10 Red and White Living Rooms Interior Design Ideas

Whether your living room is a 21 foot length with a large picture window at one end or you live in a tiny apartment and the living room is bijou to say the least, there are living room décor ideas to suit you and your budget. You can go for cozy chic and warm up your living space or go for open-plan with vaulted ceilings and an expanse of herringbone hardwood floor. At the end of your project you will have ended up with a space that you can live in comfortably, decorated according to the space you have available. Are you aiming for a peaceful retreat, full of serenity and harmony or a more user-friendly, basic living space where you feel comfortable slipping your shoes off and putting your feet up.

If I was choosing a color scheme for my living room I would go to the cooler colors on my color wheel chart - the blues and greens which can be used in different shades to achieve a 'joined-up' look of cool elegance. I always make sure that, when I paint my ceiling, I use a light shade of the room's main color on my ceiling so, if my color scheme was blue, I would use the lightest eggshell blue I could find for my ceiling and then a slightly deeper shade of blue for my walls. If you have mouldings you could paint those completely white, or go for a darker shade of blue to both the walls and the ceiling. I would use matt paint on my walls and a paint with some kind of sheen on the mouldings.

For windows, to add height, place the curtain pole as high as possible near to the ceiling. This will give your curtains plenty of drop to achieve an elegant drape. Modern décor arrangements always suggest that the fabric should be allowed to pool on the floor - never in my house. To me, artistic though it evidently is, this 'pooling' idea for the fabric is just a dust collector and, if you have dogs like I do, is just asking them to make a bed out of the fabric! Why did I mention this? Find out what the trends are, but that does not mean you have to follow the trends slavishly. Adapt styles to suit you and your lifestyle.

You would think, wouldn't you, that a large picture placed on the wall in a small room would be overpowering. Surprisingly, it isn't. I have the tiniest lounge you can imagine and, on the wall above the fireplace I have a really large picture of the Defence of Rourke's Drift, depicting the British soldiers of 'B' Company, South Wales Borderers. This picture is very loud, very busy, with plenty going on in it. However, it looks absolutely fantastic in that room, almost as if the room was made to fit the picture!

YES, It Was A Closet

Question: “Wait, That Was A Closet?”

Answer: “Yes, That Was A Closet.”

Inspired by Real Simple magazine's September 2009 issue, Home Furniture and Patio searches their online inventory catalogue to recreate three different closet spaces.

#1 CLOSET TO OFFICE

Their Tip/Our Solution:
· Use Vertical Space with the Legare Wheat Finished Bookcase (59’x18)
· Add Charm with grey, dark brown and pale blue Mibo Wallpaper Pease Pottage. The wallpaper adds pop to a small space and is just the right “busy.”
· Contain Clutter with the molded design magazine cradle by Offi and Co.

#2 CLOSET TO BAR

Their Tip/Our Solution:
· Create the Illusion of a Large Space by adding mirrors like the Kenneth Wingard Atrium Mirror. The sender textured mirror has a beveled glass center is free o ship.
· Add Subdued Lighting with the Uttermost Angelita Lamp. The burnished edges, dark brown details and antiqued silver leafing create the perfect lounge lighting.
· Serve It Straight Up in the Innermost Half Pint Glasses. These stylish, double-walled borosilicate glasses hold up to eight ounces.

#3 CLOSET TO INVITING LIBRARY

Their Tip/Our Solution:
· Use Double Duty Furniture like the Mod Loft Columbia book shelf. The shelving unit is available in whitened oak or walnut finish and has free shipping. This piece doubles as an artistic installation.
· Maximizing The Area is key, don’t be afraid to stack the books high with the help of Magis NuovaStep Ladder. A space savor; this ladder folds completely flat.
· Incorporate Personal Touches with these nickel plated Uttermost Helping Hand Bookends.

Contemporary Kids Bedroom Design Ideas by Mariani

Between about age six and 11, children can experience the world in a wonderfully free way. Liberated from the limitations and frustrations of early childhood but not yet in the thick of the demands and concerns of adolescence, kids, in what classic psychology calls the "latency period," are avidly discovering their world and their own potential. You can guide and support this discovery process by the way you design your child's room.

Grade-schoolers are a mixed bag. Like younger kids, they still need space to play on the floor and kick up their heels in safety. But like older kids, they have to contend with a lot of homework. A good-size desk, a comfortable chair, and a minimum of breakable knickknacks help satisfy both the big and little kid inside your grade-schooler.

When it comes to decorating the space, a grade-schooler is old enough to have significant input. No guarantees, but the more your child is involved in helping plan the room scheme, the likelier it is he or she will take pride in the space and take care of it. Kids this age often have hobbies, interests, or talents that are already part of their self-definition, so by all means reinforce those you feel are positive.

Keep your eyes open for key items that will pull a positive room concept together for your child. It may be easier than you think. One lively boy who loved the big cats but not his pale turquoise walls changed his mind when given a dramatic quilt depicting a rare white tiger with turquoise eyes. The quilt border colors were turquoise, brown, white and green, so the rest of the room took on a jungle theme.

An artistic girl who had a hard time choosing one or two colors for her room found happiness with a rainbow motif. People began giving her rainbow-decorated accessories, so her room came together quickly. A nice plus: Just about any clear, solid color fits in. What theme can you use to knit together your child's preferences and interests with the room and furnishings you already have?

At this stage of the game, you and your child may still clash on the issue of color, but a grade-schooler is also old enough to understand (or at least accept) your explanation. If he wants vivid blue and bright orange, for example, you can satisfy that desire with small furniture items and accents in those hues and treat the walls to a pale, room-expanding tint of light blue or light orange sherbet.

Whether you and your child are inspired by a specific theme or just a color scheme, don't feel you have to create something elaborate. Keep in mind that the pictures you see in this book or in decorating magazines are settings at their "company best." In everyday life, a grade-schooler's toys, books, homework projects, and clothes tend to take over all but the most rigorously policed spaces. Even a minimally decorated room will look plenty busy most of the time, so keep it simple.

One proven, simple approach is to develop a color scheme of two or three hues and stick with it when buying or refurbishing pieces. If you have less-than-pedigreed furniture, paint pieces one color and add wood pulls and knobs in another color or design. If you're buying fabric accessories, use the more sedate color for big items such as a comforter or an upholstered computer chair. Save the brighter, lighter color for pillows and other small accents. If your child's scheme is navy and yellow, for example, you can swap the yellow for red, light green, pink, or any number of other choices when their tastes change without a big investment.

What if your child's favorite colors and preferred theme seem at odds? If that happens (it may, if you've got a particularly imaginative youngster), look beyond the prepackaged ideas out there. For example, a butterfly theme doesn't have to be delicate and pastel; the common monarch butterfly is dramatic black and orange. So, imagine a room with peach walls hung with monarch butterfly prints and black lacquer furniture with brass butterfly drawer pulls. You get the idea. Virtually any concept can be used with a little creativity.

Stumped on how to make it work? Ask your child. To a grade-schooler, the world of imagination is still clear and present, and a sea green giraffe may be just what he or she had in mind.

Blast from the Past Tuesday : Tree in a Cage

This post, in the Blast from the Past series, comes from May 2008. It was the third of a series of posts about a visit to Gardaland, a large theme park in the north of Italy.

In the middle of Gardaland, there's a nine foot tree in a cage. One of the rides perhaps? Something like the Ents from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter's Whomping Willow? Both good candidates for a theme park attraction I would have thought. But no, it's a real tree and it's not violent - it's a Wollemi Pine.

The Wollemi Pine is, in the wild, one of the rarest trees in the world. Only about a hundred trees remain (some sources say less), in a secret location in the Wollemi National Park, in Queensland Australia. Why so secret? For the same reason that this one was in a cage - to protect them from people. Who might inadvertently introduce disease, start fires and of course, rip off branches. Well, of course, if it's rare you've got to have a souvenir, haven't you?

It's also one of the oldest living plants. Fossil records date back 200 million years, and at the time the earth was covered by dense rain forest, it was found all over the world. But it was thought to have become extinct together with the dinosaurs.


When I saw the tree, my first thought was that it looked like a bright green Monkey Puzzle tree - it has the same long needles. And in fact, it's from the same family Araucariaceae (wow, I spelt that right first time.)

Discovered by chance in 1994 by one of the Wollemi Park rangers, David Noble (it has been given the official name of Wollemia nobilis), the tree is now the focus of a conservation attempt. While the original trees are being protected, they're now quite widely propagated and you can see them in various botanical gardens around the world. In Kew Gardens in London, for instance. And even in theme parks.

You can also get one for the garden if you want. You'll need a bit of space, as they grow to over a hundred feet, but one site also pushes them as good container plants, claiming that they "can be maintained in a pot almost indefinitely". Perhaps I'll get one for the balcony. Though as they were only discovered in 1994 and have only been commercially available for a couple of years, I'd like to know how they know.

In the wild they grow in acid soil, and in humid rainforest conditions. However, they are apparently hardy, surviving at a range of -5° to 45°C (that's 23°-113°F). If you're in USDA zones 7-11, you should be fine.

There's plenty on the web about them if you want to know more. Just Google Wollemi Pine. One of the most interesting sites has the tapescript of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary on the trees, called A Green Dinosaur. It's well worth a look. Or click here for a list of botanical gardens where they can be seen, and for distributors in various countries. The site for North America is here.

It's a shame to let old posts go to waste. If you'd like to join in with Blast from the Past Tuesday (or Sunday or Monday, whenever you like), just "revive" one of your favourite old posts from at least a year ago and leave a comment below with a link to your blog so that people can find it.

How to Not Save Energy in your House

I have been a big proponent of what I call "common sense green". I hate to see people do things for the sake of being green - but are not really green at all. Anyway I came across some useful information on the fine homebuilding blog regarding some green "myths". The article identifies a number of common strategies that do not necessarily save you much energy. Those include the following:

1. furnace tune ups
2. sizing furnace correctly (not oversizing)
3. basement duct sealing
4. floor insulation
5. caulking and weatherstripping
6. window replacements
7. tankless gas water heaters
8. cooling your attic
9. changing furnace filters monthly
10. opening your refrigerator quickly
11. using drapes to insulate windows

You should read the entire article if you want further information. See the following link:

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/8954/how-not-to-save-energy

Simple,Unique, Small, Creative and Green House Plans

Small Kitchen Photo Ideas

Small Kitchen Photo Ideas

modern kitchen interior design ideas

The past century witnessed the evolution of the function and interior design of the traditional kitchen. It has magically transformed from being a mere service area into a multi-functional room which is central to the family's activities.

Updating the interior design of a kitchen requires a considerably huge budget. Would you believe that five years ago, remodeling an average kitchen can go as high as $26,000? No wonder the National Kitchen and Bath Association consider it to be one of the most expensive remodeling projects undertaken by American homeowners!

Don't despair even if you among the thousands (and perhaps even tens or hundreds of thousands!) of people inspired by the pictures of ideal kitchens featured in glossy magazines but don't have enough funds to undertake a remodeling project. There are several ways to furnish your kitchens with that modern interior design without going broke!

Truth is, updating the interior design and improving the functionality and value of the kitchen do not always need to be expensive. You will be pleasantly surprised at the number ways in which you can cut costs!

Practical Fix-It-Up Ideas

If you are currently financially strapped in, you may consider updating your kitchen's look rather than undertaking a major remodeling project. You may want to consider these low-cost fix-ups in updating the interior design of your kitchen.

Update your lighting. Installing modern lighting fixtures are one of the surest, fastest and most economical ways to boost a kitchen's look and value.

. Halogen lights directed towards the ceiling bounce off to provide indirect working light. They also come with a dimmer so you can adjust the lighting intensity to fit your needs. Brighten it up or tone it down, how you set it is completely up to you!

. Consider installing task lighting. Task lighting mounted to provide efficient lighting in the countertop, the sink and near the cooking area makes preparing dinners a breeze!

. Provide accent lighting. If you want to highlight unique architectural designs, your antique china collection or any items of interest, you may do so by installing accent lighting. This will surely bring the interior design of your kitchen into focus!

Play with paints! Another surefire hit in cutting kitchen remodeling costs is by modernizing its look by splurging on a fresh coat of paint.

. Hesitant to paint stained wooden cabinets? There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of! Painted wooden cabinets are just as good and as efficient as stained ones. Plus, painting them up allows you to get the color and finish that you want for a fraction of the cost!

. Old kitchen appliances can also be given a smarter look. Appliance refinishing companies and automobile repainting shops can indeed give your range, your dishwasher and your refrigerator a brand new appeal!

. Get artistic with your walls! You can get creative and spend your energy in painting your walls for that updated look. Special painting techniques such as sponging, mottling and rag-rolling can definitely work wonders!

Install new moldings. Installing moldings can transform an otherwise unappealing kitchen into a visual delight. What a great and economical way to improve the interior design of your kitchen!

Put sparkle into your kitchen! Heightened visual interest can be achieved by simply installing new knobs and pulls on your cabinets. You may pick anything from the wide choices available since they come in almost all materials and styles imaginable. Cabinet knobs and pulls are available in glass, resin, metal, rubber, stone and wood.

There you have it, some of the most affordable ways to enhance your kitchen's visual appeal and functionality! Now, do you agree with me that updating the interior design of your kitchen does not necessarily have to be such an expensive project after all?

House Plans by Larson Brenner and Simply Elegant

I told you big news was coming. Here is a copy of the press release.

Simply Elegant Offers House Plans Designed by Larson Brenner

Nationally recognized residential design firm is offering selected designs.

Marine on St.Croix, MN –

Simply Elegant Home Designs, LLC; is announcing a new marketing agreement with Larson Brenner of Stillwater, Minnesota. Initially six house plans designed by Larson Brenner will be offered for sale exclusively through Simply Elegant at www.simplyeleganthomedesigns.com.

Ron Brenner, Vice President of Larson Brenner; brings over 20 years experience designing single and multi-family residences, community facilities and performing residential development planning. His home designs have been featured in numerous publications. He had this to offer:

“The residential construction industry has changed quite a bit over the last 10 years. We have always worked with clients that care a lot about design. It is natural for people to desire living in a home that is a unique reflection of their own tastes. But increasingly our clients are also looking for more. They want a floor plan that feels spacious but is not oversized. They want a home that is energy efficient and environmentally more conscious. They want a smart and efficient design that meets all of their needs without breaking the bank. In order to achieve all of these goals we have worked closely with client and builder to create highly functional, unique and beautiful designs that are also reasonably economical to construct. We have learned much over the past 10 years, and our new relationship with Simply Elegant Home Designs offers a way for us spread some of that knowledge. It allows us to offer high quality residential design to a wider segment of the general population; and we hope that makes a small difference in our world.”

Larson Brenner’s work has been described as having a “casual elegance”. Strong building forms combined with clean and simple detailing and appropriate but restrained ornamentation give their designs a distinct aesthetic. Their home designs clearly pay respect to the past but move it forward with open space planning and modern convenience. The result is a home that is inviting, comfortable, functional and beautiful but not fussy.

Simply Elegant Home Designs offers pre-designed home plans that are creative, simple, elegant, unique and green to individuals, builders and developers. Their goal is to provide the most discriminating home designs available and to be the most service oriented organization in the pre-designed house plans business. They can be reached at www.simplyeleganthomedesigns.com or 877-380-9470.

interior decorating pictures

Creativity is the core of interior decorating. You need to let loose your imagination, aesthetic sense, and intelligence, and cull out as many ideas as possible. Interior decorating can be compared to poetry, as both are vast and simply do not seem to have a definite end. You can go on and on and on.

There are several styles of interior decorating. You can browse through them leisurely, compare and contrast their features, advantages and effects, and then select the best option. Broadly speaking, interior-decorating Ideas can be obtained from catalogs, brochures or promotional advertisements released by interior decorators or designers.

Before deciding to adopt any particular idea, its feasibility, affordability, and flexibility needs to be determined. You should never go just by appearance, but consider the appropriateness of the idea. Interior decorating can be obtained from various styles belonging to different areas. The most popular among them are colonial, post-colonial and Georgian.

Primarily, interior-decorating Ideas can be either contemporary or exotic. It depends on the individual’s taste and perception of beauty.

The field of interior decorating is undergoing constant change and growth. It can also include insect and pest-control measures like termite control.

Interior decorating ideas can prove very useful when combined with scientific principles. A small example for this can be seen from a study made by Michigan State University Extension, which found that among the materials used for flooring, slates retained the maximum percentage of heat. On the other hand, bricks absorbed the least percentage of heat.

Interior decorating ideas communicate to the guests too. Hence, the theme of an interior decorating Idea should be to adorn a building in a suitable way. Interior decorating does not stop with mere decorating. It should be an ongoing activity and take into account maintenance, repair, and preventive measures too.