Eclectic Dining: Our Favorite Ways to Mix Dining Chairs

Everywhere you look these days, it seems dining chairs are being mixed and matched to create an eclectic look in the dining room. Whether your style is traditional, modern, bohemian or rustic, this trend works across all aesthetics.  Here is our favorite tip (and a few favorite articles) to help you easily achieve this curated look in your dining room.  

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Friday Favs: Five Links We Loved This Week

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Happy Friday! 

Here's a quick round-up of a few of our favorite links this week. 

1. Fab Lighting

Emily Henderson always delivers great ideas and inspiration.  This week she shared her favorite lighting resources - in a wide range of budgets, so you can be sure to find something you love too: https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/favorite-37-online-lighting-resources

2. Decor Trend: Beautiful Perforated Accents

My Domaine featured this fab collection of home decor with perforated accents, packed with lots of images to get your ideas flowing:  http://www.mydomaine.com/perforated-accents/

3. Cozy Up Your Kitchen

From Apartment Therapy, tips and tricks to make even the starkest kitchen feel warm + cozy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/home-sweet-home-simple-ways-to-make-your-kitchen-cozier-232257

4. New Ways to Use Wallpaper

Modern prints + wallpaper as an unexpected accent, Architectural Digest has several fun new ways to incorporate wallpaper in your home : http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/the-wallpaper-trends-you-need-to-try-next

5. Happy Hour!

We love that the Olympics are reminding us of so many of Brazil's best exports - particularly, the Caipirinha!  One Kings Lane shared 3 variations of our favorite cocktail - Cheers!  https://www.onekingslane.com/live-love-home/caipirinha-cocktail-recipe/

NYCxDesign: Our Favorite Finds from BKLYN Designs

It's NYCxDesign Week here in NYC - a city-wide celebration of all things design. There are hundreds of events that give us the opportunity to see aspirational interior designs as well as the chance to do some serious Furn(iture) Scouting for our clients. To start, we kicked things off at Brooklyn Designs, a design fair focused on spotlighting Brooklyn-made home furnishings.

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Are Pastels the New Neutral?

First it was beige, then it was gray. What’s next? Rich, chalky, pastels.

Popping up more and more in minimal Scandinavian design, pastels have long been known for their ability to create a soft, relaxing look and feel in the home. However, with so many new pastel options in the market this spring, it can be hard to decide how to incorporate this trend in your home.  Here are our 5 favorite ways to decorate with pastels. 

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3 Simple Ways To Be Earth-friendly When Re-designing Your Space

The Jax table by Jory Brigham Design. Image Source: Jory Brigham Design

The Jax table by Jory Brigham Design. Image Source: Jory Brigham Design

As you may have heard, today is Earth Day.  One of the best ways to celebrate is to look for ways that we can all be more earth conscious in our everyday lives - not just today. A great opportunity to do this is when refreshing the look of your home.  Whether you’re sprucing up your space for spring or gutting your place and starting from scratch, here are 3 truly simple ways to be environmentally-friendly in your re-design. 

Choose sustainable furniture brands

Finding new, sustainably-sourced, environmentally friendly furnishings is easier than ever.  Many large retail brands (including Crate + Barrel) now carry FSC–certified lines in addition to their traditional furniture lines.  Plus, there are a plethora of local and online retailers that offer exclusively sustainable furnishing options.  Try Brooklyn-based Urban Green Furniture, CA craftsman Jory Brigham, made-in-USA Lee Industries or family-run Copeland Furniture... or visit http://www.sustainablefurnishings.org for a lengthy list of sustainable furniture brands. 

The Mid Century Modern Couch via Urban Green Furniture. Image Source: Urban Green Furniture

The Mid Century Modern Couch via Urban Green Furniture. Image Source: Urban Green Furniture

The Catalina Dining Collection via Copeland Furniture. Image Source: Copeland Furniture 

The Catalina Dining Collection via Copeland Furniture. Image Source: Copeland Furniture 

Purchase previously-loved furniture

Whether your budget calls for high-end furnishings or wallet-friendly finds, there are tons of opportunities to buy fabulous second hand furniture on-line. Not sure where to start?  Try this list:

Viyet: Here you’ll find pre-owned, high-end designer furnishings for 50-80% off retail, all available for immediate delivery. 

AptDeco: Based in NYC and promising a positive buying and selling experience for its users, AptDeco.com now delivers pre-owned furniture to Boston, D.C., and Philly as well. 

Etsy: A solid go-to for vintage and refurbished furniture, Etsy has many shops devoted re-selling used furniture and, in many cases, it comes revamped with beautiful modern fabrics and paint treatments that bring these vintage pieces back to life.

eBay + Craigs list: These two standbys still have a wide variety of furnishings available at all price points.  For example, we found this fabulous, gently used midcentury couch and chair set from Kelly Hopper by Century on Craigslist.  (Hurry and get it! For Earth Day!)

HD BUTTERCUP COWHIDE CHAIRS via Viyet.  Image Source: Viyet

HD BUTTERCUP COWHIDE CHAIRS via Viyet.  Image Source: Viyet

LAZZONI L SECTIONAL SOFA BED IN GREY via AptDeco.com. Image Source: AptDeco

LAZZONI L SECTIONAL SOFA BED IN GREY via AptDeco.com. Image Source: AptDeco

Refurbish what you’ve got

Sometimes a coat of paint, new feet or some decorative touches like new knobs or overlays will make a world of difference to your old pieces. Reupholstering chairs and couches or sometimes just  adding new decorative pillows can really transform a piece as well. 

Let us know how you choose to add some eco to your home’s update!  In the meantime, we will be busy shopping….

Cheers!

E + M

Bring on the Green!

With spring's slow appearance, CJ is opting to bring on the green - inside!  Despite a tendency to kill every indoor plant she's encountered in the past, CJ has decided to try again.  She's researched a list of easiest to manage (read: hardest to kill) plants for herself and anyone interested in brightening their home with beautiful, air-filtering botanicals. 

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Why we love a chic, simple dining room

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration when you're looking to design your home. At Spruce + Furn, we pin a lot of aspirational rooms to help clients discover what styles they like. One pin that we've seen "re-pinned" from our board over and over again is a very simple, Scandinavian-inspired dining room featured on Apartment Therapy.  At first we were surprised, but here is why we think this chic, simple dining room is inspiring the masses. 

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Coming Soon In Your Home: Nordic Influence, Pastels + Mixed Metals

Wednesday night we attended Hot or NOT: Trends That Will Rule 2015, part of the Apartment Therapy Maker Talks .  Sitting on the (pretty impressive!) panel that was forecasting next years home trends was Genevieve Gorder of HGTV, Andrew Corrie of Canvas Home and Christiane Lemieux of DwellStudio

One of our key learnings (other than that Chevron is OUT!) was that the concept of “Authenticity” will grow even stronger in the coming year. (No more faux finishes people!)  Also, we will continue to see more and more of the simple, Nordic-inspired silhouettes we’ve seen popping up all over the place (or as Genevieve put it, “What’s Coming? The Eff-ing Vikings!”). Plus light and creamy pastel colors will overtake neutrals and while metallics will continue to rein, we’ll start to see them "mixing”.  You don’t have to feel like you’re limited to using one metal in a room, you can mix and match the warms with the cools - like using copper, silver and gold at the same time to add some interest. 

You know, keep it authentic. 

E + M

How to Define A Room

One of the most sought-after apartment layouts is the open loft.  With no walls to block light or take up precious square inches, there is a lot to love about living in a loft.  However, one of the frequent struggles with living in an open floor plan can be defining where areas begin and end. Here are easy 4 tips to help you define your space! 

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