Summer is in full swing, and I love seeing the flowers blooming everywhere. I love keeping a vase of fresh flowers, but they don’t stay looking fresh as long as I wish they would. Clients who love the look of fresh flowers often ask me - is faux ok?

Beyond the fact that they add so much design impact, I recommend stair runners to clients for 2 main reasons - the first is safety. Adding a stair runner on their staircase can help prevent slips and falls because the texture of the carpet vs hardwood stair treads adds grip. The second reason I recommend adding stair runners is that they add sound absorption in a space where it’s typically much needed. Stairs typically don’t have a lot of spots to add in soft surfaces that absorb sound and therefore become echo chambers - especially when they are adjacent to foyers and bedroom hallways. A stair runner will usually add in just enough to help out.

So, if you’re looking to add in a stair runner, here are four tips that I generally follow when sourcing for my virtual and interior design clients.

If you’ve read a design magazine or watched a design show you may have come across this phrase before - “the ceiling is the 5th wall”. What does it mean? And is it true?

These are two things I recommend to every client, in every project. Ready to find out what they are? Here we go!

So you have a formal living room, and no one ever steps a toe in it. Rather than waste the square footage in your home, let’s turn the room in a space that has a purpose and gets used. Here are four ideas that I’ve designed for clients over the years - do any of them work for you?

Today’s blog is something that I have years of experience in - both as a Mom decorating my own home, and as a designer working with other families with kids of varying ages. Ready for my 6 best tips for designing a kid-friendly home?

Have you ever moved your furniture and realized that the sun had faded your rug, floor or another piece of your home? Sun rays coming through a window can do a lot of damage, but I have three tips on how to help prevent it!

Last year, Kohler debuted their Heritage Colors collection, a line of retro-colored bathroom plumbing - a slate of greens and a fun peachy-pink. They’ve been used in a variety of bathroom design styles - from modern to traditional - but, are they trendy?

I see a lot as a designer, and I love helping clients fix their spaces. Today I’m sharing three design mistakes that I see a lot - and what to do instead.

A kitchen renovation is a stressful yet exciting time. Stressful because its a large investment, and your kitchen is the heart of the home - it’s not an easy thing to go without for the duration of the renovation. And, especially if you’re doing a full gut and rebuild, these renovations can never be done soon enough.

Kitchen renovations can be exciting, not only for the new look, but the new functionality you get. There is nothing quite like being able to function day-to-day in a kitchen that has all of the bells and whistles that you requested and functions in a way you only dreamed of.

We love our four-legged friends, but they aren’t always compatible with a well decorated home… or are they? I’m happy to tell you from experience that just because you have a pet doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice how your home looks. My 110 pound Spanish Mastiff Tobin agrees!

Whether they were hardwood, engineered wood or vinyl plank, it seemed like gray-toned floors were going in left and right up to a few years ago. But what about now? Is gray out?

I’m excited to share more about this colorful dining room today! I’ve shared the adjoining rooms from this project previously, and we’re finally getting to the fabulous dining room. As is the case with many dedicated dining rooms, the layout is fairly simple. In this case, we were reusing the client’s existing dining table. I gave the option to reuse the existing chairs, or buy new down the road, and the rest was a blank slate. The lounge, which was located directly across the foyer, was designed with dark walls and light furniture, so I opted for the inverse in this room: light walls and pops of color throughout.

Window treatments are often a challenge for homeowners. It can be hard to find something that fits the design scheme and the space without going the custom route. And custom window treatments can be quite an investment.

I am thrilled to announce that a wonderful window treatment workroom that I have worked with numerous times over the years has launched a semi-custom express drapery program this year, and its available to all Abode Virtual Design clients.

Revisiting this jewel-toned new build again today! The feature in the home that our client was most excited about was the double-story great room which featured beautiful windows looking out on their backyard view. But, the design challenge was this: how do we create a space that is still cozy within the large space?

We’re staying into our homes for longer and longer into our lifetimes, and there are certain design choices that can be made that make the aging in place process easier. The bathroom can be one of the trickiest places because of the slick surfaces and water. Below are two tips if you’re looking to renovate a bathroom either for yourself as you age in your home, or for a parent or loved one as they do.

There is one backsplash trend that we have been seeing everywhere in 2024: the stone slab backsplash. This is where, rather than installing tile that coordinates with the stone countertop, you carry the same slab as the countertop on to the backsplash.

Dining rooms are generally straightforward when it comes to furniture and layout: table, chairs and then storage pieces if you have space. I love designing them, however, because the fun and creativity comes into play when you’re selecting the furniture pieces, pairing them and then bringing it all together with the finishes and accessories throughout the space.

Today, I’m sharing 5 essential tips for designing and decorating a dining room.

We are revisiting a project that you’ve seen here in the Abode Anthology blog if you’ve visited before. While the kitchen was one of the spaces I had in my design scope, I wasn’t starting from scratch. This project was a new build, so the kitchen itself was complete when I came on board for the interior design work. I did, however, need to decorate it and make sure it worked with the rest of the space. We also tackled the breakfast nook - the eat-in area that bridged the kitchen to the great room seating.