Style Your Home with Color, Pattern & Texture! (Video 2 of 3)
Did you know Kimball Starr is the featured interior design expert on a nationally televised series of PBS Creative Living? For this series, the San Francisco interior designer teaches how to combine color, patterns, and texture to liven up your home’s interior.
In this second video, Kimball shares how to mix fabric patterns in a traditional living and dining room by using nature as the color inspiration. She chooses mahogany dining chairs upholstered in a traditional silk pattern, and adds a burlap tablecloth for an unexpected twist of casual elegance. The traditional living room showcases leather, velvet, and linens for a timeless look.
In case you missed the first one, here is Video 1.
To wrap up the 3-part segment, here is Video 3.
Video transcript below:
♪[music]♪
– [Announcer] With your host Sheryl Borden.
– [Kimball] So I have some more examples here, and this is a living area, which it’s a more traditional feel.
– [Sheryl] Uh huh.
– And I’m gonna pull some of these examples up for you. So I like to start with the rug first.
– Oh.
– Because that really…
– The bottom.
– Sets, sets the foundation. Thank you. So here our main colors are dark reds, rust colors, and greens. And the underlying concept or theme for this space was a botanical feel.
– Oh ok.
– So the homeowner really likes leaves and flowers and that outdoor nature feel. And he has skylights.
– It brings it inside.
– That’s right, and you also want to think about the, the actual light. So in this space there’s a lot of natural light.
– A lot of light.
– So you don’t want to really, want to do heavy dark colors ’cause it feels counter-intuitive to the natural architecture of the space.
– Oh okay.
– So we’d like to treat… keep things light, but still add a little punch of color here and there. So we have next to them, here’s some close-up shots. So here’s the dining area, to the right.
– Uh huh.
– And I’m going to show you a little more close-up of that.
– Oh, uh huh.
– So you can see, so we have our–
– It’s the chair cushion.
– …Beautiful dining chair fabric, and now there’s no draperies in this particular situation because the homeowner really loved the view and didn’t want to cover anything; but if you wanted to do something you could use something like a really thin linen sheer that has a really subtle…
– And it’s got that botanical look, it’s got the leaves.
– That’s right.
– You’ll be carrying that out.
– And when the sun shines through this, it’s really going to wash it out so it’s going to be a subtle, floaty color.
– Mmmm
– And the wall color that’s there on the window…
– Oh, how gorgeous.
– …Is this color right there, so you could do that, or if you’re not really a ‘sheer’ person you could use something like a woven grass shade. Notice the nice texture it gives.
– Uh huh.
– Again it gives, again it really adds a beautiful natural outdoorsy feel.
– And sometimes it nice to use this, I would think, so something doesn’t become so feminine.
– Yes.
– If there’s a couple living there you want to bring in some elements so that he sort of feels like he supposed to be there…[laugh].
– That’s right, that’s right you’re not gonna make it all pink…[laugh].
– Right…[laugh].
– So, then we have our table that I put with the burlap covering because it’s mahogany and I felt with all that dark mahogany that the chairs and the dining table was a little too heavy for the space.
– Lightened it up, uh huh.
– Right, ’cause we had talked about how it was a lighter space, and then moving over to our sofa… We have a close-up of the sofa area.
– Oh is that a leather or….
– Yeah.
– …Suede or something.
– So the sofa is actually wrapped in leather.
– Umm.
– And then there’s…
– Oh it’s got the green. I just now see the cushions, uh huh.
– Yeah and then the actual cushions here.
– Uh huh.
– It’s done in a linen velvet and a linen velvet is a really durable fabric. It’s gonna wear…
– Wears well.
– Yes and it still has a really elegant feel to it.
– Uh huh, all these colors are just looking wonderful together.
– Oh thanks. Green is my favorite color.
– Well I kinda like it too. [laugh] So you’re starting with the floor and you’re building up from there.
– That’s right.
– Uh huh.
– So we have this color and then the color behind on the wall there is here, so we have this soft green with a creme color and then we have the sofa with the leather. And then we have our drapery with our…
– Uh huh.
– …Dining chair fabric, the burlap and then now all that’s left is to add some fun accents.
– Oh.
– And we also have our swivel chair here, which is–
– Oh there it is.
– Right here.
– Uh huh.
– This kind of tan color, and I like to bring in again… we have kinda a more light, airy feel with botanicals and it’s a linen.
– Now what would you use these for?
– These you could do for your throw pillows.
– Oh okay I was thinking, how is this going… I see now.
– Yeah, so this would accent on top of the swivel chair. These would be your throw pillows and then for your sofa, because it’s a bigger, bulkier sofa, you can afford to do fabric that feels a little heavier. And you can either choose to go more in this tone for an accent which picks up the red…
– Uh huh, I like that one.
– Or there is a little bit of blue in there or you could even do both.
– Yeah, it really pulls the blue out. I didn’t see any blue in there, but I do…
– Yeah, it’s really subtle…
– Now that you put that with it, uh huh.
– And if you like little tassels and fringe this could go on the burlap tablecloth.
– Which it also softens that up a little bit.
– It does it adds a little interest to in movement, instead of it just being a sharp edge.
– And then for one last item in the space, something most people don’t think about for texture, which is not necessarily a fabric, is using plants.
– Oh yeah, uh huh. I just think that every room almost needs a plant.
– Yeah.
– It just, it just maybe it is because it brings the outdoors in.
– Yeah it really does.
– It just looks nice.
– And they’re wall mounted and you never have to take it off and they just grow right on the wall.
– I see, very good.
– So then we have, so that’s our living area.
Kimball Starr is Principal of a San Francisco award-winning interior design firm, whose residential interiors have been featured on national television, and globally published in a series of hardcover books. To work with her on YOUR home or project, contact Kimball today for a complimentary consultation!
