Wallpaper is all the Rage! It’s popular, chic and trendy for interiors, from modern to traditional.

Who knew? For a long time, wallpaper was on the outs. The far outs. We were all tired of stripes, flowers and damask; and of course, we were tired just thinking about stripping it off. So what did we do? We turned to faux, washes and plain ol’ paint. All still great options BTW, but Wallpaper has staged a comeback!

What happened?

Great new wallpapers happened!

Wallpaper manufacturers got smart and started to hire interior designers to design them. Fun ideas and great looks began popping up everywhere and we are falling in love with wallpaper all over again!

Popular so far are:

Large Prints

Mod 60's styling

Textured Surfaces: One of may favorite! Great pattern and hand flocked!

and shiny bright monochromes

A fresh look in today’s wallpapers is the indulgence in organic shapes and flow.

There are fewer structured geometrics

Large Geometric with fresh purple and grey

and more abstracts, that move with nature!

 

Love this silver metallic!

 Painted lacquer walls are a great design trend these days, but they are expensive and time consuming to do. They are worth it if you love the look, but now you can get a similar look with wallpaper!

Metalessence: Platinum on Cork - Amazing Texture!

Many of the new wallpapers are used to make bold statements and jazz up a room. Maybe it is a strong textured paper on a family room wall

 
               or a bold print in a hallway giving it an instant lift,

 or a rich red one on a wall of a guest room.

Or maybe it is something really off the wall but totally great like an animal print.

Wallpaper is also easier to install and easier to remove than ever before. And thanks to the ‘green revolution’, wallpaper is a lot less toxic, which is never a bad thing.

So grab a book and start flipping. Wallpaper is back!

Note: Still on the outs are wallpaper borders. Please don’t try these at home!

Bookmark This Article

Hide Sites

People ask us all the time, ” How do you Do that?” “How do you know what to do in a room?”

So, just for fun, I put together a recent Beasley & Henley design and gave some ideas of what we did to make this room so great!  In fact, this is one of our recent award winners….

Bookmark This Article

Hide Sites

Beasley & Henley Interior Design wins again – 6 Aurora Awards

Multi-award winning design firm Beasley & Henley Interior Design added 6 new awards to its collection on Saturday night.  The international design firm won big in this year’s Aurora Awards, a 12-state regional competition of design, architecture and building excellence. (www.theauroras.com). The Auroras are in their 29^th year.

 Design Principal Troy Beasley says, “The competition in Aurora is always tough.  We won this year because our designs were created by thinking ‘outside the box’.” 

 The Beasley & Henley team won:

2 AURORA AWARDS – Best Interior Design and Best Interior Detailing – for their Model at Ovation in St Petersburg (by JMC Communities, www.jmcdev.com).  The Interior Design is modern and lively in bright whites fabrics and modern furnishings; the Interior Detailing is unique with creative ceiling designs, zebra and wenge wood, eucalyptus floors and many other features (more details below).

 1 GRAND AURORA AWARD for Interior Design. The Interior Design of Ovation was so spectacular, that it went on to win the GRAND AURORA AWARD for Interior Design.

 1 AURORA AWARD for Best Interior Detailing for a Private Residence in Naples, FL. This home won for its details, which include curved and domed ceilings, onyx flooring, a wave panel resin material in the Grand Salon and other unexpected materials created by Beasley & Henley (more details below).

 1 AURORA AWARD for Best Recreational Facility for Luxautica Exotic Car Club in Orlando, FL (www.luxautica.com)

Designer Troy Beasley and his team created this two-story Club to display millions of dollars of exotic cars on the bottom floor and an exclusive club on the top floor. Cars are set under ‘Match Box’ car type settings and the exclusive club provides world-class modern furnishings, artwork and detailing (more details below).

 1 Special AURORA AWARD for Unique Design. Beasley & Henley was presented with a very rare “Special Aurora’ for Luxautica.  The design was superb and project unique, not fitting into standard Aurora categories.  This was a very unusual and very rare honor.

  !!!!!!!!!   WAY TO GO BHID TEAM    !!!!!!!!

—PROJECT DETAILS—

Ovation in St Petersburg (by JMC Communities (www.jmcdev.com).   The Interior Design is modern and lively, and the Interior Detailing unique. The color palette is bright white with splashes of vivid, fresh yellow and chocolate brown.  Soft white curtains mark transition points and a floating white lacquer Eco-Smart fireplace is positioned between the living and dining rooms. Beasley and his team (led by Daniel Killgore) designed the Ovation interior detailing with creative ceiling designs and curved soffits plus unusual specifications like zebra and wenge wood, eucalyptus, white stone, metallics, pebbles, Venetians Plaster and a bathtub-face and wall covered in striking yellow glass that gets people whispering – “I want that!”  It is marriage of an edgy, modern interior with a soft comfortable feel.

 This Private Residence for which Beasley & Henley won an Aurora has fantastic classic modern pieces like womb and egg chairs, which are highlighted by the award winning interior detailing. Details include soft curved ceilings, specially created areas to display the client’s modern art collection, domed ceilings, onyx flooring, and Labrador antique granite. An unexpected pattern of horizontal staggered line tile and a wave panel resin material is used on the walls of the Grand Salon and through the Study glass doors, is seen the custom cream grid patterned ceiling, with industrial cable lighting and a chocolate grip carpet.  Using soft, flowing lines, a warm pallet and the subtle use of unexpected materials Beasley & Henley has created an award interior.

Luxautica Exotic Car Club must be seen to be fully appreciated!  Each car is sectioned off by flooring stripes and above it, a soffit is lowered to give the impression of a MatchBox car box enclosing the car. The clubrooms on the second floor provide an indulgence of world-class environment for its glove-trotting members including a round lounge that can be draped off for private dinners and parties; a cigar-card room; a main clubroom with classic modern furnishings, plus a 12-screen plasma television; a zebra wood private bar with world-class wine and cigar collections; a balcony area with EcoSmart Fireplace, outdoor lounge furniture and huge balcony covered; a plexi-glass bridge under two orange sofas that juts out over the cars below. All the artwork is imaginative re-works of car photography. Many of the furniture pieces were designed by Beasley. The result is a very popular club with remarkable interiors.

Bookmark This Article

Hide Sites

I am little delayed in blogging, what with summer diversions and all.  But I am back, talking appropriately enough about LIGHT.  It is one of Beasley & Henley’s Five Foundations of Design and in a nutshell, this is how designers make it work…

 Generally we look at 3 kinds of lighting: 1. Natural light a/k/a, good, old-fashioned sunshine. 2. Ambient light, which is general room lighting. 3. Specialty lighting, which illuminates specific objects or areas. 

This room has 3 light sources: natural (window), ambiant (overhead) and specialty (sconces)

 In any one room, there should be at least one of each of these light sources. A few of each would be even better. 

 First, start with the natural sunshine: make sure your windows are unobstructed by heavy draperies, big pieces of furniture or other large items that would intrude into your sunlit world. 

Simple window treatments allow plenty of natural light in the room and add to the mood

 Second, look at the ambient lighting. Use a good general overhead fixture that provides ample room light. If an overhead isn’t possible, use enough lamps with floodlighting to generally illuminate the room. Hallways should be well lit with a sequence of lighting overhead or with scones.

The large fixture provides overhead lighting. This room has natural and specialty lighting as well

 Third, is specialty lighting. Some of the most creative designs involve this kind of lighting, which is used to illuminate specific items or special areas. For example, a lamp on a desk provides task lighting specifically for that area. A pin light from the ceiling can spot a piece of artwork. Wall washers can highlight a gallery. Under-cabinet halogen lights in the kitchen or on a large bookshelf will counteract cabinet shadows and also provide task lighting at the same time.  Cove lighting in a ceiling design will provide soft mood lighting.

 

The artwork in the hallway is spot lit by ssimply overhead lighting Each place seeting at the breakfast bar is specifically illuminated

For maximum mood and effect make sure all your lights are on dimmers and remember to use low voltage dimmers for low voltage lights or you will get a burn out you weren’t expecting.

 A few more notes about things people always ask us…

- Chandeliers: they hang between 36”to 48”off the table in the dining or breakfast rooms

- Recessed Cans: If you are using recessed cans, use halogen not incandescent bulbs- you get more light and they last longer.

- Also with 4”-5” cans available, there is not reason to poke 6” holes in your ceiling anymore.

- Green:  We think ‘green lighting’ is a great idea, but it is still a work in progress.  The bulbs cast a horrible light, so we are waiting for the next generation.

- Florescent bulbs?  Let’s not even go there – they are loaded with mercury, have special disposal issues and they look bad. Sorry ‘green’ people!

Bookmark This Article

Hide Sites