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Getting Ready for Halloween – Crafts

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21467637_SPumpkin carving provides great Halloween memories for children and parents alike. Today’s pumpkin carving tools – available in most grocery and dollar stores – make the process even easier and more fun.

Here are a few pumpkin-carving tips when working with children.

Stay age-appropriate. For very little ones, have them draw the face on the pumpkin for an adult to carve. Or you may not even carve the pumpkin at all – instead use a set of colored sharpies to let children draw jack-o-lantern faces. This is particularly fun for them with the little desk-sized pumpkins.

Share the fun. If possible, let every child have his or her own pumpkin. If that gets too expensive, have one child decide on the eyes, another the nose or mouth, etc. so that everyone has a part in the final product.

Stay safe. Keep sharp knives away from children. Instead of lighting a candle for inside the pumpkin, pick up an LED votive candle for flameless light.

10996366_SThe photo on the right shows another fun craft for Halloween. Cut heavy paper into strips – with decorative scissors if you have them although plain strips will also work. Create a pumpkin shape and staple or glue in place. Top with green paper leaves and some curly ribbon.

Black construction paper can be cut into bat and cat shapes for walls and windows. Bend the bats so they look like they might fly away before tacking to a wall or door.

16209145_SOne other simple craft approach – using leaves – is easy to create but can provide intriguing and dramatic results as you can see in the photo to the left. Cut out scary faces with scissors when leaves are fresh and then let dry in a book to keep them flat. You can tape the final results to your windows to make your home look extra spooky and interesting this Halloween.

Halloween is a great time to get the family together to make decorations for your home during the season. Explore Pinterest and the Internet for other fun ideas for crafts that will help you make Halloween extra special.

Getting ready for Halloween – Decorating

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15317524_SHalloween is second only to Christmas for dollars spent on decorations. It’s fun to play with the holiday by decorating your home and yard. Here are a few ideas to bring Halloween into your home.

There are three directions to choose for your Halloween plans: classic, cute or scary. There are so many options for buying or making decorations that choosing one will help narrow down your decisions.

It’s easy to capture the classic look if you already have decorated your home for fall. You can add a few Halloween-themed items to take it that next step. For example, adding a witches hat and rustic broom in the photo above turns a classic fall arrangement into a nod to the end of October.

16024438_SCute is easy too. Grab a handy stuffed creature or two and add a few non-scary Halloween items such as uncarved pumpkins and Halloween candy. Nothing frightening here – this is a good choice when dealing with more timid little folks who may be overwhelmed by the season.

10776894_SScary is a great choice if you have teenagers in the home. The easiest way to handle this is to give them a budget and free rein. Visiting a local haunted house or two can help with inspiration. If you’re in charge, skeletons, spiders, snakes and dim lights can make your Halloween décor startling and spooky.

Warehouse, discount and dollar stores provide plenty of fuel for making your home fit the season, whichever direction you choose. For more ideas, search “Halloween decorations” on Pinterest. You’ll see a bevy of purchased and homemade ideas – all designed to please you, make you smile, or scare you to pieces.

Design Tips: Making Your Laundry Room Stand Out

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HRM0344With your Fulton home, your laundry room is generously-sized and functional, like this one from the Spyglass model at Victoria Estates. It’s nice to start with such a lovely space, and take it to the next level. Your laundry room can be the perfect place to experiment with some of your more daring design ideas. Here are a few suggestions to make it stand out.

Color: Have you always wanted a yellow room? How about robin’s egg blue? Or maybe you’re thinking about wallpaper. The room is small enough to make a project like this manageable, but you can create quite an impact with a little cash when you add color.

Art: Notice the bold and bright flowers decorating this laundry room. Maybe you’d enjoy enlargements of your favorite photos of family or your travels. You can get photos blown up to poster size for a reasonable price at most warehouse stores.

Go with a theme: This might be the space where you indulge in your love of country style, or perhaps you enjoy daisies or chickens or antique china. The laundry room is generally just for family, so have fun with the space.

Improve function: Would some hooks make it easier to hang clothes on hangars when they come out of the dryer? Maybe you could use a little sewing kit to tighten loose buttons. This might also be a good room for posting upcoming family events on a bulletin board. Take the time as you do laundry to think about additions you could make to this room to make cleaning clothes easier.

The laundry room is often the most ignored spot in the home, but you can make yours unique and special. So why not make your laundry room a space that makes you smile every time you walk in it?

Design Tips: Accessorizing Above your Kitchen Cabinets

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11103954_SWhile it may not be a high priority as you move into your new Fulton home and get settled, one day you’re going to look up and realize that you want something above your kitchen cabinets besides air.

The challenge comes from selecting items that have only one purpose, to stay pretty-much permanently on display but out of reach.

This means that you don’t really want to spend a lot of money but you want it to look nice – as if you spent a lot of money. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

3627780_SDecide on the look you want. Are you looking for bright and modern, traditional and homey or antique and unique? Stand back and really look at your kitchen. What look appeals to you?

Shop your closets. Do you have a bowl from Aunt Sally that you like but really never use? How about a couple of baskets that came with fruit which are just to pretty to throw away? Maybe you inherited a lovely pottery vase that you are uncomfortable using around your rambunctious family. Bring what you have into the kitchen and lay everything out on the counters underneath the cabinets to get started.

Include signs and pictures. Do you have an empty frame? Put a nice piece of fabric or scrapbook paper in it and prop it up against the wall. The “Bon Appetit” sign in this second photo was purchased, but could just as easily be written nicely on an old chalkboard.

6732510_SDisplay a collection. The kitchen to the left showcases an interesting group of antique baskets and pottery. If you like this look but don’t have the collection, visit thrift shops and “age” your purchases with watered down brown and black paint or even strong coffee.

Take your time: One final note: You don’t have to finish this part of your kitchen in an afternoon. Start with a few things and add others as you get inspired over time. Move things around. And above all have fun making the space above your kitchen cabinets totally yours.

Design Tips: Setting up your Bookshelves

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12728460_SAs you finish unpacking, do you find yourself staring at those empty bookshelves, unsure of how to tackle filling them so that they are attractive and functional? It may seem a bit overwhelming, but take it in stages and you will find it easier and maybe even fun. Let’s start with a question:

Do you have a lot of books? If the answer is yes, then your goal is to plan your shelves to showcase your nicest hardcovers in your main living area. While you want to keep your books organized, hardcover books will look the nicest on a shelf.

If you have only a few books, then you can still make your shelves attractive. Start by pulling together any larger decorative baskets or boxes that will fit on your shelves. Scatter these and your books in an evenly-balanced way throughout the shelf space.

16564260_SDon’t limit your book directions to vertical. The books in this photo to the right are set slanted and horizontal. Some are even used as a base for smaller vases and pitchers. Look at placing your largest books horizontally on the lowest shelves. This will ground the arrangement while still making them accessible.

This photo also shows an open box. Play with your boxes and baskets to see if different angles or directions make the shelves look more interesting.

Next, add any photos or artwork. You may want to place these around eye level so people don’t have to strain to see them. Experiment with putting a photo or drawing against the back of the shelf with something else in front of it. Take advantage of your shelves’ depth.

17478352_SThis last photo shows a completed bookshelf. While it is a bit busy, you can see lots of good options for making your shelves interesting. Two larger boxes anchor the bottom of the shelves and books alternate with various accessories. The third shelf down demonstrates the power of layering and using different angles.

You may find yourself making changes and additions over time. That’s a good thing. Your shelves announce your interests and tastes to visitors, so have fun and experiment until you’re satisfied – for now!

Design Tips: A bit of Nature

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14892527_SIn our last blog we mentioned that the plant provided a welcome diagonal element, but it also provides something else – a natural element to expand the décor.

By including a bit of nature in your home’s décor, you bring the outside in, add texture and color and connect your home with the world.

Don’t limit your thinking to houseplants. If you have a brown thumb, you can rely on dried plants, fresh flowers or other natural elements such as the bundle of grasses laying on the table in the photo above.

8089534_SThe kitchen to the right comes alive thanks to the fresh flowers and vegetables on the counter. And although these items are only temporary additions, notice the glass jars of rice and other dried items on the back counter. These provide ongoing natural elements in the room.

As you can see a touch of nature warms up a space and adds personality and interest. You can choose seasonal natural elements if you wish to keep your home even more in tune with nature.

8437116_SYou don’t have to go overboard to make a statement, and don’t limit yourself to tables and counters. Take a look at how this chair creates a fall image with the addition of just a few pumpkins and some dried foliage. The chair and glass vase may be everyday design elements, but by adding the seasonal natural touches, autumn is present in the home.

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One final point: think small as well as large when adding a touch of nature. This table setting moves from standard to special with a bit of nature tucked into the napkin ring. It’s up to you to let nature to inspire you to add this type of special touch to your home.

 

Design Tips: Balancing Heights

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22021044_SWhen displaying anything – accessories on a side table, a buffet for a party, birthday or wedding presents, the impact is much stronger if you vary heights.

Designers know that getting the right balance of heights makes any visual more dramatic and interesting.

Let’s start with the photo above. The colors of pink and citrus green contrast nicely with the white china and the fabric to the left provides some textural interest. But notice that the difference between the tallest and shortest element is only a few inches. This pretty picture has charm but really doesn’t engage the eye.

21556061_SIn contrast, take a look at the photo to the right. The colors are actually slightly more limited, but the eye flies across the image thanks to several design choices.

To begin with, the height differential is almost a foot between the lowest and highest elements. The crossed ribbons in the background emphasize the height differences while pulling attention from one part of the image to the next.

14892527_SNow you may have no reason to stack your plates and bowls, but you can use this same concept with accessories in any part of your home. In this last photo, the same concepts are applied to the accessories on a side table.

The grasses lying horizontal against the table are over a foot lower than the red flowers that top the vertical vase. The chair backs and the bookshelf in the background provide strong horizontal lines, so the verticals need to come from the accessories.

Finally, notice how the plant provides some nice diagonals to draw the eye the same way the crossed ribbons did in the second photo above. The look is completely different, but the same design concepts combine to make both arrangements powerful and eye-catching.

Design Tips: Like with Like

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10593053_SDo you have a collection – either small or large – that you value? If so, think about finding a way to display it in your home with flair.

One fundamental design rule is to position like objects together: like with like. But don’t limit your thinking to only combining things that are exactly the same. Like can mean from the same period of time, in the same color or colors, the same shape, the same theme, or anything you can discover that makes a connection.

Now, the old leather-bound books shown above are together, but they don’t have much of a chance to make a statement sitting on a bookshelf.

7786742_STake a look at about the same number of books combined with a roll of older paper, an old inkwell and a feather that could be a quill pen. By combining the books with other items related to writing from approximately the same era, they change from a few interesting bindings to a design statement.

For small items or things that you don’t mind people playing with, look for interesting ways to build displays that use more than the sense of sight. For example, set music boxes or wind-up toys together on a table with a little note that says, “Please touch.”

10847524_SMaybe you have your grandparents’ old collection of buttons or marbles tucked away in a closet. How about pulling them out and placing them in a container that fits the time those buttons or marbles were used? Set them on a side table next to a favorite spot for your visitors to sit, and you may have created an interactive accessory that your guests will really enjoy. For example, by setting the buttons in the photo in an open old tin box, you encourage people to stop, look, and touch the different materials, sizes and shapes.

These are just a few ideas. Now, when you draw on that designer tip of “like with like,” stretch your imagination to create home accessories that are as unique and interesting as you are.

Bridging Generations: Connecting with Each Other

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14579820_SMany people, particularly baby boomers, find themselves taking care of parents and children at the same time. When everyone shares a home, it can be difficult to get everyone to communicate and feel connected.

Even if grandchildren and grandparents get along well for visits, once everyone is living together 24/7 the situation may change. As the person in the middle, it may be up to you to build a bridge between the generations. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Plan family dinners: With crazy schedules this may be difficult, but start with one dinner together a week and build from there. Fix something that everyone enjoys and make it feel special with fresh flowers or candles. Don’t rely on chance for discussion topics. Make a plan for questions that would be fun for people of all ages. For example: what was your favorite birthday and why? If you have trouble coming up with ideas, pick up a packet or a book of fun questions or dinner table topics.

Play games: A challenging game of Monopoly or Clue can bridge generations. Or you may have your children teach grandpa to bowl on the Wii. By sharing fun experiences barriers will break down and everyone will be more comfortable. Shared fun memories are a great way to make friends.

Tell stories: These might be prompted by family heirlooms or just memories of past events that were exciting, funny or important. Remember to draw out stories from every generation. Grandparents may enjoy hearing about last year’s school play and your kids might like to know what it was like to live in a world without computers and the Internet.

Just a bit of effort can help every generation connect with every other, turning a house full of different people into a true family that enjoys being together.

Bridging Generations: Merging Styles

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12310479_SSo your mom is moving in with you and your family. Your new Fulton home has a great extra master bedroom and a bathroom with special easy-access options for her. Everything, you think, is perfect.

Then she says, “Oh honey, I want you to use some of my furniture in your living and dining room. I know you will enjoy having such good things in your home.”

But your taste is very contemporary and her style is very like the photo shown here. You don’t want to hurt her feelings, but you’ve spent years getting just the right furniture in your style. Understanding that this is just the first of a number of bumps in the road as you all learn to live together, here are a few ways to make your home’s style work for all of you.

Go for Eclectic: Select a few of your mom’s favorite pieces and incorporate them into the living space of your home. You may be surprised to discover that a few more traditional pieces actually add character and charm.

Hand her a room: If she has a dining table and buffet that she is particularly proud of, move your more casual table into the kitchen eating area and set up the dining room with her pieces. Add a few pieces of modern art on the walls and a simple window covering, and you may find the room works well for you. Consider a daring paint color to make the space feel more adventurous.

Coordinate accessories: Does she have lamps that could work in your home? How about rugs or artwork? Consider grouping like accessories in one place, allowing them to provide a surprise punch of personality. For example, if she has numerous collector plates, fill a narrower wall at the end of a hall or the side of the entryway with plates set randomly from floor-to-ceiling about an inch apart.  She will see all her plates on display, and you have turned a plain wall into a point of interest in your home.

With a little imagination, you can merge both of your styles together, and who knows, you may find yourself happier building the differences into your home.