Should I hire an interior designer?

Janet Lorusso July 13, 2017

Should I hire an interior designer?

The short answer is YES. If you want to ...

Save time

A designer should have the experience and know-how to diagnose what is bugging you about your house and come up with several possible solutions tailored exactly to your situation. OR you can spend your precious free time scouring websites and magazine articles looking for someone with your exact design dilemma who found a viable solution you like and then assessing all the options for implementing it and trying to figure out which is the best real value. The choice is yours, of course.

Designer Spam

Janet Lorusso June 29, 2017

Designer SPAM…

So, I know everyone gets spam emails, but designers get very specific spam email! This one has been circulating amongst designers for a while and I was just beginning to feel left out when, lo and behold, THIS appeared in my inbox…

I feel it is my duty as a designer to point out some glaring problems with Mary and her design sense – not to mention her spamming IQ…

Seen Around Town: sexy chair legs ...

Janet Lorusso June 9, 2017

It's almost summer, which seems like the right time of year to show a little leg...

In the world of design, I am in favor of a mix of leggy and skirted pieces in any room. Legs give pieces a lighter, less bulky feel. That said, the choice of styles available is vast! So, without further ado, here is a round up of some of the options spotted recently at the Boston Design Center.

Seen Around Town: Ballard Designs New Retail Store

Janet Lorusso May 27, 2017

FINALLY! After years of poring over the Ballard Designs catalog and absorbing the pretty vignettes, the catalog has come to life right here in New England! A new Ballard Designs retail store has opened at the Natick Mall. It is a breath of fresh design air after years of proliferating Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware stores. While the quality level and prices are all similar, the ingredients are a bit more classical than Pottery Barn and a bit more varied than Restoration Hardware.

Four Key Ingredients for Outdoor Living Spaces

Janet Lorusso May 8, 2017

As the spring weather slowly warms up and freezing rain and snow appear to be left behind for the next few months, it is time to turn our attention to the upcoming season of road construction outdoor living. Designing spaces to live outside and revel in the warmer weather is even more important here in the northeast where we celebrate that we survived another winter and the gray, pre-spring months!

On my “must have” list for anyplace I live, is a slice of outdoor space. Whether you have a pocket sized balcony, a patio, a covered or screened porch, or a deck, make the most of it so you can enjoy the beauty of nature for a few months.

Arranging an outdoor space uses the same principals as arranging an indoor space – scale, color, and balance all apply. Here are a few key ingredients to keep in mind:

Trade-Secrets.-5-tips-for-choosing-the-perfect-rug.jpg

Trade Secrets: Five Tips for Choosing the Perfect Rug

Janet Lorusso April 20, 2017

A well chosen area rug can pull together a whole room. While there are many ways to approach decorating a room, starting with an area rug you love is one of the most logical. The rug you choose can set the design direction for the whole room and choices are available for every possible situation, from a trendy flokati to a classic oriental, and everything in between. That said, here are some guidelines to help you with your choices wherever the rug selection falls in your process.

Trade Secrets: Sofa Shopping Simplified

Janet Lorusso February 15, 2017

Sofa shopping can be intimidating. Choosing style details can be overwhelming, but comparing quality can be even more so since upholstery has a whole set of its own vocabulary, and the quality levels vary from store to store and even within a store or brand. Largely, price is an indication of quality level, but not entirely...there is some murky territory in the middle where many popular brands mix a few quality elements in with cheaper materials or construction so they may sound higher quality than they really are. Upholstered furniture can be found at pretty much any price point, so how do you determine how much to spend?

The answer to that question depends on a number of factors…

Getting ready for the spring market? – Staging Tips from a Pro

Janet Lorusso February 12, 2017

Part of what sells a home is it’s feeling of hominess. Stripping a home of its character and emptying the rooms does not create the emotional appeal needed to sell a home. Careful editing and thoughtful arrangement does.

Here are a few key steps toward marketing your home in its best possible light:

Luxury Downsizing: Seven Essential Steps

Janet Lorusso January 19, 2017

Luxury Downsizing – it’s what all the cool kids are doing! And while this post is written about downsizing in particular, much of it applies to ANY move. There is a reason so many empty nesters are downsizing to luxury apartments, condos, or smaller single-family homes. There are advantages to downsizing. Having less to decorate and maintain means more resources to do it well. AND Moving to smaller square footage affords more time (and often closer proximity) to enjoy travel, leisure, and cultural pursuits from a home base that is perfectly suited for your lifestyle.

Tales from the Kitchen: Misadventures in Baking

Janet Lorusso January 2, 2017

When life hands you lemons…Make lemonade! Or so the saying goes.

How optimistic!

In this case life handed me cake crumbs. The lesson of turning a disaster into an asset is so important, in the kitchen and in life. We learn the most from our failures, I think. My most recent kitchen flop started out innocently enough…

Seen Around Town; Eataly Boston

Janet Lorusso December 28, 2016

Looking for a post-holiday outing where you can shop and eat and feel vaguely European doing it? We visited the newly opened Eataly Boston earlier this month at Prudential Center Plaza. ...Think, if Disney took over the North End...it is quite an experience!

seen-around-town-brimfield-september-market

Seen Around Town: At the Brimfield September Market

Janet Lorusso September 21, 2016

I love going to Brimfield, and the fried dough is not the only reason! The HUGE Massachusetts outdoor antique and flea market takes place three times each year and September is usually my favorite one. This year, we managed to go on a 90-plus degree day with humidity somewhere in the stratosphere so it was less crowded than usual.

As always, it was a mix of new, antique, reclaimed, vintage, and unique finds - some of which defied description! Luckily, we snapped some photo's so here are some of the highlights from our visit...

This vendor had a terrific assortment of marine salvage with a LOT of light fixtures. We thought some of these pendants would be fabulous over a kitchen island!

If you are in the market for unusual tables, there were a fair number of options to be had.

Turned leg farmhouse, reclaimed wood on metal sawhorse brackets, and REALLY long in case you have a very large family...

And then there was this really unique metal table made from a vintage metal door - it even still has the keyhole!

Or this very funky dinette set...it would certainly make a statement, although I'm not entirely sure what that statement is...

This table with the top covered entirely in vintage hotel matchbook covers would be an interesting conversation piece in a game room

Or add a statement piece to the library with this elaborately carved walnut claw foot table

Being a complete sucker for things with lots of drawers or cubbies, I loved these vintage storage chests

This one has 124 drawers!

And we saw two of these hexagonal beauties that spin and sport triangular drawers, and a crank-rotating hardware display piece full of cubbies

Vintage signs, architectural salvage - some of which was upcycled into other things like mirrors, and painted furniture abounded...you could even buy the paint - both Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Milk Paint displays were seen.

And there were beds...from iron beds and metal beds....

to this pair of beautiful French carved and book-matched burlwood beds

If you have just the place for it...maybe a fun pool cabana house...this vintage ice cream fountain out of an old store in southern Massachusetts would be SO fun!

There were the usual suspects...tin letters (still?), metal embellishments for the Pinterest project crowd, or these fun paper flower accessories made from maps or music and buttons for those who want their craft projects already done

And this vendor with vintage dishes...he always has a fabulous assortment

And then there was this dealer who had some gorgeous hand painted Hungarian porcelain by Anna Weatherly...but alas, even at half the retail price it was still out of reach

anna-weatherley-handpainted-teacup-at-250-half-of-retail-price-hand-painted-hungarian

Not old, and not particularly a bargain, but still a great look - these lamps with architectural bases and these unusual rustic cage pendants were a nice find