More Ways to Freshen Your Space

Here we go again - we've got three more ways today to freshen your space this spring - check it out:

4. ADD GREENS
This is our favorite way to tie a display together. First - ivy pots of fern - heavenly! We have sold so many of these - they are just perfect to sit on a table, put in a cabinet or bookshelf - anywhere you need to see green! In this picture on the left, we put a book under the fern to give it the height it needed for the lamp and to get it a different height than the teapot.






Here is the place that we have a lot of fun - above cupboards, entertainment centers, hutches, anything with height - we just love to add greens. It's a great place to bring in things that are happening down below up to the top. It makes the eye move around the room (we'll talk about this when we get to pictures).

Here we have Heather's kitchen. Instead of just adding greens and some twigs, Karrie took some red cockscomb flowers to bring the red accents Heather chose for her kitchen. It is absolutely gorgeous when you walk in and ties everything together!




This is Karrie's dining room - notice how there is a lot of greenery that breaks up the blue of the room. Putting a lamp on top of a hutch is a great way to bring lighting to a room & add interest. Back to the ivy, notice how it is placed in an asymmetrical way - the ivy hangs lower on the one side than the other. Visually it is pleasing to the eye.


Here is an example of the greens in a container, and not placed around the display. Imagine how boring it would be without that green coming out of the basket!



5. Furniture Placement As a designer, I have to say this is key to a good looking room. Either using what you have in the room - or finding new pieces in another room - if it works - is great! Now, just to be clear, it is annoying to me when I watch all these HGTV shows where they look around the whole house and find things in every room to put into the living room to make a wonderful looking room......does anyone, other than myself and Karrie think "What in the world does the rest of the house look like now??" Many times I will swap a chair in the living room for one in the bedroom, or an accent table in the dining room for one in the hallway. Just a little change like this makes a difference. With the wonders of Internet, there are several websites these days that offer free room planners. one of our favorites is from Home and Living. Insert your dimensions and have fun!


6. RE-UPHOLSTER There are inexpensive ways to change a piece of furniture, but sometimes it can be pricey! If you absolutely love the piece, it is well worth it. Depending on how big the piece of furniture is, it can cost as much for the fabric as the fee of the upholsterer! There are many places to find some inexpensive fabrics. We especially love J's Home Decor and More in Norwalk. She has all of the discontinued fabrics from Norwalk Furniture - all at $4 - dreamy isn't it?!! Considering that fabrics can be anywhere from $16 (very low end) up to $80+......you do the math!!

A couple of weeks ago we got our Country Living magazine and loved how they took a basic Queen Ann chair and gave it a major face lift. Click on Country Living and see just how they did this chair for $53 (I think it could go less than this with some fabulous $4 fabric though!!)