Category: Decorating Guides

Grown-Up Mobiles Show Sophisticated Style

Modern phones have reinterpreted this traditional youth accessory into complicated and lovely pieces for any component of the home. The move from nursery to varied living spaces can likely be attributed to American artist Alexander Calder, that started designing notable sculptural mobiles many years ago. However, the classic pieces dwell on, whether through high-end functions of art, phones that twice as light fittings or the ones that feel both informal and enjoyable. If you’re looking to accessorize your home, consider something new: the hanging cellphone, for adults.

The Mobile Factory

The oval portions of this mobile soften the square lines of this living room’s furnishings but nevertheless take the contemporary scheme.

If you’ve got a fairly neutral space, a cellphone in glowing neon will offer instant personality and a conversation piece.

Sutton Suzuki Architects

The structural existence of this eye-catching mobile is particularly interesting when you can see it in juxtaposition with the light fixture.

Gelotte Hommas Architecture

Notice how exactly hanging a simple mobile can offer a visually engaging and modern element to a space that might feel casual and sparse.

Habachy Designs

Consider all of the perspectives in a single room. If your second story looks down over a living space, use a cascading phone to draw the eye down. The look advantages those above and below.

Long hallways and open airways beneath tall ceilings can be challenging to decorate. A very simple and vibrant mobile could provide just the right delicate and vibrant touch to the space.

WA Design Architects

For subtle texture, select a minimal mobile in the exact same color as its environment. This white cellphone almost fades away in the walls, which makes it a surprise when it’s noticed.

Laidlaw Schultz architects

If you’re looking to kill two birds with one stone, a mobile light fixture supplies function within an artful form.

This mobile light fixture features a retro-chic feel. The clean design fills the open area beneath this tall, slanted ceiling.

Dabito

A grown-up cellphone does not need to be high end. You will find casual, lively and affordable options too, like this personalized cellphone created from Polaroid photos.

gogo gulgun selcuk

If you like the youthful feel of children’s phones, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t incorporate one into your home. This mobile plays off the vivid colors in the stained glass window to get an extra splash of pleasure.

Next: More grown-up phones to accessorize your home

Etsy

Black Art Mobile by Atomic Mobiles – $120

This arty cellphone from Atomic Mobiles supplies a bold sculptural presence.

Design Public

Turning Leaves Mobile, Black and Red – $65

Hang the Turning Leaves mobile for just a sign of intriguing design.

Anthropologie

Zephyrine Mobile, Blue – $798

I like the shape and colours of the Zephyrine Mobile from Anthropologie. It is a pricey option, but it creates a big impact.

2Modern

Flensted Mobiles – Tango Red – $139.50

The balancing act of the Abstract Tango cellphone adds a subtle dose of color to any space.

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Mood Makers Looks on a Budget

I am always hoping to help my customers find ways to make their houses look more expensive, even when they are working with a small budget. There are lots of ways to make your rooms appear richer and more luxurious that don’t need to cost an absolute fortune. With a few well-planned moves, you can make any room in your house feel like a million dollars.

Max Crosby Construction

Beefing up your architectural molding may go a long way toward making your rooms feel fuller. Wider crown moulding, taller base moulding and box trimming can be added.

Meadowbank Designs

Here’s one of my favourite hints: Install a thin piece of trimming several inches below your current crown moulding. Paint the drywall area between both trim pieces the same color and finish as the trimming. The bulkier your trim molding, the pricier it seems.

carriecan.blogspot.com

Wood flooring always elevates the look of a space. No carpet or other flooring material feels as rich as a gorgeous wood floor. Sure, it may cost a pretty penny, but the pretty is well worth the cost. And when you sell your house, you are going to get a big return on your investment.

Brown Glaws Contractors Fine Custom Homes

Throw cushions which are 18 inches or less may read shop bought. Look for or have bigger pillows designed for your couch — you will make the entire look of your living room higher end.

Annette English

Overfilling your pillow covers helps too. Stuff 24-inch down-filled pillow inserts into 22-inch pillow covers for a more luxurious look.

Schranghamer Design Group, LLC

Nothing leaves as much impact in a room as a fresh, interesting lighting fixture. Lose the builder-grade brass chandelier and install an eye-catching character piece similar to this one. You may find a variety of great lighting at big-box home improvement shops that could provide you a higher-end look for significantly less than you might imagine.

Atmosphere Interior Design Inc..

Here’s a surprise: Were you aware that painting your interior doors black immediately makes your space look more expensive? This simple change could make even cheap doors look like something truly special.

Wow Great Place

See? Even cheap flat panel doors texture richer using a coating of black paint. Don’t forget to put in a couple other black accents so that the doors connect with your decoration.

More:
Mood Makers: Small Rooms, Broad Feel

Laminate Floors: Get the Look of Wood (and much more ) for Less

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10 Faves: Designer Jeff Andrews

Designer Jeff Andrews at Los Angeles is known for his casual and playful but glamorous and classy interiors. With a client list that includes the Kardashians and Ryan Seacrest, he has learned to balance lavish with a more casual California style. Here, he lets us in on some of his favourite things.

For Andrews, livability is crucial and comfort is the largest priority. But if he is picking food, films or tourist stops, Andrews has a flair for all things fabulous.

Photo by Edward Duarte

1. What without?
Simplifies tape. I keep one in my bag, one in my car and at least 10 at the workplace.

2. Have you got a favourite hotel?
The Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris is the best destination due to its classic, traditional layout. It is in one of Paris’ best places, right from this Champs-Elysees, with an remarkable Michelin-star restaurant, Le Cinq — in all a real Parisian landmark.

3. Where would you go to unwind?
Palm Springs is ideal for a quick, relaxing escape, and I love all of the vintage shopping.

4. Any favourite tourist spots in Los Angeles?
I really like shopping at all of the flagship designer stores on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, but it’s also great for people watching. From tourists to celebs into the elaborate, Rodeo is glam with a splash of humor.

5. What’s the 1 item in your closet you’ll never get sick of?
One of my customers gave me a Gucci leather jacket while I had been working on his project in Rome. At this point I call it. It is so soft, comfy and worn-in. Fits like a glove. When I wear it I feel quite Italian chic.

6. Any books on your nightstand?
Wisecracker, regarding the life span of William Haines, is a biography of one of the greatest American decorators who ever lived. His intriguing and inspiring career started when he was a silent movie star who later reinvented himself into a decorator, designing for some of Hollywood’s most elite. I could not put it down.

7. What recent movie has become one of the favorites?
The Descendants was Great.

8. Have you fallen in love with any new house product lines recently?
That I really like the timeless quality of this Chatham bathroom accessories set in Waterworks. Made of simple white porcelain in natural shapes, they are the perfect accessories to function in any style of bathroom.

9. What do you love most about your present home?
My bed — it’s my refuge. But I’m in the process of buying a new home, so I’m sure I’ll have a different favorite shortly. Stay tuned.

10. Have you got a favourite comfort food you want to whip up in your home?
Turkey meatloaf. I took my grandma’s recipe and made it healthy by substituting turkey for ground beef. It tastes just like Grandma’s with the exact same comfort-food allure. Every person I’ve given the recipe to loves it.

Photos courtesy of Patricia, Claudine Maret, Marcie Pierce-Colleary, Marty McFry, tbroen, Grey Crawford and Jeff Andrews

More:
Asaf Weinbroom, Lighting Designer
Reagan Hayes Reinterprets the Classics
Meet Reiko Kaneko’s Modern China

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Treat Yourself into Spring Blooms in Winter

Forcing bulbs inside is an effortless way to enjoy spring blossoms in winter. Almost any spring bulb can be forced indoors. Forcing is a broadly used term which means you are fast forwarding their growing cycle to bloom in winter. Paperwhites, also called Narcissus papyraceus, are among the easiest bulbs to force since they don’t require a chilling period. The fragrant flowers bloom within approximately four weeks of planting.

Susan Duane

You will need:
A container, 3 to 4 inches deep. If you are pushing the bulbs in water you can use a little bowl, vintage trophy, or another fairly dish would work superbly. If you are planting in dirt, choose a pot with a drainage hole in the bottom. Pebbles or potting soil to fill the bottom few inches of your own container. Bulbs of your selection. I utilized paperwhites, such as these grown by Jennifer of Dear Lillie, and tulips. Mine were purchased from Home Depot but they may be easily found online and at the neighborhood nursery.

1. Fill in your container with a couple inches of dirt or soil. Use bagged potting soil, or simply go outside and scoop a few pebbles and dirt from the backyard.

Susan Duane

2. Nestle the bulbs into the pebbles/dirt with the tips facing upward.

3. Place a few pebbles/some dirt around to keep the bulbs in place. It’s okay to put them closely together. It is going to help hold them up right, and they look amazing in bunches.

Susan Duane

4. Add water, stopping just short of the bottom of the bulb. If the bulbs sit in water, then the bulbs can rot. If utilizing dirt, water enough to dampen the soil.

5. Place container in a cool (50 degrees or so) dark spot until roots begin to form. My paperwhites took 10-14 days. Tulips may take up to ten weeks. Keep adding water as needed, filling to just below the bulb, or before the dirt is totally damp.

Susan Duane

Last year I used dirt in terracotta pots for my paperwhites. I spray painted the pots black and composed messages on them . It made for an enjoyable screen!

Susan Duane

Once the roots take hold, put the container into a warmer room and set in the sunlight. When the paperwhites begin to bloom, move them to indirect sun. This will help the flowers last longer. The tulips will bloom beautifully with direct sunlight.

Susan Duane

Vintage milk glass vases were my pick this year. Here they are just beginning to peek out. I adore the white milk glass with the white blossoms.

I used two of the containers on the buffet in my dining room. They should look like this after spending a week or two in the house. It’s wonderful how fast they grow!

dreamywhites.blogspot.com

Maria of Dreamy Whites planted hers in shallow bowls. As soon as they grow taller, then you might need to tie them together. I enjoyed that she packed the bowl with lots of bulbs giving them a true existence.

dearlillieblog.blogspot.com

Jennifer of Dear Lillie utilized paperwhites in a vintage trophy for a simple, elegant holiday mantle.

Paperwhites are a part of the centerpiece with this table. Because this is so simple to accomplish, you can plan to do this anytime during summer time bringing in a gorgeous, organic element to your desk.

These potted bulbs also make for a wonderful present, or even a fun activity for the children. I hope you’ll give this simple, budget friendly project a try on your own home.

More: Amazing Air Plants for Wall or Tree

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Dirt Optional: Beautiful Air Plants for Wall or Tree

For outdoor lovers and botanical admirers, winter can be a difficult season. However, for the people at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco, the struggle only fuels their imagination and famously alternative approach to gardening.

A fresh release of vacation products reveals innovative strategies to give and decorate with plants. Building on the use of their signature succulents and air plants, these designs prove how easily indoor gardening can extend beyond the normal Christmas poinsettia, lasting well past the holidays and into the new season.

Flora Grubb Gardens

The nursery features a distinguished choice of succulents and tillandsia air plants. “Our inspiration was the astonishing and unusual qualities of the plants themselves, and also their own capacity to endure without roots, without dirt,” Grubb says.

“We adore the giftability of those inventions, and also the fact that they continue to raise and bring joy far beyond the holiday season. We can not wait to see what our customers do together.”

Flora Grubb Gardens

“We are plant people,” adds Grubb. “We love being close living things. During the spring, we won’t be found by you indoors — if we’ve got a selection. So during the winter as we turn our attention to being indoors more and for entertaining, we work to bring the things we want to be around inside with us”

An assortment of air plants on a wall provides a chance to enjoy the complexity and elegance of the tillandsia’s arrangement and growth both up close and as a group.

Flora Grubb Gardens

Thigmotrope Satellite Air Plant – $29

Grubb uses advanced pieces of steel hardware made in collaboration with Seth Boor to secure the air plants into the wall.

Flora Grubb Gardens

Boor demonstrates how to use the Thigmotrope Satellite to scatter a wall using tillandsia. Air plants may be removable for replacement or watering. Make sure you set up the hardware at which you won’t bump into it!

Flora Grubb Gardens

Succulent Ornament – $19

These unique holiday ornaments made from plant cuttings will continue well through the winter season and beyond. After the holidays, the cuttings will happily consider to planting and might even begin to sprout new roots while hanging around the tree.

Flora Grubb Gardens

“Many men and women think of succulents as those cute rosette-shaped plants with plump leaves and nominal, if any, spines,” says Grubb. “One of their charms is how easily they root from cuttings. They are amazingly durable and breathtakingly lovely, and thus perfectly conducive to being used as ornaments for a couple of months. We love how they look hung in a tree — upon cutting cutting. What distinguishes the decoration from the tree is that when the tree comes down, the decoration can go into a pot to become a new plant on the windowsill or in the backyard “

Flora Grubb Gardens

Aerium Ornament – $24

Specimens of tillandsia, mosses and lichens encapsulated in glass decorations create miniature landscapes to your own Christmas tree or window.

Flora Grubb Gardens

Grubb functions with vendors to come up with new contours to best show off the plants, also stresses the importance of supporting independent companies to fuel innovative layout.

Flora Grubb Gardens

At the dead of winter and without any needed nourishment, you can not help but be astounded by the beauty and tenacity of those succulents and tillandsia air plants.

Flora Grubb Gardens

Find joy in keeping living items close at hand while stuck indoors for the winter — with the prospect that spring is just around the corner, bringing with it new life for your outdoor garden once more.

See more gift ideas from Flora Grubb Gardens

Next: 11 Inspiring Vertical Gardens

3 Fuss-Free Ways to Garden

Great Design Plant: Blue Chalk Sticks

Grow With Winter Berries

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Creative Ways to Generate Art from Paper

In the modern diverse way of designing, you have many inexpensive alternatives to accessorize your place. Contemplate everyday paper. When it’s framing enjoyable cutouts or producing your own stickers from background, paper can alter your walls to get a minimal price. And some of the home made options can equal a fun weekend project with the youngsters. Have a look at the next home design photographs and you will start to see paper in a completely new light.

More DIY decorating thoughts

Art looks great when grouped into a collection; produce a drop display by tearing out foliage images from a novel, drawing your own or even collecting a batch out of the backyard and maintaining them through wax-paper pressing.

Have old piano publications or higher school sheet music collecting dust under your bed? Put them back to use by hanging individual sheets at a collage. Try to combine newer sheets with aged, browned sheets to get an interesting mix.

sarah & bendrix

Get creative with ribbons and vibrant paper by cutting out a collection of shapes. These very small paper hearts have even been folded for an interesting texture and pattern.

As soon as you have several that you like, framework the results to get a posh, homemade piece of art. And don’t worry about it looking perfect: the perfect, the more authentic.

sarah & bendrix

Create several related pieces to get a eclectic gallery wall. Track down cheap frames in IKEA or Michael’s.

CNW PRODUCTION

Have you been eying a gorgeous paper in the crafts shop but are not certain what to do with it? Cut out several small rectangles and attach them at a formation on your wall. Voila. Immediate artwork.

You understand when you read a novel and you stumble upon a paragraph or sentence which takes your breath away? Keep the pages of those paragraphs in full view at all times by displaying them in a creative fashion, such as hanging them on a branch you may find in your backyard.

Tamar Schechner/Nest Pretty Things Inc

Bring your closet door from dull to character-filled by developing a collage with decorative paper.

Your closet isn’t the only area that may gain from this appearance; try a bare wall which may use a dose of personality.

Donna DuFresne Interior Design

If you’re searching to create a unique lampshade without draining your pockets, then pick up a cheap neutral shade at Target or Hobby Lobby, then cover it on your favourite newspaper. A patterned paper will not only spice up your shade but also create interesting shadows with the lamplight.

Jennifer – Rambling Renovators

For a cheaper and more enjoyable way to work with background, cut out individual shapes rather than covering the whole wall with sheets. The application is easy, and the result is distinctive and whimsical.

Annalea Hart

Help your kid learn his ABCs by hanging alphabet flashcards across the wall. Purchase them or whip out some paper and create your own; your kids can help with the drawings!

More:
Cover a Wall With Vintage Book Paper
More DIY decorating thoughts

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Wedding Temperature: Brit Layout on the Head

It is okay … it is possible to declare it … you have got Royal Wedding temperature. Even the most skeptical bystander must acknowledge that it is quite fascinating. In the dress, to the memorabilia that are silly, to the presents, there is an integral part of each of us that is at least a little interesting relating to this over the top ordeal. Needless to say the Brits are not only known for their excessive royal shenanigans — they have a rather incredible sense of design. With wonderful interiors which can be a mixture of features and extravagance, it is no question these layout components that are British continue to be in trend.

The best symbol of the monarchy has come to get more of a connotation — possibly because of the punk rock attempts of groups like The Clash and The Who — than proper origins and its first prim. Here, a glossy grey living space gets a rush from a special neutral Union Jack pillow, as well as a brilliant piece of artwork with the adorable (and similarly English) bull-dog.

Lazzari USA – a trading name of Foppapedretti

The wonder of global flags is the consistent usage of similar colours means it is possible to mix and match quite easily (at least in regards to decoration). This chamber does an excellent job of mixing the Union Jack

KellyBaron

The conventional colorway of the Union Jack makes it an excellent accessory option for any decorating design. It functions wonderful as a pillow in this cottage…

Beloved Designer’s Website

… And an all- variant is an ideal pop of colour in this bedroom that is female. To get a much more manly appearance, a-square established of Union Jack pillows such as these would seem a-Mazing on a brown leather sofa that is distressed.

John Lum Architecture, Inc. AIA

The Windsor chair is an attractive example of British furniture layout that is brilliant. Recognized with a sturdy seat, which the leg and back components are affixed to, there’s an American variation of the Windsor chair, but the United Kingdom was one of its important centres of creation. As a result of the upright back and armless choice, its frequently used in a diningroom as chairs, ASIS this Americanized seat from Restoration Components.

This design with a lengthy headrest and arms, is too big to get an eating established, but functions excellent as aside chair in a mo-Re proper seating region.

Elad Gonen

Eating rooms and sitting places were — and frequently are — an essential section of house layout that is British. Long dining area tables that can seat teams of folks are essential for amusement functions.

Lisa Borgnes Giramonti

Tea time is this kind of tradition in great britain, along with for serving your afternoon tea, an attractive set is vital. The present day lines get this to silver established lively and unique. This silverplated tea pot is somewhat more conventional, and may be monogrammed for additional dash.

Lea Bassani Layout

Although usually connected with Scotland, tartan and plaid really originated in early Britain. This flash of oldschool plaid in this kind of environment that is modern is a surprising homage to your British fabric that is classic.

Layouts by Gollum

When used out of the blue despite the fact that plaid is typically considered a material that is formal, it might put in an expression of casual sophistication. From Pendleton, take a look at this lovely tartan toss to get a look like the prior picture.

Inform us! Exactly what are your favourite British design styles? Is the Will and Kate media craze making any extravagantly add-ons are lusted after by you? Share pictures and your wish-list below.

In The Event That you have got a seri ous situation of Roy-Al Wedding temperature, be certain to test out 8 Techniques to Beautify For Kate Middleton and Prince William

Mo Re: Ispy: Union Jacks