Rustic Elegance

via

Sunlight streaming in through windows, flowing fabrics, natural elements, and a glowing fire all help to keep these rustic spaces of brick and stone from feeling cold.  Clementines are my favorite fruit and now I have another reason to love them... they add a punch of color when displayed!  

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Simply Smitten: Lovely Lucite

via 1, 2
  I am loving the contrast of these pretty cushions against the translucent chairs.  Feminine and chic.
Do you have any Lucite in your home?

Enter to win a $50 gift card from Restoration Hardware

Creative Decorating Ideas

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .

BHG.com

Happy Monday! 

I can't believe Christmas is already over, can you?  Our weather cooperated for travel, thankfully, and we had a great time with our families!  Hope you all did as well. 

Traditional Home

From a decorating perspective, I'm actually a little relieved to be done with Christmas and moving on to decorating that will last all year long. 


BHG.com

With that in mind, here are some ideas to help jump start your decorating creativity with ideas for the upcoming year...

Use a rug to make a headboard "slipcover. Attach with clip-on drapery rings and ribbon.

Midwest Living

Another out-of-the-box idea for a flat-weave rug.  Use it to cover an ottman!

Midwest Living

Make a desk with a hollow core door, sawhorses and some fabric like Heather Chadduck did...

Finish the edges with decorative trim and nail heads.  Cover with a thin piece of glass...

Add custom detail with ribbon.  We've talked about it before - the details really do make a difference. Without the grosgrain ribbon detail, these pillows would just be pretty floral pillows.  Nothing wrong with that, but the addition of the ribbon adds a striking graphic element and the brown ribbon, combined with the brown lampshade helps ground the space...

Style At Home - Designer Virginia Macdonald

Paint a whimsical chalkboard wall in your bathroom like they did in this one featured on Design Sponge. Then paint the ceiling blue, of course!  (I think a mirror inside the chalkboard frame would up the functionality a bit.)  Probably not for every bathroom,  but I do love it...

I always love Tobi's ideas and this one is no different. Paint the back of your bookshelves, then add all white accessories, grounded by some black artwork attached to the front of the shelves.  A designer look that would be very inexpensive to achieve...

Designer Tobi Fairley via At Home Arkansas

Add interesting fabrics to your silhouette art...

Country Living Photo Susie Cushner

Think outside the box when it comes to places to put your magazines, books and other things you want to keep close at hand.  This aged urn adds so much more character to this space than your basic magazine holder would...

Womens Day Photo Michael Partenio

I've seen the numbered stairs idea before with painted steps, but I really like this idea of adding mismatched metal numbers with the rich stained wood...

traditional staircase design

Make it a great day!

Dining Chairs and Tables - Numbers you can use

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG Midwest Living Greg Scheidemann

I've done posts about dining chairs several times (usually in regard to mismatching them!), but I realized the other day that we've never really talked about some of the more practical details. It might come in especially handy if you are mixing and matching your table and chairs and buying from various sources. So just in case you're headed out to your flea market this weekend, this post includes a few numbers that might help. They're just general guidelines, but hopefully something some of you can use.

Interior Design by Ashley Putnam Lonny Magazine

Round tables are really great for conversation and, depending on the room, sometimes they just fit the space better. I have one and I love it.

myhomeideas.com Photo Peter Murdock

House Beautiful photo: Frances Janisch

houseandhome Photo Michael Graydon

Southern Accents Photo Erica George Dines

Thank you, too, to those who commented on my post yesterday! I was thinking there was a slim possibility I wasn't the only one :-), but I really appreciated the confirmation.

More numbers you might like:
Accessorizing Your Walls - Crunching Some Numbers

{Interiors} For the Love of Nature

Truth be told... I'm more of an indoor sorta gal.  No worries, there are plenty

of ways to bring the outdoors in.  

Do you like to use natural elements in you home decor?

photo credits: 1) Canadian House and Home, 2) Tumblr, 3) love my earth (tumblr)

{Hollywood Meets Decor} Desperate Housewives

Which housewife are you most like?
Photo credits:  Housewives: dailymail.co.uk, Interiors: Gabby: Coco Cozy, Lynette & Bree: feefeern (wordpress), Susan: House of Design & Style

Dining Room Meets Recipe

Goat Cheese Crepes with Fig Jam

Bourbon-Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie

Gemelli with Brown Butter and Asparagus

I love the look of a round dining table and find that they are so much more conducive to entertaining.
Hope you are having a great week and have a chance to dine with loved ones, because it's lives meaningful relationships that truly feed the soul.
Photo credits:  Dining rooms: 1) Birch and Lilly (tumblr), 2) House Beautiful, 3) Book of Secrets (tumblr), Food images and recipes courtesy of Williams-Sonoma

Weekend Getaway {Paris}

How about we take a little getaway this weekend?  First stop ~ Paris!

I can almost smell the baguettes and hear the sounds of the bustling

city from below that apartment window.  I can't think of a more beautiful place

in the entire world.  Wherever you are, channel your inner french girl and live life

as a Parisian... buy yourself some fresh flowers, get a bottle of crisp white wine, stop by your local fromagerie and  chocolate shop.  Lastly,  find a lovely garden or park to picnic and soak it all in!  Tomorrow's stop... London!


Anthropologie giveaway taking place:  Enter here
Photo Credits: 1)Vintage Rose Garden (tumbr), 2) Paris Apartment Wordpress, 3) Etsy via Pinterest, 4) Book of Secrets (tumblr), 5) French Corner

Creative Decorating Ideas

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .

A shadow box border? They look like shadow boxes judging by the depth of the side profile. Either that or it's just very deep frames, because it does look like there are images in them? Either way, I like it...

T Keller Donovan/Michael Price Photography via DecorPad

I've talked more than once about updating chandeliers (and ceiling fan lights) by surrounding them with a drum shade. But... I haven't talked about doing small drum shades on chandeliers yet, have I? I think the exaggerated cylindrical shape of the shades in the image below makes them more interesting and the mixed up fabric adds a whimsical designer touch.

harlequin

(I can't remember if I've talked about table lamps yet, but putting a drum shade on a lamp can instantly give it a fresher, more updated look too!)

I like the way designer Thom Filicia seamlessly blends the TV into the decor by putting it into this niche with art above it. Placing a cozy secondary seating area in front of it makes it even less of a focal point (especially when the TV is off of course!).

House Beautiful photo Thomas Loof

I've been trying to figure out if it's an optical illusion or if the sconces in this image are actually mounted directly on the mirror. If so, I think it's a clever idea.

House Beautiful photo David Tsay

P.S. I had a question on a source for fresh, modern wallpaper that is not to the trade only. I haven't had occasion to shop for any recently and am wondering if any of you have any suggestions/sources? Thanks!

10/7/2010: For those of you not checking comments, I thought I would add this suggestion that I gave to someone there in case it might be something you would want to try. Here's what I said in answer to a question on wallpaper: "I'm hoping we'll get some answers on the wallpaper resources. I'll try to do some research on it too when I get a chance. Have you found any fabric that you like? I'm not sure about applying it onto paneling but I know it can be applied to sheetrock. Might be another option to consider if you can't find wallpaper as soon as you would like. BHG.com has a tutorial here: http://www.bhg.com/homekeeping/fabric-walls/ ."

{Interiors} Orange Crush

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Orange

Orange who?

Orange You glad it's the weekend?!

Sorry, I couldn't resist!  Seriously, though, I am ecstatic the

weekend is here and Boston is expecting an idyllic Autumn forecast.

Do you have orange in your decor?  It might just be the happiest color on the color

wheel!  

Photo credits:  1) Architectural Digest, 2) Suzanne Kasler, 3) Jaima Brown