Eclectic Red Barn: decorating ideas

Showing posts with label decorating ideas. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Antique Fireplace Grate Decorated for Christmas

We have a working fireplace, but must admit that in thirteen years we have never had a fire. We just don't get that cold here in southern Florida.

I purchased this Antique Cast Iron Fireplace Grate Log Holder Coal Box Mantle Insert with Fleur-De-Lis Pattern a number of years ago. My sister and I went to a barn sale and in the corner was this grate. Needless to say, I fell in love with it. When I asked the price, I almost fell over - $5.

Eclectic Red Barn: Antique cast iron fireplace grate

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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Incorporate Your Sense of Fashion Into Your Home Decor

Today I have a guest post from Home Improvement Leads to talk about Fashion and Home Decor.

"Our friends at Home Improvement Leads have put together a great article on creating the perfect home to show off your fashion sense. At Home Improvement Leads they understand how important it is to have a home that caters to your distinct personality. Whether it be by helping you find the best contractor for your next home remodel or implementing the perfect aesthetics for your next home redecoration, they're here to help you."

Incorporate Your Sense of Fashion Into Your Home Decor

Erin Vaughan

Redecorating isn’t as simple as changing your wardrobe—we often have to live with our decor choices for a lot longer than we do a new sundress, and we can’t exactly throw out that $7,000 living room set that looked a lot better in the pictures online.

We like to view the home as a canvas—a place to try out and explore different design elements, materials and trends. But we know how difficult and expensive it can be to rearrange living spaces every time interest in a fad wanes. That’s why we searched for some quick, easy ways to infuse your home decor with a dose of the year’s trendiest wares—without having to redo it all again in a few months. Here are the best ways to incorporate your high fashion sense into your home design.

Learn what you like

It’s hard to reimagine your space when you’re not sure what your decor profile is like! Are you drawn to rooms with clean lines, neutral colors, and little decorative accents, where simplicity does most of the talking? Then you might be a minimalist! Do you gravitate instead to decor in funky, offbeat colors with one-of-a-kind thrift store finds? Your style is probably best categorized as eclectic. Love a mixture of old pieces mixed with new materials and fresh colors? Your tastes may run towards modern style.

Take a moment to consider the things you most love about your home—whether it’s a throw pillow that always makes you smile or a high pile rug you love to sink your feet into. Then emulate that style throughout the rest of your home.

Focus your attention on a few statement pieces

A quirky decorative vanity. An embellished and complicated chandelier. A picture window with a long, graceful treatment. These are all examples of statement pieces—unusual and highly-designed items that give you a chance to show off your one-of-a-kind style.

Instead of filling your home with an abundance of knickknacks, adopt a simple, clean palette, and leave the decorative elements to a few eye-catching items. That way, your taste won’t overwhelm your space, and you’ll have the perfect background to display your draw-dropping sense of fashion.

Follow the rules of print mixing

Electric blue plaid? Black and white polka dots? Pale floral sprays? We love them all! But not all patterns play well together. While mixing prints allows you to showcase a sophisticated blend of different elements and colors, you want them to work together, and not against one another.

To match patterns like a pro, mix them in sets of threes, and add them in a big-medium-small ratio. If the patterns have white accents in them, make sure they match in all three. For instance, don’t mix a print with ivory accents with one with bright whites.

Incorporate trends in your accent pieces

We’ve all been there: you dive head first into a trend that looks plain ugly in a few months. Why, oh why, did you think that ottoman in a splashy electric orange print looked good? Is this what you maxed out your credit card for?

Instead of spending your savings on a huge art piece or new chaise-lounge that may or may not appeal to you after the dust has settled and everyone is on to the next thing, try incorporating new trends as accent pieces. For instance, if you’re thinking of trying out marble, one of 2016’s hot home decor trends, you don’t need to buy a new marble countertop—buy a few throw pillows in a marble pattern, or a marble wall clock instead. That way, you can easily swap them out when today’s styles become passé.

Other items that make good mix-and-match pieces are accent rugs, curtains, lamps, end tables, and framed prints.

Use paint to give furniture a cheap overhaul

Want to give rose quartz a try? Don’t agonize. Repaint! A lackluster hall table, grim cabinet hardware, kitchen chairs, and shelves all make ideal candidates for a quick paint job that will let you get the look without a total commitment. When you paint furniture, make sure to choose the right type for the job—get spray paint suitable for metal for hardware, and indoor/outdoor latex paint for wood pieces, and sand wooden surfaces briefly before painting.

And now, we’ve got to go—all this talk about redecorating has got us thinking about a few pieces of our own we want to redo!

These great tips have been provided by Home Improvement Leads, who connects quality contractors to homeowners to give them the best home improvement experience possible.