2011 Spring Home Decorating
By Katy Hahn
Decorating your home for the spring? What do you think of when you think of spring? Lighter, brighter, fresher, and newer. I know what I think of. I think of planting fresh flowers, re-arranging my furniture for a new look and adding new accent pillows. These are all simple and inexpensive ways to decorate and give your home a spring tonic. But, what if you want more or what if you’re ready to design or redesign your home décor? Well here is what’s new in the home furnishings industry for Spring 2011.
Let’s start with color. Color is exciting this spring. Think of walking through a farmer’s market or a foreign marketplace. These colors are a reflection of what you would expect to see in fabrics. Popular spring colors will be lemon yellow, golden yellows, mandarin orange, blushing pinks, light golden browns, dark purples, aqua blues, smoky grays and shades of green. Patterns include ribbon candy stripes, large florals, trellis fabrics, China Seas and tracery patterns.
Home decoration styles will 
take on a more global influence, particularly Parisian, African and Asian. Along with that is the big look of the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s. The look is artisan, rustic and ethnic. Some decorating styles you will be reading about are Refined Rustic, Art Deco, Modern Mid-Century, Classic Revival, 70′s Modern Retro as well as a blend of vintage and classic. We will see much more green design options as the home furnishings industry pushes forward to bring homeowners healthier living alternatives like zero VOC paints, wood flooring and furniture from sustainable forests, soy foam stuffing for upholstery and non-toxic natural fabrics. As homeowners become more energy conscious, energy efficiency will be a main focus for homes and businesses.
Just as Vintage and Modern, Traditional and Contemporary designs set the stage for new and unique home décor accents, prepare to see lots of textures, artisan touches, pleats, tweeds and puckers. Woods and metals will also bring in texture through etching, stenciling and stamping. Traditional items will have unexpected colors. Area rugs will have more geometric patterns. All this in 2011 spring home decorating.
Well, I guess when they say, spring forward, they really mean it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I did putting it together. I feel like I traveled the world in search of treasures, colors, fabrics and home furnishings. Now, I am back and ready to get started in decorating, a spring tonic for my home. Happy Decorating!:-)
Copyright 2011 Beautiful Interiors For Less, LLC
Katy Hahn is the founder and lead designer of Beautiful Interiors For Less, serving Central Florida and the greater Orlando area. She is an interior design and decorating consultant and provides both full design and redesign services. Whether you need help with color and fabric selection, new furniture layouts, lighting design, home furnishings, accessories, custom hard or soft window treatments or any other interior design services, visit us at http://www.beautifulinteriorsfl.com
Closet Ideas: How to Make a Fun Coat Hanger By Recycling An Old Chair
By Hsiang Lin
Do you have a few old and mismatched chairs that are unused and collecting dust in your garage? Here’s a small project to turn those old chairs into fun coat hangers that you can use to help personalize your coat area, and make it more presentable for your guests.
We first got the idea from the design group Resign. They created a set of coat hangers from wooden chairs they found in trash and flea markets. We really love the colors and personalities they introduced to the otherwise plain vanilla concept of a coat hanger. It was very much in line what we were doing with the Dream Closet Project, finding ways to bring fun and interest to an otherwise often neglected part of a home. And since the chair back hanger wasn’t a product regularly offered for sale, we figure it was easy enough to figure out how to make our own!
It’s really quite simple, since it is all about the three ‘R’s, Recycle, Reclaim and Reuse. With some luck, we should be able to find most of the components by simply scavenging around our home a bit.
Ingredients:
What we need to find is a wooden chair that you don’t need any more, one preferably with a roundish profile. It should be solid wood with no upholstery since any sort of fabric in this instance would make cutting the back off more difficult. The profile for the chair back is also very important, a squarish shape with sharp corners tend not to work too well either as a hanger or for display purposes.
Next we need the hanger hook with a screw end, we weren’t able to find any places that sell just the hook. But it’s easy enough to get one from a beat up hanger you no longer use. What you should look for are hangers made from a single piece of wood, we found ours from a cedar hanger in our closet.
Finally, last thing we’ll need are a few tools; we’ll need a saw, a table saw would be the quickest but a hand saw would work too if you don’t mind putting in a bit of elbow grease. We will also need an electric drill with a 1/8” drill bit. Oh, and we’ll also need some wood glue in case if there are some bits and pieces of the chair that falls off during the cutting process!
Putting it all together
Cutting the chair would probably be the hardest part. Try putting some thick painter’s tape right below where you are planning to cut so you can get some sense of the size of the hanger you are making. And here’s another trick; flip the chair upside down and take a second looks. It’s something I learned from my design professor, getting a different perspective can make all the differences some time. However way you do it, after you finishes cutting the chair make sure that the surface of the cut is smooth. You might need to sand it down a bit, especially toward the corner.
Next, we have the hanger hook. It’s important that you install the hook right in the middle of the hanger, even if it’s off just a little bit can mean that the hanger become crooked, which would not look very nice. Mark the center line and then tie a string right on the center line and hold it up to see if its balanced properly. Once you have the center line, use the electric drill and 1/8” bit to drill a ½” deep hole for your hook. Put a tiny drop of wood glue into the hole and then screw in the hook by hand.
And Voila, we’re done! Enjoy your chair back coat hanger and keep them guest coat closet so you can show your friend your weekend project!
Hsiang Lin is an architect, a designer and the author for the EZarchitecture blog . He runs a full service architectural firm and the Ask an Architect booth at the Brooklyn Flea. He loves riding his Vespa scooter, especially over the Brooklyn Bridge during sunsets.
‘Going Green’: 5 Home Makeover Tips
By Dana J. Smithers
Many of us have been doing ‘green’ makeovers for years, just not realizing that we were doing is until it became a popular term. As a professional interior decorator and redesigner my clients often call on my services to give their home a whole new look, in just one day, using what they already have in their home. Seeing the transformation and knowing that these women feel SO much better about their home is one of the most satisfying aspects of my business. You can do your own ‘green’ home makeovers by following this simple formula below, but there is one thing you need to do before you begin:
EMPTY THE ROOM YOU ARE WORKING IN…
Most people would never think of doing this but this is the KEY to doing a successful home makeover. Once you decide which room you are going to do your ‘green’ makeover in, get rid of all the clutter and any items you do not really love. Start by taking out the smallest items first and begin grouping them putting like items together eg. Art with art, candles with candles, lamps with lamps, plants with plants, etc. You can leave in your one biggest piece of furniture but take the rest out systematically.
1. DETERMINE THE FUNCTION – before you start emptying the room you need to know what you want to do in this room now. You may have a large enough room to have a few different functions going on such as a family room could have a tv area, a
computer or office set up, a sewing area, etc. You may decide to turn your formal dining
room into a computer room since you hardly ever use it.
2. DECIDE ON YOUR FOCAL POINT – your room will have either a natural (view) or created focal point (television, art wall) or a built in (fireplace, bookshelves). You want to place your furniture so that your focal point can be seen and people can be comfortably seated to take advantage of your focal point. You can have 2 focal points but one should be more dominant. Rotate your focal points seasonally if you have a nicer view in the summer than in the winter, the fireplace may be the focal point for
winter.
3. BUILD THE ROOM BACK UP – work with your largest piece of furniture first and decide on the best position for it, keeping your function and focal point in mind. For living room furniture placement try putting your furniture (sofa and/or chairs, loveseat) in a parallel formation, a ‘U’ shape or an ‘L’ formation. Build the room back up with the tables, bookcases, lighting and large plants.
4. HANG YOUR ART – see if you can group some of your pieces of art that you have spread throughout your home. Decide on a common element and make the outline of a rectangle or a square. If putting over something hang the bottom 4 – 10” above it, and if gallery or floating art mark the centre 56 – 60” from the floor. If you need help with this check out my Trade Secrets to Hanging Art Like a PRO! ebook.
5. GROUP YOUR ACCESSORIES – these add your finishing touch to your home. When you emptied your room you would have put all your like accessories together so it should be easier now to see where they fit in your home. Group in ‘3s’ when possible
with the tallest at the back, middle object, and smallest in front. You want to create peaks and valleys with your accessories.
This is the home of a divorced woman. She loves the condo she bought but is not happy with how she has everything arranged. She loves to read, entertain and look outside when she is at her desk.
Before - Living Room
After - Just What She Wanted!
Before - Dining Room?
After - Music Room!!!
• You can buy gliders/sliders at large hardware stores to make it easier to slide/glide your furniture over different types of flooring.
Dana J. Smithers, Founder & Creative Director of PRES (professional real estate stagers) Resource Centre is a professional interior decorator, redesigner and home stager. She has taught a professional home staging and redesign course for 6 years and is known as the ‘Staging Guru’. She appears frequently on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and in e-articles. Check her out at www.PresStaging.com or www.SunOnMyBackRedesigns.com for articles and Do-It-Yourself e-book on How to Hang Art Like a PRO
Green Design: 7 Ways to go Green with Your Next Renovation
By Kathryn Haley
More and more people are concerned about the environment and individuals are asking what they can do. While doing a home improvement project may not seem to be eco-friendly, there are ways you can improve your home and be green at the same time. Here are 7 ways you can go green.
1/ Use Green paint. No I don’t mean paint everything green. I mean use zero VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paint. Many leading brands are now using these zero emission paints. You can find these paints in a wide variety of colours and they are available in both interior and exterior grade.
2/ Use Eco-friendly flooring. Consider using Bamboo or cork. Bamboo has a modern feel to it and Cork is comfortable to walk on. There are also eco friendly hardwood flooring options that are easy to install and look great. For carpet, look for wool or linen and consider sisal or grass for area rugs.
3/ Purchase Energy Star rated appliances. Most of the top brand appliances are offering energy efficient options. They allow you to save time and money and you can get rebates back from the government.
4/ Recycle materials you already own. Have fun and get creative with the things in your garage. Break up old tile and create an interesting table top or backsplash. Take old scraps of fabric and create colourful throw pillows or a piece of wall art.
5/ Use HardiPlank siding instead of vinyl. Vinyl siding is flammable and toxic to produce. HardiPlank is made from wood pulp and it comes either pre finished or ready to paint. It won’t rot, crack or split.
6/ Buy Green furniture. Again I’m not referring to the colour, not that I have anything against a green sofa. More and more furniture designers are getting into the green movement and creating pieces made from recycled materials and eco friendly fabrics.
7/ Change your lights. You can now find a great selection of fixtures that use LED lighting or Fluorescent bulbs. They both use 75% less energy than incandescent fixtures. If you aren’t planning on changing the fixtures themselves you can still be green. Switch the bulbs to CFL’s or compact fluorescent bulbs. They last 10 times longer than the incandescent bulbs.
Hopefully you can incorporate some of these tips in your next renovation project. Ask your favorite retailers to show you their eco-friendy lines. I think you will be surprised how much is out there now in green products.
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