DIY: Wedding Favours
Jan 5th
If you haven’t noticed by now, lace is a major trend in fashion for the Fall/Winter seasons, and the lace looks from the F/W 2010 Ready-to-Wear shows, like Dolce & Gabanna, have stolen my heart and occupied my thoughts! Lace is by no means a new trend in the wedding industry; lace is a constant staple in wedding dresses from season to season. Nonetheless, for the fabulous bride who wants to incorporate this fashion trend into her wedding, here is a lace covered favour box DIY project!! Read the rest of this entry »
Take Chances on Your Design Projects – Style Rules You Can Break
Apr 26th
Getting in a rut can be a tiresome ordeal. Doing the same things, the same way all the time is not good for your creative side. That is why changing up styles in your home can be such a liberating experience; it’s a chance to do something new. If you are thinking about changing the style in your home, be sure that you don’t just move from one rut to another.
A lot of people begin new home decorating projects very excited, but quickly lose that fervour. What happens to dull their passion? One setback may be a huge set of home decorating “rules.” When new designers begin to read up on different design ideas, they hear professional stylists telling them, “Do this, but never do this…” It can be enough to make anyone nip their own creative impulses in the bud. Here are a couple of the “rules of design” that you can feel free to break.
- Keep things symmetrical. This is nonsense. While a symmetrical room layout can be very inviting, it can also be very boring. Take chances with your design. Put things where you think they look best. Let your personality shine through. None of us are perfectly balanced people; so why should our rooms be perfectly balanced? Have a little fun!
- Stick with one theme. Consistency is a great thing, but you don’t have to be bogged down by the limitations of one style over another. Feel free to add a little funk to a traditional country look with a post-modern painting or sculpture. Keep things interesting.
There are plenty of other, hard and fast rules that you can break as a designer. Be sure that you know the rules well, before you break them. If you are breaking rules, just to be breaking them, you are likely to end up with a stylistic nightmare. You want to use the breaking of the rules to make a style statement not to cause people to be uncomfortable. Remember it’s OK to be a fashion outlaw sometimes, you might just surprise yourself.
The 3 P’s of an Inviting Kitchen
Apr 13th
If you think of your house as a wheel, the kitchen is the hub, or center. The life of home design begins, and finds its inspiration with the kitchen. For too many homes, the kitchen is all about business. These kitchens are made for cooking and cleaning, that’s all. Try adding some personality, playfulness, and pizazz to your kitchen’s design. Follow along on the three P’s for an inviting kitchen
Personality
Don’t make your kitchen all about productivity, there’s another P you should add to the mix – Personality! Your kitchen design should be a reflection of who you are. You don’t have to keep family photos relegated to the living room or family room, add some family photos to the kitchen as well. You can pick up some nice, light-coloured picture frames that are very inexpensive to frame your kitchen photos. Then, add some customization to the frames with floral designs or hand painted highlights. Let your personality shine through in your kitchen.
Playfulness
All work and no play makes your kitchen a dull place. Have some fun with your kitchen decoration. Bring in some cute knickknacks to display on your spice rack. Then put up a simple shelf for knickknacks, but put some spices or old kitchen utensils on it as well. Mix things up and have a little fun in your kitchen.
Pizazz
Too many kitchens are stuck being forever painted white. Throw on a new coat of paint, but add some actual colour. If the thought of doing all your walls is too much, think about doing just one wall or a section of wall over cabinets for a nice contrasting colour. Complement your new paint with some fresh-cut floral arrangements as a centerpiece and you will have a kitchen teeming with new life.
Add these three P’s to your kitchen’s design. Make the hub of your home a reflection of your style that is fun and exciting to spend time in. Don’t let your kitchen get stuck in the past; take some chances and liven things up. It may be a shock to your family’s senses to come down for breakfast to a fun, colourful, expressive room, but they will soon come to love it.
