Shelter-in-a-Place You Love: CL Designs’ Spring 2020 Guide to Home Interior Design & Styling

Kitchens and Baths: Use durable, nontoxic products like stone, steel, wood, and glass to stay even healthier while sheltering-in-place. These materials can be part of appliances, countertops, finishes, fixtures, and even accessories.

Home Offices: Maximize storage space in home workspaces using woven baskets, wooden boxes, and artisanal ceramics. Store on surfaces, decoratively layer larger pieces in corners or place on open shelving to create more closed container areas.

Common Areas: Create a layout that maximizes traffic flow, conversation space, and access to everyday items, like electronics, books, and games. Consider organizing with hidden storage for pillows, throw blankets, and remotes.

Bedrooms: Emphasize the rejuvenating aspects of this room, like the view of a fireplace, favorite piece of artwork, or of the outdoors, and add some luxurious fabrics and lighting! Try keeping the bedroom for sleeping and relaxing only, not turning it into an office or workout room (even though most of the other rooms in the house are multi-use).

Outdoor Living Spaces: Bring interior comforts, like accessories for morning coffee and after-dinner drinks, outside! Additionally, furnish your deck, patio or fire pit area with green products like recycled furniture made from metal, natural fibers, or wood.

 

At Home with Winter

Interior Styling for the Seasons

By Gina Jacobson, Owner/Interior Designer, CL Designs

As preparations for snowy weather and large get-togethers begin, having engaging surroundings gains importance for many of us. With so many décor options available, I make my best choices after carefully considering what already exists in a space. In this house, expansive windows drew my eye and naturally highlighted the darker pieces in my table arrangement. Curvaceous Moser furniture offered the perfect inspiration for the twists in each centerpiece, and the russet hues in the countertops became the impetus for more warm wood features and golden lights throughout.

Gina Jacobson, Commercial and Residential Interior Designer/Owner of CL Designs, arranging winter décor

While complimenting the home’s fixtures, the decorations also provided a healthy alternative to synthetic objects. White candles added a crisp touch to the plant clusters, as well as innocuous flames to spotlight the details. At the same time, a bar of soap anchored the vanity with its neutral color and served as a hypoallergenic resource for handwashing. A round ice sculpture mimicked the numerous circles already in the vicinity, as it showcased herbs and, perhaps most conspicuously, vibrant flowers, local greenery, and organic produce, yielded a fresh aesthetic and wholesome nutrition for later consumption.

The finished dining table and mantel centerpieces include Suzanne Caporael’s “Silo Ridge (Hazard)” print from Tandem Press

Copper-wired and natural light draw the eye to the table’s local juniper and produce

A ripe pomegranate rests with real stems and blooms

Handmade snowflake ornaments hang from a custom eucalyptus wreath by Gina of CL Designs

A bar of soap rests on a vintage wooden dish by the sink

An icy ring of herbs and spices contrasts the lit candle it encircles, while greenery, warm lighting and a mini-wreath by Gina Jacobson/CL Designs, accent the two

A non-toxic candle surrounded by evergreen branches highlight Caporael’s “Job Island”

When incorporating seasonal furnishings into the heart of any house or office, I consider not only the environment as it is, but also its occupants’ physical well-being. During the colder months, styling projects are usually undertaken in order to satisfy clients’ desires for inviting and one-of-a-kind surroundings where visitors can gather. But my seasonal work may be just as important as a means of modernizing the entire dwelling or place of business for both that time frame and beyond.

To do that, I refer to comprehensive design principles, develop customized proposals that fit my client’s wishes, and prioritize clear procedures for each task I perform. I weigh other aspects of green interior design as well, including the recyclability, durability, local sourcing, and energy efficiency of anything I procure. I believe that the areas we inhabit can be functional, beneficial, and beautiful at the same time and that the combination of those three is what will make them truly great.

Overall, as a passionate and focused interior designer specializing in healthy products for both residential and commercial sites, I have a strong drive to create aesthetically-pleasing, intuitive, and welcoming areas. I usually find that my clients enjoy fine art, unique touches, and environmentally sensitive products. Whatever your reason, if you decide to utilize my design services this winter, you can expect the process to start with a meeting. At that time, I will observe your space and get a sense of your priorities for its design. Whether for one room or the whole building, I will then devise a detailed, personalized plan that may include everything from furniture layouts to accessories and ornamentation. Once that plan is in place, we will meet again to finalize it and agree upon implementation dates, understanding that their fulfillment signals completion of the work. Lastly, with your approval, I will photograph the outcome for future use.

Update your space with Gina

Owner/Interior Designer CL Designs:

608.556.1887

hello@cldesignsfit.com

Monday – Friday

8:00am – 5:00pm

Photo of Gina Jacobson • Owner, Founder CL Designs in Duluth, MN, USA • All rights reserved

Mid-Summer 2019 Interior Design Tips

Above: CL Designs’ Photograph

• Real plants are always an easy way to bring new life into your home, and allium, cone flowers, and Virginia bluebells fit the bill in Minnesota summers. For added benefits, snake plants and Boston ferns not only look beautiful, but also counteract chemicals like formaldehyde that can be common in our interiors, and are native plants to Minnesota.

• Fill bright ceramic or glass vases with summer blooms; add even larger jugs for freshly-cut branches and leaves.

• Choose a light entryway rug that is less patterned than your mud-resistant spring version.

• Keep throw pillow covers with invigorating colors and lines and bring in more crisp, cool colors, as well.

• Bring in nature through the view outdoors to a garden scene you have cultivated.

• Invest in lasting materials like metal indoor/outdoor tables and versatile plant containers.

• Focus, broadly, on movement, openness and cross-breezes in your interiors. These are always emblematic of summer.

• Artfully display your umbrellas, wellies, raincoats and delicate shoes with chests, artisanal hooks and wooden sandal racks.

For more tips, or for Interior Design Services,

contact CL Designs

 

 

Why Healthy Interior Design?

So many things in our built environments have harmful components. By eliminating them as much as possible, we can be more at ease, fit and productive, overall.

Have a look at the following for a quick overview of some of our everyday products’ ingredients and effects.

 

Adhesives – carbon tetrachloride – damages our hepatic system (the system that makes proteins, breaks down food & purifies the body) (1)

 

Formaldehyde – found in pressed woods, particleboard, plywood, fiberboard, permanent press fabrics, paper coatings, certain insulation, and glues – classified as a human carcinogen by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) – irritates eyes, nose, throat, skin; can cause occupational asthma (2)

 

Fabrics – sulfur, arsenic, copper, lead and mercury, among others – cancer, wide-ranging illnesses (3)

 

Stain-protectors – PFCs (perfluorochemicals) -tumors, immune system and hormone malfunctions (4)

 

Insulation – spray foam – flame retardants and other carcinogens – asthma, watery eyes, sinus congestion, headaches (5)

 

Plastics – “Journal of the American Medical Association published a study involving 1,455 American adults, which linked high urinary levels of BPA to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver complications.” (6) “…tests have shown that the chemical (bisphenol-A, aka BPA) can promote human breast cancer cell growth“(7)

 

Finishes – VOCs (volatile organic compounds) – “2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas.” – liver, kidney, and central nervous system damage; cancer (8)

 

Metals – mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum- “…impairment of cognitive development (e.g. developmental disorders), degenerative diseases of the nervous system, which would include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS), problems with skeletal development and maintenance (e.g. osteoporosis), kidney disorders, and blood disorders.” (9)

 

Now that you know more about what to look for, if you cannot find an ingredient list and production information for your products, consider not buying them.

Choosing companies that are providing the above information may encourage them to continue to do so.

As always, if you would like more assistance with choosing healthy interior design products, contact CL Designs

2 Reasons for Green Interior Design

Why should I bother investing in green design?
• Human Health
There are additives in our home decor products, and in our buildings themselves, that cause health issues. Companies are not required to label these products’ ingredients like much of the food industry is, so consumers often do not even know what toxins they are bringing into their offices and homes. Consumers have a small, expensive pool of vendors to pick from when they do embark on the task of purchasing actually-green products and services.  By purchasing our interior design products from those companies that are being mindful of human health, we can change that.
• Planet Longevity
The products and processes involved in the transporting, assembling, installing and finishing of the built environment fixtures and furnishings that we buy and use today are largely chosen from outdated and inefficient plans that are unnecessarily detrimental to the earth.  It is exciting to contribute to those that are choosing more beneficial paths.