2. Display a Great Collection on a
Dining Room Table
In the living room of an
Atlanta house by designer
Beth Webb, an elm plank
table from Clubcu, which
often doubles as a dining
table, dramatically displays a
collection of Chinese
porcelains. "The pieces don't
have to match, but they do
have to play together well,"
Webb says.
3. Hang an Interior Curtain
In the kitchen of the same
Atlanta house, a linen curtain
runs on a track spanning the
room and can be pulled "to
conceal the mess of
preparation," Webb says.
Steel-and-glass casements
frame views of the pool and
garden. KWC Gastro faucet.
4. Mix and Match Your Bedding
We call this 'the sailor room,'
because we went all out
with the nautical theme,"
designer Ken Folk says of a
bedroom in his
Massachusetts vacation
house. "The mix-and-match
nature of the patterns and
faded batik prints make it
feel like it's a collection of
old textiles brought back
from a journey at sea.
5. Paint an Inexpensive Piece of
Furniture White
This Kansas City house's dining
room, a former loggia, is "light,
bright, and airy," homeowner and
designer Zima Loy says. "I
accomplished that with lots of
white paint." She bought a beat-
up old $60 table at an estate sale
and gave it a fresh new look by
the painting the base high-gloss
white.
6. Cover a Wall with Plates
Loy discovered Hacker ware on eBay — "there's tons of it, and it's so
cheap!" — and started collecting it for the dining room. Covering the
whole wall with plates has the same effect as "one big piece of art."
7. Reupholster Furniture with Old
Curtains
Everything in this room has a story Designer podgy bone says of the her
Hamptons cottages living room. the Easy chair is covered in my old dining
room curtains, a designers guild fabric they no longer make
8. Give The Room A Cheery Accent
Color
A bright Yellow throw and fresh flowers to flip an otherwise tame blue and
white color scheme on this head
9. Mix-and-Match Chairs
Swap out your formal chairs
(in this case, bright blue and
green ones) for a few rustic
metal ones. Designer
Ramsay Gourd did this to
create a more casual
atmosphere in the dining
room.
10. Paint Only Half the Wall
Half of the wall means half of the time, right? Here, gray creeps up to
the middle, while the rest remains white, creating a subtle, yet super
stylish statement.
11. Add Pops of Color to Open Shelves
Designer Kelie Grosso
opted for open shelving in
this kitchen, which allows
for fast and easy decor
changes. Blue accents
stand out against a neutral
palette and makes us
wonder just how dramatic
(and stunning) more even
brightly-colored
dinnerware would look.
12. Turn Your Floors Blue
Can you imagine how simple
(read: boring) this bathroom
looked before it had a bright
blue floor? The quick change
by designer Kari McCabe
allows the tub to take center
stage and makes us want to
soak in there all day long.