Lakehouse Interior Design Ideas

Lake houses are usually summer residences, places where people retreat for vacations or long weekends to get away from the daily grind of their jobs and busy lives. Therefore, comfort and practicality should be foremost in your mind when decorating your lake home, as well as versatility. Since you will probably entertain houseguests from time to time, you'll want a relaxing place for both you and your guests to kick back. Some interior design ideas for your lake house follow.

Paint

Paint your lake house interior with muted neutral tones or pastel shades. Various hues of white, beige and taupe will give your house a light, airy, relaxing feel and will open up the interior space.

Decor

Keep the lake house clutter-free. The more simplistic your decor, the better. The goal is to give your home the feeling of the outdoors. Decorate using wooden, hand-carved sea gulls and sailboats for a nautical theme, or consider an animal theme using prints of animals such as deer.

Furnishings

Lake house furniture should be comfortable and functional. Living room couches often double as a guest room, so purchase a good-quality sofa bed for your guests' comfort. Purchase practical furniture pieces such as end tables and coffee tables that have drawers for storage and can keep hidden extra bedding.

Floors

Think practical when it comes to floor space. Linoleum and easy-care tile and wood floors work well in lake houses. If you want to carry your decor theme to the flooring, but don't want to use throw rugs, consider stenciling a design on your floors or painting floors for a rustic, aged look.

Light Fixtures

Lake houses often utilize vintage-look decor, so extend this look to your light fixtures, wall sconces and lamps. Use wicker, rattan and weathered-looking pieces to create a casual, warm ambiance.

Walls

Walls should not be "busy," with lots of floral wallpaper or too many pictures. Add wallpaper borders with a cozy pattern that matches your decorating theme, or add wainscoting or bead board to enhance your painted walls. Use framed pictures or photos of lake and forest scenes to bring the outdoors indoors.

Read More ..... »

How to Choose Vertical Blinds for Our Homes

Home decorating is a very vast creative area that we should all take time to explore. As for creating the perfect home for our families with a touch of each and every member's personalities, there are many fixtures and home accessories available in the market that can help us to do so.

Window treatments are one of the aspects in home design that we could try to explore when it comes to home decorating. However, for some, they still prefer to stick with the design basics, just like vertical blinds.

Vertical window treatments add height to a low ceiling room. These types of blinds are ideal for patio doors, bay windows, and sliding glass doors or windows. Plus, they are much easier to clean than horizontal blinds, thus making them a favorite option among home decorators.

Before buying vertical window blinds, though, you must consider the budget, the style of your house, and how long do you expect your blinds to last.

Choosing one boils down to your aesthetic preference. Here are some quick advice you can follow.

How long does it have to be?

Measure first your window frame. Blinds must cover the entire window to have a maximum privacy and proper control of light.

Primarily, you must know the two styles of vertical blinds: the inside-mount and the outside-mount blinds. The inside-mount sits in line with the window frame. While the outside-mount hangs outside the window frame. It looks bulky and spans larger area.

For inside-mount blinds, measure the window frame's length and width. However, for outside-mount, you could decide how long the blinds would be since you can drop it longer than the window. But to be safe, you might as well add up 1.5 to 3 inches on either side to ensure it overlaps.

Decide on materials.

Wood vertical blinds

Wooden blinds bring elegance to a room. It's popular in many homes, though wood is prone to mildew and easily fades with sunlight. It is also not advisable for covering multiple windows as it would be too expensive.

PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) blinds

This synthetic material is durable and comes in various colors. PVC is flame-resistant and ideal for your child's room.

Textile vertical blinds

Those who wanted to combine the softer feel of curtains and the sleek structure of blinds opt for fabric vertical window coverings. A vacuum cleaner could remove its dust, though stains are harder to clean.

Aluminum blinds

These types of material do not rust over time and are easier to clean. However, they could be noisy upon closing doors or when it's breezy with the open window.

The cost of vertical blinds varies with the materials, length, and the number of the windows where it will be installed. You can let the store staff do it for you or you could install it on your own.

Your windows are one of the most important areas in your homes that should be given proper attention to.

Read More ..... »

How To Create Striking Vignettes In Your Home

Be it an entryway, living room or dining room, vignettes never failed to create warmth, unique look and elegant touch. Vignettes is not just about what things and accents you use in the arrangements but completely depends on how well you put together these things to create an eye-catching still life. All you need to create a beautiful vignette is a plain horizontal surface such as a table top, dresser, or even nightstand. Here are few tips that will be of great help to you when you design your own vignette at home.

Choose the right space

Before you arrange the vignettes, choose the best place to a set it up. Setting a beautiful vignette at the dark corner of a room is not going to add any zing to the space. Be careful while you choose the place; choose place that grabs eyeballs or a focal point of a room and not necessarily be the centre. It can be set up in the corner but remember to add focus lights to it to emboss it in your home décor. Or if you already have a table lamp in the room, creating a vignette near it will be a better choice.

Choose the right accents

After you choose the right spot, then try to be very careful in selecting the right objects to display. First take into account is you follow any particular themed décor. If so, then follow the same theme for a more coordinated and balanced look. You can also set up a small scene with cute objects and toys. Either go for symmetrical design or choose asymmetrical design based on your existing room décor.

Choose the right colours

Select the dominant colour that you have used in your room, then choose objects are in the same shade of hues to complete the room décor. If you wish to add a splash of colours to any space, you can also go for objects with varied vibrant colours. But remember too much of bright colours may sometime spoil the entire room décor.

Choose objects of different heights

When you set up a vignette, remember to select objects of varied height, size and shape for a more unique look. Even different objects of same colour, height and size may create a monotonous look.

Create perfect dimension

The way you arrange objects will make a big difference in how the vignette look. So start arranging items from the back of the surface to the front in varied orders.

Read More ..... »

Create a Cozy Reading Nook for Yourself With Designer Cushions

Most of the times the excitement of reading gets blocked due to lack of serenity or that cozy corner. In order to make your own space where you can enjoy your new your book, choose your favorite corner in your room. But, a corner in itself will not create a comfortable reading section. An enjoyable reading requires lot more than just a secluded place. It requires the right amount of furniture and accessories to make that particular section where you look forward to spending some time. So you can either opt for traditionally designed cushions or even abstract designer cushions for that instant style.

Creating a reading area has its conditions and requisites. Once these requisites are covered then, all you'll need to do is accessories so as to make it the snuggest corner in your home. One of the easiest ways to do this is by adding a couple of designer cushions and colorful rugs to provide that instant warmth. Let's take a look at how can we transform our home into a reader's paradise.

1. Find a good spot:

The first step is by identifying a good spot in your home. If you want your reading area to be close to your bedroom, then, rearranging your furniture to find that perfect spot would be the best bet. But, try not to go overboard in order to create that reading corner. Another best available option, in such a case, is to transform any awkward corner in your house to an exquisite reading area. These awkward corners can be the ones in the living room, play room or even storage area under the stair or anywhere in your house. Once chosen, these awkward corners can be instantly transformed by adding a couple of furniture or even designer cushions. The good news with this transformation is that you will now have a beautiful corner that will further add to the interiors of the house.

2. Set up a comfortable seating and accessories it:

Everybody has their own definition of comfort. While some people prefer reading in a formal setting (table chair) as it is more relaxing for them, others like a nice designer floor cushions to add to the comfort and the style of their reading corner. Though table and a chair are always an option for the corner, but, if you want to jazz up the formal setting, then add a big chair with beautiful designer cushions for back support would be the right pick for you. Also, you can put aside the option of a chair and instead set up your reading area using simple designer cushions, floor cushions and rugs. This kind of setup is a rather modern styling and has become the latest trend. Instead of opting for the run of the mill plain floor cushions opt for designer cushion covers that would make you want to spend some more time in that cozy corner.

3. Adequate level of lights:

The whole purpose of creating a special reading corner is to cater to the needs of the reader for which lightning becomes a prerequisite. Preparing for exams requires an intense level of concentration and an atmosphere which encourages that, so having a dim light is not an option. But when it comes to reading for leisure, it's all about comfort, the ambiance should be relaxing, and the best way to do that is by adding dim lights. To add to the soothing atmosphere, throw in a couple of mute coloured designer cushions to adorn the reading area. And in case you want to liven up the reading area, you can always opt for vibrantly coloured designer cushions.

Read More ..... »