Supernatural Botanicals

Ensure that bedside lamps are the correct height with this little trick: When you’re sitting in bed, the lampshade bottoms should be at eye level so light will shine on your reading material not in your eyes.

Steal this look:  Gorgeous brown toile.

Chocolate brown walls are really hot right now.  Brown is the new black …or at least it is this season.  Chocolate brown walls are super-chic and rich looking and dramatically transform a room into an elegant, grown up space.  If you are color-phobic, start with painting one wall in your space a deep shade of chocolate, and accessorize with creamy white mouldings.  It’s a gorgeous look, and can go across the board style-wise, from urban to suburban.   (And to be green…Make sure the paint you purchase is either low-VOCs or no-VOCs. )

    Bedroom closet tip:  Sort clothing by color so you automatically know where a particular item can be found.   Also use space-saving tiered and belt hangers to keep collections of pants, blouses, skirts, and accessories available at a glance.  …A place for everything, and everything in it’s place.  It makes your closet a much happier place to be. 

Bedroom design is so important.  We spend so much of our time in our bedrooms, that it should be a place that feels good…to you.  Whether you go monochromatic or bold, your bedroom should feel like a sanctuary and appeal to what makes you feel good.  It should be a place free of clutter, so you can relax, think, read, and sleep comfortably….not to mention, feel sexy!

Gorgeous monochromatic bedroom.

Soft and sexy, with perfect lighting and shadows.

Light and breezy, ocean view.

Crown molding at it’s finest!   Stately, grand, and beautiful.

For more great design inspiration, see Hooked On Houses.

Good luck talking your husband into this one.   This is an ultra master suite with over-the-top amenities.  That being said, I love it!  I love design, especially bedroom design, but I think I’d feel too spoiled living in that room.  It’s absolute luxury…..squared!  I think that after the recession is said and done, we’ll see a lot less of these grandiose upgrades, but they were fun while they lasted.  Now, it’s just so 2007.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ-hov8-iak

Join the design-lovers blog party today, and every Friday, at my friend Julia’s blog, Hooked On Houses.

   Ah, luxury bedding.  Is there anything better than luxury bedding?  You could have the worst day in the world and your mind could be in 25 different places, but something about slipping into a bed dressed in luxury makes it all go away.  There’s something very meditative and calming about beautiful bedding.  It’s very zen. 

Your bedroom is a place you don’t want to skimp on.  It’s the ultimate spot for indulgent “me” time.  I throw “me” time around like I get a lot of it.  I don’t.  I probably get as much ”me” time as you do.   But remember the term “quality, not quantity” coined by guilt-ridden parents in the 80s?   I’m not sure how effective that was on children, but it certainly applies well to other areas.  So we all can’t lay around in bed all day, but at least six hours a day will be spent in your bedroom, so make it your sanctuary.  Your ultimate “me” time place.   

Luxury bedding means something different to everyone, it’s all relative obviously, but to me, it’s about thick, ultra-soft cotton sheets (flannel actually feels like the thickest, most soft cotton you’ve ever felt after you’ve washed it several times and use lots of Downy.)  A luxurious blanket made of the softest material you can find, and a fluffy white down comforter rolled down to make it look tripled in size.  Back in the day, I had tons of accessory pillows on my bed.  Today, I go with what works…practical and beautiful.  I use three king sized pillows pillows for each side of the bed, meaning six in total (see picture.) 

If your mattress hasn’t seen new sheets in a while, it’s time to stage a bedroom intervention.  Stick with simplistic colors, like white or camel, as it’s (A) more zen and (B) easier to accessorize the rest of your room with.  Keep the overall goal of zen/beautiful/luxury in mind when shopping.  Don’t get too far off track .  Yes, Calvin Klein will try to tempt you with wild animal prints and Laura Ashley will tempt you to sleep in the land of precious with dainty flowers, but that’s not zen.  And, it’s just downright mean making your husband sleep in Laura Ashley.  Seriously!  Men do not want to wake up like a princess. 

And no time like the present!  Tomorrow is Valentines day, so do a room intervention tomorrow morning so your luxury bedding will be ready for your Valentines picnic in bed.   Just watch the red wine on the sheets.

*If you adore interiors and homes as much as I do, you’ll love my friend Julia’s blog, Hooked On Houses.  Such a great blog if  you are hooked on houses like we are!  Go say hi to Julia, she’ll be glad you stopped by. 

  Everything old is new again, and HGTV’s 2009 eco-friendly Dream Home is no exception.  There are so many things to love about the Dream Home this year.

   Lets discuss….First, the architecture is pure gorgeousness.  The old school traditional farm house style is enough to get interior design junkies salivating.  A huge porch made for lazy days, lemonade, and gossip welcomes you, as any farm house style house should, with opulent over-sized light fixtures and true-to-the-period plantings in the yard.  The front door is grand and wide, with gracefully-aged wood and beautiful hardware.

  The foyer spills onto an expansive entryway with gleaming walnut floors.  The family room, surprisingly modern for a farm house with leather sofas and local (Port St. Lucie, Florida) artwork, but it works.

   The study/home office has its own private entrance and a fully stocked wine closet.  HGTV calls it “decidedly masculine”, but I’d call it gender-neutral before I’d call it masculine.   …trust, I’ve seen masculine offices before.   The opposite sex could certainly appreciate this design, but so could the female persuasion.  I’m going to go with gender-neutral on the design.  The wine cabinet in the home office seems a bit on the multitasking side, but being eco-friendly means we can (and should) appreciate downsizing from our over-sized-everything economy.

   The dining room is perfection.  Coral colored walls against gleaming white mouldings color the farmhouse style tea parlor and dining space.  Skirted upholstered side chairs gather around a Ethan Allen Farmhouse Table.

   The kitchen, the sweet, sweet kitchen.  Twin refrigerators/dishwashers, wine cabinet, and a center island big enough for you and a few friends to sleep on comprise this farm house kitchen.  It’s everything you’d expect a farm house kitchen to be with its substantial vanilla-colored cabinets and wood flooring.

   The bedroom…take notes here.  Where to start?  It’s pure luxury, reminiscent of a luxury hotel.  The color of the walls appear to be an apple green, exact color being Sherwin Williams flat in Inland.  It pops against the white and creams in the furniture, curtains, and fabric that canopies the bed.  The sitting area screams…. Sit here on Saturday mornings with a carafe of coffee, the newspaper, and a hot member of the opposite sex!   Very crisp, clean, and minimalist.  Beautiful.

   The home’s most grand feature is spa-style master bath with a rolled edge tub big enough for two…or even three!  Stacks of white fluffy spa towels line the wall, and again, that shinny walnut floor.  The room is relaxing enough to do yoga in.

Once again, HGTV makes another dream home so good it hurts!   I really thought I loved the house in Maine, but this is a farm house loaded with eco-friendly features….it’s just calling my name!   It’s such a win/win.  This is my favorite, by far.  …of note, I’m super partial to farm houses, Victorian architecture, and the eco-awareness movement.

Take a virtual tour here:  http://www.hgtv.com/dream-home/index.html  And enter for you chance to win HGTV’s Dream Home 2009 on January 1, 2009 at www.HGTV.com.