Decorating Guides
21 Top Design Ideas From This Week’s Stories
We scoured through our articles from the past week to bring you some of the best tips and tricks for your next project
2. Avoid glass cabinetry next to your range. Designer Barbra Bright put together several great designer tips for kitchens this week. She suggests that if you’re considering glass-fronted cabinets in your kitchen, it’s best to avoid placing them next to your range hood. Otherwise you’ll likely be spending a good deal of time wiping grease and grime off those glass panels.
3. Make outlets the same color as your backsplash. Bright also suggests coordinating your outlet color with the color of your backsplash. That way those white outlets won’t disrupt the visual look of, say, your gorgeous minty green tile. Installing outlets sideways and closer to the countertop also makes for a less distracting profile than the more common vertical installation.
See the rest of Bright’s kitchen design tips
See the rest of Bright’s kitchen design tips
4. Consider a wet room. Curbless showers are all the rage, but if you have space, think about going with a wet-room concept in which all or most of the bathroom components sit within a tiled space. This allows water to be splashed around without impacting surrounding areas. In some homes, the sink, shower and toilet are all housed within the same tiled space, often with a drain in the center. This allows the space to be hosed down and cleaned with relative ease.
See more of this home
See more of this home
5. Try custom or hand-carved doors. Interior doors often get overlooked when it comes to remodeling a home. But they can be a great outlet for expression and personality (black interior doors anyone?).
The owner of this Denver home introduced several hand-carved doors that turn entrances into special design moments.
See more of this home
The owner of this Denver home introduced several hand-carved doors that turn entrances into special design moments.
See more of this home
6. Introduce a feature ceiling. Last week, designer Jennifer Ott made the case that accent walls are here to stay. But if doing that isn’t enough of a visual statement for you, consider looking up toward the “fifth wall.”
Here, in the same home that features the hand-carved doors, the homeowner applied a tomato hue to the ceiling to bring interest without taking away from the artwork featured throughout the room.
See more of this home
Here, in the same home that features the hand-carved doors, the homeowner applied a tomato hue to the ceiling to bring interest without taking away from the artwork featured throughout the room.
See more of this home
7. Install wall sconces for bedroom lighting. If nightstand space is at a premium, consider installing wall sconces instead of going with table lamps. You’ll get adequate reading light while freeing up surface area.
See more of this room
See more of this room
8. Get a multipurpose coffee table. The apartment of interior decorator Whitney Jones features several great small-space ideas. One is this multipurpose ottoman that functions not only as a place to put up your feet, but also as a coffee table, thanks to a large tray, and as extra seating during parties.
See more of this home
See more of this home
9. Reupholster a chair. Most of us have an old piece of furniture or find one on the side of the road that we think has potential if only it could get a little love. A couple of homes featured on Houzz this week included reupholstery that breathed new life into the furniture piece itself, as well as into the room it inhabits.
In the same home as the previously mentioned ottoman, Jones re-covered an old chair with cut velvet and painted the frame black for an effective design statement.
See more of this home
In the same home as the previously mentioned ottoman, Jones re-covered an old chair with cut velvet and painted the frame black for an effective design statement.
See more of this home
In this glamorous Atlanta loft, the homeowner had previously reupholstered a midcentury-inspired chair and ottoman in leather. To fit with the new style of the condo, designer MaRae Samone returned it to its original off-white canvas, with added black piping for contrast.
See more of this home
See more of this home
10. Bring in a bar cart. Going back to Jones’ apartment, here’s a great addition for summertime. Even if you don’t drink alcohol, having a stocked beverage cart in your home brings function and lots of opportunity for a styled vignette.
Keep bottles of bubbly water. liquor and mixers on hand for impromptu get-togethers. Add a lamp, a plant and some knick-knacks, and you have a fun micro design.
See more of this home | Browse bar carts
Keep bottles of bubbly water. liquor and mixers on hand for impromptu get-togethers. Add a lamp, a plant and some knick-knacks, and you have a fun micro design.
See more of this home | Browse bar carts
11. Thermaform a solid-surface countertop. If you have a particular design idea in mind for you kitchen island or countertops, consider looking into thermaforming. This technique can be applied to solid-surface materials like Corian to create curvaceous, one-of-a-kind pieces, as evident in the New York kitchen shown here.
See more of this kitchen | Top countertop materials
See more of this kitchen | Top countertop materials
12. Don’t need your fireplace? Get rid of it. If you’re the kind of person who never plans on using a fireplace, there’s no shame in swapping it for something more useful. That’s what these Washington, D.C., homeowners did when modernizing their midcentury rambler. They had the fireplace removed in exchange for a storage system against the added wall space.
See more of this surprising before-and-after
See more of this surprising before-and-after
13. Use paint for creative wall features. Most designers will praise paint as a budget-friendly way to add color, style and wow factor. Several spaces featured this week are proof of that.
Designer and writer Yanic Simard showed 11 ways to make an impact with color in a room, including painting a partial wall to create a headboard and a sense of drama.
Designer and writer Yanic Simard showed 11 ways to make an impact with color in a room, including painting a partial wall to create a headboard and a sense of drama.
In the same article, Simard suggests painting a panel of color on a wall for a fun geometric design.
See more ways to bring color into a room
See more ways to bring color into a room
Meanwhile, these Spanish homeowners used paint in several rooms to create different effects. Here, they used dark green paint to create a wainscoting look in a bedroom.
See more of this home
See more of this home
And this artist homeowner added a bold pink stripe to her 7-year-old daughter’s room.
See more of this home
See more of this home
14. Customize a headboard. If you can spend on a little more than just paint, consider splurging on a custom upholstered headboard. This South Carolina homeowner did just that, turning the bed into a statement piece.
See more of this bedroom
See more of this bedroom
15. DIY your own shiplap siding. If you’re trying to keep remodeling costs down and are handy with tools, you can save money on shiplap siding by making it yourself. For this Salt Lake City bathroom, homeowners Steven and Katie Schiffgen bought wood, had it cut to specified sizes and modified the pieces themselves. Then they used a nickel to space the boards evenly on the wall and nailed them in using a finish nail gun.
See more of this bathroom
See more of this bathroom
16. Display your travel mementos. This is a great little detail from a stunning London home inside a former courthouse. Designer Ebba Thott found this vintage display case for her clients’ small decorative pieces.
“It dates back to a time when traveling was an elite pastime and people would use cabinets to display where they had been and what they had done with their life,” she says.
It punctuates what great home design is often all about: expressing and reminding you about your identity.
See more of this home
“It dates back to a time when traveling was an elite pastime and people would use cabinets to display where they had been and what they had done with their life,” she says.
It punctuates what great home design is often all about: expressing and reminding you about your identity.
See more of this home
17. Succumb to satin brass. We predicted we’d be seeing a lot of satin brass fixtures this year, and that seems to be the case. We found five kitchens recently uploaded to Houzz that combine dark cabinets with white countertops and walls and shiny brass fixtures to create a sultry, irresistible style.
See more of these on-trend kitchens
See more of these on-trend kitchens
18. Mount a sconce to a mirror. You know you’ve found a great design element when something so small and subtle can stop you in your tracks. This sconce mounted on a full-length bathroom mirror does just that.
See more of this bathroom
See more of this bathroom
19. Stencil your own backsplash. When her budget didn’t make room for a tile backsplash, designer Sidra Gross got creative with a $55 stencil and some gray paint to create a stunning geometric detail.
See more of this kitchen
See more of this kitchen
20. Get exposed to an outdoor bathtub. Most outdoor showers seem practical for rinsing off before entering your home after a beach or lake dip, but there’s something, er, cheeky about a bathtub out in the elements.
Maybe it’s the presumed intention of lingering and relaxing in the nude in potential view of the world, but in any case, it’s an enticing, even thrilling, design feature to consider.
See more outdoor bathtubs
Maybe it’s the presumed intention of lingering and relaxing in the nude in potential view of the world, but in any case, it’s an enticing, even thrilling, design feature to consider.
See more outdoor bathtubs
21. Use a pingpong table for your dining room. Finally, we circle back to the artist’s home with the pink-striped 7-year-old’s bedroom. Homeowners Darren and Sam Sidney embraced this genius idea of using a pingpong table to double as a dining room table. “You can seat 10 people there,” Sam says. Game on!
See more of this home
More
Decorating 101: How to Start a Decorating Project
12 Key Decorating Tips to Make Any Room Better
See more of this home
More
Decorating 101: How to Start a Decorating Project
12 Key Decorating Tips to Make Any Room Better
If it’s an interior wall you’re dealing with, and there’s no electrical or plumbing interference, and you don’t need the insulation, you could create this setup between exposed wall studs.
See more of this home | Tap Into Stud Space for More Wall Storage