Color Me Yellow

Yellow brings optimism, hope, rebirth, and renewal to interior design. Its palette varies from bright canary yellows to marigolds to hollywood golds to butter creams. It can brighten up any space, create drama, and/or bring clean crisp lines to a design. It can be used sparingly as an accent color, or as an entire design template.

The color yellow can also present itself through natural materials and textures. The Natural Bamboo finish by Finestra is one such way that yellow can be introduced into a space representing a "green" element and a textured effect to drapery treatments. This enables upscale depth and dimension within your designs. Fabrics that feature yellow, can add bold accents or subtle tie-ins to the overall design themes. They can be used in contemporary, ultra-modern, or traditional spaces.

Remember: You can brighten, electrify, and polish any design with the color yellow.

Translating Fashion into Draperies

Inspiration for designing windows can come from anywhere. One of the more relative design inspirations comes from fashion. The way we create movement within the treatment, color, texture, and unique sewing patterns and techniques can all be used in creating window fashion masterpieces.

Did you ever think about a drapery treatment as sculptural? All of these examples shown here are part of an art exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion. These fashion "sculptures" represent contemporary fashion with a"masterful use of color".

The sculptural elements translate into the same design elements we use in drapery creation. Scale, proportion, symmetry, contrast, and balance are all taken into account and how it relates to the space or room.

Imaginative use of color, use of multiple fabrics, and decorative embellishments all aid in not only upscale fashion design, but also, in upscale drapery design.

Drawing inspiration from fashion can facilitate unique upscale designs with extraordinary attention to detail, textural layering, and creative use of color.

Photography by Claudia Primangeli / L.e C. Service

New Product Videos

See our new product videos at FinestraDecorativeHardware.com.

Finestra Decorative Hardware Buttons and Tassels

Includes buttons, button borders and decorative tassels.

Finestra Decorative Routed Poles

Information about our new routed wood fascias for tracking systems.

For a complete list of Rowley Company video solutions:

https://www.rowleycompany.com/02_videoSolutions.asp

Contemporary Gold Accents

As subtle as they are, gold accents make a big impression on contemporary decor. These furniture pieces from Hickory Chair are accented with gold medallion pulls. They are used to tie gray and beige neutrals together or add a rich visual pop on dark mahogany.

Do you have existing furnture or new-to-you finds that could use updating? Finestra medallions are a wonderful and affordable way to re-new, re-fresh, and elevate your design to the next level of trends in home decor.

Furniture by Hickory Chair

Designing Versailles Today

History is the basis for all design. In the time continuum, history repeats itself either by detailed replication or most often by translating elemental pieces of historic ornament, color, and style into a design. One of the most romantic and well-known places to find design inspiration is Paris, specifically Versailles.

The Grand Triannon is nestled in the north-west corner of Versailles and was the private retreat for Louis XIV built in 1687. It was a place of relaxation for the King and his courtiers.

The use of color in this room dating back to 1687 directly relates to the color trends of 2011. The juxtaposition of the purple tone against the subtle golden yellow and beige neutrals is interpreted in the designers' canvases of today. An additional modern focus of this room design is to "bring the outdoors in". The neutral tones of the fabric draping the windows create a frame to the outdoor floral and fauna and allow the eye to focus on bringing in the color and texture of the outdoors.

The Emperor's bedchamber as shown above consisted of five rooms in his private apartment. This particular room was decorated under Louis XV and still exists today. The linens were woven in the Lyons for Josephine in 1807.

The neutral tones of this room resemble a room of the 21st Century. The design incorporates an up-to-date color palette with subtle neutrals that blend with gray blues, lilacs, and silver and gold metallics. It resembles the subtle Hollywood glamour that is popular today. The Emperor's bed design is a very linear and masculine design and brings in feminine touches of color in the floral accents of the floor covering.

The King's Grand Apartment in the Palace was created in the 1670s and included seven salons or drawing rooms overlooking the gardens.

The 2011 color of the year appears in the King's Grand Apartment. This color is bold, confident, and courageous like the King himself. Since many of the King's salons were used for entertaining and socializing, a lively and confident color was only fitting.

Other design ideas can be taken from various elements of the room. Much of contemporary design today is tonal with accents of bold color. A unique way to add bold color to a design is to accentuate prominent accessories in the room. Lighting is one such accessory that may be a focal point for the finish, texture or design style. Inserting color by hanging the light fixture by cording or a decoratively colored tassel is a unique installation that can be translated into any decor style.

Design inspiration can be found everywhere, but history will re-invent itself over and over. Trends are new definitions of old history, spun in an unusual or unexpected way. Visiting museums, period homes and thumbing through old catalogs and history books can inspire you to take your own twist on elemental design and create new trends for the future.

Inspirations of Color

Spring is almost here and brings new inspiration to designing! As the weather warms and flowers begin to bloom, Pantone's "Color of the Year" becomes more of a reality. Honeysuckle has been named as the "Color of the Year" in fashion and home design.

Honeysuckle is...

"A Color for All Seasons. Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing 'everyday' about it."Pantone

The Top 10 Colors for Spring 2011, including Honeysuckle, were announced in December. These colors will take your design on an "exotic journey" with colors like Regatta, Blue Curacao, Coral Rose and Silver Cloud. It is time to get on board!
http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/FCR_SPRING_2011.pdf

Honeysuckle continues its journey through 2011 with the Fall color palette from Pantone (as seen below). This palette is being translated into home fashion by the "designer's brush" and the manner in which they juxtapose vibrant colors with neutrals in their works of art.

Color is a catalyst for inspiration! Spring is rapidly approaching and Fall is around the corner. Seize the opportunity to animate your designs with these new trends now!

Brass is Back

Brass is back with a classy and contemporary twist. The finish is being used to tie in modern and eclectic genres by minimally using it throughout the design. The soft glow of brass can also be responsible for warming up a space or showing off subtle Hollywood glamour.

So don't throw away your brass fixtures or replace the brass hardware on your furniture! This is your chance to update your space in a new way!

Brass often accents modern patterns in wall coverings and fabrics like the bed covering shown above. It can also be used in Asian inspired designs, Moroccan motifs, and traditional living spaces. The key to using brass in today's designs is to coordinate a few key elements like a mirror, a piece of artwork, lighting, a small piece of furniture or drapery hardware by placing them sparingly throughout the room.

Finestra will be launching a new metal hardware line in April 2011 which will include both a natural brass and antique brass finish. This 1 1/8"D metal line will allow you to achieve clean, glamorous lines.



Grommets are also another way to insert brass into your design. Mixing metals and wood tones together is a very popular design style. Brass grommets can be a perfect solution for existing wood poles with darker finishes. This "pop" of brilliance can bring distressed wood to life in a new way and create uniformity in the textures and finishes displayed throughout the room.

Brass grommets from Rowley Company