Thumbs down-giant coffee tables

They say "no man is an island unto himself, " but I've seen quite a few coffee tables lately that would definitely qualify as islands. I'm not talking about oversized, I mean huge--over 50 inches wide and 35 inches deep. I saw one in House Beautiful this month that had a previous life as a daybed.

Even if you have the room, it just seems silly. It makes it much harder to build a comfortable conversation area since the size of the table forces your seating to be much further apart than it should be.

There's also the issue of how to dress the table once you've got it in the room. Such a large surface invites clutter-the sworn enemy of good design. And yet, a simple arrangement of 3 items (of varying heights, of course), looks sparse on such a large table.

So trade in your huge table, downgrading is the chic thing to do these days, or haven't you heard? Unless, of course, you're living in a 5,000 sq. ft. home with lofted ceilings. Then, you need to call me so I can help you furnish it beautifully.

Get on it-navy with brights

Every year there's talk about what the "it" color is going to be. Remember when robin's egg blue was a huge deal? And then a year or two later it was pink? Last fall it was purple--purple was everywhere!

Now I'm seeing a lot of navy blue with bright accents, in both home design and fashion. It's a great look because navy is a lot less harsh than black and is a perfect foil for it's compliment on the color wheel, orange. Navy blue with tangerine, lime, sunflower yellow, aqua and/or violet make for a beautiful palatte. Mitchell Gold+Bob Williams put together a beautiful vignette at the Architectural Digest show that's currently featured in their catalogue. The picture above is from the Washington Spaces home show, showing this look.