Pangaea Interior Design Home Stager - Redesign - Model Homes

Ever searching for cool ways to go green, I have come across two options for you to relax in style while being sustainable at the same time.
This classic Adirondack style chair is being made in a totally new and sustainable way by Loll.

These chairs are made from 100% recycled post consumer “high density polyethylene” which is a plastic resin made from recycled items such as milk jugs, margarine tubs, detergent bottles and so on. While I love the leaf green shown here, they make these in several colors and alternate styles. For more styles and other items --- even your DOG can have sustainable options at Loll --- and buying info read the longer version of this article on the Pangaea Interior Design Blog.

I also found a local craftsman making classic Adirondack chairs out of 100% reclaimed wood from industrial construction pallets. If you prefer wood to plastic, it’s tough to beat this combination of reclaimed wood and local manufacture within 15 miles of Portland, Oregon.

So pick the one that fits your aesthetic and your pocket book and sit back with a tall cool glass of Lemonade. Enjoy the sunshine!

Pangaea Interior Design offers full interior design services to residential clients as well as home staging in Portland Oregon.

If you've been checking out my posts, you know I am passionate about lofts and open urban spaces. Lofts always look so BIG when you see them empty. Yet, most of the lofts being built or converted from former industrial spaces have almost no built-in storage at all. In an open plan home, you may have more closets, but with all of your living area visible at once, things can look pretty cluttered if you end up with a lot of things sitting out in view.

Whether you have a very small space that requires everything in it to perform double duty, or you have a large open space and you'd like to conceal your "stuff" while keeping it conveniently near at hand, I think the photos below will give you inspiration and demonstrate some real out-of-the-box thinking.

This bedroom by Nabilovo has two entire walls of built-in storage. Building it in from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, literally makes it disappear and simply reads visually as the 'wall', rather than as cabinetry. The minimal amount of open shelving gives great display space for those select items you actually do want to see and gives the wall of storage visual interest.

Bo Concept has this amazing coffee table that stores your things and opens to create raised table surfaces. Great for eating in front of the TV!

For studio spaces, you may want to store the bed also. This amazing ceiling bed is called "Bedup" by Decadrages. It can have integrated lighting under it to use as ceiling lights while it is up. It can also be lowered to various pre-set heights so you don't have to move any furniture out of the way that may be underneath it. Pretty radical concept!

Tumidei creates an amazing range of loft bedrooms for kids. They make great use of space under the bed and on top of the platform.

People need a place to put guests from time to time. No guest room in your place? No worries! This Saba Italia "Scoop" Bed is two sofas by day and one very cool bed at night!

From flyingbeds.com, this computer bed, called "The Tale" is a marvel of technology. The computer desk moves with the bed and stays upright, so you don't have to take anything off the desk as the bed is moved into position. How cool is that?!! It's only available in twin size, but this would be awesome for a dorm room or a guest room, don't you think?

This innovative chair / lounge chair by Karim Rashid, one of my very favorite furniture designers, is a great example of a piece that expands or contracts depending on how you need to use it at the moment. Much more sleek than a bulky recliner too!

Again from Karim Rashid, the "Blend" cabinet for Horm is practically a sculpture in its own right. When shopping for free-standing furniture, make sure you buy something beautiful! It will be that much nicer to keep your things tucked inside it.

Did somebody say "multi-tasking"? The Calypso Chair by designer Brandon Allen makes soccer moms look downright lazy. This is a love-seat with or without side tables, a two-seater with facing seats, a table and even a bed. Whew! Tires me out just thinking of the possibilities.

Well, I could just go on all day about this. It's so much fun to look at all the unique ways to create flexible space in our homes. If you need help putting together your environment, whether that's from floor to ceiling or you just need help pulling together what you already have ... give me a call today. I serve the Portland, Oregon area in person and offer "Virtual Design" via phone and email to almost anywhere. Call today at 503-816-4394, or view my website at Pangaea Interior Design, Model Home Decor and Home Staging.

See my related posts on Lofs & Open Plan Homes:

Defining Space, Not Dividing Space ...

Soaring Ceilings ... And What On Earth To Do With Them? ...

Living in a Fish Bowl ... Or, Floor to Ceiling Windows and What To Do With Them? ...

This morning I read a post in Home and Garden Interior Design about the bill in Maryland to require Interior Designers to be licensed. Currently in Oregon, where I have my business, we are not required to be licensed, but similar plans are afoot here.

This is one subject that really gets me upset. I, too, value education. But I also highly value practical experience. Although the requirements for the couple dozen states which require licenses to call yourself an Interior Designer, or practice interior design, vary from state to state ... essentially they all require a certain amount of school and the NCIDQ exam. You cannot sit for the exam unless you have enough school credits. Practical experience counts for nothing.

I am very offended by people who assume that because I don't have a degree in interior design, that all I have going for me is a "good eye for color" and that somehow I will be oblivious to safety issues or human interaction with the interiors I design. While others have been taking classes in academia, I have been busy learning my trade through self-education and practical work experience. The classroom is not the only place where a person with initiative can learn what they need to know. I have experience and knowledge that a person fresh out of school would love to have. I know my own areas of knowledge and also any areas where I lack experience. I am perfectly capable of hiring a licensed contractor to do work that requires expertise that I don't have. I also believe that consumers are perfectly capable of looking carefully at the skill and expertise of the designer they are about to hire.

Especially in this economy, I see no advantage to consumers to put interior designers with years of experience out of work, or to force them to shut down their businesses to go back to school, nor to force them to work under a less experienced designer who happens to have a degree.

When you look for an interior designer you are fully capable of looking at their experience and education and making up your own mind what is most important to you. The licensing requirements would add costs to doing business and that cost will be passed on to consumers. I do hope that this will be voted down in Maryland. I know similar bills have been voted down twice in Oregon and hope they will continue to be voted down. It is unnecessary regulation designed to remove the competition.

Okay, I feel better having gotten that off my chest. What do YOU think?

Oh we love space! Air above our heads! A roof that requires clearance from the FAA! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit ... just a bit. But it does feel good to see those soaring heights ... right up until you have to decorate or stage the place. Then what on earth do you put in a place that has 15' ... 17' ... even 23' high ceilings? Well, I have a few tips and suggestions and one or two might surprise you.

The first thing I do when faced with a property that has soaring ceilings is to look for some art that is large enough to take advantage of the great verticle space. If your budget doesn't allow for a large piece of artwork, consider a fabric panel like the orange one below. Marimekko makes fabulous large scale prints that look wonderful hung as art.

The second way to enhance a tall ceiling and add drama is to install a fabulous chandelier. It's like art for your ceiling! Be sure to use a chandelier that is large enough and that provides plenty of light, while reflecting the style of the rest of your furnishings. Photos are of the Foscarini Big Bang Chandelier, and a room by designer, Shaun Jackson. This is an opportunity to really make a style statement!

The third important piece is to add accessories such as exceptionally tall plants, sculpture, or floor vases with tall branches that are large enough not to feel dwarfed by the height of the room. Scale is important. I would say that the number one mistake people make in using art and accessories in their homes is to use pieces that are under-scaled for the space. Notice how much better this living room looks after removing the too small book shelves and replacing with a fiddle-leaf fig that is nearly to the ceiling. The height of the plant also balances the strong vertical lines of the concrete fireplace across the room.

The final piece that really makes a home with tall ceilings work is to incorporate some good strong horizontal lines in the room, and to be sure to also have some of the art or accessories on a human scale. Notice in the living room above that the very long sectional provides a strong horizontal line to anchor the vertical fireplace and plant. In the photos below, the strong horizontal lines and lower height of the furnishings and artwork along the wall on the left, provide a human sized foil to the floor vase with tall branches, the high windows and the tall orange panel on the right. If I had used very tall artwork on both sides of the room, it would have begun to overpower the space and make people feel like everything was looming over them.

So, the key is to finding a good balance between pieces tall enough to accent and dramatize your ceiling height, and good strong elements that keep it feeling the right size for humans.

My original post for Part 1 can be found on this link to Defining Space, Not Dividing Space - Home Staging & Interior Design Tips for Lofts / Open Plan Homes.

Pangaea is an interior designer who also offers home staging service in Portland, Oregon. You can see more of her work at Pangaea Interior Design, Model Homes, and Home Staging in Portland, Oregon.

Lofts, lofts LOFTS! If you know me, you know I love those wonderful urban spaces, with their feeling of spaciousness and unique architectural interest. They have become popular with people who are looking for creative, open, multi purpose spaces. However, they do have their special challenges, and require the ultimate in creative thinking. Concrete floors/walls/ceilings look cool but feel colder and bounce sound around --- no walls can mean no privacy with neighboring high-rise building's views looking straight into your entire home --- windows all on one end are common --- little to zero storage --- these are just some of the issues facing people in lofts and even very open plan homes.

I'll be blogging about many of these issues in this series. This first posting is on the topic of:

Defining the Space ... Not Dividing the Space.

Although these wide open spaces feel great, and even the smallest lofts feel large due to the lack of walls, they can leave you in a real dilemma with furniture placement. How do you make things feel cozy and warm? How do you give yourself some privacy without blocking light and views and without reducing the feeling of spaciousness you loved in the first place? If your office is in your home, how can you separate work and private life with no walls? Below are some photos with tips for these situations.

Groupings of furniture:

Create groupings of furniture according to activity - living - dining - sleeping - working. Avoid lining everything up along the walls.

Area rugs serve to visually pull together a space so that it feels more like a cohesive "room" whether that is a living area, sleeping area or dining area.They can be mixed or matched as long as they all look good in the same room.

When you create a living room seating area, keep the furniture away from the walls if possible, and arrange it in a tight enough group that conversation is comfortable when everyone is seated. Look for furniture that is attractive from the back as well as the front because it will be seen from all sides. Consider using swivel chairs so that you can turn one way to enjoy conversation and another to enjoy the view, or the TV, or a fireplace.

Placing your dining table nearer the kitchen makes practical sense, but it can be positioned nearer a nice view. In the interest of multi-purpose use and saving space for smaller lofts, sometimes it is more useful to get a counter height table and use it as a kitchen island/dining area. It doubles as a great spot for people to gather during parties.

In this first group of photos, notice the use of area rugs to define separate groupings mostly away from the wall, seating placement close enough to each other to encourage comfortable conversation, furniture that looks good from the back, and counter-height tables in the kitchen area.

Division of Spaces

Whether you want a bit of privacy from time to time for your sleeping area, or would like an office area to be something you don't have to look at all the time, consider using these methods instead of walls:

This office area is visually separated from the entry and from the living area by a massive, yet low, glass free standing room divider. It serves as a sculpture in it's own right, and is translucent enough to let light through, while preventing the feeling of looking straight into the office as you enter the loft.

This next office is on a rather large landing at the top of the spiral staircase, around the corner from the sleeping area. Although no room dividers are used, making use of this corner and the direction it faces keeps it from feeling like it is in the bedroom, and it also has a great view out the windows across the living area.

PRIVACY

Sometimes my clients feel like in an open loft, their guests are walking straight into their bedroom ... and that would be because, well ... their guests ARE walking straight into their bedroom! So various room dividers can really make a difference. I find that three things help a lot in the use of room dividers to keep them from taking away your feeling of spaciousness.

One is that light can still transmit through the divider.

The second is that the divider be movable.

The third is that the divider not go all the way to the ceiling.

Here are some photographic examples. In this first bedroom area, the curtain at the right pulls across to provide privacy. It is a combination of opaque and translucent bands. When you don't need it, it pulls completely back. The Shoji screen at the back would hide clothing in the open closet, or another curtain could be used here. You could even create a curtain that is opaque up to about 6 feet tall and the top portion of the curtain could be sheer to let in light.

These beautiful translucent sliding doors by Constructavision offer privacy for the bedroom area while allowing light to pass through. They can slide back to open the space. This particular loft is not my design, but I do work with Constructavision to build my custom designs.

Storage Room dividers like the spectacular River Room Divider, shown in the next photo, from Spacify, visually divide the space by giving your eye a stopping place. Used between a sleeping area, and the rest of the open space, it would keep a bed from feeling "front-and-center", while also providing great display space.

See Part #2 in this series under Soaring Ceilings What on Earth to Do With Them Home Staging Interior Design Tips for Lofts / Open-Plan Homes - Part #2

Pangaea Interior Design and Home Staging, Portland Oregon, specializes in contemporary design for modern properties. You may visit our website by clicking on this sentence.