COZY NAVY BLUE ROOM

Conventional design wisdom says...if you want to make a room feel larger, paint the walls white.  What if you want to make a small room feel even more cozy?  Paint the walls navy.

I love small blue rooms!  I have a small den in my tiny little cottage in the Hollywood Hills that I've painted a shade of gray/blue with a glossy finish.  The room works in my opinion.  My friends SN and BN have a wonderfully blue painted small office library in their beautiful Los Angeles home...the walls are and shelving there are painted a wonderful shade of dark blue.

So this navy blue room with green velvet sofas, chevron patterned drapes and gold accents hither and thither works for me!

Notice the textured paneling below the chair rail...love that.  Only thing I might lose is the deer head!  What do you think of this cute blue room.

It is about to rain here in Los Angeles (that is our form of winter)...would be nice to cozy up in a room like this on a rainy day.

Happy Wednesday!

xo
Coco

Photos: Prue Ruscoe

BARE NAKED WINDOWS - THE GREAT DRAPERY DEBATE!

No curtains on the very large windows in this Danish apartment. (above)

To cover a window or not to cover a window? That is the question.

I go back and forth on this one. I once told my good guy friend BN that drapes, curtains or shades weren't really necessary if you had great windows in your home. He and his wife SN have great windows in their home. Then, with a little of my help, BN and SN had gorgeous plain off white heavy linen curtains custom made for their living room and the space looked so inviting and finished. Hmmm...so much for my window theory.

Here's what I've decided (for now)...if you have large windows with some interesting features either in size or shape, window coverings aren't necessary unless everyone in the world including the guy who lives next door can see in. Does this make sense?

This window has so much trim and so many "lights" in interesting shapes that it would be a shame to  cover it up with drapery. (above)

Curtains or shades would ruin the drama of this fantastic arched window. (above)

Regular windows in a city apartment definitely could use some sort of window covering (in this case roman shades) to finish the space. (above)

What do you think...drapery or no drapery?  Do weigh in!

Happy Friday!

xo
Coco

P.S.  MY CLOSET RE-DESIGN - Spent the evening at a store last night designing the interior of my closet.  Below the version I bought.  Over $1,200 later, I now have a new closet design that will be installed AFTER I move back into my house in a couple weeks (hint: "after" is the operative word here).  Good planning on my part...right?  Over $1,200 for some rods and wire shelves?  By the way, that does not include installation and delivery...oy va voy. Some might say this is cheap in the greater closet redesign scheme of things...but for me, who has never done a closet...it felt like a lot. Bottom line though after 1.5 hours with a nice lady named Marie at the computer, I gained 4 feet more hanging space in my reach bedroom closet with a little design magic. Woohooo!  Standard reach in closets are about 24" deep...we moved a wall and made my closet (post water damage) now 36" deep...allows for some use of the side walls too!  Can an organized closet design change your life?  I feel like 48" more of hanging space will change mine!

Plans for my revamped bedroom closet (above and below)

Oddly enough, I have several evening gowns and long dresses.  Am all ready for any black tie event I suppose! So the area on the right is for those. (above0

P.P.S.  Staycationing in Laguna this weekend with TE.  Should be a fun one night getaway!  Can't wait.  I asked him if I could drive his convertible down to Laguna with him as the passenger...he just laughed...I think he questions my driving skills.  I wonder why?  Hmmm. :-)   Even though just staying for one night, packing will be its usual dilemma (especially since the majority of my clothes are in storage)!  Will figure it out I'm sure.  Clearly a "first world problem"...

P.P.P.S.  GIVEAWAY REMINDER - Remember you have until noon Pacific time to enter the COCOCOZY Light Pillow Giveaway.  I'll pick 4 winners in the end!  Don't miss out!


Photos: Skona Hem; Alvhem Malekeri; Trevor Tondro

DESIGN IDEA: TWO TONED CURTAIN DIVIDERS!

I like ceiling and wall mounted curtains used as room and space dividers in this small apartment. The mint green curtains in the living room and the coral orange in the bedroom work.  Drapery in two different complimentary colors to create a horizontal fade (or ombre look) effect.  I like.

Using a wall mounted drape is great for concealing an area or for defining separate spaces in a small apartment, flat or home.  Good small space saving idea I think.

Also, I think these little rooms look so bright and cheerful and colorful. Love the mix of colors!  Also love the copper pendant light and striped rugs in the living room.

What do you think of this design idea?  Like or dislike?

Happy Thursday!

xo
Coco

P.S.  Below are a few more pictures of COCOCOZY Headquarters (HQ) in Beverly Hills where we used a ceiling mounted drape on a track to conceal our storage racks. Our offices are indeed quite small so this trick worked for us.  We used the COCOCOZY Logo Linen fabric in Gray.  Design wise the office is still a work in progress.  Need to now decorate.  Have had no time though!

Ceiling mounted drapes conceal storage at the COCOCOZY offices in Beverly Hills. Office is still a work in progress...not finished decorating yet and we've been there for about 6 months! (above and below)

P.P.S.  Yesterday, a friend of mine who is the head of talent for a cable network asked us to put together a last minute holiday gift proposal for him - gifts he possibly wants to give to some people in his organization within the next week.  So, in less than an hour, CM and JW did a quick photo shoot at COCOCOZY HQ to showcase some of our gift items.  JW shot the photos and CM styled and put together a whole proposal for my network executive friend. Below is the fruits of the little shoot and the proposed gift assortment they came up with featuring our COCOCOZY Logo Lucite Trays and some COCOCOZY Candles.  Thank you CM and JW.  Nice work.  We don't know if my cable network executive friend will end up going with our gifts but I think the COCOCOZY team did a great job of putting our best foot forward!

COCOCOZY Holiday GIfts - COCOCOZY Lucite Logo Trays and COCOCOZY Candles! (above)

P.P.P.S.  So thrilled (and relieved)...We got our COCOCOZY Logo Lucite trays back in stock as of yesterday!   We're shipping all today and tomorrow.  A nice whirlwind of buzz for these trays meant that we sold out almost immediately.   Now we are back in business just in time to ship for the holiday.  Still not too late to order yours!

P.P.P.P.S.  12/12/12 was a very interesting day for us at COCOCOZY.  Hopefully I'll be able to talk about  it soon.

P.P.P.P.P.S. The other night was out to dinner with CM and he made a good point about putting things in perspective and appreciating your life now.  He said one of his favorite songs is Carly Simon's Anticipation...CM said every time he hears the lyrics in that song "These are the good old days, these are the good old days....", he remembers to appreciate the moments in his life now.  While sitting at a fantastic dinner with me and JW on Tuesday night, CM gleamed and smiled and said..."You guys these are the good old days.  We're in them right now.  These are them. Let's take a moment and really really enjoy these times now because later we'll be calling these days the "good old" ones."  He's right.


Photo: Kjellander + Sjoberg

IN STYLE WITH COLOR BLOCKING!

Color blocking for the home and in fashion. Large blocks of color blended together in one piece.

I like this living room and I LOVE this dress! The drapes in the living room are a classic example of color block for the home. The dress is the cool way to color block in fashion...not too over the top but a nice blending of bold big blocks of color into one piece of clothing. Love love love the dress. Going for a walk up and down the canyon this morning so I can be in tip top shape to wear something like this during the summer!

I don't know where the color blocking trend started...in the home or in fashion...but I know it is huge in the stores right now.

Rag & Bone- Layered Dress - $655 (colorblock sleevless dress with silk chiffon layers)(above)

What do you think of these two looks...do you like the drapes in the living room? Do you like the dress? If so why? If not, why not? Would love to hear what you think! Please weigh in!

Happy Saturday!

xo
Coco

P.S. Had a great lunch with long time best of guy friend AB yesterday. He came to my office and we spent a few hours catching up. It was so fun. He is so cool...a successful television commercial director...who is just a smart and charming guy. I was so happy to have spent some time with him! I have some really awesome friends. I've picked well over the years!!!

P.P.S. Washing machine broke yesterday...oy.

P.P.P.S. Must spend the weekend catching up on so much work for COCOCOZY...but it is GORGEOUS here...hope I am not too tempted to leave work behind and enjoy the weekend!! We'll see! :-)

P.P.P.P.S.  Does anyone know whether colorblock is one word or two words (color block)?

P.P.P.P.P.S.  Almost at 50,000 followers on COCOCOZY Facebook!  Woot woot.  Join along there if you haven't already...I try to put up some extra photos from time to time and you get the daily blog post updates there too!

Photo: Muse Interiors