TayRose Design interior design Wall Art Archives - TayRose Design interior design

Photo-Art pillows add big punch to Home Decor

22 Apr 2015

Art, Interior Design Room, Office, Theme Room

Africa, Art, Clay NY, contemporary, custom, decorator, Eregal Studio, Home Decor, Interior Design, lion, mood boards, office, Parade of Homes, photography, pillow, TayRose Design, unique, Wall Art

Hanging pictures on our walls has always been a way to showcase our families, remind us of a favorite movie with a poster, frame school art from our children through the years, or reminders of places we have been. Wall art evolved to paintings of subjects we were drawn to, or abstracts with colors that melded with our sofas, that filled our walls with pattern and color. With the many styles of design, from Contemporary Modern, Country, Shabby Chic, Traditional, Rustic to Eclectic, all of them have some home decor style that we identify with. The graphic bold colors and stark black and white for Contemporary, the painted distressed wood for Country, the creamy whites and floral for Shabby Chic, and so on, and with all of these, photography, framed has been there to hang on our walls.

When you think of all the photographers in the world, and all the different styles and subjects they portray in their work, for Interior Designers, photography is the go to decor item for adding emotion and even drama to a room. I am so fortunate to be married to a photographer, eregalstudio.com and have used his art photography in several of the Parade Houses I have designed, and I have marveled at how it fills a space with a powerful statement.

I feel a beautiful photograph can be compared with a beautiful painting, for they both affect an emotion, and they both capture a moment frozen in time.

The other day, my husband told me he had sold a pillow online from his Fine Art America store,http://fineartamerica.com/products/majestic-king-everet-regal-throw-pillow-14-14.html

I had to stop and ask, “a pillow?” Now, I know this concept of a photograph on a pillow is not new. I remember seeing children’s photos on pillows, or their favorite pet, but it got me visualizing an office or living room with accent pillows with beautiful photographs on them, and my mind started creating artful photo pillows! Imagine an home office with dark mahogany furniture and a zebra colored rug, leather sofa, soft throw and a lion pillow?

(I had so much fun designing the mood boards!) Or a more contemporary sleek office with chrome and glass and a pillow with a closeup of bridge cables or a tall building ……there are so many ways that photography as an art form has grown from only on the walls to decor accents in pillow form.

Just another way to live with art!

Check out Fine Art America.com and see how any photo can be made into a 100% cotton pillow 14″ x 14″ up to 26″ starting $27.00 photo printed on both sides and insert included!

To receive posts via email click HERE Subscribe in a reader or signup in Subscription box in sidebar.

Cuckoo for Nursery Wall Art

I had a vision in my head of how I wanted the Nursery wall in the Parade of Homes to look…soft, sweet, something that could remain on the wall as they grew, and something sparkly…for I was designing the space for a baby girl, and they are sugar and spice and everything nice you know…and sparkly!

I knew I was going to use a vintage iron crib (more for show during the Parade, I would suggest a white new crib for the baby) and a dresser that was painted in a soft color. There would be soft carpeting on the floor, and I wanted to do a billowy, flowey, window curtain treatment.

I commissioned my friend who is a wonderful surface painter, Sarah of Sarahharrisdesigns.com to paint a wall mural of a large tree, where the branch would reach out over the crib so I could hang birdhouses in the branches. I also wanted to have smaller birdhouses be part of the window treatment to hold up the curtain rod, which was both a wooden dowel and real branches that I had painted white. So, how did the idea come about using birdhouses for the wall?

I was at a local auction and looking through all the box lots that were going up soon to be auctioned off, when I spied a box with several wooden cuckoo clocks that were all broken, some parts missing, the backs off of some, some with no hands or pendulums etc. I knew right then that these will be my “birdhouses” that will sit in the branches of the wall mural in the Nursery. Now, I want to mention right here, that I would never take a working cuckoo clock that had all it’s parts and deface it in any way, so I’m not telling you to run out and take your Grandfather’s clock off the wall and make it into a birdhouse….I found these parts, and rather than having them end up being in someone’s burn pile or in a landfill, I decided to save these parts and create art….oops, better raise my number up!

I won! Got the box and happily brought them home to where I proceeded to clean them up and start to paint them all a nice white color. The tree I wanted to be a white silhouette, so the “birdhouses” would look like part of the silhouette as well, plus the color balanced with the window treatments too. As I mentioned above, I wanted to bring some “sparkle” into the room, so I went online and looked for some German glitter, ordered it and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. After several coats of paint- I used some latex paint I had on hand-and after they were all good and dry I was ready to apply the glitter. I wanted the houses to be covered in glitter, like a fairyland, so when the light from the windows streamed in, it would make the birdhouses glisten.

I experimented with several types of glue to apply the glitter with. I tried a spray adhesive first, spraying small areas and then sprinkling the glitter on by hand. The adhesive was just ok, it didn’t hold as much of the glitter I was hoping it would, so I switched to plan B which was taking white glue, (Elmers or Dollar Store brand) and I watered the glue down a little bit in a plastic tray and applied with a brush. I also discovered at the Dollar Store a package of salt & pepper glass shakers which I filled up with the glitter and found this was much easier to use than sprinkling with my hands. I kept gluing and sprinkling until I got the coverage I wanted and left them to dry.

I thought to myself, transporting these babies without knocking off all the sparkles was going to be the challenge if I didn’t spray it with something to hold the glitter down. I decided to bring out the spray adhesive again and spray over the whole house thinking that it would at least help with some of the glitter dropping. The adhesive spray worked pretty well, and there was hardly any glitter at the bottom of the box after transporting.

After deciding where in the tree to hang my “birdhouses” over the center of the bed, they were easy to hang with a screw in the wall. I was so happy to be able to repurpose the clocks into birdhouses, although, birdhouses painted and treated the same way would be perfectly fine as well. I just like to challenge myself to see things in a different way and relish in the joy when I see how well my challenge was met! Are you as “cuckoo” for cuckoo clock parts as I am?

*To receive posts via email click HERE Subscribe in a reader or signup in the Subscription box in the sidebar.

From Broken to Brilliant- Staircase Display Shelving with Chairs!

Taylor

13 Jan 2015

Art, DIY, Entry, Interior Design Room, Repurposed

While designing for the Parade of Homes in 2012, Pigliavento Builders was building in the development called “Riverwalk” which was near water and had lots of paths and walking areas around the community to take in the beautiful nature.
So, the colors I chose that year for the interior as well as the exterior of the house, were colors of water-soft grays, blues and greens and white. The entry was large and opened up to the 2nd floor, with a welcoming open staircase with landing to the left and white painted spindles on dark stained wooden steps and railings.

Chair Sculptures on wall

That open stairwell was really calling out to me for something unique, dramatic, and practical as well. I already had commissioned a young local artist to paint a large canvas for me of geese in flight that would hang up on the wall as you came into the foyer, bringing your eyes up to the lofty open area. The chandelier held a large grapevine wreath I made, that set down over the top dripping with assorted prisms from vintage glass chandeliers. I wanted it to resemble a nest and it worked! On to the stairwell…. Read more!

Needing “Art” in a pinch…

Taylor

02 May 2014

Art, DIY, Repurposed

Art, children wall art, DIY, Handmade, Home Decor, Interior Design, kite, paint chips, Taylor Regal, TayRose, unique, Wall Art

I mentioned in previous post that I redesigned a house to sell last week, and I ended up taking quite a few accessories out of my stock to rejuvenate their home, give it a new refreshed look, and I needed some artwork fast, at low cost. Step in paper…..I haven’t really used paper that much, but I’m starting to love the unfathomable uses of it which warms my heart. So, I grabbed a frame that I already had and was waiting to be used, plus some old maps I’ve kept, some paint chips, brochures and embroidery thread and in a few short hours a fun piece was born!

Paint chip Kite matted on map

There is no end to repurposing paper…from book pages used as shelf liners in cupboards and drawers, to modge podge a design onto furniture…have fun!

To receive posts via email click HERE Subscribe in a reader or sign up in subscription box in sidebar.

paint chip kite collage

2012 Parade of Homes Guest bath in “Riverside” model

Taylor

01 May 2014

Art, DIY, Interior Design Room, Repurposed

Bath, frames, Home Design, Interior Design, Parade of Homes, photograph, Powder room, pulley, Taylor Regal, TayRose, vessel sink, vintage, Wall Art

While working with the builder, Jack Scalice of Pigliavento Builders on the design for the Parade of Homes model, I had the great opportunity of designing the interior and exterior of the home with colors and decor as well as choosing tile, cabinetry and hardware.

Riverside Parade of Homes 2012 board & batten

Since the Riverwalk Development was near water and nature walkways, I wanted the colors and interior feel to be soft, with color shades of water. I love trying to design in unexpected ways…a discovery for all of the thousands of guests that walk through the home…something they may not have seen before. I also like to use products in different ways, use items on hand, or items found at a budget to repurpose.

For the Guest bath on the first floor of the 2012 Parade of Homes, I wanted to design something on the wall of the small bath that would fill the space, not take away from the pretty color on the walls, incorporate the existing window and be unique. I always keep a stash of frames that I find at various garage sales, thrift stores and auctions, and I thought this design would be the perfect project to use up some of the frames in a fun way.

I measured the wall space and on my garage floor, I laid out after several attempts, the best way that the frames would work in the space plus accounting for the spacing to hang. I wanted the frames to look like were suspended in space, including the window, all in the same color plus, since I thought if I used chain to hang them, it would add to the water/nautical feel of the rest of the house. I decided instead of having all the frames hang in their original colors, to paint them all white to match, so your eye just notices the shapes and not distracted by colors. I purposefully did not put anything inside, letting the color of the walls framed by the frame be the “art”. Even the toilet paper roll was “framed” The trickiest part was hanging the chain so that they all hung straight….fortunately, I had some helping hands with the builder and his wife to help with this installation!

For over the sink, I decided to paint the framed mirror white to match the other frames, plus added the same painted chain I used to hang the frames and, for fun, water bottle bottom rosettes in the corners. A few more painted frames hung over the toilet and towel bar to round out the white “art” on the walls.

painted framed mirror with chain for bath TayRose Design

I repurposed an antique commode to hold the glass vessel sink by having the back and a few drawers cut out in back to accommodate the faucet plumbing. The drawers were all lined in old book pages, with added vintage clear glass knobs to match the glass vessel sink.

All in all, the room was a success, and the new owners loved everything and wanted to keep it all! Best compliment I could receive!

Painted frames linked as wall art for bath TayRose Design

*To receive posts via email click HERE Subscribe in a reader or signup in subscription box in sidebar.