3 Bar Cart Accessories for your New Year's Eve Party

The countdown for the New Year is quickly approaching! If you are hosting a few friends and family, a bar cart can be the star of the night. A bar cart can be mobile or in a permanent location used as a serving station. With arranging these few accessories you can elevate the appearance of your bar cart just in time for your New Year's Eve guests! 

Ice Bucket. If you have specific liquors you are using to make cocktails place 2-4 bottles on your cart first. This will add height and allow you to built around them. If you have certain liquors that need to remain cold place them in an ice bucket. An ice bucket can be decorative just as it is functional.

Shaker. Show off your bartending or mixology skills by using a shaker for some of your New Year's drinks. Place your shaker near your liquor bottles and next to any additional ingredients you are using like mint leaves, limes, etc. This should be on the top shelf since you will need it on hand to mix.

Add stylish and functional accessories to your bar cart. 

Glasses. You can't have a functional bar cart without glasses. Display and store a group of different glasses based on the drinks you are serving. For example, you can start with wine glasses then also include pairs of tumblers or martini glasses if you are serving cocktails. I always like placing my glasses in rows for a clean and professional display. 

Be sure to share pictures of your bar carts on Twitter or Instagram and use #styleANDfunctionNYE. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at @georgettemarise. 

I hope that 2016 has been a blessing in many ways and wish you nothing but the best in 2017. Thank you for reading my posts, I hope that I was able to ignite an inspiration for your spaces with tips and ideas to your dilemmas. If you would like personal design solutions email me directly at sabine@georgettemarise.com.

Happy New Year and here's to 2017!

Gift Guide: Last Minute Gifts

Christmas is around the corner!!! Sometimes the thought of buying your loved ones, friends, and coworkers gifts can be daunting and frustrating. With just a few days left to shop, here are some last minute gift ideas that your creative loved ones will be sure to enjoy!

Great gift options in time for the holidays! To access the product info CLICK ON this link. 

I hope that you have a great holiday and share this time with those who mean the most to you. Joyeux Noël!

Decorating with Christmas Ornaments

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? Between decorating the Christmas tree or decorating for holiday guests there's not too much time left. The Christmas tree sets the tone and becomes the focal point for your holiday decor. As with most decor, accessories are key to a successful design - even with Christmas decor. If you're like me you love to use pieces that are multifunctional, stylish and kid-friendly of course. Ornaments are great holiday accessories that are versatile, decorative and festive! 

Christmas Tree Accessory. Ornaments serve as accessories for the Christmas tree by adding color and texture. If you prefer a theme, pick ornaments that are similar in color or use sets that form a complimenting color palette. If you have little ones like I do, you may want to avoid glass, metal, or small ornaments. Instead, purchase plastic (shatterproof) ornaments that are large enough that your little one won't put it in their mouth. If you are using an eclectic decor have your little one create their own ornaments using wooden cutouts or felt fabric.  

soft glitter SNOWFLAKE  ornaments make a great "shatterproof" options if you have little ones.

Tabletop Centerpiece. Ornaments can make a beautiful tabletop centerpiece by simply putting them in a clear bowl or cylinder vase. To create a uniform look, I suggest using the same ornaments in each container. 

Gift Toppers. In addition to decorating your tree and table setting, ornaments can also be used to accessorize your wrapped gifts. Adding a small ornament is an extra touch that will surprise the recipient. Be sure to use the appropriate size ornament for your gift package. 

ornaments make great gift toppers!

Share some of your favorite ornaments on our comments below. 

Here's to a Merry Christmas!

5 Ways to Decorate a Buffet Style Thanksgiving Dinner

If your Thanksgiving is anything like mine, it's a large family gathering around lots of delicious food, drinks, laughs and football of course. Thanksgiving is one of the few times a year my entire family on the northeast coast gets together. Therefore sitting around a standard dining table is almost impossible. In order to accomodate the entire family, we usually have a buffet style dinner. 

Buffet style doesn't have to be impersonal or boring. Have fun with it and be festive. 

Having a flow of stations will create transition to your dinner.

1. Have A Flow of Stations. Allow your guests to choose what they want and to mingle freely. Group all the similar dishes together on one table. For example, it is a good idea to group your starches like pasta, rice or potatoes together. Since the turkey is the star of the evening consider having a separate station for it such as a small server or extra table. 

2. Add a BAR. Who doesn't love a good bar! This is your chance to be creative and allow your guests to make their own treat. This can include a table with different sweets (sweet potato pie, cupcakes, cookies, tarts, fruit bowls, brownies, etc.). The kids will LOVE this section! You can also have a salad bar where your family can create their favorite salad and customize it with their favorite toppings and dressing.

3. Don't Forget to Label your Food. Just in case someone isn't sure what a dish is you can create labels with the name of each dish. This will help create a stress-less evening for you.

4. Use Different Heights. To increase visual interest, serve certain dishes on a pedestal or use rustic boxes to add height. 

Some flowers placed in mason jars can add color and depth to your buffet stations.

5. Add Decorative Accessories. Since we are celebrating with those that we love, add some festive decorations around your buffet stations like candles, plants or pottery/vases. This will add an another layer of interest to your delicious stations. 

Whether you are enjoying this holiday as a big family or a small intimate sit down dinner, don't forget to be thankful for what you have. 

Have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

5 Must Have Decor Accessories for Fall

Fall is here and it's one of my favorite seasons of the year (Spring is my second). There's something about fall that brings new changes. Maybe it's the start of school, or the new football season, or the rich colors of the leaves outside as they fall to the ground.

If you're like me you want to bring change to your home now that fall is here. Simply add these 5 accessories to help bring the comfort and warmth of the new season!

must have decor accessories for fall

1. Throw

Fall brings colder days and nights therefore, having a throw is convenient to have on hand. However, a throw is not only a cozy accessory on a chilly day but it also adds color and texture to your space - making it a functional & stylish accessory!

for this bedroom suite I draped an orange throw on the brown leather bench for color and texture.

2. Picture Frames

I love picture frames because they turn a simple photograph into a piece of art. Picture frames can be changed periodically with a different image or photo. In my designs I always use different size frames and finishes to add visual interest.

3. Pumpkin Accessories

Pumpkins are not only for jack-o-lanterns. They can be painted and accessorized for a festive touch!

tie a ribbon around a pumpkin for a festive fall touch. 

4. Candles

Candles are my favorite accessory! They instantly add ambiance, a warm glow and a pleasant scent to your space. Tip: If you are using metallic or covered candles consider using flameless operated candles...to be on the safe side.

In this living room design I accessorized this ETAGERE with metallic candle votives using flameless canadles for a worry-free warm glow. 

5. Storage Basket

Storage baskets are a great way to conceal storage. They come in varies sizes based on your needs. Use them to store magazines, paper, kid's toys, extra pillows and blankets. Choose a basket that fits your style. For example, if you have an industrial style, consider using metal wire baskets to store items like catalogs or books. If you have a rustic or traditional style, you may want to use woven baskets with more detail. 

woven baskets

However you decide to enjoy this fall season, be sure to incorporate these small accessories to make a big visual impact to your space.

Need help accessorizing your space? Let's talk! Call me today 610.921.2780.

Here's to enjoying the new season!

Classic & Casual: How to design a balanced space.

As many of you know Georgette Marise Interiors is named after my late grandmother Georgette Belfong and my late mother Suzanne Marise Guillaume. These women played a large role in the development of my own style and why I fell in love with design.

How to Design a balanced space.

Just to give you a little history...my late grandmother Georgette lived in Manhattan during her later years and lived a metropolitan lifestyle. She had an appreciation for timeless decor, classical music and tailored fashion. Being from the Caribbean she spoke fluent French, loved to travel and enjoyed hosting formal dinner parties in her New York apartment. Her style was focused around fine details. 

Georgette is the classic part of the georgette marise style.

My late mother Suzanne Marise, also from the Caribbean, lived both a metropolitan and suburban lifestyle. Her view on style was very casual and simplistic yet sophisticated. Everything she owned was functional and held up to everyday use. Unlike my grandmother, she enjoyed hosting casual (less formal) dinner parties. 

marisE IS THE casual PART OF THE GEORGETTE MARISE STYLE.

Together Georgette & Marise inspired me to develop my own style. As an interior designer, I have an appreciation for a variety of design periods used in the proper manner. I believe design is personal, functional and stylish. Good design should be a reflection of your personality. Georgette & Marise had two different personalities, which I've always admired. As an adult and now mother I have developed a classic & casual style that works with my overall lifestyle.

start with these 3 steps to achieve a balanced designed space.

What is your style? Are you classic, casual or both? Share your style in the comments below, I'd love to know! 

A well balanced space is able to be functional and stylish with a mixture of classic & casual decor. Contact me today at 610.924.2780 to find out how you can have your personality reflected in your space. 

Here's to creating classic & casual spaces!

How to Get the Look of a Luxury Hotel Room

Ever wish your bedroom could look and feel like a clean, relaxing getaway? With just a few decor essentials you can transform your bedroom into a hotel-style bedroom. 

The key to creating a hotel-style bedroom is to remove clutter. You have to make your bedroom a space where you can be yourself and feel pampered. If you have clutter in your bedroom, it's not going to feel like a peaceful oasis. 

Upholstered Headboard. The bed is the focal point of the bedroom. An upholstered headboard can add texture and softness to your bedroom. If you are going to use an upholstered headboard, I would recommend a neutral color (i.e. cream, beige, brown, grey, etc.) to allow for versatility.

Coverlet. Often times in a luxury hotel room the bedding is layered with a duvet, bed sheets and standard pillows in crisp white. The coverlet is the layer that usually is folded and tucked at the foot of the bed and provides the accent to the white base layers. Design Tip: If you have a white base, add a tone-on-tone solid color or pattern print coverlet for interest.

Accent Pillows. Pillows in a bedroom are essential in a bedroom. I personally encourage clients to incorporate 2-3 euro shams and 2-3 different sized decorative pillows for a final touch to setting a bed. This will add dimension, texture and color to your bedding. 

"Pillows are to a room what jewelry is to an outfit." - S. Hayes

Nightstand. Your nightstand is one of the most used table surfaces in the bedroom. Therefore it has to be functional, durable and stylish. The style and design has to shine next to your bed. Design Tip: For a unique look choose a nightstand that contrast with your bed. Just make sure it is proportioned and balanced properly to your bed frame.

Lighting. Lighting is key to any space. Luxury hotel rooms use layers of light sources in each room for efficient, focused and accent lighting such as table lamps, wall sconces and floor lamps. Wall sconces beside the bed frame are a great alternative to table lamps on nightstands. Wall sconces can serve as both task and accent lighting. 

Lastly, hotel rooms use neutral wall colors combined with textured wallpaper like grasscloth to add depth. Neutral wall colors create a fresh and clean base to your color palette. This allows for colorful and interchangeable accessories. 

Creating a luxury hotel style bedroom is all about the details and quality. With the right placement, accents, and finishing touches you can turn your busy and tired bedroom into a relaxing hotel style room. To add a little luxury details to your room contact me today at sabine@georgettemarise.com to get started today. 

Here's to creating a relaxing oasis!

Project Tour: Outdoor Retreat

THAT'S ME ADDING FINISHING TOUCHES TO THIS STYLISH TABLE SETTING. Photography: Simone Merrique

Recently, I had the joy of capturing an outdoor project I decorated through my Votre Chambre design service. This busy family of four lives a very social life and wanted to use their large backyard to fit their needs. They called on a professional landscaper to design and create an outdoor kitchen, fire pit, pavilion, hardscape, landscaping, and outdoor lighting.  Once the hardscape and landscape were complete it was time to design and furnish this multi layered area. 

Dilemma: How to create multi sitting areas while maximizing the seating and making it feel warm, inviting, and comfortable. 

Solution: Since my client wanted an overall comfortable and stylish look I designed a lounge sitting area under the pavilion to seat 6-7 people. In order to accomplish that I used an L-shape sectional with a matching chair and ottoman complimented by a swing chair for an accent. The base was a white outdoor fabric accented by bold colored pillows filled with detailed patterns.

Photography by Simone Merrique

This family loves to entertain intimate dinner parties as well as large gatherings. In order to create a space great for everyday use and large dinner parties I furnished the space near the outdoor kitchen with a bar height bistro table with a stone top and 4 contrasting wicker stools for everyday dining. For a more formal setting I selected a durable rectangular wood-like farm table made of environmentally-friendly Resysta® contrasted by wicker dining chairs.

The color palette was inspired by the bold colors from the pavilion area and colors from the interior of my client's home, also designed by me. Design Tip: Be sure to carry the same style and some colors from the interior of your home. This will help create a smooth transition from the inside to the outside of your home.  

Relaxing fire pit. Photography by Simone Merrique.

With a mood board for inspiration, a complete shopping list for convenience, and a floor plan drawn to scale my client was equip to shop and arrange the furnishings with ease due to the Votre Chambre by Georgette Marise package. So are you ready to start your design project? Let me do the hard part of producing a personalized space for you that is stylish and functional. Click here to get started!

Here's to the final days of summer!

Color. How to Use it Properly when decorating your home.

Color! Some people are terrified of it and others LOVE it! Where do you fall? As an interior designer my clients require guidance on how to apply the appropriate color palette for their home. In most cases, it is common for people to feel overwhelmed when selecting colors on their own to decorate a space.  Color affects your mood and your perception of a space or object.

"Let's embrace your comfort level with color and learn how to incorporate it into your home." 

using color correctly.  PAINT: SW 6379 JERSEY CREAM

Develop a Palette. Every space needs a color palette. A color palette is an index of all the main colors that are selected for the room.  When developing a color palette first decide on which color will be the primary color in the space. I suggest compiling three to five different colors for your space. Let’s create a scenario using a color palette that consist of teal and rust. A great color to add to the palette would be a neutral color, a latte or a butter yellow to balance the two main colors. 

Choosing your Colors.  Ever go to a paint store to find a color to paint your room and feel lost? The good news is that you will only need 3 or 5 colors for your palette. A good exercise when deciding on colors is to find out what colors inspire you and use them in layers. A trade secret that professionals use often is selecting a primary color for the main walls, a secondary color for an accent wall, and a third color for details such as ceiling paint options.

If you are having a hard time finding inspiration flip through some decorating magazines, browse online or take a trip to a furniture showroom to get some ideas on color combinations that they use and make sure to talk to your interior designer to get a professional opinion on colors you selected for your space. If your inspiration piece has more than 5 colors, choose 3 to 5 of those colors to incorporate in your room.

Using Layers of Color. Once you have determined your color palette, you need to make sure that you have light, medium, and dark colors throughout your palette. Your colors can come from your paint, flooring, furniture, or accessories. You might have a color palette that has 5 different colors that compliment each other and has a hint of warm or cool, but if all 5 colors are the same tone or shade this creates a flat, uninteresting color palette. Even if your room were to consist of one color in order for everything in the room to not camouflage you will need to create a palette with light, medium, and dark tones.

"Making sure your palette has light, medium, and dark tones creates dimension and interest to any room."

I used a mixture of light, medium and dark colors to create a well balanced color palette. Paint: SW 6379 Jersey Cream

In this townhouse living room, I used the lighter tones on the walls, ceiling, ottoman and the area rug.  The medium color tones were used in the sofa, pillows and window treatments, and I used the darkest tones in the leather recliner and the wood floors.

Color is an essential piece to decorating and designing any room. It will affect how you see and feel in a room. Using the proper amount of colors creates layers of interest in a space.

USE YOUR COLOR PALETTE.

Are you still feeling stuck with what colors to use on your walls? Are you worried about making a mistake? Choose my Paint Color Suggestions service today and get hand picked color options perfect for your space. Don't forget to leave your comments below.

Here's to decorating with color!

Create a Bedroom Your Kids Will LOVE

Kids bring so much energy, joy and love into a household. It's important that they have a bedroom as a space that reflects their personality. The key word is...THEIR. Yes... your little prince or princess have their own style and personality. It starts at an early age and will change or expand as they get older. When your kids have a space, like their bedroom, that reflects their personality it makes it easy for them to be completely themselves.  Here are some tips to creating a bedroom that your kids will want to grow, learn and have fun in!

Develop a Layout

Have a plan to determine which area in the room is the sleeping area, play area, and homework/reading area. Once you have measured and developed a plan it will make it easier to know where you will place your furniture.

Use Kid Friendly Items

Make sure your kid’s room is an area that your child can be creative and a space that represents their personality. For example, if your son loves outdoors use accessories and earth tone colors like natural browns, sun yellows, or ocean blues that you would find outside. Find ways of bringing the “outdoors in”.

Ask your kids

Since your child is going to be the one using this room the most, it should be a room that reflects him or her. It’s a good idea to ask your kids about what they would like to have in their room before making the final decision. Most kids are visual so one way of finding out what they like is to take them to their favorite store like, a kids clothing store, a kid’s furniture store, a candy store or a toy store. Use some of the elements from their toys, favorite candy, or an outfit they love to come up with a color palette or a theme.

If you need more ideas or assistance for your little one's room? No worries, I 'm here to help. Email your dilemma to me at sabine@georgettemarise.com and I will do my best to assist you in transforming your kid's room into the best space they've ever seen!

Until next time!