Red and Green, How Timely!

The Holiday season is upon us! The weather is freezing our nose and nipping our toes! 

It is surprising how it became so cold so quickly! It's time to get your home ready for the Holidays. I wanted to give you a few decorating ideas and plant a few key elements in your mind when you look at  your main living areas with a discerning eye. Let's freshen up those spaces!

At our retail store, Details of Design in Annapolis we have all sorts of wonderful new throws for the sofa. Whether you are watching TV or snuggeling with your kids in front of the fireplace, a warm, cozy throw will add color to the room and be the first thing that you call dibs on when settling down for the evening. Never mind, just buy two of them and avoid the competition! They are a great gift idea as well! If you need to ship a gift to an out of town relative or friend, they don't break when UPS man handles the package! We can arrange shipping for you and you can avoid paying the 6% sales tax when shipping out of town. It almost pays for the shipping!

Punch up your Family Room with a bit of artwork. If you still have that faded old print over your fireplace, it may be time to invest in an original oil painting. The beauty of a well lit oil painting as the focal point of a room is immeasurable. The texture of each stroke the artist made is highlighted by the recessed wall washer. It adds another layer to the richness of the room.

Take the dark, dank look out of your living space by adding light! As the days grow shorter this winter, don't sit there in the dark. Brighten up your room and your outlook, buy a lamp! Drop in the store and take a lamp home and try it out. It is truly amazing how people never think of the lighting in a room when designing their spaces. It is one of the key elements of design.

Kick Back and Enjoy Life!

 



A Great lookling Chair That's a Recliner!

         It's that time of year when you lose your husband to the Fall Football Game on television. The leaves are swirling down from the autumn cover outside. He really should be out there in the sunshine and be raking up your yard, but, there he is, in front of the TV for hours. Well, he might as well look good. Go ahead and surprise him this Fall with a comfy leather chair that looks good with him in it. He can be styling while he eats those taco chips!

            

              Corey and Jen have pulled off another wonderful display in our store with

the starter piece to the design being the leather recliner in the sumptuous taupe leather. They added a lot of color when they added the boldly stripe rug in blue, teal, brown and gold. The whole display shows you how easily a room can be pulled together. They accesssorized the space with a graphicly bold mirror over the steel and plank wood console and added a couple of abstract art pieces on the adjoining side wall. I love the free standing bunches of sticks for the corner. 
 They add a bit of whimsey and fill the corner at the same time. 

           For the month of November we are going to offer clients a walk- in Design Service. This is for all of you that just can not figure out what is wrong with your room or how to fix it. Take a photo of your design dilemma and bring the photo in and show it to Jen. Take dimensions of the room so she will know how large the room is and mark off the doorways and windows on your sketch so she can establish the way the room traffics. If you have any samples of the fabrics on the pieces that you want to keep in the room bring them along. The more information you bring to the table the more successful the space will be. Then give her a chance to work on a few suggestions and when you come back she can brainstorm a few ideas with you.


Let's get those houses ready for the holidays!!!!

Gina Fitzsimmons, ASID





The Recliner has always been an icon in the American Way of Life! I have discovered a new updated version that does not look like a recliner! Husbands will be so happy that their wives will no longer veto the recliner in front of the TV. It is made with very comfortable and breathable leather and is a great looking chair.

Our vignette this month is a clean contemporary version of the TV area in your home. We paired our wonderful seating with a console made of brushed steel and plank wood. This also is a well designed piece because of the placement of the legs. The assymetry of the design adds to the appeal of the table.

Corey and Jen, on our design team at Details of Design, added a bold stripe rug to give us the color scheme for the room. This rug is available in sizes up to 8ft 6 inches x 11 ft 6 inches.

Then they merely filled in with a fantastic mirrror centered over the console and paired it with some Tiffany Blue Ceramic Lamps to pull on the color in the rug.

Here is a tip: If you are going to use one large mirror or piece of art over your console, the next wall, as in the photo, should have something different, like the stacked abstracts on the left hand wall. Vary what you hang on your walls. Do not just hang one piece of art in the center of every wall in the room.

The next time that you want to rearrange a room, add a few new pieces, or accessorize the room that you have not finished, take a few photos and dimensions of the room and come in and see Jen and/or Corey to help brainstorm with you. They can pull it all together with our lamps, art and accessories right here in the store. It's a good resource to keep in mind!

Our Blogging Plans

What caught my eye about this chair was not the yummy taupe leather but, that it is a RECLINER!!!!! So, it is going to be the starting point of our next blog. We, meaning, Corey, Jen and I are going to put together a display on our 8x5 ft platform by the front door to our store and we are going to demonstrate our design abilities to spur you into action in your own home!

After putting our heads together, our design team decided that it really would be more interesting if we paired it with contemporary furnishings even though it has traditional lines. So, after scouring the store to see what we had that was new, hot and exciting we decided to pair it with a fabulous console table that is made of steel slab and a wooden plank top.

"Once you have a few key pieces in place, the rest of the design is filling in the accents and accessories." said Jen, " If you want to leave the rest of this to us, we will finish off the design and call you when it is finished." Well, I had lots of design work to do back in the studio so, I left the two of them to create the next masterpiece in our new series of "Details of Design".

That's our plan! We want to create for you, on a regular basis, a fun design based on the wonderful items that we receive in our Retail Store. We want you to begin to see the possibilities!!!

We would just love it if you decided to become a follower of our blog! It's really easy to sign up: Look in the Left Hand Column of the blog and scroll down to become a follower. Click there and follow the directions. Then when we come up with our new display you will be notified by email. It's sort of like saving your favorite TV show!!

Stay tuned for the new creation!

Gina Fitzsimmons

Annapolis is ready for Contemporary!!!
It's funny ...after being in the Interior Design business in Annapolis for over 25 years, the pendulum has swung back again to contemporary. The cleaner lines, the tailored look and the uncomplicated ease of a well put together room is very refreshing.

The key to this style of Interior Design is to keep it simple and uncluttered. Design your space with a strong focal point and fill in with larger sacle accessories and fewer pieces. This reminds me of the advise given to me a long time ago about getting dressed in the morning. Put on your clothes, belt, scarf, and jewelry and then simply take off one piece and you were ready to go out the door. Never overworking the look is good advise in Design as well!

The Contemporary Style is a more simple look, but, do not forget the fun of selecting all of the finishes. The texture, sheen, embedded pattern, wood grains, contrast and juxtaposition of different and contrasting materials lend to the success of this look!

Give Fitzsimmons Design a call for an in home consultation and see how easy it would be to rework your spaces to a more clean cut contemporary interior! 410-269-1965

Chesapeake Cozy Den

Chesapeake Cozy Den

It is almost Boat Show Time in Annapolis! If he is "Going Nautical " on you again, you can create a handsome Den in your home for that special guy in your life, in a small space with our pull out table top desk. It's just perfect for a laptop computer! There are drawers underneath for all of his stuff and a designated place for the computer tower. Add a pull out side table for a printer and you are all set!

At Details, we are showcasing framed original Harper's Weekly Covers. A collection of them grouped together really make a statement wall and focal point. Add a strie rug in all shades of cool water for a punch of color on the floor. Finish off the room with accessories from our showroom and you can have the room finished by the time he finishes his golf game!

Any photos of before and after we will put in our blogspot and we wil feature your project in an upcoming issue.

DON"T FORGET.......................Our Annual Tent Sale is on Saturday, September 11th this year.

We are going to have great mark downs on furniture, lamps, rugs, artwork and accessories. We will also have our scratch and dent items. They are pieces that we got special pricing on when they came in slightly defective and were not up to our usual great quality. But, if you are accessorizing a bookcase, just turn the item with the scratch to the back and who will know?

We Will See YOu There!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer Breezes

The sweet memories of summer like the breeze coming through the window, gently blowing the sheer curtains remind us all of simpler times. It can be a fun project to capture that feeling again in your own home! We often have clients ask us to design a room or a part of their home around a pleasant time or a remembered experience.
The background is very important. If you do not care to paint a new color just hang an oversized canvas like we have done here. It provokes the feeling of the ocean with just a few patches of color. Recover a chair with a starfish pattern or another fun fabric. It will give that chair a new life! Add a colorful throw for the days when the air conditioning is too chilly! When you are punching up a room with large areas of color to give the room a fresh appearance, don't forget the rug. It is probably one of the largest areas in square footage in the room. The color, texture and pattern that can enhance your new look, are limitless.
Fill in with the toys of decorating, The Accessories! What fun you can have by grouping colorful vases, chargers, shells to personalize your space. Drop by and see us at our retail store Details of Design at 918 Bay Ridge Road in Annapolis for a fun trip to hunt and gather those perfect pieces.

Summer Breezes

The Contemporary Classics!!!

What a great look! Take your mother's Chippendale chair and pair it with a console in Faux Leather Croc, add some contemporary artwork and a couple of architectural lamps and you have a fabulous grouping!

Furnishing your home can be so much fun when you have a successful look like this. Just keep in mind balance, scale and proportion when mixing the different furnishings. A lot of people strive for that "eclectic look" that puports an ease of
lifestyle and a lack of that stuffiness that dates back to your parents house.
If this is way beyond your talents and you do not know what I mean about mixing pieces based on their scale, break down and call an Interior Designer. The pressure will be lifted off your shoulders! The Designer will partner with you and present just the right pieces to mix with your family heirlooms that you want to keep in the room. They will create a fresh young look that updates those pieces and brings them into this century. Then the guilt of not using the entrusted relic will disolve and you will have a unique interior that ties your past and present together. What a great idea!

By now everyone is getting Cabin Fever. We are all thinking of where to go for our winter vacation. Whether it's Barbados, Palm Beach or Hawaii"s ocean breezes that make you happy, it's time to bring that look home!

Add accessories to make that neutral upholstery grouping in your great room your favorite place to be!

Add a little mood to the room with a folding screen for a backdrop. Pillows are an affordable way to add contrast. Follow through with a few shells and add the rust egrets, your two new best friends and see how much more welcoming your home can be. It is so true, it's all in the details.

January 17th, 2010

Welcome to our new blog! It's a new year and a fresh start! We want to keep in touch with our clients and have created this new column to keep you up with what's new, what's hot and what's happening!

We will start by showing you the new displays in our fashionable home store done by our talented designers!