Annie Elliott Design
Greater Washington DC
I’m not usually a fan of the “accent wall” – a distasteful, ’80s term to begin with. I think that people who fear color sometimes think an accent wall is a good alternative to painting an entire room. It usually isn’t. Done thoughtfully and with restraint, however, articulating a single wall with a different color …
I absolutely love rugman.com, and if you’re a client of mine, you can skip this entry because you’ve undoubtedly heard this all before. It’s a leap of faith to buy a rug online, to be sure, but Rugman’s prices make it worth the risk. And naturally, the more you do it, the more skilled you …
Black and white rooms go in and out of fashion, and they’re coming back in now (thank you, Kelly Wearstler). But they’re hard to pull off in real life – in rooms you actually want to spend time in – because the effect can be so sterile.Pair black with rich creams and taupes and a …
Flush- and semi-flush mount ceiling light fixtures – not chandeliers or pendants – generally fall into one of two categories: nondescript or hideous. Thank goodness for the well-priced Dakota ceiling fixture by Minka Lavery. It’s neutral enough to be labeled “transitional” (did a more non-committal design category ever exist?), but it’s elegant without being distracting. …
Ikea. Does the very word make you cringe? I understand. I’ve been there. When I moved off-campus in college, my friends and I thought Ikea was the greatest. Inexpensive. Sleek. Disposable. Sure, the putting-it-together thing was kind of a hassle, but a few friends, an Allen wrench, and a six-pack made it kind of fun. …
Well, guess what. I’m here to say that it might – might – be time to revisit Ikea. Especially if you have kids, a mudroom, a home office, or a weekend house. Or all of the above. A few months ago, a colleague of mine (a fantastic professional organizer, Nicole Anzia of Neatnik) dragged me …
I used to be emphatically nay. Who wants to look at himself in someone else’s living room? And when you sit down, who wants to look at the ceiling? But Billy Baldwin made the good argument that if you have a beautiful fireplace and a beautiful piece of art, you create visual competition by placing …