Home Decorating Ideas and Inspiration

I learned this fabulous little party trick when I was a school teacher years ago and have been showing other folks how to do it for years.

Because we like to wear the same type of clothing on a daily basis, the jewelry we wear tends to also stay the same. We hardly ever take off our necklace and wear a ring that our grandmother passed down to us–same story with the earrings. While we like to wear the same thing everyday, it wouldn’t be difficult to switch our jewelry up a bit–if only it was displayed.

We don’t have a typical doorknob on our downstairs bathroom door. We stuck this guy in there a few years ago while we looking for one, then grew to love him. But we’ve been keeping our eyes open for ideas on what to use as a latch (right now its just an old-school bolt inside the door). Yesterday those cool folks at Remodelista posted something that the Henry Beguelin store in San Francisco uses as door handles and we finally have our solution.

Mac mini owner Derrick wasn’t content just having his svelte Apple as a typical media center PC. His Jedi inclinations led him to combine his mini with a $20 Playskool Millennium Falcon toy into the ultimate Star Wars case mod we’ve ever seen (it even incorporates the iSight into the cockpit!

Nanu! Nanu! Remember Mork and Mindy? Remember the egg chair in the living room? Now we can’t remember whether it was the Aarnio ball chair or this egg chair by Henrik Thor-Larsen. Maybe it was neither. In any case, while this is a 60’s design classic that hasn’t been available for 30 years, it’s return in 2008 comes with an unplggd worthy tech twist. Click through for the I’m too cool for school shot….An integrated and upholstered speaker system from JBL.

Catching up on our Top Design last night, we fell in love with Ondine’s vintage modern office. She picked the smallest room to design but chose elements that made it function like a big home office. 4 Tips for making your own small office feel bigger after the jump.We recently watched the first episode of the two-part season finale and we loved Ondine’s design choices. The vintage-y wallpaper, the classic black and white palette–it was inspiring.

We talk a lot about the subject of how to decorate studio apartments here on AT. Oftentimes, we give tips on how to make up for the fact that you are living in such a small space. But rather than view your teeny space as something negative that you have to design around, why not celebrate the studio!

During the Christmas sales last year we went on the search for the longest string of LED fairy lights we could find. We weren’t sure how we would use them but we knew that the first Summer in our own home would bring a lot of entertaining. After flicking though an old copy of Notebook, we found the answer.To make flower fairy lights you will need: Fairy lights Vellum paper in a variety of colours Scissors Method:1. Cut 15cm squares of vellum paper in a variety of colours.

We were back east this summer when our grandparents moved into smaller living quarters. We were allowed to have items that were considered extraneous and knew exactly what to call our own–this vintage Courac Tray. We had no idea it was a collector’s item until yesterday… Pardon My VintageWhen we were in Santa Monica yesterday having lunch with a friend, we wandered into Poolside, a vintage store carrying a tray similar to our newly acquired tray from grandma’s house.

We were chatting with a friend who spent several years in Japan about the Japanese proficiency for maximizing usable space in the home when he mentioned the kotatsu, a low multipurpose table that transforms for warm or cold weather configurations.

Name: Garrison Hullinger & J Jones IILocation: Portland, ORYears Lived In: 3.5 yearsWhat’s your philosophy on integrating technology into your living space? Hide all wiring!Over three years ago Garrison and J Jones moved into their 1909 Portland Foursquare Craftsman home. The place got a full makeover by the pair, including their 700 square foot basement, which was turned into a lounge complete with a media center and wet bar.

We came across this photo of a medicine cabinet while browsing through the September issue of Better Homes and Gardens. What a great idea to place a framed photograph on the door! This definitely dispels the myth that only a mirror can disguise a medicine cabinet…We just love the possibilities of this idea! Putting art on a medicine cabinet means these handy storage units could be placed anywhere in the home, like in an entryway to catch keys or a kitchen to store spices.

Just because something’s designed for one purpose, no reason you can’t use it for another. SarahC over at ATChicago recently installed some shower curtains as her living room curtains. We’ve done the same (West Elm’s new Ikat shower curtains would be great for this purpose). Certainly accessories can easily move from one room to another. Consider some of these from West Elm… The Teak Shower Caddy would great, of course, holding items in the bathroom.

African art and design covers a huge range of styles, cultures, and time periods – many of which have had a big influence on modern Western furniture and textiles. Wood carving, batik dyeing, and weaving are old art forms found across Africa, and you’ll still find some of the best handmade stools, tables, and fabrics in places like Cameroon, Mali, Congo, and Ivory Coast (just for starters).

When designing the look of a room, deciding on the color palette can sometimes seem overwhelming. The task of coordinating the decor to the furniture to the flooring to the walls in just the right way can seem challenging. Thoughts of “Where to begin?” or “How” to begin?” can easily takeover.One place to begin is understanding a bit about color theory and how different color harmonies can create the feeling, look and overall tone of space.

With the bright colors, amazing graphics and familiar names, it’s easy to see why some people choose to have their record collections be important parts of their home décor. We’ve rounded up five ways to show off your collection in style. More after the jump! Record Display Frames Lots of different frame styles exist today, from sleek, ultra modern thin frames to the traditional matted frame look. Prices vary. Play and Display Flip Frame From Art Vinyl.

A little bit of background:Tube amplifiers are more or less obsolete, though there is a small subculture within the audio enthusiast community that will accept nothing else. The last mass produced tube amps went out of production in the 70’s but there has always been a crowd that prefers the warm sound of vacuum amplified glass. We won’t go into much detail as to how it works here- you can wiki it for more info.

Tassels are a great way to add color and texture to absolutely anything. Beautiful additions to gift wrap, home decor, and fashion —they are a project you should absolutely add to your DIY repertoire. Tassels can be made out of an array of materials, from silk and wool yarns to basic cotton embroidery threads. While there are a number of ways you can construct a tassel, we chose a basic method you can use on any material. Yarn or Thread Scissors 1.

Not all media centers start off looking rad. Sometimes you need to get creative with that MDF unit and make it look a little less like college dorm furniture. Using contact paper can be a great way to bring some depth to that medium-density fiberboard…Using different colors of woodgrain contact paper you can cut lengths of it to make your particleboard cabinet look like it has layers of different fine wood built into it.

TRY THIS AT HOME. If you go to the MoMA to see anything right now, you’ll have to walk over Jim Lambie’s work. You can’t avoid it. In the entryway up to the crazy flying fan in the Marron atrium, is a full on, pop color installation by Jim Lambie made out of vinyl tape. Tracking the outlines of the steps up to the next floor, the tape lines both emphasize the architecture and emphasize how much color the MoMA is lacking.

We love wallpaper and interior paints…but applying them can be lots of hard work, not to mention a pricey endevour with all of the supplies and labour. So we’ve put together 10 of our favourite alternative and affordable wall treatment solutions that will give you stylish results on a budget, all below the jump…Masking tape “painted stripes”: Hakarl and Jili decked their dining room in stylish stripes with common masking tape.

Putting together our post on modern sun rooms, we saw a lot of light, open spaces. But what if you live in a small, dark apartment? There are ways to lighten the space and open it up. Click below to see them… In general, light walls make a small room feel larger. This image is from Victor and Soeun’s Loft from Small Cool 2007.

Reader Rebecca tipped us off to the Moddi Murphy Bed Kit, and frankly, we’re surprised we haven’t seen it before! Moddi sells instructions to create your own wall-mounted Murphy bed with inexpensive parts from IKEA and a hardware store. The best thing is that a twin Murphy bed can be yours for under $275 and a little work…In addition to a twin size (shown above), there are also instructions for a Full/Double size Murphy bed.

“Luke, I am your…” Wait, that’s not right. We may not be the biggest Star Wars fans but we do know that you’re out there. And you probably have a lot of trash.Allow us to introduce the Giant R2-D2 Waste Basket from Urban Outfitters. This “fully licensed replica” is authentic in looks and purposeful in utility. Like any step trashcan, a lower lever flips open the domed lid.

Name: LauraLocation: Boerum Hill, BrooklynSize: 450 sqft, one bdrm rentalYears lived in: 7.5 years “I’ll show you the closet, it’s really nice!” When Laura said this, I knew this house tour was going to be different than nearly any other from the past 3 years.That’s because Laura is a professional organizer and she puts her money where her mouth is….

Every time we pick a color to paint our guest room, there’s always one naysayer in our polling midst who vetoes the color and gasps out, “OH no. THAT color is used in mental wards!” So now, that delectable mint color that we were hovering over will is now officially known as as Mentally Ill Menthol.

As much as we HATED Grey’s Anatomynative art at Seattle GraceWe first spied this Marika Swan print by Joe David in the Big Cheesy Chief’s office when Patrick Dempsey was boo-hooing his way to the top, and we’ve been on the hunt ever since. This style of art is identified with the modern Northwest Coast Native art movement (kudos to the Grey’s Anatomy set decor for an excellent research job) which celebrates traditional Northwest native cultures.

Fess up. Ever wondered how much worse it could get? Ever thought that you were messy and everyone else wasn’t? Meet the Squalor Survivors website, a painful site with a hopeful message, hosted by Pigpen:I’m Pigpen and I used to live in squalor. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to hide the true state of my house – clutter and mess – from people. Finally, I realized I had a real problem. I worked to change how I thought about, and kept, my house.