If you're not careful, it's easy to use a coffee table as a catch-all for everything that comes into a room. That's a shame for a couple of reasons. Firstly, all of that clutter hides the gorgeous coffee table that you found at our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store!

Also, all of that stuff is displeasing to the eye and ruins the overall look and feel of your interior design. You'll find lots of beautiful home decor items at John Elliott Interiors that will look much better on top of your coffee table. When you take the time to stage a small "scene" there with decorative accessories, this can help to discourage people from leaving random items laying on top of it.


Accessories for a coffee table can be purely decorative, possibly showing off a part of a collection or providing an interesting conversation piece. You can also find lovely accessories that serve some type of function in the room as well. Here are a few ideas of items you may want to incorporate.

Trays or Bowls
A wonderful way to contain a portion of your coffee table display is to use trays or bowls to hold the accessories. They can help to give your room a less cluttered look because items are collected within it. This also allows items to quickly and easily be removed from the table if you need more open space, and the tray can come in handy if you are serving refreshments to guests.

Candles

Filling an entire house with furniture can be a costly feat if you're doing it all at once. If you're not working with an unlimited budget, you may want to save on some items now and upgrade each of them over time.

There are a few furnishings that are definitely worth splurging on right away. John Elliott Interiors is the perfect place to come for those because you know all of the pieces in our luxury home furnishings store at the Lake of the Ozarks are of the best quality and will last a long time, which means money well-spent. Here are some of the items that we think are always worth splurging on.


Beds
It is suggested that you get 7-9 hours of sleep each night. When you don't, you won't function productively during the day. The bedroom is also your private escape from the rest of the household, so you want to create a space that you can truly relax in. A gorgeous bed with a comfortable mattress will do wonders for improving your day-to-day life. Consider splurging on some nice sheets too while you're at it.


Sofas
This is a piece of furniture that gets a lot of use in every home. For this reason, you want to make sure it is both comfortable and durable. (When you shop at John Elliott Interiors, you know it's going to be stylish as well!) When you purchase a good quality sofa that will stand up to lots of daily use, you won't have to replace this big piece of furniture often. It's a lot easier to replace the smaller items around it if you want to create a fresh look, so go ahead and spend a little extra on your sofa.


Rugs
A great rug can elevate the look of a room to a whole new level. This is definitely an item where you get what you pay for. Inexpensive rugs won't last long in high traffic areas, so you will want to spend a little extra to make sure it isn't worn out before its time. Look for materials that are durable but still have a natural feel. Wool rugs are excellent for this.


Art
A beautiful piece of art makes a room look better, but the sight of it can make you feel better too. Art is a personal experience, so look for a piece that speaks to you in some way. Treat yourself to at least one quality piece of art, although once you have that, there's a good chance you'll want to collect more. Our home decor store at the Lake of the Ozarks features hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces of wall art as well as many gorgeous statues and display pieces. An added bonus with art is that there is always a good chance it will increase in value over time.


Statement Pieces
Every time we talk about designing a room, we always suggest having a good focal point that pleasantly draws the eye as you enter the room. This is a great place to splurge to make sure you get something with a real "wow" factor. If you are furnishing a room that has a focal point built in, like an incredible picture window with beautiful scenery outside, buy some luxurious drapery to frame it. For spaces lacking a focal point, pick out a large and attractive piece of wall art or a statement piece of furniture that is a gorgeous conversation starter.


It's wonderful if you can outfit an entire house all at once, but if that's not the case, purchase quality pieces one at a time when you can. Soon, you'll have a house full of amazing home furnishings. The showroom at John Elliott Interiors is full of many wonderful items that can be mixed and matched beautifully. Come in soon to browse our extensive collection. You're bound to find the perfect pieces that you are happy to treat yourself with and splurge on!

Each year the experts at Pantone choose one color to be the "Color of the Year" along with a few other standout shades they are seeing used often and predict will gain popularity. For 2019, Living Coral is the color of choice and today John Elliott Interiors is here to share some information about this lovely color, plus a few ideas on how to incorporate it into your Lake of the Ozarks interior design.


Living Coral
Pantone describes Living Coral as "An animating and life-affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energizes and enlivens with a softer edge." This shade is vibrant while at the same time gives off a mellow vibe. It's a standout color when you see it in nature and offers energizing and warm feelings in a mesmerizing way. At first glance, it might not seem like the most versatile color to use, but there are actually all sorts of possibilities when it comes to this fantastic shade.


Living Coral can be used as a focal point when combined with muted shades like grays, olive, mauve, and tan accents. Amidst the other colors, it is a beautiful attention getter. When combined with bright and bold colors, the palette can enliven a room and bring a wonderful energy to it.

Since this shade was named after the coral that lives under the sea, it is perfect for using in a nautical or beachy interior design. Imagine the different colors you would see "under the sea" such as blues, greens, sandy browns, and even the bright shades you might see on tropical fish that could be found swimming among actual coral.

You can even mix Living Coral with a palette of extremely bright and bold colors to bring about a wildly fun look. Here are a few palette suggestions from Pantone in the photo below, but this is just the beginning of the many possibilities.


Get Creative
When matching colors to create a palette that you enjoy, one thing you can do is visit a paint store. The cards of color samples can be mixed and matched until you find a combination that is pleasing to your eye.

Never be afraid to ask for help, though. Our Lake of the Ozarks interior designers have years of experience and training in finding the perfect color scheme for every room. We are able to go beyond the small swatches of color on paper to actually showing you furniture and home decor items that fit your vision, then come up with beautiful ways for all of those pieces to work together.


John Elliott Interiors is more than just a furniture store. We not only provide you with the luxurious items to decorate your home or office but also go the extra mile to help you find creative and magnificent ways to display all of those pieces. Living Coral is a gorgeous color to incorporate into your interior design, and we've got a rainbow of other possibilities for you to consider too! Together, we will find the perfect combination to fit your life.

January is designated as many different types of "national months." Three of them happen to be "Get a Balanced Life Month," Get Organized Month," and "Creativity Month." Our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks chose these 3 particular January topics to focus on because each of them can be very helpful in creating an interior design you can be happy to live within.


This week we'll tackle "Get a Balanced Life Month" and over the few weeks, we'll feature the other 2 topics mentioned above. The three of them together can go a long way in creating living spaces that you will enjoy spending lots of time in. 

The Art of Feng Shui
One popular technique for balancing your life through the interior design of your home decor is known as Feng Shui. This is an ancient art and science that has been in practice for thousands of years. The definition of feng shui is "the Chinese art or practice of creating harmonious surroundings that enhance the balance of yin and yang, as in arranging furniture or determining the siting of a house."

An even simpler way to describe it is that it's the art of placing items in such a way as to achieve a feeling of harmony and balance. The practice is based on the idea that our homes are a mirror of what's happening inside us. When you align your environment with the person you are and strive to be, energies are in harmony and balance can be achieved. 

Getting Started
A person can get very in-depth with the practice of feng shui, but since the goal is to reach harmony and balance in life, you don't want to take it to a place where you end up stressed out in the attempt to reach that harmony. Get started with a few basics and if feng shui seems like something that fits your lifestyle, then you can move on to more complex ideas. 

Clear the Clutter
Feng shui claims that everything, even inanimate objects, has energy. You should aim to guide that energy so that it flows freely and unobstructed through the home. If you can't easily walk through a room, the energy cannot easily flow through it either. Getting rid of clutter, both the kind that shouldn't be there and the things you just have too much of, frees up a lot of space.  

This includes decorative items that don't really have a place in the room. A person can "over-decorate" with too many items in one room and end up creating a sense of anxiety rather than beauty. Display only the pieces you truly love and either get rid of the rest or simply store them away for later. That way you can switch out other favorite home decor pieces when you feel like updating the space.   

The 5 Elements
Translated, the word "feng" means "wind" and the word "shui" means "water." In Chinese culture, wind and water are associated with good health. Good feng shui should bring you good fortune, while bad feng shui lends to misfortune.

It is said that all things are made up of varying degrees of 5 elements; wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. When these elements all work together, they will create a balanced cycle. Using these basic elements in specific places in each room can bring that balance to your daily life.  


You can take that literally by displaying a fountain to represent water or candles to take care of the fire category. Representations of ideas can work too. For example, it is said that rectangles represent the wood element, triangles for fire, squares for earth, and round or oval pieces for metal. This is definitely one of those areas where you should start small but research in more detail if you are interested.  

Let There Be Light
Letting natural light into a room is essential for good feng shui. It brings with it incredible energy that your body and soul both feed off of. Pull back window coverings during the day to let as much light in as possible. If you don't have a lot of windows in a room, add lamps and other lighting options to replicate it. Consider using full spectrum bulbs in some of the fixtures. Placing mirrors opposite windows is another way to double the light in a room. 

Map Your Energy
One idea claims that specific areas in your home are connected to specific areas in your life. You will find two schools of thought on this, both a classical version (as shown in the picture below) and a western version. Both incorporate the same general areas (love & marriage, creativity, travel, career, knowledge, family & health, wealth, and reputation or fame,) but classical aligns them with compass directions and the other aligns them with the layout of a room in respect to the wall containing the main entrance. Items placed in particular sections can enhance those areas of your life. 

    


Even though feng shui is a fairly simple idea, there are many aspects that can go into a feng shui design that can make it a very involved process. As we stated earlier, give it a try by starting small. If you would like some assistance, the specialists at our Lake of the Ozarks home interiors store are always available to offer expertise and advice. John Elliott Interiors knows that a balanced life is important and if your home furnishings can lend to that peace and harmony, then it's worth the effort to find the furniture and decorative items that are right for you and your home.  

The talented designers at our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store are always happy to help you find an interior design style that you will love. We can start by showing you our favorite things for inspiration, but it's always best if you can come into John Elliott Interiors with some idea of what you personally like best. That way, the final room that we come up with will be one that you can absolutely love. 


Trying to figure out exactly what you want a room to look like can be overwhelming at first. A simple way to get started is to think about the types of things that make you happy. After all, you will be the one living in this space once everything is finished. It should be a place where you enjoy spending time and are excited to invite others to enjoy with you. Discover a few of your favorite things by taking a look at the following.

Your Current Interior Design
This is a great place to start. If you're ready for a new design, you obviously don't want to recreate what is already there, but it can give you clues about the new direction you want to take. Make a list of the things you no longer like about the room, but also make a list of the things that you still love. Look for common threads throughout your home, such as colors or patterns that are repeated often or shapes that stand out. Decide how you feel about each of these things, and that will help to point you in the direction you should go when you choose a new look for the room.   

Items You Collect
People tend to collect their favorite things, and things that you love are perfect items to surround yourself with in your home. This doesn't mean that you should fill every nook and cranny with your collection. Instead, see if there is a color or pattern among your collection that would translate well into your interior design. If there is, then the finished room will be a wonderful place to display pieces of your prized collection. Some of the new furniture that you choose can be pieces that will allow you to showcase those displays. 


Activities You Enjoy
Thinking about how you want to use the room you are redecorating will influence the types of furniture that you need for it. If it is going to be a quiet, relaxing spot where you go to unwind, you will need cozy furniture that you can curl up on. An entertainment center will be an important piece of furniture to focus on if your relaxation involves watching movies or playing video games, but if you prefer a room where you can turn off the electronics and get some reading done, then bookshelves and side tables will be much more important. For rooms that you will be doing a lot of entertaining in, you'll want pieces that flow well together and also are sturdy enough to take a lot of wear and tear and can be cleaned easily if needed.

Items That Catch Your Eye
Getting away from the things that you already have in your life, let's move on to new items that you may love but haven't discovered yet. As soon as you begin thinking about giving any room a brand new look, start paying more attention to other people's interior designs, the pieces you gravitate toward while you're out shopping, and the pages you pause on when you flip through design magazines. Start noticing the commonalities that all of these things share, and you are on your way to a look that you can love.


Following the ideas that we have shared above are an excellent way to get on track to finding a new interior design that you can be excited about spending time in. Bring those ideas with you when you meet with our interior designers at the Lake of the Ozarks, and together we will discover the perfect pieces to bring this new look to life. The John Elliott Interiors showroom is packed full of luxurious furniture and accessories to get your search started, but if you don't see exactly what you're looking for, let us know. There is a very good possibility that we know where to find it!

Since the 4th of July is on everyone's minds this time of year, it seemed like the perfect time for John Elliott Interiors to focus on 3 colors in particular that you might want to include in your interior design - red, white, and blue. These colors work beautifully and patriotically together, and each evokes a certain ambiance on their own. Our interior design experts at the Lake of the Ozarks are here to help you decide the best way to use each, but the tips in today's blog may give you a head start on the one, or more, you prefer to highlight. 


Red
Red is a bold and exciting color that can really make a statement. It is considered to be a color of romance and passion, warmth and comfort, and a color that heightens the senses. When used on the walls, it can make a room feel more intimate. This works best in a space with high ceilings and lots of natural light. Used as a decorative accent color on a rug or pillows, it works well to perk up a neutral color palette. An earthy shade of red can warm a room, and a softer shade can bring a coziness to it. Reds with an orange tint can bring energy to a space.  


White
White tends to bring about feelings of purity, simplicity, and freshness. When used as the main color in a room, it can make a small area feel larger and more spacious. Too much white can tend to make a room feel cold and sterile, but the use of accent colors throughout the space can help to veer the feel of your interior design in a specific direction away from that. That cold feeling can also be tamed by layering different tones of white together as well as different textures. 

A creamier white is wonderful for a more traditional look, while a brighter white can give a room a more modern feel. Placing white furniture and rugs in a room can be scary because they will show dirt more than a darker color will. If that's a problem for your lifestyle but you find a piece of white furniture you simply can't resist, just make sure that it is a material that can be easily spot-cleaned if necessary.   


Blue   
Depending on the shade of blue used, it can evoke feelings of calmness, serenity, security, and order. The color has been known to lower the pulse rate and body temperature of people, lending to its calming effect. This makes it a good color to use in the bedroom if you want that space to be a relaxing and peaceful getaway.  On the flip side, it is also said to be a color that promotes productivity, so it is often used to decorate an office. 


When you choose a favorite color to feature in a room, the talented experts at our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks can help you decide the best shade and way to use that color to get the look and feel you want the room to have. The John Elliott Interiors showroom is filled with many different pieces in a wide variety of styles so that you can find exactly what you love most.

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, the "luck o' the Irish" is on many people's minds. Whether you believe in luck or not, adding a few "good luck" items into your interior design can add interest to the overall look, plus, it couldn't hurt! If some good luck happens to come your way by using a few of these ideas from John Elliott Interiors, that's a bonus. 


Bamboo
Bamboo is thought to be one of the most widely recognized good luck charms for decorating, especially in a Feng Shui aligned home. (Feng Shui is based on creating positive space in a home or office with proper furniture placement.) Lucky Bamboo is supposedly filled with peaceful and wise energy, but you should have all 5 natural elements represented:

• Wood - the bamboo stalks
• Earth - the rocks or pebbles inside the container
• Water - where the bamboo grows
• Fire - a red ribbon tied around the container or stalks
• Metal - glass containers are considered to be of the metal element, but if using something else, a coin can be placed in the bottom of the container 

Horseshoes
Horseshoes have often been a symbol of good luck, and you can invite this luck into your home by placing one above your front door. We have always heard that the open end should be positioned facing up so that the horseshoe can collect good luck and hold it. During our research, we also found one source that claimed a horseshoe with the open end pointed upward brings good fortune to those that live inside, but when the open end is pointed down, the good luck is bestowed upon all that pass under it. 

The luck from a horseshoe is increased if it is gifted to you or if you simply find it, and if you happen to find one with nails still in it, don't remove them. Each one represents additional good luck. If you use one made of iron, that's the luckiest of all. This comes from an old superstition when people believed mischievous fairies caused trouble. Since fairies cannot stand the touch of iron, they would shy away from houses with iron horseshoes above the door, keeping the home's good fortune intact. 

Wall Clocks
Having clocks displayed in your home is a necessity for everyday life, and it can result in positive energy. There are a few Feng Shui tips that you may want to follow to keep that energy on the positive side. Wall clocks should never be hung on the south walls of a house, and if the clock is made of metal, keep it off of east walls too. A clock should not be the first thing that a person sees upon entering your home. Keep large clocks out of sight in the bedrooms too. That's a space meant for relaxation, not the constant reminder of what time it is and what tasks still need to be done before the end of the day.