HOMES
The Calgary Sun n SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015
31
NEW HOMES & CONDOS
Decorate bravely — go with what you love You don’t have to be a design expert to create a beautiful space. Some of the best rooms emerge by simply bringing in Carrie colour and pieces you love, without worrying what others may think. CALGARY SUN Katie Rioux, interior decorator and owner of Calgary’s Decorating Den, encourages her clients to step outside the box. “As long as you’re confident in your style and selections, your room will reflect that. Trust your gut,” she says. The bottom line is that you’re the one who has to live with it. “There are not that many wrong ways to do things,” Rioux says. “If you like modern and rustic, you can marry them. Mixing patterns is OK.” Mixing prints can be intimidating, but the result can be stunning. If you keep the colours in the same family, you can pair an upholstered geometric print with printed
Kelly
PHOTO COURTESY DECORATING DEN
wallpaper and patterned draperies without overwhelming the space. Wall murals are a great way to bring your personality into a space and provide that wow factor. It’s a great design technique for a challenging space such as a curved wall. Whether you decide on a mural or solid paint technique, don’t be afraid of colour. “Colour can give you a big reward. The worst-case scenario is you have to repaint,” says Rioux. Heather Draper, interior designer and owner of The Heather Company, believes the ceiling of a room should receive just as much consideration as the rest of the space. Paint over white ceilings in the same colour as the walls and select an interesting light fixture that will stand out, she suggests. You can also take a room from bland to brilliant by using wallpaper on the ceiling, especially in the centre of a tray ceiling. “Papering the ceiling is such an amazing detail,” Draper says.
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She loves creating interesting spaces with unexpected elements. When designing a room, she often uses furniture and accessories in ways that don’t match their original purpose. “We have been so conditioned as to how we should use things that we don’t think about what we actually need,” she says. She likes the idea of using a buffet hutch in the bedroom in place of a dresser, with a tiered cupcake stand to house jewelry. Don’t worry about ensuring all your bedroom furniture matches. If you have three key pieces of furniture in your bedroom, such as the bed, nightstand and dresser, have two of them match and throw in one that’s different. When choosing artwork for walls, Draper advocates finding items you love that add texture to your space. In place of prints in frames, she has hung beautiful bowls on a wall and made a statement with vintage window panes without glass.