Now that 2015 is in full swing, most of us are looking for a fresh new start. Renovations are common place around the start of a new year as new home decor trends start to surface. With that being said, here are some top trends in home hardware for this year.
Brass has made a big comeback, recently. Sticking with a more European but, rustic look.
RK International is one brand among many following suit with this growing trend recently, by introducing their new line of Valencia Bronze pulls and knobs. Bronze has also become prominent in both bathrooms and kitchens as well, from faucets to accent pieces.
Another growing trend is a “worn” or “distressed” look with home hardware pieces.
Again, RK International released a brand new product line of appliance pulls comprised of Worn Nickel.
Most of us are used to seeing brushed, polished or satin finishes so, this is a refreshing look for those of you who want to really stray away from the typical finishes.
Brass
Brass has made its own come back as well. Although many still prefer a more polished brass look, the growing trend seems to be a more rustic or, antique brass finish.
Two-Toned
Appliance pulls with two tones also seems to be gaining popularity as well.
The two contrasting finishes can really be the right hardware piece to make a room or kitchen have that “wow” factor.
When it comes to accenting home furniture with cabinet hardware, you don’t always have to go with the bold and colorful styles and finishes. This is especially true for those of you who have a large sized room with a need for multiple pulls or handles for your furniture. Choosing the right finish and style is imperative for decorating your furniture, without overwhelming a space. If you have light colored furniture, you may want to stick with a lighter finish for your cabinet hardware as well. Polished Nickel, or other nickel finishes tend to be light and blend well with lighter colored furniture. Some people enjoy the contrast between light furniture and darker colored knob or handles. The only problem is that the focus tends to go directly toward the darker colored objects which, takes away from the room’s ambiance on a whole.
If you have darker colored furniture, having a finish that’s not too light but does have a slight contrast works well. Perhaps using a brushed pewter finish or an antique brass finish would work nicely together.
A recent customer of ours submitted a review of a few cabinet pulls they had purchased for their walk-in closet.
The customer raved about cabinet pulls they chose and how each one seemingly disappeared into the space, which is precisely what they were aiming for, to avoid their space looking like a series of ladders.
With the right cabinet pull choices you can truly transform a space into something that doesn’t take away from the other aspects of the room.
Courtesy of Twincitiesremodeler.comCourtesy of Twincitiesremodeler.com
We have all seen those extravagant bedrooms for children, whether it be on Pinterest or other home-decor blog sites. They are literally what dreams are made of. Pictured above, is a pirate-themed bedroom. As you can see from the pictures, the creator of this fabulous bedroom utilized faux brick, for the sides underneath the draw-bridge. The pirate ship itself is made of stained wood, as is the draw-bridge. The ceiling was painted in mural-like fashion, while the walls have sea-life decals.
For us common folk, this bedroom seems impossible to create, right? Well, what if I told you that you could achieve a more affordable, under-water themed bedroom? Even though a pirate ship is seemingly impossible to incorporate into your child’s bedroom, it doesn’t mean you can’t try to get as close to an underwater fantasy world as possible.
Let’s start off with the basics. The first step you would need to take is painting over the bedroom walls. The blue pictured above is a nice color to go with or, you could go with a different hue, based off of what you think would best fits your child’s bedroom.
Next, we have the wall decals. After doing a little research of my own, I came across a handful of websites that carry a multitude of wall decals. First on my list, is AllPosters.com. They carry quite a few marine decals, specifically geared towards children’s bedrooms. I’ve used them in the past for many things therefore, I’m a big fan. All orders come in a timely fashion and are packaged nicely as well. The only downside is that, their marine decals are a little more flat with a cartoon look and feel. If your child is out of that Sponge-Bob phase, I would suggest venturing onto the next site on my list.
WallDecorshops.com has many wall decals to choose from. Sticking with our subject, they have really great marine life decals, all highly-detailed. Depending on what you are specifically looking for, this site has a good variety of die-cut adhesive decals. I would also like to warn you that, walldecorshops.com get a little pricey. I’m not sure if I would necessarily pay $40.00-$100.00 for a dolphin’s face, unless of course it sang me the Flipper theme song.
Which brings me to my third site on the list. WallStickerOutlet.com, is one of the better sources for this specific theme. The wall decals on this site are a pretty close match to those pictured above in the pirate room. The best part is the price of the decals featured onWallStickerOutlet.com With each order you receive 4 sheets of 10×18 inch decals. Not only that but, shipping is free for those in the U.S.
Courtesy of MyKnobs.com
So now we have our wall colors down and our decals to really bring the pirate/nautical theme to life. What’s next? Well, since we can’t build a pirate ship, we are going to have to improvise here. Rather than throwing out your child’s perfectly good furniture, why not accent it? MyKnobs.com has a variety of knobs and handles for doors, dressers, knight stands, etc. You name it- they supply it. What I like about their website, is how they give the consumer the option to choose a category by theme. This cut the time down for me and enabled me to find what I was looking for rather quickly. I will say, I am actually a bit surprised that most of the other websites that manufacture specialty home hardware/decor items, lack this feature on their websites. Anyway, getting back to accenting our furniture– I found a wide variety of specialty cabinet hardware to accent the room. There’s a nautical category which carries knobs that range from pewter to antique brass, brushed chrome and many other finishes. The price range can vary, usually from $3.00- $15.00 per knob.
Next comes the switch plates. Opting for a more decorative switch plate is honestly, a great way to spruce up a room and add a nice accent to your theme. I’m going to go ahead and group switch plates and lamps into the same category. SwitchPlateGallery.com has some really cute switch plates to match the nautical theme. They’re relatively cheap, ranging anywhere from $3.00-$5.00 on their site.
So now we venture on to lighting. The complexity of what you are looking for will certainly impact the pricing range. Unfortunately, lighting in general isn’t cheap. Whether we are talking about floor lamps, desk lamps or chandeliers, they are all going to cost you a decent amount of money but, that doesn’t mean you have to break the bank in order to achieve your end goal. I stumbled upon a site called Bellacor.com They have really beautiful lighting fixtures. Relating to our theme, they do have some pretty cool coral lamps, comprised of resin material. The website’s price has it listed at $127.46, which is actually on sale right now for the upcoming holiday.
Courtesy of Switchplategallery.comCourtesy of Bellacor.com
Another accent you can add to your child’s bedroom is a bedspread, throw cover, or a duvet. Of course every child would love to have a race car bed or something resembling a pirate ship, we all were there once. Unfortunately, specialty beds like that can really run up the bill of redecorating a room. What I did for a tropical themed kids room, was research specialty comforters and bedspreads. I ended up finding a retailer that shipped directly from Hawaii. The bedspread was really affordable and was also reversible! Houzz.com, had a really cute duvet cover. It’s a little pricey but, it’s worth it for the amount of money you save in total for renovating your child’s bedroom. I also came across many others, ranging from the hyper-realistic to a more flatter, vector-themed style. When choosing a bedspread it’s all about personal taste, comfort and also, affordability.
Courtesy of Walmart.com, LandofNod.com and Houzz.com
Adding all of these accent pieces to your child’s bedroom will really transform the space tremendously. If you find decorations that fit the theme you are going for, then by all means, add it to your room.
Home office design by http://www.dwellingsbydevore.com
Most of us dream for a home office, whether it’s to work at home comfortably or just give your kids a place to do homework. A home office can provide a quiet and distraction-free work zone. Most of us, however, aren’t lucky enough to have a full room to dedicate to an office, or don’t have the money to fully furnish the perfect office. You don’t need a massive room or lots of money to create an office space for your family. Here are a few tips on how to set that up.
The first step is to simply find an area to set up your office in. This can be anywhere: in your living room, a nook under the stairs, in a wide hallway, even in the baby’s nursery. Ideally you just want a room with enough wall space in order to set up a desk. This should also be an area that is relatively distraction-free. Any room with a TV or where people spend a lot of time walking in and out probably won’t work. Experts typically discourage setting up an office in a bedroom as well since bedrooms should be reserved for relaxation.
There are a few “must have” items you’ll need for a home office, no matter where it is:
A table or desk
Good lighting that’s not too hard on the eyes
Some sort of organization areas: a desk with drawers, a bookcase, shelving, etc.
Comfortable seating (but not too comfortable — you don’t want to take a nap in your chair!)
Cleaning can be a huge drain on your time. Sometimes there are so many things to do it seems like you only make a dent in what needs to be done. Instead of spending your weekend cleaning, try doing one of these fast clean-ups whenever you have some spare time.
1. Clean up mail, magazines and catalogs. Everyone keeps old mail hanging around the house too long. Spend 10 minutes going through the papers on the kitchen counter and seeing what you should hold onto and what can be tossed. If you have to keep something, put it in a safe place rather than on a table or counter.
2. Make the beds. My mom used to tell me, “if you make your bed your room instantly looks 10 times cleaner.” It’s true! Making a bed has a major impact, even if the rest of the room is too messy to tackle at the moment.
3. Vacuum a room. Vacuuming the carpet takes no time at all and instantly makes a room look so much cleaner. You might need to spend a few minutes picking things up off the floor before you start, but if you’re short on time just place them in a pile in a corner until you can clean up more.
Decorating your child’s room is a fun experience for both parents and children. However, seeing some of the costs of some of the items can be mind-boggling. Thankfully it’s easy to decorate a girl’s room inexpensively and without too much effort.
Use what you already have. Chances are you aren’t going to want to gut the whole room in order to redecorate. There are going to be many elements that you can likely repurpose and reuse. If you have an older child who has items they don’t need anymore, try adapting them into your other child’s room.
Change the bedding. The bed is generally the focal point of a bedroom, so changing out the bedding can make a big splash in terms of turning a room around. Add a bed skirt, change a duvet cover or even just get a couple of new pillow cases. Read More
Do it yourself projects can either be complicated or incredibly easy. Some prefer to call in a contractor to do the work instead of risking mucking up the job. Replacing chandeliers seems like a project that is better left to the contractor but the truth is that anyone with a small amount of DIY experience can do it quite easily. There are a few steps to replacing chandeliers that can make the process go smoothly.
How Much Does the New Chandelier Weigh? – This is an important aspect of replacing a chandelier. If the new chandelier is heavier than the old one, then you have to replace the junction box which holds the hardware and is used to mount the unit. Make sure you replace this if the new chandelier is heavier. A chandelier that is too heavy can eventually fall and rip out all of the wires and can create quite a mess for you.
Electricity – Make sure to turn off the electricity at the breaker or fuse box for the room the chandelier is located in. You do not want to have any on as you work with the chandelier wires, you could become seriously electrocuted.
So you got all the new recessed hardware for your kitchen cabinets but you do not have a clue how to install them. You need an upgrade in the kitchen but could not afford to buy brand new cabinets. The good news is that installing the hinges and pulls is incredibly easy to do and only takes a few short steps. With these few steps, your new recessed hardware looks as if a contractor came to install them instead of it being a do it yourself project.
Installing new recessed hardware on your cabinets can be a fun and easy way to get new looking cabinets without paying the price for brand new ones. The best part is that learning how to install recessed hardware is not much different than installing any other type of hardware. You just need a few tools to get the job done. The rest is just having someone to help you hold them while you install the new hardware.
1. Tools Needed – In order to do the recessed hardware replacement, you need to have a few tools available. You may also need a friend to help remove the cabinet doors if you cannot lift them on your own. The tools needed are:
There is probably nothing more fun than taking the time to decorate a kid’s room. They simply love having a new room that has a spark of their own personality. Allowing your child to help you decorate is a great way to bond and to get to know them. While many parents may not want to have their kid’s input, it is important to allow them to choose some aspect of their room such as the color. There are many other creative things that can be done to make a kid’s room truly unique.
