Paul’s Place

We’re nearing the end of another design project and we’re thrilled with the way its turning out! It all started with Paul stopping by our showroom in search of Hunter Douglas window coverings for his new spec home. Upon walking in he saw that we are not only certified Hunter Douglas specialists, we are full service interior designers. He said to us “this is great! A one stop shop!”

We began the project with the window coverings. He likes softness at the window and has a more casual, transitional style. His biggest concerns were light control and privacy. He also wanted easy operation, functionality and of course style. Our first recommendation was that the operation system be UltraGlide Click and Walk Away because it is an easy to use lift system when PowerView isn’t an option. Our second recommendation was to use Silhouette Shadings because they offer the most light control options and have that softness Paul so wanted. In the closed position we took care of the nighttime privacy concern, in the tilted position we combated daytime privacy while keeping the view, and when he wants a completely unobstructed view he can simply roll the shades all they way up into the headrail. Our final recommendation after getting to know Paul was to use a bold color on the shades and not do a “safe” white. We set out to his new home with samples in hand to find the perfect color. We chose a “greige” with a deeply textured sheer called Brio Basilica from the Alustra Collection of Silhouette. It goes perfectly with the with tile in the kitchen, the trim on the outside of the house, and the texture creates another design demention. Because the home is open concept, we decided to put the Silhouettes in every room. What an amazing look and in complete agreement with Paul’s style.

Our next step was to design the drapery panels to compliment the shades and frame the windows. We found a beautiful fabric with a pattern that was in keeping with the other design elements of the home. These soft treatments really make a point to draw out the colors of the shades and add a flowing pattern that makes a statement.

Then we moved on to finish out the home with a clean, uncluttered look.

In their dining room, we put together a 72”round table that comfortably seats eight. We custom made the upholstered chairs that accompany it. The chairs are simple in design, but the nail heads give a hint of sophistication. We finished off this room with a large mirror and a pair of sconces.

The entry in this home is huge so we used a console table that is unique in design and large enough to fit this space. It can even be used as a buffet if they have a big party. You won’t find this piece just anywhere! We topped it with 3 candle holers and 2 tall lamps. We also put artwork above with neutral colors and hints of gold.

In the study, we found this beautiful bookcase to put behind his desk.

In the living room we pulled together a large rug that has all the neutral colors of the home in it, 2 throw pillows and 3 panel art. We are planning on adding more drapery panels for that added softness in this room as well.

This has been a very fun project and we have enjoyed working with Paul so much! We are so happy everything is pulling together nicely and we love the clean look.

If you are buying a new home or just want to give your home an update, give us a call! We would love to help you create a space that you will love to come home to.

Fresh Ideas For Your Home - Leather

Make a decorating statement with leather furnishings.

This bold design move shows you have skin in the game.

Consider a touch of leather in your next decorating project. It will be a moo-ving experience that’s sure to enhance your home environment! And most leather design elements are practical too!

Leather adds great texture, softness and color; however, beware that it can be a heavy look, especially in its most typical design colors – dark brown and black. That’s why it’s best to soften a big leather piece of furniture with other elements such as creamy paint colors, cushy throws and pillows, silky rugs and soft fabric furniture and window fashions.

Another way to lessen the heaviness of leather design elements is to select a lighter color of leather, such as beige, white, gray or sage green. Or you can add a tidbit of brightness with green, red or yellow leather!

Complementary materials and textures can also lighten up a heavy leather look. Think:

• Glass or Lucite tables

• Metal chairs and lamps

• Light filtering, soft-looking window fashions

• Bamboo flooring

• Natural grass wallcoverings

Leather is a versatile choice that adds beauty to most any decorating style from a traditional dining room to a classic living room to an ultra-contemporary great room. Think about leather for these design elements:

• Leather sofas and easy chairs, and even recliners!

• Leather dining chairs

• Leather headboard

• Leather-fronted sideboard in the dining room or dresser in the bedroom

• Leather-covered walls in a powder room or home office

Add leather to your next design project and you'll be ahead of the herd!

Fresh Ideas For Your Home - Pillows

A few small pillows can have a big impact on your decor

Fluff up your decorating plan with pillows.

Pillows seem like a small detail in a decorating scheme, yet they can add so much color, texture and personality to the look of your home.

With pillows, size matters! And so does shape. In addition to square or rectangular pillows, consider unusual shapes, such as round, triangular, oblong and oval. It’s almost always best to have more than one throw pillow on a sofa or bed. Two is most common, but you can also go with three or four.

Adding pillows is an easy way to add color and interest without adding stress or a large budget. For maximum impact and decorating harmony, consider these attributes when you select decorative pillows:

• Use complementary fabrics rather than the same material as your sofa.

• Use colors that are compatible with the rest of your interior elements in the room, such as rugs, carpeting, window coverings and upholstery.

• Mix patterns and solids if you’d like, but avoid more than two patterns because the look may become chaotic.

• Layer different textures with multiple pillows, including smooth silk, soft velvet, rough tapestry and even fuzzy faux fur.

• Think about embellishments on your pillows, such as embroidery, beading, tassels and fringe.

Think about comfort and your budget when you purchase pillows. Feathers and down stuffing feel soft and sensuous, but they tend to be more expensive and don’t hold a stiff shape. Synthetic fills and foam hold their shape better and are more reasonably priced.

​Selecting the perfect throw pillows for your rooms will puff up your home décor beautifully.

Light & Bright

After

Before

New Fabrics and Hunter Douglas Provenance Woven Wood Shades

We recently were asked to help a client in Plano to help her freshen up her home. This is always a fun sort of project. Helen had many pieces that she wanted to keep but was tired of how dark the room looked. I agreed, it was dark! The first thing to go would be the window treatments. She had old Honeycomb Shades that were in bad condition. They were so old and dingy they felt like bounty paper towels. And she had a DARK cornice with a design that dropped down 6” between each window. It was so dark you could not even see the design on the fabric. She said she did want to keep was her breakfast table and chairs because they are a timeless design and the chairs are equipped with a nice cinnamon colored fabric. So this is where we started.

Helen had the walls painted a beige color from Sherwin Williams and had new carpet installed. They are currently in the process of having a built in made for the television.

We found a striped fabric from Fabricut that had a cinnamon color as well as other earthy colors, only they were bright and easy on the eyes. We restyled the cornice making a straight cornice design and reupholstered it with the stripe fabric. We then found a woven shade from Hunter Douglas Provenance Woven Woods collection that had an organic feel. We put a liner on it and used it for privacy. Next we reupholstered one of their very comfortable chairs with a solid soft green chenille fabric and add a lumbar pillow for support.

We also added a taller sofa table that hits the sofa closer to the top and selected a taller lamp and floor lamp that is more the style of the new design. Adding height to the room created a new aesthetic that flows well with the new design of the room.

What is left? We will be reupholstering the sofa and adding two throw pillows. Then we will hang a long iron arch with an earthy wreath above the fireplace and we will add just a few finishing accessories. Helen has done some “shopping" in her own home and has found a number of accessories and pictures that will work with this new design. I love this because it is a blend of the old with the new, keeping things that are important to our client. We will add follow up pictures when the room is complete.

Hunter Douglas Provenance Woven Shades

You need to stop by Read Design Plano or Read Design Southlake to see the new fabrics in the Provenance Woven Woods line up. We are so excited to see so many new fabrics and all the colors there are available. You can motorize these shades using the PowerView motorization and control them from your smart phone or tablet with the PowerView App. Today people want to open up their homes to the outside and using Provenance Woven shades is a perfect way to do that.

Our Designers can help you design a space just for you.

Fresh Ideas For Your Home - Coffee Tables

Create interest and function with the perfect coffee table.

A fabulous coffee table adds personality to your rooms.

A coffee table shouldn’t be an insignificant afterthought near the end of planning your living room, den or great room. It’s a pivotal design element that can add drama to your interior design plan. 

Because a coffee table is often the anchor for a room, selecting it is key to your design plan. The table should be in scale with your furniture and the size of your room, complement your design plan and provide the functions you’re looking for: 

• A durable surface if you’re planning to serve food or drinks 

• Lightweight design if you want to move the table on occasion 

• A large size if you’d like to display a collection of favorite books or objects 

• No sharp corners if you have children or seniors visiting often

We most often think of coffee tables being constructed from wood, and a hand-crafted wood coffee table can be the perfect choice. But do consider innovative materials such as glass, stone, leather or metal. You can even use an upholstered ottoman as your coffee table. If you want your room to appear larger, think about a mirrored surface or a glass surface that doesn’t hide your beautiful rug or flooring. 

Be creative about the shape and size of your table too. Instead of a typical square or rectangular table, think round, oval, hexagonal or freeform. Add personality to your rooms with a beautiful new coffee table.

Fresh Ideas For Your Home - Gray

Add nuance to your design plan with soft shades of gray.

Neutral gray adds elegance and versatility to home decorating.

The most common neutrals used in home design are shades of white, beige, ivory and cream. Gray is a surprising and elegant choice that’s flexible and sensuous, and never drab or mousy, despite its stereotype. And gray isn’t only a neutral; darker and more intense shades of gray can be a focal point of your color scheme rather than a background shade. 

Gray is definitely not one color, and seldom is it a pure mix of black and white. Its range includes cool and warm tones because most shades of gray incorporate touches of yellow, blue, pink, green or other colors. 

Most often, gray is a peaceful, easy color that makes a room feel serene, although it can be edgy and super modern when it’s used for elements like concrete flooring and countertops. Gray plays well with lots of colors because it allows other colors to grab all the notice. Perfect to pair with gray are pink, blue, acid green, gold, black, brown and white. 

If you’d like to start small with a touch of gray, consider throw pillows, table and bed linens, lamps, artwork and wall paint. Larger design features include:   

• Kitchen cabinets or counters 

• Window coverings 

• Rugs and carpeting 

• Upholstered furniture 

• Tile and stone

Want to clear away the drab and mousy in your home decor? Plan on adding gray this year!

RD Home

We have exciting news at Read Design, the expansion of Read Design Home (RD Home Collection). New Products are coming in everyday and we are busy in our remodeling mode. Our shop is taking on a new and fun look. Stop in and see us soon!

At Read Design Plano, we are a full service Interior Design studio. It all starts with your window coverings. We have a Hunter Douglas Gallery and can show you Blinds and Shades - including Silhouettes, Pirouettes, and many other styles of Shades. And do not forget Plantation Shutters. An attractive window and the right light can change everything - from your room to your mood. Hunter Douglas has mastered the art of window dressing by engineering innovative functions into stylish, versatile looks for every window in your home. Hunter Douglas is the leader in light control, energy efficiency, operation systems and motorization, which makes your home smarter, your days easier, and every room more beautiful. When you stop in make sure you ask for a free copy of our Art of Window Dressing book.

Now that the windows are taken care you can move on to softening your windows with drapery panels, cornice or valances. With so many fabrics to choose from we are sure that we can find the perfect solution for your home.

​We recently helped a customer in Dallas who needed window treatments and more. First we started with Roller shades from Hunter Douglas. The shades are there for sun control and privacy and when they are up, they completely disappear into the headrail. We also added the PowerView motorization options which give give our customer ease of operation. Next we added drapery panels in a navy pattern that coordinates with the new color scheme of her home. They soften the windows and draw out the view to the back yard.

For the master bedroom our customer wanted to keep her king size bed. It works nicely in this large room with tall ceilings. First from RD Home Collection we used a 9’ x 13’ Rug in a contemporary design that brings together the soft grey, silver, and blue colors. We added a blue velvet throw at the end of the bed, blue linen euro shams and 3 custom pillows. All of the fabrics are from Kravet. To finish the look we hung 2 large art pieces behind the nightstands. What you don’t see are the 4 1/2” louver Shutters from Hunter Douglas and 4 drapery panels. The room looks very inviting and comfortable. 

In her sitting room we selected another piece from RD Home. This is a versatile piece that can be used in a Living Room, Dining Room, or just about anywhere. We also used a large rug to set the tone for the color pattern. We will soon be continuing furnishing this room with chairs and a cocktail table.

Below are some of the new pieces you will find at Read Design Plano and RD Home. We will continue get new pieces weekly. Or if you would like to have one of our Interior Designers help you with floor planning and design, just let us know. We can put together a Interior Design Plan just for you. Because we have a ton of furniture in our showroom, we are able to get you a new piece for your upcoming holiday party! We deliver! Give us a call at your earliest convenience to set up your consultation today!

Fresh Ideas For Your Home - Nail Heads

Dressing up your furniture with metal trim will nail your design plan.

Decorative brads, nails and tacks will hit the mark.

Metal trim is a classic embellishment for furniture and more. Brads, nails and tacks were used as early as the 17th century and maybe even before, in almost every country in Europe, and in the United States too. Think of them like jewelry for furniture – adding a beautiful necklace around the edges.

Metal trims work just as beautifully today as when they were first invented. They add a sense of craftsmanship and can complement almost any style of décor, from the most traditional to ultra contemporary.

Decorative brads, nails and tacks are mostly used on upholstered furniture,
but can also be applied beautifully on headboards, upholstered walls and doors,
and even as an embellishment on table tops, table fronts and table legs.

You can make a subtle design statement by using metal trim as a stripe on the edge of upholstery or you can go wild, using the trim in patterns or a patchwork design. Leather especially lends itself to metal trim, but many other fabrics can be adorned too, including velvet, tapestries and other heavy fabrics.

Metal trim comes in many shapes and sizes, with or without facets, and with matte, glossy or distressed finishes. Shapes include square, round, diamond and pyramid. Brads, nails and tacks can have a variety of metal finishes, including silver, antique gold, nickel, brass and even black. Newest of all are trims made from stone and crystal.

Adding decorative metal trim to your décor is a timeless look that’s modern even today. Nails, brads and tacks will secure your design plan beautifully.