Wardrobe is a girl’s best....room!

Let’s face it ladies, is there any room in your home that you love to spend more time in than your closet? Whether you’d like it to be bigger, more organized, or it to have a bigger wardrobe, your closet area speaks volumes about you. It’s always fun to look at other wardrobe closets to get ideas of how to improve yours….trust me, there is always a way to add or enhance upon what you already have. Here are some ideas to implement in your wardrobe closet.

Organization is key

While we would all like a larger closet, organization is actually more important than size. For organization gives you the ability to go in, choose what you want, get dressed and be on to other tasks in your day. Organization of shoes, hanging garments, folded garments, jewelry, dressy and casual attire, the list goes on. Choose organization shelving and drawers to match your lifestyle and clothing.

Make your wardrobe closet comfortable

Your closet will get a lot of foot traffic from you. In fact, many women spend more time choosing their clothes than any other room in the house! Ensure your closet area is comfortable with seating options, plenty of mirrors, and natural light if possible. Natural light will help you see how you will look in ‘real light”, and it will also help you feel better as you decide on your wardrobe choices. If you have space, bring in collectibles, pictures, and artwork to personalize your closet area.

  

Your wardrobe closet is more than a utilitarian space. It is a room of your home that helps you create your signature style. Create a closet that is inspiring to walk into everyday. Bring in coordinating colors from your adjacent bedroom, lamps, and small amenities from your living room areas to make your closet one of a kind. Assess your lifestyle and how much time you spend in your closet. The sky is the limit in choosing beautiful colors, display, and organization touches!

Renia

 

 

Creating a Relaxing Home Library

For many of us, taking in a good book or magazine in our favorite chair is the ultimate retreat to a long day. Home libraries are a wonderful room of your home to keep your literary collections, cherished collectibles, and one-of-a-kind treasures. Whether you prefer a traditional library with dark hardwoods and high back Queen Anne chairs, or you like a modern and minimalistic library, here are ideas to help create a relaxing one for your home.

Libraries as architectural details

In many homes, the architectural details of the home produce dynamic libraries! With unique and geometric shelving, built in cabinetry and unique angled lines, let your home steer your creativity. Under stairs, adjacent to atriums, and along awkward walls may make the best and unexpected spot for your home library. 

Bring in the light

One of the most important aspects of your home library should be lighting. If possible, natural light through adjacent windows or skylights is ideal. Pendant lamps, ambient overhead lighting, and side table lamps should be considered for nighttime reading. Wall sconces also make for a beautiful aesthetic in your home library. Especially if you have artwork, sculptures or other decorative amenities in your library, lighting can enhance every corner. Sit in each area of your library at different times of the day to ensure you have ample and beautifying light.

Intimate libraries

While you may always associate home libraries with being large and spacious, intimate libraries are perfect in small nooks of your home that may be wasted space. Create an intimate library with seating, shelving, and a lighting source, the rest is up to you! Libraries can reside in a tucked away landing on a flight of stairs, or even next to a window seat. Look through your home for walls that need a function, I bet they would make a perfect spot for a small and intimate library.

Your home library should be a gateway to relaxation, adventure, and a mysterious land… all by opening up books in your library. With these helpful tips, transform a room, or small corner of an office into a retreat that you can’t wait to get home to. After all, if you can’t relax and escape from the world in your home library, where else can you? Enjoy the escape!

Renia

 
 

 

Finding Design Inspiration ‘Up in the Attic’

Your attic is one of the most forgotten rooms of your home, yet is can be one of the most inspiring interior spaces of your abode. From the high atop views from the windows, or the space that is ultimately undisturbed by hallways and other rooms, your attic has it all.

I thought I’d share with you design inspiration ideas to make the most of your space hi atop the house. Whether you use it as a bedroom, a bonus room, or a retreat away from the world, look at these ideas to make the most of your ‘space in the clouds’.

Wonderful sources of light

One of the benefits of having an attic is the proximity to natural light. Since attics are atop of your home, take advantage of this priceless real estate in your house! Large picture windows, dormers, and skylights can help pour in sunlight, and at the same time reduce worrying about disturbed views, and close-by neighbors looking in!

Focal point of your attic space

Every attic should have a focal point, or an area for the eye to land. Similarly to all interior spaces, the attic is no exception and finding a focal point can be architectural, aesthetic or achieved with a prominent piece of furniture. An accent wall, a wallpapered backdrop for your bed, or even a piano placed strategically below a skylight can make for the perfect focal point to your attic space.

 

Added functionality to your home

 

Many homeowners have unfinished attics and don’t think of the added real estate they will have if they finish it off. Guest bedrooms, adding a home office or playroom for the kids are just a few ideas. Finishing off an attic also adds to the value of your home when selling. Homebuyers are always interested in homes that have ‘bonus’ square footage, and once finished, and decorated, it is well worth the investment. Couldn’t we all use added square footage to our homes? Attics make the perfect place for grownups to retreat away from the rest of the house too!

 

Attics are the hidden jewels of many homes. Almost as if they are a child’s tree house, attics can add functionality, warmth, and a well-needed away space in your house. If you can add a bathroom to your attic this is even better. To avoid having to leave the attic floor for the bathroom will make the space more inviting to use for entertaining, work, or a relaxing space.  Use these design inspiration ideas for your attic and see what you have been missing in the room away from it all!

Renia

 


 

 

Laundry... A Never Ending Story

 

Am I the only one who dreads doing the laundry?  It always seems like the task is never ending, and I wait until the last possible moment before doing it! One way I have found to make the job less dreary is by adding color and inspiration to the laundry room. It’s one of those rooms that often do not get a lot of attention, yet we are constantly occupying it!  There are so many great ideas from patterns and stripes, to bright colors that give us a lift to our spirit. Look at these ideas to perk up your laundry room and end the dreary outlook on this required chore.

Conceal with Curtains

In your laundry room decide which areas are for function, display and decoration. Areas in your laundry room that you would prefer to stay hidden can stay behind pretty curtains. If your laundry room shares a space with a utility room, mudroom, or entryway, then curtains can help hide laundry hampers too! To personalize the space, add photos, collectibles and other family moments to make the room unique and enjoyable to be in. Recessed lighting can help light a countertop or work surface as an added bonus.

Camouflage the Room

If your laundry room needs to be camouflaged from adjoining living spaces, this task is easier than you think. Depending on your amount of space and room configuration, consider hiding your laundry behind storage or closet doors. In this image, the open swung cabinet doors reveal the washer and dryer, while still housing cleaners, brooms, and other essentials in arm’s reach.

Personalize the room

Taking a room from functional to livable can be made easier with soothing colors, beautiful finishes, and quality lighting. Consider using storage in shelving, hooks, and cabinetry to organize laundry essentials. For display areas, bring in pieces of decor from other areas of your home. The kids framed schoolwork on the wall, or your favorite family photos from your last vacation can make your laundry room a destination spot, instead of a dreaded one.

Your laundry room has just gotten the green light to become an inhabitable room again! In fact, with these helpful ideas, you may find it a great refuge place from the rest of the world. If you have space, bring in a work table, a desk, and even a television for you to enjoy your laundry room. Everyone has laundry to do, and for most of us with families, the chore doesn’t get any easier. At least now, you can make your laundry room a place that you can’t wait to sneak away to!

Renia

 
 
 
 

Beautiful...dreams!!!

 

Image courtesy: BHG

Beautiful...dreams!!!

“A long day at work and an equally long trip back home in rush hour traffic; the only respite from this tiring monotony on most days is the vision of your bedroom, where you can crash as soon as you reach home. And if this sanctum of yours is as boring and routine as your day is, then the appeal of even that oasis is lost. Maybe this is a situation when you need to refurnish the interiors of your bedroom and think about bedroom decorating. A bedroom that is decorated in such a manner with the help of cool bedroom designs, so that it uplifts your mood, refreshes you at the end of the day and caters to your aesthetic sensibilities can be the perfect solution to the end of the day blues.” - Courtesy of Buzzle

Relaxing bedroom interiors

Your bedroom is one of the few places in your entire home that is dedicated to you, and how you relax and unwind from the stresses of the world. To enhance your relaxing interiors, consider what colors feel good around you and what you enjoying going to sleep and waking to every day. Soothing pastels, refreshing spring colors, and muted inspirational colors are good standbys. Grays, greens, blues, corals, and even refreshing yellows and oranges that aren’t too bold can be a beautiful addition to your bedroom.

 Image courtesy: Gilt

Bring on the drama

While your personal design styles maybe all about relaxation, others would prefer a dramatic bedroom that creates a mood that is unmistakably sophisticated. Adding a dramatic eye-catching element like a canopy bed or a pronounced tufted headboard can instantly bring drama and a focal point. Other drama catching elements can be a fireplace, a bold accent wall of color, or a sexy chaise lounge that demands to be relaxed on! If you have a killer view outside your bedroom, take advantage of the natural drama that occurs in nature, by positioning your bed and furnishings in the same direction.

 

Personalize your bedroom with all the amenities that make you feel comfortable and relaxed everyday. From the color and finishes you choose to the gorgeous bedding and textiles that grace your windows and chairs, your room should feel like a sanctuary. Don’t forget to enhance your bedroom with essential lighting. Bedside table lighting and overhead pendant lights can help create task and ambient lighting for your lifestyle bedroom needs. Enjoy creating a sanctuary you love to wake up to!

Renia

 

Live in COLOR!

Live  in  COLOR

Lately I am inspired from my inbox in Facebook. Many friends are asking me about different challenges they face in decorating their homes and I thank you guys for this. This way I know what you would like to read about! I have been asked many times about color combinations and how to use strong colors in decorating your home.

Well color is a very delicate matter. It can make wonders. Although, it can also make your room uninviting, and make you want to run out of it! J

My golden rule is:

WHATEVER NATURE APPROVES, IT CAN BE SAFE USING IT TOO!

What I mean is in nature we find beautiful combinations that we can copy and have a safe result in our own homes.

My other golden rule is:

USE STRONG COLORS IN SMALL PROPORTIONS UNLESS YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL AND CAN PREDICT THE RESULT!

Here are some tips for using color and finding complimenting colors. Orange is everywhere we turn, from home interiors to fashion. Look at these ways to make orange compliment your interiors fashionably.  

 

Finding a perfect color balance

Color can be bold, soft, intense, or delicate, and finding the right balance in color is the secret behind you feeling at peace when you enter a room, or on edge. Creating a balance is also about finding colors that work well together, as if in nature. There is nothing that occurs in nature that is only one color. Even an orange, has hues of dark and light, strong and delicate. 

 

 

Making your interiors pop with orange

In your home, choose a dominant color and then supporting colors that will enhance the palette when placed together in your room. In these bedrooms and living room images, the pops of coral orange color works well with the complimenting neutrals of mushroom grays.

Borrow inspiration from designers

There is a shared love of color between home interiors and the fashion industry in terms of design inspiration. In fact, Pantone color named ‘Tangerine Tango’ its color for 2012. A nod from the design world that orange and variations of this vibrant color are here to stay! Whether you are trying to find coordinating colors for your furniture or your handbag, orange is the go-to color this year. Designers around the world are using orange in textiles, clothing, and pairing it with bold and subtle colors. 

 

See how orange can be brought into your home with these helpful ideas. From your fashionable attire you wear to feel inspired, to your playful corals, peaches, and tangerine color painted walls you use throughout your home, orange is a welcomed color in every home. Remember, how bold or muted you go is up to you. That’s the beauty of design and color; it’s all up to you and your creative imagination!

Renia