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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
Survey Says! 2021 Home Colors When Selling
A recent Zillow survey reveals which colors may attract more prospective buyers — and higher offers — when you're getting ready to sell.
A recent Zillow survey reveals which colors may attract more prospective buyers — and higher offers — when you're getting ready to sell.
Here are my picks :
Light Blue Bathroom Sherwin Williams Sea Salt : Calming, lovely and the perfect combo of blue and green. ( Bonus. With 2022 color trends leaning towards the green palette, this hue bridges both years.
White Kitchen - Benjamin Moore White Dove : Soft, collective, especially if there are wood tones floating about the home. White Dove is a perfect choice for walls, cabinets or trim.
Gray Living Room - Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray : A greige color with warm and once again looks good on the walls with wood tones and marries well with furniture that is already in the home.
Dark Blue Primary Bedroom - Sherwin Williams Naval : A recent color of the year for Sherwin Williams. Besides looks great in a bedroom, and if you want to play it safe, as an accent wall - this ‘everyone love navy’ color looks stunning as a front door color and can break up an all white kitchen as the island color.
Whether selling or dwelling, my color expertise can help you sell your home and update, refresh and revive your space for 2022. Call or text @ 708.543.8597. - Julea
Accessorizing Your Home Workshop Elmhurst Public Library 12/6 7pm
Join Julea @ Elmhurst Library 12/6, 7pm. for an decorating workshop.
Quick and Easy Accessorizing /Decorating Workshop
Put your own personal stamp on your space with help from interior stylist Julea Joseph. Learn the essential elements every room needs, plus get tips and tricks for shopping for great pieces, breathing new life into your existing treasures, and pulling them all together.
Join Julea @ Elmhurst Public Library for this interior design workshop. To register for this program: 125 S. Prospect Avenue, Elmhurst, IL 60126. Phone: (630) 279-8696 Text: (331) 642-0375.
This is a hybrid workshop - both in-person (limited seating) and via Zoom
-Julea
Not so Fast - Thanksgiving is in-between
It may be the day after Halloween, but don't be decking the halls with red and green just yet - there is a holiday in-between, and it's called Thanksgiving! Here are some great home decorating and hosting ideas that can ease you into the jingle jangle season.
It may be the day after Halloween, but don't be decking the halls with red and green just yet - there is a holiday in-between, and it's called Thanksgiving! Here are some great home decorating and hosting ideas that can ease you into the jingle jangle season.
Container Gardens:
As our 1st frost approaches, it's time to replace the product in our outside container gardens. Opt for mainstays of cut Evergreen greenery or even a live small Evergreen species or tree or bush as your anchor Add fall materials such preserved leaves, pods or flowers and sprayed pine cones in autumn colors. As the season turns into winter, the autumn picks can simply replaced with frosty, winter finds.
Photo: Midwest Living
Wreathes
The timeless eucalyptus wreath can be dressed up or down with any season. The elegant, interesting, round leaves are the perfect foil for any decorating style. Add your favorite elements of the season, then swap them out when you are ready for the next - no need to reinvent the wheel with a whole new wreath. From doors, windows, table centerpieces to tiered plate stands, wreathes are a perfect elevation. This wreath is from Joann.
Photo: Joann
Simple added elements such as these fall eucalyptus stems can transition your wreathes from one season to another. Eucalyptus multi-leave stems by Michaels
Photo: Michael's
Table
Whether foyer, sofa or dining - your table will always look better dressed in fabric. This in-between time is ideal for texture and neutral color tones. Burlap, linen, jute, cheesecloth, sacking, or any natural fabric in a neutral tone will create the perfect styling veneer for your tables. Used as a runner, wrap or layer, these natural fibers will celebrate the season and give you that base to build on. Runner from Ashley Furniture
Photo Collage: Julea Joseph/Source
What to do About Pumpkin:
As cold weather, especially snow or a frost comes in - your exterior pumpkins need exit the exterior of your home or they'll be nothing but mush. Extend their use by adding them to your interior decorating, and if you are hosting Thanksgiving - those pumpkins can be a part of your holiday table too.
Photo collage: Julea Joseph/Source
With these in-between home decorating ideas, your in-between holiday, Thanksgiving will get it's highlight. Enjoy! - Julea
Loved it, Bought it, Sold it : How Smart Paint Choices and Updates Sell a Home
My client didn’t stop there, the story doesn’t end -he added that special pizazz with those updates, and it looked so great, he decided to sell the home! He had a contract within 30 hours.
Sometimes a home is almost perfect when you are buying it. It has great bones, an amazing floor plan and just the right high-end features, but lacks that special pizazz. Hey, we all get it - when investing in a new house, we want our ideal home. If your home isn’t just right, I’ve got the solution to make it perfect. The solution is smart paint choices, simple, well planned updates that will effectively up-style and define a home’s inner beauty.
My client didn’t stop there, the story doesn’t end! Oh no. He added that special pizazz and that home looked so fabulous he decided to sell it. The house had a contract within 30 hours, it is now sold, and my client has now writing a new chapter of home.
The moral of the story is that smart paint choices and simple updates up-style and add pizazz to a home and then if you decide to sell, those great updates attract and wow today’s home shoppers.
So let’s take a look at some of the before and process pictures.
We started in the kitchen. Although the home was just built in 2016, the homeowner wanted to give the space a refresher. The goal was get away from the darker brown hues and formality for a brighter and more simplistic style and feel. ( pssst… look, the old listing is still hanging out online - you can see the old list here) to see the before, befores!
The dark cabinets were painted Sherwin Williams Marshmallow SW 7001, and the white island flipped to Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray 168. The new colors expanded the space, complemented the beautiful, existing wood floor and the new dark island creates the room’s focal point and sets the stage for the new white quartz island counter.
The parameter granite counters were kept, and the island counter replaced with a white quartz. The old island top was repurposed and recut to replace the dark, mismatched. counter on the entertainment bar bank.
The backsplash was replaced with a pale gray glass subway tile.
Lighting in a dark bronze color and the homeowners existing furniture slipped right in to compliment the new up-styling.
Take a look at the after photos:
The formal living room got a fresh wall paint and lighting swap as well. The sconces are new, but the chandelier got refreshment with spray paint! Just like the rest of the home, the homeowners wonderful existing furniture slipped right in. With a bit of styling and interior arrangement, the space is complete.
The rest of the spaces got the same treatment, especially the primary bath. The floor was replaced, a new tub, vanity painted and new light fixtures. For more of the transformation - here’s the listing: 11060 Deer Haven .
Have a decorating situation, or are struggling to make a house your home with color selections, updates or styling solutions? I’m a jingle or text away @ 708.543.8597 - Julea.
Resources:
Painter, walls and cabinets: Nicks Painting and Decorating Inc.
2021 Listing Realtor Angela Greenfield @Properties
Visit my site for a List of home paint colors
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.