When you were a little kid, did you dream about discovering a secret room hidden within the walls of your home? Me too! Here are some amazing secret rooms to discover right now! Happy holidays!
Photo courtesy Timberstone Builders
I’d love to have a private bathroom through a hinged bookcase.
Photo courtesy Timberstone Builders
Wouldn’t it be fun to go through the wardrobe into this Narnia-themed children’s room?
Photo courtesy Timberstone Builders
A hidden wine room creates a secure space for your collection and anything else you’d like to keep away from prying eyes.
Photos courtesy Speakeasy SF
Speakeasy SF has a hidden entrance inside a clock shop next door. I’ve heard a rumor that there’s a second entrance inside a Chinese laundry shop nearby. Once inside, it’s a nightclub and cabaret with two bars, a roulette room, and a photography studio. What a fabulous experience!
Kimball Starr designs beautiful interiors that might include hidden rooms for homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
Have you heard of using wallpaper NOT on the walls? Here are ideas to use wallpaper in unexpected ways.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Joe Fletcher
We colored the inside of the wall niche orange in my client’s San Francisco loft, creating interest and a wow factor, matching it to the insides of the bookshelves that form the wall around the spiral staircase. Instant uplift!
Photo courtesy Driven by Design
Another way to use wallpaper on bookshelves, finished with an arch for a classic feel.
Photo courtesy Aunt Peaches
Wallpaper can be used on fridges for a completely refreshed look.
Photo courtesy Elle Decor
A wallpapered ceiling draws your eye upwards, letting it linger and take in the whole space.
Photo courtesy WAHHWF
Wallpapering stair risers creates a fabulous look you won’t see many places. I’d love to work on a project like this with you!
Kimball Starr designs beautiful interiors for homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
When I was a kid, I used to love putting glow-in-the-dark stars on our 1980s popcorn ceilings. A pain to remove, but fun. Here are some more grown-up ways to decorate your ceilings.
Photo courtesy Veranda
Tartan upholstered walls, ceilings, and furniture in a Utah ski resort are deliciously over-the-top!
Photo courtesy Francis York
This Pacific Heights San Francisco mansion has stunning coffered ceilings.
Photo courtesy Kevin J. Miyazaki for House Beautiful
A ceiling mural in this walk-in closet elevates the space from standard to WOW just by looking up!
Photo courtesy Royal Design Studio
This beautiful reflective star pattern would have impressed me as a child, and still does.
Kimball Starr designs beautiful ceilings for homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
Want to create a feeling of modern luxury with a traditional touch? Here are some unexpected ways to upholster your interiors from around the web.
Photo courtesy Luxesource
Upholstered doors are an impressive way to make an entrance! Love the nail head pattern.
Photo courtesy Houzz
White leather upholstered walls in a residential lounge gives an ultra-cool luxurious feeling.
Photo courtesy MoodInteriorStylist
This bright green upholstered console table with gold legs and drawer handle would pep up any home.
Photo courtesy Apartment Therapy
A custom padded headboard on this bed created with multiple patterns, colors, and textures achieves an eclectic look. See the tiger and pink-fringed table lamp that tones with the animal-print pillows and pinks in the headboard and on the linens? Chef’s kiss!
Kimball Starr custom designs for homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
Organic Interior Design is defined by designers and builders as designing raw and refined spaces that layer organic elements, forms, and natural hues against a simplistic background. Nature-inspired furniture is combined with crisp architectural elements.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Here’s an example of a commercial design display I did for Ikea using organic shapes for the loungers, giving a natural feel with the woven texture, yet a modern take with colorful umbrellas and matching pillows.
Photo courtesy Decorilla
This moody bathroom demonstrates organic design through its use of wood plank flooring with a woven rug under the bathtub, the wooden cabinetry, door, and plenty of live plants.
Photo courtesy Etsy
Ceramic tiles in coastal blue on beige textural backgrounds feel very organic due to the handmade designs and nature-inspired patterns. Take your kitchen or bathroom from whoa to wow by incorporating some of these in your next design.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
This comfortable midcentury dining room is a good example of organic design, with a live edge wood table and a wall sculpture made from live wood and plants. Can I design something like this for your home or home office?
Kimball Starr designs for natural homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
If you have beautiful, sculptural art pieces and don’t know how or where to use them in your home, read on for my tips.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey
This metallic female torso stands between the dining and living areas, visually delineating the spaces without being a wall or room divider. It allows light through, creating interest throughout the day as the sun moves.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Steph Dewey
In the same dining room, we’re using a textural pendant light, which resembles a sculpture in its composition, but lighter and with a feeling of motion. You can also see the relationship between the torso sculpture and the pendant light. Notice that the pendant light repeats the orangey-yellow visible in the painting next to the torso.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Hanging sculpture that’s light enough on a wall is another simple display method. Here a metal wall sculpture forms the shape of a flock of birds in my client’s small-but-mighty San Francisco condo.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
The original sculpture by artist C. Jere is made from iron and casts a dramatic shadow of birds in flight.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Joe Fletcher
In my client’s high-ceiling city loft, we display two pierced brass teardrop-shaped lights as sculptures near a grouping of long hanging glass pendant lights.
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Joe Fletcher
The lights hang higher than the teardrops, allowing the sculptures to be visible from multiple locations around the space, drawing attention towards the fireplace in the corner.
What pieces do you have that you’d like to display? Can I help you design a space to showcase them?
Kimball Starr designs for artistic homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe. Contact her today for a remote or socially-distant in-person consultation.
