A Louis XV-inspired chair and a pharmacy lamp placed next to a soaking tub add class and functionality to a bathroom. The couple rounds out this perfect little sanctuary, allowing you to read a few pages while the kids splash around nearby, or to sit and index point-and-slide your way through a tablet while drawing a warm bath.
Bring some fun back into reading by thinking outside the box with your reading chair choice. Here, a homeowner takes the beanbag out of the kids' room and pairs it with a floor lamp. The delightful duo lets you sink into the beanbag for hours on end as you flip through magazine pages from a nearby stack.
Add subtle Moroccan touches. A little Moroccan flair may be all you need to revitalize a room. In Montague's Peacock Pavilions office, she constructed unique shelves out of decorative cinder blocks and wood planks. She stenciled her plain file folders and boxes with geometric designs. And extending the black and white color scheme, she decorated the floor with calligraphy.
The Approach: Piles of Pattern Perhaps no other style lends itself to the marriage of multiple patterns as well as global. This sitting area combines three completely different upholstery prints, anchored by the ikat chair and blended with such moxie that they look right at home together. The intricate detailing on the star-shaped side table adds another dimension to the space. Spin the globe: As lovely as this pattern interplay looks, you can also take the reverse approach: a single type of pattern carried throughout the room in different ways. How striking would this scene look if it were layered in ikat fabrics with nuances in scale and pigment?
The Approach: Outdoor Rooms So many far-flung locales conjure up images of warm, tropical gardens or primitive woodlands. This slim balcony draws from all across the map: a Balinese-influenced chair, a pair of Asian elephants, a cheerful rug that calls to mind a serape, with a tangle of foliage curling in to give the setting a lushly verdant feel. Spin the globe: With a few different furnishings and plantings, this al fresco haven could be reinvented as a Mexican or Central American retreat. Imagine it with a colorfully painted, chunky wooden chair, handmade terra-cotta pots and a scrolled wrought iron railing entwined with bougainvillea.
Shapiro's office, tucked along the perimeter of the loft’s only hall, takes advantage of a great view of Pittsburgh. Part work space, part thoroughfare and part gallery, this multifunctional space is ideal for creative thinking. “I can sit at my desk and look at the rest of my loft," Shapiro says. "The expansive view is in front of me, behind me is my photography collection, and to my right is my patio.” Desk: Airia Desk, Herman Miller
Have a small nook space? Transform it into functional mudroom storage with hooks and baskets for shoes and odds and ends.
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