Decorating Lessons
I Like To Move It Move It
Most guys don’t log time with their sister’s boyfriends by helping them rearrange their bedrooms. But then again, most guys don’t list “furniture placement” among their interests.
So when my little sister Carrie recruited us to give her boyfriend Robert a hand with his clunky bedroom layout (after we spruced up her living room last fall) we were totally up for the challenge. And the budget? Zero dollars and zero cents.
For a guy just out of college, Robert has a pretty sweet townhome and a surprisingly grown-up bedroom set. He was just struggling with a way to functionally cram all that serious furniture into such a modestly sized space. Here’s what his room looked like when we arrived (we didn’t really give him fair warning to clean up - but at his age I wasn’t exactly obsessively organized either).
Robert had two main complaints about his room: (1) not enough space to move around and (2) an unused corner that collected junk by default. We noticed that it also felt crowded when you walked in – the biggest piece of furniture (the bed) stared you straight in the face while the tallest object (the dresser) practically bumped right into you as you entered. So in about 45 minutes we cleaned, rearranged and spent absolutely no money to give Robert a more spacious feeling furniture arrangement. Here’s the rearranged result (from the same view):
Not bad for a no budget switcheroo, eh? Cleaning certainly helped a lot, but here’s a rough floor plan to show you where furniture arrangement really made the difference (note: Robert’s bedding is in fact a blue and brown combo, but it somehow looks purple in the pictures):
The biggest difference was moving the hulking headboard out of your initial line of sight and exposing more of that big back wall to let your eyes “breathe” a bit when you first enter the room. A few other helpful changes were swapping out the large office chair with a lighter-looking one (borrowed from elsewhere in the house) and positioning the matching table lamps on either side of the space for a more balanced look (and consistent lighting throughout the space). Robert also loved that we centered his desk under the window so he was no longer staring at the wall while he worked.
And now, instead of the practically walking into the side of the dresser upon entry, the bedroom door opens to this much lower-profile nightstand. It still gives Robert a place to toss his keys without risking a lamp in the eye.
You can still appreciate the classic, masculine look of the headboard from the other side of the room. Heck, from this view you almost forget that this modestly sized space does double duty as a bedroom and office.
Best of all, Robert’s two pet peeves are no more – he has more walking room and no more wasted corners. He plans to add art, hang that mirror and possibly add a round circle rug from Ikea and some slate blue corduroy curtain panels. But for now we think he should be pretty proud of his “new” room which called for absolutely no money, and just a little moving.
And I have to hand it to Robert for being a good sport about the whole thing. Not many guys would take well to their girlfriend’s older brother dismantling their bedroom. And if the worst thing we uncovered during our rearrangement was a few too many issues of Popular Mechanics (engineering porn?) then I think I’ll let him keep dating my baby sister.
Floor plans created using Floorplanner.com
Grow On
As requested, we’re back with some pictures of the plants in our house and a few ideas when it comes to the where and the what-to-put-them-in. We’re partial to clean white ceramic Ikea planters (which usually cost around $2-10). We love sticking the little ones in windowsills and on top of stacks of books and placing the big ones on the floor for some major air purifying action. They’re universal enough to work in any space and they sport nice clean lines to avoid that dated grandma-vibe.
Here’s a happy little burro tail in the guest bedroom. They’re super easy succulents (just a drop of water a week and they’re happy).
Oh and our paperwhite bulbs grew just in time for the holidays, and we even remembered to snag a picture for ya. The great thing about an abundance of house plants in white planters is that we can switch them around without ever worrying if the newly shifted plants “match” the new location- although in the case of the paperwhites we just moved our happy little burro tail over a few inches.
We also have a big Nasa recommended corn plant in the bedroom…
…along with a little English Ivy in the window:
Here’s another one of our burro tails (we can’t get enough of them) on our TV stand in the den. We used it to create an arrangement that feels balanced without looking overly symmetric (the ceramic horse head is a fun counterpart to the organic succulent).
We also have a few plants that are even lower maintenance, some dried grasses in our floating vases from CB2 and two big purple hydrangeas that dried out but kept their moody plummy color.
In the third bedroom we have an orchid (one of two that we recently snatched up when we realized how easy they are to care for- a bit of water once a week and some light and they’re just hunky dorey). The other lives on our fireplace mantel in the den.
And nothing beats a few (free!) leafy branches plucked from an evergreen bush outside and dropped into a short clear vase (they last forever in water and eventually sprout roots).
In the corner of the guest bedroom we also have a croton that gets fiery red variagated leaves throughout the year. Just $12 at Home Depot.
And here’s yet another burro tail on the sill in the kitchen, soaking up the sun (or lack thereof).
What about you guys. Any favorite planters? Specific plant varieties that you adore? Dish the house plant dirt.
For more info about plants you just cant kill, check out this article on about.com.
Buy The Book
I hope that title doesn’t come off as a command. I just couldn’t resist the whole “by the book” pun. But on second thought, following my bossy suggestion might not be the worst thing you’ve ever done. Not by a long shot. I just got the new House Beautiful tome, The Home Book: Creating a Beautiful Home of Your Own. It’s chock fulla color schemes, decorating tips & tricks, and rules to follow (and break) when you’re designing your home. And I must say I LOVE it.
It’s really more of a decorating bible than a book, and thanks to the image heavy content, it’s not all preachy and wordy (you know what they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words anyway) but it still takes the time to elaborate on some of the design principles that call for some accompanying explanation. Mine’s already stuffed with little paper bookmarks (a sure sign that I’m super into it) – and in case you’re wondering which pages I marked, here ya go: 151 (love the horizontal stripes), 161 (love the stained wood floor pattern), 165 (love the crisscross bathroom tile), 183 (love the basketweave bathroom floor), 299 (love that gray-green backsplash), and 342 (love the pink on the back of the bookcase).
And beyond the inspirational eye candy, the tips about design rules like traffic flow and furniture placement are perfectly compiled for easy reference. And although it’s $40 for a big 464 page hardcover, it really is a good design source and it looks great on your coffee table (so it multitasks). Heck, maybe you can find it used on Amazon for a bit of a price break. So I just thought I’d spread the word. After all, we’re never too old for a little home schooling.
One Mantel Eight Ways
Almost every surface in our home is constantly evolving, so I thought I’d document a bit of the presto-change-o process that regularly occurs around here, starting with the fireplace mantel in our den. Here’s what it looked like before I started switching things out and shifting things around. Not too bad, but not too exciting either:
So I brought in an assortment of pale blue vases and green bottles (old wine and Pellegrino ones work) for a little color (and added some purple hydrangeas for even more interest). Switching out the second hurricane for our white ceramic horse (from Target) and sticking a twiggy manzanita branch behind the pony subtly broke up all the symmetry, which is always less expected than something that’s perfectly balanced.
Then I tried layering frames to escape the “box on top of box” look of the big centered frame above the fireplace opening. And since I liked the pop of green from the glass bottles above, I again injected some emerald, this time in the form of a feathery fern and a leafy potted orchid.
Then I switched out the fern and the orchid for two ceramic horns that I snagged at Pottery Barn Outlet (on clearance for $7 down from $50 a pop). I loved how they introduced soft curves to what was once just a boxy and geometric display.
Fearing that all the overlapping frames were getting a bit top heavy, I went back to a super symmetrical display (my initial set up + the new ceramic horns).
But once again all the symmetry was just a bit too predictable, so I added some potted herbs from the kitchen and brought in our other orchid (in a lighter pot with vibrant pink flowers). By shifting both hurricanes to the right side of the frame and keeping the herbs from feeling totally balanced (one is closer to the frame while one’s a bit further away) things still felt balanced but not overly symmetrical and static.
But storing herbs up on the mantle wasn’t exactly as convenient as housing them on our kitchen windowsill, so I switched the extra greenery out for some random items I found around the house: a framed collection of keys, a glossy green ceramic pear, and a big silver P.
But things started to feel a bit busy, so I edited out the pear, the P and the framed keys. What remained was the winning mantle arrangement. At least for now…
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little mantel makeover play-by-play. We love that we were able to evolve our fireplace for free using items that we already had around the house (save for the ceramic horns). And we hope we’ve encouraged you guys to mix and match the things you have at home for a varied look that always holds your attention and never looks stale. We’re planning a few more accessorizing tutorials for arranging a coffee table, a bookcase, and more. So, as always, stay tuned…
For a few mantel makeover ideas from BHG, click here and here.
