Modern Home Decorating

We are moving to our dream home next month, however I am NOT a decorator and I am tired of being plain Jane. Here are my issues: 1) Main living room has sage walls (which are fine) and we have chocolate brown leather furniture, what color coffee/side tables would accent this room? Also what color should my accent pieces be? 2) My formal dining room is visible from the main living room (do not remember what color the walls are) should our dining table be consistent with the same color of wood that our coffee tables will be or can I decorate the rooms seperately? My problem is that I do not want to necessarily use the same color wood in every room, unless it will flow easier, but I want the home to be comfortable. We have small children so I want to avoid glass tables, however glass on top of the wood would work for the dining table. I am looking at picking some pieces from IKEA as they are affordable and we are on a budget. Any ideas or suggestions you can offer would be GREAT. Thanks.

Coffee and End Tables of dark iron & wood would be great, still easy to take care of and wood tops usually do not have sharp corners. Keep accessories to a minimum with small kids, a wooden bowl with several interesting spheres made of wood or twine (nothing the kids can cause damage with), variations on green with a pop of orange, or red for accent fabrics, pillows, side chair. Love your fabrics, and mix up pillow styles in a variation of color. Take your hints from what makes you comfortable. Is this a formal living room, do you have a family room too, if you do – keep the TV out of the living room, so it is a space to enjoy more quietly, for reading or entertaining friends and family.

If the dining room is formal, stay off white or champagne color with gold-tone accents. If you have china, or fine glassware, use it as your inspiration. Go with a dark table and chairs that you love, don’t settle, they are a major purchase and should last. Keep the chairs simple, maybe a parsons style (usually pretty comfy), covered in an ultra suede fabric with fabric protector. Don’t be afraid to choose a chair with arms for each end of the table – something substantial, if you have a large room.

Go to the Library, send to kids to their section and take advantage of their resources for more help

Decorating the home is easy once you know how and there are so many different looks t choose form. So if you want a change why not take a look online or in magazines to see which look you can create?

A lot of people out there want to decorate their houses for a variety of different reasons but they might be lacking inspiration. It could be that you have just moved into a house and you do not like the décor or perhaps you simply hate the décor that you have had for a long time. Whatever the reason is, transforming the house is something that can help to improve a person’s mood as well as increasing its value.

How to Decorate Your Home

Some people rely upon the latest trends to be able to keep up with everything else, but the thing is that trends change on a regular basis. Adding the latest trends to your home can help to keep it looking modern and fresh but you will have to keep decorating frequently to keep up with the recent styles. So if you want to redecorate the whole house, you may want to look around to find out about the latest trends to transform all of the rooms.

Look around in some of the latest decorating magazines as you are bound to find at least one new style that will suit your tastes and needs. Of course you do not have to keep decorating if you choose a recent style; it is just that most people like to keep up with recent styles instead of just choosing the most recent one and keeping it for years.

If traditional is something that you love, finding these styles will also be easy for you as they are always in style. Traditional decoration can be added to walls, furniture and even the windows. However traditional usually means expensive depending upon the exact look that you are after. You can find antiques in local flea markets, at auctions and at local dealers so you should not have a problem finding traditional furniture.

If you are after a more contemporary look then you need to choose bright and bold colors for the room. However saying that it does have to be stylish and not odd! In order to create the look properly you will need to spend time researching what colors best go together and take a look at as many contemporary designs as you can.

Finally if you are going for an elegant look then once again you will find it easy to find inspiration. Oriental designs can often look quite elegant and Japanese and Chinese styles are particularly popular.

Overall it is easy to create whichever look you want to create just as long as you know what to look for. Magazines and the Internet will help you in your research and you should be able to find some inspiration as to how you want your room decorated.

Mr.Andrew Caxton
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/are-you-stuck-for-inspiration-with-decorating-styles-121580.html

We recently bought a ‘Crayola Message Mug’ and we’ve painted it with the paints provided…the instructions are in three easy steps – 1) Decorate Your Mug 2) Oven Bake for 15 minutes 3) Record your Special message (It comes with a voice recorder so that when anybody lifts it off of the recorder, your pre-recorded voice will shout, laugh or say anything to them). So basically – I was wondering – do you have to let the paint dry before you put them in the oven!? Thanks, Connie

Yes – as it dries it will ‘set’ (ie all the molecules will cuddle up against each other) and will stay together when you fire it. If you don’t, the moisture content of the pigments will instantly dry and the pigments just drop off.

My niece is being christened on Sat. May 26th and afterwords there will be a dinner at the home of my sister’s in-laws. My sister has asked me to bake and decorate a cake for the occasion and I am not sure what to decoarate it with. (This is MUCH easier to bake a cake for a b-day party–where there is a theme)

I think you should bake a cake and cover it with white icing, then decorate it whit a baby theme.

Here are some websites that maybe you can get some ideas from:

http://www.haveyourcakeandeatit.org/christeningcakes/4513599732

http://www.madelines.net/images/gallery/christening_cake.jpg

http://www.jennys-cakes.com/images/celebration-cakes/christering-cake-hannah1.jpg

http://www.cakesbyann.co.uk/christenings.htm

http://www.icingandthecake.co.uk/images/cake-cristen/babychrist.jpg

They have very nice cakes that can be duplicated, and still look nice. You can use their decorating ideas.
Good luck and happy christening to your niece (if that makes any sense)

With stuff we alredy have at home. I didn’t buy the kit from the store so now im trying to figure out how to decorate eggs with my boys ages
6 & 3 …. just easy, simple ideas are greatly appreaciated ….

thanks

How bout a simple polka dot? You could also take a permanent marker and draw faces, then color those. Oh and you could take a wax crayon and doddle on them with that!

I’ve recently really got into the whole kind of "old-fashioned-but-in-a-cool-way" kinda thing. You know, like framing really old fashioned newspapers and wearing waistcoats and pinstripes and boots and stuff.

So my brother’s left home now and I get a new room seeing as how I’m currently in a box room and I want to decorate it in an old fashioned kind of way.

I think it’ll be quite easy to do because it’s a loft room and it has a staircase and everything. I was wondering if you guys had any ideas? I would really appreciate it

I love your idea! I would suggest going to flea markets and antique stores and find some cute things you can build the feel of the room around. Look for functional items like lamps, rugs, curtains, etc., then decorative pieces like things to hang on the wall.

Have fun!

I have just moved out of the family home this year and want to be able to decorate my new home for Christmas without spending too much money ie no lights etc. What can I do? Please nothing to do with snow as we have summer Christmas here
We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here – I’m trying to get it all organised before a trip away

string popcorn and cranberries, make paper chains.

Make some gingerbread men and women from brown paper bags. Trace around gingerbread men & women cookie cutters on brown paper bags (you will need 2 pieces for each ornament) Use your imagination to decorate them – ribbon, lace, paint, crayons etc. Then take a paper punch and punch holes as evenly as you can near the edges of the ornament. Using a large needle stitch the two pieces together with colorful yarn. You will want to lightly stuff them with something as you stitch around them. You can use cotton batting or cotton balls or even small pieces of fabric.

You can use cookie cutters as ornaments and candy canes.

I have also used wire edged ribbon as garland. You can buy it by the roll very inexpensively at Christmas time. This will make a very colorful and inexpensive tree.