Category Archive

decorating

How do you make a furnished rental feel like home?

I lucked into a nursing job that provides free furnished housing. And while it’s definitely nice having free housing and not having to buy my own furniture I don’t feel at home here. How can I make my furnished rental my own?

5 real-life design lessons I learned from The Sims

Years before I became a homeowner, way before I moved into my first apartment and took interest in decoration my living space, I played The Sims. My firsts design screw-ups, brilliant ideas, questionable color choices and architectural fantasies where all tested on my favorite video game. All in all, I had tons of fun, testing, creating and learning. And isn’t that what decoration should be about? Fun! Here are the five things that playing The Sims³ taught me about decorating in real life…

DIY this simple, no-damage, statement piece headboard

I’ve been trying to update my guest room/study for the last two years. It seemed to me that I just needed one simple focal point — which should be the bed. I was on a budget, on a mission and working with a limited amount of space. It seemed like the best solution was to create my own headboard using fabric.

Small-space living tips that even families in bigger homes can learn from

My partner and I are raising two young kids in a third floor walk up apartment in Brooklyn. We have two small bedrooms. How small, you ask? Well, when I insisted that we get a queen-sized bed during month six of my second pregnancy, the trade-off was that we would no longer be able to shut our bedroom door. We have a living room space, a kitchen and a bathroom. While our apartment is bigger than what many people make do with in the city, its not spacious by any extent.

How to hide the ugly: 5 cheap tricks for renters

My husband and I live in a rented flat in central London. It’s small. It’s a space that we can’t really personalise too much — we have no idea how long we’re going to be here (could be three months, could be a year). We’ve had to work with what we’ve got, and I’m happy to say that little by little over the past couple of months it’s really taken shape. How have we turned a dull, boxy flat with dirty walls into a space that we actually enjoy? A few cheap tricks…

Find your room’s color palette from within a photo

We found a really awesome way to choose wedding colors and shared it over on Offbeat Bride. But it’s totally useful for choosing colors for your home, too! There are fun little tools called color generators that will extract the main colors of a photo for you, allowing you to snag and save them for your decor and wall color shopping trips.

Making an unfinished attic space feel livable

I’m about to move into a new home. I’ll be renting a bedroom and the unfinished attic from friends of mine. I’d love to sleep in the attic, with all that space and all the windows. What are some good ideas on how to make an unfinished part of a house into something livable?

Small family bedroom full of extra space and storage hacks

When we moved into our apartment, the bedroom was a poorly-lit beige box. Further challenges: The room needed to accomodate a king sized bed, clothes for two adults, plus a changing area and a bassinet for our son Izzy, who’s now three months old. It’s also a rental, which severely limited our willingness to make major modifications. With paint, decals, mirrors, and creative storage, we came a LONG way towards counteracting the room’s tendency to be a small, dark cave. Since the room initially seemed to barely accomodate two of us, this seems like a huge achievement! This is how we pulled it off…