Bearrific Photo Mirror by Pulaski

Summer temperatures are becoming a mainstay now and while most of us aren’t fortunate enough to experience seaside living every day, that doesn’t mean we can’t update the look of our homes to feel like it.

Look on the bright side, with an interior designed with a summer theme, we get to feel seaside while maintaining our cool with air conditioning.

Here are a couple of projects you can take on to infuse a little bit of sunshine into your home:

Candlelight

Wrap plain glass candle holders with decorative papyrus secured to double-sided tape. To mimic netting, wrap waxed linen thread around the papyrus.

Front and Center

Looking for a dramatic centerpiece? Bring summer to the table by filling a vase with blue-tinted water and placing split-leaf philodendron leaves and other bundled foliage.

Family Photos

Using a computer software program, convert your favorite family beach vacation photos into sepia tone and print them out on deckle-edged, watercolor paper. Apply artistic paper like papyrus to cork tiles. Place the cork tiles into ready-made natural wood frames (remove the glass).

Using decorative thumb tacks, pin the photo to the cork. The beauty of this is that photos can easily be interchanged whenever the mood strikes.

Tia Bedroom Set by Coaster

Money is pretty tight these days and spending a ton of cash in order to renovate a bedroom isn’t high on many people’s to-do lists.

Thankfully, however, there are a number of ways we can update our bedrooms without breaking the bank. Many of the techniques cost relatively little to no cash.

The first ‘Low-Cost Ways to Liven Up a Bedroom‘ covered balancing neutrals with bursts of color and incorporating textures in order to inject life into the bedroom.

Here are a few more low-cost ways to liven up your sleeping quarters:

Accent Pillows Make the Difference

Accent pillows are the quintessential cheap way to immediately change the look and feel of a room. By mixing bold patterns and striking colors, these pillows can tie in alternative colors that fit into the bedroom’s overall color scheme.

Starts with the Head

Swap out the factory standard headboard that came with the bedroom set for a vintage or re-purposed piece. The sheer unusual nature of the piece will ensure its dramatic effect on the space. It will become the focal point of the room.

Can’t Beat the Sheets

New linens in commanding colors and patterns paired with a new comforter that is equally as impressive is one of the simplest ways to liven up the bedroom. The good thing is that they’re available in every price range.

Divided Medallion Wall Art by Max Accents

While tastes in and types of art can vary widely, ways to arrange it and place it throughout the home is fairly universal.

Many people enjoy observing art as well as the process of buying it. Figuring out how and where to place it, however, can be another matter altogether.

The process can be daunting and stressful. The time and money spent acquiring the art should be enough, right? Now you have to become an interior designer too?

Don’t worry. We’ve got some tips and guidelines to help you get the best placement for your new art.

One of the most common mistakes people make when placing art is hanging it too high. Consider places like museums, who display things to stay in business.

Art is typically hung at eye level so as to be easily viewed by visitors. Use the same guideline for art in your home. Keep it eye level so you and your guests can view the piece without straining.

Perhaps the best place to hang a large piece of art is above the sofa. However, scale is very important. The space will look awkward if the art is either too small or too large for the space. A general rule of thumb is for the art to be at least two-thirds the size of the sofa.

Bookcase by Coaster

Many of us find ourselves running out of space to properly store, display and utilize our goods.

So we’re sharing some creative ways to get the most out of the space we have in order to prevent having to let our items be forgotten in the attic.

The first installment, ‘Wall Storage‘, covered how to maximize rooms with tall ceilings, how to take advantage of narrow stretches of wall and how to place open shelves on the upper part of blank walls.

A unique wall-storage solution is to use wall-mounted baskets designed to hold flowers as multi-purpose storage in children’s rooms.

These baskets rest flush against the wall, which makes them great for toys, games, books and more. Being fairly inexpensive, buy one for each purpose in varying sizes to maintain visual interest along the wall.

Sometimes what we would need to store isn’t physical at all. Find a blank wall in a visible, high-traffic area of the home and use it to store information.

Find some interesting frames and transform them using chalkboard paint. Boards like these are great for posting chores lists, schedules, grocery lists and other valuable family information.

In areas like kitchens and hallways, try carving out sections of the wall between beams at eye-level, refinishing them and turning them into recessed storage. Using this technique, there is a ton of in-the-wall storage going unused in between the frames.

Bella Bedroom Collection by Homelegance

Bed? Check.
Nightstand? Check.
Dresser? Check.
Chest? Check.

As monotonous as reading that list may have seemed, that’s exactly how monotonous many of our bedrooms are.

While a bedroom that covers all the bases isn’t lacking any items necessary to function, it is usually lacking personality and a unique style.

There are, however, a few additions that can be made to a bedroom to transform it from cookie-cutter to a custom-fit space tailored to your lifestyle.

More Than Just a Headboard

If you’re a bedtime reader, consider purchasing a headboard that features shelving and storage. This way, you won’t have to trek all the way to the library or office to pick that night’s reading material.

Dressing Table

If there’s a tiny alcove, cut-out or awkward section of the room, consider placing a large mirror, a floating glass shelf and a comfortable chair into the space. Now you have a custom-made vanity from which to look your best every day.

Lounging Around

Like reading in the bedroom, but not in the bed? Or maybe you’re just looking for a quiet place to read a few pages throughout the day. A chaise lounge is the perfect solution (and has been for hundreds of years). Place one at the opposite end of the room to balance out the space.

Tiburon Kona Bedroom Collection by Hillsdale

What’s the number one factor that keeps most people from renovating or updating their home’s design? You guessed it. Money.

Who wouldn’t love to have a home outfitted like the one’s featured in premier home design magazines? But let’s face it, some of the rooms in those homes cost small fortunes.

Fortunately, a lot of what can be seen in those magazines are luxuries and not necessities.

Completely updating a room doesn’t have to cost a small fortune. In many cases, it can cost next to nothing.

The following are a few low-cost things you can do to give your bedroom a bit of a boost.

Bursts of Color

As you can see in the photo, having neutral furniture and walls allows the eye to almost immediately focus in on the colorful objects in the room. While the point is made here, you could take this opportunity to really infuse some color into the space.

In the interest of keeping things balanced, stick to one or two colors and incorporate different hues throughout the room in the form of bedding, accents and artwork.

It’s All About Texture

The role texture plays in taking a room from blah to impressive cannot be overstated. Texture adds depth, as everything is flat and monotonous without it. When we see rich textures like weaves, tufts, ridges, etc., our mind immediately relives the last time we touched those textures and we tie that feeling to the room. Just by looking at it.

Camden Wall Storage by American Drew

So many things. So little space to put the. This is problem faced by a large number of people.

The smaller the space, the more common the problem is.

Sure, one could always place the items in an attic or off-site storage. But the urge to have the items at hand or even on display is always a bit too much to completely ignore.

So, what to do?

Just when you think there isn’t any other place to store or display another item, there are always creative options to maximize and even increase the amount of room your home has for storage.

Some external options include quick-solutions like the Camden Wall Storage by American Drew, which simply leans on an open 3 and a half foot area of a wall. The Camden wall storage unit instantly adds 5 large shelves for the storage or display of books, wares, art and more.

Blank sections of walls can also be converted to storage by installing open shelving. The slim profile created by open shelving keeps the space from become cluttered and feeling cumbersome; things that are guaranteed to result if heavy bookcases, chests and curios were to be put in instead.

Rooms with high ceilings should be taken advantage of with open shelving units similar to the Camden Wall Storage Unit by American Drew, that actually run from the floor to the ceiling. This presents the perfect place to store art and collectibles solely for display while your easily accessible storage space can be reserved for items used on a regular basis.

When looking for additional storage space, don’t overlook the walls that you walk past every day.

CK State Street Centerpiece by Max Accents

A well-designed centerpiece often sets the tone for the table as well as for the room it is placed in.

With the arrival of a new season known for fresh flowers and an abundance of warm colors, now is the perfect time to break out your inner-Martha (Stewart) and get creative with your own Spring centerpieces.

A common misconception about beautiful, well-designed things is that they were difficult to create. While that is true for a lot of things, it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

We’ll share some creative and surprisingly simple centerpieces you can create to freshen up your interiors this season.

An Easter Egg Vase

What’s more ‘Spring’ than Easter eggs? Using traditional pastel-colored dyes, paint enough hard-cooked eggs to fill a large-mouth, clear cookie jar. After carefully placing the eggs into the jar, fill it with water. Cut flowers such as bells of Ireland, tulips, hyacinth, roses and gerbera daisies to your desired length and arrange in the jar.

Summer Bonnet

Using a basic straw hat, turn it upside down and fill it with artificial foliage and painted Easter eggs. The eggs can either be real or artificial. Using hollowed-out eggs fill with ribbons make for unique name cards when dinner time comes around.

Flute Barstool by Zuo Modern

It is often said that the easiest, and usually one of the cheapest, ways to add color to a room is with a can of paint.

In fact, it’s a rule we swear by here at Online Furniture Design and have mentioned it here multiple times.

Although it is easy and cost-effective, paint is not the only way to infuse a room with striking colors.

Let the Furniture Speak For Itself

If the walls are kept solid and neutral, they provide the perfect backdrop for standout furnishings like the Flute Barstool by Zuo Modern. The lime green effectively ties into the art on the wall while quickly drawing in the eye.

Pops of Color

Having open shelving in neutral colors goes far to help colorful items to stand out on their own. In kitchens with brightly colored dishes or children’s bedrooms with flamboyant accents truly benefit from this effect.

Spectrum of Colors

Walls painted in a bold, slightly dark color helps for abstract, colorful artwork to shine on its own. Richly patterned area rugs also tend to be more prominent in rooms like these.

Yucca in Bloom by Max Accents

Aside from being incredibly beautiful and extremely diverse, there are so many benefits to having fresh flowers in the home.

Researchers at Rutgers University conducted a study on the emotional impact of flowers and they found that fresh flowers have an immediate impact on happiness.

Fresh flowers were also found to ease depression, anxiety and agitation.

For students and individuals working from home, fresh cut flowers have been shown to promote concentration and spark creativity.

While all of these are great benefits, let’s not overlook the main effect flowers have on the home: they smell great and greatly improve the look of a room.

Choosing flowers and bouquets from days gone by are a pleasant way to bring back the sights and sounds of treasured memories.

Want to incorporate fresh flowers into your home, but don’t necessarily have a green thumb? Not to worry.

Here are some tips to help maintain and arrange fresh flowers:

• If you’re not going to cut the flowers and create the arrangement immediately, place the flowers into tepid water with preservatives as soon as you return home.
• Even if the flowers seem to be the perfect height for your planned arrangement (which they seldom are), trim about an inch off the bottom of the stems. This will help the flowers better absorb water.
• If a bouquet you’ve received still has some tightly closed heads, warm water will help them to open fully.
• Use ‘florist foam’ to keep the flowers from moving around (in opaque planters). Pre-soak the foam for 15 minutes and re-water it every couple of days.