Photograph © Sharon Risedorph
Living room - large contemporary formal and open concept light wood floor living room idea in San Francisco with white walls, a standard fireplace, a metal fireplace and no tv

This project won in the 2013 Builders Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh Housing Excellence Award for Best Urban Renewal Renovation Project. The glass bowl was made in the glass studio owned by the owner which is adjacent to the residence. The mirror is a repurposed window. The door is repurposed from a boarding house. George Mendel

Photography Mariko Reed
Home design - 1950s galley light wood floor home design idea in San Francisco with an undermount sink, open cabinets, light wood cabinets, stainless steel appliances and an island

Example of a minimalist bathroom design in Atlanta

Our designer has achieved a stylish look by combining dark cabinets and light-colored marbles.

Kitchen - country l-shaped medium tone wood floor kitchen idea in New Orleans with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, white backsplash, subway tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Though DIY living room makeovers and bedroom redecorating can be an exciting undertaking, these projects often wind up uncompleted and with less than satisfactory results. This was the case with our client, a young professional in his early 30’s who purchased his first apartment and tried to decorate it himself. Short on interior décor ideas and unhappy with the results, he decided to hire an interior designer, turning to Décor Aid to transform his one-bedroom into a classy, adult space. Our client already had invested in several key pieces of furniture, so our Junior Designer worked closely with him to incorporate the existing furnishings into the new design and give them new life. Though the living room boasted high ceilings, the space was narrow, so they ditched the client’s sectional in place of a sleek leather sofa with a smaller footprint. They replaced the dark gray living room paint and drab brown bedroom paint with a white wall paint color to make the apartment feel larger. Our designer introduced chrome accents, in the form of a Deco bar cart, a modern chandelier, and a campaign-style nightstand, to create a sleek, contemporary design. Leather furniture was used in both the bedroom and living room to add a masculine feel to the home refresh.

Looking for a nice clean crown molding, but what something different? These homeowners did just that with a simple clean flat molding applied to the wall and ceiling to create this look.

If you look at the original photo of this living room, you can easily tell what a challenge I was facing in needing to make this an appealing space for the next few years. Prior to renovation, I needed to make this room and home satisfactory to the owner's contemporary and Modernist style sensibilities. They had a close eye on budget and didn't want to pay to have the ceiling re-painted since it was in fairly good shape. Given that the rest of walls were all darkly paneled (and the owner's wanted architectural white to show off artwork), I needed to find a way to integrate the beige-ish ceiling color with that crisp white and their furniture colors The floors were also very old, damaged, dark oak and while they'd be eventually replaced with bamboo during renovation, I needed to figure out how integrate them into the overal color scheme of the room and home. My final choices were to let some of the brown/grey show thru the fireplace re-paint, put in a light beige carpet to coordinate the fireplace, beige ceiling and the slight beige in the sofa. Since I had a bit left in the budget to work with window treatments and the owner's didn't want to block the view to the gorgeous outside views, I got lucky and found an exotic fabric store with the lovely, (slightly beige) sheer fabric. We had the many yards of that fabric hemmed and then simply doubled it over simple tension rods placed in between the ceiling beams. The overall effect was to raise the window height visually, soften the "feel" of the room while still keeping to the owners need for a minimalist, light and contemporary space.

This is an organic Lime Wash done with a true lime wash product as opposed to a brick mortar or concrete that is often seen on new houses. This product can be applied as a solid coating making the surface completely white, or can be applied and "washed off" in many artistic ways, as seen here. If you hate your brick or just want something unique this is a great option! Photo credit: Jeff Murrey

Urban Lens
Large arts and crafts master gray tile and ceramic tile ceramic tile alcove shower photo with an undermount sink, raised-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, granite countertops, a hot tub and blue walls

Dropped soffits were removed and original ceiling heights were restored with new crown moldings, paneled walls and custom built-ins, to bring Old World glamour back to this Upper East Side apartment. The traditional painted wood mantel ties in with the new paneled walls. The custom steel and gold-leafed fireplace screen is by La Forge Française. Photograph: Eric Piasecki

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We used: Custom cherry cabinetry in Arts & Crafts Shaker style by Kabinart in Boulder and Espresso stains. Liberty Hardware Venetian bronze 1-1/2" cabinet knobs. KitchenAid Architect II Series 22 CF counter-depth French door refrigerator. KitchenAid Architect Series II 27" convection single wall oven. KitchenAid 36" 6-burner dual fuel freestanding commercial-style range. KitchenAid Architect II Series 24" dishwasher. Sharp Insight Pro Series 24" built-in microwave drawer (Model #KB6524PS). Crystorama Solaris 12" wide pendant lights in English bronze. Granite countertops in Brown Fantasy. 3"x6" polished marble backsplash. Paint colors: Walls: Glidden Silver Cloud 30YY 63/024 Ceilings/Trims/Doors: Glidden Swan White GLC23 Robert B. Narod Photography

Pool - large modern backyard tile and rectangular lap pool idea in Miami

New Installation of Red Oak Wood, 3 1/4 in width. White-washed Bona Stain was used, Bona Finish, as well as Bona Traffic HD. Dustless sanding.
Living room - contemporary living room idea in Detroit

Custom Surface Solutions (www.css-tile.com) - Owner Craig Thompson (512) 430-1215. This project shows new 12 x 24 tile installed vertically with offset layout pattern on wall and floor. Includes shower box with linear glass accent tile back and vertical glass accent band. Tile edges are finished with Schluter Jolly satin aluminum profile edge trim.

Patio - small traditional backyard stamped concrete patio idea in Denver with no cover