House to Home - Ideas for Your New Place

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.”

— Frances Mayer - Under the Tuscan Sun

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

SHOP

ORGANIZE YOUR PAINT

WITH THIS GREAT PAINT COLOR ORGANIZER

SHOP

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

SHOP

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

SHOP

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

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The Heritage Home Design Trend

Everything Old is New Again

It’s best to call it a NEW trend, especially for the younger generation home dwellers who abhor all décor of their parent’s abode.  We’ve seen home trending whiffs of a collective Grandmother direction worded as “Granny Chic” “Granny Millennium” and last summer’s “Coastal Grandmother” (brought on perhaps by watching too many newly discovered Nancy Meyers’ movies during the pandemic?). In any case the buzz worthy 2023 home interior design and styling trend has been coined “The Heritage Home”

The Heritage Home

My interpretation of this home styling trend means that old is finally and refreshingly OK, passed down is cool, and mixing old and new creates individuality. Mix + match is the trend, pairing your functional clean lined current furnishings with passed down and vintage. This combination results in a home that doesn’t look like this month’s home décor aisle at your favorite big box retail store - but one that’s style looks like has been curated and patiently collected for years. 

Items that may have been tucked away for years can be showcased, garage sale finds layered and celebrated in a new, fresh way and favorite pieces refreshed with a new coat of paint or fabric. The trend stems in pairing them with your present-day pieces to create a space that looks curated and developed and totally uniquely your own.

An accent table can be the perfect surface to showcase your vintage finds. (Photo: Reinventing Space)

Paint company Krylon chose their 2023 Color of the Year ( #COTY) Spanish Moss by this trend saying “The heritage trend style is increasingly growing in popularity - the comfort and reassurance found in the past. The color is seen in upcycle, recycled, vintage and antique furnishings and it inspires D-I-Yers to create inviting spaces full of comforting personal choices - ..offering a dose of nostalgia and familiarity at the same time.”

Reinvent an old tea/cocktail cart into something new and fresh for your home by giving it a makeover. The piece can be that infused celebration of “old + new.”

Krylon 2023 Color of the Year Spanish Moss ( photo: Krylon)

I like the phrase “full of comforting personal choices”.  If we’ve learned one thing about the past three years it’s that home IS truly our shelter from the storm.  It’s no wonder that our past down treasures and quirky vintage finds now find a special place in our home, and the need to refresh what we already have is our new home design mantra for 2023. 

Create a comfortable space filled with old and new (Photo: Reinventing Space)

The trend celebrates and embraces a home’s architecture and esthetics too - meaning not erasing the heritage of a home’s build era, but instead following its guidance to include the history and flavor of the home’s ambiance. Flippers are you listening?

Quirky Embraced

Your home’s bones should be embrace and celebrated. (Photo: Reinventing Space)

Pinterest calls it Hipstoric

Pinterest brands the trend “Hipstoric” and according to their data - “in 2023, people will find new ways to honor old stuff in their homes. Got a hand-me-down handy? These searches are helping people combine vintage—often inherited—pieces with their modern styles. Thanks to the Boomers and Gen X driving these trends, antiques have never looked so chic.”

High trending searches on Pinterest:

Eclectic interior design vintage+850%

Mixing modern and antique furniture+530%

Antique windows repurposed+50%

Maximalist decor vintage+350%

Mix + Match style with layers of personality. Furniture, pattern, eras, magically melded to create a one-of-kind space. From floral wallpapers, lush velvets, to repurposed vintage finds revitalized with peel and stick paper.

Drew Barrymore for Walmart (Photo: Walmart)

The English Home

Across the pond, and always a jump ahead, this trend has been in full  embraced in 2020 -

“As the latest spring home décor collections preview at London Design Week (LDW) 2020, it’s clear that heritage design principles continue to influence the work of today’s leading interior designers.

Whilst new design ideas offer innovative inspiration to those updating their homes, they also incorporate style from the past – bringing colour palettes and patterns back from the archives. Interior experts are guided by time‐honoured techniques and architectural features, too, celebrating the importance of skill and craftsmanship in home décor.” - The English Home

Home Entertaining + Celebrations

82% of consumers surveyed said they plan on entertaining at home as much or more than 2022 (International Housewares Association) 

Heritage Trend - Traditional dinner entertaining (Photo: Pottery Barn)

Scroll through any online home furniture/lifestyle retailer and you’ll find the Tabletop/Entertaining tab is chocked full of product and explained inspiration.  Home entertaining and daily traditional home rituals seem to be très chic, from afternoon tea in lovely antique cups, to sit down dinner parties with friends. Perhaps there is still hope for us Boomers to pass down generational China sets and silver serving ware!

As an Interior Stylist I straddle two worlds - I consult home dwellers how to fully embrace, personalize and celebrate their home, and home sellers who want to prepare their space for a new family by removing that personalized stamp.  The 2023 Heritage Trend can be fully embraced by both dwellers and sellers.

• Mix + Match -  Erase the idea that you need a matching “suite” of furnishings. Create a room that incorporates many styles and eras.

• Repurpose and Reinvent - Have a passed down or well loved piece?  Don’t be fearful of reinventing it with a coat of paint or new fabric. 

• Consider traditional updates to a home. Celebrate the bones of your home. Instead of erasing the past, embrace it.  From lighting  architectural elements, to color palette - consider following a guide to the past to update.

• Maximalist or Minimalist, all are welcome with this trend and can work to both’s advantage

• Curate collections and passed down heritage - whether in a bookcase vignette or as your daily dinnerware, personalized and individual are key ingredients.

• Infuse old and new -  Daily function always trumps fussy, the goal is a space that looks like it has been layered over the years.

In conclusion - Shop your home and unearth passed down and forgotten treasures. Repurpose and reinvent them if you want to put your fingerprint on them. Consider adding some traditional and old design styles into your home whether with color, fabric, wallpaper or architectural elements. Create a home that celebrates its heritage, your own heritage and create a space that is individually yours.

- Julea

Can’t figure out how to pull your it all together? My business model is based on using what you have 1st before buying new. I’m happy to help you create a curated home whether in person or on-line. Call or text me at 708-543-8597.

Reference Links:
(https://www.homeaccentstoday.com/trends/mother-nature-inspires-2023-colors-of-the-year/)

(https://business.pinterest.com/en-us/pinterest-predicts/2023/hipstoric-home/)

(https://www.theenglishhome.co.uk/the-top-5-heritage-design-elements-for-elegant-homes/

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 – 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

6 things you need to do to setup a successful Home Staging and Styling Business

Deliberate or by discovery, starting a new business requires essential steps to ensure success. I started my home staging and styling business in 1999, and shortly after, relocated to a new city.

Here are 6 business start-up pearls from my business start and restart from my early days as a business owner.

Success Step #1 - Even before you hang out your shingle, get a set of “calling cards”. A calling card is just basic information about you (no business name needed.) I got mine before I even had TAKEN my specialty training certification class. Start promoting yourself, tell people you’re excited for your new career journey, spread the word on what services you are going to offer, and start a buzz.

Calling Card

A no-hassle, promo start to a new business.

Relocating from S.F. to Chicago - Start, then Restart.

Before even moving back, my business had been featured on the front page of the Real Estate section of the Chicago Tribune about HOME STAGING. I was included in that article because I had a presence on the web and had updated my profile to read residency for both San Fran., and Chicago and importantly, on the trade association's website I was a member of. The reporter found me.

Months before arrival, I worked on setting up my business for the new location - any business forms, state, county or city that needed registration. Ordering marketing materials, updating my website with contact information for both my CA and IL locations. ( Just to put things in perspective, when I started my business in 1999: GOOGLE started in 1998, phone books were a go-to information source, and AOL or Prodigy were used for the Internet.)

Success Step #2- Make sure people can find you. Have a website, social media presence, phone, and email address - and make sure any business listings on the web, especially if you belong to a trade association(s) have all your updated and current contact information.

Those few lines in the article piqued the interest of a reporter at another newspaper, and a week later while sitting in my new home office with stacked boxes around me,  I was asked to do a full business feature with a photo shoot at my next HOME STAGING.  I had no home staging appointments of course, but told her to give me a day and I would. I called the closest Real Estate office, asked for the manager, and explained my quandary. Within hours I had a home to stage, and a few weeks later was on the front page of yet another paper.

Front Page News

Make it work.

Success Step #3 - Be tenacious. If an opportunity arises, grab it. No time to be unsure of yourself, your skill set, or abilities.  If you don’t know it, learn it. If you don’t have it, find it. If you are unsure, convince yourself you are sure. 

Those early Newspaper articles brought me clients. But I had a revelation about my business name., CASA JAMBALAYA when leaving a phone message for my 1st client with her husband -  “Can you tell her that Julea Joseph from Casa Jambalaya called?” and he replied with “WHO, WHO, WHAT?” 

The business name Casa Jambalaya had cleverly worked regionally in California, but wasn’t going to work in Illinois.  I remember my Webmaster telling me that name was too difficult to spell when creating my website in 1999 - I should have listened.   I then created 2 business identities - One for my home styling/re-design services, one for my home staging services. More lessons learned on that concept as well…. (that requires another blog post…)

Success Step #4 - K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid) when it comes to your business name. Yes you want to be creative, but consider the public finding you, understanding what you do, and building a good brand. Make sure that the name is easy to spell, isn’t too long, and gives a glimmer on what you do. Don’t make your branding complicated.

When I first started my business, I asked a friend of a friend who was a PR Executive for a few words of wisdom, she gave me the best advice - to which I still use today. She told me to start marketing within arms length, not to think big ; that people just like me were my clients. So my 1st elevator pitch was :

“Call me when you are ready to get the Little Tykes Gym out of your Living Room and take back your home. ”

— My 1st Elevator Pitch

Success Step #5 - Marketing is easy when you can identify, relate and communicate with your ideal client. Mine was Moms with young kids that were ready to recapture their homes from them. I was there to solve a problem and was just like them. 

Talking about marketing, in 2006 I got a call from Entrepreneur Magazine about an article on Interior Re-designers and Home Stagers. Not only was I featured in the article, my picture was featured on the inside magazine cover! Why? I had a professional headshot. Professional photos matter. Whether it is your portfolio or your “About Me” page -invest in professional photos.

Success Step #6 - Look professional.  Whether it’s you or your portfolio, professionalism will get you on a magazine cover.

Want more of my pearls of wisdom? I’ve got a barrel of them. Stay tuned for my next post about being on HGTV, hosting a local Public-access TV cooking show, and many more business adventure pearls and a few perils of being a home stager/stylist for over 2 decades.

I am happy to chat with you about your new home staging and styling business. Even better, check out my upcoming in-person 2 day HOME STAGING technique workshop, HouseStager Pro. Check my calendar for home staging workshops, interior design seminars, and upcoming classes. Celebrate home! - Julea.

Falling Back in Love With Your Home - Fresh Ideas for February

Re-Arrange Your Furniture.

This gives your rooms a new, fresh perspective and offers a chance to love the stuff you already have.  Keeping furniture in the same spot makes your home stale and boring. Try re-positioning your seating first, followed by tables, then lighting. With the new arrangement, your accessories will get a needed shake up too.  Don’t be afraid to flip flop pieces from other rooms.

(Photo: Julea Joseph)

Celebrate your Heirlooms.  We all have them. Inherited, passed down, or gifted from our wedding. Don't let them languish in a dark closet - get them out and celebrate their heritage. Use your wedding vase with a big bouquet of tulips you picked up from the market. Re-purpose a passed down dresser or desk with a trendy paint color and some sassy new knobs. Pick up some fun wallpaper and line the drawers. Plant a succulent garden in Grandma's tea cups and put it on your window sill.

(Photo: Source)

Buy Something Fancy. Invest a cashmere throw to keep you cozy till spring. Splurge on crisp, high thread count sheets for your bed. Buy your very favorite expensive candle. Even better, buy all three!

Photo: Throw found on William Sonoma Home

Paint a room. Paint is easy. Paint is fast. Paint can change a room's environment in a day. 2020 has some great paint color inspiration that can reinvent a space. Be daring and paint away.

Photo: Behr Paints Color: Back to Nature

Buy a Plant. Whether blooming, 7 feet tall, or hanging from a retro macrame holder - plants make any space come alive, clean the air and make you think of warmer days.

(Photo: Source)

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 – 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.  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, try swapping out or repositioning smaller pieces such as accent chairs, tables, rugs and lamps. 

(PHOTO: Source )

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 or style - by raising it up with a stack of books.

(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.  

(PHOTO: Pinterest)

Paint Color UpGrade:  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.  

(PHOTO: Colorhouse Paints)

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 to a super shaggy custom rug to take your formal living room from boring to spectacular.  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.

(PHOTO: Source)

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: 708-448-7500 Email: Julea@Julea.com.

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!

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