Style Tips

I am not one to ever turn down tips on how to decorate, or how to dress. In fact, I really wish I had a personal stylist that could tell me what looks best on me, fits my personality, and makes me feel amazing! (Every girl's dream, right?) I also wish I had the funds to make all the changes to my home that I want. It's hard to have the same decorations for years, and with changing trends and changing tastes, it can be expensive to stay happy with your living environment.

My home, as I mentioned in my last post, is decorated with a lot of dark colors. Brown, mostly. My husband, LOVES brown. Me? Not so much. I like bright colors: yellows, teals, reds, and even peach! I like to have lightness in my space, and while the browns make everything feel cozy and homey, it also makes it feel small, and dark.

I have been looking around and trying to find a few things that I can do to brighten up my space while not breaking the bank, and decided that I would share them with you!

If you don't want to get your hands dirty, you can simply rearrange your existing furniture. Use a bedside table from your bedroom as an end table in your living room. Switching out simple pieces like that can give new life, and new light to your space. Use a chest that you normally keep against a wall as your coffee table. Move lamps around, try brighter or dimmer bulbs to accent your lighting to give the room the exact feel you want.

If you do want to get your hands dirty, refinish your entertainment center. Use our guide to refinishing furniture found here, to add your personal touch. You can re-upholster a chair, or simply go thrift shopping, find a fun wooden chair, and paint it! Having an accent piece gives you a great conversation starter, and a jumping off point to decorate the rest of the room.

One of my favorite accessories is a nice blanket. I keep a basket in my living room, that we put one blanket in. (Why one blanket? Because when people come over, we can throw all the kid's toys in the basket, and place the nicely folded blanket over them all, and it looks like a basket of blankets, not a mess!) I switch out the blanket from time to time, because it helps me feel like I am that much more homemaker-y (that's a word, right? Right!)

Maybe you can sew. (I started taking sewing lessons, when I was 8, yup I was THAT child. The one that asked Santa for a sewing machine at 8, and actually used it!) An easy thing you can do to update existing accent pillows, is to just sew up a few new pillowcases for them. Use fun fabric for each season, or holiday. You can easily change the whole feel of your room with accent pillows!

I just talked my husband into getting me yellow spray paint. Why? So I can paint some picture frames, and add some color to my walls, without the commitment of painting the entire wall! I'm not sure if he is super excited about the yellow, but I am!

I am also going to put some bright curtains up. When hanging curtain panels, make sure that you hang them as close to the ceiling as you can (make sure they touch the ground too!), and as wide as you can, so that when the curtains are open, you cover the least amount of window as possible. This will add height to your room, and width to your windows. It will make your room feel much bigger too!

Now that I have given you some tips, I'm going to have to follow them, and show you what I do to my space!

Love,
Ciera