Implied lines in design

Part 3  of composing inviting interiors ...


Doesn't  implied lines sound very  technical? It refers to  lines from separate objects that run into each other and seem to form a single edge. This is sometimes called a hidden edge. Such visual anomalies cause confusion and/or boredom in our homes (and in artwork).

I like this well put together vignette and what I'm going to point out is probably the result of  the angle from which the photo was taken, but it works well to illustrate this point.  You can see that the lamp looks like it shares the same edge as the art work.

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This is another shot of the room and  indeed the lamp is placed away from the edge of the artwork.  If it wasn't that is all you would need to do to tweek the arrangement.

A similar problem is created when you have implied lines set up when  several objects are the same height  in an arrangement.  A prime example of this implied line happens  when  lamps are exactly the same height as a headboard in bedrooms.  Sometimes this works well and other times it doesn't.  You have to decide your intent when doing it.

There are such beautiful colours and patterns in this room and the designer probably had a  good reason for choosing the lamps shown here.  It is often difficult to determine why choices are made when you can't  see the whole room or you have no understanding of the homeowner intent.  In my humble opinion, I want to see the lamps less overwhelming in pattern and shorter so the headboard shines.  Again that is one person's opinion!  Excitement/interest  is usually created by variety and something has to shine in an arrangement.   I am not fond of  visual competition/fighting.

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 In this room the lamps and headboard are roughly the same height and provide a line to support the arrangement of art work that runs beyond the the headboard. A successful use of implied line.

 Bright Bazaar 

 Then of course there is the room where the masterful designer makes implied lines work to fantastic advantage.  In this space the lamps extend the visual line of the headboard and creates  great bottom weight for the large scale, highly textured  IKEA shade.

  Can you see the implied lines in this dining room?  Your eye runs horizontally on three  levels.  It is boring!  I can say that because it is an old shot of the dining room in my house.  A few simple changes  helped greatly.

 The strong line that ran from the buffet to the railing was broken by moving the buffet to the opposite wall and creating a visual break by hanging long drapes .  These are temporary while my custom order ones are being made.  A new round  light fixture hung lower also helps break the horizontal lines.  Thankfully none of the wood is a orange as the photos suggest!

Colour Trends: Looking back and looking forward

There's nothing like the end of a year to make you hop around in your thinking.  While I'm busy considering the colour trends for 2020, I'm  also looking back to see connections and possible threads that can make these new colours have a little more staying power.

I'm interested in creating fresh looks through creative use of what is in a home, energized  with a few new purchases.  To pull this off you need a long term view of what is happening in the world of colour.  

Last year dark blues were prominent in  many of the images you saw in magazines and online, first appearing in Pantone's fall 2019 predictions.  That is still a strong look and one that  will  hang around for awhile.

If you look at Pantone's spring  2020 predictions you will see several tints/shades of blue.

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My favourite is 4 Classic Blue because it is crisp and deep without being too cold.  Check out  this combination of dark blue with natural colours.

There is also a fresh take on the "old" country look emerging with clean lines, less clutter, natural materials and prominent textures mixed with lighter woods.   Think pared down Pottery Barn.  I've packed a number of possibilities into this style board, but you wouldn't want to use them all in one space.

My personal preference  is more a mix of West Elm meets the Scandinavian countries. Notice the olive green which will be big in 2015.

This colour would work just as well as the dark blue in the Modern Country look.   And it is so sharp with black and cream.

Pantone's 2014 colour of the year Radiant Orchid came in like a lion, and obviously went out like a lamb because apart from what I saw online, it did not impact my life or design practice in any way.

 I actually liked this colour where many designers didn't.  I've always loved those redish purple hues especially in textiles, but not so much in furniture.  If you bought into this trend, it is easily updated and made even more interesting when combined with yellowish greens.   Just check out the pillow lower left  for an indication of this blend as well as the rug and artworks.

And now for 2015 Pantone is staying in the same arena with its choice of marsala, but definitely browning it down quite a bit to create a heavy bodied colour.  Again not a favourite of many designers.

 I've seen combinations of it with a variety of blues even cool ones and they all look fantastic. It also looks great with the oddest combinations as you can see below. I'm particularly loving it with blues and light creams.

Who knew it would work so well with orange and coral? 

Since I only spec Benjamin Moore paint colours in my business, I am always interested in their colour trends. 

Benjamin Moore's  2014 Breath of Fresh Air at least supported the spa/beach vibe that is still a go- to look with many homeowners.  It is a versatile colour that looks great with pearly grays, driftwood colours and soft or chrisp whites.  It also combines well with marsala and the current  Benjamin Moore colour for 2015, Guilford green.

 How can you possibly go wrong when you have two obvious "earth" colours like blue and green.  Nature never makes mistakes!


When you consider the metallics in your home, the move to warm metals is even more pronounced this year.

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Brittany Makes Blog 

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 In  European markets  copper and pink gold are hot commodities. They are not as versatile for all over use especially the pink gold which always comes across as very delicate/feminine.  

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 In North American decor golds and  brass are prevalent. I'm fond of a more burnished look with these metals.  I can't seem to bring myself around to the shine of yellow brass - too much history. The yellow metallics look great with greens, dark blues and brownish reds like marsala.  And mixing metals is still very trendy.  Go for it.

Lots of connections.  Do you ever consider colour trends when you decorate?

Christmas staples: Buds, twigs, branches and berries

There's nothing like the real thing for Christmas decorating.  You get to go for a little adventure in the woods with your trusty snippers, and come away with a red nose and a trunk full of inspiration.

Sometimes you just have to go to your backyard, but there's a limit to happy cutting in a small space. That's where I got the materials for my front porch planters, if you don't count the leftovers from my summer planter and feathers I've recycled several times.   

 Hubby made me a trough box for my trunk/ottoman.  I knew what I wanted to put in it, but I couldn't hack away anything else in my yard. My sister came to the rescue.  Remember last year when I posted about her nature inspire Christmas?  She  had already made her yearly trip for bough and twig cutting to complete her planters and agreed to take me to her spot. Bonanza.

Here's her efforts ...

Don't you love that hit of yellow with the red?

Now on to my family affair project..

My son sprayed the box for me with  Krylon Colormaster  in nickel.  Then I taped it off and used gold to create two stripes around the box.  I figured I may as well get with the mixed metal trend.

  I had three LED candles (so safe and they actually flicker- daughter tip from Costco) I wanted to use and went to the dollar store and bought seven square glasses  to put oasis in to keep the boughs fresh. The alder twigs looked a little boring so they got the spray treatment too in a mix of nickel and gold.
Then I began the arrangement.

Fresh flowers are a must anytime of year.

A favourite vase, fluted and textured makes a stunning centerpiece on my coffee table. Nothing else is needed.

And my favourite berry wreath that has been in every room in the house over the years surrounds a vase of baby's breath and white carnations.  You can tell I like my flowers simple and usually white because they work anywhere with anything, especially with red.


I was very lazy with the  dining room  additions....

I'm not a theme driven decorator, but  nature is always a staple in whatever I do.  My new purchase for 2014 was two white carved reindeer.  I always buy a green plant;  this year it is a Norfolk pine in a faux burlap container.  May it live for awhile.

For my dining table  centrepiece I simply added some fresh cranberries to my Boblen vase, and used it as a candle holder, added a string of red wooden beads  (at least 30 years old) and fake red berries  to the well used  vase of twigs.  In honour of the season I changed my tray to my favourite white one with the silver leaf birds and leaves.

And wise silver bird  looks on knowingly because he's seen it all before.

And art won

After a perfect summer 

 There's nothing like a summer away from the wear and tear of business to hours and days of art  to make you aware of what's really important in your life.  The voices in my head were murmuring at the beginning of the summer, but by September they reached a crescendo; I couldn't ignore them any longer.

 I need more time to make art.

There, I finally said it out loud.

 I've decided to bring my design business more in line with my art practice by eliminating some of the services I offer design clients and focusing on the ones that are more art related.  Enter the designer artist  from the sidelines to front and centre.

Colour me happy 

Colour has always been my specialty because I've honed my knowledge through years of  mixing colour in art making.  I enjoy creating  welcoming colour schemes for clients, and I will continue to do this.

The art of designing home

 In addition to colour consultation,  Designing Home will focus on the finishing touches/ accessorizing (art and objects) that move  a space from ordinary to exceptional.

Many times decorators can successfully source objects to add interest  to your space, but sometimes what you need is original and designed with you and your home in mind.  That's where Designing Home is different from other design businesses.

I can create commissioned work to fill your needs or offer a large selection of artwork to choose from or help you select work by other artists.   And just as important is  advice on where and how to hang your work. 

Some of my works that already have  homes.... 

Margaret Ryall 

Margaret Ryall 

Margaret Ryall 

Margaret Ryall

Margaret Ryall 

 I work in a  variety of media and styles from realistic to abstract and non representational. 


Check out my Instagram feed or The Leyton Gallery  website.

Choosing what's important

Summer is officially over.

Did any readers notice  I took an extended holiday away from Designing Home blog?

I also bravely put my design business in mothballs except for a few clients.  That's right a four month holiday to complete artwork for two shows.  Brave or foolhardy? Only time will tell.

This is where I spent my summer.

The little speck of a house in the background is my favourite place in the world. The views are spectacular and the ocean in all its moods speaks daily.  Duntara is as close to heaven as you will get.

I had a marvellous summer full of creativity, conversation, relaxation, long walks roaming the beaches, whale watching and iceberg viewing directly in front of the house and on and on it goes.  I'm coming to fall with a renewed focus on my art practice.  It feels very satisfying. 

My new work continues to focus on  what gets left behind, but I have moved from two dimensional works to three dimensional using found wood and objects to explore Compositions in Time.  

Composition in Time #22,  2020, Margaret Ryall , wood assemblage, 16 x 16 in. 

Composition in Time #27, 2020, Margaret Ryall, Wood assemblage, 16x16in.

Composition in Time #29, 2020, Margaret Ryall,  wood assemblage, 16 x16in. 

For more work check out my website   

One or the other of my two careers  usually gets the short end of the stick;  I may have to do something about that.  Decision time is creeping up on me.

Yes, I know I never did write a post about my new kitchen.  That is coming this fall, but first I have two more weeks in beautiful Duntara.

Designing your IKEA kitchen

We are out the other end of our IKEA kitchen design & install and hindsight, as you know,  is a wonderful thing. Our family joke is now we are ready to tackle an IKEA kitchen. This is the first of a series of posts around the design and installation of our new kitchen.

 Design is key

Without good design any reno is throwing good money after bad.  If you haven't really thought out how you want to work in your kitchen,  and how you want it to look overall, no matter how well you install it, you won't be happy. 


 I hope some of my musings, and what I learned as I worked through the design process, will be helpful to you if you are planning an IKEA kitchen as a renovation project. 

Get what you want by designing well 

Know what's hidden

Know the bones of your kitchen  so there'll be no surprises. We wanted 90 inch pantry units and had a bulkhead with pot lights in it.  I kept nagging my husband to have a look, and I was so glad because to our surprise we found vent work.  Just enough to cause me to move to 80 inch pantries.  Not a happy camper letting go of my floor to ceiling pantries, and needing more filler pieces to accommodate what was available in that height pantry.

We were also planning to keep our current footprint and we knew that the flooring did not extend under our cabinets. 

That meant we had to get all our cabinet measurements correct and use fillers to make it come out even.  If you have an island or peninsula and are keeping your existing flooring,  it is even more important to do careful measurement in terms of depth. We found out we could not have a toe kick on the back of the peninsula so the cover panel had to extend to the floor.  

Analyze your current kitchen 

Make a list of what works and what annoys you in your current kitchen layout.  For everything that annoys you, you should try to come up with a solution if possible. It is easier and more cost effective  to keep appliances where they are, but sometimes their placement is part of the inefficiency. Our cooktop and oven were in a major traffic area, and it was downright dangerous when we entertained.   You could also see the stove top from the dining room; I am not a tidy cook. We chose to flip the refrigerator to the cooking area, and make that area into a wall of pantries with the refrigerator centred.  The perfect solution to storage in a walkway.

80s cooking area 

Standard sizes for pantries 

Fridge and pantries

80s layout of kitchen across from cooking area 

Moving appliances meant hiring an electrician, but it was worth it. 

 Everyone expected me to move my sink under the window, but that would have meant a very squat prep area if the stove moved to where the fridge was.  When I stand at my sink now I have a view of two prominent St. John's landmarks - Signal Hill and Cape Spear.  Why would I want to exchange that for a view of my neighbour's house? Now I have a huge prep area and I can make all the mess I want when I entertain.  Perfect planning!

Several friends brought up the idea of "updating" to an island.    I like my kitchen to myself when I cook, even when I entertain.  No island for me, and it could have happened in the space without too much effort.  Personal choices are important in design.  I made an entertaining hang out area by removing the half wall in pic below and opening it up to the family room. 

Another big problem for us was  a bottleneck area  at the end of the peninsula because of a contractor error in the initial construction. The wall by the oven was  built 10 inches too long and changing it was complicated and expensive because it contained pipes, heating and air exchanger vent work, plus light switches.   When we redesigned we took three inches off the length of the peninsula to open up the walkway.   That was possible because we had floor tile left over.  

Visit an IKEA store 

By chance we ended up grounded for 24 hours in Toronto when returning from a trip.  We took advantage of that time ( a year before our reno) to check out everything kitchen related.  I took over a 100  pics of things that interested me, and  I kept referring to them as I designed.  If you can't do that, find someone who has designed and installed an IKEA kitchen and go for a chat.  I managed to find two people who were obliging, and it was helpful even after the store visit. 

Start a reno board on Pinterest 

Look at various IKEA kitchen layouts and cabinet styles online.  Think about  improving storage options especially if you have a smallish kitchen.  Pinterest is a great resource and you can pin everything you see on one board.  Consider a secret board so you can make comments and track ideas or a shared secret board if you have a design partner.  Check out my Kitchen reno board here and a previous post about Finding your decor style.

Find inspiration pictures

Your kitchen should meet your needs in style and function.  Make it yours.  Here are two pics that helped me refine the look I wanted. They are not everyone's cup of tea!

Create a vision 

Many people just go headlong into a reno and don't stop to think about their design aesthetic.  What kind of feel do you want in the space?  What style of cabinets and layout suits that feel? What is the rest of your home like?  Are there interior aspects of the cabinets that will add to how you want to feel in your space? 

After all the cabinets and gray horizontal lines in my old kitchen I wanted something  visually quieter this time around. 

 The two photos above illustrate "the feel" I wanted : uncluttered, quiet, airy, bright, calm and minimal,  but with elements of warmth and nature. These are the words I kept in my head throughout the design process.  I wrote them  down and checked my decisions against them constantly.  You will probably have other words entirely, but have  descriptive words as benchmarks for decisions.

I really wanted a kitchen that flowed from the rest of our house  and reflected our arty, organic and calm decor style. 

• Uncluttered ...lots of thought to interior storage options and eliminating "stuff" you don't need 

• Airy ... an absence of upper cabinets so your eye moved around the space 

• Calm and bright...  from colour and style choices and layout

• Warm and quiet ...   no laminate, granite, or other hard surface counters 

• Organic...  from natural products like wood, cork, plants etc.

 Stick to your vision 

A reno is a headache in many ways, and you will reach a point where you are fed up and want to take the easy way out.  Don't.  Take a break from it and look at the problem with fresh eyes.  Make all decisions based on your initial concepts for the space.  

Work out a rough sketch on paper

Perhaps it's my age and my visual art training, but I begin everything with paper and pencil.  I found the kitchen booklet  we picked up at IKEA a great help when doing this because all cabinet sizes were listed and you could plainly see what was inside  each one.  There is an online version.  I didn't spend a lot of time at this stage,  just enough to decide on the flow and placement of drawers or doors. 

Refine your sketch in the kitchen planner

I work  with design apps all the time, but I found the IKEA kitchen planner very frustrating.  It had lots of little glitches, and if you have an island or  peninsula as I did, the cabinets kept wanting to line up by a wall.  I was also working on a MAC.  In the end I refined the plan enough to send to IKEA and get the order made, but it never looked pretty.

 Imagine working in your new kitchen 

Once you have a preliminary design in mind, consider it the next time you bring home groceries.  Is there a place for everything.  If you are entertaining, is there a place for all those things you only use every now and then?  Prepare an imaginary meal and clean up. Are your movements efficient? Have you solved all the design issues in your previous kitchen?

Explain your design to someone outside your family 

Walk through your design with someone outside the family and explain your layout decisions. This really helped me confirm that I wanted things the way I thought.  You also have an opportunity to question the IKEA staff when you order your kitchen. They were super helpful when I called.

Record your questions before IKEA ordering 

I had at least ten questions recorded for clarification when I called to place my order.  Many of them were of a confirmation type, making sure I had interpreted the cabinets properly and that I could do what I wanted to do. 

And yes, you will have more than one design.

 I'm happy to answer any questions or hear your comments about your IKEA kitchen design suggestions. 

The big reveal is coming up in the next post and yes, it was worth all the thought, frustration and mess.... 

From snow to eggs

 We are hunkered down for a winter storm with 40 cm. of snow predicted.  Everything is closed so there are no schedules to keep. It's the kind of day where I have lots of time to let my mind wander where it may.  That's a dangerous thing when you can go from one thought to a hundred in a minute.  So let's see how I got from snow to this post.

White, cold, wishing for spring,  Easter, eggs, decorating eggs, symbolism of eggs, egg imagery through history, eggs in art, design trend for 2020 (read it on Houzz this week),  Las Vegas Market trends Winter 2020, should write a new blog post because I have time today, anyone else predicting eggs are hot, search Pinterest.  Yep!  That's how my head works.

What is a trend?

Decor trends  are predictions based on patterns recognized from multiple viewings of similar material.  Anyone can make trend predictions if they have enough information and time to look for patterns.

 Here are some of the patterns I'm seeing on Olioboard, Pinterest and design blogs that indicate that eggs and egg shapes or oval shapes are appearing in textiles, lighting and home accents.

Sometimes  eggs are represented literally and recognizable as what they are.  You will often see nests accompanying the eggs as in the pillow and art works above.  Sometimes the egg shapes are abstracted and used in repetition to create patterns.  These are the ones I find most pleasing.  

Is it just me or do you find anything egg shaped or hinting of it pleasing/soothing to the eye? This characteristic makes it a perfect shape to choose when you want a lighting fixture to just sit there and hold a place without being  too dominant in the decor.  Sometimes this is not what you want!  For excitement do not choose  of the lights above (except the red one).

Jeff Koons, Cracked Egg- Blue

Egg shapes have always been a favourite of artists through the centuries.  Not only is it a pleasing shape, but the symbolism of promise of things to come, fertility, and creation  makes eggs a multifaceted starting point for many artistic explorations.

Paul Lichetenhan - Nest 

This work created by Paul Lichtenhan couldn't be more different than Koon's  reflective, slick and very large cracked egg above.  In this piece the aged patina of the recycled metals stand in striking contrast to the delicate ceramic eggs. 

Andy Goldsworthy 

 Goldsworthy, an environmental artist, makes a different statement with his large, stone egg defying our usual interpretation of this delicate, fragile shape. 

Ron Layport

Finally Ron Layport creates  intricate, egg shaped carvings from wood.  In all of the presented  works the material used to create them is as important as the subject matter.  Each has its own beauty. 

Eggs, simple or complicated, realistic or abstracted, may appear in some form in your decor this year. Perhaps you are ahead of the game!  Have you noticed egg motifs in your online viewing or shopping experiences?