Here’s how to tell them apart.

Historic Preservation

Preservation is the most protective stance you can take with a historic property. The goal is to maintain what exists — original materials, original finishes, original form — with as little intervention as possible. Repair rather than replace. Stabilize rather than improve.

In practice, preservation is often legally defined. If your home sits within a historic district or carries a landmark designation, certain changes require approval, and some are off the table entirely. Denver has several locally designated historic districts — Potter-Lawson, Curtis Park, and Country Club among them — where exterior alterations go through a review process before a permit is issued.

Even without a legal designation, preservation is the right framework when a property has significant architectural or cultural integrity that would be diminished by change. The question isn’t can we update this — it’s should we.

Historic Restoration

Restoration takes a specific moment in time as its target. The goal is to return a property to how it looked and functioned during its most historically significant period — which often means removing things that later owners added and aren’t original to the house.

That drop ceiling in the dining room. The aluminum siding someone installed in the 1970s. The replacement windows that don’t match the profile of the originals. Restoration work pulls those layers back and works from what’s underneath.

This is exacting work. It requires research — historic photographs, Sanborn fire maps, paint analysis, original permit records — to establish what “original” actually looked like. It’s also the approach most likely to involve period-appropriate materials and craft techniques that aren’t easy to source.

Restoration makes the most sense when a home’s historic integrity is largely intact and the goal is to recover what’s there, not reimagine it.

Historic Renovation

This is where most of Studio Olio’s work lives.

Historic renovation keeps the character of an old house — its proportions, its architectural logic, its materials — while updating it to function well for the people who live in it now. New systems. Code-compliant electrical. A kitchen that works. A bathroom that doesn’t require a history degree to operate.

The discipline is in knowing what to touch and what to leave alone. Original millwork, old-growth fir floors, plaster walls with good bones, built-ins that have survived a hundred years of use — those stay. A non-original partition wall, a bathroom addition from the 1960s with no relationship to the rest of the house, a layout that makes the home genuinely hard to live in — those are candidates for change.

Studio Olio is currently working in Curtis Park — one of Denver’s oldest intact neighborhoods — where nearly every block has a home worth getting right.

Historic renovation is not about making an old house look old. It’s about making an old house work — without erasing the reason it was worth keeping.

Rehab (Without the Historic Consideration)

Rehab, in the conventional sense, means bringing a property up to livable or marketable condition. There’s nothing wrong with that goal. But when it’s applied to historic homes without any regard for what made them worth saving, the results tend to be the same everywhere: original details stripped out, surfaces covered in materials that have no relationship to the house’s era or character, front porches enclosed to add square footage.

The house still stands. But the thing that made it irreplaceable is gone.

Denver loses historic fabric this way more often than it should. It’s usually not malicious — it’s a cost calculation made without full information about what was there or what it was worth.

Which Approach Is Right for Your Home?

The answer depends on your home’s condition, its designation status, your goals for the space, and — honestly — how much of its original character is still intact. Most historic homes in Denver that haven’t been landmarked sit somewhere in the renovation category: enough original fabric to be worth protecting, enough that needs updating to require real decisions.

That’s exactly the kind of project Studio Olio was built for. If your home was built before 1960 and you’re trying to figure out what to keep and what to change, that’s where we start.

→ Learn more about how Studio Olio approaches historic home renovation in Denver

Watch

Want to go deeper? Lora covered this topic on the Meaningful Design podcast — watch the episode below.

The post Preservation, Restoration, Renovation, Rehab: What’s the Difference (and Why It Matters for Your Historic Home) appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

As a designer who loves historic properties, it’s so lovely to see the beautiful and original heart pine floors, original millwork, and the care put towards keeping the historic charm of this place. It makes my heart flutter. Also, I can immediately pinpoint a few things I would do differently that would make cleaning easier and faster, as well as some details that would enhance the guest experience.

Why Work with an Interior Designer for My Vacation Rental?

If you have an STR (Short Term Rental), you likely have experienced a booking slowdown over the past six months. Partly due to inflation with fewer people traveling and partly due to market saturation in various locals.

When I travel, I look for locations that give me the most benefits for a particular area. I often travel with my dog, O-Ren, so I look for places that satisfy all my requirements while being dog friendly.

 I deeply care about the home’s character and how it will feel when staying there.

If you are a property owner who is interested in maximizing the potential of your vacation rental property, consider working with a professional designer. We provide invaluable input when creating a unique and attractive space for guests to enjoy. By partnering with us at Dahlias & Granite Interior Design, you can ensure that your property stands out and offers guests an unforgettable experience.

The Benefits of Working With An Interior Designer

The most significant benefit of working with us is our expertise in creating functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces. We consider ourselves your profit partner as we develop creative solutions to maximize your vacation rental property’s potential and ROI (Return On Investment).

We use our experience and understanding of hospitality interior design to suggest creative solutions and strategies that will allow your property to stand out from the competition.

Our designers possess knowledge of specific materials, such as fabrics and furniture that are easy to clean and will stand up to the use of an AirBnb or VRBO rental.

By partnering with us, you access our materials and resources, allowing you to make educated decisions when purchasing materials and furniture for your rental property.

We create custom design plans that suit the needs of your particular vacation rental to ensure that your property looks its best and that the design elements are complementary— with precision and attention to detail.

Great design adds value to a rental property. An attractive and well-designed property will attract more rental income and make your rental property stand out among the competition. Investing in a professional designer can result in real financial gains for you, the owner, and enhance the quality of your guests’ experience.

Dahlias & Granite Interior Design Services

Working with us at Dahlias & Granite is invaluable in creating a beautiful rental property. We bring aesthetic appeal and functionality to your rental property and create a unique and inviting space for guests to enjoy.

The financial gains from increased rental income can easily outweigh the cost of working with us. We love being your profit partner with our vacation rental design clients.

If you are interested in maximizing the potential of your vacation rental property, including AirBnB rentals and VRBO rentals and gaining increased bookings at a higher nightly rate, contact us for a complimentary discovery call.

What are the most important features to you in a vacation rental? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Why Hire an Interior Designer For Your Vacation Rental appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

** I’m a little more technical in this post, if the science is not your thing, skip on over the sections where I detail chemical names!

When I speak about a healthy house, I typically mean the indoor air quality. If you live in an old house, like I do, then you’ll have a lot more air moving through the walls, windows and doors, but there is a larger possibility of materials used in the home that wouldn’t be allowed today. Lead paint and asbestos are the largest two concerns in an old home.

If you live in a newer home and it was built to seal the air in, you hopefully also have an air exchanger installed to cycle the old air out and new air in to your home.

Either way, there are plenty of ways that you can influence and change your indoor air quality.

Why is it important?

“The air in your house can be five times more polluted than the air outside” – Consumer Reports ^[1]

And it’s not just our respiratory health we need to be concerned about.

The range of indoor air pollutants includes VOCs, phthalates, PBDEs, mold, pollen, pet dander, radon, and more. Most of these qualify as fine or ultra-fine particulate matter that are easily inhaled and can pass into the bloodstream, and even cross the blood-brain barrier. Dry eyes, headaches, nasal congestion, fatigue, and even nausea are common symptoms. Serious problems such as asthma, lung infections, or even lung cancer have been linked to exposure. Particles which enter the bloodstream have been associated with stroke and depression in adults, and children have shown increased systemic inflammation, immune dysfunction, and neural distress. ^[2]

The good news is that most of our indoor air quality can be controlled by us. Here are my top 4 recommendations for ensuring you have a healthy home.

1.  Cleaning & Laundry Products

A recent study has confirmed that using conventional cleaning products are as bad or worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day! The study looked at women who regularly used conventional products over the long term. ^[3] 

Scientists recommended that these products be avoided and to use a microfibre cloth and water instead!! 

I’ve found that not all microfibre cloths are equal. My favourite cloth is made by a company called Norwex and the cloth is considered an Ultra Micro Fibre (UMF) Cloth.

According to studies completed to see how effectively the UMF cloths removed bacteria in a hospital setting, they found that the “UMF cloths demonstrated ability to remove single application of bacteria without serum from surface to almost completely zero growths compared to the conventional cloths.” ^[4] In layman’s terms: they “showed that ultramicrofibre cloths consistently outperformed conventional cloths in their decontamination ability”

I wholeheartedly believe this is the best cloth out there for cleaning and I’m not making money on this recommendation. They also make a glass cloth that effortlessly shines mirrors, faucets, stainless steel. First, wipe surface with a damp microfibre cloth and then wipe it with the mirror cloth. Simply amazing, and no more glass cleaner fumes!

My friend Tuyen sells these products and you can check them out here.

I still do use cleansers for some tasks, but I always use eco-friendly cleansers without the myriad of chemicals added.

The main ingredients you want to avoid in your cleaners are: triclosan, quaternary ammonium compounds, or “quats”, phthalates, synthetic musks (scents), hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, ethanolamines, ammonia and chlorine bleach! Yikes right?

If you look at the ingredients of your conventional cleaners you probably won’t see any of these listed. This is because there aren’t any regulations on the disclosure of chemicals in your cleaning products. “Even when they do list the ingredients, manufacturers often use generic terms like “surfactant,” “colorant,” “preservative” or “fragrance.” These vague terms can mask dozens of compounds, some of which have been linked to serious health impacts.” ^[5] 

The Environmental Working Group is a huge resource for healthy living. They have health guides for a ton of products (food, beauty, cleaning, home health). Here you can enter your current cleaning product and see the health grade it’s been given and why.

This tip is the easiest to incorporate into your life and will make a huge difference in your indoor air quality!

2. Paints and Floor Finishes.

Before I moved to the US, I painted every room in every home I lived in. That was a lot of painting, a ton of colours and a few poor choices! One of which was the paint I was using.

A lot of house paints still incorporate nonylphenol ethoxylates, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, biocides, ethylene glycol, phthalates, “antifungal” or “antimicrobial” additives, crystalline silica and toxic metals, such as cadmium and chromium. Say, what? In plain language, paint has a ton of chemical additives!

Before you buy paint, look for low or no VOC paints and ideally choose a brand that has been third party certified like Sherwin Williams with their line of Greenguard Gold Certified Paints or Benjamin Moore’s line of Greenseal-11 Certified Paint.  When you work with me I’ll specify the best paint type to use in each area of your home and I always choose a low or no VOC paint! (Bonus, cause then you don’t have to learn about the kinds of paint out there!)

We were living in our home when we refinished the floors. Since I know I become nauseous and ill around intense chemicals and fumes, I chose to use a highly rated waterbased topcoat made by Bona on most of our floors. It is Greenguard Certified for indoor air quality. Because I have dogs who have injured themselves by slipping and sliding on hardwood floors, I used the non-skid formula and I’ve been pretty happy with the results. Though I still need to use rugs on their landing areas where they zoom up or down the stairs!

In some of our other rooms and on our live edge floating shelves I used a topcoat by Vermont Natural Coatings, which is also Greenguard Gold Certified. Fun Fact: it’s made with whey and smells a little like buttermilk. It also dries super tough.

If you are having your floors re-done, ask if the products they are using are Greenguard Certified. If you are doing it yourself, the Vermont Natural Coatings was easier to apply than the Bona product.

3. Furniture & Cabinetry

Being aware of where our furniture and cabinets come from is a huge step in considering your indoor air quality. These items contain VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and formaldehyde that can release into the air for up to several years. You’ll especially find higher chemical content in particleboard and in the glue in plywood. ^[6] 

With upholstered furniture, chemicals are often sprayed on to the fabrics and the polyurethane foam (found in cushions) is especially toxic.

What to look for in products you choose for your home:

Choose durable products, so you don’t have to replace them. Options include:

1. Buy good quality furniture that is made in North America
2. Find cabinets and furniture that uses waterbourne with low or no VOC finishes
3. Ensure your cabinets are made from wood and not particleboard
4. Choose good quality used furniture and have them re-upholstered using foam with no fire retardant chemicals added

Where to find healthy furniture:

If aren’t working with an interior designer who can source healthy furniture and are purchasing retail, check out the Wood Furniture Scorecard. Top scorers include Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and Ikea, among others, though this doesn’t address the level of quality of these products.

Where to find healthy cabinetry:

The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association has a great search tool. They only guarantee that their products will be low formaldehyde, so another option would be finding a local cabinet maker and ask if they will use formaldehyde-free products along with non-toxic glues and finishes.

4. Plants

“One famous NASA experiment, published in 1989, found that indoor plants can scrub the air of cancer-causing volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde and benzene. (Those NASA researchers were looking for ways to effectively detoxify the air of space station environments.) Later research has found that soil microorganisms in potted plants also play a part in cleaning indoor air.” – Time ^[7] 

That said, plants are on the bottom of this list because, while plants do clean our air, there haven’t been any studies on how many plants are needed per square foot to fully clean our air.

I advocate for the inclusion of plants in our homes because studies have shown that plants are beneficial for our mental wellbeing by calming our nervous centre and improving our mood. 

I often hear from people that they have a hard time keeping plants alive, so here is a list of some of the easiest care plants.

Golden Pothos – This plant thrives in a low light environment. Meaning; there is a window in the room and it’s not totally dark!

Aloe Vera – Easy care plant, but needs a sunny windowsill!

Snake Plant – Tolerates low light, but prefers moderate light. Meaning it should do fine anywhere you put it, as long as it’s not totally dark. It will grow faster with more light.

Peace Lily – Tolerates a wide variety of light. They will not re-bloom unless it lives in a high light area (so a sunny windowsill or bright light near a window). It will live but not bloom in a low light environment.

With each of these plants you should water them till the soil is damp, not soggy and then water again when the soil feels dry, but before it gets bone dry. Generally this is once every 7-10 days.

In conclusion

If you are still reading (thank you), this was a little more science heavy than most of my posts! I’m so passionate about helping people create healthy homes and I could probably type another 10 pages on things to look for! (But I won’t, for your sanity!)

Start small and each step you take towards a healthy home will increase the quality of your indoor air.

Tell me below (or here on FB):

Did any of the above surprise you? What will you change about your home?

As a Denver interior designer I am passionate about helping you create your own healthy home. Contact me here and I can’t wait to work with you!

The post How To Create A Healthy House appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Historic home renovation in Denver · Design process

“Having the carpenter working on our porch tell me that it wasn’t possible to do something with his new tools and technology that my great grandparents were able to do in 1893! Oh and then the same guy telling me it was normal for the pre-cut stringers (he was supposed to custom cut them) to miss meeting the sidewalk by 4 inches. Seriously! I’ve got a million of them!!” – Jeanne McNeil

“Not paying attention to the details that I asked them to pay attention to up front, when they were writing the quote. This seems to happen to me every time. Even when I don’t pick the lowest bid. –Nikki Lussier

“Contracts talking exclusively to my husband and/or being condescending because they think I don’t know what I’m talking about. Every damn time!” – Nancy Belvin – Trim Carpenter

“So many of these subcontractors don’t listen and think they always know best. They need to be held accountable and to fix what they wouldn’t have had to fix if they had paid attention to us women and did it right in the first place.” – Susan Cary

The post When a Contractor Says It Can’t Be Done: How to Hold Them Accountable on a Historic Home Renovation appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

To preface, most of my clients are Gen X (as am I), and when I asked one person who was having issues with Alexa, she stated that she would prefer not to talk to the lights.

That comment got me thinking; unless I am driving, I hate audibly speaking to Siri on my phone and in my own home I prefer timers or smart tech I can control from my phone. My assistant who is on the older side of Millennial, says she can’t wait to get an Alexa for her home because with two small kids she often has her hands full!

While I don’t know if this preference is generational or personal preference, here is a quick guide to a few of my favourite smart home items that don’t require you to speak to them!

Any product by Nest!

My favourite is the outdoor camera, because it has this fabulous app that I’ve installed on my phone that notifies me when it senses motion. I am able to check the video feed and see who is there! As a huge bonus, I can speak through the cameras and listen to a response which is really helpful if I’m home alone and not going to open the door! They also have a wireless doorbell that acts in a similar manner.

The other product that I love is their smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Have you ever been cooking and burnt something to a crisp, and then couldn’t get your smoke detector to stay off? With the nest detector, you can turn off the sound from an app on your phone, saving your ears, your dogs ears and your sanity!

I’ve always wanted their thermostat too; because you can set the temperature from your phone while you aren’t there. When we lived in Texas, we would come back from a weekend away in 105F weather and have to wait close to four hours for the AC in our rental to be close to cool! If we had a nest installed we could have set the AC to start 4 hours before we were expected to arrive.

In our Richmond, Virginia home, we put a ductless mini split system that has 8 individually controlled zones, and is truly the best heating and cooling system I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t classify ours as true smart tech as I can’t control them with my phone, but I can set timers, and each one has a remote. If we ever find ourselves in another home with only one or two heating zones, I wouldn’t hesitate to install the nest thermostats.

Sound

I have the very best speakers in the world — ok they probably aren’t but I’ve had several audiophile friends offer to buy them from me because they don’t make home speakers like they used to. They are in a wooden box surround, made in Britain and are quite heavy and large. I moved them to every home I’ve lived since I was 15! When I’m home alone I put the dogs in the other room and turn them up!! Nothing beats a dance party to alleviate stress. Through our reno, I missed the speakers more than a kitchen stove (we had a camp stove) but not more than the sink!

Right, so this post is about smart tech, not ancient technology, ha!

For the past many years I had a super long cable that would plug into my iphone audio jack and this enabled me to play music through my (also ancient) receiver. Last year my husband got me this great little device that allows me to Chrome Cast my music to my ancient technology without cords, cables or fuss! And now that phones don’t have headphone jacks this gadget is even more needed!

Check it out here, it’s super inexpensive too!

Water Leak Prevention

In our old home, we have a small 10×10, under grade (below ground) basement. At the moment our home doesn’t have any perimeter drainage, so when we get rain, the water seeps into our basement through the walls, drains into an small open concrete pit where the sump pump sends it back out and away from our house.

Even though our sump pump is fairly new, on the rare occasion it gets too much sediment in it and it shuts off, allowing water to accumulate in the basement.  As we know this is a wet area, all items in the basement are elevated to minimize any potential water damage, but if we were away and this were to happen, we could possibly have damage to our two deep freezers. I found this alarm, that will alert us via an app, so that we could call a neighbour to check on the sump in case of this issue.

Even if you don’t have a sump, I would also find this useful for under the washing machine, or hot water tank to alert me to potential issues before floors and ceilings get damaged too much!

Check it out, here. It runs on batteries, so even in a power outage, you still should be notified, and it’s extremely well priced.

Tell me below: Do you like speaking to your smart home, or do you prefer to control them from your phone?

The post Smart homes: Tech You Don’t Need To Speak To appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Today let’s dive into colour, pattern and texture! And, I’d love it if you would do an experiment with me:

Colour

Step 1: Choose one room or a corner that you would like to change in your home. It can be indoor or outdoor.

Step 2: Decide if you would like to bring in a calming feeling if you would like to increase your energy in this particular space.

Step 3: Choose 5 images that represent this feeling to you. You could look on Pinterest, Instagram or Flickr. Just type the feeling into the search bar and see what shows up.

Now the real fun begins:

Step 4: Go to Adobe Color on your desktop, or install the app on your phone. If you use both they will sync together.

Step 5: Upload the five images you have chosen, via the camera icon and save. You’ll need to do each one individually. When you click on My Themes at the top and this will pull out various similar colours and you will see what colours you are being drawn to from the images.

I went to Flickr and typed in calm and chose five sunset images. I can’t share the images I chose due to copyright, but above are the colours it pulled out for me. Right now, it looks like I need to add a dusty rose to my home palette!

Pretty great, right? Were you surprised by any colour that this pulled out of the images for you?

We can do something similar for texture and pattern, but you will be using your kinesthetic senses instead of visual.

Let’s dive into texture.

Texture is a very personal experience. You may love the feeling of wool on your feet, or it might drive you crazy! Yes, I’m one of the ones that loves wool! As an aside, wool rugs are one of the most long lasting and healthy fibres you can bring into your home.

Walk around your home and look at the fabrics and materials you have. Are the textures fine, medium or chunky? Do you have a mix, or are they all similar?

When you are out shopping do you linger over dishes that ripple a certain way? Do you touch them as you go by to see how they feel in your hand? Do you run your hands over the fabric of clothes hanging on the racks, or touch the bedding to see how it feels?

I can’t help it, I do this all of the time. In fact I won’t buy something unless it feels good to touch.  When I travel, I have a soft grey blanket that folds up pretty small and I use it as an anchor to help me feel at home in my new surroundings. I also adore angora and cashmere, but I’m super allergic so I can’t have any of these!

This part may not be something that you feel drawn to do, but having a variety of textures in your home helps you by bringing a touch of comfort and familiarity along with visually adding “resonance”.

And on to Pattern!

As an artist I find that I paint patterns that have been holding my interest. I also notice patterns I am attracted to find many ways into my life, most often unexpected!

Take a look at this series of photos:

This painting is called “Pathways” and was created specifically for a couple. It is so similar in shape to this photo of shadows on rose petals that I took years before — this wasn’t planned, I found this photo again after painting the painting above.

I find that I am often attracted to organic whirls and movement. But these days, I am finding joy in linear shapes that are not perfectly straight, but have a little wiggle on the edges.

I’ve found that patterns are both subtle and bold in the ways they present themselves in our lives. Patterns you may not be aware of are happening all around you in your everyday life. I have a friend that photographs the heart shapes she finds all around. She finds them in puddles, rocks, as marks on pavement and many other places we wouldn’t expect.

Pattern finding: Start noticing the similarities during your regular activities. Do you stop and notice a pattern on the wall at your local library, kids school or yoga studio? Is it different or similar to patterns you already have in your home?

With all three of these items, taking the time to intentionally notice what you are drawn to and finding ways to bring these elements into your home will pay dividends into how you feel while you are in your space.

I’d love to hear from you: what part of this surprised you? Will you explore further?

I’d love to help you find the colours, patterns and textures that you love and incorporate them into your home. I work with women and their partners in the RVA (Richmond, VA) area in person and if you aren’t local I can help you put a plan together that you can implement. Contact me here!

The post How to Feel At Home In Your Home – Part 2 appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

I won’t go into the details but our renovation has stretched on far longer than originally anticipated. Let me tell you, living in a perpetual state of disarray and flux takes its toll!

During the renovation and over the previous four years that included 6 moves across the country I’ve discovered that I need to have a sacred sanctuary to feel grounded and do my best work.

Have you noticed that when you go through seasons of change you also crave a feeling being at peace?

Whether you are surrounded by some uncertainty or if you would love to be able to add some more “you” into your home, here is part 1 of how to feel at home in your home.

1. Decide how you want to feel in each area of your home.

So much of our time is spent around “doing” and this proliferates into our homes as well.

For example say you want a desk and work area in your home. So you buy a new desk and set it up in an out-of-the-way corner or room so you aren’t distracted by work on your off hours or leisure time.

A few weeks go by and you are finding that you aren’t as productive as you would like. You tweak a few productivity systems, but there is something that isn’t quite right.

I’m here to let you know that when you start with how you want to feel while you work, this will impact not only your desk placement, but your productivity too.

When you purposefully create areas in your home and work spaces, you enhance your health, mental acuity and emotional states of being.

In our homes we typically need areas that are calming, as well as areas that are energizing. I want my kitchen to be filled with joy, beauty and passion for eating and connecting, but my office needs to be filled with light, so that I feel energized and I have a connection to the outside world.

I encourage you to choose one room or area of your home and ask yourself, “What do I need most, right now?  Am I craving a space to create calm or raise my energy?”

All over the web you’ll find articles telling us that in order to refresh a room all we need to do is pick a few plants, grab some new decorative cushions and throw a new piece of art on the wall — ta da, a refreshed space.

We humans are way more complex than that. Our memories and experiences drive our feelings long after the events have taken place.

2.  Memory, the forgotten sense.

There have been many scientific studies on how color effects us psychologically.

Let’s consider the popular restaurant chain, McDonald’s.

“Looking at the positive psychology qualities of red & yellow in relation to the fast food industry, red triggers stimulation, appetite, hunger, it attracts attention.  Yellow triggers the feelings of happiness and friendliness.

When you combine red and yellow it’s about speed, quickness.  In, eat and out again.” – Karen Haller

Regardless of the studies, color remains subjective. Meaning if you’ve had a negative or traumatic experience with the color yellow, no matter what, yellow will not feel happy and friendly.

After many years of teaching women how to create art to facilitate healing, I can tell you without a doubt the colors we are personally drawn to or dislike are no accident.

Color, like memories are so individual. Listen to your gut response when choosing color for your space. (Along with these tips here.)

3. Lighting, Light Quality and Light Color Temperature.

Imagine these two scenarios.

Surrounded by a cozy blanket you pick up your book, feeling comforted by the soft warm glow from the lamp beside you.

Refreshed, you open your eyes, happy to see the cool morning light streaming through your bedroom window.

Two very different scenarios, that likely happened in the same room, separated by 7-9 hours.

The lighting and light quality in your room directly affects how you feel.

Think about the last time you were in a big box store with tons of florescent lights overhead. These stores are not designed to make you feel at home and the lights are often on the cool spectrum.

In contrast, do you remember the last time you were in a favorite independent bookstore? Yes, the space is smaller, but often the color temperature of these lights are warmer, mimicking the color of candles or fire.

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at the huge rows of light bulb choices in Home Depot, wondering what the heck the difference is, I’ve been there too!

Succinctly the color of the lights are measured by the Kelvin scale. You’ll find this information on the box.

Warm Lighting (2700k – 3000K) = warm, inviting and cozy. This lighting is most similar to incandescent lights that we had before CFL’s and LED lights.

Neutral Lighting (3500K) = neutral, efficient, balanced. Lots of brands still call this soft white.

Daylight Lighting (4100K – 6500K) = cool, white, can be overly intense. Florescent lights fall under this category.

My personal preference is 3500K or below, as I find the light spectrum of daylight lighting to be too greenish and intense.

If you want to learn more,  check out this helpful video.

Decide what color temperature relates to how you want to feel in your space. If you are not sure, buy a couple different color temperature bulbs and see if it changes how you feel.

If you would like to have the option of changing the colour temparature without changing the bulb, consider these smart bulbs by Philips.

If you want to be able to have a range of lighting options without getting a ton of lights, consider putting them on a dimmer switch so you can easily increase or decrease the light intensity.

There are more ways to consider how many lights you’ll need, but this is a good overview on getting starting choosing lights that help you create your desired feeling or mood.

This concludes part 1 of 2. I’d love to hear from you: Do you feel at home in your home?

I help homeowners choose colours and lighting for the inside and outside of their homes, along with developing colour palettes and finish packages for commercial clients, realtors and builders.

I offer e-design services for those of you not local and in-person consultations and design if you are in the RVA (Richmond, Virginia) area.

Would you like some assistance honing in or refining how to create a space that helps you feel your best?

Email me,  I’d love to work with you.

The post How to Feel at Home in Your Home – Part 1 appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Have you grabbed colour sample after colour sample but none of them work, or don’t look how you imagined?

Every colour of paint has unique undertones.

If you remember back to art class, you’ll likely remember the colour wheel. Here is a modern one like ones you’ve used on your computer.

I think it’s pretty normal to assume that all blue colours are cool colours. But blue can be a warm colour too! All of the blues below have yellow undertones.

I’m not going to dive into the science behind what makes a warm or cool colour. Succinctly a warm or cool colour is created because of layers of colour that is under the main colour you see.

Let’s dive into this with the colour grey.

Grey is still a pretty popular colour to use in our homes and office spaces, but it is one of the hardest colours to choose correctly.

Many greys have purple undertones (which isn’t a bad thing in itself) but when it is paired with counters or floors that have non congruent undertones, this will create a colour scheme that feels “off”. Your eyes and brain will register that something isn’t as compatible as it could be, and as subtle as this reaction can be, your space is far less serene than you intended.

If you are curious what grey colours have purple undertones, you can go here to Sherwin Williams website  to check them out.

I clicked on one of the greys and used the color visualiser tool to see how the color looks on the wall. If you are looking to DIY your colour choices this is a fun tool to use.

Notice that the colours look different on each of the walls. You can especially see the difference in tones in my white studio.

The same will be true for your home or office space. In fact, how each colour looks will be totally different room to room. The colour appears to change because of how much natural light is in each room, along with the type of lamps and other lighting used in your space. It can even look like a different colour when it’s next to furniture, counters, floors and windows because of the light that is reflected back.

The best practice is to test your colours before you paint so that you can see how the colours might appear throughout the day and evening. See how much greyer this room looks when the sun isn’t out. (And isn’t Magnum looking thoughtful?)

The small paint swatches the paint stores give out do not give you enough information to accurately choose a colour that looks how you expect.

Get a sample paint made up and apply it to the wall to see how it will look. If you don’t have white walls, make sure you put some white paper around each test spot on the wall, because the previous colour will throw your eye off and the paint colour will not look how you expected it to!

With my homeowner clients we talk about how they want to feel in their space. When we are choosing colours to test on the wall they are often surprised by the colours that they are drawn to.

With my commercial clients we talk about how they want their clients to feel, in addition to how they envision their clientele to move around and use the space. For example an optometry office may want their clients to feel seen and invited to the displays, where a massage therapist may want their clients to feel relaxed and nourished.

If you are staging your home to sell, you need to figure out what the perceptions of the buyer will be before you choose colors.

I don’t believe in having one or two strategies for all homes for sale. A home in a historical area will attract different buyers than a newly built planned neighbourhood and I wouldn’t recommend using the same strategy for both homes.

The science and art of colour plays a huge part in helping us feel at home in our homes.

I help homeowners choose colours for the inside and outside of their homes, along with developing colour palettes and finish packages for commercial clients, realtors and builders.

I offer e-design services for those of you not local and in-person consultations and design if you are in the RVA (Richmond, Virginia) area.

If you need some help, email me,  I’d love to work with you.

The post Choosing Colors for your home? Read this first. appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.