Decorating | The Trendy Home | Home Interior Design Ideas & Decorating Tips

Tips for Remodeling A Bedroom

The Trendy Home has the pleasure of another guest blogger, Megan Gates; Megan Gates is an active blogger who provides written work to the blogosphere pertaining to NY Rentals . The Hamptons, home improvement and the latest architecture, design and fashion. Follow her on twitter @MEGatesDesign.

Whether people remodel bedrooms for upgrading resale value of the house or just for their own comfort and pleasure, remodels can be fun. Showcasing the room’s shape and aura with a mixture of color and texture not only adds beauty, but it adds personality to the room.

Transforming a bedroom with classical overtones or pure whimsy reflects the bedroom’s tenant in all his imaginative glory. It makes the people who enter the room want to remain to enjoy its effects.

Windows

Aside from space, the focus of any room will be its windows. Windows allow light into a room while letting you enjoy the outdoors inside. Window treatments are going to be important, therefore, in highlighting the beauty of the windows.

Conservatory blinds: These are produced with reflective backing to block the sun’s harmful rays while letting in the light. They can be made to order in any color, in addition to a variety of styles, from roller blinds to woven to pleated blinds.

Folding shutters: Unlatch the hook, fold back the shutters, and let the sun shine in.

Swags: Swags can be arranged in pleats, folds or multiple hangings over rattan blinds, sheers or curtains.

Lighting

Since bedrooms aren’t usually lit brightly for specific purposes, such as reading or sewing, the lighting is generally soft. Lamps will be found typically for this purpose, or perhaps the light attached to a ceiling fan.

Recessed cans: Recessed lighting provides the softness generally found in bedrooms, and they can be brightened with a twist of the switch.

Track lighting: This, too, can be brightened or dimmed as desired and adds panache to any room.

Tree lamps: If you’re going to have a lamp, make a statement. The cans or arms can be positioned to light up corners for reading or sewing, or just add a glow to a room.

Flooring

Carpeting: Any upgrade to a house includes carpeting. But you can also think outside the box
Hardwood floors: Sprinkle them with area rugs in matching shades to your bed linens and watch the room come together.

Vinyl tile: This, too, can be strewn with area rugs, but you might not want the pretty pattern of the tile to be covered up.

Walls

Walls are fun. They can be outlined with a border, cut a niche into them for any purpose at all, such as holding a few books or collectible dolls, or walls can be built out to contain a corner fireplace/entertainment center. Walls can be lit with sconces to showcase paintings or they can support candelabra for a romantic evening.

Furnishings

Lighten up a room sporting dark woods in dressers, chests of drawers, armories or headboards with champagne satin coverlets for the bed and matching hangings for the window treatments.

Area rugs on the hardwood or tiled floors can add the freshness of a garden with floral patterns in light colors. Fabrics and pretty blankets can be mounted on walls like a tapestry. If the room’s tenant aimed the lighting at these things, the room would look fresh and lovely.

Remodeling a bedroom, for comfort or for resale value, is all about focus. Making the room look fresh and new is about color and texture, woods and fabrics, lighting and imaginative combinations. It’s about aura and personality. You might not even want to sell the house.

Thank you Megan for your blog, great tips and ideas for The Trendy Home readers, thanks to Better Homes and Gardens for some of the great pictures I used to showcase Megan’s tips.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this blog, what did you take away from it and did it inspire you to make any changes to your bedroom?

Thank You and come visit us also at The Trendy Bed, and remember to make your home:

Happy Valentine’s Day!

LoveHeartCandleValentinesDay

We only have a day to get our bedroom ready for Valentine’s Day, Yes… it’s TOMORROW! So, let’s start now and enjoy the love that comes along with this day.

Last year I had fun and did 5 blogs on getting your bedroom ready for Romance, I’m going to bring these blogs out again for your enjoyment and reminder for those of us that need to get our rooms ready for Romance.

Get Rid of the clutter!

Is Your Bedroom Ready for Romance #1

Make me Comfortable!

Is Your Bedroom Ready for Romance #2

Let’s Create the Mood for a little Romance!

Is your Bedroom Ready for Romance #3

Let’s “Lite the Fire”!

Is Your Bedroom Ready for Romance #4

Are you Ready?

Is Your Bedroom Ready for Romance #5

Hope you enjoyed this blog for Valentine’s Day and enjoyed seeing these “Dream Bedroom’s” again. I sincerely hope they inspire you as they do me.

Your home is a true reflection of your soul – make your home “The Trendy Home”!

Love,

Cathy Campbell

PS: Visit The Trendy Bed, the one place for all your Valentine, Trendy Bedding!

Decorating Ideas For The Home

Decorating Challenges for your Bed, Bath, and Living Room.

Today’s challenge #1: Do you have too much jewelry? Or is it you just don’t have enough room in your jewelry box, does it look like this?

Today’s solution #1: Turn your tangled jewelry into artwork. Use shadow boxes or frames to group pieces of your jewelry together to create great works of art, and when you want to wear it you open up the shadow box and put it on!

Not only will your bed room walls sparkle with color, but you may find out that you actually wear your unique pieces more often because you see them on a regular basis. Doing this will free up your jewelry box for your “better” jewelry to be placed in a safe place.

Today’s challenge #2: No Towel Rack

Today’s solution #2: In this picture they are using a wine rack to place rolled towels on, not only are the towels easy to reach, but they are an instant decoration.

Another look is a big decorative basket full of colorful towels.

What I personally use is a Comforter Rack and I hang our bath towels and our hand towels, makes for a perfect towel rack when you don’t want to drill holes in the wall paper.

Today’s challenge #3: No Focal point in the room.

Today’s Solution #3: If your room is lacking a built in focal point such as a fireplace, or built in entertainment center one needs to be created.

In this picture they hung a large size mirror on the wall, and paired it up with two wall mounted swing arm lamps and a table below to create a point of interest on the far wall. This gives a place for the eyes to focus on first when you first walk into the room, and it also added height and definition to this room.

Another great decorating tip is in hanging a mirror in a smaller room will always make the room appear larger, and with mounting the two lamps on the wall will give the room light without taking up floor space.

I hope you enjoyed today’s challenges having to do with your Bed, Bath, and Home; I hope I have helped you in making your home….

thetrendyhomeBLOG-THUMBNAIL

Cathy C

Window Decorating Tips – Trendy Home Challenge

Today’s Trendy Home Challenge #1: Low Ceilings

I can across some really cool tips for almost every room in your home, most of them are very inexpensive decorating tips that can generate a complete new mood to any room.

Thank you Better Homes and Garden for all your great ideals.

You have low ceilings in your home and you would like to generate a little height in your room.

Low Ceilings

Solution: Make a room seem taller by installing the curtain rod ABOVE the window frame. Draperies should graze the bottom of the window sill OR on the floor like the next picture.

Create elegance with length

You can also create Height and Elegance with length – in this picture they hung the decorative curtain rod above the window to take your eyes up, and then down with the long drapes to the floor giving the room a high ceiling effect.

Cornice Box

If you do not necessary like that look but you want to create height to your room you can make a Cornice Box to conceal your window hardware and give it a much needed face lift. These cornice box’s can be made out of plywood and crown molding like the one above, or just plywood and be covered by matching fabric. This little tip can be used in every room in your home.

Elegant Cornice Top

In this Dinning Room they covered the Cornice Box’s with matching drapery fabric and fringe to create a very Formal and Elegant look; they also installed chair rail and wainscoting in this room that will also keep your eyes busy giving the room a much larger feel.

Hope this gave you an idea or two for the windows in your home, stay tuned for our Challenge #2

Thank you for taking the time in reading my blog and I hope they help you make your Home… thetrendyhomeBLOG-THUMBNAIL

Cathy C

Happy Trendy Easter…DIY Decorating

I wanted to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Easter, and share some of these “Trendy” Easter ideas I found on Better Homes and Garden.

What a way to show your family and friends you care about them with one of these Egg Flower Cups at plate side.

How to make these: Blown-out raw egg with small hole in top to hold individual tulip, then prop your egg inside a silver napkin ring. You can also use a tiny votive holder or an egg cup.

Time to do the Eggs:

These eggs are decorated with scrapbooking materials; impress your kids with this idea and you all can be creative. Pull out your stash of trims, stickers, rub-ons, and gems and let the fun begin. Dye the eggs first, let them dry before you try to embellish them.

This super easy egg decorating is again with your scrapbooking supplies, you don’t even have to dye the eggs first! Let the stickers give your white eggs all the flower power. The deeply cut flower petals are easy to wrap around a egg because they cling to the curves. These eggs are placed in little clay pots, use the pots later to plant your favorite spices.

This one I really liked. Dye the eggs first, let them dry again before you start your eraser decorating. Place some paint onto a disposable plate, dip just the end of the eraser into the paint and dot your egg. Poke- A- Dot- Eggs, fun and simple for the whole family. Tip: you can also use Q-tips to make small dots on your eggs.

Here’s another great ideal that maybe the “older” kids may enjoy. Pour your paint on a disposable plate, picking your two color choices. To make the petals of the flower, dip about 1/4 inch of the toothpick into the paint, then lay the toothpick down onto the egg. Repeat making petals, leaving a space in the middle for the center. Using a new toothpick and a different color of paint, dip just the tip on the toothpick in the paint and dot the center two or three times. Let the egg dry. This can be done on white eggs or dyed eggs.

Hope you enjoyed these little tips, enjoy egg decorating with your family and have a very enjoyable Easter weekend.

Brought to you with love from Cathy @ The Trendy Home

Spring Up Your Home – Spring Decorating

spring home

Spring is here, now it’s time to bring it into your home, with color. You can create a casual and colorful living room that sings “Spring” by adding colorful vases, fresh flowers, spunky colorful pillows, throws and accessories.

Fruit and flowers

Adding fresh flowers to any room is a great way to “Spring” up your home. Kumquats in a vase of water make a unique base for stems of yellow tulips or any other spring flower, what a eye catching center piece this vase would make on any table.

Spring Bathroom mirror

I saw this and to be honest with you, it’s a little too much for me BUT I loved the look of the mirror. This look is done with decoupage, purchase a flat frame mirror and cover the frame with your fabric of choice using decoupage. After four or five coats the surface will be smooth. Brighten up any bathroom with a mirror like this.

Bright room wit natural light

Let the sun shine in and paint your walls yellow, in this breakfast nook they pulled yellow, white, and blue all together in this beautiful look. Adding blue and white plates on the wall, blue candles on a white candlestick, and white hanging light fixture. White baseboards and finished carpentry around the window finishes off this beautiful room.

Sunroom

Adding spring to this sun room is as easy as painting a floral motif on a jute rug, adding some garden-inspired pillows, and topping a table with a simple white runner and fresh cut flowers.

Starcase

As you can see yellow is the “in” color this year, it’s all you see in all the decorating magazines and it comes in so many shades, that’s the beauty of yellow.

Guest room with Amenties

My blogs wouldn’t be complete without adding some Trendy Bed rooms into the mix, and I found this beautiful guest bedroom, in yellow of course. Like the picture of the living room above, they used the same colors; yellow, white and green but have a completely different look.

Plum walls Bedroom

Yellow may be the IN color, but not every room in your home needs to be yellow. Revamp your bedroom for Spring by adding a punch to your headboard by wrapping it with a yard of mod floral fabric. Tired of those boring white sheets, Spring is a great time to put new, colored sheets on your bed. At The Trendy Bed we have a great selection of sheet sets in 300 to 1500 thread count 100% Egyptian Cotton Sheets.

Let the sun shine in, bring Spring into your home and your heart.

Cathy C

DIY Trendy Kids’ Dresser

chalkboard dresser

What an idea – letting kids write on their furniture… I saw this in Better Homes and Garden and I wanted to share this idea with my readers.

Refresh that old dresser with two coats of RustOleum brush on chalkboard paint, perfect for your kids to doodle and when they grow up you can write on “Reminders” like clean your room, make your bed.

You can also paint the dresser first with RustOleum Magnetic latex primer, then paint with the chalkboard paint – now you have a surface that is magnetic AND writable. This idea is great for the young child in your home, or the teenager in the family. Great place to hang those concert tickets or prom tickets for safe keeping.

chalkboard mirror

Let your child be creative, and when they get tired it all they have to do is erase it!

Other DIY idea: Paint a wall in your child’s room with the Chalkboard paint, or paint a space and frame it with molding to create a picture frame look. If you don’t want to paint your walls get a piece of plywood, cut it to the size you want and paint it with the chalkboard paint and frame it and hang it on the wall.

chalkboard wall

Trendy Tips:

Paint over the magnetic paint with two coats of chalkboard paint to finish.
Give the chalkboard paint three full days to dry and cure. Then rub chalk over the entire painted surface and erase. Let the drawing begin!

Have fun and be creative.

Cathy @ The Trendy Home

Lift up Your Spirits with COLOR!

Too much snow for you?

I live in Southern California and we don’t get snow here where I live (valley), BUT I can see it all around me in the mountains and I do watch the news. I must say we have had a lot of rain this year in Southern California and that also keeps us indoors. That gets us to the reason of this blog – Lift up your spirits with COLOR!

We all know that color can effect your mood, I’m sure some of you have even felt it.

How does a bright, well lite room with a lot of natural light make you feel?

Bright room wit natural light

Now compare that to a dark paneled, heavy furniture, all artificial lighting make you feel?

library alt

For me the first makes me feel light in the mood, light in the step, full of fun and action; the second makes me feel very serious, no laughter in my heart it’s like I’m waiting to hear bad news!

Here’s some tips to brighten up your home with color.

Starcase

Blank staircase? Your not into having your family history up the wall, that’s OK! But make a statement, paint it in a light cheerful color to give it a personality, it wall say “Look At Me”!

Yellow eat in kitchen

This is a perfect example how to brighten up a room with color. They have medium to dark wood kitchen cabinets, hardwood flooring, wood beam ceiling, and wooden blinds. All this wood and there’s nothing masculine about this room with the addition of yellow walls, blue and white accents on the wall and fabric chairs to brighten up this everyday look. Now, this is a place I would enjoy sitting drinking my morning coffee watching is snowing outside. (I know, it’s the shoveling we all look forward too!) And by the way: I’m originally from Pennsylvania – spent the first 24 years of my life in York, PA…

Mix and Match style

One of the easiest ways to add color to any room in your home, and the less expensive is to add colorful pillows! Mix and Match your fabrics, colors, and style.

This is my first blog under our new name ”The Trendy Home”… I sincerely hope you enjoy reading my blogs and taking advantage of some of the great decorating tips I bring to you – make your home “The Trendy Home”…

Enjoy, and have a GREAT day!

Cathy Campbell

The Trendy Home.com

The Trendy Bed.com

Let’s go Trendy Gray…

Today’s blog is about decorating with a neutral color, GRAY..

Do you think neutrals are boring? When paired up with stylish furnishings and accessories, there is nothing boring about neutrals.

Gray is the ultimate neutral, it go’s along with almost ever color on the color wheel.

Traditional Setting

Adding some cool orange accessories with this black poster bed really makes this room pop, nothing boring here! Going with cream colored bedding and a gray satin duvet cover along with the cream colored shag rug pulls this room together to make a very nice traditional statement.

Contemporary Setting

In this beautiful bedroom using a gray-blue hue on the walls, white molding and dark stained floors and doors are neutral complements to the gray-blue walls. To go with the contemporary setting in this room they dressed the bed all in white bedding, using Egyptian Cotton Duvet Cover, Pillow Shams, and white sheet set.

Trendy Twin Beds

In this room gray is used as accents; with the gray upholstered headboard along with the soft gray sheer curtains. This room shows how you can really play with color bedding and create a very nice trendy bed room.

Each bed has a black pillow sham against the headboard and blue and white bedding. At The Trendy Bed this look can easily be created by our wonderful Two-Tone Comforters. Each bed is a mirror image, but opposite in color and style. One can even have fun in the styles of the bedding, one bed can be used for the “female” of the home with “ruffled” style bedding, while the other bed is in the more masculine “tailored” style, each beautiful in design and adds a flare of character and fun to the room.

Visit The Trendy Bed, the one place for all your Trendy Bedding.

Have a great day,

Cathy Campbell

Trendy Interior Designs from The New York Gift Fair

Bedding-from-The-New-York-Gift-Fair

What’s new in Interior Design? Well, the big New York Gift Fair is currently going on (January 30th – February 3rd) at the Javits Convention Center and Pier 94. The NYIGF is held in January and August and showcases gifts and goods for the home. It’s one of the largest shows for retailers, buyers, distributors, importers, wholesalers and manufacturers’ representatives to bring their goods or come and see what’s Hot, and NEW!

From the Fair the reports are coming back on a big focus on handmade and whimsical design, and a lot of color: Orange is hanging on, turquoise and browns are also showing up. I’m glad to see Orange is still hanging on, I did Trendy Teen Room-Bold and Beautiful talking about decorating with Orange. At The Trendy Bed Orange has been a big seller this year in comforters and duvet covers.

Today’s article from Oregonlive.com is by Bridget A. Otto, The Oregonian called Interior design news direct from New York Gift Fair is where I actually got the picture of the brown and white bed above. Why did this catch my eye?

Bloomingdale-Bedding-Chocolate-and-Blue

Just yesterday The Trendy Bed just added this new product line Bloomingdale Bedding and I’m going to say this is The Trendy Bed’s FIRST print product and I just fell in love with it’s simplicity design and I loved that it’s reversible in the opposite design. (Two for the price of one, just flip it over!)

The Bloomingdale bedding is silky soft made from 100% Egyptian cotton 400 thread count woven with superior single ply yarn. This kind of quality bedding is only found at selected Five Star Hotels; now you too can enjoy and sleep on this kind of quality bedding!

It comes as a 9 piece luxurious ”Bed In A Bag” in Full, Queen, King and California King with an Down Alternative comforter as a bonus. Check out the other colors it comes in:

Black and White:

Bloomingdale-Bedding-Black-And-White

Taupe & Black:

Bloomingdale-Bedding-Taupe-And-Black

Blush and Chocolate

Bloomingdale-Bedding-Blush-And-Chocolate

Navy and White

Bloomingdale-Bedding-Navy-And-White

Hope you enjoyed seeing what’s new in Interior Design, regarding bedding, straight from the New York Gift Fair and be the first to order The Trendy Bed’s new Bloomingdale Bedding.

Visit The Trendy Bed, the one place for all your Trendy Bedding!

Cathy