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How to Coordinate Colors for your Outdoor Home

Sun, 01 May 2011 14:04:28 +0000

If you are challenged in choosing exterior colors for your home, join everyone else who thinks the same as you do! Unlike your interiors that depend on your mood, furnishings, and adjacent finishes, your outdoor home has many factors to consider as well. Factors like adjacent neighboring homes, natural habitat and surroundings, can be a challenge when trying to coordinate colors and choosing trim, accent and main colors for your home. While paint manufacturer’s and home improvement web sites may be helpful, don’t overlook observing the existing environment for helping you coordinate exterior home colors. Draw inspiration from nature: Walk around your home and see what colors occur naturally around your home. A house located in the mountains with evergreen trees in the vicinity will be a different inspiration from a home that’s situated on the beach with sand and water as the backdrop. Coordinate colors of your home to mimic nature, or to compliment it. Homes in the mountains do well with rustic tones of browns, deep burgundy, and greens. While homes near water do well with inspiring blues, sandy beiges and soft yellows. Get inspired by nature, it will never lead you astray when choosing coordinating colors. Get help from professionals: Depending on where you live, local paint manufacturer’s and exterior home designers can help you choose the perfect mix of colors for your exterior home. Most manufacturers websites will feature paint combination’s for your main home, accent colors for shutters, and trim, and even suggestions for color families that will coordinate well with the colors that you may or may not like. Decide if you want your exterior home to match in the same color families as your neighbors, or if you want to be a rebel and go totally opposite! Visit other neighborhoods: While you can get inspiration from your own backyard you can also get inspiration from visiting different neighborhoods, vacationing and searching the internet for inspiring exterior color combination’s. If you see a home you like, and you can talk to the owner, ask them what coordinating color combination’s they used. Many homeowners use resources from architects and designers that are pre-selected and are featured in designer lines and features. While some people come up with coordinating colors from their ‘eye’ of good home inspiration. Color your home with what YOU love: Whether you like the color of the setting sun or you enjoy the blue of a perfect cloudless day, color your home with inspiration from your life. Many of us get caught up in the latest trends from designers or what your neighbors are doing, instead, be original and love your home. Exterior colors should reflect your own personal style, and make you feel good every time you pull into your driveway. When coordinating your exterior colors, also consider coordinating them with your life! Whether you are building a home, or have decided to change the exterior colors on your 100 year-old home, coordinating exterior colors should be enjoyable and purposeful. Ask your family members and friends for help if you are having troubles deciding. Visit your local home improvement store and ask for trial size paint quantities in the shades you are considering. Go home, and paint a small area on your exterior home, and let dry, and observe the different shades. This will help you decide before you make a commitment. Go ahead, be bold and feel confident now in picking out your coordinating colors for your exterior home. Freshome readers do you find it a challenge to choose exterior colors? Do you have any suggestions for those that do? Ready for more amazing design ideas? Check below ! How to Choose Welcoming Walkway Elements for your Exterior Home Bayside Outdoor Modular Sofa Set How to Design your Room Decor around your Bold Area Rug How to Choose Modern Garden Furniture for your Patio How to Maximize your Interior Views with Outdoor Landscaping B&B Italia’s Crinoline Collection: Outdoor ecstasy Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

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How to Coordinate Colors for your Outdoor Home

The Yellow Moroccan Lattice Stool

admin — Sun, 01 May 2011 12:37:04 +0000

The Yellow Moroccan Lattice Stool magically transports you to the exotic by lanes of Marrakech. This exquisite seat is a beautiful amalgamation of eastern craftsmanship and western aesthetics, and is strikingly refreshing from the usual contemporary seating. The Yellow Moroccan Lattice Stool is a great example of how cultural hybridization has made its way to the A&D continuum and it doesn’t surprise us that it will be featured in the Lucky Magazine July / Aug 2011 edition. Measuring H: 19 inches Dia: 15 inches, the ceramic garden stool has a glazed finish and can be purchased from Instyle Decor for $495.00.

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The Yellow Moroccan Lattice Stool

Marimekko Pillows Brighten a Space

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 05:30:45 +0000

Summer is on its way, which means you need to update the inside of your home and bring a little sun into your decor too. Adding color and flowers can enhance your current decor, and might even put you in a better mood too. In 1964 Maija Isola designed the Unikko (“poppy”), and this beautiful and popular Marimekko pattern has been brought back to life. The Marimekko Pieni Unikko Lime 20” Pillow is big and bright. It’s made from 100% cotton with a feather-down insert, and it has a zipper closure with knife-edge finishing. You can machine wash the cover, but it needs to air dry. This patterned pillow is also available in other colors too, so you can accent your decor perfectly.

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Marimekko Pillows Brighten a Space

Decorative Light Switchplates – What to Get the Home Designer Who Has Everything

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:01:42 +0000

So you stop by a friend’s new home and notice that they have those same old blasé plastic light switchplates that millions of others blasé home owners have across the country. Well, besides being incredibly observant and judgmental, perhaps you can introduce your friend to Eleek’s wild switchplates. These super cool light switch plates are Related posts: Industrial DIY Light Switch Plates Taking a blowtorch to things isn’t exactly my forte. Anyone… You Light Up My Life, Light Effects Window Film Review I saw a demo of this product recently and really…

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Decorative Light Switchplates – What to Get the Home Designer Who Has Everything

TO Design’s Lucy Campos-Gentile at Urban Mode: Design Talks

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:35:17 +0000

TO Design Basement Reno Are you planning a kitchen or bathroom reno? Guest speaker Lucy Campos-Gentile, principle designer at TO Design and contributor to HomeRenovationGuide.com and HomeInteriorGuide.com ‘s Makeover and Reno of the Month series is guesting at Urban Mode ‘s “Design Talks” event. It’s happening tomorrow April 14, 7pm at 145 Tecumseh St., Toronto. See recent TO Design project galleries: Gorgeous Basement Reno , Classic Living Room , and Chic Bathroom . More info from the event website http://www.designtalks.ca : “Design Talks: Planning for Your Home – Kitchen and Bathroom Design A beautiful kitchen and bathrooms can make or break the sale of your home; in fact, real estate experts estimate that approximately 80-90 percent of the money spent making improvements to the kitchen and bathrooms can be earned back in resale value. … Our April Design Talk is all about making the most of your kitchen and bathrooms. Lucy Campos-Gentile , Principal Interior Designer of TO DESIGN CO , will lead our discussion, helping us to learn what changes make the most impact, how to plan for an effective remodel/redesign (no matter what your budget), and giving us plenty of ideas and examples from her own beautiful kitchen and bathroom transformations! Join us on April 14, 2011 at Urban Mode at 7:00pm for this next event in our series of Design Talks. Tickets are going fast, so purchase yours today at http://kitchenbathroomdesign.eventbrite.com/ ! About the Speaker: Lucy Campos-Gentile started working in Interior Design over fifteen years ago. In the first two years of her career, she worked in largely corporate, retail, and hospitality design. When she was hired by a builder to work in the residential field of the market, her career shifted, and she later started her own design firm, TO DESIGN CO . Today, eight in ten of Lucy’s design projects include bathroom and/or kitchen remodelling. TO DESIGN CO is a full-service interior design firm specializing in home renovations, additions, new construction, and remodeling. Lucy provides design services around the GTA including project planning, drawings, project management, and trade supervision. Lucy plans with her clients using a full range of samples and detailed specifications, floor plans, architectural drawings and 3D models, then manages projects, overseeing the selection and purchasing of furniture, products, and materials. TO DESIGN CO clients need only to express their design wants and needs, approve the resulting plans, then enjoy the wonders of a well-designed space that offers function, style and balance!”

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TO Design’s Lucy Campos-Gentile at Urban Mode: Design Talks

Draft Dodgers – Brought to you by Canada

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:03:38 +0000

No really I’m serious. What could be the longest running international joke between the US and those Canucks to the North is an actual bona fide product. It’s would be like West Virginia creating an outhouse that played dueling banjos while you went, and calling it the “Deliverance Model”. Whether it was poor (or good) commercial sense No related posts.

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Draft Dodgers – Brought to you by Canada

The Cado Side Table & Stool

admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:00:11 +0000

There is a misconception that designer contemporary furniture is always expensive. In fact if you go to a website like Plush Pod you will come across a number of contemporary pieces that are easy on the pocket and will help you achieve your decor dreams. Case in point the Cado Side Table & Stool which can be purchased on Plush Pod for $440.00. This leather multitasker combines seating, a serving surface, and a hidden storage area as it functions as a side table and a stool. Measuring 18″ H x 18.5″ W 18.5″ D, the modern stool and side table highlights the simplicity in design but still holds onto to an unconventional silhouette.

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The Cado Side Table & Stool

The Great American Trundle Bed Race – Part 2

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:19:07 +0000

In case you missed it, this is part two of the Great American Trundle Bed Race posted last month. So at seven days to go before Christmas last year, a visit from the two daughters looming on the horizon, I was well into our last-minute project to build a trundle bed for the guest bedroom. Related posts: The Great American Trundle Bed Race – Part I Our house is a three bedroom two bath beach house,… Installing Hardwood Floors? Great Online DIY Resources After my raging catastrophe with our engineered hardwood floors, Marc…

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The Great American Trundle Bed Race – Part 2

5 Unusual Uses For Place Mats

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:09:11 +0000

Filed under: Crafts , Living Rooms , Bedrooms , Living Spaces , Crafts & Celebrations Give your place mats a second life with these creative ideas. Who knew? You can use place mats as a wall divider. Photo: Jonathon Fong Style When I’m shopping for decor, I’m consistently drawn to the misfit aisle. You know, those $3.99 clearance bins overflowing with mismatched items like place mats and hand towels. And since I tend to buy stuff like this all the time, one of my favorite pastimes is figuring out what to do with a set of mismatched items. Place mats are particularly fun to pull for these types of projects, since you can do so much with them. Next time you come across an odd number of clearance place mats, or maybe just a pair made with a lovely fabric, here are some crafty things you can do with them. Unusual Use #1: Wall Decor and Dividers With a few packages of clasps and an eye for arrangement, you can transform square or circular place mats into eye-catching wall dividers and displays. Just drill or punch a hole into the top and bottom of each place mat and link them by hanging hooks or clamps to binder rings or fishing swivels. Bonus idea: Placed over a clear shower curtain lining, they can double as bathroom decor. Or try waterproof plastic place mats as an outdoor patio or garden wall. Check out your local hardware store or Ball Chain for the supplies you’ll need to secure them at top and bottom. Courtesy of: mmmcrafts Unusual Use #2: Pillows and Tote Bags Fabric place mats offer endless possibilities for decorative textiles. Shop the place mat section of home design stores (online too!) and build your own throw pillow at a fraction of the price by stitching the sides together. If the place mat has a complicated design that would be challenging to line up, consider covering a pillow with a bold, solid case and centering the place mat design for a crisp, eye-catching effect. One crafty blogger used Anthropologie place mats to make the stylish throw pillows to the left . Bonus Idea: Cute cotton or polyester fabric place mats can make great tote bags too! Unusual Use #3: Pops of Color When it comes to place mat shapes, who says one size fits all? With a good pair of scissors, plastic or polypropylene place mats can be cut down to all shapes and sizes to make a counter top space more colorful and chic. A couple of ideas: – Cut out individual pieces of place mat to line the surface around your kitchen sink. Place everyday items like sponges or scrub brushes on top — the fabric will absorb excess water and you can easily toss it in the washing machine as needed. – Skip the boring contact paper and line your cabinets with modern prints. Unusual Use #4: Decorative Odds and Ends – Transform one sturdy plastic or cork backed-place mat into a whole stack of decorative drink coasters. – Size down a plastic place mat into a custom-designer mouse pad. – Play with place mats of different shapes, colors and textures to infuse a garden space with different designs beneath standard planter pots. – Pick a simple place mat print and frame it with brightly-colored frames for instant wall art — great for the kitchen! Unusual Use #5: Quick Tips for Mastering Place Mat Chic – If ordering online, always check the fabric and dimensions of the place mat before purchasing and make sure the fabric matches the project. Cotton fabric place mats are better for bags and pillow covers while plastic, lacquered and polypropylene place mats are better suited for cutting, crafting and cleaning. Now, ever wonder what you could do with Velcro? Check out our story on unusual uses for the hook-and-loop tape . And check out some of our favorite stories from around the web! Exclusive Interviews and a Tour of the Showtime House 2010! Banter Banners To Set The Mood Troubleshoot Your Coffee Grinder Money 101: How To Buy Your First Home All DIY Info | All DIY Info | Linking Blogs | All DIY Info

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5 Unusual Uses For Place Mats

Outdoor Rugs – More than Green Faux-Turf

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:40:09 +0000

So before I began my research on outdoorrugsonly.com I came to two quick (albeit poor) assumptions. First, they carry only outdoor rugs. Which, let’s be fair, seemed a reasonable judgment call. Secondly, that their primary stock revolved around fake green astro-turf rugs that are common outside of trailers reminiscent of “Deliverance”. I could already hear Related posts: How to Woo Your Floors: CSN Rugs “Steady, wallet, steady.” “Whoooa, VISA.” “Down, AMEX, down!” I have… Keep The Bad Guys Away With Malibu Outdoor Lighting Pack I can admit it, I sometimes allow myself to get…

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Outdoor Rugs – More than Green Faux-Turf