off white covers is weird. These shelves would be better suited with some interest, like greenery, and vases in the accent colors or even plain white vases mixed in with real book covers. I think the art on the left wall is hung way too low, as if only a three year old could appreciate it and the giant lamp hanging over the sofa is really difficult to sit beneath. A really big lamp in red or pink on the table behind the sofa would be great. I do like the comfy upholstered chairs that flank the fireplace but I am not wild about that cocktail table.

That said, the overall transformation really captured what the clients wanted – a comfortable and functional room in which they could relax and entertain.

Photos from Southern Living