Paint, paint, paint… oh we love paint. It can make such a HUGE difference in a space. The color we paint on our walls surround us and everything in our home, so obviously it’s important to make sure that it’s the perfect color.

We often have clients who recently moved to a new home, and once they have all of their furniture in, they feel like nothing looks right. When this happens, we always suggest that they start by changing their paint. For instance, the existing paint in their new home might be a warmer tone than the paint in their old home, which can completely throw off the look! You’d be amazed by how different your space can look, just by changing your paint.

Ok, so clearly paint is important, but how do you choose a paint color? Well, truth be told, that can be pretty tricky. There are thousands of paint colors out there, especially when you consider all the different brands of paint. Each brand has slightly different colors and color names, and each company has different sheen level options available. And then sometimes a color looks good on the swatch and then you put it on your wall and for some reason it looks more vibrant than you thought, or it looks purple and now your sofa looks weird… oh no, what’s going on!?!

Don’t worry. Everything will be ok.

To help with the re-painting process, we’d like to share a few tips to help you navigate through the wide world of paint:

Sheen

The sheen level, or “shininess” of your paint can not only change the look of the paint, but also the clean-ability. Therefore, the sheen should change depending on the room you’re in and what kind of surface it’s on. For example, you’d want a more cleanable paint in the kitchen or bathroom where water, food or makeup are more likely to get on the walls. Plus, your baseboards should have a higher sheen than your walls because they’ll need to be cleaned more often than the walls. Ceilings, on the other hand, should have less sheen than your walls because they won’t (or shouldn’t) have to be cleaned as often as your walls, etc.

Ceilings and Trim

In general, we believe that ceilings and trim should be white, or a whiter shade than your walls. There are exceptions to this, of course, but as a general rule, we think this is pretty important. Painting the ceilings white can make a huge difference in a space. The lighter your ceilings are, the higher they’ll appear, so if your room always feel dark or oppressing, you can completely reverse that by lightening the ceilings! Having white trim also keeps your walls nice and… well, trim.  Keeping door trim, window trim, molding, and baseboards all the same crisp color keeps the uniformity, and plus, it just looks nice.

A Word on White

There are sooooo many shades of white to choose from, and each one has a different hue. The most famous shade of white is Swiss Coffee (which, by the way, varies from brand to brand), but that doesn’t mean it should be your default; consider other white options! Also, the white trim and ceiling rule still applies if your paint your walls white. If you choose a shade of white for your walls, choose an even more crisp or pure white for your trim and ceiling. It’s not often that we would recommend a pure white for all surfaces, so avoid that unless you’ve sought the advice of a professional (hint, that’s us)!

Going Grey

Perhaps even more overwhelming than white paint, grey tones give pretty much all of our clients a run for their money. The trick to this area? Pay attention to the color wheel; colors that are opposite on the color wheel will highlight each other. So, for example, if your floor tile has a lot of yellow in it, you’ll want to avoid cooler grey tones, or your walls might look purple!

Paint Brands

Just a quick note here: sometimes painters will insist on only using one brand of paint. We typically use Dunn Edwards when we select paint colors for our clients, because most of our regular painters prefer it. But if your painter will only use a certain brand, make sure to let us know so that we can bring a paint deck for the brand your painter is using!

Need help choosing paint colors or an overall color palette for your home? Please contact us for a color consultation meeting! We would be happy to help you on your journey to a happier, more colorful life.

XOXO,

As the first month of the new year comes to a close, we are full of excitement and anticipation for the new design trends on the horizon in 2019. We predict that many of our favorite trends from last year are going to be sticking around (yay!). Here are the trends we think, and hope, will be following us through the next year.

Mixed Metals

Mixed metals were seen as a no-no for a long time in the design world. However, recently mixed metals have become popular, and thank goodness for that! This trend grew in popularity due to brave designers who were willing to break away from the norm. Now, it’s such a common trend that plumbing fixture manufactures have begun creating mixed metal fixtures (like the one from our Black & White Kitchen & Bath project, pictured above). When done well, mixing your metals can be freeing, fun, and beautiful.

Statement Mosaics

This trend has been around for a while and honestly, we hope it never leaves! Statement mosaics never fail to wow, no matter where they are used, and there are so many different styles to choose from. The graphic, geometric tiles shown above from our Breezy Bachelor Pad project give the space a contemporary feel. However, if we’d chosen a scrolling floral mosaic instead, the style of the space would change completely.

Colored Cabinets

Colored cabinets have made a big splash in the design world recently, the most popular look being navy lower cabinets with white uppers. Blue toned cabinets in general have been very well received (just like in our Darling Davis Farmhouse project), but we’ve also seen many shades of green, teal, yellow, grey, and even some black! So fun!

Bold Walls

We looove a statement! And what better way to make a statement than with your walls. Whether it’s a gorgeous, un-expected paint color or a larger than life wallpaper, going bold is just plain fun! If having bold walls scares you a little, but you still want to be in on the fun, consider going bold in a smaller space, like a powder room or a laundry room (just like we did on our Darling Davis Farmhouse project).

Accessories Trend: Round Mirrors and Blush Accents

Round mirrors and blush accents were super popular last year, and will definitely continue to be well received this year! We have an over sized round mirror in our office, and we love it! We have also used blush to accessorize in many projects recently and it always looks amazing. The image above was designed by Consort Home and is a perfect example of trendy accessories.

Unabashed Love for What Makes You Happy

Trends are never static, always changing and shifting. We often have clients who express to us that they are worried about following a design trend, only for it to then change and become unfashionable. Our answer to them is, if you really love the look, you should go for it! If something becomes “un-trendy,” but it’s a look that brings you happiness, that’s all that really matters. Be brave and love that trend wholeheartedly!

XOXO,

Ok, so maybe we can design without these things, but our lives would be a lot harder! Here are the top 10 things that we use on a daily basis that keep us (and our clients) happy.

1. Our Laptops

This is number 1 for a reason. While our job can be very active at times – going to job sites and picking out finishes – we spend a lot of our time on our computers drafting, creating furniture layouts and elevations, ordering furniture, communicating with our sales reps, and creating design boards. So much of what keeps a project moving happens on our computers! It helps us stay in touch with clients and vendors and keep track of our calendars. Plus, by using laptops, we have the freedom to work from anywhere. For example, if we’re out in Granite Bay (about 30 minutes from the office) for a meeting, and we have another meeting scheduled shortly afterward just down the road, all we need is a nearby Starbucks and we’re set to keep working till the next meeting! On a related note…

2. AutoCAD

We use AutoCAD every day on the design grind. It allows us to quickly and efficiently draw up furniture plans, kitchen layouts and elevations. Before these programs existed, everything was drawn by hand (which is something we learned how to do in design school) and boy is it a lot of work! Now that we’ve mastered these programs, we’re able to create more accurate drawings more easily, and in less time. Yes please!

3. Graph Paper Notepad

If you’ve worked with us, you’ve probably seen the graph paper note pads we ALWAYS have with us at meetings. They’re obviously great for jotting down notes while in a meeting, but they’re also perfect for when we have to make a little sketch to illustrate an idea. We also use them to draw up a client’s house when we take measurements, and believe us when we say that when you’re measuring an entire house, graph lines really do help to keep you as neat as possible!

4. Coffee

This may seem a little silly but we’re being completely serious; the RWD team loves coffee! In our opinion, it’s the perfect way to start the day, or hit reset in the middle of a long day. It helps to get our creative juices flowing in those early morning moments – I’m sure you can relate! Thankfully, with a Keurig in the office and a Starbucks across the street, we are good to go.

5. Reliable Vendors

Much of our job requires us to work with other companies that sell furniture, window treatments, fabrics, tiles… the list goes on and on. Having a good team of people we trust and who care about what we’re doing and how they can help is crucial! Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we’ve found the absolute perfect light fixture, but wait… the manufacturer doesn’t make a long enough wire for the 10-foot entry! Because of the amazing sales reps who are here to help us, we don’t panic, we just send them an email.

6. An Organized Office

Last year we moved into our new office and man, it makes a huge difference to have all of our samples fully organized! Now, every fabric, tile, rug, window covering, and flooring sample has its place. The samples are even further organized by company, material, and use, making it easy peasy to find anything we’re looking for!

7. Pinterest

Oh, the glorious Pinterest. Pinterest is not only a great place to find inspiration and a helpful way for clients to express what they like, but it’s also how we internally keep track of projects. The RWD team creates a secret Pinterest board for each project on our list. Then when one of us finds a sofa or light fixture we like for a project, we pin it to the project board. This is an easy and effective way to make sure that we all have access to “that-one-sofa-we-saw-and-liked-that-one-time.”

8. Asana

Another tool that’s been a major life saver for us! Asana is a website that allows us to keep track of everything that’s going on in our crazy, busy work lives. In Asana, we can create tasks for ourselves and for each other, assign each task a due date, and associate it with a specific project. For example, Leah can make a task for Lilly to “Source Dining Room Furniture”, mark that it’s for Mrs. Smith’s project and that it needs to be done by Friday. Lilly gets a notification for the task, and can get to work on it! This helps us to organize everything we have to do. Plus it integrates with the program we use to track our time, which means we can easily see how long we spend on each task. Truly amazing! If this sounds super cool to you, you can use it for personal tasks too (which some RWD team members do).

9. A Laser Distance Measure

In case you don’t know, a laser distance measure is basically a fancy tape measure. All you have to do is place it on a wall, aim the laser at the opposite wall, and BAM! you have the length of the room. No need to fiddle with a tape measure, making sure it stays straight, or realizing it’s not long enough to reach the other side of a large room. This little tool makes our field measuring days much more pleasant and efficient!

10. A Smile

We honestly love our jobs! Designing makes us happy. We get to create beautiful spaces and help people fall in love with their homes. What’s not to like? Because of this, we always design with a smile – even our letter board in the office says so!

XOXO,

Happy New Year! As our schedule starts to fill up, and things start going back to business as usual in the RWD office, we’re taking a moment to think back on all of the changes that have happened, and all that we’ve accomplished this year (hint: it’s a lot). We wrapped up some projects in pretty bows, added a new member to the team, moved into a new office space, went to Las Vegas Furniture Market, and spent time traveling to new and beautiful places. Here’s a look back our 2018 experiences!

This year, we finished many new and exciting projects, and made our amazing clients happy in their homes, which is why we love what we do! Some of our 2018 projects include: the Darling Davis Farmhouse, the Sparkling Statement-Tiled Spa, the Black & White Bath & Kitchen, and the Tuscan with a Modern Twist project. We also participated in the Sacred Heart Home Tour for the first time this year! We created a Christmas design inspired by the homeowner’s style, and had a blast! Tinsel, florals, and more pom poms than you can imagine, all went into making the house something special.

This year, we made big moves (literally and figuratively). We started the year off by taking on Lilly as an intern, and later decided to hire her as our Junior Designer. We also moved into our very own office and studio space, and had a big party with all of our friends, family and colleagues to celebrate! Expanding the business has definitely been a large part of 2018, and it’s made us stronger and more excited than ever before about all of the new opportunities in store for us!

We took another trip to Las Vegas Market, this time in search of new finds and fun, fresh holiday decorations for our Sacred Heart Home Tour house! We had a blast looking through our old favorite showrooms and showing them to Lilly (it was her first Market). Until next time, Vegas!

The RWD team loooooves to travel! This year, team members made trips to Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Nice, New York City, Oregon, and Hawaii! Each trip was filled with beautiful sites, sounds, and some of the most delicious treats! These trips provided some much needed down time, and allowed us to get inspired by new places, people, and adventures.

We can’t wait for 2019 and all of the new adventures and designs it will bring! Thank you for all of your support and love over the last year, and we hope you all had a wonderful 2018 and a very happy and healthy new year!

XOXO,