FSBO Jane

You might not believe me, but fashion experts are claiming that the next big trend to take over home furnishings is going to be corduroy! Lots of retro 60s and 70s styles have resurfaced in the fashion world, and corduroy is no exception. Levi announced early in 2010 that they were releasing an all-new, all-corduroy line of clothing. As I’ve mentioned before, home decorating trends follow clothing trends.

The trend will probably take off by the end of summer or early fall, so to get ahead of the crowd, start thinking about how you’ll incorporate corduroy into your home decor. Start small, such as covering a chair with a corduroy slipcover or adding throw pillows with corduroy pillow slips. Incorporate a thin strip of corduroy into your draperies, or cover a picture frame with corduroy fabric.

How do you prevent your corduroy from looking outdated? Buy the version available now rather than finding old corduroy furnishings at a flea market. Like every type of old fashion that comes back around, the new version is tweaked in some way to make it look modern and sleek. Also, bright colors will complement contemporary decor, such as corduroy in pure white or vibrant yellow. Good luck!

When it comes to home decorating, I’m at fault for always wanting to decorate the main living areas of my home. I mean, that’s where my guests hang out and see my new décor, right? But it gets to the point where I officially have no more wall space for paintings, my fridge is exploding with photographs, my couch looks like someone dumped a bouquet of flowers on it, and basically, it gets to be too much.

Why not venture away from decorating the main living areas? Who cares if your guest can’t see every new feature of your home? You will see it and enjoy it everyday! And if it really means that much to you to show it off, like it does to me, you can always direct your guests to the room that it resides in and show it to them that way.

With this said, I’ve decided to add a decorative headboard above my bed. I got the idea from this HGTV.com article, “Fresh Headboard Ideas”. The article talks about how New York designers suggest hanging a painting over the head of the bed to give the painting a look of importance and to draw attention to your bed. The painting should be big and bold so that the painting is noticed and is not overpowered by the bed, but the artwork and the frame should be kept simple. It should be hung high enough so that your pillows don’t interfere with the bottom, and you should consider adding a lighting feature to make the painting more focalized.

It’s time for me to shop for a painting! To view pictures that will help you get started, view the original article here.

Whether you’ve decided to make a houseboat your permanent residence or you wanted a recreational vacation property, you’re still probably going to personalize the space to make it your own. However, in all reality, you should first think about the practicalities before the fun.

Decorate with sturdy items. While most houseboats are solidly built to resist the motion of the ocean, sp to speaks, there may be a slight chance of a little movement at any given time. Avoid placing breakables on open shelving units, where they may easily slide off and crack into thousands of tiny little pieces. This is also a safety precaution, as you don’t want to be surprised one day by coming home to find broken glass…after you’ve already stepped in it.

Plan for water. In the case of flooring, you may want to avoid installing carpet, as water can damage the carpet and you’ll end up paying a lot of money to fix it. Even if the houseboat is sealed so water may not enter directly from the ocean or lake, water may be tracked into the house from swimmers or water toys. Opt for waterproofed wood, vinyl or laminate.

Let there be light! Boats tend to be very dark on the inside, and the few windows you do have will likely be very small. During the day, open any blinds or curtains covering the windows. Make sure to purchase additional lamps. Older houseboats may not showcase the trendy recessed lighting more modern residences sport today.

Play it safe. Although it looks like a house and feels like a house when you’re inside, keep in mind you’re still on a boat. As a safety precaution, make sure to store plenty of life vests on board. Rather than throwing them in an unattractive heap in the corner of the room, store them in a cabinet or a portable chest!

Showcase the view! Don’t spend all of your time indoors. Depending on how much room you have on the deck, make sure to purchase an outdoor patio set so you and your guests can enjoy the view of the open waters and the gorgeous sunsets. Make sure to measure the space before you buy anything. Look for a small table, big enough for a few plates of food and some drinks and as many chairs that will fit comfortably. Seating is important above all else.

Tips From An Expert

Looking for specific decorating advice? Elizabeth Beers, and Interior Designer at Sandler Architects, provided HGTV with some fantastic tips on how she fashioned a sophisticated living space on a two-story houseboat in Seattle.

Beers started by revamping the entryway with dark-stained oak for the stair railings. A niche underneath the stairs is the perfect place for a built-in bench that doubles as a bed when it folds out…how convenient! A cozy window seat has been given a little facelift with a bright yellow seat cushion.

In the living room, more dark wood attributes adorn the window and door moldings. Beers painted a light cream hue on the walls to add a nice contrast to the dark tone of the wood, and the light-colored ceiling makes this small space seem larger.

She decorated the fireplace using slate and copper tile, both water resistant materials. Placing a mirror above the fireplace adds depth to the room. Stained glass on the windows shields the view of neighboring houseboats while still letting natural sunlight shine through into the space.

Beers abandoned the whole nautical theme altogether in favor of a more tribal, ethnic design. Furnishings include a taupe sofa, a butter leather chair and a wooden chair with a burgundy seat cushion. Other accents features include dark, exotic fabrics and throw pillows, a tribal carpet and artifacts the homeowners collected along their travels.

Don’t waste energy by lighting up your bathroom or a small bedroom with a nightlight. The light remains on all night, wasting energy while you sleep. Even if it’s a motion-activated nightlight, energy is still used through the plug. Instead, try to make one of these eco-friendly, energy-efficient “sun jar” nightlights. It’s basically a mason jar with a solar garden light, a rechargeable battery and an energy-efficient LED lamp. By placing the jar in sun during the day, these materials work together to collect sunlight that will keep the jar glowing throughout the night. It makes a perfect nightlight without having to be plugged in and without using energy!

To read more about the perks of these jars, visit green living ideas.

To read the components and the easy-to-follow directions to make your own sun jar, visit Instructables.

Who said you have to spend a fortune in order to decorate your room with color and glam? Now, it’s as affordable and easy as decorating with paper. You read right. Head to a craft shop, purchase some paper, and fill your room with a unique décor that everyone will admire and perhaps even envy! Check out all these examples:

• Purchase craft paper in oriental patterns that are contemporary and classy. Use them to cover a lampshade by attaching with glue, and for an extra-finished look, add a solid color of trim on the top and bottom of the shade.
• Purchase some cheap, empty art canvases and cover with visually appealing paper patterns. Wrap the canvas like you’re wrapping a present, and then hang the canvas on the wall. You could use craft paper, wrapping paper or tissue paper.
• Cover a table with one large piece of colorful paper, tape the paper to the table in order to keep it in place, and then cover this paper with a panel of glass that will become the new top to your table.
• Hang your favorite paper pattern inside an empty frame, and hang it on the wall. Who decided that frames need to display photos or famous artwork? Colorful paper will brighten up the walls of any room!
• Once you find a paper pattern of your liking, head to a copy center to have it transferred onto transfer paper for a low cost. Once you have it on transfer paper, you can iron the pattern onto fabric for pillows, blankets, throw rugs, anything!

For more ideas on how to decorate with paper, visit this site. This year, keep the decorating affordable and as attractive as ever!

You just finished packing up all the memories that you experienced in your old, comfortable home, and now you enter a new, empty home. You can’t possibly think about unpacking anything but the necessities right now, because you’re still exhausted from the packing. But the emptiness and generic appearance of your new home might bring you down. Quick! Add a few flares here and there to remind you that, eventually, this home will look as cozy, comfortable and homey as your last home.

While a room is still uncluttered, now is the perfect time to paint the walls, or just one accent wall. Choose a warm wall tone that will make the room less generic looking, but will coincide with your furniture and future decorating ideas. While you choose the color, jot down your ideas for future décor.

If all you have in your main living area is a couch and a table, and no television or Internet hookup yet, light some scented candles and spread them around the empty room. Create a calming or romantic atmosphere, while adding comforting scents. Relax on the couch, or the floor, and enjoy telling stories, sipping some wine, reading a good book or just enjoying the peace and quiet.

On your first trip to the grocery store, purchase some citrus fruits that you can place in a bowl and use as a centerpiece on a dining room table, a kitchen island or a breakfast bar. The bright colors will lift your mood, and the scents will energize you for your unpacking endeavors ahead.

Clean. Though hopefully the house has already been cleaned, it will give you peace of mind if you wipe down the inside of cabinets, countertops, drawers and closets before unpacking all your belongings. It’ll never be this easy to clean again! Turn up the music (but not too loud, so you don’t start trouble with your new neighbors already!) and have fun with it.

When choosing what to unpack first, along with necessities, unpack one small box of personal attributes. Plug in your electronic picture frame of photos and set up on an end table, hang a favorite piece of artwork, or just cover your bare fridge with some familiar magnets. Little attributes like this will help you look forward to your future memories in your new home.

One of my favorite decorating blogs is Nesting Place, where The Nester’s motto is “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

A recent post described the importance of having seating space in your home, so that you can accommodate guests. I loved that point!

I have this little game that I play with myself. To me it’s fun, but I’m the type who would never want to bungee jump or anything. I always try to see how many different seats I can get in our main living area/family room. This room has 11. You can’t see the ottoman on the other side of the red chair.

Read the rest of the article here.

Holidays usually bring a fun, festive décor into your home, and a decorating diversion to look forward to. However, while you are trying to sell your house, the rules change. Do you want a potential homebuyer to remember your decorations or to remember your house? For home sellers, keeping the decorations to a bare minimum is the best choice you can make. This October, here’s a list of Halloween do’s and don’ts to help you out:

• Do decorate with festively fall décor, such with as pumpkins, an array of gourds and squash, seasonal mums, and inside, freshly picked apples. About a week before Halloween, carve the pumpkins and place a candle inside to light up the design. Dispose of the pumpkins on Nov.1.

• Do place some sort of festive greeting or wreath on your front door, and Halloween stickies are okay to stick onto one window, such as the window above your kitchen sink, or the window in a child’s bedroom. Don’t go overboard.

• Do add decorations on Halloween day: this is the day to go all out and not worry as much about potential homebuyers. For trick-or-treaters, create an explosion of spooks and shrills in your entryway by hanging spider webs in the corners, flanking a staircase or doorway with carved, lit up pumpkins, hanging a skeleton or ghost from the door, or setting up a masked monster on a bench. Take down all décor by Nov. 1.

• Do offer homebuyers’ leftover Halloween candy for a week or two after the holiday has ended! Fill a festive bowl and leave it on the kitchen table or island.

• Don’t allow your Halloween decorations to be the first thing that potential homebuyers notice about your house. Keep the outdoor decorations to a minimum, such as a few pumpkins, in order to keep the focus on the house itself.

• Don’t scare away potential homebuyers, literally. You want them to feel welcomed, not scared. Steer away from hanging skeletons and swaying ghosts, and definitely forget the talking gravestones and creepy musical tunes.

• Don’t clutter your interior with unnecessary objects. If your fireplace mantel is a central selling point, don’t cover it up with sticks, leaves and pinecones. Don’t switch custom window curtains or classy tablecloths with Halloween alternatives.

• Don’t leave Halloween costume scraps around in the open, and hang finished costumes and props away in a closet. You want buyers to walk away from your house remembering your house, not the intriguing costume that they now want to recreate!

No matter what time of year you are selling your home, the home itself comes first. You’ll have plenty of future years to decorate your new home.

Whether it’s the beginning, middle or end of October, this is the month for professional sports teams. Baseball and soccer are wrapping up, while basketball, football and hockey are just getting started. There is no better time to create your dream room by draping any space in the colors of your favorite team. And while this idea might typically be used for kids’ bedrooms, you should feel free to decorate any room in the house the way you want. Also, there are lots of home décor items out there geared more towards adults. So give in to your guilty pleasure and design that all-sports room you’ve always wanted.

Is your house is the place to be for the World Series, the Super Bowl or any other championship game? Then why not get into the spirit of the game by preparing a spread in a sporty kitchen! Get inspired by visiting different restaurants/bars in your neighborhood and seeing how they are decorated. Although there may be tons of framed photos and jerseys on the walls of these places, you may only want to choose one item to hang on one wall. Create a focal point and add a few small touches that complement the main piece.

For example, hang up a photo of your favorite player(s). If you’re a Chicago White Sox fan, a picture of the team celebrating a championship win is a great piece. Plus, black and white hues make for a classic color scheme in the kitchen. And, of course, there is always dishware.

The basement is might be one of the best places to incorporate a sports theme into your home’s décor. There is more space, for one, and it’s a great big spot to gather with friends and watch the big game. Perhaps you’ve acquired an extensive collection of memorabilia. With a lot of empty wall space in the basement, there is plenty of room to hang photographs or to install shelving units for pucks, balls and the like. And would you believe that some professional sports teams are featured on furniture pieces?

Let’s say you are a HUGE Los Angeles Lakers fan. You’re in luck, as the NBA online store sells recliners, chairs, rugs, lighting and more. Essentially, you could furnish the entire basement and complement the furniture with your personal collection of pictures bobbleheads, basketballs and everything else you own.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to stick with the abovementioned sports. If you’re interested in a tropical theme, surfing and swimming decorations are always an option. Do you like the country? A horseback riding theme might be for you. If you spend a lot of time on the green, you might want to turn your basement into your own little putting ground. You will be able to achieve anything you can imagine.

To affordably spruce up your home for an open house, a dinner party, a holiday gathering or just a fresh appearance, consider the season.

Depending on where you live, seasonal decorating might not work. If you’re lucky enough to spend winters scraping off the ice chunks that have frozen your car doors shut, like me, than you can turn seasonal living into an advantage.

Here, white wardrobes are currently being stored away with summer sunshine and green lawns, and sweaters are reemerging in rusty orange and soft brown tones, much like the leaves on trees. To add some continual change to your home along with your wardrobe, include seasonal accents.

In the fall, decorate a front stoop with pumpkins and squash. Line a fireplace mantel with twigs and colorful leaves. Fill your rooms with aromas of apple cinnamon and vanilla spice. Then when winter arrives, replace the twigs with evergreen leaves, and so on.

Little decorative changes like these allow your décor to seem fresh, relevant and fun, even to you.