Add bursts of bright color, energetic patterns, and lively springtime motifs to your home to effortlessly transition it into spring.
Tabletop Terrarium
Carve out a sunny nook to refresh and recharge with a mini tabletop greenscape. A tray table makes it easy to move plants near a window’s natural light. Place plants that share light and watering needs but vary in texture and color for a fresh spring display in a glass terrarium.
Easy Accent
Bring a spare birdbath indoors to create living artwork. A shallow model can hold just enough soil to make a pretty display of moss, spring-flowering bulbs, and pussy willow branches. It’s the perfect miniature garden to enjoy indoors before your outdoor landscape blooms.
Ombre Update
Refresh a spare dresser, console, or nightstand with a fun ombre paint effect. Vary the brightness of a soft spring paint shade by mixing in different amounts of white paint. Apply the lightest shade to the top of your furniture piece, and gradually work down to the darkest shade.
Wonderful Windows
Sometimes all you need to update a room for a new season is a fresh window treatment. Use a pretty, floral-pattern Roman shade to turn a window into a work of art.
Get ready to throw the most wickedly fun Halloween party ever! We’re sharing the best Halloween party ideas with you right here.
Paper Jack-o’-Lanterns
Pumpkin carving is fun, but it can also be really, really messy. Skip the goop with these fun paper jack-o’-lanterns. All you have to do is cut some facial features and stems from black and brown construction paper, then apply to orange honeycomb balls using glue dots.
DIY Creepy Portrait Decor
This spooky craft is made even more fun when you use real photos of friends and family—particularly those who will be in attendance at your party. Just print them out in black and white!
DIY Potion Bottles
Make your wine habit count! These “potion bottles” are simply repurposed wine bottles with added labels, plus a bit of twine, some melted candle wax, and creepy plastic toys.
Matte Black Party Decor
Matte black party decor—bowls, plates, frames, candles, silverware, and the like—make for eerie, but elegant additions to your Halloween fête.
Here are my some tips to make the furniture and fabric in your home pet friendly.
TEXTURE AND COLOR FABRICS HIDE FUR
Select sofa and chair fabric with texture or pattern to hide lost fur. As crazy as it sounds, try to pick options that match the colour of your pet. Medium toned grays and creams with flecks of charcoal, brown and black through them are the best for hiding fur. Tweeds and textured herringbones are good for this as well, and look quite stylish today.
NATURAL FIBRES ARE HARDER TO CLEAN
Synthetic fabrics will be much easier to wipe clean should your favorite furry friend have an accident on the furniture. Today’s technology in fabric has made polyesters and nylons look and feel better than ever before. The benefit of these fibers is their non-absorbent qualities, so liquids will not penetrate, giving you time to clean them. Stains and smells can be easier to manage. Also wool, a fiber I generally like, can actually wrap lost fur into its own fiber making the removal of fur almost impossible so rethink this choice.
BUY FURNITURE WITH ZIPPERS
Good quality furniture will have zippers on every pillow including the large seat pillows so buy quality. This is a very important investment to make when you own a pet! This allows you to remove and clean individually soiled sections as required. Covers can even be taken to the dry cleaner for a thorough cleaning if necessary.
CONSIDER LEATHER FURNITURE
Although considerably more expensive, full grain, high quality leather can be a good solution where easy wiping is required. And leather will last a lifetime. I noticed my cat, Matisse, had little interest in being near my leather chairs so he avoided these completely. This is good news as he scratched everything else! If leather is against your principles you can look at excellent vinyl options as an alternative.
Aside from personal taste, it can be hard to determine if curtains, blinds or both are the way to go, and what has the scope to really boost the individual areas of your home. We take a step into each room to give you an idea on what works and what doesn’t.
LOUNGE & LIVING AREA
Curtains have always tended to be the more relaxed and “homey” option, making a space very decorative with a vast range of options to reflect any style and preference. With the increasing flexibility of blinds however, they are now both considered fantastic choices that are versatile with look, function, and control over light, privacy and energy saving properties.
KITCHEN
Choosing a window dressing that not only looks great, but stands up the arduous demands of the kitchen is essential. Blinds are a better option for this space as they are easier to clean if they get splashed from cooking, can be pulled out of harms way and are easy to use. Venetian blinds are the most popular for the kitchen with their versatility and maintenance free options.
BEDROOM
Curtains are best suited for lounge and bedrooms but nowadays, the use of blinds is becoming just as popular.
For bedrooms that are smaller, you can add depth and height by mounting timber or Roman Blinds a few inches below the ceiling to “cheat” a window up. This creates the effect that the ceiling is taller, the room feels brighter and windows look huge so when in doubt, go wide and high. This is also a perfect option for living areas and lounge rooms that also need the illusion that the space is actually bigger than what it is.
BATHROOM
Like the kitchen, curtains are very rarely used in this space but for those that want the best of both worlds without the expense of paying for both curtains and blinds, roman blinds make for a great alternative. Look wise, they give you the luxurious drapes renowned to curtains, combined with the mechanisms of blinds. For a space where the fabric of curtains doesn’t work but you want its style, roman blinds give no limitations with their finishes available in both classic timber planks and a selection of fabrics.
When done correctly, the modern interior look can be anything from elegant and classy to funky and quirky. For instance, you can enjoy a bright and colourful living room, a clean and stately bedroom, and a lavishly decorated kitchen while still employing the most important factors of modern interior design for all three spaces.
1. NO CLUTTER
First rule of modern interior design: keep it simple! But don’t opt for just a simple room with four walls and a sofa. Bring in some décor pieces to accentuate the space, but keep it as uncluttered as possible.
And be sure to keep all necessary items (books, electronics, keepsakes… ) out of sight by hiding them in a cabinet or closet, or placing them into built-in storage spaces like floating shelves or bookcases.
2. CLEAN, STRAIGHT LINES
The interior styles that came before the modern one used heavy carvings and ornate decorations. Modern interior design is meant to be the antithesis of those. That is why most components of modern design, from the furniture to the shape of the rooms, includes clean, straight lines with no additional detail.
Take note of these elements which can be found in many modern spaces worldwide:
Oversized tiles with rectified edges
Sanded wood floors that minimize the grain
3. USE METAL
Chrome and stainless steel form big parts of modern design. Chucking out traditional metal details (like wrought iron) opens up the door for clean, polished metals.
Thus, don’t be scared to bring in chrome or stainless steel for your furnishings, like table legs, exposed parts of a chair’s frame, or even kitchen islands. Chrome can be found quite extensively in homes via faucets, doorknobs, lamps, etc.
4. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Those clean lines and minimal accessories of your modern home should not only be simple, but also functional. Although this can vary greatly from room to room, the main aim is that it should be easy to access and use various items in a space.
For example, the clean and straight lines of a modern kitchen must provide ample surfaces for food prepping via countertops and/or an island.
5. LOTS OF OPEN SPACE
An open-plan layout is ideal for the modern home, but of course this is not always possible. However, there are other ways in which you can create the appearance of open space via colours, fabrics and furniture.
For instance, keep windows coverings that are light in colour and airy in feel to create an open feel in the room.
6. BOLD COLORS
A neutral colour palette is always advisable for modern spaces, but often primary colours are used as accents to help break up those whites and greys and provide focal points. But remember that these colours, which can help add character to a room, are often introduced sparingly, and rarely used as an all-over wall colour.
Some prime examples of using bold accents in your modern home can include:
Abstract wall art
One piece of furniture in a striking colour like a burgundy leather sofa
Some strong-coloured scatter cushions
A single bold-coloured throw rug
One accent wall (i.e. in fresh green that stands out from the remaining cream walls)
