My Favorite Designer -Candice Olsen

These are some pictures from HGTV's show Divine Design with Candice Olsen. She is by far my favorite interior designer that I have seen. Whenever I design rooms, I always look to her work for inspiration. She not only combines the perfect blend of colors and materials together, but really creates a space that people will walk into and won't want to leave.

When people try to re-decorate the rooms in their house, they make the mistake of picking out a fabric or color and going from there. Instead, you should first think about what you want to feel when you are in the space. Design and decorating is about emotion. Your home should reflect you as a person. That doesn't mean picking out your favorite color. Lots of times, you may not like the color of paint in the can or on a wall until the whole room is decorated and finished. You may not like a specific facbric until it is incorporated into the bedding or on the couch. Design is such a contradiction because although all the little details make the perfect design, the overall feel of the room is what matters most.

So ask yourself: what do I want to feel in my bedroom/bathroom/living room/kitchen/etc.? For example, do you want to feel calm and peaceful in your bedroom? Some people do, but some people want their bedrooms to energize them when they wake up in the mornings instead.

Once you decide on the overall feeling you want to get from a design, then you can go from there. Let's just say that I wanted my bedroom to feel romantic. I would start envisioning my idea of romance. I picture myself dating, candle-lit dinners, flowers, etc. From there, I can now pick colors that make me feel romantic because I've already envisioned my ideas of romance. I saw red roses and ivory candles in my head. So a maroon shade of red could be used for accents. I would use candles in the room for decoration and have ivories and tans throughout the room. Black or dark brown could be used for the furniture.

Now go out there and get your creative mind going! Hopefully these pictures will be as much of an inspiration to you as they were to me!