Decorate Your Home in Pink

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Ella Andrews, Everyday Design, Guest Posts, The Home

Tags

color, decorating, design, ella andrews, interior design, pink

Written by Ella Andrews

Many people will say that using pink in your home is a bold decision and it will not make the place more comfortable or cozy. It is also believed to be a childish color that people associate with spoiled teenage girls and some consider using it in your home decor quite inappropriate. Pink may not be a very popular color when decorating your space but the truth is that when its done with style this type it can actually do a lot good to one’s place.

Photo Credit: We Heart It

The first and most important thing you need to understand is that no one is telling you to paint your walls all over in pink. What you should actually do is use the color as an accent in various combinations. There are a lot of choices you can pick from that will make your home stylish. Just be extremely careful you don’t cross that thin line between stylish and childish decoration.

Pink can bring a soft, emotional mood in your home. You can combine it with different colors such as green, light blue, yellow, white, and even gray. You will be surprised of how unconventional and yet modern these combinations look. Other interesting combinations are also dots on pink background or a blue wall with beautiful large pink flowers on it. A half painted pink wall is also worth considering. However, if you still insist on having your walls completely painted in pink then you should use paintings in black and white to decorate to break up the color. Or at least use pictures with black frames.

Photo Credit: Vertical Launch

You can also use pink in the details. Choose proper Battersea furniture, like a sofa or an arm chair, that is painted in pink but do not use this color for your other furniture. Another option is to turn your attention to tiny details such as a rug, decorative cushions, or table covers. Items in pink are easily distinguished among other things so you do not have to worry that they will remain unnoticed among all your other room furnishing and decoration.

Photo Credit: Sproost

Pink is suitable for all rooms in your home. It will look as good in the bathroom as it will in the kitchen or the bedroom. As a matter of fact, pink is extremely suitable for your working space as it brings a cheerful mood and inspiration while you are working. There is no need to mention that pink is the perfect choice for your small daughters bedroom.

Photo Credit: CDN4

And finally a bit of advice: if you are not sure how you would feel in a place totally decorated in pink you can simply check it out first. Choose a room in your home and add a few pink accents. If you do not find it too much you can go ahead with using the color for decorating the whole place.

Simple Tips for Home Makeovers

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Daisy Hart, Everyday Design, Guest Posts, The Home

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bathroom, decorate, diy, home, interior design, living room, living room decor, Remodeling

Having the perfect home is not so much about finding the perfect property, but about creating it yourself. There are plenty of interior tricks and design improvements you can utilize to turn an ordinary house into your dream home. Both exterior and interior are important parts of the house, but the interior affects our mood, health and life the most. The more time you spend improving it, the better you will feel at home.

Some things will require major renovations and changes, but the result will be worth the time and the investment. Some improvements can be accomplished without professional assistance. All you need is a solid plan, a checklist and a clear vision of how you want your home to look like.

Determine the areas you’d like to work on. If you don’t have the sufficient budget to cover all of the places that need renovation, focus on the focal points at home – the kitchen and the living room. The bathroom usually takes a big amount to be fully renovated. If you have a kitchen and living room you are proud of, your home will look much better. Make sure the changes coordinate with the rest of the house and each room has something in common with the overall design.

Go to a furniture store and home improvement store to look for pieces which will bring something new and better to the space. You can change the fixtures in your bathroom or get a modern cabinet which can accommodate all products. This will declutter the the room considerably. When you have enough storage, the area will be a tidier and cleaner place.

Photo Credit: Bathroom Improvements

Photo Credit: Paperblog

One way to have a better looking living room is to keep the furniture to a minimum and make sure the shelves and the cabinets don’t reach up to the ceiling. Buy plants, paintings, and frames for any photos you would like to feature and add unique accessories that will brighten the room and add some pop of color. Choose a quality carpet or a rug that will bring flair and style to the space and change up the curtains. You can easily rearrange the sofa and armchairs as well. With just a few minor and affordable changes the living room can look like a completely new one.

Of course you can use the assistance of a professional interior designer, who will determine the budget you need and what can be done to freshen up the space. Interior designers know how to combine style, trends, and comfort within a certain budget. Even a friend with a good sense of design can be a great help. Don’t rush the process – it’s best to do little positive changes to your home once in a while than to renovate what you can afford all at once. You don’t want to miss the chance on any further modernization you can do in the future.

Written By Ella Andrews

The Best of Hipster Decor

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Edward Stuart, Guest Posts, The Home

≈ 1 Comment

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art, hipster, jackalope, nintendo, paintings, record player, Starry Night, taxidermy, the 80s, Van Gogh, video games, vintage appliances

By the simple fact that the word “hipster” is mentioned in the title of this post, we know that “best” is a very relative term see-sawing uncertainly back and forth between irony and perfect sincerity, depending on context and possibly the weather. What we can say with certainty is that the following bits of genius are very hipster indeed. Let’s take a look at some of the best of twenty-teen décor.

Jackalope Taxidermy
As far as ironic wall-mounts go nothing quite beats a jackalope. It makes an interesting visual on its own while simultaneously mocking the half of Americans that go out and shoot wild animals and then hang them on their walls for decoration. If your other hipster décor is sparse and people don’t know what to make of your eclectic tastes, you could get some good laughs by convincing more gullible individuals that the jackalope is a real animal; after all, you’ve got its head hanging on your wall.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Vintage Appliances
There is something uniquely charming about an old school refrigerator from the 50s and their rounded shape with the non-regular sized or totally absent freezer compartments. It makes a great statement piece, and unlike newer refrigerators come with a bit of personality. Modern refrigerators typically come in chrome, white, and black, and that’s about it as far as your options are concerned. Older refrigerators were (and are!) available in a much larger variety of colors, and can be used to put a bright splash of color in your kitchen.

Photo Credit: Oh Gracie Pie

Paintings
The beauty of paintings is that while it’s preferred that you only hang up the most exclusive and obscure artists, you’re free to do just about anything you like. If you choose to ironically hang up only the most well-known and tired cliché pieces in art history, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, you can still maintain a consistent hipster vibe by liking it ironically.

Photo Credit: The Bare Square

80s Video Game Consoles
Even though most hipsters typically aren’t old enough to remember the 80s they do love those nostalgic gaming consoles. Setting the Sega SG-1000 that you found at a garage sale for 4 dollars next to the iMac on your desk shows people that you have good taste. Remember to keep it hooked up to your flat screen or you’ll look like a poser, though it’s always legitimate to assert that the poser hipster crowd has ruined it by making it way too mainstream for you in the last few months, and that you’re planning on throwing it out.

Photo Credit: Nintendo Wikia

Record Player/Record Collection
A hipster is not a hipster without a vintage record player and a collection of low quality indie music. If you don’t enjoy indie music you can get away with listening to obscure classical musicians like Berwald, Glazunov, or Tveitt. The most important thing is that when you put on your tunes, no one but your closest co-hipsters should know what they’re listening to. Because of advancing technologies and the evolving hipster genre it’s now appropriate to use not only the hipster standard record players, but also tape decks, and even CD players. Before the decade is out it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if any physical media storage (even by USB stick) becomes a mark of hipsterdom.

Photo Credit: Muses of Megret

{Written by Edward Stuart}

Make an Entrance

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, Janet Majors, The Home

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Tags

accessories, color, entryway, interior design, mirrors, painting, painting stairs, stairwell, wallpaper

Many people invest large amounts of time, energy, and money into decorating the various rooms of their home. The process of decorating allows you to express your creativity, to claim a space as your own, and to show off your personal tastes and style to friends and family. Unfortunately, there is one area of the home that is often overlooked during the decorating process: the entryway.

There are a couple of reasons that entryways tend to be passed over. One, an entryway isn’t really a living space; its just an area people pass through to get to the other rooms of the house. Two, often an entryway is a space that is small, dimly lit, or awkward making it a real challenge for an inexperienced DIY-er or decorator. However, these challenges should not keep you from extending your personal touches to this part of your home. This area serves to introduce your guests to the rest of your home; other than the exterior of the house, the entryway makes the first impression. You don’t want guests to be put off as soon as they enter your home. Here are some budget friendly tips for making an entrance.

Step It Up
If your entryway has stairs, consider adding a pop of color to draw the eye further into the home and to set the stage for the colors used in adjoining rooms. Unfortunately, stair runners can be pricy, so here are some more affordable ideas:

Wallpaper the risers. Since you shouldn’t need a lot of wallpaper you can probably find a discontinued or marked down pattern to use. Since the area being covered is relatively small don’t be afraid of bold designs.
Paint the risers. If you head to the clearance section of your local hardware store, you can probably find marked down paint. There’s nothing wrong with this paint – it simply wasn’t properly mixed to the customer’s color specifications. Again, don’t automatically shy away from bright, bold colors.
Add a stripe of color. As a standalone or in addition to painting the risers, you can paint a stripe that runs parallel to the stairs.

Photo Credit: Design Amour

Photo Credit: Apartment Therapy

Open Your Home
If your entryway is small or not well lit, there are some easy, inexpensive things you can do to open the space up.

Take advantage of any and all natural light. If your entryway has any windows (for example, by the front door), put that natural light to good use. Regularly wash the windows inside and out and keep them unobstructed by furniture and hedges.
Use smoke and mirrors…err, okay, just mirrors. Hang an inexpensive mirror or two to reflect light and make the space appear both larger and lighter. Check secondhand stores, yard sales, and inexpensive stores such as Target and Walmart for fun mirrors with decorative shapes and frames.
If possible, eliminate clutter and get organized. If your entryway is small, clear out anything that isn’t actively being used such as a bench. Make sure that there is a place for everything. For instance, if you require people to remove their shoes when they come in have a little shoe rack for them to pile their shoes on rather than just leaving footwear scattered on the floor.

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

Photo Credit: My Design Secrets

Color Outside The Lines
As previously mentioned, if you visit your local hardware store you can probably find clearance paint. You can use that paint to brighten up your entryway and make it look less stark and boring. You can also try painting:

An accent wall
A coat rack
An entryway table
Picture frames

Another way to add color and interest is with art. Thrift stores and garage sales are great places to pick up cheap frames that can be cleaned up or painted to look like new. For inexpensive art you can frame:

Family photographs
Scenic photographs you took
Pictures your children drew
Discontinued wallpaper samples
Shelf lining paper
Scrap fabric pieces
Pieces of gift wrap paper

Photo Credit: An Enchanted Cottage

First impressions are important, and your entryway is the first impression visitors get of the interior of your home. Make an entrance. Don’t neglect this area of your home. If your on a budget, get creative. Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to experiment. Prowl secondhand stores, yard sales, and clearance bins to find those perfect touches.

{Written by Janet Majors}