houzz interior design ideas

Archive for the "tabletop" Category

California Country Living, Victorian Style

On February 16, 2018, I was in Potter Valley, California, working on the historic Spotswood House, when I saw this view behind the house of antique farm equipment, with an enormous willow just beginning to leaf out. This photo perfectly captures the feeling one gets while being on a working farm that has been in operation since the 1880s. In 2001 […]

INTERIOR DECORATING or INTERIOR DESIGN?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have you ever wondered what the difference is between interior design and interior decorating?  Using our home library as an example, I will illustrate the difference between these two essential concepts: interior design requires conceptualizing and outlining changes that require construction, whereas interior decorating refers to changes in color, furnishings, window treatments and accessories.  The photo […]

5 Easy Essentials for Fall Decorating

Doesn’t have to be all orange.  I love to mix a variety of pomegranates, gourds, and flowers with blue and white porcelain and table linens. Don’t forget the chandelier!  My favorite corvids grace the chandelier every year during Halloween season.  What else can you think of to put on yours? Design principle for all seasons: repetition.  The […]

Six Things I Learned Hosting My 50th College Reunion Kickoff Party

Planning a party is a great motivator to make improvements that you have been putting off.  We were expecting about 50 people on June 8, so in late May we asked our gardener to spread a coat of fresh mulch over all of our flower beds, and to power wash our driveway, upper deck, and lower deck, which were covered with a […]

Modern Luxe

  Our long-time clients, Susan and Bruce Winthrop, recently downsized from a large suburban home to a condo on the top floor of Atwater Place in the South Waterfront. They no longer wanted to deal with the upkeep of a house and large yard, and they wanted to be nearer the city center where many of their favorite […]

5 Tips for Easy Summer Entertaining

We are blessed in the Pacific Northwest with a moderate climate that makes outdoor entertaining possible from May through September.  If you are new to outdoor entertaining, here are a few tips to make it  easy and fun: 1.   FOOD:  Don’t try to do it all yourself.  Plan simple menus, prepare most things the […]

Chew on This!

It’s not often that I design a room around a dog, but Samoa is a very special dog.  She’s a Bernese Mountain Dog, and it was her chewing behavior as a young dog  that prompted her owners, Sue and Bob Van Brocklin, to ask Emery & Associates to redecorate their family room.  Eventually we worked […]

Make Your Living Room Come Alive

  It’s a sad story–hardly anyone “lives” in their living rooms anymore.  This is a tale we hear over and over, and here is one example of how we fixed it.   The “AFTER” detail above  shows a small slice of the adjoining living and dining rooms featured in this post.  When the homeowners called Emery & […]

High Summer Dining–Bon Appetit!

My clients are having some friends over for dinner tomorrow evening, and I told them I’d bring the flowers for the table since the room is now completed and I wanted to photograph it.   The hostess is using her mother’s Spode china (“Buttercup”), and her own coral red place mats and napkins.  This space […]

Penthouse in the Pearl

When the new owners of this penthouse condo at Tanner Place contacted Emery & Associates, they told me that their taste was very contemporary, but they had fallen in love with this rather traditional space because of the high ceilings and large walls where they would be able to showcase their collection of art.  They […]

houzz interior design ideas