This is the first blog post that talks about our interior design choices.  My husband and I like modern, and simple lines.

One of the first rooms we finished designing in our house was the sun room. It is an enclosed sun room, and it is a small space ~5 ft by ~7 ft.

There are several things we loved, about this room, before we started:

• the color  – its a dark cream; and
• secondly the light of the room, it has great windows.

The floor consists of terra-cotta tiles, which I was not sure about when we first moved in, but as the room opens to the deck and backyard I have changed my mind – its the perfect surface with a 5 year-old and outdoor activities.

The room had a glass door and a fixed window which was door-sized exiting to the deck. We replaced that with beautiful simple French doors.

Some of the key pieces in the room that makes this a functional room and pulled it together for us are, the side-turned bookcases we use for records and cd’s, the two chairs,  the red lamp, the grey rug and the simple side table (adorned with a plant and a beautiful paper weight art piece). The layout of these pieces definitely make the room seem larger (this was the second layout option we tried).

My husband and I do appreciate art and are influenced by New Zealand artists. Some of the pieces that add interest to our room include an antique gas coach lamp which we hung in the inner window space (recycled from my husbands grandfather’s summer garden), a green tiki, and 3 pottery tiles with New Zealand native plants (NZ Cabbage tree, Nikau tree and NZ Flax).

I love to read, listen to music and relax in this room now. When friends come over this is where we drink coffee.  I think when designing, for us, it is about putting together items we have collected over time and making room useful but an enjoyable space.