Autumn Hues & Classic Design Abound

Here are some recent pics, from the Better Homes and Gardens website, that show beautiful autumn hues in a lovely home.  The design, layout, and colors of the spaces offer some good decor pointers we can all use for our own homes this Fall (and beyond...).

This living room has a great neutral under-tone...the wall color and most of the furniture are basic while the accessories add the color and whimsy to the room.  Changing out the pillows for different seasons allows you to adopt different color palettes for different times of the year - warmer and darker colors for Autumn and Winter, then some more cool and bright colors for Spring and Summer.  You can add a cool ceiling light fixture like this one to any room.  Take down that old ceiling fan and hang up a lighting fixture with more visual interest.

The sitting area of the same living room showcases two good design pointers: 1) Don't match your accent chairs.  Pick out two chairs of similar scale and size, but be creative by pairing two chairs from different time periods, or one with arms and one without, or even one upholstered and another one made out of wood, wicker, or cane.  It's best to separate the chairs with a small side table or garden stool so it grounds the sitting area and offers a place to put drinks. 2) Raise those drapery rods!  To make a room look more grand, raise the rods above the trim around the windows, even all the way up to the ceiling.  It makes your windows look bigger and your ceilings look taller.  Allow your drapes to at least skim the floor.  No high-water drapery panels...

You can be bold with color, especially in a more formal room.  This dining room is beautiful with dark grape colored walls and white wainscoting.  If you have a large dining table, try finding an upholstered bench to place on one side for additional seating.  It makes the whole space look richly designed and custom.  You can also do this when you have a small space and need to push the table up closer to one wall.  Place the bench seating along the wall, perhaps flanked with bookshelves, then you can slide the table and chairs over toward the wall.  It looks intended to be that way, and you saved some major space for a better walkway.

I'm typically not fond of purple hues, but this house is changing my mind...I love the deep mauvey lavender walls in this master bedroom.  Who says you can't put a bed in front of a window - of course you can!  Just frame the window properly and make sure you have a headboard on the bed.  A low-profile headboard keeps you from blocking too much light.  The simple headboard design allows everything to meld together well.  It's best for the drapes to reach wider than the headboard width, so the vertical lines of the drapery and sides of the headboard are not distinctly in line.  If you have a small window, hang the drapery rod wider than the window.  It will give you the visual illusion that your window is much larger behind those drapery panels.  -Kristen