BLOG interiors + staging + lifestyle
House to Home - Ideas for Your New Place
Whether you are moving into something new, or just want a fresh look for your existing place - here are some great tips, ideas and sage advice on making a house a home.
The keys are yours! You’ve gone through the process... the searching, deciding, inspection, stress, closing and finally, the elation of buying a new home. Now, you have to make it your own. Here’s how. Whether you are moving into something new, or just want a fresh look for your existing place - here are some great tips, ideas and sage advice on making a house a home.
“Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself so it can introduce itself to you.”
Color - Paint is the least expensive, easiest way to update a space. It can individualize a room and put your personal stamp on your home. Pick your color style - From calming nature-inspired neutrals, clean, fresh whites, to bold and fun retro colors, whatever you have in mind for your style, color can showcase it. And color doesn’t have to be just on the walls - If you want to keep the wall color simple, infuse color with your furniture, art or accessory choices. Get your craft on by painting a piece of furniture, or recover your dining chairs seats with new fabric. Try trending wallpaper on a single accent wall or power room. Create a signature look with a statement making - front door color. With color, the change is quick, easy and is all you.
Benjamin Moore Aegean Teal Blue Door (Photo: Benjamin Moore)
BOLD WALLPAPER
CREATE A STATEMENT WITH SOME FUN AND FUNKY WALLPAPER. PEEL AND STICK MAKES IT EASY
ORGANIZE YOUR PAINT
WITH THIS GREAT PAINT COLOR ORGANIZER
Your Favorite Things - This is your chance to create a space that reflects your unique style. Home should hold your beautiful art, furniture, passed down family treasures and loved flowers in your garden beds. Simple daily rituals with favorite things, cozy slippers slipped on at the end of day, or tossing your keys into that old bowl, will infuse you into the home. It could be something new that defines your new chapter of home - that perfect comfy sofa you spied, a fresh new style that you’ve wanted to try out, fun new pillows to add a splash to a patio set. By incorporating these favorite things - you’ll become instantly grounded in your new space.
KEY BOWL
PERFECT FOR YOUR FOYER OR COUNTER TOP TO TOSS YOUR KEYS AND MAIL IN
Make Your Bed! A bed is your personal haven and cocoon. Dressing your bed makes your home environment feel luxurious. Even if the bedroom still has boxes, you can sleep well with a beautifully made bed. It can boost your mood. Making your bed is a simple task that can have a big impact on your mood. Studies have shown that people who make their beds are more likely to feel happy and positive. Make your bed so that every time you see it, you want to jump into it. I like to mix old with new. New, fresh, very fancy (the best you can afford) sheets, a stylish linen duvet set slipped over your old favorite down comforter and pillows. Pair the bedding with Grandma’s quilt or your favorite throw at the end of the bed and you'll be ready for a great night's sleep.
LINEN DUVET SET
SOFT, BEAUTIFUL AND EASY TO CREATE A GREAT SPACE
Room to Room - This is where you channel Frances Mayer, the character from the book/movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" - by going room to room to make it yours. When you first move in, take some time to spend in each room. This will help you get a feel for the space and start to envision how you want to use it. Don’t try to tackle the entire home’s decorating and styling needs, instead, try to work on the spaces you spend the most time in first.
5 Senses - Nothing says home more than seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and feeling your favorite things at home. Put out those family photos, beloved books, play music, light some candles in your favorite scent, open your favorite wine and curl up on that fluffy sofa and celebrate home!
Your home should be a place where you can relax and escape from the stresses of everyday life. Make sure it's a space that you love spending time in. With a little effort, you can easily make your new house feel like home. So take some time to get settled in, add your personal touch, and start creating memories in your new space. - Julea
Need HELP? From move-in services to one day room makeovers, I’m a call away 708.448.7500 Julea@Julea.com
SHOP THE LOOKS IN THIS POST :
Please note: [ *As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small fee from qualifying purchases.]
New Year New Room Re-style - Shake up your space with these post holiday styling ideas
STOP! Before you start shoving your furniture back into its old spots after you’ve packed away your holiday décor, consider this instead -
STOP! Before you start shoving your furniture back into its old spots after you’ve packed away your holiday décor, consider this instead – Why not give your space a new perspective by re-styling things? After all isn’t the New Year all about making changes? And don’t give me the excuse that if you move stuff around what will you do about those carpet divots. Please…
A fresh perspective is a good thing, especially in your home environment.
[1st things first. Start the new year with clearing your home of the past year. Scientists have observed that sage can clear up to 94 percent of airborne bacteria in a space and disinfect the air. The Latin word for sage salvia stems form the word heal. Light an essential oil Sage candle and start the new year with a fresh, cleared space.]
Here are some things you can do to up-style and reinvent your rooms and home spaces.
Move What You Have Around: Start with what you already have. Take a stroll through your home and inventory the furniture you have from attic to garage. Could that consignment shop find desk up in the spare room work as a sofa table or would that rug in the dining room look really nice in the living room? After you do some mental inventory, address the room you want to reinvent. Consider flip flopping the sofas, changing the room's focal point to a different wall or changing the entire feel of the space by swapping pieces from other rooms to make it more formal or casual. If these suggestions are a bit overwhelming to you, our One Day Makeover services can breath a fresh new perspective into your spaces and uncover things you’ve haven’t used in years.
Our One Day Room Makeover services recreate a space in a matter of hours - (Photo: Julea Joseph)
Accessory Re-Styling: Rotate it, archive them or repurpose it! From tabletops to bookcases to wall art, your accessories can always use a new look. The same family photos in the same frame in the same space aren't even seen anymore. Your very favorite piece of art hanging in the dining room isn't being celebrated there - move it to a spot so you can view it all the time. That boring bookcase or China hutch could make your room POP if you rotated and swapped the pieces. Give a lamp a new look with a new shade, harp, finial, or re-style it - by raising it up with a stack of books or painting the base.
Flip your shades. Change out your lamp shades, and/or lamp finials. (PHOTO: One Kings Lane)
Furniture Reinvention: Can you reupholster, slipcover, paint it? If your furniture is good, if you love the lines or it has sentimental value, keep it, and improve it.
We are pros at offering advice on how to reinvent your treasured furniture (PHOTO: Julea Joseph)
Paint Color Up Grade: Once you get your room rearranged, you may want to take the next step and change the paint color as well. If you have had the same color on your walls for years, a new hue can upgrade your furniture, accessories and art. 2023 offers a plethora of amazing trending paint color to choose from. Try just painting an accent wall, or, try a wall of wallpaper.
2023 Paint Colors of the Year (PHOTO: Source/Julea Joseph)
A Few New Purchases: Any room could use a few new things. It could be as simple as a lovely potted plant on your cocktail table, a new fun rug in a bold hue or pattern to take your formal living room from boring to spectacular. A new accent collection in a trending color, or a new piece of furniture to refresh the old. Feel free to shop for a few new items, but only after your room has been re-styled. Consider the new items as the frosting, not the cake.
Refresh a room with a new piece or two - rug. (PHOTO: Amazon)
No time for shopping - Here’s a few examples for you on AMAZON - From a Sage candle to furniture pieces. Julea’s January finds on AMAZON
Don't have the time or talent to do this yourself? Good news, we can help. We're interior arrangement experts, have fabulous ideas on how to give your old stuff a new life and don't even get me started on what we can find with our shopping skills! Give me a jingle, send an email my way and let's talk. We offer both on-location and e-makeover sessions. Let's get your home refreshed, restyled and reinvented. Biz phone: 708-543-8597 M 708-448-7500 B Email: Julea@Julea.com.
WANT TO LEARN MORE? Visit my website for my upcoming workshops, education and training. JULEA’S SPEAKING & EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
Oh... and those divots - Add crushed ice to the dent, let melt and then use an old hairbrush to re-fluff your carpet. Refluff again after drying. Divots gone! - JULEA
Spring Things you Can do to Your Home
With these changes you’ll renew your home’s feeling, create new spaces to celebrate, and enjoy the new season both inside and out.
Well it may be snowing in Chicago today, but spring is definitely here. The Easter holiday is behind us, and if you are wondering how to refresh and restyle your home with more than just bunnies and dyed eggs - this post if for you.
The great thing about living in the Midwest is that we get to reinvent our home’s space four times a year as the seasons change. As my design mantra goes “If you change up your home, it changes up you too”. So what spring things can we do to our home?
TRY A NEW ROOM ARRANGEMENT
Give a space a new look with interior arrangement. The sun changes positions seasonally, and your Sunday reading spot that was perfect in winter now is unbearably sunny without the blinds closed. The fireplace that was your cozy cure for the blustery weather, now sits fireless as spring temperatures rise. Try repositioning that chair to a new spot. That move creates a whole new look for your favorite chair and creates the spark for a new room setting. And rather than cozying up to the fireplace - with a bit of furniture moving, you could instead have a window view of birds nesting and flowers blooming. This will give you a new daily respite to sooth your soul.
FURNITURE SWAP FROM OTHER ROOMS
The design police will not shun you if you find that your dining room hutch that houses Granny’s dusty China works much better as a bookcase or crafts storage hutch in your office. Or the kid’s dresser is the ideal entry piece for that empty wall in your foyer. Be fearless by understanding furniture can be moved and have more than one purpose.
LOOK AT YOUR ACCESSORIES IN A NEW LIGHT
My whole business is based on using what you already have, and I can tell you that after 23 years, you have plenty of accessories. Did you know the average home has 300,000 things in it? Rather than thinking you need to buy new to refresh, think how you can celebrate what is already there.
A lamp can be up-styled by just changing out its shade. Too, by reducing or increasing the harp size (the thing that you put the shade on) you can try a new shade size.
Rotate your art. Create a collection with a few pieces on your mantle (hang one, lean the others) or on your hall walls, Use an easel and display small art pieces on a table, in a bookcase, or just lean them as a back drop.
Art, as well as trays, bowls, vases can be archived, and rotated in or out for the season to bring color, mood, or seasonal spirit to a space. And of course you can reinvent them. Head over to YouTube or Pinterest and be tutored on reimagining old accessories (there are a zillion options).
DO SOMETHING BIG
When I mean big, I don’t mean buy a whole new house big, I mean do something that makes a more permanent change. Paint an accent wall, your pantry door, or a piece of furniture. Wallpaper your foyer, the inside of your China hutch or the front of the drawers of a dresser. Reupholster that Sunday reading chair in your new favorite color (hopefully tangerine). These changes are a bit more permanent, but aren’t too costly, but will bring a big change to the way your home feels.
BRING THE OUTSIDE IN
The best part of spring is that everything seems shiny and new. Snip budding branches and pop them into some of your favorite large floor vases. A container of a spring flowers cheers up any counter or table. Swap out the pinecones in your display bowls for bright green moss covered balls, sport a newly made table terrarium or pop a potted plant under a cloche to celebrate the growing season. Raid your bookcases for all your gardening books for a new display collection on your living room’s coffee table.
With these changes you’ll renew your home’s feeling, create new spaces to celebrate, and enjoy the new season both inside and out.
Need expert and creative advice to shake up your spaces? Want to leave and come home to a whole new space in a day using just what you already have? We do that. Call/Text 708-543-8597 to learn more.
Julea
Wallpaper! Up-style your space in a day.
Why are you waiting? If you are haunted by thought that wallpaper is only found in your Great Aunt Millie’s home or it is impossible to remove? Good news - the 21 century version is removeable, can be peel and stick and is totally hip.
I headed to a new client’s home yesterday to give her some fresh ideas to make her home her own. A decorating suggestion for the dining room, already painted navy, this wallpaper, but just the back wall.
York Wallpaper Peacock Pattern
Fun, yet just a bit sophisticated, and will tone down all that navy and add just the right bit of pizazz. Plus, it will be a showstopper when looking into the space from the foyer. And, that entryway right outside the dining room had a fantastic blue/grey tile. The paper will meld the color palette and tile pattern together and join the two rooms.
Here’s what is great about decorating with wallpaper - if you don’t like it in this color, it comes in 4 other color waves! Take a pick.
Ironically, my 2nd client in the day who is building a new home mentioned that she wanted to add wallpaper to her powder room. Well I just pulled out my phone showed her the paper saved in my gallery and she went gaga over the same paper. Then she pulled her phone and showed me the the color of the vanity going in, a beautiful, rich blue. BINGO! She too can use the same paper, but will get a completely different look! Her floor tile, the room size and papering of all the walls will have a completely different style and ambience. Won’t her powder room needing guests be wowed. Here’s her space.
Wallpaper can do a couple fantastic things for your home.
It can help you create a color palette. Wallpaper is an easy way to help you choose colors for your home OR coordinate the existing colors in your home. You can pull a few colors from the pattern and use those as inspiration for a whole home color palette, or just the room. Too, the wallpaper pattern and its colors can create that tread that joins what’s already there.
You can use wallpaper to create mood and personality. If you want to shake up a space, create ambiance, or a bit of surprise - there is nothing easier than using wallpaper to achieve that goal.
Wallpaper can fool the eye. From brick, shiplap to a subway backsplash tile, there is a wallpaper that looks like an expensive design application but will cost you way less.
It’s almost instant. Wallpaper can be up in a day (or even in an hour or two) giving you immediate results.
It gives a space dimension. It can create texture, make a space feel larger, create depth, or ground a space.
It can be used anywhere. On a ceiling, in a closet, to line the back of a curio, cabinet or door. It can be used to up-style a desk, chest, dresser or lamp. The remnants from a project can line a drawer. The spaces it can go are endless.
I can’t wait to see the results of these rooms with the wallpaper application and the finishing touches the paper brings. If you want to add wallpaper, but need a helpful push, a wee nudge, send me a message or give me a jingle and I’ll alleviate your wallpaper phobia, and squash those thoughts of the ghosts of wallpaper past. - Julea.
Home Office Paint Colors for Home Schooling
For any age, a home schooling environment should be conducive to focus and concentration, while infusing color moments that can spark creativity.
I was lunching (al fresco of course) with my friend and Benjamin Moore paint associate Mary Hoffman the other day. As we were catching up and discussing 2020, one of our talking points was how many of my clients have inquired about creating a great home office and e-learning environment. Delightfully in the e-mail yesterday came this wonderful, expert advice from Benjamin Moore’s corporate Color Director.
For any age, a home-schooling environment should be conducive to focus and concentration, while infusing color moments that can spark creativity. Creating this balance with wall color s is important to avoid boredom or creating a space that may be too aggressive for school-related activities. It is also important to take the other elements into consideration – beyond furniture and flooring, to include school-related supplies, accessories and other moments that may be good ways to introduce bold or saturated color, while maintaining a backdrop that is not distracting.
Pre-school: There are two directions one can take with this age group. I think a very pale blue like Polar Ice 1660 or a soft yellow like Fresh Air 211 would be a nice backdrop. Another option is a warm white like Mountain Peak White OC-121 as a wall color with accents in primary hues coming from furnishings and small accents, and even toys/teaching tools. That way there is a balance between lively colors that are eye catching and a wall color that is subdued and will not distract kids, especially when young attention spans are limited.
Elementary: There is a pretty wide range for elementary students as they could be just a step up from pre-school, or on their way to Jr. High. A soft green could be nice, like Spring Valley 438 or maybe Cedar Grove 444 for something slightly darker. I also like Mt. Rainier Gray 2129-60 and Breath of Fresh Air 806. Again, the wall color can be the back drop for other things happening in the space from furniture, to school supplies, to even white boards or bulletin boards with school-related items on it. I’d also suggest using chalkboard paint in spots where it makes sense, using a darker color so the chalk stands out well, for instance Downpour Blue 2063-20 or maybe Jack Pine 692.
Jr High: Now that the student is getting a bit older, the wall colors that will be appealing and will create an atmosphere conducive for studying may be a bit more nuanced. A few colors that may appeal to this age group include Wales Gray 1585, Airway 828, Stonington Gray HC-170, or Vintage Taupe 2110-70. There may also be opportunities for a “whiteboard” with notable, so a lighter color will work best to show off dry erase markers.
High School: With tastes becoming more sophisticated and different school demands, the palette may expand to include some darker hues, and even variations on white for a modern look that also lends itself to schooling. On the darker end of the spectrum, Van Deusen Blue HC-156 or Chelsea Gray HC-168 are nice choices, while Simply White OC-117 and Cloud Cover OC-25 could also work well. Other options that appeal to this age group include Smoke Embers 1466, Gentle Gray 1626, or Ocean Air 2123-50.
Benjamin Moore Dry Erase Board Paint: Transform Any Wall Color Into a Dry Erase Board with Notable Dry Erase Paint. Find Your Perfect Color.
BEN® CHALKBOARD PAINT - Chalkboard Paint, available in any color, lets you turn virtually any interior surface into an erasable chalkboard.
Excitedly, I met with a new design client last week and picked Benjamin Moore’s Pale Smoke 1584 for her home office. I’ll be following up this post with my picks and home styling suggestions for her home office re-boot in another blog post. Stay tuned! - Julea
Have a decorating dilemma? You may be looking for some decorating or remodeling guidance, validation, or you are struggle with just pulling it all together. My 2 hour design consultation is a great option to meet your goals. Call or text Julea @ 708.543.8597.
Re-Style Old to New - Making Your Inherited Stuff Stunning
I was chatting with my longtime friend about her brother tucking away Dad's inherited watch in a safety deposit box rather than wearing it. He said that he was only going to use it on special occasions; I was totally puzzled why he would do that? Why not wear it every day to celebrate his Dad’s memory?
It made me think back to eyeballing a perfect little velvet loveseat at a thrift shop - perfect because it was encased in a plastic slipcover. I had thought to myself, the old owner never got to experience the joy of sinking into that sofa and feeling the lush texture of the velvet. I envisioned a hard crunched rather than a soft, cozy sink when (if ever) someone sat down.
Celebrate it, use it, restyle it and make it your own. How? Here are few examples of how you can reinvent what is inherited, old or unused into something with purpose and loved.
Photo: (source).
One of my clients was struggling with her husband's gifted grandparent's dining set. They really wanted to honor it in the dining room, but the dark wood wasn't appealing and the table wasn't going to work with daily use. The restyle solution was to purchase a new table and have the rest of the set painted to match. The celebrate what you have result is the perfect mix of old and new. And the big bonus is they now get to love that set as much as his Grandparents did.
Why not get ready every morning in vintage style and maybe a wink and nod to Mom with a lovely vanity vignette of your makeup necessities organized in old silver serving pieces.
Photo: (source)
Don't haul that old sofa, chair or ottoman out to the curb - instead, have it reupholstered. If you have a vintage piece of furniture that you just love, it’s comfy, just the right size and it’s made fantastic - reinvent it instead.
Aunt Millie's tea cup collection boxed in tissue somewhere? Unwrap them, head over to a craft store and cook up a batch of wax to make them into candles. They'll warm your heart with their romantic flicker on your sofa's end table as you settle in for the evening.
Photo: (source)
Transform an antique photo of your heritage with a blown-up image updated in a wrapped canvas technique. Add a few more in various sizes to create an unique gallery wall.
Photo: (source).
I'd love to know what you have done with your old stuff - Please share on the comment area of this post!