If your feeling your home lacks character, a vintage look is the perfect way to head. Not only does this look allow you to revamp your home but also it doesn’t come with the large price tag. Vintage designs are all about finding old hidden treasures and adding your own personal touch.

When trying to achieve this look, applying white or cream paint to your walls instantly gives off the impression of a larger space and fresh feel. However, even soft colours like eggshell blue, olive greens and light pink can make the room feel welcoming and cosy. When using these neutral colours, it’s a natural way to allow light into your home.

To add more colour to your room, pay attention to the small details such as vintage ornaments and fabrics. If you are struggling to find these in your attic, head down to your local charity store which is an ideal place to find small works of art at low prices or sew together a patchwork quilt to add character to the room. As fabrics go, stick with floral, stripes and lace as these pretty designs take you back to the simple life of the 1940’s where these vintage interior designs originated.

Don’t let yourself think you need to purchase new furniture in order to create this look! If you have any wooden furniture that you would like to use, take a sander to strip off the old paint then get candle wax and rub it onto the places where you think your furniture would of aged. Apply the paint and leave to dry. Once dry, lightly sand off the wax, which should give your furniture that perfect, worn look.

A perfect way to finish the room is with a personalised handcrafted vintage inspired plague that would look ideal in a bedroom above the bed or on the door. To make the vintage style flow throughout the home, you could place one of these signs in your bathroom. Put all these creative ideas together and you have created a vintage look that makes your home unique. Personalised to make any room have that extra special touch.

Harriet Beeby is a unique and experienced designer offering exceptional quality and specialising in bespoke vintage inspired gifts and home wares, without the bespoke price tag. Her work can be seen at HarrietBeeby.com

They say that home is where the heart is. Besides having a loving family, an interior that’s charming and inviting is certainly part of this lovely saying. Renovating a space and making it your own will create a space that makes you feel right at home. So start brainstorming and read these tips to get some great ideas on how to make your interiors cozy, chic, and inviting.

Antiques Paired with Contemporary Pieces

For a relaxed style between pieces, pairing contemporary elements with heirloom antiques will look stunning in a space. Decorating this way will create a perfect interior won’t be completely overwhelmed by antiques. Instead it will have a perfect mix between modern pieces and historical remnants of the past, creating timeless beauty.

Curvy and Cozy Interior

Love curves and lines? Create an interior that’s bold with concentric circles. The circles will look stunning on a rug that will take up most of the floor. Look above to the ceiling and decide whether you can change something there as well. A wood ceiling with lots of lines will look fantastic with a complementing rug and other playful shapes will also pull the room together.

A New Chic Bathroom

If you love the shabby chic style and want to create a bathroom that you will love, seek out décor pieces that will fit this theme. This may include pink and feminine flowers, a mirror with a unique shape, and other pastel colors.  For added comfort consider heating floors and a large bathtub and you will feel right at home.

An Outdoor Escape

A charming home isn’t only about the interior. A nice outdoor escape will be ideal for a beautiful home that’s already comfortable. Bring comfort outdoors too and implement lush and rich colors like purple. A purple sofa and pillows will look inviting and the entire look outdoors will create the comfy and chic look you had envisioned.

A Dreamy Library

An inviting library is yet another interior that you can renovate to fit your needs. Whether it will have a cozy sofa, plenty of books on classic bookshelves, or plenty of lighting is up to you, but creating a library that will make you feel at home is the idea. A library is a great solace to escape to on the busy day – plus with the right décor pieces it will be very peaceful and calming as well. A wall fountain is another décor piece to consider which will be very soothing to listen too while reading or researching.

Citations:

• Image via Desire to Inspire

Sierra is a freelance writer and blogger who loves interior design. When looking for the perfect pieces, she suggests visiting sites like SofaSofa to find beautiful décor elements.

Your living room should be the part of the house that feels most like home, and bringing your space up-to-date and fashionable doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune or losing the personal touches that make your living room unique. Making use of your current resources and judiciously adding a couple of key seasonal pieces of high-quality furniture can create a space that is both fabulous and comfortable.

Statement pieces

These will always draw the eye, and should be chosen carefully to reflect both contemporary trends and your own personal style. Current trends include understated colours and interesting textures, allowing for a wide range of personal expression, and the arrival of many beautiful pieces that will sit well with most existing colour schemes.

Modern wooden pieces are made in lighter shades of wood, including pine and beech, and often left untreated so that the natural grain is more apparent. Upcycled or reused materials are also popular, reflecting a modern awareness of ecological issues. This leads to a more restrained and materially conservative style of furniture, which is again ideal for marrying with existing decor. The use of fabrics in similar natural shades is also on the rise, though for a single piece such as a key upholstered chair, a splash of jewel-bright colour may be appropriate.

Let there be light

A dull and gloomy room will not feel like a part of your home, however lovely the furniture. Make the most of any available natural light by hanging feature mirrors on key walls to catch any available rays, and ensure that your window dressings do not obscure this precious natural resource. Key lighting tricks for after dark include uplighters, to provide a wider, diffused light, and conversation piece lights to draw the eye to specific areas of the room. Adding light to a room can make it feel both larger and more comfortable.

Brighten up

The current trend for very low-key colours means that if you want to give your room a bit of a lift, the best way to do it is with something entirely different. This is where the new ranges of bright accessories and furniture pieces come into their own. Single items in ruby, sapphire or turquoise can be used to add a touch of modern glamour to the overall soothing effect, and these bright colours really shine against the standard neutral palette.

Bold and beautiful

Another way to enliven a mainly neutral room is to pick a feature wall and dress it up. A single wall or fireplace panel decorated in a bright and eye-catching patterned paper will stand out beautifully in a room that is mainly painted in neutral tones. However, because this type of strong pattern can be overwhelming in bulk, be careful not to get carried away. Less is more when it comes to the eye-catching effect of this type of decor.

Creatively comfortable

Current trends towards upcycling, reuse and crafts have opened up a wide range of possibilities for you to take a personal role in creating your own homely space. By using available items (such as cushions or curtains) and recovering, refashioning or remaking them to suit your vision, the personal nature of your living room will be greatly increased. You will also find more satisfaction in spending time in the room you have made beautiful.

In short, your home is a place that should be welcoming to you. Your personal choices and touches will fashion a stylish result using modern trends if you include just those styles that suit you best from the wide range of up-to-the-minute ideas currently available.

This article was brought to you by contemporary furniture experts the Conran Shop.

(Image attribution links)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/haldanemartin/with/4848621615/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38313119@N07/

Mad Men is back on our screens again, and just as exciting as finding out what happens in the lives of Don, Peggy, Betty and Roger is the chance to relive the classic design of the 1960s. Copying the Mad Men style is a great way to give your bedroom a retro look, but you do not need to be as meticulous as the show’s set designers (apparently you can go into any draw on any Mad Men set and find genuine vintage items of the time). All you need are a few choice items and a lick of paint.

Season five of the hit series brings us into 1966, and while home design – certainly in the Draper house – is certainly moving with the changing times, for Manhattan executives the sixties had nothing to do with the Summer of Love, peace symbols or psychedelia. Their homes were all about sleek and low wooden furniture, Scandinavian design and bright and bold colours.

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When planning your own bedroom, think about what kind of mood to create; if you want vibrancy from your retro room then go for a bold orange on your walls, but if you want something a little more relaxing look to combinations of creams and browns that will complement your wooden furniture. Much of the decoration in a good 1960s bedroom comes not from the walls themselves, but hangings on them, so look for stylish, simple prints and pictures.

The bed is the main feature of the room, but you don’t have to go authentic vintage here; many modern beds create that retro look with leather or upholstery, and newer beds are much more comfortable. Just remember to keep it low to the ground.

As for your dressers and nightstands, sleek two-drawer models with slim legs will fit perfectly, just remember to keep it consistent with your use of wood – such as ash – and brighter colours. Complement these with some genuine retro accessories, such as alarm clocks and table lamps, and you’ll have a great vintage look.

Guest Author – Ben Davis has a passion for interior design and is constantly looking to develop new twists on classic retro looks. He wrote this article on behalf of Time 4 Sleep.

1.   via Pinterest
2.  Southern Living
3.  Style My Pretty
4.  Pinterest
5.  Lisa Lefkowitz for Style Me Pretty

Now and then I get into a yellow mood.  This week has been a yellow week for me, I guess it must be Spring Fever.  I’ve always loved yellow for kitchens because the color is uplifting and cheery.  Vintage yellow kitchen palettes are especially bright and happy.  Enjoy these images of cozy vintage chic kitchens!

Vintage Yellow Color Palette

image sources 1. 508, 2. Retro Renovation, 3. Little Emma English Home, 4. Hooked on Houses, 5.   Cabinets for Kitchen, 6.  Apartment Therapy

I was watching a video of Tabatha Coffey once where she used the term “ombre” in reference to the popular hair trend which fades to light colors at the tips.  At the time I hadn’t heard the term before but was familiar with the style.  Back in the early 2000s it was popular for tv shows like Trading Spaces to paint graduated colors on the walls like this:

Canadian Living

We’ve been seeing the trend again for the last year in decor, fashion, and hair.  FabSugar describes the term this way:

“Ombre

n. A French term meaning “shaded.” Usually a multicolored stripe, with colors graduating from light to dark.”

Oh So Pretty

Urban Outfitters

via Pinterest

 The ombre style creates subtle drama while intentionally draws the eye to deep color depths.  How would you use this effect in your home?  Here’s what some other DIYers have done:

Natty by Design

Pinkerie

Create your own ombre yarn lampshade (like the one below)  by following the tutorial from Vintage Revivals.

Vintage Revivals

Has spring got you itching to plant something?  Maybe not a whole garden, but a few containers perhaps?  You can make your own inexpensive and portable garden containers from tin cans.  So start saving those soup cans and coffee cans and have a look at these creative tin can gardens for inspiration.

Paint some cans in bright or pastel color then add some beautiful flowers like these dahlias below.

Or perhaps you’d rather have some veggies from your tin can garden.  These brightly colored cans are ready to go with their brightly colored labels.

There’s so many ways to make your recycled container garden unique.

image sources:  1. Martha Stewart, 2. The Micro Gardener, 3.  Dos Family, 4. Blooming Bulb, 5. Project Wedding, 6. Colorbok

Does your interior need a little energy, a little verve?  Why not give it a pop of color with Tangerine Tango.  Pantone has name Tangerine Tango the color of 2012.  Bold yet sophisticated, vintage yet edgy, this versatile color is currently being used in fashion, cosmetics, and home decor.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

As shown in the three images below, Tangering Tango can be used as a single pop of color to brighten a soft, neutral palatte.

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When paired with bright whites as in the images below Tangerine Tango is fun and playful.  Incorporate this color in pillows and accessories or painted on the walls or furniture.

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What’s Your point of view?  Will Tangerine Tango make an appearance in your home this year?

Soft filtered light beneath the canopy of suspended umbrellas creates a sense of intimacy and romance.  They appear delicate and perhaps temporary as if they have just blown in from somewhere and are resting a while before going out again. Do they collect our secrets as conversations filter upwards?

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We may never know.  But the aura of grace and femininity in these beauties speaks for itself.

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DIY Parasol Lighting

Here are a couple of umbrella lighting projects you can use to soften the lighting in your home and create a chic atmosphere.  From HGTV  this first tutorial uses a bamboo parasol on your ceiling fixture.

This next project turns cocktail umbrellas into a sophisticated hanging pendant lamp.  The tutorial is found here from Craft Tutorials.