Dining Rooms A Place to Gather

Hello friends, how many of us long for family time and a place to gather as a family unit? No matter how many people are at the table or how simple the meal, you'll want to create an inviting dining room. Choosing furniture that suits your family and arranging it in a way that works for you is the key to a pleasant dining experience. What I'm trying to say is your furniture should be arranged for comfort and ease of movement, allowing enough space at the table for each person and to serve family and guest elegantly and with gracefully. 

Sitting at the table

Sitting at the dining table can be a good experience or one that is dreadful. Have you ever set at a dining table and your leg hits the leg of the table or it feels as though the dining table is sitting on your lap? Well that is called an arrangement that doesn’t suits your family and guest. Friends when I go out shopping with my clients for dining tables and chairs I always advise them to sit in the chairs and pull them all the way up to the table to make sure they fit under the table comfortably. Every now and then I like to brag about how much I know about a good shopping experience and this is one of those times but anyhow I want you to have a comfortable time when you’re gathering at the table with your family without the worry of hitting knees against the table. So here is where my experience of working for a furniture company comes into play. I know how important it is to have fun and comfortable gatherings with family and friends that is why when you shop for dining makes sure to have your measuring tape and be ready to test out the seats and table heights.

Dining table and Chairs:

A rectangular table is traditional, but a round one puts everyone on equal footing. For a dual purpose room think about two square tables one for family meals and one for work and then you can join the two together for entertaining.  Friends I don’t know about you but comfortable chairs are a must no matter what your serving weather it’s a quick bite or huge course dinner. So without further ado let’s check out some pretty cool and beautiful dining rooms.

This is a e-deign dining room I put together. Have you ever thought about a tufted bench at the dining table? This can be very comfortable with all the cushion seating around this dining table.

How about the soft seating here? Beautiful!

I love the pink chairs at the end of the tables aren't they amazing and the chandelier I'm just crazy over.

 Now who of us don't love traditional and era in a dining room? I'm sure everyone can fit at this table. This is the White House the State Dining Room in 2006, looking northwest into the Butler's Pantry (Spificwoman13) source here

I love this round table and the chandelier is spectacular what a comfy looking dinner table

Beautiful!

Large dining Area and beautiful space planing. I think the whole family can sit in this dining room.

This is an big space that gives your family lots of room to walk.

 

Friends I hope you and your family find these dining rooms inspiring and it gives you some cool ideas to use in your dining room. As you can see most of these dining rooms were comfy seating and round and rectangular tables to gather but there were so much more we didn’t touch on like the lighting and the placement of the furniture these things make a huge difference in a gracious experience for family and guest. Friends if you are looking for more dining room experiences check out the diningroom gallery here

What do you think? Let me know in your comment below! 

Shinay Key 

xoxo

Love Birds

My beautiful sister is marrying her sweet fiance tomorrow morning.

They are one of the sweetest pairs of love birds you'll ever met and I am so excited for them.

And we are flying to California today to join them in celebrating their new life as husband and wife. 

Congratulations to Jane and Andrew on their love story. 

We LOVE you! 

Bonding with the toilet

This little peanut in my stomach is making me oh so sick.

With Rhett I would throw up in the morning and feel pretty peachy keen the rest of the day, but this little one likes to throw a nauseous curve ball every 15 minutes, sending me running to the bathroom.

 We're working on getting some natural remindies to help, peppermint tea, ginger Altoids and lots of dinner mints.

Like one in my mouth at all times.

But still the nausea is hanging around, so for now I am taking a little break from projects. 

And spending too much quality time in the bathroom. 

Come on second trimester, let's hurry the next 2 weeks along. 

A baby! A baby! We're having another baby!

Due March 10th 2013. 

We couldn't be a more thrilled momma, poppa and soon to be big brother. :)

9 questions you should ask yourself before making an offer on a home

Hello friends, a few weeks ago I wrote a post on Buying a home-The first steps and in that post we covered a lot of what to do in the early stages of buying your first home things like Deciding to buy, What questions to ask yourself first, who to call first, who to call next, what role will your real estate agent play and finally we went shopping and we discovered just what style home we liked. With all that being said isn’t it only fitting we ask ourselves a few questions before we make the next very important step?

9 questions you should ask yourself before making an offer on a home:

Questions to ask yourself

1.       What do I want my home to be close to?

2.       How much space do I need and why?

3.       Which is more critical: location or size?

4.       Would I be interested in a fixer-upper?

5.       How important is home value appreciation?

6.       Is neighborhood stability a priority?

7.       Would I be interested in a condo?

8.       Would I be interested in new home construction?

9.       What features and amenities do I want? Which do I really need?

Friends these are all interesting question that need considering let’s break a few down!

What do I want my home to be close to? 

Schools, highways, malls, parks, shopping, restaurants or maybe close to where you work.  Do you have kids who is about to start school or teen kids who needs to go to the local high school or do you need to be near a bus or train route? All are good questions to ask yourself.

How much space do I need and why?

Do you need a lot of space or not so much? Sometimes we find that our wants doesn’t meet our needs or sometimes we have to choose between the two however we can sometimes jive them both but that may require more dollars out of your pocket. This is when what is priority comes into play.

 

Which is more critical: location or size?

Now here is a doozey: which is more critical? Do you want the big house no matter what it causes you as long as it’s big and roomy or do the 3 critical in real estate means more to you: Location, location, location? This is a question you may want to consider strongly!

Would I be interested in a fixer-upper?

Now I really love this question because I love me a fixer-upper but it’s just not for everyone: This is a good question because sometimes you can really find a bargain or should I say a diamond in the rough if you’re open to it. Really this is something you should consider if your finances don’t allow you to purchase a house with all the trimmings. Now what does that mean? It simply means you can buy a fixer-upper and do to it what you please and buy it for less. Now of course you want to make certain it makes sense and more important dollar cents too. I know! We just said you can get a bargain and that is true but sometimes a fixer- upper could be a money pit so make sure your doing the right thing. 

How important is home value appreciation?

Friends it’s been a while from the time when I was in the real estate business but I know that this question is still on the top of most home buyers list. How important is value? I personally would say it makes common sense even dollar cents to be conscious of it for it will structure the future of the selling of your home someday. I know we all buy a home and fall and love with it and we’re going to live there for the rest of our lives: Well that is most of our intentions but in all reality things happens beyond our control which will cause us to make changes and sometimes it means selling our homes. So how important is home value appreciation? I don’t know about you but for me its take priority and I hope it will for you as well.

 

Would I be interested in new home construction? 

This question is often a topic of discussion for some homebuyers because sometimes you know that a new home don’t come with all the problems maybe an existing home comes with. New construction can provide you with the confidence of less house work. Most people like the idea of being the first to ever live in that home and that can be something special to a new homeowner as well but is new construction always the best way to go? Some love the charm of an existing home and all the amazing hard work of the days of old craftsmanship. “They just don’t make it like that anymore” That alone makes an existing home all the more appealing. But for me I’m a fan of both but my preference is existing home for all the above reasons but as a homebuyer make sure to weigh your decision close to your heart and you will make the best decision for you and your family.

 

What features and amenities do I want? Which do I really need?

I know, I know you will love to have a pool and live near a golf course but are these most important things you need to consider in purchasing a particular home? Now I’m not mad at you if you do because sometimes this is what’s most important to a home buyer. All homebuyer aren’t created equal because everyone has different needs but if we can all agree on one thing is that all of us has to prioritize our needs. The questions you should ask yourself are what are most important to me to live in this house or neighborhood? Now am I saying to settle no to the contrary? Most will find if they prioritize they will end up with whats needed and even get some of their wants on the list. 

Friends I hope this real estate tips has been informational and helped inspire you to get out with confidence and purchase your new home. 

Let me know what you think in your comments below!

xoxo 

Shinay Key

Friday's Runway Decorate- Men Style

Hello friends, happy Friday "I know were all happy it’s the weekend baby". Now we all know what happens around here on Friday's right! Yup you guessed it Runway decorate. Well last week runway decorate was pretty different because I did the decorate part and it was so fun and because it was so fun I thought how about I do another one this week. Now I can assure you friends this is not how every week is going to be but I wanted to share this cool runway decorate e-design I did with you. Trust me it wouldn’t be fitting if I’ve done this and not share with my peeps so check out this cool runway man model and see if I achieved runway decorate success.

We have this fine male model not walking the runway but showing the way of how to rock a cool to the bone outfit yes check out this cool plaid gray blazer and the sharp contrast of the orange shirt is showing this blazer at its best but if the orange shirt wasn’t enough he’s rocking a white shirt under his cool orange shirt and rockin a nice black tie. Now if this isn’t style at its best I’m not sure what is.

Now check out this cool room stealing this male model vibe. Don’t you just love the plaid gray wallpaper with little orange stripes going through it? Well friends I must admit the orange stripes weren’t part of this wallpaper design but yours truly thought a orange stripe embellishment would be just what the doctor ordered but besides that check out the beautiful sofa , orange leather chair mimicking the orange shirt, and the curtains what can I say designed by me. How about the cool statues aren’t they divine? Well friends this is runway decorate at its best I hope you could agree.

I think a bachelor would love to live in this room heck a girl wouldn’t mind either.

Product mood board

Thanks friends for checking out this weeks Friday's Runway Decorate its been fun I hope you enjoyed my version of the male room runway decorate. Do you want to runway decorate your room? Runway Decorate E-design is coming soon to a mailbox near you hint,hint.

So what do you think?
Please let me know in your comment below!

Happy Friday
XOXO
Shinay Key

Unifying Patterns

This past week I was pandering over what kind of design I think is the most challenging and that’s when working with different patterns popped in my head. Who of us struggles with how to make the patterns we love work together in a room? Well I raise my hand because even as a season designer it’s challenging to bring patterns together. That’s why in this post I decided to take a closer look at pattern. I round up some pretty cool rooms using pattern as it design backdrop and I even done one myself check out these cool room decorated in patterns done right.

I love this room because the designer chooses the right since of patterns and it doesn’t look like it’s too much. Mixing patterns of various sizes helps set the style of this beautiful bedroom. The wallpaper pattern is a dark contrast to the light window covering pattern and the stripe rug is a bold but complimenting pattern to ground the room. I absolutely love this room.

Pattern walls, sofa and window covering

Check out the bold patterns in this room!

Look how well all the patterns work in this room.

Pretty retro right! Here are a few patterns I put together for you. If you were to design a room with these patterns it would be pops and subtleness’ of pattern mix together. I put the solid in to com the eye just a little

I Love this one as well! This is not too bad on the eyes.

Wow this is wild! Normally what you would do is take the pattern you are most attracted to and then choose two more that work with it. Three patterns provide plenty of variety sometimes more than three can be overwhelming but I chose four because as long as the two large patterns don't compete with attention there won’t be a problem and sometimes using them in different parts of the room helps also

This is what I cooked up for you in 3d design. Now I would definitely do this is someone’s house because it’s not to disturbing to the eye at least not to me others may think differently. I mostly used color to unify the patterns. This is another way to make pattern work in your room. What do you think is this too much pattern or just right? Here is what I used below

Here are the different patterns I used. They all seems to work. Large and small scale working together.

Here is what to remember when using pattern in your design.

Tie them together.Take your one pattern inspiration and then choose two more that work with it.

Use color to unify the patterns. Pattern with a light background will open up the room; ones with dark background makes it more intimate so all you have to do is figure out what feeling and mood you like. 

Vary them.Choose a variety of styles and use pattern that are different in scale.

Friends I hope this was helpful and inspiring thanks for stopping by and checking out my little old blog I hope I'm giving you something to think about in the design world or should I say my world. Please let me know in your comment below what you think of this post and most of all if you are inspired by my blog. 

Thanks again 

Shinay Key

XOXO