Southern Style Living with Grand Design

One of my favorite styles in home decor is the warm, classic, comfortably elegant Southern Living style. It encompasses lots of florals, patterns and wonderful color combinations.

Here's a beautiful room that I created recently for a client who loves this style and wanted to incorporate it into her formal living room. Enjoy the journey here as we show the process of how a room changes and evolves into new life!

First, let me explain how I decorate a room. In my work as an Intuitive Interior Decorator, I first psychically scan the room to feel the energy in it. Everything and everyone holds energy, especially houses, where we spend so much of our time and I can feel the energy in each room. As I view a room, the house speaks to me, telling me its story through the energy that is being held in the room.  The house also shows me how it would like to look and feel.

As an Intuitive, I can see and feel the aura of the home and the energy that is gathered there. The energy is created by the people living in the home and sometimes carried inside by people who visit. There is also energy held in antiques, used furniture, and old decor that we bring into the home.  I'm very particular about what items I bring into my space and very rarely will I have an antique or used item in my home.  It's very difficult to remove negative energy from used items and it can take a long time, so often it's better to buy new, unless you are assured that the object in mind has wonderful positive energy. 

So that's how I begin each decor session. The next step is to tune into the client and read their energy along with the aura energy of all of the people who live in the home. This helps to create the color palette that will be used to decorate the room.

After my initial psychic energy scan and reading with this client, I discussed the plan of how we could make some changes in order to introduce color and vitality into the room. This would create the desired new look that I'm calling Southern Style Living with Grand Design, referring to the baby grand piano and her love of southern style.

I began my work by decluttering and removing some pieces in the room. We kept some items, including the baby grand piano and her white sofa. The sofa is an older piece but has rarely been used, so energy wise it was neutral and in good shape.  The room in its current state feels dormant with very little energy. It's lacking color and cohesion and feels a bit lifeless with the black piano, white sofa and grey rug.

Before Picture #1 of Living Room

A grey rug anchors the space, and the baby grand piano is the feature.  The windows are mini blinds with scarves hanging over them and the artwork is a print of a golf course.  The walls are painted in a dark beige. A tall thin lamp is used for lighting in the corner along with a brass lamp near the piano. 

We decided to work with the sofa by adding a plush layer of pillows that would create color, energy and a bit of drama and impact to the room. I shared with my client a collection of pillows that I gathered together, that I would like to place on the sofa. These pillows call in all of the colors that I wanted to bring into this currently very subdued low energy room in order to wake it up!

Here's the pillow collection I assembled, which included greens, whites, blacks, pinks and corals:

As you can imagine, this very colorful collection was a little overwhelming at first to take in, as the room was currently without much color or energy. But by adding so much color, we will bring in life, light and energy to the space!

Living Room Before Photo #2

Here's the other side of the room, with two chairs, another window with mini blinds and as you can see, the rooms are divided in this home by half wall barriers. Here you can see into the dining room which is painted a red brick/adobe red color.

THE PLAN

I like to work with what's in the room as much as possible, as long as the items have good or neutral energy.  In this room, I kept the coffee table, the small table between the two chairs and the white vase with eucalyptus branches for the room. The piano of course is staying and the white sofa.

We began by painting the room in Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige, which is still one of my favorite neutral colors, as it works with almost anything you pair it with in any home. After the walls were painted, crown moulding was installed to enhance the formal look of the room.

Next we removed the mini blinds and scarves and had white plantation shutters installed.

In order to balance the stark contrast between the white sofa and black piano, a bold color was required in order to bring these two colors together while creating a warm feeling. I decided that the perfect color to wake up this room and give it a southern style is GREEN!

Here's the After Photo:

The transformation began with the pillow collection in different shades of green, pink, black, white and a pop of coral to create some attention and draw the eye into the room. Filling the sofa with pillows detracts from the age of the sofa and modernizes it.

Next came new artwork above the sofa. This art is titled Southern Oaks. It introduces the soft greens found in nature into the room with a feeling of timeless southern elegance. Sconces were added to each side of the artwork to continue this timeless theme, both the artwork and the sconces are from Ballard Designs.

The true stars of the room to me are these gorgeous green and white check chairs that are so welcoming! They lead you into the room giving off a happy, upbeat vibe that says, Welcome, come join us in here.  Next came the perfect rug that pulls all the greens together and anchors the room in place. The designs in the rug includes plants, florals and animals, bringing all of nature's joys into the space.

I'm so in love with these chairs that I need to show you another photo of them, as they are so incredible!

The homeowner loves this warm welcoming style and it reflects her personality well.

At the end of my Intuitive Interior Decor project with each home owner, I give them an Intuitive Lifestyle Report, which explains the energy that I picked up in the home and the energy in the homeowners aura. This report goes into great detail and includes my psychic report of why they are consciously and subconsciously drawn to certain types of decor, colors and furniture styles. In this case, my report to this homeowner will reveal her most recent past life where she lived in the Deep South and what life was like for her during that time.  This is why she is drawn to this style of decor.

But for now, back to this reveal... The floral pink and green botanical artwork hanging between the two windows by the piano, is a piece I found in another room of her home, that works great in the space . I added it in here as it coordinated well with the southern vision we are creating.  The small storage table below this art was moved from the dining room to between the two windows as it fits perfectly here. The brass cricket sitting on top is another well loved keepsake in the family.  

The existing coffee table and end tables stayed in the room, providing a sense of something old and something new, again connecting and creating a timeless feeling that this room has always existed this way in this home. This adds to that Southern family heirloom feeling and charm, where some items are well loved pieces and others are new and connected to the personality of the home owner.

The Seafoam green table lamp is new from Pottery Barn. The full round base balances better with the table than the tall thin lamp previously used in this corner. 

This room re-design is happening during the holiday season, so I added in some of the client's Christmas decor including the snow globe on the table and created a metallic look with the homeowners decorative silver tree and garland placed in a tray that sits on the coffee table. If you look very close, you can see that the berries in the garland on the coffee table, tie in the colors in the rug. The colors connect all of the features throughout the space, creating a warm, cozy and happy feel.

The loose gathering of eucalyptus in the white vase adds a bit of greenery and nature, adding to the casual look we wanted to incorporate into the room to keep it from looking too stiff and formal.  A smaller table was introduced in the entry of the room with a red poinsettia placed on top to add a bright pop of Christmas red to further warm up the room.

Here's the second REVEAL of the After Photo:

In every room I design, I love to throw in a whimsical piece, that adds a bit of surprise and is something out of the ordinary. In this room, we accomplished this by adding the green leaf ottoman from Grandin Road in front of the chairs. It continues with the bringing nature into the room theme but in a fun, modern, delightful way with the leaf being unexpected and oversized, instead of just adding a potted plant in the room to accomplish this goal.

Crown moulding was continued throughout the first floor of the home and the new paint color flowed into the Dining Room to add a more cohesive look between the rooms.

Lastly, the tripod floor lamp is new. It's the modern "trendy" piece that announces that the room is timeless but also current and on point with the styles today. The tripod style of the lamp is being featured everywhere right now and the black legs of the lamp balance in color with the piano in the other corner of the room, while the copper lamp shade introduces a warm glow, bringing the trendy metallic look into the setting.

That's the secret of creating a classical styled room that looks sophisticated. You keep the traditional pieces, but add in a current hot trend so that the room looks styled and stylish.

This makes the room modern and fresh, while keeping it restrained to one trendy piece so that it stays connected to the intention and direction of the style. The lampshade choice brings out the copper color that is also brushed into the sconces and warms up the wood in the room.

In this room I've revealed two of my decor secrets that I think change the look, style and most importantly, the energy of any room.

They are:  to always add one whimsical item that adds an element of surprise AND to introduce one trendy item that keeps the room fresh and current.

If you stick with classic and neutral decor for your big ticket items, you can add one trendy item like a lamp that can be switched out over time as trends change.

I'm in love with my clients new Living Room. It's a room I'd be comfortable in anytime and a room that will hold up in great style for the next decade and beyond.  She had some beautiful classic pieces to work with like her baby grand piano and it was a joy to bring in color and new energy that awakens the room. I'm ready to have a nice visit with her in this room while sipping some sweet tea. :)

Here's one other quick peek of her home, which we are continuing to change room by room. Here's the dining room that has been freshly repainted from the red and we've added some Christmas decor. More changes are coming to this room in the new year.

Love Southern Style Decor but can't redo your entire room right now?

Here's some quick tips to give your room this look:

1. Add florals and patterns that are complimentary and speak to each other. Pink and green work really well together for this style.  If you can't update your furniture, add pillows in colorful matching patterns to bring your furniture up to date.

2. Artwork can be the quickest way to create this mood, with a look that nods to nature, especially if it features trees, botancials or gardens.

3. Plantation shutters are expensive and you may not be able to change your window treatments right now. Adding decorative shutters that hang on the wall or propped up on a wall, can simulate this classic southern look.

4. Can't change an entire room? Christmas Decor is another fun way to introduce Southern Style Living into your home.  Here's a fun wreath that I made that incorporates this style.

The wreath is made from magnolia leaves and some of the leaves have been dipped in gold. This wreath is from Ballard Designs.  The magnolia leaves alone bring in the southern vibe. I warmed it up a bit by adding the red plaid ribbon, also from Ballard Designs, and by using some red berry sprigs that I had laying around as extra bits.  An easy way to say Welcome and Happy Holidays!

Ready to incorporate a look and style into your home that matches your personality?

As an Intuitive Interior Decorator, I look into you and and your home with my intuitive abilities to see what style works best for you and what works best in your home.

I gather the two energies of you and your home together to make one of a kind designs that are uniquely you!

Not only does the decor uplift the energy and look of your home, it connects you with your spirit, using the colors that awaken you and inspire you to live your best life. It's a deeply profound and spiritual journey that my clients will tell you changes their lives in many impactful ways.

Intuitive Interior Decor sessions can be booked with me here.

All the best,

Kala