Moms want/need/deserve a peaceful place to unwind, often with soft hues, relaxing music, and an overall stylish decor to create their special retreat.  But with men taking the garage or basement as their place of refuge, where are moms to go for their own place in a home? Here is your start,  5 Steps to Make Your Own ‘Mom Cave’, design experts suggest that the perfect spot could be anywhere from an unused guest room to as small as a closet that you transform into a colorful space with a small desk and comfy chair. But whether it’s the closet or elsewhere, the perfect spot requires a place where a mom can close off the area from the rest of the house, creating a “kid-and-husband-free zone.”

Are you ready for your own “Mom Cave?”  I know I am!

Honeysuckle — a reddish pink hue, a warm pink that straddles the line between coral and poppy red. — is this year’s “in” color.

“Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute commented that it is “perfect to ward off the blues.” The intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages. Honeysuckle adds a contemporary burst of color and a much-needed hit of summer during dreary winter months.

How can you use this bold color…. Liven up an interior space with honeysuckle patterned pillows, bedspreads, or tabletop accessories.  Or, for an even bigger statement, paint an accent wall in honeysuckle for a burst of energy in the kitchen, hallway, or family room.

The upcoming Valentine’s holiday makes us think of the color Red which is associated with passion and love.  No matter the shade or tone, it generates a lot of feelings.  Did you know that the color red causes you to do everything more?  If you want to stimulate conversations, paint a dining room wall in the various red tones.  However, if you are dieting, it is not a good idea to paint your kitchen red.  It will stimulate you to eat more!

Its time for the 45th annual Super Bowl. While many will be heading to the bar to view the Packers battle the Steelers, there are quite a few who dare to tackle hosting duties. Before you rush out for streamers and chips, think about ways to make your home uniquely styled for the main event. Not sure where to start? Here are some decorating ideas to style your home for Super Bowl Sunday.

Focus on the Primaries:  The Steelers are known for their black and gold and the Packers support green and white, but there still remain colors to be used. Red, blue and yellow are primary accents that can be found on both the team helmet and jersey. Incorporate this trio into your space by grouping them against black and white. This can be achieved through table decor (vases, candles), accent throw pillows, finger foods and more.

Super Bowl throw pillows: Purchase a generic football theme or your favorite team fabric at your local craft store. Wrap your living room throw pillows in the fabric like you would a present. Use safety pins to pin the edges together. After the Super Bowl party simply take the fabric off and save it for next year.

 Super Bowl table runners: Make table runners from felt to use on your coffee table, your dining table or buffet. Cut a piece of felt 12 in wide by the length of your table. Cut the short ends to a point. 

Misc decor: Get the kids involved and do some shopping in their rooms. Little boys have toy helmets, pads and football memorabilia, little girls may have pom-poms. Add them in for some fun low cost decor. 

Think outside of the box and have fun with your super bowl themed party!

Cathy B.

HomeStylist

Bringing in a professional Home Stager who offers Senior Transition Services can help make this process seem manageable and less stressful for all parties.  They will provide assistance in organizing the movers, donating excess furniture to area charities, arranging for cleaning and painting, and staging the property for maximum appeal.

Clearing out the clutter & a few upgrades

Staging doesn’t necessarily involve major renovations.  One of the problems facing seniors trying to sell their homes is dealing with a lifetime’s worth of possessions and outdated decor.  Starting the process can simply be clearing out the clutter, removing dated wallpaper and slapping on contemporary paint colors over the occasional mint-green living room.  Senior Transition services involve whittling down a house full of furniture to the essential elements that will work with a senior’s new, smaller accommodations.  Stagers have a good eye for what furniture will fit in a space.

Senior Transition Services include (but are not limited to) 

• preparing a house for a ‘top dollar’ sale with staging
• selecting appropriately scaled furniture and furnishings for the new home
• coordinating redistribution of non-essential items
• organizing all aspects of moving day
• setting up the new place to reflect personalized style with an interior redesign

A few ways you can easily inexpensively change your decor with the season is by bringing in the warm colors of orange, red and greens will give you that cozy autumn feel in your home. 

• Cut branches (or find fallen branches on the ground) and spray paint them a color that will suit your fall decorating scheme. Place them in a vase and display them as you would flowers or put them in a larger vessel (such as an umbrella stand) and place it on the porch or inside the front door. If you can find branches with berries on them leave them as is (don’t paint them) and display them the same way.
• Gather a bunch of nuts such as walnuts or acorns and spray paint all of them in the same color. Display them in a clear glass vase or bowl on the coffee table, mantle, or dining table. For a stronger display use three vases or bowls of varying sizes and display them together.
• Spray paint pinecones and find a fun way to display them. Several of them together in a big bowl make a nice display centerpiece.

Here are some of the top decorating trends that can be done for the fall:

Vintage accents. What’s old is new again. French-burlap is no longer just for sack-racing. This Earth-friendly fiber is being used for chic pillows imprinted with a vintage stamped design or even a family initial.

Aged, color-washed wood accessories such as candlesticks, urns, and bowls are popular as oversized accessories to accent and update a time-worn look.

Wallpaper! With a decreasing demand for faux finishes and walls painted in solid primary colors, wallpaper is making a comeback in a big and decidedly fashionable way.

From bright and bold to subdued and elegant, today’s wallpapers are easy to apply and even easier to remove, making updating the seasonal look of a room easier than ever before.  There are a seemingly endless number of choices from solids to patters, and everything in between. 

Timeless art. When shopping for items to occupy wall space, ditch the quick fix, “matchy-matchy” picture. Art doesn’t have to be expensive but it should certainly have meaning. Buy what you love. Mix mediums and styles. To add depth and character to your pieces, forego the glass cover that can be distracting and casts a glare that actually detracts from your interior design.

Elemental color. While neutrals have made a strong showing in design this year for primary design elements like walls and baseline furnishings, boldly colored accent pieces give a space visual interest and appeal.

Brightly colored and/or patterned pillows, rugs and other accessories will bring an otherwise bland space to life. Of course, these accessories can be readily transitioned to exude the spirit of a given season.

Rug rage. There has never been a more exciting time than now in the area rug industry. Whatever style, shape, and design you can imagine is within your reach.

Even if a space has wall-to-wall carpeting, place an area rug to establish a layered look and add depth and personality to a room and also tie in other disparate color components. A rug’s color palette and pattern can easily establish the desired style and tone of a season.

Pillow talk. Today’s pillow designs offer an array of textures, colors, shapes, sizes, and accents, and can completely transform a room’s aesthetic. Accordingly, pillows have become the ultimate interior design accessory, especially since they are so versatile.

 Choose an assortment of pillows for the spring and summer and other set for the fall and winter. This is an easy way to seasonally transition a room in an easy and budget-friendly way.

Window treatments. While many love luscious fabrics, an overuse of material on your windows can quickly overpower an otherwise streamlined room. Linen panels are now very trendy since they beautifully outline and soften windows. This classic and timeless fabric is now available in a staggering array of colors to coordinate with any interior palette.

Brass. Yes, brass is back but a bit older and wiser. Antiqued brass and even antiqued gold have both made a large comeback on everything from drapery rods, to cocktail tables, to door and cabinet knobs to décor figurines.

The light reflecting surface of brass adds warmth, glow and movement to a space and, thus, is perfect in a room with a fireplace.

 Pick out 1 or 2 of these trends and implement in your home for an easy update for the fall. Happy Decorating!

**Fall Trends provided by luxury interiors experts at Elaine Williamson Designs, a full service, award-winning firm specializing in high-end residential and commercial interior design www.ElaineWilliamsonDesigns.com

You can find these great furniture pieces at the Amish Haus in Urbandale www.amishhausfurniture.com

A good rule to remember is to stick with 3-5 colors with 1 of those colors being your “pop” of color in the room, a color that is going to stand out and draw attention to itself. But to comply with this “rule”, you don’t have to use drastically different colors in your decor. In fact, even a monochromatic paint color palette can look interesting and diversified – you simply add variation through textures, patterns, darker/lighter and saturated/muted shades (yes, different shades of the same color “count” as a different color).

For your color scheme to work, there must be a relationship between wall paint colors and the colors of your fabrics, flooring, woodwork, and accents. But here’s the tricky part: even colors from the same color family can look totally unrelated and un-balanced when used together – if they have different undertones.

You can test undertones yourself  by painting on a white sheet of paper. Then use a painting knife or a brush to spread the paint very thinly until you can see through it.

Do you notice the yellow undertone in this red now? When a paint color is sheer, you can more easily detect its undertone.

You can often hear professional decorators say things like: “This beige has a pink undertone”, “This gray looks greenish”, or “There is some yellow in this red”. And while all this may seem mysterious, in reality there is no magic or super-human abilities involved. The pros simply know how to see subtle color.

Why do we suggest to limit your colors? As you can see color can look different depending on many different elements. So the more colors you use, the more difficult it becomes to control, balance and coordinate them all together.

Paint consultations can save you a lot of heartache and wasted paint. Work with your local desinger to help you determine the right color scheme for your room.