Six tips to spruce up your home's design

Diane Creasy held a rather strange, metal octopus which had its legs twisted upward, ending in circles.

In each of those circles, eight in total, were shot glasses.

"Let's get the party going," Creasy said with a laugh as she stood holding the artwork in her store, EPIC Home Decor in the San Marco Plaza of Lakewood Ranch. "It's fun."

Life is fun these days for Lakewood Ranch's Creasy, who gets the design party going for an average of five to seven homeowners a week. They hire her to take their living spaces and give them a more dynamic, and fun, quality.

Whether is just adding some accents, a "punch" of color or recalculating the entire design, Creasy prides herself on working with homeowners to bring their vision to life. She also provides those design items at her store at San Marcos Plaza.

"They are building 15,000 houses here," she said of Lakewood Ranch. "It makes you want to stay awake all night long looking through magazines."

While she has been in the home design and decor business for more than 10 years, she has had a passion for design most of her life. She said it has helped her that, while working as vice president of marketing for automotive businesses in Paris, she routinely traveled to India, Mexico and Germany.

"I was crazy for it," she said of design. "Now, I honestly am living the dream."

Creasy took a break from her customers to discuss some common misconceptions about interior design and to offer some easy tips to add some design pop to a home.

"The first thing has to do with scale," Creasy said. "People know what they like, but where they go wrong is scale."

She explained that she will walk into a home with a massive ceiling, and the centerpiece is a tiny chandelier or ceiling fan. It's a common problem, and one that can be rectified.

"What scale does the environment dictate?" Creasy said.

The next suggestion has to do with patterns and color. Creasy said homeowners often decide upon a theme, and then carry that theme through every room of the house.

"They want to make sure everything matches," she said. "Those two matching chairs, the lamps, everything."

Creasy said the better way to go would be to blend things into the design that don't necessarily go with the theme. She said it's blending as opposed to matching. She refers to adding a "punch" of color that will stand out.

That can be done with a rug, a pillow, a piece of artwork or an accessory.

She talked about maximizing the best features of a home. Often, people will have beautiful crown molding in a room that is the same color as the ceiling and walls and it all blends together. Or they will have expensive tile in the shower but a drain in the same shape and pattern that bleeds into the overall design, instead of highlighting the tile.

"These things are nice so you want them to stand out," she said.

Some people follow trends that aren't necessarily current. "People can learn about wallpaper and paint in the same room," said Creasy, who previously had a design store in West Bloomfield, Mich. "Wallpaper has made a big comeback."

For those who want to keep their entire home painted with light colors, she said trying a color three shades darker might help the overall design.

Lighting also is a place where homeowners could take some chances.

"You can put Edison bulbs in lamps and chandeliers," she said. "They flicker."

Creasy's fun side comes out with accessories. She will place Crystal cognac glasses on a tray with roses and place them on a bed. Or she might fill a crystal decanter with mouthwash for the bathroom.

In various rooms around the house, she said to think about accessories that will give the homeowners the feeling they have a personal space, such as cigar humidor or a cutter. When she designs, sometimes she will place a magnifying glass on a desk. 

The difficulty is getting her clients to step out of their comfort zone.

"I coax them to put things together, they wouldn't know how to do, and to be less conservative," Creasy said. "I tell them, 'I would be more daring.' Maybe that means more elegant mirrors, or some edgy art."

Her theories have caught the eye of area builders, such as Neal Communities, which has had success hiring Creasy to decorate new homes that have sat longer than the norm. Creasy tweaks the interior, and soon the closing papers are being signed.

She said the homes she has decorated for Neal Communities have sold, on average, between 30 and 45 days after her work.

"If a builder puts up three or four houses and is not having any customers, I can will get a call," she said.