P4D Book Club! ~ Add Some Color to Your Library

Jonathan Adler, known for his bold use of colors, has written a book to inspire our use of bold color choices with the know-how needed to always keep it chic. Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Color is one book of a new series of books that Adler is releasing (as per the reliable sources at Elle Decor). Also available is Happy Chic Accessorizing. We'll let you know when his other books hit the shelves.

Happy reading!

Design Tip of the Week (9.13.10): Easy Makeovers

A fresh coat of paint can change a room dramatically. Its amazing what a difference a new color will do to a space without changing any other element. Furniture and complementary colors will take a new form. Its a fast and easy way to completely redo a room's look and costs nothing more than a gallon or two of

Check out last spring's Primed4Design{er}changed the look of two rooms with a simple change of wall color.

Laura took her guest bedroom from a yellow hue to a warm brown.
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After:




To rework the living room, the ragged paint effect was replaced with a fresh blue to bring a new feel and style to the room.

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After:




Throughout the Fall, P4D will share some tips on easy ways to makeover a room. You too can be a weekend warrior.

Dandy Chandy Tuesday ~ Miami Chandelier Month!

Well Helloooo P4der's! I (Jen) am blogging live from the heart of Miami Beach! Chrys is still running P4D from DC, and I've taken us down the East Coast & am now living in Miami!

I thought it would be fun this month of June to feature fabulous hotels and the chandy's in them every Tuesday. There really are some wonderfully designed hotels down here, including the Viceroy that was decorated by the one and only Kelly Wearstler. Check out the photos above from the Viceroy, so fun & fabulous!

She also has a GREAT book called Hue. I suggest you guys check out, chock full of inspiration!

Design Tip of the Week (2.22.10) ~ Technorate

In this wonderful era of apps and software for anything you can think of there are some very cool decorating/designing tools out there to help you plan out, lay out, furnish, and paint (just to name a few). Here are some fun techie design options to help you "technorate" your space.

Pick your perfect paint colors with the ColorSnap app for Iphone by Sherwin Williams. This free application lets you identify a color palette, get help determining complimentary colors, and save your color combos as you work through your house projects.


Design a very customized floor plan with a huge variety of architectural options, color choices, textures, furniture and very exact measurements down to the centimeter (even the furniture!) to help you think through every detail with Floor Planner. You can do a one shot deal for free or buy a package for as low as $29 a year. You can also go demo the site and have some fun designing your dream home!


Or go for the gold and redesign the whole house virutally! HGTV Home Design and Remodeling software allows user's to create designs from scratch or upload pictures of their current spaces and completely remodel them.

Primed4Design Give Away & Book Review!

*****THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED-CAITLIN SHORT (#5) HAS WON! THANK-YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL ENTRIES!*****

Win your very own autographed copy of The Comfortable Home, signed by Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams for us to give to one of our lucky P4D Fan's!

So how do you win? EASY! Leave a comment on today's post with an idea for a future P4D post. We love to hear from our readers and learn about what they are interested in. So please post a comment and your name on TODAY's post with a topic/idea of a posting we can do to make you happy! :)

The winner will be randomly selected (from random.org) & announced on the Primed4Design blog on Wednesday, November 18th. Please check back to see if you won. *The winner will need to contact primed4design@gmail.com to claim their prize.*
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Now on to our book review and a bit of background on Mitchell + Bob:

The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less, newly released by Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams, is a great guide to creating a home you connect with and well...feel comfortable in. Its chock full of tips and really dives into the different areas of your home (our fave is the chapter on the entryway - just perfection!). They help you think through where to begin with tips on colors, mixing and matching and steps to building your vision. And of course there are tons of fantastic pictures! They show you different looks for different styles and give you practical tips for floor plans and furniture placement. For our city folk, there is a great chapter on small spaces.

In addition to its popularity with consumers, their furniture is a favorite of interior designers, TV set designers, and the design press. It has been included in the redecoration of the Obama White House. It has appeared on Friends, Sex & the City, The Office, and Lipstick Jungle. It has been in virtually every home magazine, including Elle Decor, House Beautiful, and Metropolitan Home—from whom MG+BW has received “Design 100” awards. Mitchell and Bob have been widely featured in the media, from design blogs to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Inc., who included them among “26 Entrepreneurs We Love.” Their first book, Let’s Get Comfortable: How to Furnish and Decorate a Welcoming Home, was published by Meredith in March 2007, and led to two appearances on The Today Show. In August 2008, Mitchell and Bob were among the celebrity judges on HGTV’s Summer Showdown design contest. And this past May, Mitchell was the subject of a USA Today column on what CEOs are reading.

If you live in DC, check out their store on 14th street (Where we attended the booksigning event last week and got to meet Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams in person! It was SO exciting!!!!) :) Yes, we got our own signed copy of the book to keep, and one to give away to you! Good luck with the contest everyone!!!