The Latest: Oct 2018

If you thought those cheap plastic dinosaur toys from your youth would only come in handy when you babysit, it’s time to think again. Turns out those colorful cuties can be repurposed into some surprisingly snazzy home decor items—it just takes a little imagination. Read ahead for a few fun ways to upcycle those old plastic dinosaurs you and your cousins used to play with. The only thing better than a charming succulent planter is one that you made on your own.

Oh Command strips, where would we be without you? The perfect combination of strong and sticky, these little tabs are a mainstay in most people’s junk drawers. Like many of you, I’ve been a hardcore Command strips fan for years. Back in college, I would use ’em to hang everything from frames, to long mirrors, to that ubiquitous poster of Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

When I was little, my sisters and I had a pop-up Barbie camper, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. This real-life camper is just like that, right down to the kitchen in a slide-out drawer—and unlike the Barbie version, it can be ready to go in just 30 seconds. This one, called the iCamp, is a design of Dutch company Udo Camp. Making Barbie’s camper move-in ready required painstakingly fitting together a series of teeny-tiny connectors and support poles.

They say good things come in small packages—and fans of the tiny house movement seem to agree. More and more people are giving up typical homes (and typical mortgages) and choosing the pared-down experience of living in small prefab homes—but that doesn’t mean sacrificing luxury or comfort. Here are five examples of prefab homes that pack a ton of upscale amenities into tiny spaces.

You want to redecorate your living room, but you don’t know where to start. Do you decide on a color palette first and then choose your furnishings, or wait to find a staple piece you can’t do without and stem inspiration from there? And if the later, with every furniture website having endless pages of products, how do you decide?

The old adage is to take off at least one accessory before leaving the house, but that doesn’t ring true when it comes to house decor. When it comes to art in your home, sometime more is really more. Floor-to-ceiling gallery walls not only bring a touch of color and busy-ness into a room, but it also lets you flex your creative muscles, allows you to bring character into the space, and lets you show your personality through the paintings and prints you choose. So why not layer up on it?

With the cold weather comes the opportunity to snuggle up to the fireplace, cuddle under a fleece blanket, and cradle a hot cup of tea for the entire day (or entire season, whatever your availability allows.) And what better place to do that than in the comfort of a snug tiny cabin? In short, these micro wooden wonders that we speak of are tiny houses with a rustic twist. Think log cabin, but shrunken down a size (or two).

Fans of Rifle Paper Co. are already well-acquainted with Anna Bond’s gorgeous illustrations and for good reason. She has a way of creating images that are at once high-style and lighthearted, from her iconic florals to her travel-inspired prints. In short, they just make you smile. And while the brand is best known for things like greeting cards, stationery, calendars, and wall art, that’s all about to change. As of October 29, Rifle Paper Co.

While all sorts of design trends come and go, there’s a reason traditional style sticks around. Classic as vanilla ice cream, New Traditional rooms are always chic. And now you can get the look without spending a ton or waiting a million weeks for shipping: Amazon just launched Ravenna Home, its latest furniture brand that’s all about “classic style made simple.

When taking on a home improvement project as major, time-consuming, and expensive (!!!) as designing a new kitchen, the last thing that you want to do is make a few choices now that you end up regretting later—especially if that ends up meaning you wasted money. To help identify the biggest money-wasting no-nos to avoid, we consulted a few kitchen design experts. Having been around plenty of renovations, they had some good live-and-learn lessons and what-not-to-dos to share.