Dabbieri Blog

Luxury Carpet for a Cozy Winter

Chances are many of your winter mood boards are filled with luxuriously soft materials from wool blankets to cashmere scarves to any plush throw that encourages a cozy night in by the fire. Not only is winter a great time for knit sweaters, but it’s also the perfect time to test out a new carpet and add warmth to your home. Carpeting can provide a soft bed for your feet, a welcome start to the morning and block out those cool drafts that drift up through the floorboards during the cold season.

Warm Wools

Increase your home’s value and insulate your floors with a brand new wool carpet this winter. Wool is one of the warmest and most durable carpeting options as it is a forgiving fiber that is easy to maintain. Since wool fibers are naturally bouncy, they resist the crushing and matting tendancies of other carpets. Wool’s ability to resist water-based stains coupled with it’s flame retardance and incredible color retention make it an in-demand material. Soft to the touch, your new wool carpet will be an authentic and naturally sustainable flooring option that is sure to be a showstopper in any room of your home. 

By International Design Guild Manchester - See more Home Design Photos

Shag Area Rugs

Upgrade your living room or bedroom areas with a cottage-chic shag rug. These have become increasingly popular in home design trends over the past few years and are an affordable way to increase warmth throughout your home. Try buying several of the same-shade rugs in different sizes and scattering them at the base of your furniture or buy one big shag rug to go under your bed for a cozy morning feel.

By International Design Guild Manchester - See more Home Design Photos

High Piles

The ultimate way to make sure your home is winter-proof is to install a high pile luxe-quality carpet. Pick out a soft plush carpet for a wall-to-wall living room installation or choose a high-pile area rug to place under your home-office desk. Berber is a great carpet choice with its casual look and impeccable durability, making it a go-to floor for active areas in the home.

Photo by International Design Guild - More home office ideas

Rich Colors

Lastly, adopt a rich color palette when you install your new carpet choosing from a range of warm hues that complement your room’s existing decor. Now is the time to experiment with deep reds, sultry oranges and creamy yellows so you can infuse a bit of warmth throughout your home design. Rich jewel tones are also a trendy way to make a room feel more cozy and intimate. Splurge on a luxury velvet area rug for under your coffee table or go bolder with an all encompassing shag rug in the bedroom.

2021 Home Office Trends

The year 2020, for many people, changed the way we work. As corporate offices shut down and employees were forced to retire to their indoor spaces, we were challenged to create new at-home workplaces, often without a lot of extra space. Kitchen tables, bedroom nooks and closets were transformed into home offices. Now, as we ring in the new year, home office spaces will continue to trend as we navigate the pandemic and spend more time at home in 2021. Here are a few fashion-forward ideas that will help make your home workplace a more productive and comfy-chic space.

Modern mounted table tops

One way to preserve space is to install a mounted table top that floats freely, leaving plenty of room for drawers and file cabinets to be stored underneath. Mounted table tops are a fashionably modern way to declutter a room, as their their minimal design opens up the space. Their large surfaces also make for the perfect desk to house a desktop, speakers, a keyboard and your laptop when you’re working remotely.

Statement chairs

As always, it’s important to feel comfortable when you’re working from home and one key aspect of your home office should be finding the right chair. Statement chairs are a popular way to show off your personality while also allowing for you to splurge a little extra cash on a cozy seat. Perhaps your space needs a pop of color --try a rich suede jewel toned armchair. Or maybe you’re looking for something that blends in more with your decor --opt for a clean line monotone swivel chair.

Personalizations

By International Design Guild Manchester - See more Home Design Photos

Just as important as feeling comfortable is making your space functional, yet unique to you. Don’t forget to infuse your workspace with your personality! You’re working from home now which makes it all that much easier to decorate your office with fun photos, posters, mood boards and live plants. Maybe even add a motivational message board that you can switch out daily to remind yourself that you’re doing great.

Bold area rugs 

By International Design Guild Manchester - See more Home Design Photos

One of the easiest ways to add warmth during this cold time of year is by throwing down a bold area rug at your work station. Maybe place a plush high pile rug under your desk chair so you can sink your feet into it’s cozy depths as you answer emails or throw a shag rug across the office to take a break from work and stretch on.

Natural lighting  

By International Design Guild Manchester - See more Home Design Photos

As always, lighting plays a big role in productivity and the more natural light you have in your home office, the better. Try positioning your desk to look out a window. These natural outdoor scenes can enhance your mood and inspire your work. If a window isn’t possible, try to create the ambience of natural lighting by sprinkling a few desk lamps and standing lamps throughout your workspace. You can even hang some twinkle lights around a bulletin board to emit a cozy glow. 

How have you incorporated new design trends in your home office space to make it a functional and beautiful workplace for you?

Creating light in your home

As we enter the dark of the year and the hours of sunlight begin to dwindle, it’s more important than ever to maximize the natural light in our homes. The choice to savor each precious moment of daylight and brighten your home can be simply made by switching out your old window treatments or repainting your walls. There are many easy ways to increase your natural light exposure without completely remodeling your home’s layout.

Add mirrors

One quick way to bring in more light is by adding mirrors throughout your rooms and decorating with shiny objects. The added reflection will catch the light and create an illusion of more space. Decorative wall mirrors are trending right now and are extremely versatile as they can be easily integrated into almost any room of the house. Metallic light fixtures and faucets are also a clean way to introduce reflective surfaces in the kitchen and the bathroom.

Choose the right color palette

Cooler colors can help walls recede, allowing for more light to fill up the space. Try your hand at a pale blue or soft gray for the dominant color scheme and then slowly add a pop of color like a pale yellow, a bright orange or a powder blue as accents. Tie in these brighter tones by updating furniture and accessories throughout your home, such as pillows, area rugs and throws.

Install large windows or skylights

A bit more ambitious route to brighten your home is by adding more windows. Try a stack ransom or a radius window design in your darker rooms or consider extending existing windows into floor-to-ceiling glass panels. Advances in window manufacturing allow for more exposed glass and less trim with large picture and bay windows. Perhaps it’s just a matter of replacing your old door to the deck with a sliding glass door –this will let more sunlight trickle in. Skylights are also a great way to bring in natural light and make for eye-catching installations in bathrooms, family rooms and top-floor bedrooms. Skylights come in unique shapes and sizes and provide an excellent light source, not just during the daytime but under the stars and the moon, too.

Lighter window treatments

If you don’t have time for window remodeling, updating your window treatments is the next best thing. Switching out your old heavy drapes for honeycombed blinds and airy sheers can make a world of difference when it comes to natural lighting. Pick out some sheer single-panel draperies in a lighter shade for your living room so you can easily pull them back to enjoy the view. Install blinds in the bedroom which allow you to adjust the amount of light you want to let in with a simple wand.

How have you updated your home décor to inspire more light during the dark of the year?

Trending Color: Dark Blue

Dark blue became a major trending color in 2020 and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down this 2021 New Year. Probably the best part about the dark blue trend is that this classy color can be easily blended into any décor style from traditional to contemporary, making it simple to incorporate into your home design.

Besides being the “in” color, research has shown that shades of blue bring about a sense of calmness and serenity –the perfect antidote to the holiday season. This deep blue hue reminds us of the ocean and brings a bit of the natural seaside indoors to inspire productivity.

Use it as an accent color

Accent colors are the perfect way to infuse this trending blue in your home. Use it as a backsplash for new kitchen tiles or find it in a fun new pattern to use as wallpaper for the bathroom. Maybe it’s time to update your living room chairs –try replacing that old leather loveseat with a plush blue suede one. You can easily sew this traditional dark blue tone throughout your house through updated window treatments or fresh coats of paint to your doors.

Decorate in a monochromatic blue theme

This is the perfect opportunity to go bold with a new room design. If you’re renovating your old bedroom, try a monochromatic blue throughout, choosing a soft low-pile blue rug that might be a few shades lighter than your deep blue paneled bedframe. Pick accessories that complement the theme like soft grays and gray-whites for night stands and lamps. Tie it all together with a comforter set that marries the colors in a perfect cool-toned hue.

Trade out your old accessories for new blue ones

For those who are hesitant to bring a trending color into their home with permanent fixtures like flooring or large furniture pieces, try sprinkling this classic hue throughout your home with fresh area rugs, new kitchen towels or a brand new blue toaster. As we near the New Year, now is the perfect time to update your throws and flat pillows. Why not pick out a few accessories in this dark bold shade to give your home décor a fashionable upgrade?