Previous Sheffield Room of the Month Articles

Every issue of Sheffield's Designer Monthly features a Room of the Month where we analyze an interior using a simple Three-Step Method.

• Lofty Views
  The first residential lofts originated from abandoned manufacturing spaces or warehouses. Artists, attracted by soaring ceiling heights, plentiful light streaming through large windows, and cheap rent, took over many of these properties. They envisioned potential and proceeded to transform lofts into distinctive homes.
• Greek Interiors
  When gazing out from a Greek isle, blue skies kiss turquoise seas in vivid panoramas—you're forgiven, therefore, if you miss the surrounding man-made villages and cities. Perhaps, you aren't supposed to notice them. The Greeks thought, "Why fight this scenic natural beauty? Let's frame it." And so, whenever possible, they decided to frame the dramatic views and built their homes, hotels and public buildings around it.
• Guest House in the Treetops
  For the Room of the Month for this “Rustica” issue of Designer Monthly, we traveled to the Howard Street Guest House run by Andrea Gray in Burlington, Vermont, to take a look at how she’s created one of two guest suites in the converted garage on her property. The upstairs room has a more rustic feeling than the room on the first level, which we’ll feature in a future issue of Designer Monthly.
• Thornaby Central Library
  For our issue on books and libraries, we decided to focus on one of our favorites: the Thornaby Central Library, in Stockton-on-Tees, England. This library originally opened in 1969, and was refurbished just last year, by architect Gordon Mallory, with White Young Green working as the project consultant, and design by Design Concept.
• Halo Air Salt Rooms
  What is a salt room? It’s exactly what it sounds like: a room in which nearly all surfaces are covered with salt. It’s touted as being excellent for respiratory problems, restoring the natural glow of skin, and general well-being.
• Indoor/Outdoor Room
  Designer Monthly is decorating the outdoors as well as bringing the outdoors in, and so let's take a look at this indoor/outdoor room designed by one of our own Interior Design students at the Sheffield School, Steve Ilavsky.
• Honeymoon Suite
  The Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, where the Stanley Safari Lodge perches high on a hill, may seem like an exotic location. It is, as a matter of fact, as it's surrounded by unspoiled bush, with the spray from the famed Victoria Falls visible in the distance, the sounds of the birds of Zambia nearby, and the knowledge that you aren't far from the home of zebra, giraffe and impala.
• Mexican Design
  When you think of Mexican design, you may think first of the style for which Mexico was known in the last century: lots tile in bright red, yellow, and blue, painted ceramics and painted wood alebrijas on the shelves, heavy wooden doors, striped blankets.
• Small Space
  With twenty-five years of graduates from the Sheffield School of Interior Design out there making the world beautiful, is there still room for more? You bet.
• Three Rooms
  For this issue on abundance, we decided to break with tradition (always a good way to get the creative juices flowing) and instead of looking at one room, we'll look at three small rooms, to illustrate how an abundance of good design is possible even when you're working with a small space.
• Have a Very Modern Christmas
  As we move into November, we're pulled inexorably into the holiday season: that time when you look at your living room and wonder how on earth you're going to fit a giant fir tree into the room while maintaining enough space for your family and friends to gather 'round the egg nog bowl.
• The Old Painted Cottage
  Thinking about contemporary design for this issue of Designer Monthly got us questioning exactly what "contemporary" means. All too often, it's confused with "modern," a confusion which fortunately one of the crack interior designers at the Sheffield School, Janet Ramin, clears up in this article.
• The Chopin Apartment
  For this issue of Designer Monthly with the theme of Design Around the World, we took off for Paris once again (see our previous issue on April in Paris for another fabulous French designed Room of the Month), returning to the terrific apartments offered as temporary rentals by Paris Luxe Apartments.
• Beach House
  For this issue of Designer Monthly dedicated to the timeless style of the beach, we'll be analyzing the decor of a beach house nestled into the dunes, using the Sheffield Guidelines to Interior Design: function, mood, and harmony.
• Natural Niche
  For our June issue of Designer Monthly with a special focus on green design, we've chosen this very green room designed by Alison Pollack at AKP Fine Earth Friendly Furnishings.
• Wedding Party
  While we often look at residential spaces, this month, in honor of our Special Issue on weddings, we'll be analyzing a wedding reception. This wedding was styled by Always A Bridesmaid, one of New York's leading bridal consulting outfits; the theme of the wedding was “In the Mood for Love,” modeled on a Chinese film by the same name.
• April in Paris
  When we think of Paris, we probably all have a slate of similar images that come to mind: the Eiffel Tower, the Seine winding through the city, I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre.
• Front Hall
  As part of our focus on clutter clearing this month, we've chosen this front hall for our Room of the Month, because it creates such a pleasant welcome, and yet it's realistic.
• The Harmony Bathroom
  This month, we've chosen this small but very pretty bath. Looking first at function, every bathroom has the foremost function of taking care of one's hygenic needs; where this changes is in terms of how many people live in the house, and how many may be using the room.
• Luxury Bath
  There's nothing like the solace of slipping into a steaming tub at the end of a long wintry day. Even though living rooms, libraries, bedrooms can be relaxing and soothing, for the person who savors a watery respite from the world, the luxury bath beats them all.
• Kara's Nursery
  Creating a nursery for a new baby can be one of the greatest challenges for a designer. You have to consider the usual challenges of decorating a room: function, mood, and harmony, but you also have to take into account the quickly changing needs of Baby, the safety needs of Baby, and the sitting-down-for-a-minute needs of Mom or Dad.
• Elegant Relaxing Bathroom
  The bath is the room in the house used by everyone, in which we prepare to meet the day each morning and in which we close down for the night each evening. And yet, all too often it's given short shrift when considering a home's makeover, unless the owner is thinking of selling.
• Luxury Kitchen
  While the basic function of a kitchen is the same for everyone 3 providing a place to prepare food — the particulars differ enormously depending on the family or individual who lives in the home. Here, we see a kitchen that serves the purpose of food preparation at a nearly-professional level.
• Double Sofa Living Room
  For this Room of the Month, we're looking at two different takes on essentially the same design, to illustrate not only how to use the Sheffield Guidelines to Interior Design — function, mood, and harmony — but also to show how the same furniture can have a different effect when put into a new arrangement.
• Tiny Office Space
  We've chosen this home office space for our Room of the Month to illustrate just how much big use you can get out of a small space, if you pay attention to the Sheffield Guidelines to Interior Design: function, mood, and harmony.
• Summertime Porch
  Ah, summer. In the Northeast, summer is the time for slowing down and enjoying the cooling breezes that come through the leafy trees, chatting with friends and family or settling into the good books you never seem to find time for in the hectic fall, winter, and spring..
• Blonde Wood Kitchen
  This month, we've chosen to analyze the decor of a bright kitchen design that's all decked out in blonde wood.
• Safari Bedroom
  The room we've chosen for this month illustrates perfectly the principle that eclectic decorating ideas can indeed all work together to create a beautiful and powerful effect. The trick is in choosing the right design elements, not necessarily in choosing elements that are created with just one palette in mind.