Continuing on with the new project from the previous post, I’m especially excited to share the living room with you.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
I’m really enjoying working on rooms with more furniture recently. Kitchens and baths have their place in my heart, too, but I especially love creating a sensorial space with textural finishes and a restrained color palette on fabrics and flooring, something that’s easily expressed through furnishings.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
One of my most favorite features of this room is the chandelier. It imitates the shape of the molding on the arched windows and ties in traditional style with this family’s modern sensibilities.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
Another great touch is the built-ins. This family really loves books. You could also display sculptures, framed art, or a treasured collection and it all looks neat and pulled together contained on these elegant shelves.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
The drawers below and the side cabinets contain home electronics, games, and media, a satisfying balance of display and conceal in stylish living room storage for a modern family.
Kimball Starr designs for transitional homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
One of my most popular posts from last year looked at a great example of a laundry room/mudroom combination. Today I’m sharing my latest fresh and clean laundry room design!
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
The light and airy feeling is accomplished with bright whites and pale blues. White cabinetry, pale blue subway tiles, and a simple circle pattern for the porcelain floor tile creates a space that’s crisp and playful.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
White as a color lends an air of total cleanliness and sophisticated taste, while practical finishes keep surfaces easy to clean and maintain.
In addition to laundry, this space serves as a utility storage room, and as a drop zone for coats, shoes, and handbags when you enter the house. Tall cabinets flank both sides of the room, with cleaning supplies stored on one side, and coats and jacket storage on the other side, all concealed behind tall cabinet doors. This laundry room is a hard-working space!
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
Dedicated shelves and bins are for storing shoes when you enter the home, and the additional counter space above is for folding clothes or setting up a drying rack for delicates.
Drawers store small house utilities and tools that would normally clog up a kitchen drawer, and pegs accommodate quick-grab jackets and bags, mounted at two different heights for children and adults!
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey, Reflex Imaging
Every item has a thoughtful place and has been designed around durable finishes with a cheery twist. After I finish designing a space like this for your home, you’ll look forward to doing laundry! Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves… LOL
Kimball Starr designs for contemporary homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
I just love a good before-and-after story, don’t you? Here’s a great one:
BEFORE Dining Room Photo by Kimball Starr
A doctor wished to have a more glamorous feeling in her basic Oakland condo with good bones. She also wanted it to feel welcoming to people of any gender. Her beige Before space was plain and boxy.
AFTER Design by Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Eric Rorer
Voila! After my redesign to a Hollywood-regency-inspired dining space with plenty of light, color, and texture. The layered glass chandelier is the perfect accent above a heavy, dark wood table and masculine dining chairs with ring backs, while the more delicate head chairs are resplendent in mod purple floral and solid fabrics, balancing the space.
BEFORE Living Room Photo by Kimball Starr
Before, the living room and the dining room are one big open-plan space, so the materials and finishes needed to relate closely to each other. The armchair the homeowner had before was over-scale for the size of the space.
AFTER Design by Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Eric Rorer
After, what a beautiful result! A chandelier as overhead pendant lamp really bounces light off the gold textured wallpaper. Soft fabrics on the sofa and chairs plus the layered blankets and pillows create a space that’s really touchy-feely, sensual and glamorous, yet practical and easy to use.
AFTER Design and Upholstery by Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Eric Rorer
Natural light streams in through the gauzy, colorful curtains, matching the bright, more streamlined armchairs in the living room, and complementing the dining room chairs. Magnifique!
Kimball Starr designs for glamorous homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
Houzz surveyed homeowners about their bathrooms, and the results are fascinating!
Photo courtesy Houzz
76% of homeowners upgrade their vanity cabinets during a bathroom renovation. This is often due to either upgrading bathroom systems, or the bathroom’s style. Natural, unpainted wood is the most popular vanity finish material, currently.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Transitional is the most popular bathroom style, with modern and contemporary tied for second place. This is a change over previous years, where modern was the most popular. Curbless showers are very popular now also, when looking at bathroom renovation trends, such as the one above I designed for a San Francisco couple.
Photo courtesy Houzz
Hiring pros remains popular, with 85% of homeowners choosing to use a professional on a renovation, up from 84 and 83% the prior years. This is an important choice, because going it alone can result in overspending as well as an extended timeline. Eek!
Photo courtesy Houzz
Finally, relaxation in a bathroom after a renovation is complete is often a project goal, with 2 in 5 homeowners wanting to rest and relax in their upgraded bathroom. Among the many contributing elements are cleanliness, lack of clutter, soaking in the bath and taking long showers.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
In addition to being the top relaxation aid, cleanliness also saw the biggest increase in popularity, up by 10 percent. Natural light, dimmable lighting, and greenery gained popularity with homeowners seeking bathroom tranquility as well. So, whatever your heart’s desire, you should follow that rather than trends in your bathroom renovation, with guidance from a pro.
Kimball Starr designs for bathrooms throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
One of my favorite January traditions is discovering the Pantone Color of the Year, and thinking about how I would use it in my upcoming work this year.
Image courtesy Pantone
Viva Magenta is from the red family, with a hint of pinkish-purple. A strong, bold color that enhances appetites and creates energy.
Photo and quote courtesy Pantone
Next, let’s look at some of the creative partnerships and products available using Viva Magenta.
Artechouse, a technology-driven experiential art firm, is partnering with Pantone to produce the Pantone Color of the Year 2023 immersive art experience, a multi-sensory exhibition that allows guests to feel the power of a hue scaled to fantastical proportions.
Photo courtesy Pantone
The exhibition opened during Art Basel in Miami Beach for Art Basel attendees and then opened to the public for the first time in the four years they’ve hosted the exhibition. Historic!
Photo courtesy Motorola
Motorola is collaborating with Pantone to provide this new Viva Magenta phone, and I bet we’ll see a variety of phone cases available in the new hue as well, for both iPhone and Android.
Photo courtesy Cariuma
Conscious skate shoe brand Cariuma is Pantone’s official footwear partner for Viva the Pantone Color of the Year 2023. Their shoes are crafted from premium ethically sourced materials and all six styles celebrate Pantone’s Viva Magenta, so you can wear this trending color around town and dress it up or down. Your kids will think you’re pretty cool.
Images courtesy Spoonflower
Finally, let’s look at something specific to interiors — surface pattern design. The fabric firm Spoonflower and Pantone together unveiled unique designs by six independent artists at the color reveal event. The partnership also includes a quarterly series of design challenges kicked off on December 1 with Pantone’s 2023 Color of the Year reveal.
Viva Magenta, indeed! I can’t wait to use this fantastic color in a project this year. Could it be yours?
Kimball Starr designs for trendy and timeless homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
Welcome to another new year! One of the best things about the start of a new year is the opportunity to take stock of how things are serving you, to refresh and renew your environment and your life. Your home has such an impact on your day-to-day happiness!
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
You could have a brand-new redesigned kitchen to enjoy feeding yourself and your family every day, instead of struggling with the limitations of your current kitchen.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Enjoy a new dining room or living room that shows off your vintage furniture, collectibles, and provides space for family time.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Take advantage of some “me-time” in a beautiful, relaxing new bathroom with a step-in shower and luxurious oversized marble-look tiles. Or if you want a claw-foot bathtub, we can do that too! The possibilities are limited only by your imagination, so let’s get started on your dream home.
Kimball Starr designs for homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
