From the yearly archives:
Room by Better Homes and Gardens
When the first tiny chrocus’ pop their heads out among the grass you know that it’s time for Spring decorating. Adding an uplifting color or a flowery print to a room can help this theme emerge and bloom. There are so many great colors and patterns to choose from. I went hunting and this is what I found.
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My graphic designer hubby is always finding cool stuff for me to obsess over. The latest? Sweet Home 3D, a free interior design program that lets you create floor plans, add walls, and place windows, doors, fixtures, cabinets…everything. And after you’ve set up your new home, just drag and drop furniture and accessories for every room, and take a virtual tour through the space.
Example floor plan from Sweet Home 3D
If you’re handy with 3D imaging, you can even create your own pieces to import into the program. Luckily, there are also plenty of 3D images—from cribs and coffee tables to iPods and clocks—created by Sweet Home contributors, and are available for download under the 3D Models section of the site.
Sweet Home 3D is a very intuitive program, and while I haven’t gotten to putting together the entire house, after 10 or 15 minutes of playing around I put together a rough plan of the bathroom as it is now. And once I have specific measurements for the replacement tub, toilet and sink, I’ll be able to start rearranging the virtual space into what I hope will soon become reality.
My first attempt
The software is free to download for both Mac and PC, and is available in several languages. Have fun!
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Textile Collection by House Beautiful
Fashion week in New York has just passed and all fingers point to denim. A standard American statement since the days of the beetles, denim is once again in the spotlight as a chic dressing option. On a more genenrous note, Aeropostale, a junior store in the USA has just collected a whopping 624,893 pairs of jeans for humane causes such as the Haiti earth quake victims through their “Jeans for teens” program.
Adorning a home with denim is something of a statement and when it comes down to it, this down-home fabric makes for a durable decorating solution. Blue is a popular color choice and there are many ways to incorporate it into your decor. The blue kitchen below by House Beautiful is a successful example of how to work with this element.
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This past Valentine’s day weekend, when my friends Judith from Chicago and Daphne from New York made a quick jaunt to Paris, we decided to have a girls’ night out. To be near them, I booked a hotel room in downtown Paris. I just wanted a place to bunk for the night and the Best Western at Notre-Dame de Lorette offered a convenient place as well the required standards of a well-known chain.
One thing that makes or breaks a trip, along with your budget, is the price of a hotel room. In Paris, a decent hotel room in a central location can cost between 150 to 300 Euros (US $200-$460). My single room at the BW Lorette amounted to a modest 98 Euros (US $130) for one night.
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Bold is beautiful, so don’t be afraid to go bold. making a statement with color is as easy as 1,2,3. Bright, strong colors go well with so many decorating choices. Brights are a given when decorating a teens room, there are even furniture lines designed especially with this trend in mind. Check out this bright fuchsia chair from Jonathan Adler’s new juniors collection.
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One thing can be said for Michal Negrin – she is a woman with definitive style.
There is no doubting from the moment you walk into her home who owns it. It’s sort of fabulous in a way. The same way that I love this insane pink and purple house in my neighborhood owned by one of the local geriatric mafia (my nickname for the seniors in the neighborhood who flag you down when driving and order ask you to drive them to the center of town – they kind of ignore if you say no and get in anyway).
It’s not a small apartment if you consider the size of the rooms, but there is so much crammed into the space, you’d never know it.
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image from trendhunter
Last month was Stockholm Design Week. Although I wasn’t actually there (yet). I did spot a really clever chair on Dezeen. Click here.
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It’s about that time to start thinking of gardening with Spring just around the bend. What’s better than a seed catalogue or this article to raise your spirits higher as the last winter blasts wreak havok in the North East? When I look out my window I see white, the best palette to create what’s soon to come. Seeds are the first of many steps that lead to your wildest garden aspirations. There are many catalogues to choose from. Just looking at them makes me smile.
Planning a garden is an art. You must decide if you want to eat from it or just beautify or both. Personally, I like to add a touch of color and fragrance among the ediables.
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It’s finally March, y’all, and you know what that means? Spring is just around the corner—March 20 to be exact (and I am so counting the days). In my backyard, there are some seriously determined daffodils making their way up through the frozen tundra, Backyard Bunny made his first appearance this weekend, and a few cardinals and blue jays have been brightening up the mostly still-bare trees.
At the same time in the design world, bird motifs have been popping up everywhere over the past few months. I’m not sure if it’s partially because of our current collective Twitter obsession, but this season, home decor—from furniture to accessories—has completely gone to the birds.
First up is Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic House Bird. Avid collectors of folk art objects, the creative couple had a similar bird that held a prominent spot in the center of their living room for more than half a century. While the original came from the Appalachian region of the U.S., Vitra has reproduced this prized piece, crafted from Alder wood with a black lacquer finish and steel wire legs.
I’ve made no secret about my obsession with pillows, and I really love this one from CB2, both for its cool design, and its back story. This exclusive new pillow—called “Little Bird”—is the result of CB2’s partnership with Creativity Explored, a nonprofit visual arts center in San Francisco where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art. “Little Bird” was created by Douglas Sheran, and features an abstract wash of greens over a black sketch on off-white cotton. The pillow includes the artist’s signature in the corner, and a percentage of the sale of each pillow will go directly to Creativity Explored.
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The latest thing in home improvement these days is saving money not spending it. Well, spending it is inevitable if you want to upgrade your home and some initial costs will have to be incurred to eventually save for years to come. A much talked about “home-energy audit and upgrades” program is what homeowners are raving about. What is a “home-energy audit” you ask?
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