Our Dining Room is featured on Houzz.com!
We love a little sweet publicity here at Megan Blake Design. Today, popular interior design inspiration website Houzz.com took MBD under their wing and featured our dining room in their daily idea book “Off-Kilter Chandeliers Spot On Style”. This chandelier was placed slightly off-center to open up the room as it sheds light beautifully through the large wall mirror nearby. The space is also used as an impromptu office, so heads, papers and laptops are always if shift mode and this openness keeps crystal in the safe zone.
MBD is Winner in “Best of Remodeling” at Houzz.com!
Yay! The interior-design loving community at Houzz.com picked Megan Blake Design as one of their winners in the first ever “2012 Best of Remodeling” contest and we could not be more pleased!
We love what we do here at Megan Blake Design. Everyday is a blessing to work with amazing clients who invite us into their homes and works space and in tandem, achieve beautiful, functional and lasting indoor and outdoor living spaces. Our portfolio on Houzz.com has attracted many readers and viewers in their web community and we hope we can continue to inspire homeowners looking for great ideas for their own living spaces.
Contact us at MBD for your indoor and outdoor design needs today! 202-688-1311 or email us at info@meganblakedesign.com.
It’s 65 Degrees! Let’s Design for the Outdoors!
We have seen unseasonably warm temperatures in and around Washington DC. There are daffodils smiling in the sunshine and tulips starting to show their heads. You know what that means? Get outside and enjoy the view! If your outdoor living situation has been a bit lackluster or even non-existent, now is the time to start planning a stylish and durable outdoor design for living, dining and entertaining. Expanding your livable space outdoors make sense for our moderate climate and adds value to your home. Plus, you get a “bigger” house! Megan Blake Design offers outdoor design for living spaces – we will hand-pick and customize comfortable seating arrangements, set up inviting dining areas, cast beautiful glows with perfect lighting, add patterns and personality with seat cushions and durable accessories. The sky is the limit. We’d like to take your landscape there.
Contact us at MBD for your outdoor design needs today! 202-688-1311 or email us at info@meganblakedesign.com.
Ways to Warm Up Rooms.
It’s the dead of Winter here in Washington, DC, and recent bone-chilling temperatures have keep many of us bundled up in our own homes. If you want to bring some warmth into your nest, choose a few of these tips for warming up your rooms:
- Put velvet accent pillows on your chairs and sofas
- Drop in a fluffy bath mat.
- Light scented candles in your entry hall.
- Burn real logs in your fireplace.
- Spray your dressing room with a spicy scent.
- Throw a rich camel blanket over your sofa.
- Lower your dining room chandelier a few inches.
- Pull a reading light up to a chair.
- Reupholster a piece of furniture in a leopard or zebra print.
- Install a few wall sconces in the hallways.
- Banish any fluorescents from your kitchen.
- Repaint your front door a chinese red.
- Cover up a carpet with a few colorful flat pile area rugs.
- Cover your walls with textured wallpaper.
- Install dimmers everywhere.
- Place a huge bowl with pinecones on your coffee table.
- Serve red wine.
We’re Featured Today On Houzz!
Woohoo! Megan Blake Design was featured in the daily article on Houzz.com titled “How to Choose the Right Dining Table“. We are excited to be able to share our interior ideas and designs with readers and our website visitors! When clients need to seek out inspiration for new projects with our firm, we sometimes send them to Houzz.com (and other inspiration websites and webzines). This is a great starting point for pulling together a style file of favorite rooms and ideas. Thank you Houzz for using one of dining rooms for today’s post!
Switch to This.
I’m not the only homeowner who’s afraid to install those garish wiry looking lightbulbs in place of the incandescent bulbs that we’ve grown accustomed to. I like a room to feel warm, cozy, livable, comfortable without the look of an ugly bulb or eye-blinding glow from a socket. I wish I had stocked up on the Philips Pink 60W bulbs before they started to disappear {pssst… there has to be some boxes still laying around the smaller hardware shops somewhere}. But with my design business and my evolving desire to go green, I’m now realizing I need to embrace the energy-efficient bulb. And I found a winner.
Welcome to the dimmable 60W A-19 LED. This rounded beauty comes in daylight white or warm white {finally}, and replaces energy gobbling incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs which consume only 8 watts. They may be a bit on the pricy side of $28 each {yikes, I know!} but they should save some bucks on your energy bill and outlast the typical base bulb that seems to burn out monthly. The A-19 dimmable LED light bulb can be used with a standard household dimmer and is available through The LED Light online store.
This just might light up my life and living spaces beautifully and efficiently.
A Stylish Way to Get Some Extra Heat.
It’s frigid here in Washington DC today. The sun is ablaze but the wind calls for the warmest of mittens. With these Fall season temps, those lower level rooms in row homes and condo buildings are definitely feeling the chill. I have my eye on the prize – that is the new Dyson oscillating heater. I saw it at Best Buy a few weeks ago but short sleeve weather made we walk right on by. Noted. Now, I’m ready for the splurge. Equipped with long-range heat projection and a fan function, it allows you to fine-tune the temperature to your own comfort level. Plus, it’s less than two feet in height. As a designer, the looks suits any room beautifully. If you need the extra heat, put this one on your holiday wish list. The sweet look comes in a white-silver or iron- blue. The cost? A well worth it $400 bucks.
Any Surface: How to Paint {Part Three}
Rugs
Base-coat your rug material if desired. After the base coat dries, use a straightedge to guide your stencil placement. Apply your design in a contrasting color with a stencil brush and stencil, cleaning the stencil before moving it to a new section. When the paint is dry, seal and protect the design with clear polyurethane.
Walls
Before painting walls, wash them with trisodium phosphate (TSP) and repair any cracks or holes. If your house was just built and your walls have not been painted before, it’s a good idea to apply a wallboard sealer before painting. For old drywall and plaster, a stain-blocking primer can help hide water stains or other marks.
Wood Floors
To paint a wood floor, clean and sand the surface (filling any cracks with wood filler), then apply an oil-base sealer. You can use either oil-base or latex paint. Alkyd or modified epoxy latex porch and floor paint is a good choice for high-traffic areas. A polyurethane coating (a type of varnish) will help protect painted floors. You might want to use a water-base varnish because oil-base varnishes yellow over time.
Use a roller with a long handle to cover large floor areas, although a brush is fine for small areas. Remember to plan your escape route: Start in a corner and work toward your exit to avoid stepping on wet paint.
Read More»
Any Surface: How to Paint {Part Two}
Metal
Clean the surface with a stiff wire brush to remove flaking paint or rust. Wipe with a damp cloth and let it dry. Prime with metal primer and let dry, or use a paint specially formulated with rust inhibitors. Apply several thin coats of paint. If using spray paint, hold the can about 10-12 inches from the surface as you spray. Shake the can during the application to keep the color mixed. Spray lightly to avoid paint runs.
Fabric
Tape preshrunk fabric to plastic-treated cardboard. (Place the cardboard inside a pillow cover in case paint soaks through.) Use fabric paint or an acrylic paint with textile medium added. Apply the paint in several thin coats to work it into the fibers. Heat set if required. Your piece can be laundered with mild detergent after 10-14 days.
Ceramic
Sand the surface lightly to ensure paint adhesion. Clean the surface with trisodium phosphate (TSP) cleaner to remove grease and dirt. When dry, apply a bonding or ceramic primer. Let the primer dry. Brush on latex paint in a gloss or semi-gloss finish. You also can use a paint formulated for ceramic or porcelain surfaces. Allow the paint to dry for several days and take care not to scratch the paint while it’s curing.
Glass
Start with a clean, dry surface. If you use a pattern, tape it to the inside of clear glass. With an artist’s brush, apply a thin layer of glass paint for a stained-glass look. For an opaque finish, apply an additional coat after the first is dry. Paint slowly and gently to avoid bubbles. Using an artist’s brush, seal the design with glass-paint varnish. If you want the look of frosted glass, use a varnish with a matte finish.
Compliments of BHG.com
Welcoming the Red Zone.
We all know that a red front door adds instant curb appeal, but what does a red front door symbolize?
A lot, actually. It’s hard to pin down a specific origin of the red front door, but after a little research,ShelterPop.com traced the tradition back to Biblical times. As history goes, Hebrew slaves were instructed to paint their doors red to protect their first-born from the angel of death. Many churches also painted their doors red, with the belief that once you passed through it you were protected from evil. And in early American times, if a family had a red front door, travelers passing through by horse and buggy would know that a home was a safe place to stop and stay. According to the principles of Feng Shui, a red door symbolizes “welcome.” Perhaps more importantly than its historical meaning, though, is the fact that, according to the principles of Feng Shui, a red door is supposed to create a welcoming energy in your home. And the most exciting meaning: In Scotland, a red door means “mortgage-free,” since homeowners used to paint their front doors to announce to the world that they’d paid off their home.
Excerpt borrowed from ShelterPop.com
CID International
Dc Design Coop