• About
  • Visit Gray Star Design
  • Minted Collection
  • Design Services
  • Contact

The Design Inspirationalist

~ Inspiring Ideas | Spectacular Creations

The Design Inspirationalist

Tag Archives: wood

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

banisters, carpentry, Dark woods, glass, modern home, painting, Railings, recessed lighting, Richard Tucker, slide-out drawer, stacked books, staircase, Staircase Designs, Storage, Victorian banisters, wood

The stairs are often neglected when we remodel because we just do not think about them. However, our staircases have the potential to be a major focal point in our homes. Since the stairs are such a small area, we can go a little wacky and still make it work with our other decorative features and schemes. The key is to choose something that you will love for a long time because redecorating a staircase can become tedious.

Turn Your Stairs into Storage
Each step can be transformed into a slide-out drawer. This is a place where you can store a number of smaller items. This also provides an immense amount of storage space because most home staircases are 10 to 12 stairs. This would be 10 to 12 storage drawers. This is a task you do not want to take on if you are unaware of what is under your stairs and not very handy. But if you are handy, some paint, drawer track kits and some power tools could transform your staircase into storage space while still preserving your ability to use the stairs to get up and down to different floors in your home.

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations
Photo Credit: Fresh Home

Be Book Smart
If you are a book lover, you can decorate your staircase to look like stacked books. You will just need some paint and some drawing talent. Then, paint the face of each stair to look like the spine side of your favorite books. If you are not the best at art, you can find letter and number stencils at craft stores to help you along in painting the book titles. This is a more subtle change, but it will give your home some personality.

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations
Photo Credit: Apartment Therapy

Light Them Up
If you have open space under each of your steps, you can use this space to light up your staircase. There are simple options like stick up lights that can easily be placed under each step with special adhesive strips. These just click on and off by you tapping on the lights. You can go more sophisticated and get recessed lighting put underneath each step. This would require a lot of carpentry and electrical knowledge, so do not attempt it on your own unless you have the required skills.

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations
Photo Credit: Aldea

Update Your Railings
If you are going for a more modern home, those Victorian banisters are not doing your home justice. Glass and metal are very popular in modern homes and these can be installed in a day either by you if you have the skills or a professional contractor. You can also mix modern, straight line wood with glass, or just the wood. Wood can still be used in modern homes if it is stained the right color and is straight lines.

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations
Photo Credit: Seven Home Ideas

Go Dark
Dark woods are really popular right now and work well with most design schemes. Changing the color of the wood is something that you can do with some time and elbow grease. First, you will need to strip your stairs down to their natural wood. This will require stripping chemicals, so take all necessary precautions and do this safely. Once everything is safely stripped and dry, you will need to take a dark wood stain and simply stain the stairs with the new color. Staining is something that can be tricky, so be sure to get some help if necessary.

Once you have stained everything, you should apply a finishing wax or clear top coat to protect the wood. These will also make the stairs resistant to drink, dirt and food stains, and will make the stairs easier to clean.

Guest Post: Staircase Designs & Decorations
Photo Credit: Decor Pad

{Richard Tucker has been writing about home design solutions for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing, you can find him working as an engineer, designing energy efficient elevator parts.}

A Hoot of a Sale

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Awesome Shops, Shopping

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

$10 gift card, calendars, cards, custom, Cyber Monday, FREE shipping, gifts, invites, Night Owl Paper Goods, notebooks, sale, shopping, wood

Cyber Monday is a day away and its the best time to take advantage of shopping online and getting the best deals. I wanted to share a great sale my good friends over at Night Owl Paper Goods is having. Not only are they offering FREE shipping but 20% off everything as well. Plus, a $10 gift card with all orders $48 and more. These deals are all at different times of the day and are on CT time, so make sure you pay attention!

Super Sale at Night Owl Paper Goods

Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in Everyday Design, Guest Posts, Maria Samuels, The Home

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abundance, art, balance, creativity, design, earth, energy, family, Feng Shui, Fire, harmony, health, In Style Modern, intimate relationships, manifestations, Marial Samuels, metal, water, wood, yin and yang

The art of consciously choosing the designs that support people’s life path is called feng shui. And the aspects of your life you consider as important, such as your family, health, abundance, intimate relationships and creativity, are mirrored by your home. The walls, tables and other accessories you place at home are physical manifestations of your beliefs on life in general. This also applies to the structures, patterns and colors that you surround yourself. Each one sends an energy vibration which may be useful or harmful to you.

Understanding how you use feng shui at home is the key to reaping the energy that helps you live a better life. But first you must determine what chi is moving through your body and your environment. This is where the concept of yin and yang emerges as these two dictate the energy that flows in people’s lives. The presence of too much yin energy has negative impact on health, affects the chi flow and shuts down the body. Meanwhile, an excess of yang energy also results in ill health, most noticeable effect include increased heart rate and blood pressure.

The most important part is to balance the yin and yang energy movements to establish a whole state, thus, paving the way for healing, emotionally, mentally and physically. It is also noteworthy to remember that no person carries an entire yin or yang energy. This is because our energy changes with the current season as well as the food people eat and the time of a day.

Here are the 5 enhancing element energy designs in feng shui that can aid you to controlling the yin and yang chi in your life:

Fire
Fire energy is synonymous with expansion and transformation. This means that you are more open to new ideas and are more willing to sharing your gifts with others.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

You can add fire energy at home by using any bright color, such as red or orange, or any active color that helps energy and light to bounce. To send up more energy into a room, use the following shapes: diamonds, triangles, pyramids and sunbursts. You can also add lamps, a carved wooden box, spotlights, lanterns, red or green candles, backlit plants, palm trees or yucca trees, pillars, tall chairs, and any groupings of three.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Earth
Earth helps you become more grounded, thus, helping you to feel more protected, stabilized, secure and safe. Aside from moving downward, earth energy is slow on its motion and is represented by nurturing, soft objects as well as solid, heavy objects.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

The goal of earth energy is to serve as reminder to people that the physical body, physical world and physical needs must be given due honor. Earth colors are subdued and are usually represented by yellow and brown. Also, the shapes and structures associated with earth energy stone, adobe, straw and brick. Think of warm cozy blankets, terra-cotta pots, a rock garden, brightly colored pillows, pottery, and pillows

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Water
Water energy helps you to a relaxed state where you release the things that have been bothering you for the day. To attain physical and emotional healing, make it a ritual to start your day in a water environment and end it as well on similar surrounding.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Black and dark blue are the water colors, thus, adding white tiles around the bath, a curved path, a white vase, a black or dark blue birdbath. I’ve always loved indoor fountains and this copper fountain has stolen my heart, and hanging plants are perfect ways to experience water energy.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Wood
Wood energy manifests creativity and growth in your life.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Definitely not pastel, wood colors bring in clarity and energy in your life. And these are purple to allow expression and bring in abundance as well as green to grow and heal at the same time. To ensure growth is achieved, you must not pick colors that are too muddy or have lots of gray. Objects that are related to wood include vertical blinds, flowing curtains, a blue or green vase, sloping or tall furniture pieces.

Metal
Metal represents the mind energy, with two essential aspects: the intellectual left-brained and the creative right-brained. Too much of this energy, however, can influence people to be sarcastic and overly critical of others.

For the left-brained, the colors associated are gray, white and silver. These are most beneficial for people engaged in accounting or computer programming or any job that requires detailed tasks. To avoid any sharp edge, you can color your room with a soft warm color as well or just opt for creamy or rosy white. For the right-brained, rainbow colors are ideal to bring out your creativity at the same time allow body healing.

Adding bells, metal chimes, a brick pathway, long comfortable sofa, low, wide furniture will bring in the metal energy in your life

Written by Marial Samuels 

Early Bird + Night Owl = Awesome Deal

13 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by melissaoconnor in News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cards, eco friendly, greetings, holiday, Night Owl Paper Goods, paper, personalized holiday cards, wood

Night Owl Paper Goods, my shop of the month, is having an early bird special of 15% off all their personalized holiday cards that are ordered by October 31st, which are really cute by the way. In addition, they are offering free ground shipping in the United States.

There are over 100 designs to choose from and all are available in paper or wood. The options they offer are endless as well. You can have photos, text, patterns or a calendar printed on the back as well as leaving it blank if thats what you want to do. It’s quick and super easy to personalize the cards and the turnaround times are really fast. Definitely worth taking a look. Support indie businesses!

Early Bird + Night Owl = Awesome Deal

Here are just a few awesome things customers are saying about Night Owl Paper Goods.

Early Bird + Night Owl = Awesome Deal

← Older posts
Newer posts →
color in films sound in color art inpsired palettes
art and design the home events and parties weddings real weddings color inspiration film-reviews historic places news and updatesminted






minted.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives



martha

Magnolia Rouge

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 2.29.10 PM

Etsy

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 2.18.10 PM

logo

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 2.42.13 PM

P&PBlogHeader

wedding chicks


ruffled

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 2.47.49 PM

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 2.16.32 PM


lauren-elle-photography

jenlombardo

logo_website

site-logo1

kelly_dekenipp_logo

homelogo

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • The Design Inspirationalist
    • Join 1,379 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Design Inspirationalist
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...