White is ''great colour for bedroom decoration''

White is the perfect colour to use when revitalising a room, according to a number of designers. Speaking to Melissa Rayworth of the Associated Press, asserted that white is a colour trick that designers use to modernise a number of things, such as traditional bedroom furniture or scuffed wooden floors.

"Their imperfections are transformed into appealing texture," he continued. Taniya Nayak, host of HGTV''s Destination Design and $100 Half Day Design, said that spray-painting picture frames and mirrors instantly gives them a fresh and modern look.

She explained that the backdrop of a white floor and walls makes bedroom furniture, window treatments and accessories stand out wonderfully, while it can also feel very traditional when used with more ornate pieces. Ms Nayak concluded: "White can also kind of work as a mediator.

"Just like bringing in a marriage counsellor, white will work as a mediator between soft and loud colours. You can use it to work as a bridge between two colours." In a recent report for the Montreal Gazette, Shauna Hardy said that even by just buying a different lampshade, those redecorating their home should always consider the impact of good lighting.

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Transform Your Kitchen with Decorations

We spend a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. Other than being a cooking zone, it has become a social place where we relax when taking tea and sometimes meals or even meet there with family and friends.

It is therefore imperative that we make it as appealing as possible. Kitchen decoration is the best way to have your kitchen transformed into a welcome haven of sweet smell and comfort.

To decorate your kitchen, you do not need to spend a lot of money. In fact there is a lot you can do with what you already have in the house to make your kitchen look brighter.

Establish a central point to be your focal point. It then becomes easier to work your pattern of decorations around this focal point.

Begin with giving the kitchen walls a new coat of paint in a different color. Walls determine the color scheme to use in the kitchen. Use bright colors as opposed to dull ones to make the kitchen look bigger and more colorful. Wallpaper can also be used and is a good option as you can choose from many designs.You can also try Ceramic kitchen Décor as it is considered as the best décor for kitchens. Kitchen cabinets can also be a form of kitchen decorations. Ensure that the color of the cabinets matches that on the walls for a coordinated look. You can leave the doors open for more impact and add picture frames to parts of the cabinets for added effect. A more dramatic look can be gotten from accessories. These are things like table cloths, chinaware and any other decorative antiques.

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Stylish Steel for a Modern Kitchen

Two of the hottest trends for a modern kitchen makeover are continuing to gain ground, partly because a sleek techno industrial style is.

The perfect place to splash out with those vibrant high-fashion colours that give such life to a decorating scheme lime green, cobalt blue, burnt orange without taking it over the top…

And what are those must-have items for a contemporary kitchen? Stainless steel think commercial-style appliances.

In a brushed metal finish and a crisp tile backsplash or accent strip, preferably in a horizontal subway tile rather than the traditional squares.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to take that urban-contemporary kitchen decor to the ultimate conclusion, with a backsplash made of stainless steel subway tiles? In a small space, the look would be clean and cool with an emphasis on pure function, very hip, but you’d definitely want to go with stainless steel appliances.

In a larger kitchen, where an unbroken line of sight is less critical, you could stick with the traditional white appliances or do a custom colour, then use the stainless steel subway tiles on the walls all the way around. The metal tiles can quickly and easily update the decor as they serve to bring the different elements of the kitchen together.

You could even think about siding an island or wheeled butcher-block utility cart with stainless steel, either in a flat brushed-metal laminate (Formica makes a nice version) or in the stainless steel tiles.And what about the rest of the kitchen decor?

Some of the modern-style kitchens that we’re seeing the North American builders installing in new homes, by default, seem to be more conservative — a tinted white paint on the walls, for example — which may appeal to the masses but doesn’t do justice to the full beauty of stainless steel.

Stainless steel almost begs for eye-popping bright colours to set it off in proper style, or else for the interesting contrast of warm traditional wood cabinetry, sparked with just a touch of accent colour that’s brought into the decor with a selection of easy-to-change accessories and kitchen linens.

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Country Style Home Decorating - Sunny House

One of the most comfortable themes is country style. It is warm, inviting, and tempts everyone to just sit down and have a cup of coffee. Here are some ideas on how to make incorporate a country style theme in your home. Modern country style is about having the confidence to shamelessly mismatch colour, pattern and scale to create.

A contemporary vibe.Country style decorating themes are timeless and look great all year long. When decorating a bedroom and bathroom suite, you want to be sure to keep some similar elements in the two rooms to keep the flow between spaces.

Contemporary country style, beautiful plants in the colorful living room.

Home office

Kitchen cabinets

Dining room and kitchen.

Flowers in bathroom

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Local interior designer pens guide

Following in her father's footsteps, Laurie Ann McMillin Ray is making her mark in people's homes. While her father, Corky McMillin, made his name building homes, Ray is making hers designing their interiors.

Ray's first interior design job was for a new model home in a master-planned community her father developed in Chula Vista in 1985.

The homes went like hot cakes and sold out during the first phase. Ray kept designing model homes for her father, who developed thousands of acres throughout Southern California, particularly in Chula Vista, where he built Otay Ranch and Rancho Del Rey and where the Corky McMillin School was named in his honor.

"He used to say, 'Everyone deserves to own a home,' " Ray said. "I feel everyone deserves to make a house into their home." For Ray, that means making it into their "Home sweet home." "I want everyone to love their home. After all, it's where we start and end each day," said Ray, who lives in Del Mar.

Ray is set on helping people make home their favorite place. After fielding questions about home design during her 25-year career, Ray decided to answer some of them in her new book, "At Home With Laurie Ann, a Decorator's Guide: Turn the Place You Live Into a Home You Love," which is now being released in stores.

"I started writing the book because people asked me questions about decorating," Ray said. The big question was, "Where do I start?" Ray was also inspired to publish a book because she had a large collection of photos of the interiors she had done for hundreds of clients in Poway, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, Point Loma and throughout the San Diego area.

The 224-page decorator's guide generously uses full-page photos of Ray's interior design work to give examples of what can be done. The book offers suggestions and decorating tips on everything from getting started to figuring out a style for each room and choosing accessories. Sprinkled in the guide are anecdotes from Ray's family life and experiences along with family recipes.

It's clear that both her father and mother influenced Ray's decision to become an interior designer.

The dedication in her book says, "To Mom and Dad, for creating a warm and loving home, and teaching me to make it matter."

Ray called her home a comfort zone and sees it as her mission to help others make their own homes comfortable.

She suggests having chairs that you can "melt into" and surrounding yourself with things that make you feel good.

"People ask me, 'Should I have this style or that, and I tell them to fill their home with what they love," Ray said.

Ray decorated a kitchen for one client around the pattern of her favorite dishes. The drapes and accessories all blended with the theme of the plates.

Ray calls her own style eclectic. "I like to blend the old and the new and use contrast to make the colors pop." Ray is known for melding scrubby furniture with new pieces. "When people redecorate, there are usually some things they want to keep, like a dresser that's been in the family for years, so we figure out how to mix the old and new," she said. Ray's knack for decorating showed up early. Even before she decorated her father's model homes, she decorated her own room and redecorated frequently with furniture from the sold-out model homes.

Ray recalled her initiation into interior design at age 15. Her mother was consulting with an interior decorator and they were figuring out where to place the sofa. It didn't look right against the wall or in the center of the room, so Ray looked around and suggested putting the sofa at an angle. It worked and is still that way 38 years later in the home where she grew up in Bonita. When Ray talks about an atmosphere she wants to create in her home, she points to a wooden sign in her kitchen that says, "Sit a spell and talk long."

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Transforming Your Home for Spring

On the leafy street where I grew up, spring brought blazing forsythia and a canopy of fresh green blooms. But for me, the season never truly arrived until the afternoon I would come home from school to find our apartment transformed.

My mother and our housekeeper would work all day stripping the windows of draperies, installing screens, polishing wood floors and furnishings, and covering the sofa and chairs in crisp green and white chintz. These were the days before air conditioning, yet even on a hot summer day that apartment seemed cool.

Today, few households boast a full set of summer slipcovers, but there are easy and inexpensive ways to refresh your home for spring. It starts with the ancient ritual of spring cleaning.

"Spring cleaning has been a part of history for thousands of years, and it is often integrated into the religious practice of cleansing the home prior to a spring festival," housewares designer Rosanna Bowles writes in her recently published "Coming Home: A Seasonal Guide to Creating Family Traditions" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2010).

In Atlanta, Ga., where the summers are long and hot and there is a tradition of gracious decorating and entertaining, designer Suzanne Kasler transformed a client's home for spring with a set of white cotton duck slipcovers, and a complete set of oriental rugs in a lighter palette than the deeper-toned rugs they replaced over sisal carpet.

In her own home, Kasler does not have a summer set of furnishings. She welcomes the season by cleaning, paring down and changing accessories. She advises clients to do the same.

"New books on the coffee table, a change of accessories and a few fresh flowers can make a huge difference," she says. She finds the color blue, "a water color," especially cooling.

Spring is a good time to experiment, says Stan Williams, author of The Elegant Thrifter blog spot and "The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details" (Clarkson Potter, 2009).

Move the furniture around, change the direction of the rug, reevaluate your window treatments for the change in light, take down the drapes and roll up the rugs," he advises.

"Thrift shop finds give you the liberty to experiment," Williams believes. "Buy a piece, experiment and if you don't like it you can donate it back and take the tax deduction."

You might try moving indoor furniture outside, and vice versa. Williams suggests transforming old pieces: creating a tiered plant stand out of an old dresser, covering old wingback chairs in white vinyl for a cool and contemporary look, painting an old table with bold black and white.

Bowles suggests putting a piece of furniture in storage to open up a room.

She also likes to temporarily replace accessories that are dark and seem wintry with ones that provide fresh, light accents. Set the table with pastel dishes and fresh flowers.

Other ways to renew your home for spring without spending a lot of money, she says, include letting in the light (except at noon) and, when the sun sets, opening drapes and windows to let in fresh air.

Clear the kitchen and bathrooms, counters and all, of clutter.

Lighten the bedding, using 100 percent cotton sheets and blankets when possible. And when going through those closets and cabinets, donate what you no longer like or need to a thrift shop or charity, or sell it. Open up your home and life to the possibility of change signaled each year by the arrival of spring.

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