Decorating Tips & Tricks

Since I have had ample time on my hands the past few months, I have gotten on a decorating kick! I looked at tons of decorating blogs and watched HGTV and I was inspired! So some of these tricks have been acquired from others and some are my own! I'm not saying these are the best way or that they will work for you or that you will even like them but I am going to share anyways! Hope some ideas help!

I'll go room by room in the same order as the pictures of our apartment on our blog here.

Living Room

• Anytime you have an area to display things, incorporate both decorative items and useful items. I have dozens of cookbooks but not enough room to display them. So I picked 2 of these cubes and filled them with cookbooks that I use the most and the colors add style. 


• The vintage books we already had but add cool textures and memories to the design. (If you wanted to buy cool books you could easily scour Goodwill/DI and find cheap ones.


• If you want to add color, look for things that pop like the frames & vase. 


• Finally, notice the suitcases on the bottom-stylish but we also threw some extra stuff in there! secret storage!

• I think live plants add so much joy to any room! I found those cute African Violets at Sunflower market on sale 2 for $6.00. I also love the color. 

• Something very important about decorating is you need inspiration. It can be a piece of furniture, a pillow, a favorite photo. No matter what it is, use it determine your style and color palette. I swear it makes a world of difference. All of the colors in my living room are based on this one gorgeous pillow!

• This painting also drew in the colors of the pillow and was a simple, classy, and inexpensive way to cover one large wall. It also has meaning to us as it represents our desire to travel this summer to Europe. It could be Italy or Spain, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it brings color and meaning to the apartment. [we found this at Ross for $29.99]

Dining Room & Kitchen

• This is one of my favorite tricks and I have to claim it as my own! One of our wedding gifts was a gift certificate to Pier 1. I hadn't shopped there much before but I love it! However with only $25 to spend there I wanted to make it last. This trick started by buying only one placemat for $1.99 because I loved it and that is all they had. As it turns out, placemats are a cheap and beautiful way to add color and style to your dining room table. Having four placemats and chargers can take over your whole table and isn't really practical if you use it everyday. I found lots of placemats (and even napkins) that have fun prints, patterns, and textures. They are easy to change out and I have found tons for one dollar or less. Keep your eyes peeled! [This one has beads on the end and is reversible]

• Again, look for fun colors/prints/inspiration pieces for your kitchen. I found these in the clearance section at World Market and they spoke to me. Both for $4.00 Kitchen towels are functional & fun!

• This is something I stole from Erin when we were at her cute apartment in San Diego. She didn't have room for dishes in her cupboard so she put them on a bookshelf. It was really cute because she has pretty dishes (we have the same too actually!) so the dishes served as decoration and were functional. We did the same thing with the wood piece our friend Dave built for us. In our other apartment we used it as a pantry but I think this is more aesthetically pleasing don't you?

Great little bowls add such fun color!

Office 

• In our previous apartments we had a bookcase in our bedroom and a bookcase in our office. Both didn't serve much function other than to accumulate clutter. We had the idea to put them together because Jason's parents did that in our their guest bedrooms. It allows for storage and decor in one place. [I think it looks kind of cluttered in this picture, but less so in person] This works great because most stuff on bookshelves you don't use that often. It also allowed me to use almost every single leftover piece of decor from my house which made me very happy! It adds striking color  & design to the room!

• My grandpa left me this chest when he passed away and I am just getting to use it. It is a beautiful focal point of the room and offers storage as well. Don't be afraid to talk to parents or relatives that are looking to pass on [or get rid of] furniture or heirlooms from family. You would be surprised at the treasures you can find at grandparent's houses. Sometimes if you ask, they will be willing to have someone appreciate their belongings as well! These pieces are also great because they allow you to share your history with others.

Notice the beautiful hand carved details. 

Thats all for now! I will do bedroom, storage, and bathroom in the next post! Thanks for reading! Hope these help even the slightest.

Source: http://domesticitybykasee.blogspot.com/2010/08/decorating-tips-tricks.html