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.
 

via

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

Exciting Patterns for Every Room | Guest Post

Hi all! I’m Susi and I write as a guest blogger for DesignShuffle.com, a fabulous social media site that promotes interior designers from around the world and their work. My writing focuses on things I'm passionate about: interior design, home furnishings, gardening and art. I'm lucky enough to have a background in art history, auctions, and antiques, and a passion for decorating ideas. Plus, I get to look at gorgeous things all day and write about them. What a fantastic job!

This week I'll be looking at ways to add exciting patterns for every room in the home. From bold patterned tiles to graphic towels and linens, don't be afraid to bring patterns into your home. Patterns add interest and style to any space. Be bold, mix and match, and have fun with pattern!

 

DE Design Coop via

Patterned floors in the kitchen, bath or entry add an extra style element to these rooms. Tile layed out in interesting patterns or a herringbone wood floor are interesting twists on these traditional materials.

 

Coco Cozy via

Patterned tiles... for the bath or kitchen add color as well as pattern to these spaces. Use them on the floor or as a backsplash. Moroccan style tiles are very popular now.

Bedding Chic via

Bold patterned bedding is a smart way to add pattern to the bedroom design. Mix and match it with solids to break up the pattern, or choose a patterned coverlet or duvet.

 

Design Sponge via

A bold pattern area rug is a smart choice for adding pattern to a dining room, entry, living room, bedroom or even a bathroom design. Indoor/outdoor rugs can add pattern to your porch or deck.

 

Apartment Therapy via

Wallpaper is the big trend for adding pattern to walls today. Available in a range of patterns, colors and sheens, wallpaper can work in small spaces, like powder rooms, and larger rooms like dining rooms.

 

Shore Dreams and Beautiful Things via

Colorful patterned bath towels, like these from Amy Butler, can liven up your bath or guest bathroom. Patterned tea towels for the kitchen are a hot trend right now. Other interior design ideas to think about, might include colorful tea towels as guest towels in a powder room.

 

Rent the Runway via

Curtains in the living room, dining room or bedroom can be the perfect place to add pattern. And they are easily changed if you decide you don't like the pattern anymore.

 

Pepper Design via

Pillows, like these ikat patterned pillows from Fabricadabra, are the easiest way to add patterns to any room.
Pattern will add excitement to your décor and your life, start adding it today!
Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Happy Colors | Yellow

It's hard to dispute yellow as a Happy Color. Yellow is associated with joy, sunshine, warmth and freshness. Just look at any child's drawing and you're likely to see a bright yellow sun or a yellow happy face. I love yellow and have used it in both my own, and client's homes. And this is certainly not the first time I've mentioned yellow in the Beautiful Habitat blog.

Yellow is a big bold happy color, so let's start with the boldest of yellow rooms.

Whole Lotta Yellow

 

 via tumblr

 

 via The Style Files

 

via Canadian House & Home

 

via Eddie Ross

Even when not used as an overall color or on walls, yellow still makes a big impact in rooms and interiors.

 

via Day Design & Decor

 

via Pattern Hound

 

via Coastal Living

Yellow wallpaper makes a great statment on it's own

 

via High Street Market

or as a backdrop to other artwork

 

via Belle Maison

And if that's too much yellow for you, remember that it does make a great accent color in more neutral decor.

Yellow Accents

Starting with a lovely yellow banquette. I love banquettes and you can read more about them here: An Ode to Banquettes

 

via Palmer-Weiss

 

Lovely Bedrooms, both via SAS Interiors

 

via CB2

 

A wonderful room for a girl, via Douglas Friedman

 

ia Shelter Interior Design

 

An easy DIY accent via Brooklyn Limestone.

Have you used yellow in your home? Or maybe you've been too intimidated to try this bold hue? Share with us here, or on Facebook!

For more on the Happy Color Series:

• Orange
• Lime and Apple Green
• Purple

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

Favorite Things | Rubber Vase

I recently came across this great product for homes with smaller children - the rubber vase. Created by designer Henriette Melchiorsen, these family-friendly vases are available through Emmohome.com. They prove that kids and beautiful interior design can and should live harmoniously together.


From Emmo Home: "The rubber vase is both fun and unusual: in the right setting it is amazingly stylish – with its black, red and brown colors, close up the material can give the impression of fragile ceramics. But the dazzling lime and pink colors leave no doubt that this is a funky product made from a unique material – cutting-edge design for those seeking something completely different and modern, or just an extremely practical vase to have where there are small children around."


The rubber vase is available in two sizes. The small vase is quite small, with a 4.33" diameter and height of 5.12".


The large vase has a diameter of 7" and is 8" high.





The rubber vase comes in several colors to match both modern and more traditional or transitional interior decorating schemes.


A great option to decorate lower surfaces, including coffee and end tables in your home without fear that it will be broken by rambunctious or curious kids.

Have you seen other family-friendly, yet attractive products for the home? Share with us.
Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Black, White & {insert color choice}

I am always drawn to rooms that are a strict color palette of black, white and one other color.  The contrast makes the spaces so interesting.  Here are a few such rooms for your to enjoy!

A Black, White & Red scheme from Designer Kelley Proxmire. I found this room at Desire to Inspire.

From Kelly Wearstler's book Hue, two rooms featuring Black, White & Yellow.

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

Favorite Things - Traffic Light Pendant

 Napa Style is one of my favorite Eco Home companies. They frequently reuse and refurbish items into fabulous, fun new products.  Here, modern, colorful and fun pendant lights have been created from old traffic lights.

The glass insulators, once a common sight on telegraph and telephone lines, make perfect sleeves for incandescent bulbs. And the old traffic lights and lenses—now being replaced by modern LEDs—are rescued, cleaned and cut as perfect shades.
These would be a great addition to a kitchen, or rec room or grouped over a dining table as a wonderful conversation starter.

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

Bloom and Bouquet Furniture

I very recently posted an Inspiring Images piece from the Chelsea Flower Show. Now I've come across some beautiful furniture that takes flowers as inspiration very literally.

From Kenneth Cobonpue, The Bloom Chair will add a sense of fun and spring time to any room. The chairs are handmade of a microfiber sculpted by hundreds of fine running stitches over a resin base. It is available in moss green, light green, red or yellow. I'd take it in any one of those colors!

 Also from Kenneth Cobonpue,is the bouquet table. It is a resin table with floral pattern relief, available in black or white and as a coffee table or end table.

For more ideas on how to find inspiration for your home anywhere, see my posts on inspiring images or my post on interpreting inspiration into your interiors.

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