Category — Furnish

Those of you who constantly scour Etsy will no doubt agree that it is a treasure trove of little gems you could use to do up your home. Johnny & Stacie is a little Etsy store that sells really cool and playful print art posters printed on French paper.

What I absolutely like about it is the clever use of bright colours on white to augment the object. Where would these look really good in in a home? Try:

• stairway walls
• study room
• wall behind couch/sofa in small living space
• corridors – you can keep the corridors dimly lit with focus spots on the posters

Here are two of my picks from Johnny & Stacie’s store

Johnny & Stacie also has a blog at www.johnnyandstacie.com

You can also follow them on twitter @johnnyandstacie

This is truly a magnificent looking side table. The wooden legs made from mango wood with chestnut finish paired with an aluminum saddle has the looks akin to a milking stool. This handsome piece would definitely gel well with most modern contemporary homes. In fact, I think it’d look really classy right beside a plush leather sofa.

Great for bedsides too

More details at the West Elm site

Bright yellow has always been one of my favourite colours. For me, this colour signifies happiness and cheerfulness and that’s exactly how I’d want to live my life. Having bright yellow accents in the home can really enhance the aesthetics and throw it into a blissful mood – really great when you come home from a tough day at work.

With whitewashing being the trend in homes these days, yellow furniture and accents stand out even more! Here are some things you can do with yellow furniture

Yellow Furniture!

Take a look at some of these yellow furniture and tell me they won’t look brilliant in your home assuming you’ve got very neutral colours in your living spaces

Opulent, Almost Quite Royal

For those with a bit more moolah to splash on opulent things, this Bretz chair will give you quite the royal yellow feeling. In a whitewashed space, I can imagine how brilliant this will look. It’ll definitely draw your guests attention

Refurbish the DIY way

Found this exciting piece at allthingsthrifty.com where they’ve taken an old wooden nightstand and given it a brilliant yellow coat and it does look pretty amazing and all of a sudden, quite contemporary

If you’re looking to spruce up your bedroom with a contemporary new look, then here are some ideas which may inspire you to give your bedroom a make over and running in current trends:

Contrast is the key to a modern bedroom and this can be created in a number of ways. Blocks of vibrant colour on the walls against traditional timber flooring can create this effect, likewise classic crisp white linen sheets on a double bed contrasted with a brightly coloured throw.

Warming colours like reds and oranges are very popular and you can get the most of these tones by contrasting them against neutral wardrobes and drawers, which never go out of fashion. Lighting is very important too and a mixture of spotlights from the ceiling, with free standing lamps can highlight features of the room like the bed or dresser. A contemporary bedroom could do with some electronic features, so a well placed HD TV would be perfect to watch a film before bed.
If getting up in the mornings isn’t your speciality then an ipod docked alarm clock would be a perfect solution as you wake up to your favourite song. It’s important to make sure you have home content insurance just in case that expensive TV falls over or you accidently break that free standing lamp.

None of the ideas are too expensive so will give your bedroom a new modern look. If you are making changes for general home improvement, perhaps if you are looking to sell your home soon then an additional update you can make but is a little more expensive is looking at the flooring.
This is not something that you can alter easily as good flooring that will improve the look of the room is always expensive, whether this be carpet, wood flooring or lino. Which ever you choose try to brake up large areas with rugs to keep the contrast theme going.
By following these ideas you can create the perfect modern bedroom which will be the perfect haven after a busy day.

It is one of those jobs which we put off again and again and it is also one of those really horrible jobs which get worse before it gets better! I am talking about de-cluttering your kitchen, and I mean the lot – every last drawer and cupboard.

The thought of getting everything out of your kitchen cabinets and sorting through it may well be nauseating but sometimes we just have to get on with it. Chill some wine in the fridge for afterwards and follow these top tips:

1. Make sure you have time to do the job properly so that you won’t be broken off half way through. A day should do it at the worst!
2. Clear some floor and/or table space in an adjacent room to help with the process.
3. Have sturdy boxes ready labelled: repair, storage, return to owner and charity donations.
4. Do one drawer or cupboard at a time and keep going! With each space divide the contents into one of the above boxes or place it separately in the ‘keep’ pile. The idea is to end up with an empty kitchen which you can then move back into.
5. Once finished, clean your kitchens from top to bottom before you put anything back.
6. Focus on the things you are keeping and divide them into everyday and occasional use.
7. Use sticky notes to assign cupboards and drawers and move the notes around until you are happy before moving the actual items: your list may include things like glassware, crockery, pots and pans, food, tea and coffee and mugs etc, etc. Think logically as you do this.
8. Put everything away! Occasional use items to the back and in harder to reach places, and everyday things easily within reach. You will be delighted with how much space you have created and I bet you’ll wish you did it sooner!

My garages days are numbered. No, I am not knocking it down – I am turning into a den for the kids and somewhere for their friends to crash, as they do quite often at the weekends – without any warning I might add. This drastic turn of events has come about in order for my husband and I to re-claim our living room: I have come downstairs on a Saturday morning once too often to a snoring teenager on the sofa, and have had to endure far too many PS2 marathon championships on my TV. Enough is enough!

So, we are moving all our stored boxes into the garden shed and the loft – via a large skip to whittle down the quantity – and then getting started on the conversion. Light is the main thing, so the up-and-over garage door is coming out to be replaced entirely by glass panels including sliding patio doors out onto the driveway. We are whitewashing everywhere and laying wood laminate flooring, fitting a mini kitchen area with sink, microwave and fridge and that is pretty much it! Throw in a couple of sofa beds and an enormous flat screen television and the rest of the décor is up to the kids.

The result will be so appealing to the little darlings that I doubt we will ever see them upstairs again! The single beds in their rooms will start to collect dust and the living room will once again become an adult-only sanctuary: bliss. I just can’t wait for it all to happen now, and neither can everyone else. There is non-stop talk of pictures for walls, dart boards and even soft furnishings – much to my amusement. I have also heard lengthy technical discussions about how to wire together all the required electronic entertainment equipment, completely beyond me I must say! I haven’t seen the kids so excited for ages – I just wish we’d done it sooner.

Kitchens are very personal spaces and definitely somewhere that you can really tell how a persons mind works and what kind of cook they are. Some of my friends display ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ characteristics (early 90’s Julia Roberts film – look it up, it’s great) by lining up the labels on the tins in their cupboards, too much spare time on their hands I say! Whilst others have blatant disregard for any kind of order or tidiness and the laptop vies for worktop space alongside the blender, the kid’s homework and a few potted plants.

One thing that everyone seems to have in common is a deep love for their integrated dishwashers. It is most definitely my favourite time saving device and is quite often referred to in our house as the ‘wet cupboard’ because some much-used items never actually get put away anywhere else. Being let off the hook from the tedious task of washing up by hand is a luxury which we quite often take for granted but take a moment next time you have a big family dinner to consider just how lucky you are. If mine ever broke down I would be beside myself!

Dishwashers haven’t actually been around that long – as I’m sure your older relatives would delight in telling you – I can actually remember my Mum and Dad getting their first one and the neighbours coming round to look! Yes, showing my age again. I even recall one old dear turning her nose up suspiciously at it and muttering something about these new fangled gadgets being no substitute for good old fashioned elbow grease. Well, quite frankly, I will keep my elbows happily grease-free and run the thing morning noon and night if it gets me out of washing up by hand – I’m sure most of you will agree.

I have decided that the walls in my house are really boring. This realisation came to me recently in Edinburgh when I was visiting friends with way more style than me, and became very envious of their wall coverings. There is no boring old wallpaper for them, oh no, and even the paint is special – let me tell you more.

It started when I settled into the spare room, as the twin guest beds were positioned against an end wall with what can only be described as vinyl decals overlaid on a plain paint background. The scene depicted was of trees coming up from the corners of the room with branches overhanging the bed heads as if in silhouette. Throw in a few owls on the branches and the whole thing was amazingly effective. I was jealous immediately!

Moving through the house I discovered more quirky features which made the tree-covered guest beds look positively tame: a full room height black and white photo of a New York skyline graces a curved wall in the family room, and the kitchen has a whole glass brick story going on. Taking the time to look at the furniture and fittings I see that they are in the main plain and simple pieces and that the bold decorating statements really give the house personality. Very clever, I think to myself, and consider how can I emulate this at home…

I decide to start small and tackle the plain family bathroom walls in order to bring alive the white bathroom suite. This is when I discover that the choice online is incredible and I spend many a pleasant hour clicking through the various options. To make the kids happy I opt for undersea creatures and do my best to create a fun look featuring seaweed and even a scuba diver. It is quick and easy to do and I am hooked, I wonder what can I stick vinyls to next…

The chances are that if you are a stay-at-home Mum (or Dad, let’s not leave you fella’s out) then you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. There is a constant round of household jobs which revolve around the kitchen, from cooking and cleaning to washing and ironing, making pack lunches and helping with homework.

The kitchen in a home like this is even more the centre of the universe than in homes where the parents are out at work all day. You may spend afternoons drinking coffee with friends up to the counter or feel like you are running a make-shift crèche part time on the floor. Socialising is a very important part of the day for your little ones, and for you too in order to avoid feeling isolated, and as such your home needs to reflect this need when you are decorating and planning furniture.

Kitchens ideally should combine practical workspaces for all the necessary jobs, with ample storage and also a place to sit and relax. The importance of a mini living room in your kitchen has never been stronger than it is when you are at home all day. Visitors tend to make a bee-line for the most comfortable and welcoming space available and if this is in the kitchen it will allow you to continue pottering around doing your chores whilst you chat.

A small sofa with a low table is ideal, as well as bar stools up to the breakfast bar. This will give flexibility depending on what you are doing and make the most of the available space. Have a great notice board wall too – display the kid’s artwork and important notes for the family calendar plus party invites, forms, photos and all the other kinds of useful family paperwork. Plenty of accessible storage space in the sitting area will come in handy for magazines, books, the laptop etc and for toys, pens and paper and so on to keep the children happy. Enjoy a real family space at the heart of your home.

LCD televisions are an extremely popular choice but as they have a wide range of features, picking the right one for you can be tricky and always remember to hunt out those LCD TV deals.

Here are some tips so that when your shiny new TV arrives at your doorstep, it’s the one that will serve all your needs and will take pride of place in the living room.

More and more TV channels are being produced in high definition formats which gives a much higher quality image.

Once you start to watch HD television it’s very noticeable when you select a channel that is not in this format.

So make sure when you buy an LCD TV it has an “HD-Ready logo” somewhere on it, which will allow you to watch that stunning high definition programming, whether it’s the latest film or watching your favourite sports team.

With TVs size matters, and it’s important to get one that will work well inside your living room.

There is no point opting for a 42 inch screen unless you have at least 10 feet of room to sit back from it and enjoy the view.

If you don’t have the luxury of space, why not try a smaller screen, for example a 32 inch TV will only require you to sit six feet back.

Make sure that your new TV has a high contrast ratio and brightness to ensure you are getting the best viewing experience.

Some LCD TV have a contrast ratio of up to 2000000:1, while brightness (measured in Cd/m²) should be no less than 400 Cd/m².

Ensure that your TV has plenty of HDMI ports, as this will allow you to plug in more devices such as Blu-Ray players or games consoles.

By making sure you tick all these boxes you won’t go far wrong in buying the new LCD TV of your dreams.