Monday, April 16, 2012

Pull it Together!

How many times have you walked through your home wishing you could give it a fresh look? Do you have a room that frustrates you? No money in the budget for new stuff?

Don't worry you can pull it together and end up with a space you really love! Here are three steps to get you started.

1.  Look around. Really look.  It is easy to walk past a room or area and not even see it anymore. Is the space functioning the way you want it to? Define it's purpose.

2. Clean it up! Are there cobwebs, dust bunnies and piles of stuff? By giving your space a good cleaning you will instantly feel better about it.

3. Remove distracting items. It's weird but we keep items we can't stand! Take away the things you don't love. Okay, I understand if it's your sofa or main piece of furniture and has to stay.

Now that you have defined the purpose, cleaned it up and taken away those ugly, distracting items... You are ready to move on.

We are going to use my sofa table as an example. This is a "before" photo. The beautiful planter with the antlers used to have pears in it. The pears are long gone, a picture was turned sideways and it was dusty and boring. This is a perfect example of walking by something and just not seeing it anymore.

 Step one: Look around

Step two: Clean it up

Step three: Remove distractions

  Now you're ready for phase two. This is the fun part!

1. Shop and gather. Shop your own home. Walk through your house and pull a few items you love from other areas.

These are the items I found.

 2. Try it out. Now that you've gathered your items give it a test run. You could start with the largest item in the center and go from there.



3. Edit. Stand back and take a look. Do you love it? Is something not right? Try editing. Take something away and see how you like it.




4. Stop. Sometimes you have to know when enough is enough! There has to be a stopping point or this could go on all day. At least for me!

I ended up with the photo on the right. I took away the throw and the candles in front of the hurricane filled with corks. Can you see it? (I wonder who drinks all that wine...) Then added back the striped vase. It's just behind the huge dictionary. Added some antlers and a few smaller candles.


That's it. My finished space. Now that you're feeling outrageously inspired... go. Pull it together!

Do you have any great decorating tips or tricks? Share. The rest of us would love to hear them!