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

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.

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

A New Stenciling Project

We were so fortunate to travel to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving this year and visit with both our children and grandchildren. Of course, Mom came too. Our good friends, Mike and Ann Hall were visiting their daughter in Pittsburgh and offered us their home for our reunion.

Well of course we had the best time holding the new grandbabies, laughing, eating and visiting with each other. For a thank-you gift, I told Ann and Mike I would stencil their powder room. Now, I have stenciled many times before, so I should have known it would take me a long time, but I am ambitious and knew I could complete the project.

Mike and Ann are such great clients and friends. They completely trust me and this time that trust came in handy. We chose a stencil together from an internet site, but it failed to arrive on time. I found a stencil here in Rochester, changed the paint color we had chosen previously, purchased a valance and drapery rod and Mike and Ann took off for Pittsburgh without ever seeing any of it.

The stencil is a medallion style and I worked on it over the holiday until it was completed. I took some good photos for you so you could see the progress.

I will give you a few stenciling tips:

1. Use a good stencil brush as the hairs from the inexpensive ones fall out very quickly.
2. Buy the small bottles of acrylic paints, (they are about $1 a bottle and you need very little).
3. Buy as thick a stencil as you can find and if it is less pricey, buy 2 so you can cut one for the difficult corners.
4. Get yourself a can of spray mount so you can spray it on the back of the stencil. It will adhere to the wall and move very easily—tape just does not work as well.
5. A roll of Scotch Blue Painter's Tape is a must for the baseboard work, around the light fixtures etc.
6. Never be without a damp Handi Wipe or paper towel to clean up smudges.
7. You need a good pencil with a clean eraser and a measuring tape and ruler.

Stenciling takes patience but it is truly one of the best ways to inexpensively decorate. And if you are unhappy with the way it looks, it is so simple to paint over it, unlike wallcovering that is so difficult to remove.

If you have any questions, e-mail me at beckybarras@hotmail.com or leave a comment and I will be happy to help!

ScotchBlue Alert!!

Can you believe it? I recently wrote an entry on “Baby Andy’s Bachelor Pad” and mentioned that I used ScotchBlue Painter's Tape when striping his nursery and they picked up on it! ScotchBlue tweeted about my project earlier today, so please take a look at their twitter page. They say "Baby Andy is lucky! Check out Becky's amazing striped nursery."

Since decorating Andy’s nursery, I have stenciled Adie’s hallway and my good friend Ann’s powder room, always using ScotchBlue Painter's Tape to guarantee perfect results! Please check out their twitter page today!