Entertaining for the Holidays

Entertaining & Decoration Tips from our Designers

Center Yourself
A great table starts with a great center. But it’s easy to overwhelm your space with an over sized piece. When choosing a centerpiece, keep in mind the function of the table. Be sure not to block conversations and leave room for guests to set down their plates and drinks.

The four people to be seated here will have a hard
time talking to the guests seated across from them

Create Comfort
Mentally walk through your home before the party. Plan out where people are most likely to gather and make sure there is enough space for chatting and traffic. To create extra space turn an out of the way area of your house into a destination, entice people down the hall with lighting, music or scents.

Keep it Together
Get a tailored and finished touch by limiting your palette. Choose one or two complementary colors for the majority of your linens, candles, decorations and set them off with a few bold accent pieces

Our designers loved what Katrina Giles did with this table.
The white and blue plates pop against the shimmery black place mats.

Avail Yourself
Believe it or not the most important person at the party is you! You are the one who knows everyone, knows where everything is, and has a plan for how the night should go. Make sure you’re available to entertain your guests. Hire a helping hand to clean up dishes and set up dessert. A neighborhood teen is always looking for a few extra dollars and it’s a quick and easy job.

Choosing a Rug by Marlena Leonard

Marlena Leonard has been and Interior Design at Paul Rich in Sons since 1999. Her education is in Architectural and Interior Design. She is also an accomplished painter and artist.


When it comes to bringing richness to a room – adding an area rug is a quick and easy solution. However, purchasing an oriental is very subjective, since it will be a long term commitment – buying what is in vogue at the moment will not work in the long run. It has to express the owner’s individuality and style.

A hand-woven rug will enhance the interior in many ways

• It brings focus to the room


• In an open space lay out it plays the role of room divider


• It adds richness of color and pattern to neutral furniture
  

By selecting the right size it will visually enlarge a small space or bring focus to a large room with high ceilings. It simply brings beauty to any space and enjoyment to a customer that will last for years

As a designer I will assist you with your choices making sure the colors and patterns flow and the end result will be an original rug that will and define your taste and bring style and elegance to your home for years to come.

The picture above picture illustrates how an intricate pattern on a traditional style rug compliments the contemporary sofa and neutral color scheme.

Here we have a more eclectic theme in the living room. The traditional style of the furniture is contrasted by an antique kilim rug with a simple geometric pattern.

Changing Seasons: A Storage Saga

I hear faint rustle. There's a breeze. My nose twitches at fresh crisp air. My senses flood my brain with warnings. Flashing yellow lights, lights the color of falling leaves. Red sirens, sirens that sound like ripe apples falling from trees. Warning: Fall is moving in.

What was just warm, humid and still, is now cool, dry, on the move. Like the changing landscape outside, life in our homes begin to move too. Children pack off to school, sweaters come out of closets, boots march towards the front door. It seems as though the house shrinks during theses changes. The sudden influx of extra layers crowd our shelves as we try to keep the shorts and tees on for one more day. Hot tea warms on the stove dirtying another dish after a long summer of paper plates and dinner cooked on the grill.

So what to do with all this stuff, how do we make the best out of a season between seasons.


1. Easy on Easy Off.
A chest at the end of the bed is an easy access way to store extra blankets or sweaters. You won't have to dig for items you want to pull out quick when your cold and bleary eyed mid way through the night or you decide to grab an extra layer after being confronted at the door by a blast of cold morning air.


2. The 3 B's,
Boxes, Bags and Baskets are smart functional and chic ways to organize and store clutter. Finding a style that matches your personality and is sized right for the item is key to making it work. Even in your junk drawer you can reinstate order by using old coin purses to corral stray batteries, a worn clutch works great as a pencil case. Decorative boxes pull double duty as table accents with the benefit of hiding the coasters and a deck of cards for a rainy day game of canasta.

3. Saying Goodbye
Of course there are always some things that now matter how many times you click you heels you just can't seem to make them go away. These are things you probably moved more than once in your life, maybe it started as your favorite shirt then it slid to the back of the closet, then got pushed around to a few other hiding spots. These things may even have been packed up brought to a new home and never made it back out of the box to see the light of day. It's time to say good bye. Cleaning up and organizing your garage is a great job for an early fall day. But before summer goods are packed off for 2 seasons of cold storage check the corners and closets and pull out the things you never touched this summer. The old shepard's hook with the broken wind chime, the cracked cherub statue, the stack of t-shirts that all seemed to have collected a spot of bleach, paint, or raspberry cobbler. Bag it, Tag it, and move it off your floor.


Remember cleaning out the old means making way for new.
Warning: Happy Shopping days ahead...

Uncovering a new love

Let them talk. I don't care. Let them see. Let them leer. I won't notice their eyes upon me or the hushed comments as I stroll past. I am in Love. The veil has been lifted, and a whole new world has been uncovered.

Who is he you ask? What has has put me in such a giddy and excited state? His name is Lee. He's from North Carolina. He's an adventurous soul, rugged and well built, but with a soft side. We met in the store, he had just trucked in from the south. I heard of his upbringing and days spent at the family cabin, soaking in the sun and spending days on end in the cool water of the lake. I imagined myself in his solid arms leaning back gazing up to the stars. Did I mention Lee is a Chair? But, but, but wait, before you roll your eyes and click away, you have to understand, he's not like all those other chairs. He's different. He's Special.

Lee Industries has uncovered the truth about what outdoor furniture can be. They have brought the living room out to play. With the style and grace of their finest upholstery classics and the hearts and frames of outdoor luxury they have created Uncovered the Upholstered Garden collection.

As design moves forward we talk about creating outdoor rooms, we set the stage with plants and lanterns. No longer content to just have a grassy knoll with a folding chair we've created whole new homes out of our outdoor spaces, A hammock under the Catalpa tree acts as a bedroom, walled gardens transform to enchanted dining rooms, a brick terrace that grows into an al fresco kitchen.

The upholstered garden combines sophistication and style built to withstand the natural elements. The simple lines of uncovered are understated and well thought out adding style and grace in ways that complement the hardscape and landscape working well within the environment.

Come meet Lee at Paul Rich & Sons. He's been uncovered and he wants to go home.

If the Shoe Fits

Choosing outdoor furniture can be like buying a new pair of shoes. You need something functional but fun. Appropriate yet sexy. Something that once put in place seems as though it's always been there.

But there are many facets to consider before we indulge.

Dinner Parties or Cozy Chats? Chairs to pull up to a fire or chaises to line up along the pool? How we furnish our outdoor spaces is an individual selection process.


A Lloyd Flanders wicker rocker looks gorgeous on my friends 1900's farmhouse porch but don't put that near my mid century modern ranch. That's where my wrought iron Woodard, inherited from my mother and still sitting beautifully makes its simple statement of timeless grace.


A Barlow Tyrie Teak bench quietly awaits in a rock strewn corner garden, and a Brown Jordan Dining set needs nothing more than a pitcher of iced tea and small dish of fruit to enliven a deck with a view of the hills.

So when you relax at the end of the day in these early hours of spring. Put your feet up, look down at your old pair of shoes. and picture yourself in your space, in your yard, with your view, enjoying your time, Barefoot, with furniture from Paul Rich & Sons.

Rainy Days in Bed

Outside the window a single bird chirps, a rain drop pings on the cold metal of the charcoal grill. The last days of spring wind down in the Berkshires and we gear up for the "season". But today is one of those days where we unhinge one eye, revel in the dim clouds of morning fog and roll over and enjoy one more moment in bed.

Your bed is your sanctuary on a day like this, a warm cozy comfort to the cold damp reality of what lays outside your door. Your mattress is your tablet where you mentally scribe the grocery list for the dinner party, the relentless schedule of kid's sports and the outfit choices for the theatre.

Your mattress is the foundation from which you will spring forth with the energy and determination to get out there and enjoy every last second of the beautiful Berkshire summer. You need to start with a good nights sleep with the comfort you deserve.

So start your summer off right. Buy a Shifman Mattress during the Lowest Prices of the Year. Save 30-50% on select models. And give yourself the extra minute in the morning to close your eyes, breath in the fresh summer air, and smile.