Home Decorating Ideas and Inspiration

More often than not, treasured postcards, photographs and unique vintage finds live permanently in keepsake boxes or scrapbooks – and mine seem to only see the light of day when I fish through them while procrastinating during an organization session. Thanks to online resources, you can turn these into enlarged works of art with a click of a button – and they make for unique (and non-cheesy!) Valentines Day gifts.

Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap claims 18 cleaning uses in one bottle. One of those is laundry soap. Want to know how to make your own using only a cup of Dr. Bronner’s per 64 loads? Check it out: This laundry soap doesn’t create suds, but it doesn’t need to in order to get your laundry clean. 1 cup Dr. Bronner’s pure castile liquid soap1 cup baking soda2 cups water1/3 cup salt Warm the water and mix with salt and baking soda until dissolved.

When it comes to designing children’s rooms, there are no rules. But we still have some suggestions for elements to include to make a child’s room a place for comfort, discovery, play and memory making. Here are 10 “somethings” for every child’s room: 1. Something To Sleep On: A bed is pretty basic – but make their bed soft, warm and inviting and you can bet they’ll spend more time on it and in it than just sleeping. 2.

There aren’t many around these parts that weren’t big fans of the show Trading Spaces. It was one of the first shows that made design and home improvement feel do-able on the average household budget. They took designer ideas and tricks of the trade and broke them down into ideas that almost anyone could implement in their own space. Sure, there were outlandish theme rooms once in awhile, but for the most part, the show was as inspiring as it was ridiculous to watch.

When it comes to hanging posters, you’re always left with a dilemma. You don’t always want to spend $20 to frame Justin Beiber, a million holes in the wall isn’t the best idea either and that gummy sticky tack stuff doesn’t ever really hold. So when your kids want to go poster crazy, what do you turn to? For us… it’s toothpaste.Back in the day I used this trick, along with shampoo.

“Vintage” and “retro” were a couple of 2010’s favorite words, and while their meanings may be a bit ambiguous, we all seem to know a good retro room when we see one. Accessibility and affordability are part of the appeal, and the touch of “something old” is just what most modern homes need to feel warm, welcoming, and interesting.

“Eclectic” is a popular adjective in interior design parlance, meaning a decor that comprises heterogeneous elements — a mixture of textures, time periods, styles, trends, and colors. There is a fine line, however, between a beautifully eclectic room and a room that is merely haphazard and chaotic, with no unifying themes or motifs.These images capture eclectic decorating at its best.

Modern homemakers are taking their cues from 16th century abodes. In the medieval age, when straw was spread on the ground to trap the dirt and mud, tapestries were considered too fine to fine to stay on the floor and they were hung on walls and in doorways to help insulate drafty stone buildings. Today, hanging rugs and tapestries are popping up on walls as beautiful works of art.This method of decorating is a great way to add a worldly and bohemian look to a space.

I love unique wall coverings. And this wall in Dolan’s office is certainly unique! Using screen printed Luan plywood and a brad gun, Dolan turned this otherwise bland wall into an eye catching focal point of the room.Dolan Geiman is known for his beautifully screen printed art and panel paintings — he calls it “contemporary art with a southern edge”.

Today is December first! For many people, the end of this past weekend also marked the day when they put up their holiday decor. The other night, I stopped by the home of a friend who’d proudly put up her tree. Despite the small footprint of her living room, the addition felt homey rather than crowded. If you’re determined to put up a full-sized tree, here’s a few ideas to make sure that you and your decor can coexist in peace!

Although we haven’t conduced an official study of how many folks have a fireplace and how many don’t, we’re going to guess that more people are looking for creative ways to hang their stocking during the holidays than not. We happen to be part of that crowd, so without further ado, here’s 7 festive ways to display your stockings!1. Ladders: Vintage, worn or broken ladders are easy to come by at estate sales, auctions, antique stores and Craigslist.

Green and blue is an all-time favorite combo of ours. It can go very springy, but darken it up a bit and tame it down with dark olive greens and dusty blues:The kitchen up top exemplifies this color combo, with muddy green cabinetry and crisp blue walls.

A long and narrow bedroom can be a nightmare for furniture arrangement. A great way to utilize the space is by placing the bed on a shorter wall, leaving room for furniture at the foot of the bed. Maybe even a sofa!I’ve always wanted a bench at the foot of my bed, but haven’t found the right one for the right price yet. I do, however, have a spare sofa that is small enough to fit perfectly at the foot of the bed.

Radiators can take up quite a bit of space in a small apartment. But do you know what helps? Resting a shelf on top. Make sure you aren’t storing books or flammable objects there, but think of it as a warming side table where you can perch a cup of joe when you’re curled up on the sofa! Here are a few examples:In the warmer months, of course, the shelf can be used in any way you please.

The saying “opposites attract” goes well beyond human relationships — and the affair between orange and gray mingling to create a stunning balance is a perfect example. Depending on the tones, the duo can be youthful and whimsical, eclectic and bold, moody and sophisticated, or masculine and sleek, and any combo in between!

Wow, that’s a great table. It could hold my laptop, magazines, dinner when I’m feeling too lazy to eat at the table…I’m sorry it’s how much? Seriously? For a few pieces of wood? No way! What? I can make it? For super cheap? Tell me more magical internet, tell me more!There are some pieces of furniture that although we desire them in our home, we just can’t bring ourselves to pay for.

We’re certainly used to seeing televisions above the mantel, but rarely do we see them actually on the mantel. There’s no wrong or right way to display your tv, everyone has different ideas — but we’re curious about this one.Upon first glance, the tv on the mantel actually looks great and it certainly minimizes the need for extra accessories on the mantel. Placing the tv on the mantel makes it a little easier to hide cords.

Ceilings are called the fifth wall for a reason. Along with offering ample design opportunity, a fresh coat of ceiling paint can quickly transform the ambience of an entire room. So to inspire your ceiling painting endeavors, we rounded up seven rooms, all from Apartment Therapy home tours, that will make you want to paint your ceiling ASAP. Looking for an unexpected way to modernize a home with old architectural bones and vintage decor vibes?

Recently, a phone call to a friend who was in the middle watching It’s Complicated led to a long discussion about the gorgeous houses in Nancy Meyers’ movies. Meyers, who also directed The Holiday and Something’s Gotta Give, is almost as renowned for the production design and set decoration on her movies as she is for the movies themselves.

There are few souls in the world who have wall-to-wall carpet topping their dream decor list. It’s often the stuff of McMansions and is commonly viewed as the epitome of dated decor, but it’s also the reality for countless American homes. And if you’re a renter, there’s not a whole lot you can do to change it. So how to deal?Before we get started, we need to set a few things straight. Not all wall-to-wall carpet is created equal.

Marie-Antoinette is best known for being detested, for so perfectly representing the sins of the French ancien régime that she was beheaded. But she is also famous for her role as Neo-Classical tastemaker. In her public and private interiors as well as the portraits she commissioned, we can see a palette of colors fit for a queen.

Sometimes people think of decorating as a choice between two extremes – blah neutral and wild color. The truth is that most colors can work as neutrals by using more sedate tones. Yellow is one of the colors that does this extremely well.When there are more attention-seeking colors in a space, yellow can easily bring some life to the neutral areas without immediately drawing the eye in. Yellow also compliments many other colors quite nicely.

Why limit wallpaper to your walls? Take a page from English artisan Bryonie Porter who wallpapers furniture ranging from simple tables to chests of drawers — she’s even wallpapered a piano!If you plan to wallpaper your furniture, start with something simple. For example, you might want to: Wallpaper the back of your bookshelves. If you’ve just bought a new Billy bookcase, wallpapering the back piece before you attach it will make your life a whole lot easier.

In our home, we’ve used bookcases for just about everything. They’re not just for books anymore and can be mounted, turned on their side, or used in closets. See our top 12 list after the jump!1. As a Bookcase: It sounds stupid, but we figured it should probably top the list. We don’t repurpose things just because we can and as always, this multi-functional piece of furniture can always do what it was intended to — hold books. 2.

Has anyone been out for a horse ride in this newly-crisp autumn air? Did it inspire any interior decor ideas? Look down, and it might. The saddle blanket under your toosh just might be perfect on the floor in your home!Made of thick, woven wool with traditional yet simple designs that could fit into many different styles, saddle blankets could make great floor coverings.

When i was in 7th grade I made a lamp from popsicle sticks. I loved that thing, but it doesn’t hold a candle (or um, bulb) to these pieces of wall art made from the same material. They’re big on style and small on price — what parent can resist that?The works above come from artist Nathalie Chikhi who does amazing (and giant!!) things with popsicle sticks and other mediums.

I’ve been thinking about buying a new couch— but good furniture is expensive! Especially the big pieces — i.e. the things you need the most: a couch, a rug or two, a credenza, a table. Even chairs can get pricey. I visited my sofas at Crate & Barrel for many many months, saving up for them, before I purchased them. One of the writers over on Casa Sugar did too. But she parlayed those visits into a deep discount! Wanna learn how she did it?Her big secret? Buy the floor model.

Whether you call them toys, collectibles, or action figures, it can be challenging to display childhood (or adult!) collections in a grown up home. And, as evidenced during my time photographing House Tours, a lot of us are kids at heart. The subjects of these Apartment Therapy House Tours found a way to integrate their child-oriented collections into their adult homes. Josh and Emily grouped their sizable collection of vinyl toys as a display in their TV room.

For the last several months my husband and I have had fans in our windows at all times. We had a hard time getting any breeze in them, but because the fans were in place, we hadn’t had a problem with bugs and mosquitoes coming in. As the temperatures dropped this past weekend, we removed the fans and all sorts of creepy crawly and flying friends came in, so it was time for some screens! Off to the hardware store we went!

We all know that the IKEA Melltorp dining table really does make the best desk! Heck, we have two in our house — one in the kitchen and one in the office. Sad thing is, we use the one in the dining room more than the one in our office! So that got us thinking, dining rooms really do make great offices.• Ben’s Warm & Cozy Austin Apartment Ben embraces the ease and space saving magic of using a dining table as a desk.

Although dry erase boards are rather handy tools, we have one problem — the markers. They’re smelly, expensive and easily get lost in sofa cushions. Well good news, you can ditch them all together and use crayons instead. No really!There are a few companies that have caught onto this idea and have started marketing specific products to those parents who would like to give the idea a go.

The Apartment Therapy faithful know that finding a cool vintage tray is the first step to an organized and stylish bathroom (If you don’t, check out How to: Create a Hotel-Style Bathroom). But did you know that you can take the same visual-clutter-eliminating trick and apply it to your home office desk?Every hotel bathroom we’ve ever stayed in featured a small melamine tray on the counter to stash those teeny tiny bottles of shampoo and body wash.

Remember awhile back when we talked about making your own pendant lighting from string and fabric stiffner? A little further down the road we came across a few more ideas to improve the project by using hemp and a playground ball, but we’ve recently come across one that used something better — an exercise ball and a shower curtain rod!We’ve been following along in the diy pendant making process over at Made By Girl where Jen has been trying her hand at creating her own fixture.

Whether it’s your bathroom in your first “grown-up” apartment or you’ve recently moved and just want to start off on the right foot, there’s a certain number of items that are just bathroom essentials. We’ve rounded up our version of what we think is needed in your bathroom at home, and we of course chose items that are good-looking!

Many peoples nightmare kitchen situation with roommates! Don’t let your finances become a haphazard part of your relationship!Living with other people can either be a pain or the best time of your life. Many suggestions for living with roommates deal with cleaning or other pet peeves. One that is rarely addressed is the issue of money: how to aggregate and pay for things with transparency.One suggestion we have is to open a joint bank account between you and your roommates.

While it seems that generally there isn’t a middle ground when it comes to this specialized style of beds, we gathered a good number of different styles of canopy beds to accommodate both modernists and traditionalists. After considering a few of the featured beds, we are pretty sure there must be at least one in the bunch that may just convert any canopy naysayers.Top Row: White Wood Canopy Bed: Hello beach house! I would die to have this bed in a modern interior or a beach side retreat.

Some of our favorite bedrooms only have about 18-24″ on either side of the bed. That makes about 8′ to 9′ of width for a bedroom with a queen size bed, which is pretty darn small. But check out how great a compact bedroom can be! Whether you choose to go soft and monotone (as in the first pic) or cozy and bold (as in the fourth), a small bedroom can surprise even the stiffest holdouts as being comfortable and “just enough”.

We’ve seen our share of small spaces and teeny-tiny homes, but this one just might take the cake. This 178-square-foot apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn belongs to 25-year-old Zach Motl. An avid collector since he was a child, Motl adheres to the “old decorating dictum that says the more stuff you put in a room (albeit artfully arranged stuff), the bigger it seems. More really is more.

Moving is a stressful time no matter how prepared you are for it but you can save yourself a little headache by taking care of a few things in advance. Not only will completing this short list make your move go smoother, it will give you peace of mind that you will make it through, no matter how many stairs you have to climb or how hot it is outside!1.

Take a drive in a neighborhood of any city and you’re bound to see a house being constructed. In contrast with a site-built house is the magic of a modular home. One day there’s an empty site that’s been prepped, and the next day there’s a fully built house on the lot. We got to take a tour of a factory where a modular home is being made.

Name: Gregory HanLocation: Silver Lake, CASize: 6′ x 3′ Closet Around this time last year I was happily enjoying working in a newly renovated home office I had designed and optimized for my workflow, furnished and accessorized with small space living in mind. It was a bright, cheery and ample space in an otherwise small studio apartment.And then we moved.

Ah, a balcony on which to step outside directly from one’s apartment! Anywhere you put it, a balcony can be a wonderful thing. But an escape to a Parisian balcony can hardly be topped! Some elements that many of these have in common that make them so special: cafe furniture, wrought iron detailing, good food in the open air, and fantastic Paris views. Do you, like us, wish to escape to a Paris balcony right about now? Sounds très magnifique! MORE BALCONIES (AND PARIS!

Even without a coastal view or a sea breeze, you can still have beach house style anywhere anytime. Borrow a few ideas from these inspiration photos and incorporate a nautical influence in your home. Just don’t go overboard.When searching beach house images, we always find whitewashed walls, light filled rooms, and varied natural textures. Color palettes are generally based on the seascape with shades of blue, green, beige and dabs of coral. Fabrics are worn and woods are weathered.

Name: Raina LeeLocation: Palos Verdes, CaliforniaSize: ∞ 3-car garage Our friend Raina Lee, the publisher of video game sine, 1-Up MegaZine, and the author of karaoke-obsessed, Hit Me WIth Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide To Karaoke Domination, has embarked on a dangerous expedition into the great unknown of her parents past: their garage. Excavated and collected pile of old audio/video gear. (Image credit: Apartment Therapy)Vintage calculator.

About three times a week, I like to start each morning with a fruit smoothie for breakfast. It’s a perfect way to start off the day: a balanced concoction of farmer’s market fruits and muscle fortifying protein powder that’s easy to gulp down and sure to fuel me through the morning hours. Perfect, except for the inordinate amount of noise made in the process upon pressing “ON”, thanks to the mechanical cacophony of the blender’s hellish mechanism.

Metal framed beds often get a bad wrap, and not without due cause. Pillows are always slouching through the headboard bars, and metal is certainly no match in comfort with its plush upholstered counterparts. Thankfully there are a few easy ways to work around their flaws or change their look without breaking the bank.

Yesterday Misty rounded up globe decor, and today we bring you maps. Decorating with maps and globes seems like just the thing to do when summer hits. Not only are maps easy to afford, they are visually stimulating and stirring to the soul. We love maps because we can see where we’ve been and dream about where we’re going.“Map” is a general term for many types of infographics.

This morning we checked out the house tour of Naseem Alizadeh of The Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism and were psyched to see that Naseem works at the same desk as we do. The Ikea Melltorp was originally designed to be a dining table, but we’ve noticed more and more people using it as their home office workspace. We’re not surprised since it’s a pretty wicked desktop.What makes it so special? It’s simple.

Earlier we mentioned this tip on pre-portioning your piñata prizes and one of our lovely readers suggested another great piñata tip that’s perfect for tots too tiny to swing a bat. Make one that stays on the ground to get kicked around instead — here’s how!Ohdeedoh reader Jo Joebi made mention of an idea that was a smash hit at one of her parties and has already been requested for next year.

Wendy’s Shoebox Studio over at Apartment Therapy New York is just 350 square feet space, which means every square inch counts. She’s worked with a narrow space and created a multi-tier wall-mounted home office which maximizes space and looks charming (when in doubt, add flowers or decorative items). “My solution to this was to get a desk with shelves that mounted to my wall which took advantage of the vertical space available.