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Decorating Tips

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Started 2 years ago by HeySquare
Latest reply from sugarplumclarey

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HeySquare
German Village
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So perhaps since it is coming into winter time, and people will be spending more time indoors, it is appropriate to think a bit about what the inside of our houses look like? :)

There is a lot of information on the web for anyone looking for interior design advice. After watching Season 1 of "Hoarders", I got very serious about eliminating unproductive stuff from my life.

I love the Unclutterer.
http://unclutterer.com/

I also love The Happiness Project
http://www.happiness-project.com/
which isn't really about interiors, but she has some good insight into priortization of time and energy.

What's your interior design problem?

Posted 2 years ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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Shoot, this looks entertaining.

Love this stuff.

Posted 2 years ago #
misskitty
Columbus
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I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t stand clutter :(
I got rid of my entertainment center and coffee table because every time I cleaned them off and went to bed the dam clutter fairyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s came out. I am not sure why those things alone with mantels, Tables, etc collect stuff. The thing I love about my house is my bedroom. It has three huge closets plenty of space for Stuff to hide.
When it comes to decorating I love it OMG do I ever. I am 99% sure that one day I will lose square footage due to the room painting obsession. I like color but I think I have a OCD because I like changing the rooms a lot like once a year. Maybe one day I will find a color pallet that I wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t change.

Posted 2 years ago #
Anne
King Lincoln
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I like this blog for inspiration: http://www.desiretoinspire.net/

I also like to eliminate clutter. Right now my biggest problem is keeping someone's toys cleaned up in pretty baskets. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
AmyArt21
Short North
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Clutter is taking over my life - mainly because I live in an old building and I only have 2 tiny closets (one in each bedroom) and an over-abundance of clothing. No room for an armoire - so I decided to improvise.

I bought a new bookshelf (one of those cool vertical spine ones) for my living room, and moved my old living room bookcase in to my office room, where I'm going to use it as clothing & misc. storage. One shelf can hold 20 pairs of folded pants! Woohoo! Then, I'm going to find a cool curtain to cover the bookshelf with so my clothes don't get dusty.

I've also managed to get rid of a lot of miscellaneous junk (time for a thrift store drop-off run!) and my goal is to be organized by January.

Oh, and I recently discovered that Overstock.com has these cool modern Designer-inspired chairs for great prices. Wish I had a bigger place so I could buy some for my apartment!

Posted 2 years ago #
Cookie
Flyntonville
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HeySquare wrote >>
What's your interior design problem?

Brick and plaster walls that either turn to dust or laugh at my drill when I want to hang something on them.

Posted 2 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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After patching, sanding, priming and painting those plaster walls, my wife and I have a hard time committing to hanging anything on them. Lots of art sitting in frames on end tables. Creatively grouping smaller format art seems to be a challenge for us, too.

Also, picking paint colors is notoriously hard, given the changing qualities of light in different rooms in the house. I have about 10 of those $3 sample cans from Lowe's.

Posted 2 years ago #
HeySquare
German Village
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Cookie wrote >>

HeySquare wrote >>
What's your interior design problem?

Brick and plaster walls that either turn to dust or laugh at my drill when I want to hang something on them.

1. If it is exposed brick, drill into the mortar, not the brick! (Brick can be kind of soft and spongy inside, may not hold well)
2. Use masonry drill bits.
3. Make sure to use anchors that are designed for masonry.
4. Check for, or install picture molding and hang art from cords or wire.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.amybergquist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/example.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amybergquist.com/blog/2009/04/08/picture-molding/&usg=__zkSb2Qc6zeydgw_FwBY_ZlAfo64=&h=480&w=630&sz=93&hl=en&start=4&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=w9KmduRIgXYBmM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522picture%2Bmolding%2522%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1
5. use larger pieces and lean them rather than hanging.

Posted 2 years ago #
Snarf
Dystopia
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I've found lead anchors work best for masonry if it's something heavy, I've never had much luck with those Tapcon screws.

Posted 2 years ago #
KenOC
Columbus
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I like: http://www.designspongeonline.com/

Posted 2 years ago #
jennyw
Clintonville
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+1 on Design*Sponge. I'm also a fan of http://www.apartmenttherapy.com, including http://www.re-nest.com, its green home-design blog (I am biased on this; my sister blogs over there). Young House Love (http://www.younghouselove.com) is another good one; while I don't always love their taste, they tackle a lot of budget-friendly projects with major impact. I'll have to check my Google Reader for more, as I subscribe to WAY too many of these things.

Posted 2 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Readymade has a couple of nice blogs on home design/renovation as well. The ideas are nice, but I have to tone down the bohemian a little to make anything work in my house. Most rooms they do seem to feature ungainly collections of ceramic deer figurines from the 1960s.

Posted 2 years ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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joev wrote >>
After patching, sanding, priming and painting those plaster walls, my wife and I have a hard time committing to hanging anything on them. Lots of art sitting in frames on end tables. Creatively grouping smaller format art seems to be a challenge for us, too.
Also, picking paint colors is notoriously hard, given the changing qualities of light in different rooms in the house. I have about 10 of those $3 sample cans from Lowe's.

This wouldn't be a perfect solution, but you could put up a relatively eye-level piece of trim all around the room, or on selected walls, paint it the same color as the wall (or not, whatever you like), and then just tack things to it. If you make sure the wires on your frames are all relatively centered, it will even be pretty much right on.

Of course-- that's still holes in your walls sort of :)

As for colors, what do you like? I loooove helping people pick paint colors.

Posted 2 years ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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I feel like "decluttering" is what happens when "just decorating" ends, and you try to only have things around you that are integral to your life. So in other words, not just trying to make things "look good", but also... really BE good, and useful, and welcoming. That is good decorating to me.

Posted 2 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Manatee wrote >> As for colors, what do you like? I loooove helping people pick paint colors.

Mostly soft blues, greys and yellows. We're pretty happy with the four rooms we've done so far, but each took coats of at least two different colors to get there.

Posted 2 years ago #
drew

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Manatee wrote >>
I feel like "decluttering" is what happens when "just decorating" ends, and you try to only have things around you that are integral to your life. So in other words, not just trying to make things "look good", but also... really BE good, and useful, and welcoming. That is good decorating to me.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I really don't like how the word 'decorating' implies a lack of respect for functional/practical concerns.

Posted 2 years ago #
HeySquare
German Village
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Yeah, a lot of the things I've done in my house relate to making all the space in my house be useful and multi-purpose. so... since I don't use a dining room everyday, my dining room also functions as a library and as a home office. I also want to make my art/craft supplies more accessible, so that I can utilize the space for creative projects as well. It's a lot to pack into one room.

Posted 2 years ago #
hugh59
Aboard the ultimate power in Olde Towne East
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Decorating? I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.

Mae and I have an entire house to decorate; oy vey what a task. We also need to move all our belongings there in a way that will not make an unrecoverable mess. I have thrown out lots of my stuff in the last few months; I am only taking possessions of mine that I plan on keeping.

Gosh, we need bookshelves, a dining room set, a living room set, stuff for the spare bedrooms. It is a daunting task. I want a house that Mae and I will be comfortable in but I am a straight man...I do not know anything about decorating.

Posted 2 years ago #
alison

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I actually have the flip side of trying to multi-task rooms; I just moved from 750 ssquare foot apartment where I lived for 14 years, to a 2100 square foot house. trying to ddecorate without giving in to clutter -- something I'm prone to anyway!

I'm starting to look at my holiday decorations and realizing that they could all go up -- tastefully -- in one room! Not sure if I want to spread them out, or just have one "Christmas room".

I now have an enormous room filled with light and windows, for my crafts, and that seems to be the one I'm having the most difficulty with. I don't want to spend money on quick-fix crap, I want to be deliberate about organizing stuff, since I now have the room. But after three months, I've still got nearly everything in the bags and boxes I moved it in.

After decades of coming up with clever solutions to cramped spaces and temporary quarters, I'm almost paralyzed by wide-open spaces and possibilities!

Posted 2 years ago #
Anne
King Lincoln
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For craft papers, ribbon and photos, I have liked the aqua Martha Stewart boxes at Michael's. If you get the 40% off coupons out of the Sunday paper and get a few over time, they aren't that pricey and they are really pretty. There may be other colors too.

If I had lots of money, I would probably buy a bunch of KOLO storage products. I think they are really pretty.

My goal is to have shelves to put craft things away onto and then have them organized in pretty colorful boxes, or glass jars. (Like the Anchor ones you can get at Target, etc, they have lids).

Right now, besides the few boxes I have, things are just stacked or in cheap plastic drawer things. ugly. But that isn't really a priority right now.

Haha, Really, I should use up my stuff!! :)

Posted 2 years ago #