Spring Cleaning to Spring Decorating | Changing Your Energy

I started this post before Spring was officially upon us. Now that Spring is here, it's all the more relevant. Enjoy! I've been feeling the pull of spring... and of spring cleaning. I've recently cleaned out my closet and the basement. I've started a new to do list with the many areas I'd like to tackle around the new home.
 
This all got me thinking. What is it about spring that sparks this in us? Why do we feel called to "spring clean"? It's all about changing our energy. Decluttering, cleaning, organizing, refreshing; it all breathes new energy into our homes and we feel better for it. So dive into your spring cleaning and boost the energy level around your home. You may even be inspired to take your spring cleaning a step further with some spring decorating. Here are quick and easy ways to add spring to your decorating and change your home's energy.

Add a New Color of Accessories

The two bedrooms below would've looked fine before, but the addition of a pillow in a bright complimentary color (yellow and orange respectively) works to change the energy of the spaces.
 

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via

In living rooms designs , you can make a new color work by adding it in at least 3 places. In the room below, we see emerald green evenly added throughout the room. To make your space look really polished, find a coordinating item the pulls in the old color and new color.

Transitional Living Room by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Martha O'Hara Interiors

Move Things Around

Try a piece that you bought for the bedroom in the dining room or living room. Sometimes we are too stuck in a rut. Just moving things around can spruce up a space. If that item  doesn't work in a different room, the change should at least get your creative juice flowing; changing your energy.

Try a New Lamp Shade

And if you really want to boost the energy, paint the lamp a new color inspired by bright spring tones.

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Those are easy an inexpensive tips to help add a Spring Time Energy to your home this month. If you are ready to change the energy more permanently, Beautiful Habitat can help you create a design plan. Contact Us today.

For more Spring Design and Decorating inspiration, check out the following posts:

• Happy Colors
• Spring is in This Home
• Spring Inspired Rooms
• Fashion & Interiors Look-a-Likes
• Mary's Fresh Bedroom Makeover

Happy Spring!!!

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Winter Decorating Ideas | Guest Post

The changing of the seasons offers the perfect opportunity to redecorate your home. As winter sets in, our thoughts turn to getting warm and cozy. Check out these quick decorating tips that will help you turn your home into a welcoming winter den.  

Welcoming From the Outside In
 Set the tone of your home by decorating everything, even your exterior doors. If you’re feeling festive, hang a home-made holly wreath on your front door to spread your cheer to the rest of the world. If you don’t have the time to make your own wreath, consider purchasing a synthetic wreath which you can re-use every year.

 

Via Pinterest

 

via Joanna Fabric

 

via Matt & Becky 

 Relaxing By the Fire
 There’s something special about relaxing in front of an open fire; the look of the flames makes you feel warmer, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. If you don’t have a fireplace in your living room, why not invest in a wall-hanging, flu less fireplace to brighten up your room.

 

via Pinterest

Metallic Luxury
Natural colors are cozy and comfortable, but it’s easy to go too far with the rustic feel. Add a touch of modern glamor to your home by opting for some shiny, shimmering metallic colors as an accent. Consider painting your oak skirting boards in a sedate silver, and pairing that up with silver trim on your cushions and throws. Or, use subtle accents to bring out the warmth in a more traditional room.

 

via Pinterest

Easy Accents
Redecorating for the winter doesn’t have to mean completely re-doing the look of your living room. If you prefer clean and simple styled rooms, why not add a touch of winter fashion with decals which can easily be removed when it’s time for a change of scenery.

 

via Pinterest

Accessorize 
  During the winter, it’s natural to want to curl up in front of the fireplace with a good book. Why not make that spot as comfortable as possible. This time of year is the perfect time to bring out those stylish blankets, comfy cushions, and plush pillows. Pick the right color scheme, and they’ll be as fashionable as they are cozy.
 One side effect of spending so much time indoors with the heating running full blast and the windows closed, is that the air in your home can get a little musty. You can keep your home smelling fresh by making use of scented candles, or, even better, great home cooking. Mulled wine, cinnamon bread, festive fruitcake, and winter broths will warm your body, and spread beautiful smells around the house!

 

via Pinterest

Clean Up for Christmas
 If there’s one thing that will detract from the atmosphere of your home, it’s clutter. During the festive season, there’s a good chance your home will fill up with stuff. A preemptive decluttering session will make life a lot easier for you. Consider donating old books and clothes to charity, encouraging your kids to take some toys to charity, and spending a weekend cleaning out that stash of paperwork. It won’t take as long as you’d think, and the improvement will be amazing. This post was written by James Harper on behalf of UK Oak Doors who supply a great range of oak products from doors through to skirting boards.

 For more related post by Beautiful Habitat:
 Dreaded Decluttering
 Clearing Clutter in the New Year
 Easy Holiday Decor - Ribbons

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Give Design for Mother's Day

Yes, Mother's Day is only one month away.  Have you thought about how you will honor the woman that brought you into this world? If your mother is like the many I know, she has plenty of "stuff", but she doesn't have a lot of time. She has to prioritize her life and often keeping up with home improvements falls low on the list. Help her tackle those home project by bringing in expert help.
Interior Design and Decorating make a great gift. I have gift cards available and we can customize to meet your specific needs and budget. You can gift a consultation, a redesign, declutter and organizing, color selection, window treatments, real estate staging or any design or decoration project, from 1 hour up to several hours of time. See the Beautiful Habitat website or contact me for more information.

 I have been gifted for Mother's Days past it is is truly an appreciated gift by the busy mom's with whom I have worked.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Clearing Clutter in the New Year

Even if you don't do resolutions, a New Year often prompts us to set goals or deal with thing that we've let go on too long. Many times, Household Clutter is on the list.Here are some decluttering tips resurected from past blogs.

Tips to Rethink and Rearrange is especially for changing up and thinning out cluttered decor. It's especially useful as you pack up the holiday decorations and bring the everday items back into the light.

Dreaded Decluttering is more about the junk - how to tackle what you've got and how to keep it from building up again.

I hope theses tips help you in meeting your goals for 2010!

Beautiful Habitat: Luxury Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

A Tale of Christmas Orphans

I have written before about the importance of planning out your design before you do anything. That importance applies to all Interior Design or Decoration projects, including holiday decorating. Sadly, this is rarely the case, particularly with Christmas decorations. The story of my client is one that is so common; it’s the story of Christmas Orphans.

I have done the Christmas decorating for years for one of my favorite Design clients. She hired me as her Christmas Decorator because she hosts several parties throughout the season and felt that her decorations weren’t as well-thought through and coherent as the design we had created in her home year-round. The problem was twofold: 1. she lacked a plan, and 2. she had several Christmas Orphans.

So, what exactly is a Christmas Orphan?

Christmas Orphans are those decorations that we have acquired that don’t really fit the theme or style or overall plan of our holiday decorating. Basically, they don’t belong and are added into the collection in a hodge-podge, haphazard kind of way.

How do the Orphans come to be?

Often, they are gifts given in our Christmas past. Or they are hand-me-downs or inherited items. And sometimes they were purchased at some after Christmas steal of 99% off and you couldn’t resist even though it didn’t really go… You get the point.

Like other areas of life, clear out the clutter of Orphans. There are 2 benefits: 1. by having fewer things on display, you and your guests can really focus on the decorations that you love, and 2. you’ll be clearing the way to make the perfect holiday decoration plan.

It might shock you to know, but even this Interior Designer and champion of the anti-clutter movement has a Christmas Orphan.

Sure, he’s very cute. Yes, the gift was certainly thoughtful. But he just doesn’t belong anywhere in my home. So this year I’m giving him to charity in the hopes that he’ll find a happy home with other country-chic snowmen.

What are your Christmas Orphans?

For more ideas on your Holiday decorations:
Holiday Tables
and stay tuned for more tips from Beautiful Habitat this week and next!


Beautiful Habitat: Luxury Interior Design www.beautifulhabitat.com

Inspiration from William Morris

Last week I looked through a "History of Design" project that I did in school.  It reminded me that a.) really nothing is "new", but styles and trends just come and go; and b.) I love the thoughts and theories of William Morris. He was the father of the "Arts and Crafts" Movement, which reacted against the gaudy and cluttered Victorian styles in England. He championed function and simplicity of design and truth and honesty of materials used. My real inspiration comes not from Morris' designs, but his ideas.  So here are several quotes to sum up his philosophy. Some will surely be familiar.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

"If you cannot learn to love real art at least learn to hate sham art."
 
"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."

"Give me love and work - these two only."

"Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung."


And for some visual inspiration, below are some images of the varied work of Morris & Co. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

You can find more on William Morris at Wikipedia, V&A Museum, or The Red House via the National Trust.

Dreaded Decluttering

I get a lot of calls to consult with clients on Decluttering.  Clutter seems to be an American epidemic. Each home and client presents different needs and challenges when it comes to tackling their clutter, but there are some universal tips that I'd like to share, along with some great resources for those that need a little more help and inspiration.

Tip 1: Tackle your clutter in small chunks. Make a list of all the things that need to happen in a room and do one item per day. Or clear out one drawer or one shelf. While you might want to get the entire office clean and clear, tackling the whole room can quickly lead to burnout and kill your motivation. Take baby steps and reward yourself after each completion.
Tip 2: Everything you bring into your home must have a home. If you don't know where it will belong when you acquire it, it will probably end up in the pile on the desk, kitchen counter, or floor. If it doesn't have a defined home, don't bring it in.
Tip 3: When you get home and unload your stuff, or you finish using something, it must be put back in it's home, immediately. MUST  and IMMEDIATELY are the key words here.
Tip 4: All items you keep must be either Beautiful, Useful, or Sentimental. If it doesn't fall into one or more group, it  must go. Now, these feeling must be true.  If your friends say that lamp is beautiful, but you hate it or think it's too dim, then it's not truly beautiful to you. Toss it. Sure those skis are useful, but you haven't skied in 10 years and your knees are shot, and you don't really like the cold.  So those skis aren't truly useful to your life and how you really live. Donate them. Aunt Sally gave you that vase and even though you never liked it, you wouldn't want her to come over (10 years later) and not see it prominently displayed. That's not sentiment, that's guilt. Get rid of the item and that negative energy around it.

Here are some great articles full of tips and inspiration to keep you going.
Fight Household Clutter, from HGTV

4 Simple Tips for Decluttering Your Home, by thedailygreen.com

 Zen Habits is a great blog and has fantastic articles on clutter and organizing here are a few:
Zen Mind: How to Declutter
18 Five-minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess
15 Great Decluttering Tips
6 Simple Steps to Make Mail & Paperwork Painless

Tips to Rethink and Rearrange

There are two issues that I often hear from clients, friends and readers alike and my advice for solving both is the same.

The issues:

1. Stuck in a rut. You stick to the same arrangement in the same spot day after day, year after year and are afraid to move it. (This is not a problem if you truly like the arrangement. If you love it, keep it forever. This applies if you know you're ready for a change).
2. Clutter. You started with an arrangement. Then a new piece came in, you got three more for your birthday, etc. Now the space feels too cluttered.

And these issues can apply to any and all spaces:

• China hutches or display cabinets
• Book shelves
• Mantels
• Wall arrangements - artwork or photos
• Pillows on the bed
• etc.

The solution:
Clear everything out/off of the space. Live with this blank space for at least 2 weeks. This will give your mind time to rethink the space, without you actively "thinking" about it. Then slowly start to add pieces back in to the area. Start with the pieces that you love the most. Try the items in a different area than you had them before. Look at the pieces individually. Try grouping them in different arrangements. After the break and clear space, you will most likely come to a different final product and look than before.

Post-holiday is a great time to do this. Many of us remove everyday items to put out the holiday decorations. As you pack up the decorations, don't rush to bring out the everyday items. Live with a blank canvas for a while.

Below are the before and after photos of a bookcase that I reworked for a client. She felt that it was too cluttered and the pieces that she loved were lost in the chaos.

To begin, we cleared everything away and separated items that she loved and absolutely wanted to keep. Using the favorite items, we began to place them in different locations to best highlight each one, moving them around until we were happy with the balance. We pulled a vase from another room to become our centerpiece. Then we filled in the spaces with books and smaller items. For more photos of the completed room, visit BeautifulHabitat.comYou can make similar changes in your spaces. Just clear out the stuff to clear your mind. You'll approach it from a new and refreshed angle.

More inspiration for arrangements coming soon.