Phot from Decorpad

Now that you have all of your furniture in place, let’s finish up your rooms with more creative ideas. 

The five-minute floral arrangement

Here are four down and dirty steps to create a floral arrangement on the fly.

Step 1: Take out a clear vase, you know the one under your kitchen sink that you kept from when you got flowers last. If, by any chance, you haven’t received flowers in a while, first go out and buy yourself some because you’re worth it, or grab a water pitcher or wine decanter.

Step 2: Go outside and fill your container with sand and rocks or buy a $5 bag of silica sand from a home-improvement store.

Step 3: While you’re out there, grab the clippers and trim up those overgrown bushes, scrubs or trees, just a little bit.

Step 4: With your natural and earthly supplies in hand, start by placing one in the center; this should be the tallest piece. Now work around that piece placing similar branches or twigs in a triangular pattern. Continue doing this, each time stepping down in size and turning the triangle 45 degrees. When your container is almost full, place any trailing pieces so that they come down on one side of the vase, but not all around.

You don’t need to be a floral designer to create an arrangement on the fly. Plus, along with being creative you’re also getting some of your yard work done.

A fly on the wall

Are blank walls staring you in the face? Are you not ready to buy any artwork or just don’t know what to buy? Well, first know that artwork doesn’t have to be a framed image. There are all kinds of things that you can use in place of something that you might buy at an art gallery or have framed, and here are just a few to get your creativity going.

- Create a wall gallery with floating shelves and smaller pieces of art or picture frames. Accessorize the shelves just like you would a coffee or side table with colorful accessories and greenery.

- Go into the china cabinet and bring out your mothers and grandmother plates. Buy nice plate hangers and make a collection of memories.

- Are your family pictures taking over every horizontal surface? Well, get them up on the wall for everyone to see. So that they don’t continue to grow up, down and along the wall, place a simple wood chair rail molding on the wall in the shape of a large frame and hang your pictures inside. Or look for a couple of large frames at a thrift or yard sale. Hang them side by side to frame your frames. A collection of empty frames also creates a very fun and interesting wall gallery.

- Do you have lots of vacation mementos stuffed in a draw or hall closet? Get them out and put together shadow boxes from each year. You can buy nice inexpensive ready-made shadow boxes from any of the larger art chains or craft stores.

A bowl full of fun

Do you have a bowl but don’t know what to fill it with? Here are seven ideas of what you can use.

Buttons: Old, new and interesting and we all have drawers and sewing boxes full of them. Like we really ever thought, when the button fell off, we were actually going to find it and sew it back on.

Candy: You might not want to fill the bowl with your favorite if you’re trying to diet, but your guests will enjoy it.

Stones/rocks: Start by just getting some from the yard, then, as you travel, pick one up from each place you go. My mother-in-law has filled her front planter with rocks from her travels as well as ones we’ve brought back from ours. I was in Russia a couple of years ago in December and trying to even find the ground under the snow, let alone dig up a rock, must mean I love her.

Spools of thread: I don’t sew but I love the look of a bowl full of colorful thread and old bobbins.

Vacation and special photographs: OK, now this means that you’re going to have to actually print some out from your computer. But wouldn’t it be nice to grab in and pull out a picture to reminisce every now and then.

Game pieces: How many of us have stacks and stacks of games in our closets that we haven’t played in years? Or go to the dollar store fill the bowl with marbles, domino pieces and pick-up-sticks.

Fortune cookies: I know we don’t have these just sitting in our pantry, but wouldn’t it be fun to have a bowl of fortune cookies. Most Chinese restaurants that make them themselves will put your own saying in them for a small charge.

And just in case you need a couple other ways to help your creativity fly

Have a decorate-in-a-night party with your girlfriends. Have stacks of decorating magazines there that everyone goes through and pulls out different ideas for the area you’re trying to decorate. As always, two heads are better then one, especially with a glass of wine.

Offer a room to a design school or local interior redesign instructor to complete for a class project. New students and redesigners are eager, excited and come up with creative ideas.

Next time you’re at a hotel or restaurant, spend some time looking around. Any idea no matter how large in scale can be downsized to work in any room. Recently I was at a restaurant that used a garage door as a room divider; it was very cool. This would be a creative closet door in a boy’s room with a car theme.

Visit model homes. Interior designers, when we decorate a model home, are really doing interior merchandising and many times are on a very tight budget, therefore we have to be very creative.

Well, I hope my creativity on the fly articles have inspired you to think a bit more out-of-the-box and fly free. Remember, “time does fly when you’re having fun.”

In case you missed Part 1 – here’s the link.  http://www.gmjinteriors.com/2010/03/16/creative-decorators-think-outside-the-box/

Lexington Lounge Set from Brookside Patio Furniture

Traditional ideas of interior design stop at the walls of the building. Gardens and interiors are, after all, quite different, or so we thought. Recent trends are extending the realm of interior design, with joint projects between interiors specialists and garden designers becoming more common. The goal is to produce outdoor spaces which complement their owners sense of style as well as providing useful, usable space. So why the change?

From the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans living areas were planned around a courtyard space and not only in Mediterranean nations. With modern trends towards smaller rooms and interior spaces, outdoors may be the only space large enough for practical entertaining. Advances in materials science have made it possible to buy weather resistant furniture and fabrics, so while some areas of the garden continue to use the traditional garden bench or statue as a focal point, others can be planned to contain furniture of all kinds, from the relatively common dining table and chairs to a full outdoor media room. With a little effort any back yard can be planned to provide a beautiful setting to eat and play as well as relax and unwind. With patio heaters and electric fans there’s no need to feel quite so restricted by the weather, so how do you plan an outdoor room?

Most schemes begin with an outdoor eating area which needs to be close to the house. Noone wants to carry plates of food a great distance, and level changes are to be avoided. Put your eating area close to your kitchen door and surround it with fragrant plants, either in flower beds around your patio or planted in pots. Most fragrant plants work well as insect repellants; catnip, citronella grass, rosemary and marigolds are particularly good at repelling mosquitos. Lavender comes in a variety of sizes and colors, and creates a fragrance which seems to go very well with food. Since adults like to spend time at the table, plan the space so you can supervise children using any outdoor play areas such as a pool, trampoline, swings or climbing frame. If you enjoy entertaining think carefully before you buy your patio table and chairs. Are your guests mostly couples, or couples with families? If the latter a six person table may not be big enough unless you plan two areas, one for adults and one for kids.

If you have a lovely deck or patio this is the carpet for you outdoor room, but if not there are many weather resistant outdoor rugs which can be used to cover concrete. If you are having a patio or deck built, don’t forget electricity. Apropriate lighting can turn a lovely outdoor room into a magical one after the sun has gone down. For best results, think about your color scheme. An outdoor area filled with random pots and color will have an eclectic appeal, but one where outdoor rugs, chair cushions, umbrellas, plant pots, place mats and accessories are all chosen to coordinate will create a designer look. Stone pots with brown and grey seem somehow traditional, but deep blue schemes are my personal favorite, using glazed blue pots of different heights and umbrellas with contrasting yellows or turquoise as accents. If you prefer a more modern look, matte black or Chrome pots filled with topiary balls and grasses will give you the right ambience along with a dark sofa and chairs. Resin patio furniture is very versatile. In white it creates a country cottage feel, ideal for an English country garden of hollyhocks and roses while in darker colors it looks at home in a far more modern scheme.

If you have ugly fences, feel free to cover them. Bamboo screening can camouflage the inside, or choose fast growing climbing plants. Hops will cover a fence in a season as long as they are well watered, and the variegated varieties are very decorative with splashes of white on large green leaves. Though they may take a few years to produce flowers ,they’ll repay your patience by attracting butterflies to your outdoor living room.

Every outdoor space needs some sort of covering to provide shade from the sun and cover from the rain. You may choose to bring this indoors in winter, in which case choose from free standing tents or umbrellas. A pergola covered with fragrant plants (my favorite is honeysuckle) can make a lovely canopy for a dining table, in summer the stems may well be so dense no rain can penetrate and you can grow these climbers in pots, as long as you remember to feed and water them! Where the soil is right wisteria and honeysuckle make a beautiful mix. The large showy flowers of the wisteria compensating for the tiny blooms characteristic of fragrant honeysuckles and since wisteria comes in a range of unusual colors, this gives you even more opportunity to play with the color scheme of you outdoor room.

Where once it was difficult to find a suitably weatherproof table and chairs for the occasional outdoor picnic, weatherproof sofas, easy chairs and coffee tables now allow us to create a second living room and more, outside. Add some paving, lighting and an easily installed fountain and the result is an area of tranquility ideal for work, relaxation or play; an outdoor extension for your home.

Lesley C. is a guest writer for www.brooksidepatiofurniture.com, which is an e-commerce store that specializes in outdoor wicker patio furniture.

One of the things that I enjoy about doing interior redesign is that you have to think and decorate on the fly. If you really want a creative and unique design when decorating, you need to think out-of-the-box. How many times have you brainstormed and from the silliest things came the greatest ideas?

When I teach my students, they are so nervous about trying something new in the beginning. What I ask them is, “What is the worst thing that can happen?” The answer is that the homeowner doesn’t like it and we move it back. That is the wonderful thing about interior redesign: nothing ventured, nothing gained and nothing lost.

So, let’s look at some of the more common items that we all have in our homes and see how we can think out-of-the-box and be creative on the fly with our furniture.

Just because you bought a piece of furniture for the entry in your last house doesn’t mean that’s where it must live out its life in every home. A nightstand is a nightstand only because it’s the label the manufacturer placed on it.

Is you family room overflowing at the seams with too many pieces of furniture, i.e., big-screen TV, kids’ game table and desk? Do you not have any place for a home office but have an empty living room, dining room or extra bedroom? What are you waiting for to make your home function?

Many times I hear, “We really don’t plan on using these rooms very much, so we want to wait to furnish them.” What? Sorry, that just doesn’t make sense to me. Just because the builder labeled the rooms as the formal living and dining room doesn’t mean that’s how they have to be furnished and used. It’s important to use all of the space and items in your home so that they work for you now, no matter what labels have been placed on them.

So let’s look at other ideas on using furniture pieces.

• Do you have a three-shelf-high bookcase? Place it on top of a buffet and it becomes a china hutch, as shown in the accompanying picture.
• Do you need a dresser but have a buffet? It has doors and drawers just like a dresser.
• Don’t have a nightstand? Well they don’t have to match. Instead you can use any number of pieces, including:
• End table. You really don’t need a table next to every arm of your upholstery; just make sure each seat has someplace that you can reach to place a drink.
• Stacking tables or nesters. These are one of my favorite pieces of furniture; they are multifunctional and perfect for every room. Since there are two or three pieces to a set, you can use one in your family room and one in your bedroom.
• Decorative shelf. No one said that a nightstand has to have legs. Plus it will get your alarm clock off the floor.
• Bookcase. That three-shelf-high bookcase that you thought about using as a china hutch can be brought into the bedroom as a nightstand.

Do you have a long and narrow bedroom with lots of space at the end of the bed? Let’s be creative with the space and put it to use.

You can create an additional seating area. Bring in the two arm chairs that you don’t use in the dining room and place a small table in between them.

Create an additional work area. Now I don’t like to suggest bringing work into the bedroom, as that really should be your place to retreat and relax at night, but if you really need a private place to work and don’t have space anywhere else in the house, you can add it here. One rule though is that the area must be kept neat and clean so that you don’t see the piles of things you need to do each day staring you in the face every night.

Create an additional eating place. Why not bring the bistro set that you have in the yard into the bedroom? Now you have an extra place to have your coffee in the morning on your days off.

Create an additional hobby space. Do you like to do puzzles but don’t have the room anywhere else? Bring in a card table and folding chairs to start. Then look around for a sale on a nicer set when you’re ready.

Flying with your tables in the upright and locked position

Have you found an old table to use in your entry at a yard sale but it needs to be refinished and you don’t have the time? Well, go no further than your linen cabinet and you’ll probably find at least one of these things to disguise the table’s condition, along with adding some color and texture besides using a table cloth.

• Drape a sheet over the table and puddle the excess underneath.
• Crisscross two table runners across the table
• Drape a chenille throw and let the fringe hang off the sides.
• Any extra fabric in the sewing basket? Pull it out and tuck the raw edges under. Pin tassels on each corner to dress it up.
• Have any duvet covers or quilts in the closet? Instant table cloth.
• How about the drapery panels or sheers that you’ve just never hung up?

Using what you have to is the most economical way to decorate your home until you can buy what you want. Don’t let the fact that you can’t afford it now stop you from enjoying your home.

Here’s the link to Part 2 - Creative ideas on the fly to dress up your walls and bring in your finishing touches: accessories.

http://www.gmjinteriors.com/2010/04/12/creativity-on-the-fly-part-2-finishing-touches-can-be-creative-works-of-art/

It’s amazing what a fresh pair of eyes can do. You don’t have to rent items as many stagers also offer an hourly staging consultation service. They come in and walk the property and provide suggestions which then a seller can complete themselves.

I provide this service and charge $200 for a 2 hour appointment. That small investment could save you thousands in reduced pricing and lower counter offers. Think of what you spend on Starbucks and eating out in 1 month and I’m sure it is easily $200 or more.

Gail

Sellers Need to Stage Homes – By DIAN HYMER

Buyers, in some areas, complain about walking into an open house and finding dirty laundry in bedrooms. In places like the San Francisco Bay Area, so many listings are well presented for sale that sellers who don’t stage their homes are at a disadvantage.

Occasionally, a home shows beautifully as is and needs little work to get it ready to sell. A listing in the hills above Oakland, Calif., came on the market last year without the aid of a professional stager and sold for the asking price within a week. The house had just been renovated and the sellers had great taste. Their furnishings and paint colors were perfect for the house.

Most sellers need to put more effort into preparing their homes for sale if they want to sell successfully. Some of this work can be done on their own, like decluttering, painting and sprucing up the yard, if they have the skills and time.

Many sellers will benefit from hiring a stager, which is a decorator who specializes in preparing homes for sale. Finding the right stager is important. You want to hire someone who will give your home a look that will sell it for the highest price possible.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: One way to get familiar with different stagers’ work and style is to visit Sunday open houses. Usually stagers display their business cards at the property. If not, ask the agent holding the house open if it was staged. If so, ask for the stager’s name.

Most professional stagers have Web sites where you can find out more about them and preview samples of past staging jobs. Your real estate agent is a good resource. If your agent has had success working with that stager, that could be an obvious choice. You’re looking for results. A stager who has a good track record in your area is someone to seriously consider.

If you live in an area where staging is not popular, ask your agent for the name of an interior decorator to consult with about how best to arrange your furniture and artwork. Make sure, before you pay for a consultation, that this person can also select colors for you if your home needs painting.

Some sellers talk to several stagers before deciding on one. Each stager should meet with you at the property. Try to arrange for your agent to attend the meeting to give input on how the house should be staged to appeal to the most buyers. For example, should a bonus room be staged as a den or home office?
Find out if the stager can use some of your personal possessions — those that are appropriate for selling the house. The staging cost should be less if the stager doesn’t have to bring in as much furniture and accessories. Ask if the stager will select paint colors. If not, there might be an additional cost for hiring a colorist.

A stager should provide you with a written proposal including the scope and price of the job, the term of the contract and the cost to extend, if you need it. In this market, it could take months to sell your home. Staging contracts usually run for two to three months from the date the house is staged. Extensions range 10-25 percent of the original fee for each additional month.

Deciding who should stage your home shouldn’t be based on price alone. A cheap look is not going to generate an enthusiastic response. Go with the best stager you can afford.

THE CLOSING: You want your home to look amazingly good so that it creates a buzz among buyers and their agents.

Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years’ experience, is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of “House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers” and “Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer’s Guide.”

So here’s a Guest Post from Audrey Cupo to help you get into your closet and store your off season clothes.




With a large closet, people are often tempted to keep all their clothes in the one spot and not rotate clothing seasonally. Unfortunately, this sometimes creates cramped closets and makes it hard to see what you really have in your current wardrobe.If you have a smaller closet, this is even more of an issue. If you can relate to this situation, I would suggest the following:
 
Store out-of-season clothing in plastic under-the bed containers or pretty cardboard boxes that can fit on top of your closet shelf.
 
Folded clothes should be stored with acid and dye-free tissue paper so they won’t be as wrinkled when pulled out for next season.

Fragrant, insect-repelling herb sachets are a good alternative to mothballs. They will keep your clothing smelling fresh and well protected without being potentially harmful to your family and the environment.

Any out of season clothes that need to be hung should be stored at the very back of the closet since they do not need to be readily accessible. They should be stored in a garment bag to keep them clean and dust free in the off-season. Avoid using dry cleaner bags for this purpose. They should not be used at all, in fact, for any type of clothing protection and storage. They trap the dry cleaning chemicals which stay on your clothes and can be harmful to your health and the environment. Your clothes need to breathe so cloth garment bags are suggested.

This is also a great time to look at what you have not worn the past season and get rid of it. Chances are you won’t wear it next year either. Why pack away something you will not be wearing. Make room for new purchases next Fall instead!

You will need to start planning a time to set aside to convert your wardrobe from Winter to Spring and Summer so be prepared with the proper tools to do so.

Audrey Cupo is a full-time Professional Organizer and sole proprietor of A BETTER SPACE based in Bucks County, PA. She specializes in residential organizing and focuses her business on helping busy moms get organized with her services and her U Can Do It product line. To sign up for her free monthly newsletter “Organizing News You Can Use”, go to www.4abetterspace.com.

Starting a business is not just about your passion, it is about running a business.

Carol Roth has worked with hundreds of companies, ranging from a single entrepreneur with an idea to Fortune 500 businesses, on all aspects of business and financial strategy.

She pioneered the FIRED-UP™ entrepreneurship assessment, a proprietary five-step methodology for assessing if someone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. By assessing whether someone has the appropriate Finances, Inspiration, Responsibility profile, Experience and Dedication & Unbridled Passion for entrepreneurship, she gives those with the true fire in their bellies the confidence to pursue their dreams and tells those who have no business being entrepreneurs not to quit their day jobs.

Read what 10 business owners had to share, including me.

http://www.carolroth.com/unsolicited-business-advice/?p=621