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Fall in Love with Your Home
Home ownership is like any other relationship – you have to work at it to keep it fresh. Creating a warm, inviting home starts with keeping your eyes and hearts open to the possibilities. Start by looking around at what you already have to repurpose and redesign and make some small changes that have big rewards. Bring back the passion with these easy ideas.
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Fitting Green Design into Your Life
With all the talk lately about green design and environmentally responsible living – you may wonder how those ideas fit into your home decorating. You should consider interior redesign as an economical solution that uses the concept of recycling and repurposing. Interior redesign IS green design! You may be familiar with that term if you watch Freestyle or Decorating Cents on HGTV. The idea is to work with the furniture, art and accessories that you already own, arranging them in new and exciting ways.
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Marvelous Mantels
Now that the holidays are behind us and the decorations are gone, we are faced with an empty mantle. Look at your fireplace with a fresh eye and try a new arrangement. The mantle in any room is the natural focal point which makes it the perfect place to display seasonal and decorative items. To make your mantel go from average to marvelous, let’s start with some basic tips to keep in mind.
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Top 10 Decorating Mistakes
If you have been paying attention to the latest decorating trends, you’ll know that almost anything goes. The good news is that you don’t have to feel locked into a defined style. However, there are certain guidelines for good design and with a little planning, you can avoid these common problems.
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Accessorizing – Jewelry for
Your Home
The final touch to any great outfit is the addition of jewelry and
it is the same with decorating a room in your home. Once the
furniture is all in place, the artwork and the accessories finish
the room and add character.
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Learn the three R’s of decorating
If the mid-winter blahs have gotten you down, a
great way to gain a new perspective is to give your rooms a
mini-makeover for a whole new look.
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Living in a
“Green” House
Kermit the Frog sings a song called “It’s not easy being green” but
environmentally friendly decorating is now easier than ever. Whether
you are building a new home, renovating an existing space or making
small decorating decisions, there are many options available toward
obtaining the goal of living in a “green” house.
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Shed Some
Light on your Home
A well designed room appeals to all the senses and lighting is a key
element in determining the “feel” of a room. Good interior lighting
is much more then a single ceiling fixture in a room or a pair of
matching table lamps on each end of a sofa. Every room should
contain three elements –general or ambient light, task lighting and
accent lighting. There are several easy guidelines to follow when
deciding how to light a space.
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Spring
Fashions for your Home
Just about this time every year, I exchange my winter sweaters and
heavy coats for lighter and brighter clothing. Your home should
reflect the change of season as well. The general idea is to change
and lighten your color palette through out your home. Many of these
ideas are inexpensive and can be implemented easily:
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Creating An Outdoor Room
Now that the warm weather is here –
we all spend more time outdoors, so why not transform your
porch, deck or patio into a private outdoor room? Some simple
and inexpensive changes can warm up your outdoor space without
doing a major renovation.
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Feather Your Nest
Whenever I hear the saying
”feather your nest”, a New England autumn comes to mind. The
expression refers to the practice of birds adding a soft lining
to their nests to add comfort while setting upon their eggs.
When the leaves start turning and falling and there is a nip in
the air, we turn indoors (to our nests) looking for cozy
comfort.
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Curing Color Confusion
I have a theory that paint
companies try to calm people’s fears about selecting paint by
naming the colors with comforting titles like Grandma’s Sweater
( a medium blue) and Happy Camper ( a spring green). But the
truth is that most people are overwhelmed when choosing colors
for an entire room from a 2 inch square sample. I often find
that people just decide to “play it safe” by painting the walls
white – after all, white matches everything – right?
Unfortunately, the result is a room that feels cold and
unfinished and the homeowners wonder why it doesn’t work.
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Decking the Halls
As the holidays approach, we are so busy with gift shopping,
baking, card writing and party hopping that decorating the house
seems to be the hardest thing of all to get done. But with a few
guidelines you can deck the halls quickly and inexpensively
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Hanging Artwork
We may not all have original, priceless paintings to hang in our
home but most of us do have treasured photographs, and
meaningful artwork that reflects our personality. Whatever we
choose to adorn our walls with – the items are meant to be
viewed and enjoyed. Artwork doesn’t need to be expensive-
children’s art, greeting cards, menus, playbills or even wine
labels tell a story.
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Local business wins interior
design award
Pamela Hartz Miller, owner of
local interior redesign firm Hartz & Homes was recently honored
for The Best Interior Redesign at the annual educational
conference of The School of Interior Redesign in Springfield,
MA. A gathering of top professionals in the decorating field,
the event was the third annual conference highlighting many new
and upcoming industry trends.
