Sleight of Hand

27 Tricks and Techniques, Straight from the Pros

By Barbara Ballinger and Margaret Crane

Illustrations by Helen Dardik

Designers and decorators are master magicians, able to conjure up unusual design solutions in an instant. We tapped the brains of St. Louis’ design luminaries, asking them for their best, most brilliant ideas.

Furniture

The Four Seasons.

For a fresh look, change furniture with the seasons to take advantage of what’s happening outdoors and indoors. In his own home, Bob Newton of Robert Payne Newton & Associates moves his sleigh bed from the bedroom to the paneled library in winter for the coziness quotient. He also switches the slipcovers on his furniture from summmer cool to winter warm.

Old Meets New in the Loo.

Take an antique sideboard or washstand, says Jeanie Hood of Three French Hens, and transform it into a vanity by adding a marble or porcelain top.Depending on size, drop in one or two sinks—or build an armoire into a wall for a more interesting cabinet solution.

Turning Heads.

Headboards are functional and usually decorative—but they can jump the bar and become a private gallery. Cut out large rectangular or square holes and insert artwork such as photos or paintings—with or without frames. Carole Hiatt of Carole Hiatt Design Associates did this in her own bedroom. Hint: Be sure the headboard measures at least 6 feet from the floor.

Couching the Question.

To update existing furniture, especially if it’s formal and stiff, first overstuff cushions with down. Then, says Mary Fisher of Fabric & Design, change the shape of the arms, back or legs by having your upholsterer round them out or build them up. Fisher suggested this, for example, to clients with traditional chairs and a square sofa. “Our workroom used photos from a Ralph Lauren book for inspiration, and we made the pieces more massive-looking as well as rounder,” she says. The furniture was then upholstered in a Ralph Lauren plaid in blues and grays.

Artful Touches

Object Lessons.

By grouping similar objects in a collection, you can make a stronger design statement than if you spread them throughout a room or house. Alan Brainerd (of Alan E. Brainerd Interiors) does this with his own favorite collections: crystal bowls filled with fruits and vegetables or flowers, and his collection of cloisonné.

Lose Your Marbles.

Gold- or silver-leaf the interior of your fireplace, depending on your room’s palette, then layer the floor of the fireplace with glass marbles of different sizes, suggests Susan Block of The Designing Block. You can then add candles of different widths—from skinny to chunky—into holders that you conceal within the marbles. Light the candles for a soft romantic glow.

Soft Touch.

Recycle an old fur coat into an ottoman or footstool—depending on the amount of usable fur. Scott Tjaden of Scott Tjaden Interiors did this in his own home with a chocolate-brown lamb coat his late mother had owned since she was a teenager. He also incorporated the lining—which included his mother’s monogram—into the design. Extra fur can be recycled into pillows.

Frame It Up.

Jenny Manganaro of Interior Design Consultants considers ceilings the most ignored space in a room. She suggests jazzing them up by adding quarter-round or one-inch unfinished trim. Use the strips to create a box on the ceiling, set a foot away from where the wall and ceiling meet. Miter the edges. Pull out a different—albeit compatible—shade of paint. “If you paint inside the box, the ceiling comes down,” she says. “Paint outside and it makes the ceiling seem higher.”

Trim It Out.

Say your bathroom’s so small, there’s not room for classic molding. Or it’s a nice-sized room, so the mitered corners seem a bit frightening. An easy but effective alternative, says Rose Roberts of Rose Roberts Interior Design, is to simply take a coordinating trim—ribbon, braid, beads or tassels—and use a hot glue gun to attach it around the top of the wall. “There are so many beautiful trims now,” Ms. Roberts says. And you can do it anywhere—at the top of the wall as well as at the baseboards.

Seat of Power.

Give dining room chairs a different look by slipcovering seats in different colors of the same fabric, or painting or staining them in different hues. One caveat from Lenore Pepper (of Edwin Pepper Interiors): Don’t use silk. It requires too much cleaning; it’s too expensive.

School’s In.

Use blackboards in the kitchen. For one family with four children, aged 3 to 8, Kris Keller of The Design Source installed blackboards on the fronts of four cabinet doors so each child had his or her own artistic space. She also installed blackboards within the cabinets, which the family used to leave private messages.

Mirrors

All That Glitters.

To add sparkle, dimension and bling to a kitchen or master bathroom backsplash, Linda Kusmer of Total Interior Designs uses 4-inch crystal tiles, inset with smaller 2-inch square-beveled mirror tiles laid on a diagonal.

Mirrors, Mirrors on the Wall.

Create an illusion by layering mirrors on a wall so that they become an artistic, architectural feast for the eye, says Lisa Palazzo of Heirlooms. Make the room appear bigger by hanging a large mirror on a wall and resting a smaller one in front of it. Or cover an entire wall with framed mirrors, using different style frames in various shapes and materials—or the same frame but in different sizes. For the over-the-top dramatic touch, hang mirrors from wires in the ceiling.

Glass Act. 

To brighten up a room that doesn’t get much light, Cheryl Elder of Cheryl Elder Interiors will hang a large mirror opposite a window or windows so it will reflect light. In a downtown loft that lacked windows on one wall, Ms. Elder placed a large 10-by 4-foot mirror framed in black wood opposite two windows. To make the room look lighter, brighter and larger, she also added plenty of artificial lighting.

Going Metal

Man of Steel.

When you’re building or adding on, Tom Niemeier, an architect with Space Interiors LLC, suggests using nontraditional materials. He’s fond of sheets of raw steel. Treated with muriatic acid, washed and dried in the sun, the sheets gain a contemporary textured pattern and will glow in a wonderful gold or orange. You can use them in kitchens, living rooms and hallways. “In fact, they’re great in halls where there’s traffic, since they’re indestructible,” he says. The price tag runs about $75 a sheet.

Tin Ceiling.

Don Pisoni of Don Pisoni, Inc., has another metal-tastic suggestion: Use sheets of 3-by-6 corrugated metal as ceiling material to create a great look that never needs painting. Pisoni did this on a lower level of his lake house, combining the metal with beams for an overall rustic look. “The shiny metal and wood create a novel juxtaposition,” he says. He also interspersed metal with cypress balusters in the stairway for cohesiveness.

Walls and Floors

Wonder Walls.

Consider padding your walls and then covering them with sheered silks, suggests Tim Rohan of T. Rohan Interiors. Finish them off with French gimp or multicolored cording. If you prefer a cozier or more masculine approach, try tufted leather or flannel with diamond-shaped tips in pigskin. Once done, the four walls become the focal point of your room. Cost depends on the fabric selected as well as labor required. Hint: Avoid heavy velvets and metals.

Bring Up the Floor Lights. 

To add visual interest to a floor, insert 12-by-12 glass tiles in a pattern that works with the home’s design. In a beach house, Julie Rooney of Julie Rooney Interiors used glass tiles in various sparkly hues to form the shapes of starfish, stars and turtles. The surrounding floor was paved in larger 20- by 20-inch Jerusalem stones that copied the color of the nearby sand.

Faux Sure.

Paint an area rug, suggests Joy Tribout. It’s a novel look and easier to clean than carpeting, especially when you have young children and pets. Joy Tribout Interiors has an artist on staff who handles paint jobs, including “rugs” in sizes that are 18 inches outside the tables on all four sides. In one case, Ms. Tribout designed a  checkerboard pattern and made the white look aged, then shellacked it for protection. The cost is no more expensive than a nice rug, she says, usually between $700 and $3,000, depending on detailing and size. Hint: If used under a table, take the measurements with its leaves included.

Weathered Leather.

Upholster walls or floors with leather tiles for instant pizzazz, says Gigi Steadman of Frank Patton Interiors. Over time, the leather will acquire a rich patina.

Door Décor.

To add detailing to a plain panel door, Jennifer Fischer of Major Designs, Inc., installs a panel molding or chair-rail molding mitered at the corners. Make the squares vertical or horizontal. You can also add carved molding around the door’s frame for more embellishment.

Dem Bones.

Kim Guin and Barbara Kunz of Interiors by Design suggest that, when building or remodeling, it’s worth your while to photograph the inside of the walls before the drywall goes up. This gives you a permanent record of the wiring, pipes, floor and ceiling joists and ductwork for future reference.

Queen’s Entrance.

Janice Rohan of Park Avenue Design begins with drapery panels in a fabulous fabric, such as iridescent silk or hand-printed linen, then hangs them on either side of a door—dreating a portière.

Prep Test.

Analyze a room before you buy new furnishings, advise Directions in Design’s Cindy Belmont and Melissa Rozell. Know how you’ll use the room, what tasks you’ll perform in it and what kind of lighting you’ll need. Lighting, they say, is key.

Cutting In.

Tom Manche of Tom Manche Interiors will break up a long room, possibly where the living and dining areas are part of the same expanse, with shorter walls that extend into the room 2 or 4 inches but go all the way up to the ceiling. Paint perimeter walls a neutral color and the shorter walls in bright colors—then accessorize to match. The shorter walls become a focal point and can divide the room, making it easy to arrange different furniture groupings.

Zensational.

Turn the area for plants on the lower level into a Zen garden, suggests Mishi McCoy of June Roesslein Interiors. Lay flagstone squares and intersperse pebbles, add in a gurgling fountain and Buddha statue, and you’re all set for some serious meditation.

Twilight Zone.

The hot new space for home is the wellness room. When decorating, says Kim Taylor of CLB Interiors, add sound, (water or music), robin’s-egg blue walls, a Buddha or two, floral candles and consider bamboo flooring, soft rugs and curtains.