Budget Mood Boards - Bedroom

Furnishing a home is an expensive task but if you do a little research you can furnish a room with all new items on a budget.  This week I'll be sharing with you some mood boards, I created  with budget friendly prices.

 I'm a firm believer that inexpensive decorating doesn't have to look cheap. Below are two mood boards I created for the same bedroom.  While the paint color, bed and side table remained the same, I switched up the accessories. 

AWESOME DIY PROJECTS FRONT PORCH

Decorating your porch is extremely important and decorating yours are often fun, easy, and economical.

AWESOME DIY PROJECTS FRONT PORCH

We have creative porch decorating ideas for everyone’s taste and for creating a most curb appealing porch.

Whether trying to find economic ideas to beautify your porch and to make a classy entryway, here you've got some inspirational DIY projects to make a porch with a tremendous design. So, collect some incredible ideas to organize and personalize your own porch .

Hotel Inspiration - Banyan Tree Samui

I love a well designed hotel and The Banyan Tree Samui delivers high design in spades.  It's truly eye candy.

OMG, wouldn't you love to wake up to this everyday?

This room is has minimum color but the use of texture gives it amazing impact on the senses.

Another shot of this beautiful room.  Isn't it fabulous?

Home Tour - Guest Room Ideas

I'm finally getting around to completing all my half finished projects around the house, and trust me I have quite a few of them.  I'm going to try tackling a project each month.  We'll see how that goes. 

This past weekend I worked on my guest room and I think I'm finally done until my Design ADD kicks in again.

Here's a shot of the room before, in all of it's purple glory.

Here's the guest room now.

I know the imperial trellis pattern is "supposed" to be last season but I still love it, plus this pillow came from Target and only cost $10.  Can't beat the price and the shot of blue has a huge impact in the room.

The wall color is sauteed mushroom. 

  

I purchased the stencil months ago and was dragging my feet because I thought it was going to be a lot of work but it only took around 4 hours for the wall.  I used a roller and it was fairly easy except for last row since I had to bend the stencil. 

The paint for the stencil pattern was a metallic paint from Martha Stewart and the mirror was purchased from Home Goods.

 Every guest room needs a chair and this chair doesn't overwhelm the room, plus I'm a sucker for nail head trim.

I purchased this capiz shell chandelier from Target when they had their last global bazaar event, it was on clearance for $25.  This was definitely an awesome buy.  I do miss Target's global design event, I wonder if they'll bring it back.

Well that was the room in all it's glory, one project down, countless to go......

10 Original Ways to Paint your Home

These top tips from the experts at Behr and Benjamin Moore will make your next paint job a smashing success.

Wait for dry weather.

Humidity means drips and slow drying, so avoid painting on a rainy day. If you must paint when it’s humid, take your time — and take advantage of slow-drying paint to correct your errors before moving on to the next coat. But don’t overwork, or it will show when you’re finished.

Do a thorough visual inspection and prep.

Any cracked, flaking, or peeling areas need to be lightly sanded or scraped (and then thoroughly rinsed) before applying new primer and paint, because the weight of the new coat will pull the old paint loose. “You’ll just end up wasting your time and money if you don’t tackle that first,” says Tom Lee, Senior VP of Consumer Marketing for Behr. Greasy spots may also need a bit of washing with soap, followed by a rinse with clean water. Otherwise, give the walls a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth so that paint will have a clean, dust-free surface to stick to.

Rolling Yellow Paint on a Beige Wall

Buy high-quality brushes, roller covers, and painter’s tape.

If you’re splurging on great paint, you definitely don’t want to pinch pennies on the application. Good brushes and roller covers give excellent coverage so that you don’t waste time and paint on re-application, and high-end painter’s tape is the real deal when it comes to sealing out drips and blurs. 

1. Paint the baseboards or the stairs (or both)

Grafic black & grey baseboards
with a yellow touch to energize the whole

2. Paint Geometric Figures

DIY tutorial on VintageRevivals’ blog

3. Paint the doors

4. Paint one or two bands on the wall

5. Paint just one wall or a block

© Jo Pesendorfer

© Sophie Hanniet

6. Paint the furniture tone-on-tone

7. Paint the moldings

 8. Paint the ceiling

9. Paint half of the wall

10. Paint… a canvas

If you don’t dare to paint the whole wall,
try the light way: just paint a canvas with a plain color
(here the Blue by Klein)

Or just buy the Pantone canvas !

10 Small Things to Do at Home This Summer

You are in your holiday home or you decided to have ‘staycations’ ('stay at home + vacations') this summer? there is no such moment like holidays to make all this decoration handiwork you don’t have time to do during the rest of the year.

Here you’ll find 10 ideas to add to your checklist of the summer! Your house will get better looking and you can start the year on the right foot. 

1. (Re)Paint a wall, a door or a piece of furniture

You have been thinking about painting your bedroom walls for months? You keep saying the dining room table needs to be modernised? Stop waiting and start painting! You have all you need: time, good weather (or almost), and you’ll be able to aerate all day long. Summer is a good time for creativity…

2. Hang  your frames, ceiling lights and wall lamps which have been lying around for months

Bare bulbs, empty walls... Take the time to hang your frames, your wall lamps and change the position of your furniture. You’ll feel like you live in a new home.

3.  Let’s fix it! Replace the bulbs, level your leaning shelves

Miss DIY Kit

Every morning you wake up with this shelf leaning. It’s been a year now since your wardrobe is jammed? Take 5 minutes to lubricate the wheels, replace the kitchen spotlight and fix all those things which don’t work right. 

4.  Find a sewing machine to make cushions, curtains, household linen and more!

@vintagerevivals

You have meters of nice fabric sleeping in the deepest shelf of your house? Find a sewing machine and make cushions or curtains to adorn your sofa or your windows. How to do it yourself? Nothing easier, you can watch this tutorial for cushions or this one for curtains. 

5. Give your furniture a new life

Tutorial here

Sometimes, changing the fabric or repainting some furniture is enough to give it a new life. This old chair for example, became in a few moves a unique designer piece, so stop hesitating!

6. Transform or redesign a room

Your attic or your storeroom is abandoned? Take time to reorganize the space better by tidying it. Your attic might become a guest room and you might even want to turn yourcloset into an office.

7. Put your things into order and tidy your home

You don’t know where to begin? Start with the 5s methods of our Japanese friends:

1. SORT: Get rid of what you don’t use anymore and throw what’s useless. Donate what cannot be sold (Emmaus, Popular Assistance…) and sell what’s left (ebay, yard sales…)
2. STABILIZE: Tidy and organize your space, use pieces of furniture and tidy tips (see this article full of good ideas).
3. SHINE: Take advantage of this time to clean the room entirely
4. STANDARDIZE or organize your things by creating an intuitive system: e.g., keep at hand the things you use daily. Put in another room what you don’t use every day and place the rest in height or in your garage…
5. SUSTAIN: Keep up with it! Pile up your T-Shirts, keep your hats in your shelf and your socks in the drawer.

8. Look for Second-Hand & Garage Sales

Passing by a yard sale? Go and have a look at it. You might find golden opportunity at a bargain. So-called "garage sales" are usually way more interesting in the summer than during the rest of the year.

9. Customize old/cheap pieces

A customized camping chair by Mat & Jewski

Once you found some interesting objects, try to customize their look to give them a fresh start.

10. Do your major purchases (take advantage of summer sales)

Last but not least, take advantage of summer sales and discounts to make your major purchases of decoration before the beginning of the year.

Have a nice summer J