Do-It-Yourself Multi-Purpose Cottage Style Furnishings

Jessica Ackerman - Cottage furniture is beautifully rustic and typically features many warm, wooden tones or may be distressed, have a crackled finish, or a white-washed look. The furniture found in cottage style is many times repurposed for something altogether different than what the furniture was originally intended for. The ideas that follow will help you to outfit your home in cottage style while reusing items that you might otherwise discard:

A discarded dining room chair can quickly be fashioned into a cottage style planter when you cut a hole in the seat and fashion a terra cotta pot inside.
An old armoire can be used to hold a TV, computer, or even your collection of china or other type of collection. As space permits, allow the doors of the armoire to remain open to display your collection, or better yet, use glass to replace the door inserts.
An old potting bench can be repurposed to handily become a bathroom storage unit, a hutch for the dining room, a cottage chic bedroom bench, or as a baker’s rack in your cottage style kitchen.
An old, weathered kitchen step stool can quickly become a cottage style plant stand, or it can be used as a place to display a particular item that you are fond of.
Create the perfect desk for your home office or teenager’s bedroom by reusing an old kitchen table. Beneath the table (or even on top of it) you can stack wicker baskets, vintage suitcases, hat boxes, and wire baskets to store various items.

color, interior design, paintGuest UserNovember 28, 2011cottage style, faux paint, furniture, wall decorComment

Use Bold Geometrics to Give Rooms Impact

Sheffield School, interior designGuest UserSeptember 13, 2011decorating, geometrics, rugs, wallpaperComment

For First-Timers: Decorating Do's and Don'ts

If you're planning on trying your hand at some interior design at home, maybe for the first time, then here are a few handy tips to help you out.

Consider your budget: always make sure you have a good idea of how much you want to spend and that you account for all the items you'll need before you start purchasing. You don’t want to run out of money and be left with a half-finished project on your hands. If you need to reduce the costs, then where can you cut new purchases out? Stick with your old mattresses for example, or repaint some of your existing furniture.

Know your capabilities: don’t decide to knock down walls and install custom furniture unless you have the skills to do the job. Getting professionals in to rectify a botched job could cost more than paying them to do the work in the first place.

Think about style: if this is your first go at home decorating, then pick out something easy in terms of colors and patterns. This probably isn't the time for making a great statement which could go horribly wrong! If you need some help, ask in a local décor, furniture, or home goods store about what goes together or enlist the help of a friend whose home décor you admire.

Practical versus Pretty: don’t forget about the

interior designGuest UserMay 13, 2011DIY, decorating, home, tipsComment

Last-Minute Scramble: Dinner Party Decorating

Sarah Van Arsdale - We’ve all been there: a dinner party is imminent, and yet the house looks like hell. The table is still piled with books, dishes, mail, and maybe the stray hockey stick. The portable CD player is still on the floor, where you put it only as a temporary measure six months ago when you lent the side table to your sister.

And then the phone rings, with the news that two out-of-town guests have made it after all, and the guest list has suddenly expanded from six to eight. You don’t even want to think about the mess that is your linen drawer, because you know you don’t have eight matching anything in there. Panic is setting in. How can you create a fabulous design under these conditions?

Plus, you’re up to your elbows in hummus, with a group of artists, writers, and scientists arriving in mere hours.

This was the situation on an April evening in the seaside split-level owned by a culinary whiz.

Sheffield School, color, interior designGuest UserMay 3, 2011dining room, dinner party, entertaining, flowers, tabletopComment

So Long, Futon!

Daily Mail

Gone are the days when it was okay to put your guests on a futon, or even worse, the dreaded airbed. Maybe there are some students still out there who own a futon, and the bad back to match, and we suppose we can let them off . . . but for the rest of you homeowners, it's time to upgrade.

Sofa beds these days are nothing like the ancient put-you-up-sofa-bed your grandparents used to wheel out of the garage for you on school holidays.

Guest UserApril 2, 2011Comment