Home Decor: Liven up your living space

As we put away the winter sweaters and dust off the summer sandals, it’s time to add another category to our spring cleaning to-do list: it’s time to update our home décor. Dull color tones and thick, woolly textures are on the out while fresh, vibrant hues should be let in with the San Diego sun.

Regardless of how your home is styled, interior designers from across the city have a bag full of quick tips to help you liven up your living space and bring the effervescent energy of summer into your sanctuary. San Diego LGBT Weekly interviewed an array of experts who specifically service the gay community and who specialize in design, architecture and décor to get their take on the latest and greatest upgrades for our abodes.

CONTEMPORARY DESIGN IS IN

“I think contemporary design is winning out,” said David C. Underwood, the creator of Underwood Architecture/Design in San Diego, which specializes in interior design and architectural improvements. He has developed an eye for competing trends through his 25 years as a designer.

“In the late 1800s, everything was pretty ornate in the Victorian era and we responded to that with a modern approach,” he said, explaining the rise in sleeker furniture, bold colors and a clean, minimalist theme. Instead of bulky tables, rooms in a panorama of patterns and oil paintings of landscapes and portraits, the traditional design is more influenced by minimalist designs – square and rectangular furniture, three to four bold colors and only one or two artistic accessories to fill a room.

“More people are incorporating contemporary than ever before,” said Underwood. “A cleaner approach is the trend now.”

But what is a cleaner approach? Not to be confused with modern, which incorporates lots of metallic and glass surfaces, contemporary design is simple and plain, but still warm, said Michal Blazˇek, the designer behind Designer BM and who specializes in contemporary unique tree accessories made from Japanese twigs in glass vases.

“It‘s when you don’t have many decorations, you just have one nice piece it looks really cool,” Blazˇek said. “I think it’s nice to have one nice big vase. That’s the sign of contemporary because you don’t want to overdo your place. It’s better to have one nice piece than hundreds of cheap ones.”

An example of a contemporary design begins with a white room, because white is clean. But to add contemporary flair, one wall could be painted in a dramatic color – say a red or blue – to create high-contrast. Then that color would be used again in the room, but strategically, with a rug or throw pillow, not throughout.

“When you decorate everything in bright colors, you take the punch out of it,” explained Underwood. “So rather than doing an entire room in red, just paint one wall red and put art on it so you’re increasing the focus on the art. The rest of the room can be a neutral color and the red can be a feature wall.”

To use bright colors, be sure to use it in very specific and controlled areas so it doesn’t overwhelm the room. Use color to focus on where you want the attention to go – on an original art piece, a large statue or a unique flower arrangement.

“I think larger pieces on the wall look more dynamic, but they are more expensive,” Underwood said. “If you want the concept of a larger piece for less money, you can buy smaller pieces and group them together in a severe way so it’s contained in one space and not rambling on.”

Michael P. Metzger, founder of Royal Monkey Design agrees that contemporary is in, and using design to “clean” your house is a great way to upgrade it for summer.

“Coffee tables should only have one or two things on it,” he said. “A lot of clutter doesn’t look good in the middle of the room. A cheap way to upgrade your house is to look for clutter and put it away in stylized baskets.”

Metzger also recommends using repetition on tables, such as three artistic vases in a row on a dining room table, or groupings of similar, small objects on end tables.

Another attribute of contemporary design is the uniqueness of the décor. Odd shaped vases, unconventional lamps and avant-garde chairs or tables bring modernity to a used living space.

“I like three-dimensional things to be on the wall,” said Metzger. “For example, if you’re decorating a winter house, you might want to hang snow shoes – or in San Diego, you could hang a palm tree leaf.”

A good tip is if you’re hanging a flat screen TV, hang three-dimensional accessories, such as shelves, on either side of the TV so it doesn’t look like the TV is coming out of nowhere. It will bring a little more dimension to the room.

TIMELESS TRADITIONAL

Luis Corona, designer of Corona-Barron Interiors, has no problem admitting he is old school. Pictures of his work exhibit heavy, ornately-carved wooden tables and chairs. Rich, dark browns, golds, maroons and purples are contrasted by floral patterned arm chairs, huge rugs and embroidered throw pillows. His walls are beige, and remain beige throughout the house, to show off the art which consists of looming landscapes and colossal columns.

“Contemporary can look cold and unfinished,” Corona said, but even he admits, he’s an old soul born in the wrong generation. To be sure, the sleek, elegant feel of contemporary may not be for everyone, and in San Diego, which is home to a sundry of Spanish-style homes, contemporary may not fit the design of your home.

For Spanish-style homes, and homes with an emphasis on natural elements, such as wood, the traditional Old-World style may look best. But traditional does not mean stale, and even the most classical of homes can freshen up.

“For your bigger, bulkier pieces like a couch,” Corona said, “they should be in solid colors, and then add patterns around it with chairs or throw pillows.”

Corona advises traditional home owners to use large, landscape pictures to add depth to a room, religious décor to add history and book shelves to add warmth.

“I like to place chandeliers in odd places, like over a bathtub,” he said, to bring a lavish energy to any room. Corona also recommends ornamentally-designed candle sticks placed right in the center of a table to bring a sense of antiquity, and using crystal to bring class into a home. Adding greenery to a room can help break up the rich atmosphere of an Old-World style and help the room to breathe, and if possible Corona said, try to use fresh flowers and real plants.

“This is San Diego!” he said. “Everything grows here!”

KITCHENS AND BATHROOMS

One of the most beautiful aspects of kitchens and bathrooms is the tile chosen. A more elaborate way of upgrading your home is by switching out old, stained and scratched tiles for marbled, slate or travertine tile.

“Using slate to tile a shower is awesome,” explained Jay Young, Owner of On the Level Builders, a general contracting service in San Diego. “It makes a bathroom dark – like a man-cave.”

Slate rock can give a room a rustic, castle-like appearance, while glass tile, usually full of bronzes and gold, reflects light, bringing a glittering dash of sparkle and glamour to a home. Underwood suggests glass tile in kitchen walls, used as a back splash to the stove.

“Kitchens in a primitive design were about the fire place,” Underwood said. “The fire place was the heart of the home and the center point of the house. So when we design kitchens it’s important to not lose that historical context. The kitchen is the most important room in the home and needs to be made special.”

Tile back splashes are relatively affordable and an easy way to add color and patterns to a kitchen or bathroom. Young recommends using darker solids for countertops, and lighter, patterned tiles on the back splash for contrast.

“Darker tiles are better because you don’t have to worrying about constantly bleaching out white tiles and grout,” Young said. “It’s more livable to have darker tiled counters.”

Young has witnessed a new trend in bathroom and kitchen fixtures as well. Whether buying shiny, new top-of-the-line or classical, or porcelain and glass sinks, faucets and tubs, many people are modernizing their house by upgrading appliances.

“A lot of people like to put in pedestal sinks in the bathroom,” Young said, “where there is no cabinet at the bottom of it, just a pedestal to hold up the sink. This opens up the bathroom.”

OUTDOOR PATIOS EVOLVING INTO INDOOR EXTENSIONS

Judy Hallberg, the designer behind Expressive Interiors and feng shui expert, says upgrading outdoor patios and backyards is the best way to modernize a house for the summer. Instead of just throwing some patio furniture on the lawn, Hallberg says people are now building screened-in rooms with windows, complete with outdoor carpet, throw pillows, fire pits and furnishings.

“People are turning their backyards into fantasy areas,” Hallberg said.

She recommends using candles throughout your outdoor living space to create mood lighting and a relaxing, romantic ambiance.

For awnings, Young recommends trellis work, in which the canopy is made out of pressure-treated wood that has chemicals in it that keep termites away and prevents rotting. The chemicals used have recently been upgraded to avoid toxicity. Also travertine tile, made from limestone, has a natural look that works well on patios.

On top of the trellis canopy, corrugated fiberglass is used to keep out the rain, and can come in different colors, such as white and light green, to create colored shading.

“I think people are making outdoor living areas more like living rooms,” Underwood said, “so people are bringing out heaters, table lamps and floor rugs. They are making it more an interior room than ever before, making it a real furnished environment for entertainment with a comfortable feel.”

The décor of an outdoor patio should remain in theme with the rest of the house though so it flows together, advises Hallberg. She integrates the same color schemes from the main house when choosing outdoor furniture.

“It’s nice to have a balance of warm and cool colors,” Hallberg said. So you should integrate orange and blue in the same room. When you look outside you see a lot of green (a cool color) and a lot of yellow (a warm color) too, so it should be like that in the home.

HOW TO USE COLORS

Blazˇek gets most of his design techniques by traveling throughout Europe; a continent that he says is the leader in home décor. But out of all the Europeans, he finds the Germans to be the most risk-taking, artistic designers. They just have a “feel for color” Blazˇek said. When he last checked in with Europe, the trending colors were light yellow and light purple.

“Every year has different colors in trend,” Blazˇek said. “I think when people are remodeling, it’s good to have a different color on the wall. If you have a white plain wall it doesn’t give you any feeling in the home. With yellow and light purple, you can go with any color furniture, either light or dark. Dark brown and yellow looks really nice. With purple it looks awesome when everything is white. ”

Blazˇek tries to push his American clients out of their color comfort zone, away from traditional whites, light blues and browns, suggesting dramatic feature walls and bold patterns. But while colors are a brilliant way to brighten up a drab dwelling, Blazˇek warns that you must understand how to use them intelligently.

“In the bedroom you don’t want to do really dark because the color has an effect on your sleeping,” Blazˇek said. “I think for your bedroom, you should use the lightest color you can. Light creamy green or blue helps you relax. For the living room, you want to have something dramatic. It’s where you spend most of your time and you don’t want to fall asleep in your living room so you want to have something dramatic.”

Underwood suggests warmer colors in the kitchen – the reds, the oranges, the yellows, because wood is always going to have a warm feeling.

“Wood has that comfortable, inviting flavor to it,” Underwood said. “Wood is very striking when it’s dark, and contrasting that with warm colors is nice.”

An easy, safe way to take risks in bold colors is through throw pillows, Hallberg says. “You can really make a big difference by changing your pillows. You can change them seasonally, or with your moods and they’re inexpensive. If you don’t like them, you can always take them back too.”