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Energize Your Life: Reupholster, Re-Stuff, Replace

Part three of a month-long blog series that looks at energizing your life through your home.

Welcome back to energizing your life! We hope you enjoyed your Earth Day and were inspired to support the beautiful AND the green out there. Let’s talk about how taking a look at your furniture can reinvigorate a room.

While it is common for us to clean out our closets and toss clothing that is worn, out-of-style, or no longer flattering, reconsidering furniture use is less customary. Why is this a problem? Because just as the items that you wear reflect your personality and style, so too should the furnishings of your home. Like clothing, furnishings should be reevaluated and updated so that they represent who we are and, above all, make us feel good. For some of us this can be as simple as mixing up throw pillows, bringing out your favorite china for a casual dinner party, or just filling your home with fresh flowers. For others, this may mean a real overhaul – rearranging entire rooms or a deep cleanse of the pieces that have stayed too long and are no longer contributing anything positive.

There are three things you should look at when deciding whether or not to keep a piece of furniture:

1) Condition: Is it worn? Stained? Missing Pieces? This kind of shabby is NOT chic! It doesn’t help you stay positive if you are cursing every time you sit in a chair with collapsed cushions or have to fuss with busted drawers.
2) Function: Is this piece still relevant to your lifestyle? Is it the best use of space in your home? In general, do you have a room that gets little or no use? For instance – think of how you could re-purpose your formal living room to invite activities.
3) Style: Is it outdated and no longer fits in with your primary décor? Maybe you’ve already had it refinished and tried it in every room of the house. If you’re keeping the piece for sentimental reasons, store it or let it go. There is no reason to have an eye sore out of guilt. Let someone else enjoy it! As with any still functional furniture (or clothes) there are plenty of people who would love to take it off your hands and recycle – After all, we did just celebrate Earth Day!

Looking to replace a worn-out chair? We love the Barber Chair! Available in store and online.

Art, Wine and Design

Please join us next Thursday, April 28 from 4-7pm for great wine, fabulous art and 15% off the entire store!

Earth Day Inspirations

We’re taking a break this week from our “Energize Your Life” series to talk a little about Earth Day.

I’ve always been inspired by nature in my design work. Its unique beauty is something you can’t replicate. Which is why I’m always excited to find gorgeous pieces that have little or no impact on nature in the process. This Friday, April 22 is Earth Day (and this is also Earth Week!), so I thought I’d share a few earth-friendly items I currently adore.

For the wine cellar I designed at this year’s OC Philharmonic House of Design, I featured two eco-friendly pieces that were the talk of opening night. The wine crate art piece features the salvaged wooden labels from old wine crates. It’s completely custom, so we can highlight wines that you love from crates you have collected. It serves as memory of great wines that you’ve enjoyed with friends and family. It’s a great conversation piece!

The striped buffet is a sustainable, organic and contemporary piece. It is made of reclaimed teak. The stripes are formed from scrap wood, which is why each is different hue and adds a “rainbow” effect.

The striped buffet and wine crate art displayed in the wine cellar of the OC Philharmonic House of Design.

We’re also loving these earth-friendly frames from Dedo, which are made from the unusable scraps of woodworkers. For Father’s Day Studio Chameleon will be doing a special event with Dedo. Be on the lookout for more details!

Bamboo frame from Dedo.

We hope you’re inspired to find ways to be both green and beautiful this Earth Day!

Energize Your Life: Plants and Natural Items

Part two of a month-long blog series that looks at energizing your life through your home.

How’s it going revitalizing your home? Everything clean, organized and re-placed? Next step: add some natural energy!

Living plants in our homes emit oxygen and help to clean and detoxify the air. Did you know that indoor plants can reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses by more than 30%? Some great ones to use are Snake Plants, English Ivy and Spider Plants.

Minerals, stone and wood elements can also bring different kinds of energy to your home. Some help with procrastination, giving a power boost, or bringing peace. Plus, they’re beautiful to look at! Here are few we keep in the store and their uses.

Carved Onyx Leaf Material: Onyx helps to ground and center. Good for: Family rooms

Quartz Lotus Candle Holders Material: Quartz crystal is energizing and emits power. Good for: Home offices and gyms

Spalted Maple, Red Cedar, Cherry and Walnut Turquoise Box Materials: Turquoise dispels negative energy and can be worn to protect against outside influences or pollutants in the atmosphere. Maple is a traveler’s wood. Those who are always on the move and changing will feel right at home with this type of energy. Red cedar brings luck in any pursuit that requires the acquisition of new knowledge. Cherry helps to conquer conflict. Walnut is good for focusing upon the task at hand. Good for: Home offices and “man caves”

Selenite Tealight Holders Material: Energy from a selenite crystal can provide calm and peace. Good for: “Mom caves” and bathrooms

Energize Your Life: Clean, Calculate and Create

Part one of a month-long blog series that looks at energizing your life through your home.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I see the home as central to life and living. The state of your home has a direct impact on how you feel and consequently how you behave. When I’m looking for an energy boost, a trip to Starbucks for a cup of caffeine will not cut it in the long run. I need to refresh and revitalize my home as part of refreshing and revitalizing my life.

Clean
The first step in this process? I like to start with clean slate. I remove literally every item from my shelves. Once I’ve cleared everything, I clean—every nook, every cranny. This is not only good for bookshelves, but also helpful with kitchen cabinets that often go neglected.

Calculate
With everything down and clean I get a completely fresh perspective on the space. This helps me to best utilize what I have. I can also see if there is anything I might need to purchase or repurpose from another room in the house. I also try to evaluate what has been working in the room and what is not.

Start re-placing with your favorite items. At some point you are left with what doesn’t work. That is the donation pile! Or find new life for it in another room where it might work better.

Create
Now that I’ve cleaned and calculated how to use the space, I start to create and compose. I try to bring a balance to the room through color and décor. Here are some examples from the vignettes we created in the store.

Using art as a backdrop in shelving is a nice way to start a composition.

Notice the accessories are all different heights and textures—fossil, stone, metal and mercury class.

Using risers helps layer accessories. Don’t be afraid to have a little fun either!

If you feel you need to call in some help, for a couple hours and not much money a designer will be able to look at your barren shelves and surfaces and help you make something appealing and friendly for your lifestyle. Contact us at info@studiochameleon.com or 949-650-7979 if you’d like a free consultation!

Reminder: March Artist Reception plus Sip, Shop and Save

This month’s artist reception on March 31 from 4-7 pm will feature the work of Stacy D’Aguiar. Join us for beautiful art, great wine and 15% off the entire store!

Keeping Clutter At Bay

When I design rooms, I want them to be livable spaces. I try to think about how the space will be used. What items will get tossed on this surface? Who will be sitting here? Will they have food? Wine? A sippy cup? Knowing these behaviors allows me to figure out what kind of storage should be present, what types of surfaces would be good and where to place decorative items.

While rooms that are lived in will rarely stay in their “original” designed state, no one wants to be in a room that feels overwhelmingly messy. After all, friends drop by unexpectedly and sometimes in-laws like to check in. No one likes saying, “Sorry for the mess.” So, here are a few tips to keep clutter at bay.

Designing this kid’s room we made sure there was a place for all of her school and personal items.

1) A place for everything, everything in its place. It’s a saying for a reason. This means EVERYTHING. Where do keys or your purse go when you come home? What happens when you get the mail? Do shoes get removed before entering the house? This is what I mean about thinking through how you live. Make sure your home is arranged to make organization and neatness as easy as possible. For instance, when you get the mail you may not have time to deal with all of the pressing items immediately, but have a drawer where it goes or a filing system. Whatever works for you.

2) Stick to a schedule, have a routine (as much as possible). I love this sample cleaning schedule from Re-Nest. I’d encourage you to adapt to your own needs, print it out and stick it somewhere you’ll see it regularly (like the fridge).

3) Apply a little pressure. Having people over to your home on a regular basis can also be a great motivator to keep things in order. I’m not talking about doing a deep clean every time there’s a visitor, just making your place presentable. Also, having regular cleaning service stop by once or twice a month will motivate you to put things away so they can clean the nooks and crannies more easily.

4) No excuses. This has become my mantra with exercising lately, but it holds true for lots of areas of life. Don’t put things off because, in the end, even 15 minutes of tidying is much easier to deal with than an all-day mountain-of-stuff-clearing marathon. You likely do not have a free day, but very likely have a free 15 minutes. And if you’re having issues with procrastination, the aragonite stars we sell in the store are great to get you motivated!

Aragonite stars help with procrastination and are available in our store.

5) It’s okay to look like people live in your home. Some people feel pressure that their home must be “perfect.” This is not necessary and ultimately doesn’t create the warm, homey environment guests love to be in. For instance, if you have your family take their shoes off before they enter the house, great! But instead of a messy pile in the home, think about a cute basket in the garage where they can throw them. Or even better, try to create a mud room in the garage that keeps the dirt in an “outside” space, along with hooks for backpacks that keep them from becoming a mountain of stuff on the kitchen counter or dining room table.

These are just a few ways I keep my home mess free. Is there anything you do to keep clutter at bay?

Westcliff Court Open House Thursday!

March Artist Reception plus Sip, Shop and Save

This month’s artist reception will feature the work of Stacy D’Aguiar. Join us for beautiful art, great wine and 15% off the entire store!