Beach House Decor Is Blooming

The month of May, beach house decor is blooming.  We're taking in the abundance of natures bright colored flowers,  working in in our gardens, and the water comes calling to come play again.  In design May, is a month of fine design and decorating decision.  It's the month to updates beach house decor, and transition your home to brighter colors and decor.     

It's the time to uplift your beach house decor with fresh new design.  This can be as simple as bringing in your home's landscaping color pallet into your living room and entertaining areas.  At Noir Blanc Interiors we design your home to be functional and beautiful at the same time.  Some simple design tips are adding color with fresh flower arrangements, add yellow with lemons in your dinning or kitchen area.  Purchasing new white towels, in all your guests rooms and bathrooms, We love to monogram the hand towels in bright pinks, yellows, greens, and nautical blues adding a classic beach house statement.  With house guests of all age's wearing sun tan lotions and chemicals, our white towel suggestion is a dirty little secret, bleach belongs at the beach.  And like nature, May is the time to shed of the old and bring in the new fresh area rugs.  Choose a rug brand that has durability and wash ability.  


May is the time to think through the color's and the ambiance you want your home to reflect this summer.  Reinvent your bedroom, with a few accented tangerine tango pillows.  Change out the bed duvets, to lighter colors and light weight linens for the warmer months ahead.  Add pops of color to all your rooms, color blocking is big in home decor for 2012!

As the families  grow...add more seating to your beach home decor it's an investment in growing!  Adding new chairs and extra seating that are colored, is a great way to add pop to any room!  We're on high decorating alert for kitchens, porches, and living area's with generational coastal home growth.  Maine Cottage  is colorful furniture that lifts the spirit and holds its value over time we select for our coastal living clients. What's knot to love about the selection of colors and styles that work so well in our beach house decor.  Entertaining by the beach, is always weather permitting, so design for indoor camaraderie.

Maine Cottage and Russell and Mackenna are now one. 
5 – Camille Chair in Leaflette / Ale and Wheatgrass
6 – Cecilia Tall End Table in Creamsicle.

The Treasured Year Of 2011 At Beach House Decor

Focusing on beach house decor, has always been a natural passion and focus of my life.  When another year ends, we find our selves reflecting on where we are in life and where are future goals will lead. I must say, 2011 was an exceptional year for Beach House Decor. January started off with being a Guest Judge for a Digital Doll House, contest where the winner design a Campion Platt Beach House. It was great fun and I was personally amazed at the talent of young people who have the passion to design at a young age. 


My thirst for knowledge was fueled by leading Interior Designer Chat every Tuesday on twitter. It's been my own personal way of "giving back" to the design community and bringing global conversations with a strong professional community of Interior Designers, Architects, and professionals in the home decor industry.  In April I spoke at High Point Furniture Market in the Spring, on Social Media and The Design Industry. And we had a live #IntDesignerChat where I had the pleasure of meeting many twitter friends in real life. Another honor and thrill from this experience was being featured in New Englang Finery Magazine.  Also in April, my blogging here at Beach House Decor, had me invited to dine at the Designer Blogger Dinner Sponsored by Masco - KBIS 2011. It was a thrill and an honor to be dinning and meet some of the top designers in the Kitchen and bath industry.   

In Las Vegas, as the founder of Interior Designer Chat we had a live  #IntDesignerChat sponsored by KraftMaid and Merillat with Guest Host Mark Johnson.  

Then it was back to living and working the island life in Newport, Rhode Island.       

June was travel to Chicago for Neo Con, where I also put on a three day event, IDC Education and Design Worth Spreading.  During this education design event, Barbara Segal competed in a kitchen design contest using sketch-up.   What an incredible learning experience it was to learn from blogging tips from top blogger Ronique Gibson and  to be inspired by Author James Swan.  Having the privilege of working with the best in the design industry for these three days.

The months of July and August was spent enjoying summer and coastal living design work in Newport. I  shared a post with Brabantia, the joys of guests visiting the beach house.  For the record in 2011, Newport Polo had a sensational winning year.  

In September, I was chosen as a top design blogger to attend Brizo Fashion Week. My Brizo experience goes down as the best design experience of 2011.  The opportunity to work in New York with the industries top interior designers, design stars, and bloggers was amazing!  Of course you've read that post! And having my design team come in 2nd amongst the top designers in the country was rewarding and inspiring to the entire Noir Blanc Interiors team. I'm thrilled to be sharing the opportunity to order the exciting Jason Wu Collection at Brizo  with my beach house decor clients and readers here. 

I treasure my following here at beach house decor!  When my design schedule got busy this year,  I kept my readers informed at Noir Blanc Design tumblr, Facebook, twitter, and pinterest. Please take the time to follow and catch up with me there as well. Cheers to a fabulous 2011.  

I leave you with inspiration for a sand-tastic 2012! 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

Letting Creativity Flow

This September, I left the beach house decor and design business to spend three days in New York City during Fashion Week.  As a creative person, the Brizo company understands, that designers are fueled and need creative inspiration. The Brizo design team gathers much of their inspiration through travels and architecture throughout the year, to gain ideas. Rooted in the fashion and design communities, Brizo who is the primary sponsor of fashion designer superstar Jason Wu brought together designers and bloggers from around the country and demonstrated a brand’s commitment to quality and a USA made product.   Brizo is the first national sponsor of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Dream Home® Giveaway.  

This luxury brand of faucets, is environmentally responsible, eco-friendly and believes in working with the best in design, to ensure their products are aesthetically pleasing.  Brizo opens all avenues for creativity to flow. Since I have specialized in coastal interior design for so many years, Brizo LIFETIME FAUCET AND FINISH LIMITED WARRANTY was a huge selling factor for Noir Blanc Interiors, to learn. Beach house decor often has salt and humidity factors to consider when choosing faucets in bathroom, kitchen and bar design.  Sharing this quality USA Made product with design clients and beach house friends now flows naturally. 

Promoting the relationship that Brizo has built with fashion designer, Jason Wu and giving back by  inspiring designers from around the country.  Brizo merged our worlds together. By exposing us to their product line and fashion week.  Sponsoring a group of top designers and bloggers from around the country. The Jason Wu’s Spring Summer 2012 fashion show during New York Fashion Week!  The Blogger 19 Design Challenge sent us off to find inspiration and creativity in New York City neighborhoods.  Chosen to be on Team Venuto with top designers: Tyler Wisler of New York City, Kerrie Kelly of Sacramento, CA and Patti Johnson of Cincinnati, OH was a challenging, collaborative, and fun design experience. Our Team Venuto, three blonde's and a guy, designed a glamorous bathroom entirely inspired from our TriBeCa neighborhood tour.  The Judges: Brendan Cannon, Celebrity Stylist, Susan Fisher, VP Marketing of Brizo, and Michelle Adams, Editor in Chief of Lonny Magazine awarded my Brizo design Team Venuto, 2nd place during a private cocktail party with Jason Wu.  

Brizo believes that all forms of high-style can be achieved in the home, and  they understand that fashion contributes to an interior aesthetic. Brizo is proof positive that form and function are one and beautifully the same.  

Come swim with my new design and blogger social affections and the BRIZO team.    

http://www.thedecorista.com   - Ashlina Kaposta
http://dcoopsd.wordpress.com - Brandon Smith
http://cocokelley.blogspot.com - Cassandra Lavalle
http://maison21.blogspot.com - Christian May
http://goodwithstyle.com - Emily Anderson
http://creategirl.blogspot.com - Julieann Convino
http://livethefinelife.blogspot.com - Kathy Sandler
http://katierosenfelddesign.com - Katie Rosenfeld
http://kerrielkelly.blogspot.com - Kerri Kelly
http://www.meredithheron.com - Meredith Heron
http://encoredecorblog.com - Mindy Miles Greenburg
http://pattijohnsoninteriors.com- Patti Johnson
http://www.astylistslife.com - Raina Kattelson
http://kitchenlab-chicago.com - Rebecca Zaveloff
http://nydesignguy.blogspot.com - Tyler Wisler
http://www.buckinghamid.com - Julia Buckingham Edelmann
http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com - Emily Henderson

Susan Fisher - Vice President Marketing, Delta Faucet
Brian Nobbe - Marketing Director
Laura Brooks - Senior Brand Manager
Jai Massela - Senior Channel Marketing Manager
Judd Lord - Director of Industrial Design
Seth Fritz - Lead Industrial Designer
Celine Kwok - Industrial Designer
Brian Jones - Senior Product Marketing Manager
Mandy Ellington - Product Marketing Manger
Kristen Baum - Product Marketing Manager


Disclaimer: Brizo payed for my travel expenses for this trip and sponsored The Blogger 19 Design Challenge. 

Life's A Beach! As I'll Be A Guest At New York Fashion Week

I am so excited to be a guest of Brizo for an exclusive product and fashion experience in New York City September 7 -9. I can't wait to leave the beach of beautiful Newport, Rhode Island to meet, other top interior designers, architects, bloggers, and editors who will also be a guest of Brizo! We will be the guest of Brizo at the Jason Wu Fashion Show. So Dear Clients, thank goodness your all so fashion savvy, because this interior designer is leaving the beach house decor for the most exciting week in fashion, Fashion Week in New York City. Jason Wu designs for Michelle Obama and Brizo offers fashion forward designs for the kitchen, bath and shower. So, there's no denying that this is big, really BIG for Barbara Segal of Noir Blanc Interiors.

Photo Credit: Style.com

Disclaimer: Brizo is paying/paid for my airfare and travel expenses for this trip.

You Can't Go Wrong With The Color Of Love

February is simply a beautiful month for me. It comes all wrapped in a big blue box and tied with a big red bow. It is one of my favorite months for activities and fun. It's the month that often creates a dramatic and exciting set of opportunities for the year ahead. It's a time for taking the first steps, large or small, that your heart yearns to do or accomplish. From creating small rooms in red, to adding decorative accessories of red to your beach house decor, to spreading love to a number of people in your life every day. It's also a time to put yourself first. I love the vibrations of February. I've spent the month decorating a small room in red, to riding high in red Gondola's, mixed with fashions at New York Fashion week. This is the month, to turn up the heat with red.

BG3 by thè cs featuring cherry bags

Miami Bathroom Design

Transforming beach house decor for a tropical Miami home in January is a tropical transformation of the senses. Miami bathroom design is inspired by soaking in the sun on the beach, beautiful tropical gardens, and ocean breezes. We were asked to transform a bathroom that would create a stunning first impression for our female clients guests when they visited her home for the first time. So we searched for a vanity that had a vibrant "cool" color like blue which helps you relax and chills you out. Image our delight when we discover the unusual bath vanities from Ypsilon, the Italian company that creates bath vanities with modern design and glamour. The vibrant color of Ypsilon doll collection was perfect for our beach house decor clients style. The use of blue and glass accent pieces and the blue color became the focal accent to the bathroom space. A splash of color and the perfect luxury for any guest in her Miami beach home.

That's One Thing You Really Need For Sure

It's Funny the one thing my homes have always had is a fully designed table setting. Perhaps it's all my years of working in the luxury gift industry and being around the fine luxury's of interior design. Or perhaps it's the fact that I inherited antique's from generations of women in my family. When the holidays arrive, it's time to bring out your tabletop and fine china and deck the table top!

And yes it comes from the love of entertaining and the art of living well. The holidays are a particularly good time of year to set and design your table with a holiday theme. Pull out your best crystal, place mats, napkins, candelabras, and china to show them off. Set a theme and keep it set. Dresses up your home with this simple, marvelous addition to your table or tables.

You will find looking at your beautifully decorated table will actually inspire you to entertain. I've been doing it for years! An invitation from friends to attend the nutcracker will easily turn into your reciprocating invitation of "How would you like to come for a light pre-ballet dinner?" As a cook, one gets a real joy out of friends saying "this is delicious."

During the Holidays a simple caviar and champagne table is elegant and a late night ambiance for special fun evening out.

Keep your beach house decor holiday festive and your tables set. With the holidays here a girl ought to have a sense of humor, that's one thing you really need for sure!

Winter Beach House Decor

Beach house decor for the winter months can easily be transformed to a rich, romantic, snuggle up and feel warm ambiance. Changing the interiors of a beach home during the month of November and December is a simple chic way to add character to your ocean or waterfront home. From LaJolla, California; to Vancouver, Canada; down to Fort Walton, Florida and up to Newport, Rhode Island; a beach morning and night has a chill factor a home owner must add into their beach lifestyle. Living at the beach in the winter months, does not mean your ocean home needs to take on a cold, damp chill. A few simple interior changes to your beach house decor, can set the mood of a cozy beach home with a loving warm ambiance.

How To Add Winter Ambiance To Beach House Decor

• Add velvet pillows to your bedroom & living areas mixed with touches of houndstooth, wools, cashmere, rich warm colored pillows to your sofa and chairs (put away the summer pillows until spring).
• Add cashmere blankets and throws of the same color palettes of your beach home, now is the time you can go richer and deeper in your colors.
• Add some texture like a Mongolian lamb fur throw.
• Noir Blanc Interiors always recommends investing in duvets, as there are four seasons to my interior design clients homes. Nothing is more luxurious, then having a fresh new look of your bedroom with the simple change of your bedding.
  
• If you have a fireplace in your beach home consider converting it to gas. It adds a glow to your home and is energy efficient.
• Consider adding a gel-fueled fireplaces or electric fireplace to your beach home.
• Adding candles to your beach home in the colder months, mixed with natural outdoor elements.
  

Go ahead beach friends, light the fire, snuggle up, and turn up the charm it's the holidays!

A Fine Coastal Wine

Coastal living in the North East has a cool grape growing region with many wineries. In early fall, clusters of ripe grapes, dark and plump, hang from the vines. Soon they will be harvested to make wine. This fall Saturday afternoon, the celebration of the coming harvests has guests arriving and gathering for dinner in the vineyard. The coastal vineyard owner's estate looks out on to the water and the vineyard. As the guests stroll through the house and take in the dazzling decor. The question is always asked, "May they see the estate owners private wine cellar?" Yes, when one has a vineyard guests who are invited into the home, often go tracing through the house, like it is their own, looking for the wine cellar. So a well-designed cellar is not simply an indulgence—it's a necessity. "A wine cellar is an extension of its owner. With the increased importance of entertaining at home, a wine cellar can be as essential as a gourmet kitchen. And a well-designed cellar is important, since it safeguards what is often a substantial investment. With the topic being grapes, vintages, and the upcoming harvest while the guests stroll through the home, all eye's are dazzled in anticipation of the statement the wine cellar make. Although wine cellars ranked low in a survey of real estate amenities conducted by Century 21, I can assure you, they do have a strong appeal for the very affluent.

As the guests gather in the vineyard for dinner, opinions and irreverent humor spice freewheeling talk of real estate, art, politics, and sports as we drink wine and dine. Laughter of friendships linger way past the hours of the scarlet sunset and compliments are shared on my well designed dinning table. Yes, working in interior design, along the Coastal Wine Trails and vineyards, is another part of my passion of beach house decor. And perhaps I should mention, I am pretty good with a corkscrew!

Fall Nesting With The Memories of Paris

Every September I take a trip to Paris for the experience of Paris in the Fall. I stroll the streets, I eat my favorite Laduree Macarons and I attend Mason & Object Paris. The temperatures are cool and the air is crisp. Over the years, I have down sized my spending. Well okay, when the dollar became weaker then the euro and I returned home to the USA with a Chanel Camel Cashmere Cape, only to find the same one at the Chanel in Chicago. So yes, I have learned to change my French spending spree ways. Now in the new economy, I go to take in the Paris Fall merchandising, the fashion, the people, to eat the food, sit at Bistros, and to travel home with my new found influences of nesting the french way.

I love Mason & Object Paris because it is a 360° vision of furniture, decoration, and every single aspect of the world of interior design. So how do I transform this adventure, this trip to the city of lights, and bring it home to the beach? While antique shopping at the Paris Flea market, I may select one fine French antique treasure that I bring home for a clients or my own beach house decor. Several years ago I selected a French door, which everyday my client opens like a fine gift from Paris. My own french beach house treasure, is a lovely sink with the flowers from Paris. Every evening and every morning, one awakes to the pleasures of water in the french flowered sink. You see I love fall nesting, with the memory and influences of Paris! Yes in Automne I begin to feel a bit Marie-Antoinettish.


Photo Credit: Paris Breakfast


This Beach House Decor Post was Inspired by The 3rd Fall Nesting Party

Ahoy Mates

Beach House owners can often feels like a Captain of a ship, with so many guests and activity of friends, relatives, and guests of guests beach house guest. Back when pirates sailed the seas, they had a rather sneaky practice of keeping many of their crew below decks. Thus, when a merchant ship loaded with treasure caught sight of a pirate ship, only a few crew members would be visible. The pirate vessel could then capture the luckless ship by employing their below-decks crew. Honest captains kept their crew "above board." As a Interior Designer sneaking in as many guest rooms as possible into your beach house decor is important. Last weekend this beach house had 10 guests, this week it has had 7 last night, 5 tonight and this weekend it could be up to 10 again. Creatively the home looks like a neat beach house with only a few. Because there are beds stowed away in every nick and corner of the architectural design of this Beach house. A well planned out design when renovating or building a beach house, is single guests beds in as many places as possible when designing your beach house decor. The decor doesn't have to be anything but simple, airy, nautical, beachy, and practical with perhaps some hidden storage space. Living by the beach is a summer pleasure, one everyone wants to enjoy. So when decorating think single beds. Trust me, mates your going to need them. Because birds of a feather flock together.

Photo Credit: Coastal Living, Southern Living, Douglas Friedman