Cranberry Cravings- The Perfect Fall Accent Color for Your Home

Who doesn’t love cranberry? The dramatic dark red is like fall itself- playful yet serious, rich and jewel-like with a hint of the icy winter to come. Cranberry plays well with a variety of other colors, from earth tones to other jewel tones, and can even be treated as a neutral alongside blacks and greys. Add a little cranberry to your fall decor with one of these striking home accents.

Cranberry Throw Pillows- Well-placed cranberry throw pillows give the subtle vibe of autumn without having to change anything else in your home. The deep red looks good on just about any color couch or chair. Choose a throw pillow with a fun cranberry print for a solid-color sofa, and opt for a solid cranberry pillow for a seat with a vibrant print.

Cranberry Candles- For a fragrant fall touch to your living room, cranberry candles look as beautiful as they smell. Give your home a pop of color as well as an uplifting autumn scent with a cranberry candle that brings the bountiful harvest right into your house.

Actual Cranberries- Go full Pilgrim this fall and decorate your home with thoughtfully-placed bowls of actual cranberries. You can opt for artificial berries or use the real deal in gorgeous pottery bowls, in tall glass vases or scattered amongst votive candles in a mantelpiece display. Let your imagination run wild!

Have any decorating tips featuring fall’s favorite berry? Let us know in the comments section.

Egg-cellent Ideas!- DIY Home Décor for Easter

Want to make sure the Easter Bunny doesn’t pass by your house? Time to get crafty with these easy and adorable decorating ideas.

Easter Tree- Deck the halls, Easter style, with a small configuration of branches and twigs in a decorative planter. You can use florist’s foam to anchor the branches into the pot and then let your imagination run wild! Leave natural or spray paint white. Blown-out, decorated eggs, paper egg cutouts with jazzy ribbon or springy lace, even shellacked Peeps all work well for a cute centerpiece.

Framed Paper Bunnies- For an elegant yet whimsical touch, cut out some sweet bunny silhouettes and affix to scrapbook paper or wallpaper remnants, then frame in a 6X6 square window box. A chic way to welcome spring!

(Source: Better Homes and Gardens) 

Crepe Paper Carrots- This fun decorative statement doubles as a secret hiding place for trinkets and candy! Wrap orange crepe paper around the goodies in a carrot shape, then attach some green crepe paper “leaves” at the end. A basket full of these charming carrots will warm everybunny’s heart!

(Source: MarthaStewart.com)

Paper Ribbon Wreath- With a foam wreath form and some brightly colored scrapbook paper strips, you can create a family heirloom that will be hung on the front door for many an Easter. Follow this surprisingly simple tutorial to make this eye-catching spring decoration.

(Source: Coredinations)

Peeps Wreath- An adorable way to display the iconic Easter candy that everybody loves (or, in some cases, loves to hate). Either way, you have to admit, those Peeps are pretty darn cute!

(Source: Tried and True Blog)

Give Your Kitchen a Weekend Makeover!

Weekend warriors, unite! Two days is plenty of time to give the most popular room in the house a fresh facelift. Here’s a few of our favorite tips, tricks and suggestions for beautifying your home without breaking your budget, all in a weekend’s work!

Faux granite countertops- Give your old countertops a modern new look with a can of faux granite spray. All you have to do is pry off your original countertop finish, sand the wood below, and follow the instructions on a DIY faux-granite painting kit like thisone from Gianito make your countertops look updated and fresh!

Switch out your knobs-  Sometimes all your cabinetry needs is some new knobs or drawer pulls to give the whole space a new look. Sleek new styles of cabinet hardware are available for cheap at stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot (or my personal favorite store on Earth, Amazon), and installation is simple. Just remover the old cabinet knobs and drawer pulls and screw the new ones into the existing holes. Never had hardware on your cabinets before? No problem- a drill and some good measuring skills is all you will need to add a little flair to your cabinetry.

Get the lighting right- Boring, overhead fluorescent kitchen lights never did anybody any favors. Fun and flattering light fixtures can add much-needed pops of color and ambiance to any size or shape kitchen space. Hit the big-box hardware stores, Amazon or even Costco for great deals on easy-to-install fixtures that will make for great conversation pieces and bring your kitchen into this century without damaging your wallet.

A little paint goes a long way- Tired of your beige kitchen walls? Looking for some way to camouflage a grease stain on the wall near your stove? Look no further than a small can of paint and a couple of rollers. Adding a little accent color to your kitchen can create the illusion of more space, higher ceilings and depth in a small kitchen, or it can simply add a little funky creativity to an otherwise bland space. Choose a color that speaks not only to your personality but the personality of the kitchen itself (I personally love bold brick reds for accent walls) and get to work painting a recessed area, the wall behind your fridge, the strip above your cabinets- whatever will make the whole kitchen come to life.

Update your faucet- Kitchen tapware gives an immediate boost to the overall “wow factor” of your entire kitchen, with minimal effort and cash. A gorgeous new faucet for your kitchen sink can start as low as $100, is easy to install and instantly increases the visual appeal and modern feel of your kitchen. 

Replace your appliances- Of course, the quickest way to give your kitchen a brand new look is to purchase new appliances. Whether you’re ready to take the plunge with a stainless steel upgrade or you prefer the look of sleek black appliances, this is a good time of year to buy. Not only will you take advantage of incredible New Year’s sales but if you purchase energy-efficient appliances, you can enjoy the savings on your electric bill all year long. Check out Appliance Factory & Mattress Kingdom for amazing deals on state-of-the-art kitchen appliances for every budget.

Any extra tips on quick kitchen remodels? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

Cheap and Easy Decorating Ideas

Creating a unique space doesn’t have to break the bank, nor do you have to have a degree in interior design to make your home beautiful. Check out this helpful article from Style at Home, with 25 easy decorating ideas to do on a budget. Here are a few of my favorites from the list that I have actually tried with success in my own home:

 

Family Photo Wall- “Create a gallery wall of family photos and other small pictures in matching (or contrasting) frames, arranged in a collage on a large wall such as a stairwell or hallway.” I have a photo wall like this in my dining room, with a tastefully laid out mishmash of black collage photo frames, and it creates visual interest while proudly displaying happy family memories. The best part? Two of the photo collage frames were wedding gifts and therefore cost us nothing, while the third one was $10 at Ross and happened to match the others perfectly.

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure- “Peruse Craigslist, eBay or freecycle.org regularly for finds. It’s amazing what shows up as a bargain or even free.” Though my husband and I agree to disagree on this decorating tip, I have found many fantastic items for the house on eBay and Craigslist, as well as thrift stores and even the Dumpster outside our old apartment! One of my prized possessions, a working high-quality record player dating from the late 1960s, set me back only $25 on Craigslist. Such a deal!

 

Chandelier Magic- “Replace overhead lighting with thrift-store (or box store) chandeliers.” Our first house came with the world’s ugliest brass chandelier, which not only was an eyesore but also had a way of smacking houseguests in the head when they stood up from the table too quickly. $100, plus $25 for installation help from an experienced electrician, got us the most beautiful, sleek art-deco style chandelier from Home Depot, which gave our whole dining area an instant facelift.

 

Cabinetry Cosmetics- “Replace the drawer and cabinet pulls in your kitchen, bath, bedroom, or on a furniture piece.” For approximately $20, we were able to add stylish, modern pulls to all the cabinets and drawers in our old kitchen. The results were instant and dramatic.

 

Let Nature In- “A tray filled with pinecones, a tall vase of dried pampas grass stalks, or a bowl of colorful pebbles, beach glass or shells all make eye-catching home décor accessories.” This is one I use constantly at home- we’ve got some seashells and-picked by my husband at the beach scattered along the mirror of our master bathroom counter, a candle-holding tray adorned with various smooth rocks and flat glass marbles and a tall bamboo vase filled with stalks of natural grasses and reeds. The cost is cheap (or free!) but the effect is breathtaking.

Have you tried any of the tips from this article? Let us know in the comments below

Featuring…Feature Walls!

For those of us wanting to make a big statement on a small budget, a feature wall is a fabulous way to make a room “pop.” In the same spirit as the highly popular accent wall design concept of the 90s and 00s, the feature wall adds an element of interest to one wall in a room, creating a focal point that is both exciting and unique. You can add a touch of elegance or whimsy to any wall in any room in the house, in ways both large and small.

A few tips to keep in mind for your feature wall, no matter how large or small scale of a project you have in mind:

Dark=Drama- If you wish to add some drama to the room, go for a dark color for your feature wall. A charcoal, navy or black wall plays off of the surrounding lighter walls nicely and draws the eye directly to the space you wish to serve as the focal point of the room.

 

Consider Color Blocking- Who says feature walls have to be all one color? A nice striped or patterned color-blocking effect on the feature wall can create visual interest that mingles nicely with the surrounding wall colors. For example, you can set off solid colored surrounding walls with a feature wall that includes complementary colors so that the whole thing goes together. It is also a fun and popular idea to use wallpaper on the feature wall and let the colors of the wallpaper coordinate with the solid walls for a sense of harmony.

   

 

Feature Walls Can Be Functional- Especially in smaller living spaces, one fun idea might be to incorporate functionality into your feature wall. For example, you could use a massive bookshelf, vintage record player, family pictures or floating shelves with children’s toys on them as the primary focus of your feature wall, which not only will give great visual interest to the area but also provide an excellent storage space for these items. Additionally, this will give your living space a sense of your personality and let the wall speak for you. Don’t be afraid to get creative!