Chicago Interior Designer, Jordan Guide

School’s out for summer!  There is no better time to begin organizing and implementing fun new decor in your kids bedrooms.  Changing up their space can give them a renewed sense of personal style and inspire a summer full of imagination and creativity.   Whether you spring for a major overhaul, or only need something as simple as a wall decal, take a look into their bedrooms and try to involve them in deciding on fresh new bedroom decor for 2010.  For those of you in need of updated baby nursery ideas, there has never been a better time to find inspiration, products and resources.  For the modern family, there are amazing new furniture and accessory companies that cater to contemporary and modern styles.

Modern Nursery with Wood Slat Wall

Modern Nursery with Sitting Chair & Ottoman

Below is a stylish nursery that has an interesting color palette.  The side wall is painted a deep navy and the ceiling in white with yellow semi-gloss stripes.  Having this contrast allows the eye to travel, all the way down to the cow hide rug that grounds the room.  There is also a large armoire placed on the navy wall to help break up the solid color, as well as a window to offset the darkness the navy brings to the space.  I love the black mobile over the crib and touch of orange and camel fabrics in the furnishings.  It works harmoniously due to these well thought out balances

Stylish Nursery with Bold Colors

A simple solution to dress up a nursery, or any room for that matter are DIY, removable Wall Decals.  Sometimes a room only needs a pop of color and a fun design, such as this over-sized Kids on Swings wall decals by WALLTAT.

WALLTAT Wall Decal - Kids on Swings

Set of three… this room offers a simple furniture layout and color palette for a mini soccer team of boys.  The accessories and patterns within the bedroom create interest and offer a masculine and playful feel.

Boys Room for Three

Space is sometimes an issue for most extra bedrooms, and like all urban settings when you can no longer build out, you must build up.  This pink and white girls bedroom uses tiered layers for the study area with a slide under bed.  Tall cabinetry and wall mount shelving promote organization and  storage solutions.

Space Saving Tiered Layout for Girls Bedroom

Layers of millwork create this custom look below.  Space issues were also solved with building upwards and a central staircase that are used as drawers.  Every inch of this gender neutral bedroom is filled with cabinetry, drawers, shelving and cabinetry.  Now that’s efficient.  Another element worth noting is the continuous block under the ground level bed that serves as nightstands and bed support.  Brilliant.

Custom Millwork for a Gender Neutral Bedroom for Two

More simple solutions for kids bedrooms are full wall murals from Wall Stickers. These add huge amounts of color and are available in a wide range of characters, movie themes, comics and superheros.

Barbie & Thomas The Train Wall Murals by WallStickers.net

How much fun would your children have playing in their very own interactive playroom?  Equipped with study, dining table, sitting area, climbing net, tumbling mats, swing set and educational map of the world.  Sometimes dreams do come true!

Manhattan Residential Playroom by Diana Kellogg

Jordan Guide Luxury Interior Designer

Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago blog contributor, Jordan Guide, ASID, NCIDQ No. 021998 of Jordan Guide Design is a high-end luxury interior designer based in Chicago.

Wall Art Collage

The origin of the Art Collage has spanned the last few centuries and  reemerged in the early 20th century as a novelty art form.  The French term collage was coined by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso from the root word “coller” meaning glue.  The  “collage” was used to describe modern art paintings portraying diverse groupings of images within a canvas, or to describe various groupings of  newspaper and magazine clippings that were glued to a variety of mediums.  We now see collages within blogs, fashion magazines, interior design websites and countless other outlets, all of which still attempt to portray and connect a series of relative ideas to tell a story.  Most recently, the interior design trend of using collage of frame pieces of art has solved many design faux pas’.   Over the years, we all collect family photographs, children’s artwork, framed mirrors, fine art, love letters, sketches, wall sculpture,  etc.   Sure, we can try to find an open wall to randomly place individual keepsakes,  but that tends to look scattered and in turn, compromises the scale of a room, the walls and its vocal points.  You can begin to understand the impact of the collage by drawing from these examples and implementing in your own homes or offices.

Colorful Framed Art Collage

Staircase Framed Art Collage in Subtle Tones

By grouping these random artworks in their unique frames, you can simply take a countless number of art pieces to create one cohesive art installation.  It will not only serve your decor, but will also be the new talking piece of your home.

Dining Room Framed Artwork Collage

Max Azria's Home Displays Framed Collages

If your art frames are less than par, you can choose to reframe them, or unify all of your frames with a new coat of paint in one or a few shades to coordinate with the room.   At this stage, you may also want to consider re-matting the photos in consistent shades or on antique papers or patterns.  You may also chose to reprint all of your photos in black and white, or all in sepia to blend together.  This gives the grouping consistency if you prefer a unified look.

Consistent Black and White Framed Collage

Antique Paper as Photo Mat with Sepia Photos

For an eclectic look, leave your frames and art as is or repaint and re-mat in an array of desired colors.

Foyer Console Artwork Collage

Framed Art Collage Wraps Bathroom Walls

Contemporary Bedroom with Eclectic Framed Art Collage

Now that you are hooked on the idea of framed art collage, your first step will be to choose a suitable display wall and measure the wall area where the art collage will be arranged. Use masking tape to create a collage boundary on the wall and also create another masking tape area of the same size on the floor.  Gather your art pieces and begin playing with layout ideas within your floor tape boundaries.  Decide if you will be modifying the photo frames, mat board or reprinting the photographs. Tweak the artwork arrangement (if necessary) after your modifications.  Photograph the arrangement as an installation reference, review once more and begin your installation!

Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago blog contributor, Jordan Guide, ASID, NCIDQ No. 021998 of Jordan Guide Design is a high-end luxury interior designer based in Chicago.

Low Profile Tread – Floating Staircase

Zig-Zag Staircase

Longchamp flagship store, Soho NY

Marretti Stairs

I can’t seem to go one day without running into beautiful images of staircases these days.  They are just as much works of art as they are functional methods of travel.  Sky is the limit!

Jordan Guide WALLTAT Anniversary

It seems like it was just yesterday that WALLTAT Wall Decals opened it’s doors to the public.  A year and thousands of visitors later, WALLTAT has managed to transform interiors from New York to Dubai.

Read the full press release here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

METAPHYS INDOOR GRASS PLANTERS FROM TOKYO

These modular white grass planters were designed by Japanese product designer Chiaki Murata of Metaphys.  Stack them, hang them or lay them on any surface that needs a lively mod accessory.  Bring the outdoors inside with a variety of shapes and sizes.  -Jordan Guide Design

http://www.metaphys.jp