be brave with color | Northern Lights Home Staging and Design

Create an Exotic Global Style Living Room with a Gorgeous Blue Rug

Bohemian style celebrates warm earthy colors, metals and jewel tones. Bohemian decor often uses deep browns, greens, grays or other neutral colors for base colors, then accessorizes with saturated purple, fiery orange, and electric blue and other jewel tones. Bohemian style lovers are often carefree, dislike rules and want to follow their heart’s desire! Do you like vintage furniture and light fixtures, globally inspired textiles and rugs, and love displaying your collections of cool things Read more [...]

Are You Attached to an Ugly House? Six Tips to Set Yourself Free

This week I had a design consultation that gave me a lot of insights into why people have ugly houses. Attachment, attachment, attachment! Let it all go. In my personal transformation classes, I learned that attachment to people, things, outcomes, etc. is the cause of most of our suffering. We stress over outcomes and how people behave. We try to control things because we get “attached” to an end result we want. We expect people to behave a certain way because we are attached to our beliefs Read more [...]

I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing-Distractions Ruin Everything

I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing-Distractions Ruin Everything. Remove clutter, visual disparity and consider yourself part of the design. Do you enjoy the look, feel, and smell of your space? Read more [...]

I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing and Playing Music- Precision is Beautiful

Precision is Beautiful Precision equals beauty. I know, it sounds weird. But it's true!Today in drum class, as we were practicing our "ornaments" or rolls coming before the main notes, my teacher Amir says, "You are all playing very precisely today. It is very beautiful. Our ornaments are a series of three notes played with the left hand that lead up to the main note played with the right hand. What makes them precise and beautiful is that each note is clear, evenly Read more [...]

I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing and Playing Music- We All Hear Music Differently

Do You Hear What I Hear? In my drum class, my teacher Amir played a video of a woman singing and a drummer playing with her to a group of people. She was singing in a language we did not know. It was hard to tell from her expression what she was feeling or thinking, other than the song had a serious subject. He asked us after what the song was about and how we felt. Everyone had a different interpretation.We all hear and feel music differently. As a dancer, I Read more [...]

I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Playing Music- Every Part Must Do Its Part

Every Part Must Do Its Part Music is made of parts and every part is critical to making the magic happen. When they work together perfectly, then you have created a masterpiece! All music has a structure. This usually includes a series of parts in order such as an introduction, a verse that is repeated several times with variations, a chorus or bridge that is different, and often the memorable highlight of the piece, a few more verses, and an ending. Often there are solos in the chorus. All Read more [...]

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Playing Music

Contrast is the Key to Striking Beauty While in my doumbek class last week, my drum teacher Amir Etemadzadeh, who is a native of Iran was talking about the importance of being able to distinguish clearly all the notes we can make on our drums. The more notes, the better. The more clearly they are different from each other, the better and more beautiful it sounds to the listener.Amir describes it as creating a beautiful and delicious meal and all the notes are like the spices and layers that Read more [...]

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- The Magic of Transitions

Transitions Make Magic Happen Its the moments between the moments, the transitions, where the real magic happens.Every dance is made up of a series of moves, but how a dancer goes from one move to the next shows what they are made of and creates the flow of the whole performance.What happens in that space between the moves? I bet you never thought of that. Is it like watching a slide show, where you see one picture, and then the next and the next? Or is it like a film or video where the transition Read more [...]

Can Creating a Perfect Space Make You Happy?

I am so glad you are here.I get it. Over the last year, you may have spent more time at home than you wanted to. You may have thought, OMG, this is not working for me! I don’t like the way my house looks or feels. I don’t have enough room. I have too much stuff. The colors suck. I don’t have a space to work, work out, or for peace and quiet.You are working on creating your dream life…. improving your career, health, and relationships. Some of those things may have been on hold for a while.Are Read more [...]

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Surprise Me

Surprises Make Magic Happen A great dance performance always has a surprise.It might be an unexpected twist in the storyline.It might be the unveiling of the dancer so you see her beautiful face or costume. Back stage before a classical Persian dance performance. Mary Ann Benoit, of Tavus Dance Company. Maybe it is the revealing of an unexpected part of the costume that was hidden that causes the audience to gasp in surprise and Read more [...]