Beautiful Things

When you’re starting the process of decorating a room, an inspiration board can be a powerful tool to help you  make it all come together.

An inspiration board is essentially a board that showcases items and colors that you’re interested in using in your room decor. By attaching inspirational items to a piece of cardboard or canvas, you will easily see how everything will look together.

Many people cut out pictures from magazines, but you can also attach fabric and paint swatches, wallpaper and  wood samples. By putting everything on your vision board, you can see what works and what doesn’t. I  personally like to use vision boards to decide on color schemes for rooms, to see how I can tie in certain colors together using pillows or accessories.

I love Yankee Candles. This says a lot, because most scented candles make me sneeze. Yankee Candles never bother me, and I love all the wonderful fragrances.

Yankee candles are everywhere. Besides the Yankee stores in the mall, you can find them at Hallmark stores or other gift shops. With spring on the horizon, a fresh smelling Yankee candle can help get you in the mood. They also make great gifts—because who doesn’t love a terrific- smelling candle?

Some of their new spring scents include Blue Hydrangea, Cherry Blossom and Garden Sweat pea. These candles burn for a long time and come in a variety of sizes. Yankee also offers seasonal scents—so come fall be sure to look for their homey autumnal candles.

It’s Lamp-Mania over at Potterybarn Kids.  Spring is coming and so are some beautiful lamps for little girl’s rooms. There are so many adorable lamps. I can’t even decide!  From the pink Rose Table Shade to the purple polka dotted Dotty Table Base, your little girl’s room may need a complete do-over just so have an excuse to buy one of these lamps!

I’ve managed to use the Bell Gingham Shade in my daughter’s room for years, but it may be time for a change.

What I like about the Potterybarn Kids lamps is you can mix and match the shades and bases. Prices range from $25 to $149 (the high end is for the floor lamp bases). Their selection of lamps is definitely worth checking out!

The retail chain Homegoods is new to me. I know there have been Homegoods stores in other areas for years, but the first one just opened in my area about 2 months ago. While its sister store, Marshalls, has been around my area for at least a decade, I wasn’t prepared for how awesome Homegoods would be!Talk about home decor items, especially seasonal. My local Homegoods store has a wide selection of wreaths, ornaments, and floral arrangements. Also small furniture items, lots of lamps, wall art, pillows, kitchen gadgets—you name it! I wish I had a whole house to decorate!There’s a cute bed and bath section, as well as an area dedicated to children’s rooms. I’m also loving all the kitchen items and cookbooks- I came across a monogrammed trivet set. And the best part is, the prices are very reasonable. If you have a Homegoods store near you, take the time to check it out. Merchandise changes over quickly, so you never know what you will find!

I’m  loving the spring Ballard Designs catalog! There’s a ton of beautiful new stuff in it and best of all, they are offering free shipping through this weekend if you spend over $50.One of my newest favorites finds is their new Couture Pillows. I love the look of these pillows and also the fact that they come with a hypoallergenic insert. No more feather inserts that I’m allergic to!

These are classy pillows, in a beautiful neutral color with braided cording and embellishment. They cost a pretty penny at $99.00 each, but they’re luxurious and simply beautiful!  The pillows are made for Ballard by luxury design firm Ankasa.

Photo: Ballard Designs

One of my favorite things to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon is to go and tour the new construction model homes in the area. Besides getting some awesome decorating ideas, it’s fun just to dream. 

I’ve picked up ideas for the latest paint trends and  window treatments. Have you noticed that most model homes have neutral paint color, and it’s often the same- or similar- color throughout the house?

Then there’s those fun kid’s rooms. There’s usually an untra- girly girl’s bedroom and a themed boy’s room or a nursery. My kids love seeing the creatively decorated kid’s rooms.

The basements are usually finished, giving me ideas for our own basement playroom. We saw one home with a mini basketball court in the playroom. Very cute!

If you’re into home décor, touring model homes is a fun way to spend an afternoon. And best of all, it’s free! 

You’ve probably picked up on the fact by now that I’m big on accessories, especially easily changeable accessories like throw pillows. But let’s face it, sometimes I spend way too much time searching for the perfect pillow, be it due to the size or the pattern I’m looking for. And I rarely replace entire pillows– I usually just change out the covers, which can make the process all the more difficult because I’m limited to a particular size. If you like to sew, check out the fabric by the yard selections on some of the more popular home decor websites.  Both Potterybarn and Ballard Designs offer fabric by the yard. I am especially impressed with Ballard Designs current selection of fabrics. They have some beautiful floral prints right now, which can enable you to easily coordinate your pillows and window treatments with high quality fabrics. And you gotta love that! 

Such a little thing, but it makes all the difference. I like to use all white towels in my bathrooms. To me, white represents fresh and clean and it even makes doing my laundry easier because everything is white so I can just do a whole load of towels together.  But I like to add some color when it comes to hand towels, especially in my powder room.Pretty hand towels with a splash of color are a great and inexpensive accessory for any bathroom. You can buy hand towels anywhere from Target to a high end department store, and the effect will still be the same. A pretty, bold print will give your bathroom great personality.Look for bold floral prints , modern stripes or just vibrant solid colors- whatever suits your decorating style. 

Once the Christmas clearance is cleared away at Target (and yes, I got some 90% wrapping paper), it’s time to fill that space with some stuff to get us in the mood for spring.

Every year, Target’s Global Bazaar line is like a breath of fresh air. The line features coordinating furnishings and accessories to help us beat the winter blues. All at reasonable prices!

This season features lots of pretty pillows in blues and greens, beaded table runners, decorative mirrors, lamps and other accessories. I love the dark wood furniture, too.  It makes putting a room together easy for the decorating-challenged because everything is right there!

If you haven’t seen this year’s line yet, get to Target now. The Global Bazaar line sells out notoriously fast. After all, Target has to make room for the patio furniture soon!

Take a look at this PRETTY bedding from West Elm.  It’s called the Shadow Leaf Organic Duvet and Shams. What I like most about it? It’s gorgeously simple. Not too masculine and not too feminine, and it’s a nice, neutral color.

I love West Elm’s quality. This set is made with 300 thread count organic cotton. Yummy—and soft!

I also love that most of West Elm’s bedding is machine washable, this line included.

The duvet ranges in price from $89 to $119, depending on the size you need. Shams are available in both standard size and euro size, which is another plus (I think euro shams are sometimes hard to find).

You can also buy comforter inserts from West Elm.