Candice Olson Furniture Designs 2011 Gallery

Candice's signature style is one she describes as "a fusion of traditional form, scale and proportions, with the clean, crisp, simplistic beauty of modern design.”

Candice Olson, a leading designer in the United States and Canada, began her career in commercial and residential design after graduating from the School of Interior Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. Candice received accolades and media attention for her distinctive and exceptional work before moving her design career to television. In fact, earlier in her career, the New York Times identified her as “one to watch.”

Candice’s foray into TV began when a Canadian station profiled one of her award-winning design projects. Her unique approach to residential design and engaging personality led to a weekly stint as a design contributor to the show. Today, Candice can be seen as the host and designer on HGTV’s Divine Design and as a judge on HGTV Design Star. She has been featured on the Today show, Live! With Regis and Kelly, The View and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In addition, Candice writes a syndicated biweekly newspaper column that runs in more than 400 U.S. newspapers.

visit Candice Olson’s new web site

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Window Treatments Design Ideas 2011 By HGTV Designers

Stylish Window Treatments

Modern Stripes

Simple panels are one of the easiest and most popular window treatment options. To spice up the living room's neutral palette, designer Troy Beasley selects white-and-green-striped curtains. Choose wider stripes and contrasting hues for a more modern look.

Curtain Combos

Valances provide a streamlined look by hiding drapery hardware. Designer Troy Beasley pairs a valance with cream panels trimmed in brown to add warmth to the bedroom while still letting in a little natural light.

Layers of Pink

Layer a mixture of curtains to create an updated design. Designer Andreea Avram Rusu pairs vibrant striped sheers with deep pink panels for a bright and contemporary bedroom.

Bold Contrast

A grommet heading, rings inserted into the top of the curtain fabric, is a contemporary and clean solution for hanging drapes. Make a bold statement with black and white stripes, like the Horizon in Shantung panels from Wildcat Territory. Photo Courtesy of Wildcat Territory.

Sleek and Blue

Designer Lori Dennis maintains the contemporary look of the living room with sleek panels hung close to the wall. Hidden hardware gives the window treatments a streamlined look.

Full of Frills

Unique window treatments complete a room. Designer Shelly Riehl David creates custom puff-top silk draperies for this romantic and feminine bedroom.

Creative Treatments

Windows aren't the only place for beautiful draperies. Designer Tracy Morris fills a luxurious bathroom with soft pleated curtains hung along the walls to add warmth and to create different spaces.

Pretty and Practical

Combine panels with blinds for privacy and to add warmth to a room. For a natural and unique touch, designer Jennifer Duneier uses a bamboo rod to hang the panels.

Flowery Style

Floral patterns don't have to look outdated. Look for ones with a large print, like the black-and-white Roman shades designer Erinn Valencich uses in this modern bedroom.

Keep It Simple

Simple shades and panels in a modern geometric pattern frame the view of this stylish study. Designer Troy Beasley says, "Keep windows open and light. Don't dress up the windows with jabots, swags or other old-fashioned, fussy treatments."

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Tips for an Ideal Bedroom Layout 2011 Ideas By HGTV Designers

Where to place furniture in the bedroom can be a tricky dilemma — especially if your room is long and narrow, has an abundance of windows or is a tight fit. Four designers share tips for making the most of the space you have.

Keep It Simple: Designer Ammie Kim creates restful bedrooms by limiting furnishings, accessories and patterns. She recommends maximizing a room's visual space by minimizing details. Ammie's Tip: Don't fill the room with unnecessary items or let it become overly decorated with fussy window treatments or a plethora of busy patterns.

Mirrored Reflection: Make a tight bedroom feel open and spacious with properly placed mirrors. Designer Erinn Valencich disguised closet doors with massive mirrors to visually double the space in this bedroom.

Think Outside the Box: With unusually angled walls, this bedroom made space planning difficult. Rather than have a custom rug created to fit the space, which would also emphasize the room's angle, designer Ammie Kim opted to showcase the hardwood floors. Ammie's Tip: Sometimes it's good not to have a rug under the bed: it creates spaciousness.

Divide and Conquer: A long and narrow bedroom can be a challenge. Designer Angelo Surmelis created two distinct spaces: a cozy bed area and a separate entertainment area just for relaxing. Angelo's Tip: Create multiple functional zones in a large room for a hotel suite-like feel

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Favorite Bedrooms Decorating Ideas 2011 that I Love

Flea Market Chic

With mix-and-match (well, mostly mix) flea market treasures, this room exudes a level of sophistication well beyond its pedigree. Simple walls showcase the worn finishes of the vintage furniture and make each item stand out as special.

Why We Love It: Forget shabby, this is flea market style pulled off with sophistication and restraint.

Center Stage

This multilevel master bedroom is stately and refined. The light gray walls are a beautiful complement to the yellow floral textiles, and the towering windows add plenty of light and drama.

Why I Love It: With its multilevel floor of deeply colored wood, this master suite has a flair for the dramatic.

Femme Chic

A plush tufted headboard, lavender walls, and a dainty chandelier give this room a girly vibe. A nearly random mix of patterns and styles comes together with bohemian charm.

Why I Love It: The unexpected color scheme is surprisingly stylish and chic, infusing the room with a spirit of individuality.

Sage Sanctuary

The monochromatic window treatments, headboard, and walls offer a soothing backdrop to the simple white linens and accessories in this restful retreat.

Why I Love It: Monochromatic color schemes are unified and soothing, a perfect choice for bedrooms. The only pattern is found on subtly striped pillows that are showcased against white bedding .

Understated Luxury

The sophisticated furniture and neutral palette gives this room an undertone of opulence, while the angled bed and large-scale accents add a bit of drama.

Why I Love It: The mix-and-match approach to furnishings and accessories creates a timeless room with a few pleasant little surprises .

Simple and Chic

Vapor blue walls create a soothing atmosphere in this discreetly feminine master suite. Eclectic furnishings, both vintage and modern, transform the room into a personal haven.

Why I Love It: The dark floors are mirrored by an unexpected and impressive wood ceiling that makes the room more intimate while increasing the chandelier's wow factor.

Warm and Modern

Fresh white bedding and accessories contrast with the rich brown walls to keep the bedroom from feeling gloomy. Rust-color pillow shams introduce an accent hue and establish a focal point on the bed.

Why I Love It: Great rooms reflect current trends, but straight-up modern design can leave us cold. Here, earthy color, tactile bedding, and handcrafted art create a comfy bedroom that's right for today .

Dressed to the Nines

Perfect design lives where comfort intersects with style. This sumptuous bed is dressed with layer upon layer of beautiful bedding, each softer and loftier than the last. It's hard to imagine tossing and turning in this luxurious retreat.

Why We Love It: The bed offers an assortment of indulgent textures: the nubby linen headboard, the smooth silk of embroidered pillows, the duvet cover in dimpled matelasse, and the bristly hand of the mohair loveseat. Pattern and color are always important in decorating but interesting textures can make a good room great .

Personal Style

The bed, bench, table, pillows, and headboard combine to give this room a strong horizontal orientation, low and sleek, with a mid-century feel. The items on the bedside table add enough vertical tension to keep things interesting.

Why I Love It: While nothing in this room is precisely coordinated, it all works together fabulously. A casual mix of fabrics and furniture, both vintage and new, creates individual style that you won't find at the mall for any price .

Four-Post Presence

The large poster bed is the attention-grabber in this pale master suite. The easiest way to create drama in a smaller room is to choose one beautiful overscale piece of furniture and let it take charge.

Why I Love It: A nearly neutral palette reinforces the bed's dominance and creates a tranquil mood. The intriguing wall color (lavender? gray? taupe?) is very sophisticated, especially with the counterpoint provided by the russet blanket.

East Meets West

The geometry and proportion of this bedroom's furnishings spring straight from Asian design, but the rustic wood surfaces and faux suede bed give off a cool cowboy vibe.

Why I Love It: The most inspired spaces usually meld multiple style sources. Whatever its pedigree, this bedroom works because of perfectly scaled symmetry and organic textures. Even with white walls, the coppery palette of the draperies and bedding lends comfort and warmth

Cool and Classic

Cool blue and lavender are natural color choices for a restful bedroom, but by themselves pastels can turn downright chilly. Plenty of brown and white accents keep this room snugly warm.

Why I Love It: Traditional furniture is classic and familiar but it can be stodgy without a nod toward modern style. This bedding is definitely trendy, but its brown color and geometric patterns relate to the bed's paneled headboard .

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Modern Style for Classic Living Room Ideas 2011 from HGTV Design Star 3

In Design Star 3, for their second challenge, the eight remaining designers tackled four identical living rooms in a historic Nashville mansion. With 26 hours and a $5,000 budget, they had to make their space stand out.

By limiting the color palette to grays, blacks and whites with a powerful hint of red, Matt and Michael demonstrate that making fewer and bigger statements is a smart way to dramatically transform a space in a limited amount of time.


The white mantel creates a severe contrast to the black walls, making the beautiful, pre-existing architectural details of the room very prominent.

There is nothing horribly wrong with this room, but then again, there is also nothing wonderfully right. Trish and D. Paul tame the bright paint that dominated their room before and streamline the overdone drapery, but fail to make a new statement to illustrate why they should be in this competition. Bland and expected furnishings paired with a bland and expected rug create a bland and expected room that you would see in any hotel lobby.

An unexpected color pairing with the traditional furniture chosen or mixing in less traditional furniture with this classic paint color would have given the room much-needed visual interest.


By minimizing contrast, between their wall and trim paint colors and keeping their furnishings light and airy, Mikey V. and Stephanie put a modern spin on a very staid and classic space.

Instead of building on their great start by selecting a few purposeful accessories, Mikey V. and Stephanie infuse a world of mismatched, small-scale accessories that litter the visual landscape and detract from the great bone structure of their room. Keeping the wood bench unadorned with pillows, removing the gaggle of accessories surrounding the fireplace and replacing the over-grown plant with something of equal scale but more manicured would have finished this room perfectly and given their fresh and airy transformation an idyllic ending. Sometimes it is just as important to know when to stop as it is to know how to begin.

Tracee and Jennifer attempt to include a variety of furnishings in their space, but come up short because they can not find a way to pull all of the elements together with a central color, fabric, wood tone or idea.

The incredibly tall and dramatic ceilings in the space are diminished because Tracee and Jennifer fail to hang drapery all the way to the ceiling line, leaving them short and stumpy in appearance by hanging them only at window height. Rooms of this magnitude and proportion can be difficult to work with, as this team illustrates.

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