Decorating with maps as inexpensive wall art

Are you feeling challenged by trying to figure out how to adorn an empty wall? Make a charming and simple graphic statement by inexpensively decorating with maps. Whether you select a topographic map from USGS, a vintage print of your favorite city, a collection of National Parks maps, a subway map, nautical chart, a wall-size illustration of the world or an historic map, they are all fascinating to study and can bring a graphic punch to any space yet at the same time make it more personal. Try adding a collection of small framed maps to rolling relics from primary school to oversized maps or wallpaper maps, a collage of maps to triptych maps, there are so many variations that can applied to your decorating scheme. Check your attic for old maps, or frame one from a travel brochure or transit map. We have gathered together some inspiration for you to create the look in your own home. Here are some sources of where you can obtain some maps, WardMaps, National Geographic Store, Rand McNally , V & J Duncan, Argosy Book Store, and Natural Curiosities.

This map covers and entire wall and its size draws attention away from the fact that the room is only as wide as the bed is long.

This oversized map from IKEA serves as a large and worldly headboard. The mother of the boy who sleeps in this room, Interior Designer Jeanette Van Wicklin, says “Whenever we’re stumped by a geography question, we say, ‘let’s go look at the big map!’”

Go local to celebrate your part of the world. This beautifully rendered triptych lets guests learn more about the geography and ecology of the region they are visiting.

Remember these roll-down hanging maps from elementary school? This one is enhanced by the butter yellow walls and the vintage-style pendant light.

Photo Sources: 1. Jeffers Design Group, 2. & 3. Dufner Heighes Inc, 4. Echelon Custom Homes, 5. & 6. Erika Everett Design 7. Grace Home Design, 8. Julie Ranee Photography, 9. Kate Jackson Design, 10. Lucy Interior Design, 11. Margaret Donaldson Interiors, 12. Melanie Morris Design, 13. Mosaik Design & Remodeling, 14. Pinterest, 15. TAS Construction, 16. Tiffany Farha Design, 17. Tim Barber LTD Architecture & Interior Design, 18. Tommy Chambers Interiors, 19. Trade Mart Interiors, 20. Van Wicklen Design, 21. Wallpapered, 22. Wind and Willow Home, 23. ZeroEnergy Design, 24. Sandvold Blanda Architecture + Interiors, 25.  Ana Williamson Architect 26. Beekman Lane, 27. Benedict August, 28. Bosworth Hoedemaker, 29. Pinterest, 30. Dahlia Design, 31. Design Nehez

Styled from roof to floor: How to transform your home

The spring is upon us and chances are that you want to make your house look as lovely as possible for when the sunshine comes. But, it can be a pretty daunting process and that fact alone is enough to put some people off. If you’re sick of your house not feeling like a home, then don’t worry! There are so many things you can do that don’t take an age or a giant bank account to accomplish. Here’s a little list of how to get started:

Have a clear out!

First thing’s first. Go through everything in your house and try to empty it as much as possible. Not only will this create a lot of free space that you probably weren’t aware you had but it will also get you started on the right foot with a blank canvas from which to work.

 If there’s any furniture that you aren’t keen on or that you don’t think reflect the mood you’d like to create, then just get rid of it. There’s a huge amount of household furniture available out there that looks amazing and is extremely inexpensive.

Have a repaint

Repainting your walls and ceilings will completely transform your house. If it’s looking tired around the edges, with the paint flaking in places, then just go for it. Pick a clean and neutral color such as magnolia or ivory for a really stylish look and in next to no time at all, your house will be looking sleek and stylish. This can usually be done over the course of a few weekends and can actually be really fun!

Take up the carpets

Taking up those old and tired carpets and having wood floors not only makes the house seem a lot cleaner but also creates the illusion of a lot more space. How many houses have you been to where you’ve thought: “I wish I had flooring like that!”

Well, it’s easy. Simply pull up the carpets, give the wood a little sanding to even it out and then treat it with a durable wood stain for a long lasting a super stylish effect.

Invest in some stylish fittings

Far from being as expensive as you may think a great deal of fitted bedrooms and kitchens are available at great prices from companies such as Betta Living. They really do provide the ultimate icing on the cake, blending form and function seamlessly to create beautiful, stylish and relaxing rooms. Follow these four instructions and you will not believe just how much your house has been transformed; and neither will your visitors.

Photo Sources: 1. Pickell Architecture, 2. Martha O’Hara Interiors, 3. & 4. West Elm, 5. & 6. Michael Abrams Limited, 7. Staples Design Group, 8. Crisp Architects, 9. Culligan Abraham Architecture. 10. 11. & 12. Betta Living, 13. Janie K. Hirsch, 14. West Elm

Sensational interior and garden designs by Sandy Koepke

Sandy Koepke is a Los Angeles, California based designer who creates stunning outdoor rooms for her clients for entertaining, dining and the pure enjoyment of being immersed in nature along with beautiful interiors that are timeless design that radiates warm and comfortable family environments. “Sunlight. Space. Sophisticated comfort. These are the elements I incorporate into every home and garden design. Yet each project is as individual as the clients — compatible with the specific site and architecture, and reflecting their own style and needs.”

Sandy has a BFA from the University of Nebraska and an MFA from Arizona State University. She developed her incredible design style from living in sunny Southern California. Her style is fun and relaxed, combining the best ingredients in imaginative ways; creating seamless transitions from indoors to out. Twinkling layers of vintage lighting and masses of succulents in California pottery and salvaged containers add charm and color to her outdoor living environments.

“I love the design process: the attention to detail, partnership with my clients and collaboration with architects, contractors and artisans. Most of all, I love turning ordinary spaces into beautiful places that welcome you home. Timeless and effortless….a light-filled and light-hearted approach to interior and garden design.” Sandy’s work has been featured in national shelter magazines, design books and on HGTV.

Photos: Courtesy of Sandy Koepke

How to keep a large family home clutter free with ease

Sometimes the more space you have, the more difficult it is to keep on top of clutter. But it can be done – just follow these easy tips.

Start as you mean to go on

If you are determined to banish clutter from your life for ever, the first step is clearing out anything you no longer want or need. Then you will be able to organize what’s left.

Take advice from Gretchen Rubin, author of ‘The Happiness Project’ and sell, donate, recycle or throw away anything that you or your family hasn’t used or worn for a year or longer. If you have hoarders in the family, this may be more difficult. However, if they haven’t made use of something for over a year they probably won’t notice if something disappears!

Archive things

Keep your living areas free of clutter by ‘archiving’ things that are rarely used but which you would like to access in future. Baby clothes and toys, for example, can be kept in the loft in vacuum storage bags to save space and protect them from dust and insects. Winter duvets and sweaters can also be stored this way in summer months.

Storage boxes

Once you have cleared out some clutter, make use of easy-to-use storage solutions to organize the things you need on a daily basis.

 For families with young children, large storage and toy boxes are invaluable. Once the kids are in bed, the task of tidying up toys and reclaiming the living room is much easier if you have large storage boxes to pop everything in.

Magazine racks

For families with older children, magazine racks can help keep you sane. ‘Doctor Who adventures’ and ‘Girl Talk’ can sit together happily in a magazine rack beside the sofa, alongside mum and dad’s magazines, catalogues and newspapers.

Coat hooks

 If you don’t have enough coat hooks, you can guarantee kids and guests will leave their coats draped over the backs of chairs or on the stairs. Invest in more hooks or a coat stand to get the coats out of the way for good!

Shoe racks

If you are forever tripping over shoes, train your family to use a shoe rack or shoe tidy. Attractive shoe racks with four or five tiers can now be found, so everyone in the family can have their own shelf.

 Filing cabinets

Filing cabinets are a great buy for modern families, helping you store and organize documents, certificates, letters, receipts, school reports, drawings and any other important pieces of paper.

Wastepaper bins

Finally, one of the best ways to keep your home free from clutter is to make sure every room has a wastepaper bin. If children (and many adults) have to travel to another room to throw away rubbish, the chances are they won’t! Keep bins near and handy, and you will be one step closer to achieving a clutter-free home.

Photo Sources: 1 Pinterest, 2 Cozy Little House, 3 Sandy Koepke, 4 Centerpiece Home Staging, 5  Dijeau Poage Construction, 6 8Foot6, 7 Case Design/Remodeling, 8 Natasha Barrault Design, 9 Muse Interiors, 10 Polly Blair, 11 Artistic Designs for Living, 12 Aristea Rizakos, 13 Pinterest, 14 Robin’s Nest, 15 LDa Architecture & Interiors, 16/17 Mini Manor Blog, 18 Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, 19 Oak Hill Architects, 20 Lovejoy Designs, 21 transFORM | The Art of Custom Storage, 22 Frisson Design, 23 Patrick Perez Architect, 24 CHIC Redesign, 25 Colleen Steixner

43 Gorgeous and inspiring interiors by Meridith Baer Home

Meridith Baer is a renowned home staging company based out of Los Angeles, California who shows her talents through house-staging, furnishings, interior design and event interiors on both the West and East coasts. Her design team has been staging ultra-luxurious homes since 1998 with a clientele that includes about 300 celebrities and billionaires. Baer is a former model, actress and Hollywood screenwriter who fashioned her ultimate plot twist at age 50 by reinventing herself as a niche entrepreneur. She has a talent for being a storyteller by entering a home and imagining who might live in it, telling their story with ease and elegance.

Baer’s team is known for its uncanny ability to hand-select furnishings and objects that are exactly what visitors would own if they lived in the home. The selections are made from the firm’s 135,000-square-foot warehouse and include furniture, art, books, silverware and everything needed to bring a lived in, cozy feeling to what are typically large spaces.

Baer’s staff of 70 includes decorators, movers, carpenters and upholsterers. The firm bills a design and installation fee of varying amounts, plus a monthly rental fee if the house sits on the market. Once the home sells, Baer’s items are removed to make way for whatever the new owner or his decorator chooses.

Baer’s design talents range from traditional, transitional, modern, European, coastal, estates, highrises, condos and lofts; which can be seen in this collection of inspiring interiors that are shown below. Please leave us a comment below and let us know what you think of Meridith’s affinity for selecting the perfect furnishings to make a make a home a showstopper.

Photos: Courtesy of Meridith Baer Home

Seven secrets for more storage in your home

You may find yourself tearing out your hair over the vast amount of stuff you’ve accumulated in your home. Perhaps there’s no more room for wardrobes, and the garage and attic are completely crammed. So what do you do?

An obvious answer would be to do some much-needed spring-cleaning and get rid of a lot of your unnecessary junk. However, if you’ve already done this and you’re still suffering from a cluttered home, there are some easy secret fixes you can employ to store away your stuff.

Replace your wardrobes

Perhaps it’s time for you to do away with your old wardrobes and replace them with ones that are better designed, for maximum utilization of the space you have. Wardrobes that have doors that open outwards aren’t really the best for utilizing space. Sliding wardrobes, on the other hand, work pretty well in terms of not using up too much space.

Prioritizing

You may think that storage in your attic is troublesome, because of the hassle of getting up there to retrieve whatever it is you need, but the trick is to prioritize what you place up there; you need to stack and store all the things you want to keep, but rarely have use for, like your old university notes, old photo albums, textbooks you no longer use and so on.

 Boxes under the beds

If there’s empty room under the beds, you need to use it. Get the kids to stack all of their books and toys neatly into storage boxes, which they can then access easily from under their beds. You can store your old books and other files and folders in the same way.

Use the hallway as best as you can

This may seem antithetical to you – storing things in the hallway doesn’t sound like it’ll help de-clutter your house. However, if you do it right, it can work wonders. Put up a shelf that will hold all the things you immediately discard when you walk through the door, such as your keys, your wallet and your gloves, for instance.

 Reconstruct your utility room

You need to make the most of extra space in your house. If you have a utility room, where your washing machine is, store more things in there, like spare bits of MDF work surface which can double up as a table as well as an ironing board.

Re-assess your kitchen

Kitchens need to be well organized – you don’t want to be running around looking for the turmeric when your dinner guests are grumbling away in your dining room. Throw away extra bottles of spices and consolidate them into larger storage jars.

 Small bathrooms aren’t a problem

A cramped bathroom can be easily improved by attaching hanging shelves in there, as well as opting for creative, quirky ways of storing your toiletries.

Photo Sources: 1. Borges Brooks Builders 2. Case Design/Remodeling, Inc. 3. Nieto Design Group 4. Murphy & Co. Design 5. Green House Good Life 6.  Home Edit 7. Home Edit 8. Batim Studio 9. CWB Architects 10. Vuong Interior Design 11. Serena & Lily 12. Mhouse inc. 13. Barnes Vanze Architects 14. Oak Hill Architects 15. Balda Interiors 16. Crystal Kitchen Center 17. AM Dolce Vita 18. transFORM Home 19. Classically Yours Interiors 20. Braam’s Custom Cabinets 21. Pinterest 22. Nicole Lanteri 23. Pinterest 24. Seattle Custom Cabinets 25. Smith & Vansant Architects 26. Palmerston Design Consultants 27. Stig Carlson Architecture 28. Gast Architects 29. Pinterest 30. Robin Rigby Fisher

36 Gorgeous shabby chic interior spaces

Shabby Chic style is a beautiful look and can be incorporated into any home for a fun and whimsy design aesthetic. The basic principle of shabby chic style is a look that is unstructured and lacking in formal rules; a timeless aesthetic which can add an effortless elegance to your home. With salvaged furnishings, handicrafts and vintage textiles that are available not only in flea markets, but also in retail shops (typically as reproductions), you don’t have to search high and low for that perfect piece. You may even have a diamond in the rough right under your nose, a derelict piece of furniture just waiting to be whitewashed and restored. That’s the beauty of shabby chic style, it’s budget-friendly and easy to acquire. Here are some suggestions of ways you can achieve the look.

Select seating you can sink into such as bean bag chairs, use a well-worn table, antique frames for art (ornate frames and framed mirrors), give a once formal seating a shabby chic makeover, light up a room with a chandelier, set the table with linen napkins, create an airy, beachy ambiance in the bedroom, infuse shabby chic style into your outdoor spaces, make use of well-worn storage options (they don’t need to be confined to just the bedroom, add them to an entrance hall, feminine home office or dining room as elegant storage options), use fine china to add whimsical sophistication when entertaining such as serving tea in vintage tea cups.

Photos: Undicilandia

The ultimate kids’ playroom DIY guide

It’s no secret that all kids treasure and value a space of their own to play and hang out in besides their bedroom. A separate playroom is key for a child’s development. They need an area that they can call their own, in order to start learning how to take care of their own space.

Having a playroom is also a good way of keeping your child’s belongings in a contained area. The perfect playroom should be safe and fun, a place where your kids can have fun, alone. This is a short guide that gives you some tips on how to design the playroom by yourself.

The layout

Firstly, you need to examine the room you have in order to decide how you’re going to go about designing it for your kid. If it’s a large room, you may want to consider lining up all the toy boxes and other storage units along the walls, so their toys and video games aren’t lying around all over the house.

If you find that the storage boxes are too full of toys and video games, you can cull them once in a while, by selling them off on websites like www.musicmagpie.com. Also, if the room is smaller, use one side of the room for storage, and have the rest of the room open for playing.

The Furniture

Given that your kid is going to want privacy in the playroom, you should make sure that there aren’t any sharp corners or dangerous surfaces around the room. The seats, tables and floor should be kid-friendly.

You should think about purchasing soft furnishings as opposed to wooden or plastic ones, especially if your kids are particularly young.

 The Theme

This is where the fun begins. Kids love bright colors and inspiring things to look at. If your child has a particular fondness for something, incorporate it into the theme. For instance, if he or she loves dinosaurs, get some dino-wallpaper or a playing mat with dinosaurs on it.

You can go for something that’s kid-friendly, but you could also go for a contemporary feel that will make adults feel they can hang out there too, without being intrusive.

 Adults’ corner

It would be nice to include an ‘adults’ corner’ in the room, so you and your partner can drop in to see how the kids are doing. This can be something simple, like a grown-up size two-seater sofa at the back, where you can sit and watch your kids perform a show-and-tell session, or help them with their homework.

Photo Sources: 1 Poss Architecture, 2 Charm & Whimsy, 3 MPR Design Group, 4 Abbey Construction Company, 5 Eisner Design, 6 Wind and Willow Home, 7 Dennison and Dampier Interior Design, 8 Pinterest, 9 Lizette Marie Interior Design, 10 Pinterest, 11 Gander Builders, 12 Mindi Freng Designs, 13 d2 interieurs, 14 Gabriel Builders, 15 Pinterest, 16 Olga Akulova Design, 17 Poss Architecture, 18 Jill Seidner Interior Design

43 Warm and stylish Scandinavian living rooms

We just can’t get enough of looking at fabulous Swedish dwellings and their amazing decor, with an incredible blend of casual, elegant, rustic and refined yet warm and cheerful all rolled into one space. Scandinavian design has so much to offer, it is sure to inspire anyone who is need of some innovative decorating ideas that can be incorporated into any home design. That is why we have gathered together just a little over 40 photographs showcasing some of the most incredible Scandinavian living room interiors. From vivid interiors invaded by color, to simple but highly functional decors, these living rooms all have a strong visual effect. Sofas cozy enough for friend and family gatherings, reading corners, traditional fireplaces, royal pendant lamps, bright and colorful pillows, guitars and pianos are just a few of the elements animating these lovely homes. No matter what their size, they all feature large windows and beautiful flower arrangements and they all pull off white neutral walls brilliantly. Be sure to let us know in which one is your favorite!

Ten contemporary bedroom ideas

When you picture a contemporary bedroom, you most likely think of pale woods, plenty of white sheets and lots of monochrome. However, being contemporary doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice charisma or personality. We’ve listed ten excellent ideas that will make your contemporary bedroom as charming as you are.

 Neutral is key

If you want a clean, contemporary look for your bedroom, then a neutral color palette is a must. You don’t have to always opt for lighter tones, but you should stay away from bright colors for the sleek, streamlined look.

 A feature wall

Whether you opt for a fun wallpaper fabric or a cool paint color, having one wall unlike the other three instantly makes your room look edgy. There’s plenty to choose from, be it a glossy finish or an exciting print; adding something a bit different to one wall can really make it stand out.

Frills are a big no-no

Frilly cushions are out if you want an up-to-the-minute look. Keeping things gender-neutral in the bedroom is your best bet for maintaining a sleek look. Avoid bright pinks or girly pastels and instead opt for monochrome shades.

 Accessorize

To avoid your bedroom getting boring, you can use accessories to brighten it up and add interest to an otherwise monochrome design. Add some brightly colored artwork or some little trinket boxes.

Use your space effectively

If you want a sleek and modern bedroom, then clutter is the last thing you need. Check out some fantastic bedroom offers that offer clever storage solutions to tidy away all your clothes, shoes and other sundry items, leaving your room looking spacious and clutter-free.

 Wood

A pale wood such as pine or maple is far more effective at creating a contemporary look than heavier, more traditional woods such as oak. Wood makes for a more expensive look and hardwearing than veneer.

 A modern bed

Make sure your bed is as modern as they come if you want the rest of your room to fall into place. Whether you opt for a contemporary futon number or a sprawling super-king, having a modern bed ensures your room has a stylish edge from the offset.

 A feature headboard

If you you’ve already made up your mind to keep your old bed, a feature headboard can be a great way of adding an interesting element to your room.

 This can be anything you want it to be – nice wood paneling, some bright woven fabric or even an integrated bookshelf. A feature headboard can add some modernity to your room without you having to make any big changes.

Black and white

Monochrome shades of grey, black and white is an immediate way to transform your room into a contemporary dream. White bed linen adds a crisp, clean touch, creating the perfect blend between classic and modern.

 Keep it to a minimum

Whether you decide to go for a large feature or enliven the place with trinkets, anything too extreme will ruin your contemporary look. The key is to focus attention on one or two pieces and keep things simple.