Week after week, my most important chore was to dust the trophies and the books on the shelves in the living room. This was no simple feat! Seven children, each with some fourteen trophies or so {maybe more from the more -ahem- atheletic of the bunch}. The Encyclopedia Brittanica lining the bottom shelf {the reading of which was threatened punishment should any of us squeel “I’m bored!”}, and rows and rows of endless books. Dutifully, I took each book off the shelf one by one, dusted it and replaced it, all the while making snide remarks about how you had [...]

This week anyway. After purchasing the Ophelia Vag pillow for my new chocolate couch, I have been on the lookout for great looking white pillows. Because I’m a color and pattern-aholic, it never really occured to me to use white pillows in decorating. Even my bestie, Shannon, has had white pillows on her couch for quite sometime, but I didn’t realize the greatness until I had my own. I think I’m so impressed with the white pillows because they neutralize the room when you’re like me and have LOTS of colors. Also, they serve as new bright and refreshing focal [...]

I saw this post from Design Sponge about Photojojo’s glass jar frames. I thought this was such a fun idea to make your photos more interesting. You can see the tutorial at Photojojo.com.

My friends are probably beyond tired of hearing of my couch escapades. If you remember, I had already gotten a new couch just a few months ago. As it turns out, that couch was as hard as a rock. I never sat down and watched TV and we never had people over because it just wasn’t comfortable. I even started developing some upper-back pain because of the angle of the cushions. So – big fat lesson learned, and a renewed appreciation for craigslist: we sold the couch for just $200 less than we paid for it and moved onward and [...]

Sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics. Here I’ve compiled some fun black and white decorating, as well as my suggestions on products that will help make it happen. And here are my suggestions for great black and white pieces: Here are the highlights: ceramic canisters {pottery barn} nesting hexagons {west elm} deco scroll curtain {urban outfitters} birdie lamp base {urban outfitters} french industrial side table {wisteria} swedish tub chair {wisteria} Wall Tiles {target} Mantle Clock {target} Accent Table {target} above image credits from: http://www.housetohome.co.uk http://hookedonhouses.net/2008/03/07/decorating-inspiration-black-white/ http://mysanantonio.ctwfeatures.com/homestyle/home_20080327_contrast.html http://alkemie.blogspot.com/2008/07/study-in-black-white-one-designers-home.html http://freshome.com/tag/graphic-design/

I have noticed over the last few months, after having mounted our TV in our new condo, that many are hanging their TV too high. I can see how this is easily done, because the things we normally hang on the wall are artwork. Normally, artwork is hung at eye-level when standing up. A TV however, is not meant to be viewed standing up. A TV should be mounted much lower than artwork, because it is viewed while sitting down. If you think about TV consoles, they are usually much lower than say, a kitchen table. They are low to [...]

Maybe it’s the weather, or the premature holiday marketing at Starbucks, but I just got excited about decorating for Christmas. I don’t decorate for many holidays, mainly because I don’t like clutter. However, Christmas makes me a new woman. Every year, I do my day-after-Christmas shopping, shopping carts full of Christmas decorations that I get the pleasure of opening around the week of Thanksgiving the following year. Oh, I LOVE Christmas decorations. So with my premature excitement comes my premature Christmas inspiration board – vintage style. The Highlights: pine cone ornaments in greens and golds {smith and hawken} mercury glass [...]

My mom updated her couch with a recovered set of accent pillows. She complimented her small-scale patterned couch, a blue and green ticking upholstery fabric, with a large-scale floral fabric from Amy Butler, one of my favorite fabric designers. When putting fabrics together, always consider color and scale. Two large-scale patterns would appear too busy, and two small scale patterns wouldn’t balance like these two.

Reader, Shannon, has a master bedroom that is currently in transition. She had just purchased new bedding and pillows and is looking to tie it all together. You can see the room as-is in the picture below. Here are my observations: I love the matching nightstands and lamps on either side, but the lamps are too small for the size of the room. Plus, they have no form. The sconces look outdated. At best, they could be pulled down lower, much closer to the nightstands to make it more intimate. If they were spray-painted in a shiny bright color, that [...]

does it take to hang a group of pictures? My husband, sister and mom helped me hang the pictures above my sofa, and here is how we did it: Picture groups are a great way to fill a big wall, save money on art, hang pieces that mean something to you, and bring color into a room. These frames are filled with scrapbook paper.

My hallway was looking pretty boring (as most hallways do) and my friend Shannon pointed out that we didn’t have any pictures of us hanging in the house. (Anybody else not like pictures of yourself?) So I decided to make a picture wall at the end of our itty bitty hall. I took frames that I already had, (you know it’s not like me to spend money on something like this when I’ve got scraps that can be repurposed), and spray-painted a couple to help with the color palette. The frames are all different in size and color, don’t match [...]

My favorite kind of furniture is dual purpose furniture. This would almost be organizational overload because I would have to pick the perfect things for this perfect storage opportunity. BUT – How great would this be?!? (I found this product at eco-friendly inhabitat.com) And, what if it looked like THIS? This was paper Mod Podged onto the stair, but I think this might be a destructive method. Better would be wallpaper where there are solutions to remove it down the road, best would be paint, because you can always repaint. pictures from design*sponge and inhabitat.com.

Just in case we forget what side of the bed we sleep on…

Still in dire need of small decorative items, but the transformation is nearly complete. Here are the before and after pictures of the living room in our new condo. Highlights: Walls painted a warm beige color (Lady Finger) by Benjamin Moore. Ceiling painted slightly darker for a cozy feeling New dark chocolate hardwood floors New ceiling fan with dark blades to match the flooring, brushed metal finish on the lights Brushed metal star lanterns hung from the ceiling New sofa from Basset Furniture Refinished vintage dresser with drawers removed as TV bench Mounted TV Velour drapes from Ikea Inner drapes: [...]

Getting organized is one of the most important steps to making your house feel like a home. I would rather spend hours organizing than relaxing because it feels so good after you’ve done it. Unclutterer is a great blog about organization that I subscribe to. It gives great tips on laundry organization, office organization, home organization, and how to rid your life of things that serve only one unimportant purpose. (Unitasker Wednesday is a weekly special on Unclutterer where they very dryly rip apart products that serve seemingly no purpose. Very funny. Even funnier when you own one of these [...]