In a renovation, never, and I mean NEVER cut corners on who you hire for labor!

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ur Family Room inbox is inundated with resourceful and creative questions submitted by our readers. Oh, we love to put our heads together and respond to the queries, big and small, specific or generic. For our twelfth issue, we have compiled some of our most frequently asked questions, and turned to Family Room contributor, Leia Karoly, to share her wisdom. Keep the questions coming!

-Rivki

1. Does a dark backsplash make an area look smaller?

Smaller? No. Less cohesive? Yes. Unless you are going for a bold and dramatic look with dark counter tops, I would stick with a backsplash tile that has the same ground color as your counter tops. This will help to create a serene site line, without visually chopping up the design.

2. 
   What can I do to make my new house with low ceilings feel bigger?This is all about tricking the eye. The tips I’m about to give you may seem counter intuitive, but I always keep them in my back pocket when mapping out a smaller space.

• Fill it up. Empty rooms always feel smaller than filled ones. Don’t assume that just because you have a small space that you need less. Properly laying out and furnishing a space with designated furniture zones will instantly give purpose and flow (ie. expanse) to your room.
• Mount your drapery as close to the ceiling as possible, even on the ceiling if you can. Drapery naturally draws the eye up, so if you have short windows or ceilings, mounting your drapery way beyond your casing will give the illusion of more height than you actually have.
• Dark paint. Darker paint colors give the feeling of grandeur and depth. It also helps to blur the vertical and horizontal planes of your drywall, thereby making a small space, seem not so small.
• A couple of great colors for this are Farrow and Ball #30 Hague Blue, and Portola Paints ‘In the Navy’ which is a stunning Roman Clay Plaster finish.

3. How do I choose a countertop material that’s durable and can be kashered at the same time?

This is one of the biggest dilemmas my clients tend to struggle with. I think people have this stigma associated with stone that is a lot more dramatic and complicated than it needs to be. Here’s the long and short of it in my view.

• Budget allowing, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like natural stone. Does marble need to be taken care of? Yes. Is it as delicate as fine china? Absolutely not. Wipe your counters when your done cooking, have them sealed once a year and you’ll be good to go. Marble is also very porous and therefor the most ideal for kashering. Win. Win.
• Porcelain is quite literally indestructible. It’s made by taking a man-made surface and laser printing a stone-like veining onto the slab. Because it is completely nonporous, I have been told it should be covered for use on Pesach. I’m not a huge fan of the ones that try to imitate natural marble with too much veining, so stick to a solid color, and subtle amounts of movement
• Want the best of both words? Try a silicon coating treatment – I like TuffSkin for this. It’s a virtually invisible film that is professionally installed on top of your stone to make it completely stain, spill, and scratch proof. It can be replaced whenever you would like, say- Pesach time, otherwise it has a lifespan of about ten years.

4. Do you have any general tips when picking and layering throw pillows on a couch? 

I never do pillows in pairs. it’s too obvious. Try throwing a collection of random pillows within the same color family for a lived in, casual look. Always choose down filled pillows so you can get that nice designer chop, and don’t go too large – you want to be able to see the shape of the sofa behind them. Lastly, I love a good sphere shaped pillows, like these boucle ones from Etsy – especially since they double as footballs for an epic pillow fight.

If you want the short list of pillow sizing, ill break it down for you real quick.

• • Sectionals: 22”x22” with 24” inserts for extra fluff
  • Smaller sofas and love seats: 20”x20”, 22” insets- same story with the fluff
  • Curved sofas: small and sphere shaped, 12” diameter s cute.

5. How do you pair some of your atypical, not matching, accent chairs?

Same idea as the pillows. Instead of going for a “pair of accent chairs” try using two different chairs that compliment each other, with a pretty accent table in between. The key to nailing this look is to use one chair that is more comfy, and plush, likely fully upholstered, and one chair that is lighter and less bottom heavy – something with a metal or wooden frame. I love this combo from Allmodern & Urban Outfitters.