Is there a new baby on the way and not much time (or money) to convert that spare room into a nursery that your little one will love? Don’t fret-with imagination and a little advance planning, you can do a great conversion job in the space of a weekend and with a budget of $200 or less. Figure $50 to $75 for paint and wallpaper, $25 to $40 for curtains and the balance for a rocking chair and a few pretty pictures found at your local flea market or thrift store. When it comes to budget decorating, treasure hunting can be half the fun! More on Weekend DIY Series: Convert a Spare Room to a Baby Nursery in 2 Days for $200
Today’s outdoor fabrics are nothing short of terrific! New methods for treating sturdy fabrics has ensured they are more durable, sun resistant and suitable for outdoor use and better able to stand up to the ravages of weather and time. Although the most well known is Sunbrella, it is also the most expensive and more economical versions are available on the market that offer the same benefits.
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There is nothing more satisfying that infusing your home with unique décor and one of a kind accessories; the kind that you could never find at your local department store or home decorating shop. It is even that much more satisfying when you can create that look with items that are already in your attic or found for a few dollars at a local flea market.
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The fall holiday season is just great; especially for kids (of all ages). Involving your children in holiday decorating allows you to share a very positive activity with them and gives you the opportunity to teach them something about the holiday at the same time.
When the holiday in question is Thanksgiving, there are a number of décor components children can find to make your Turkey Day table festive. Colored leaves are a great place to start. You can even make a game of finding them and give prizes for the biggest, most colorful and prettiest leaves. Be sure to collect a lot of leaves, and gently wash and pat them dry before using in your décor.
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Easy No-Sew Window Treatments for a Little Girl’s Room Complete with Bows
In a little girl’s bedroom, window coverings are essentially ‘bling’ for the room. It is a sure way to give the room a unique look and a feminine quality. However, in any child’s room safety should be a priority and hanging drapes and curtain panels are not ideal. On the other hand, often the only other option is a boring roller shade or drab mini blinds.
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A Victorian Christmas Tree: Get the Look for Your Home
A Victorian Christmas tree is all about over-the-top opulence and excessive detail. The Victorian Christmas tree style started in 1841 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert put one up and all of England followed suit. Victorian Christmas trees do not use the traditional red and green coloring that is typical today. Instead, more elegant colors were used, such as dusty roses, brilliant blues, deep burgundies, delicate ivories, and sparkling gold.
Victorian Christmas trees were often decorated with small toys, candy, popcorn strings, fruits, nuts, handmade ornaments, and baked goods. Individual candles were originally used, but with the invention of string lights the use of clear white lights are a much safer option for today’s Victorian Christmas trees.
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Shelves are the simplest, least expensive, and most versatile type of storage you can buy. Your choice should depend on practical considerations, such as strength and adaptability, as well as on good looks.
It’s tempting to imagine that tile first item a caveman invented was a shelf. At the very least, he would certainly have utilized any fiat ledge in the cave to store his tools and cooking pots. Finding somewhere to keep all your possessions, and leave space for your future belongings, is still an ongoing challenge in any home. To solve any shortage of storage and space, a combination of functional and decorative shelving is an attractive solution.
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If there’s one food that embodies Christmas to perfection, it’s gingerbread. Bake it, and your entire house smells like a holiday. Nibble it, and you’re transported to Christmas past. But what elevates gingerbread above a mere seasonal treat is its decorative quality. Turn it into ornaments and gifts, and every tree or tabletop it touches seems joyous. Even its monkish hue, which may not look very festive, is a warm and amiable backdrop for whimsical shapes and fanciful icing in any color you like.
The gingerbread cookie was the favorite Christmas treat of early-American children. It became popular because it was inexpensive to make and resilient enough to withstand the vagaries of wood- and coal-fired ovens. Gingerbread enthusiasts, however, like to point out that gingerbread became beloved for its taste—that inimitable combination of molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg—and for the fun it provides.
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What could be more glorious than a holiday table laden with fruit? Fruit is nature’s bounty and an eloquent symbol of its richness. The Dutch and Flemish masters immortalized fruit, as well as flowers, in their prettiest still lifes. But it was the French, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who refined fruit centerpieces into soaring pyramids of glistening cherries and grapes; elaborate epergnes whose branches were filled with strawberries, figs, and miniature apples; or a single golden pineapple served up on a pedestal.
The French built centerpieces in a variety of vessels, mixing real fruit, flowers, and leaves with ceramic fruit. Sometimes the fruit was meant to be eaten, and other times not, since some of the techniques to make a pyramid stable, like drizzling warm caramel over the arrangement or pouring water over it so it would ice, made the display purely decorative. But then a fruit centerpiece was designed less to be tasted than to dazzle and to amuse.
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It never fails, every time you need to wrap a gift you find yourself sprawled out on the kitchen floor with gift wrap, bows, tape, and scissors spread out all over the place. Your legs start to cramp, the tape sticks to the gift wrap, and the scissors keep disappearing under a pile of bows. What to do?! Why not turn that unused guest room into a gift wrapping center that will make wrapping gifts both fun and functional?
Making your own gift wrapping center is easy and doesn’t have to take up a whole lot of space. If you don’t want to dedicate an entire room to your gift wrapping center, try placing some of these organizational elements inside the closet or hide them behind a curtain that you can pull shut when you’re not wrapping gifts.
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