Our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks helps to bring beauty and style to many different types of places. From large homes to condos to single-room offices, no matter what the size, there's always plenty of room to create a fantastic interior design. Some may think it is difficult to bring luxury to a small space, but the following tips from John Elliott Interiors will help to achieve that magnificently.


Decorate Up Rather Than Out
When you have less floor space to furnish, look to the walls. One wonderful trick for making a small space seem larger and much more luxurious is to hang drapes that reach all the way to the floor. This makes the ceiling seem higher which adds to the illusion that the room is bigger than it truly is.

Large scale wall art provides a beautiful statement piece for the room and draws the eye upward. Also, placing mirrors around the room will amplify the light and make the space seem to extend beyond its actual borders. A couple of perfect places for a wall mirror is behind furniture and across the room from a window.

Intrigue the Eye
When there is less space to decorate, do your best to use pieces that encourage the eyes to take a specific path around the room and focus on decorative elements. The addition of moldings bring dimension to walls and give them an upscale look. One bold side chair with a unique pattern or texture makes a very grand statement. A large, handsome rug underfoot can make a room feel bigger too. Don't be afraid to mix patterns for an intriguing look with pillows and throws also.

Less Can Be More
While you do want one or two main focal pieces, keep the styling fairly simple for a small space. Too many decorations can overwhelm the room and make it seem cluttered. Display only your favorite decor items and put additional pieces away. When there is less to look at in a room, the items you do have on display will take center stage and get the attention they deserve. Whenever you're in the mood for a fresh look, switch out your current decorative items with a few that were stored away.


Use Double-Duty Pieces
Look for furniture that not only looks amazing but offers more than one function. For example, a bed frame with storage drawers means you won't need to make space for extra chests of drawers in the bedroom. There are ottomans that can be used for coffee tables, a footrest, and even additional seating. You'll need fewer furniture pieces but still have a stylish place for everything. 

Add Sculptured Items
You can add depth to a room by putting in a few sculptured pieces. Unique shapes will really stand out and even flatter the straight-lined elements of the rest of the space. A sofa with a curved back, a coffee table made from a tree, or sculptures are all excellent ways to implement this idea. 


Those are just a few simple tips that will easily make a smaller space seem larger to the eye. For more ideas and inspiration, let our Lake of the Ozarks interior designers have a look at the room (or rooms) you would like to makeover. We have a lot of experience making all kinds of different spaces look their absolute best. Between your personal style, our interior design knowledge, and the luxurious home furnishing found at John Elliott Interiors, we will come up with rooms you are excited to call your own!

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.

Valentine's Day is coming up very soon and this has inspired our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store to think of ways to bring romance into an interior design. A romantic style doesn't mean that you have to fill a room with frilly, feminine things. You can add romantic elements in a few different ways that are pleasing to the eye, as well as the other senses, to anyone. John Elliott Interiors has a few tips for you below to help make that happen.


Color
The colors most often associated with a romantic design are soft, dreamy pastels. These include soft pinks, peaches, creams, and ivories. Using one main color and then varying shades of it can achieve a wonderful look. Of course, if you prefer a more dramatic type of romantic feeling for your overall design, you may want to use darker colors like fiery reds and other deep, royal jewel tones.


Textures
Big, fluffy pillows, blankets, and throws add an excellent element to the romance. You can use sheer, flowy fabrics for curtains, and in the bedroom, a canopy over the bed is a nice touch. Any type of material that has a luxuriousness to it when touched is perfect for bringing romance to a room. 


Lines
Lots of graceful curves to the furniture are perfect for this style. Many might feel as if this makes the room a bit too feminine. That can be balanced out with striped fabrics and the addition of dark wood elements around the room. These are able to make the design more appealing to men without taking away from a slightly feminine style. 


Accents
Once you have the main look for the room set, the home accents are what bring it personality and character. For a romantic look and feel, some sparkle and shine here and there will fit perfectly. Possibly bring in golden accents or a glittery finish someplace. Fresh flowers are wonderful, but if you don't want to keep replacing them, floral artwork works nicely too. Lots of candles are a must. The candle color adds beauty, the flame brings warmth, and a magnificent scent finishes the effect fantastically.


Romantic elements can be added to any room in the house, and if you like, you can even strive for a slightly different type of romantic look in each space you use it in. Our talented interior designers at the Lake of the Ozarks can help you find the perfect balance to bring the desired look and feel to every room in your home.

Make a visit to our large showroom in Lake Ozark soon to experience a few examples of the beautiful things we can do for you. Our Lake of the Ozarks home interiors store not only has the furniture to furnish your home, but also the incredible home accents to complete the entire look. Talk to us about what you have in mind and we will come up with an interior design you will love to live in.

Well, it looks like we missed the end of January by one day to post this blog, but that's okay. Even though our Lake of the Ozarks luxury furniture store is tying this into the series in honor of the many faces of January (Get a Balanced Life Month, Get Organized Month, and this week's topic, Creativity Month) the concept works perfectly well on a daily basis, not just one month out of the year. The furniture and home decor that you find at John Elliott Interiors needs to be functional and comfortable, but you inject your personality into the design when at least a few pieces in your home show off your creative side.


Specialty home interiors not only bring beauty and a fun aspect into your home, but they are also excellent focal pieces and conversation starters. They can be unique items that nobody would expect to see that shows off a bit of your personality. The creativity may come from the hand of a craftsman that meticulously made the item by hand with close attention to details.

The idea is to step out of the ordinary and find a piece that gives the room a little extra something special that also brings a smile to your face. Here are a few examples of unique pieces that have made it into the showroom at our Lake of the Ozark home interiors store. 

Nature's Beauty
It's not unusual to make furniture out of wood, but you don't normally see that wood used in its original form. A very creative furniture maker was able to see the natural beauty in these pieces of wood. Instead of being cut up to use, it was transformed as-is into functional pieces of furniture that are truly one-of-a-kind.


Buckle Up!
The bright orange color of this interesting chair and ottoman draw your attention first, then you notice the compelling pattern. What type of fabric could possibly make this pattern? Believe it or not, seatbelts! The amazing creator of this fantastic set took something you would not normally use to create furniture with and turned it into home decor that is not only creative but extremely comfortable too. 


A Home for Your Bar
Little kids play with dollhouses, but when you get into more "grown-up" things, you don't have to stop enjoying the items from your childhood. They just need to grow along with you. For instance, rather than storing dolls inside this exquisite house, it's made to keep your bar items tucked away. A wonderful "barhouse" for adult playtime!


From Jacket to Seating
Here is another amazing piece of furniture made from a material that started out as something else entirely. The fantastic textures, colors, and style of a Bomber Jacket have been turned into comfortable and inviting seating for your home.
 

From "Trash" to Treasure
Here is a great example of the eclectic artwork you will find inside our Lake of the Ozarks furniture showroom. We carry just about every style imaginable to fit a wide variety of tastes. This particular piece took some very creative thinking to look at a pile of empty paint cans and say, "Hey, I can make art out of that!" It's colorful, the mirror makes it useful, and it's most definitely a statement piece for the home of the person that was lucky enough to snatch this beauty up!


That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the creatively unique and beautiful items you will find inside the showroom at John Elliott Interiors. New pieces are added often, and many items get grabbed up quickly when they arrive. Every single time you visit, you are bound to see something new that will catch your eye and make you want to take it home!

If you remember from the last two weeks of blogs, John Elliott Interiors has dedicated the month of January to focus on bringing balance, organization, creativity, and joy to your home. We have already covered bringing balance to your interior design and today our Lake of the Ozarks luxury home interiors store has a few organization tips to share. 


There's a very old saying that goes "A place for everything and everything in its place," which simply means that to stay well organized you should keep things in their correct positions. Not only does keeping your home organized make it look more beautiful, but you also get a good feeling walking into a room that is organized and tidy. Here are a few simple ways that you can get started. After a while organization will become a habit that you don't even have to think about. 


Designate a "Drop Spot"
A big culprit of an unorganized house is the stuff that gets "dumped" daily when you walk in the door. Sure, you're probably anxious to get home and relax at the end of a long day, but if you take a few seconds to put your things where they belong instead of dropping them on the coffee table or a chair, they'll be a lot easier to find later when you need them.

Designate a special place to keep paperwork, mail, keys, and other items that you carry into your home. This could also include jackets, kids' backpacks and homework, and anything else that will likely be going right back out the door the next day. A family calendar fits nicely here too. Once you have all of these things gathered together where they belong, they won't spill out into other areas of the home where you go to relax and socialize with the rest of the household. 


Buy Furniture with Storage
Most homes need more storage space than is built into the house's design. Look for furniture to fill your rooms that can be used to store your things. Even though the idea of these pieces is functionality, all of the choices from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks are also gorgeous in addition to being useful!

Look for pieces that offer a variety of both open and enclosed storage areas, like an armoire with open or glass shelves on top and drawers on the bottom. This way you will have a place to display decorative items, collectibles, books, and more plus you will have space to hide things away that you don't necessarily want to show off but are needed in that room. 


Use Decorative Containers
You can also store items inside beautiful containers, like baskets or specialty boxes, and those decorative containers will help to bring beauty to a room's overall look displayed neatly on open shelves or placed strategically in a corner of the room. This is an excellent solution when you don't have space for more furniture but still need additional storage solutions. These are also useful for collecting out-of-place items. Once you have the time or the container is full, then you can carry it from room to room putting everything back where it belongs. 


Make Your Bed
Believe it or not, the simple task of making your bed every day is one of the easiest and most helpful organization tips. It will do wonders for motivating you to first, keep the rest of your bedroom tidied up, and eventually, that will inspire you to carry over that tidiness to the rest of the home. The good feeling you get at the end of the day when you walk into a beautiful bedroom to rest for the evening will be a feeling you want to have when you enter every room in your home.


The tips we've shared today are fairly simple to implement. When you get into the habit of keeping everything in the place you have designated for it, your time at home will be much more relaxing and enjoyable. As an added bonus, once everything is organized and in its place, you can see more easily which areas need a fresh look or new pieces from our luxury furniture store at the Lake of the Ozarks!

John Elliott Interiors' January blogs are focused around the fact that this month is "Get a Balanced Life Month," "Get Organized Month," and "Creativity Month." Last week we discussed the basics of Feng Shui for your home, and today we are looking at another way that you can bring balance to your interior design. After all, balance in your home will help bring balance to your life.


Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical
Most beautiful things have a symmetry about them, and this can also be true for interior design. A room that is perfectly balanced with similar items on both sides can give an organized and stable feeling to the space. Many people love this look and feel very comfortable within it. Some may find that too much symmetry is a bit too static for their tastes.

Asymmetry, on the other hand, by definition means that something is not identical on both sides, yet in interior design, it can still give a balanced look to a room. The variations add depth and visual interest to the eye. Below are a few ways that you can change things up and still end up with an overall balanced design.

Vary Heights
Pieces of furniture of varying heights placed strategically next to each other is a wonderful way to add interest for the eye. For example, a reading chair and footstool placed next to a tall bookshelf across the room from a bed with a headboard that brings the eye up toward the ceiling. You still want all of the pieces to fit together in a way that is cohesive but having everything all at one eye level can be very boring visually.

The same goes for your home decor items. Varying heights of decorative pieces grouped together looks beautiful and most often looks best in odd numbers. 


Spread Elements Throughout
Do not place tons of furniture and artwork on one side of the room and leave the other side practically bare. Balance heavy or bold pieces by placing them throughout the space rather than clumped too closely together.

The same can be said about the color in a room too. It is recommended that you use 2-3 main colors for your room's palette and then spread those shades throughout the space in an eye-pleasing way. 

Play with Contrasts
Another way to bring balance to a room is by mixing opposites. Smooth finishes with textured pieces or dark colors with lighter shades. Many times in interior design things that aren't alike at all somehow come together to create an appealing look. 


The easiest way to figure out which pieces work best together is to ask for help from an expert. The Lake of the Ozarks interior designers at our store are always happy to lend a hand and offer advice on the most wonderful ways to bring beauty to your home. John Elliott Interiors is full of the furniture and artwork you need to create a luxurious living space and we know how to put those pieces together elegantly. Keeping with our January blog theme, next week we'll take a look at some helpful organization tips for your home, followed by a look at some unique and creative pieces that you may be surprised are perfect for your personal style.

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.