Design Tip of the Week ~ Stylish Stools

Whatever your function for stools in your home may be ~ be it extra seating, a footrest, to stack books on, or a record collection keeper ~ we found some very stylish stools that will complete a room:



{Capelli Stool from Herman Miller}





{The New Seagrass Stool from Pottery Barn}




{Becca Stool from Modern Bamboo}

Friday Finds ~ Set the mood

Set a mood with the Gilded Glass Candle Holder from Luna Bazaar (a great place for all sorts of fun stuff!)

DIY Tips & Tricks: The endless vacation

Leaving a great vacation is always hard to do. There are some great ways to preserve the memories so you can revisit them whenever you want. Beyond framing a favorite vacation pic or creating an album, here is a great idea for displaying several vacation memories in a fun way. SHADOW BOX! Yes, I think of shoe box diarammas from elementary school, but leave it to Martha Stewart to take it up a notch.

Check out this step-by-step to creating your own vacation shadow box!

Dandy Chandy Tuesday ~ Worth Every Penny

Remember saving all your pennies as a kid in your piggy bank because you really wanted something ~ like candy, barbies, etc.? Well I wish I would have been saving all my pennies from then until now for this beautiful chandelier from Brocade Home. :)

Design Tip of the Week (1.24.11): Make Your BED!

With these amazing linens designers you can transform a dull bedroom into something spectacular. Make the bed the focal point by picking a look and color scheme that will bring some style and individuality to your bedroom. Two things to take note of when creating your dream bed. Layering and finishing touches take the look to the next level. Shams and a contrasting top coverlet alone will do wonders!

Here are some amazing designers to check out. Note that good linens are not cheap, but they can be mixed with some more reasonably priced pieces to lower the final cost. We threw some of those wallet friendly picks too!

A bed worth breaking the bank for....

Serena and Lily's Catalina Collection


Bella Notte's Seaglass Menagerie Bed (sold by Cottage Chic)


BlissLiving Home"s Shangri-la Collection


A bed that LOOKS like you broke the bank, but didn't...

Simply Vera by Vera Wang's Ombre Stripe Collection for Kohls


Marimekko Samovaari Surf Collection for Crate & Barrel

For the Love of Prefab

{The Hollywood Hybrid Home from Marmol Radziner Prefab}

Happy Friday everyone! I came across my bookmark of Dwell Homes. I used to get the magazine (I may have to subscribe again). I have been in love for years now with the look and style of modern prefab homes.

There is something about the open floor plans, large windows, sustainability and what kind of lot you put these homes on that has always been intriguing to me. They always feel very modern to me, yet warm and cozy at the same time.

Gone are the days where you think of the word prefab and you think of the word cheap, these homes are beautiful and some can be quite pricey. (Again depending on the lot you put them on as well).

Marmol Radziner Prefab has a whole collection of these homes. Another great thing about them is the cost and time to build than a traditional home is much less, which is great for your wallet.

We don't really have mountains here in Miami, but I'll take a beautiful modern prefab home with an ocean view! :)

Art Smart ~ There's Something About You

{ORIGINAL OIL on CANVAS - Something About You}

I've really fallen in love with the portraits of vincenzorizzo here at his etsy shop. His portraits of women really have a vibrancy and soul to them captured on paper. They are inspiring me to pick up the paint brush! Well, at least thinking about picking up the paint brush ~ finding the time, that is another story...

Check out Primed4Design's over 2 years of decorating archives!

Wow. Chrys & I started this blog in August of 2008. I was realizing how many posts we have for decorating and design help for your home. It's been a labor of love!

If you check out the "Helping You Decorate" list on the right of the blog, we have such an amazing archive. From Art Smart to Color & Paint; from Chandeliers to Design Tip of the Week, I'm just really proud of all Chrys and I have compiled for you our readers to be inspired...and to hopefully save a little money! :)

Dandy Chandy Tuesday ~ Outdoor Dreaming

{photo via Southern Living}

I know, I know...many of you guys are up in the north and freezing I'm sure! I just wanted to give you some inspiration and dreamtime of the outdoors in this slideshow here. I've pretty much decided my favorite place to put a chandelier is outside! It looks so dreamy and romantic. Enjoy! :)

Design Tip of the Week (1.17.11) ~ Decorating Inspiration

{photo via Lonny Mag}
I love getting design and decorating inspiration online from various photography.

Lonny Mag has a GREAT slideshow section here full of photos to go through and pull inspiration from. They have a collection of photos for just about every room in your home, like the work space photo above.

This room really caught my eye because it's colorful, warm and personalized ~ it's somewhere I would love to work, be it on the computer, or painting or writing, it's a room I could see myself feeling inspired.

If you have a room that you have no idea how to decorate, this slideshow is great inspiration. But if you don't know where to start, check out our Primed4Design decorating services site here, we are here to help!

Friday Finds ~ Hipster Rug

This Martha Stewart argyle rug in wrought iron is chic, fun, and reasonably priced. You can get a fairly large rug for under $400 at Home Decorators Collection.

Art Smart ~ Tree-lined

Enjoy this Tree Silhouette outdoor print from Ballard Designs - built to withstand the outdoors, but so nice indoors too!

DIY Tips and tricks: Key to what?

Is collecting vintage keys your new hobby? Well if it is, or if you just have a key fetish, here is a fun way to display them! All you need are some keys and a shadow box. Pick how many you want to show case and pin them to the back. Easy breezy DIY project!

Check out Centsational Girl for some ideas!

Go with the one key approach and hang in a sequence.


Or go with multiples (on a key ring splayed out or individually lined up in the design of your choice).


Need keys? Don't want to do the leg work? Pottery Barn has them, don't fret!

Dandy Chandy Tuesday!

Turn a lamp upside down and you get these repurposed vintage crystal lamp tops turned into a pendant. Get a pair from Lamp Goods on Etsy.

Design Tip of the Week (1.10.11): The Key to Decorating

I have been seeing keys lately incorporated into home decorating accessories and I must say that I love that they are so trendy right now. Vintage keys are so interesting both in their design and what they symbolize. A key means access to something to locked away, its so wonderfully intriguing! Here are some fun key designs that you can bring into your decorating. And be sure to check out Wednesday's post for a DIY project using vintage keys.

Decorate your table or dresser with them, like these Garden Key Plates from West Elm.


Use over sized keys as wall art, like these by John Richard from Lighting New York.


Find paintings with keys as the muse, such as Art Zodiac's Deep Blue Skeleton Key on Old Book Pages available through Etsy.


Stick it on your wall! Love the key wall decal from Grey Wolf Graphics on Etsy.

Friday Finds ~ HGTV Dream Home 2011

HGTV announced their brand New Dream Home 2011 contest. Enter here to win their latest dream home in Stowe, Vermont (shown above via HGTV).

I love everything that goes into the building of these homes. From selecting the property site, to the construction, then my fav the interior design ~ I've kept my eye on this Dream Home giveaway for years now and it's always fun checking them out.

Here are the HGTV Dream Homes from the last 15 years! Which one is your favorite?

My 2 personal favorites are the HGTV Dream Home 2010 (Sandia Park, NM) and the HGTV Dream Home 2008 (Islamorada, FL). I just love the design of the house on the exterior and the interior of those 2 in particular, but they did a beautiful job on all of them!

Art Smart ~ Witty Tea Towels?

This illustrated tea towel called "Dishes I'd Rather Be Doing" from dear colleen's etsy shop is artsy, hilarious and the perfect gift for your fav gal pal's new home. :)

Which Hollywood Hunk is your favorite?

Our Faves ~ Exotic Flair

Add some exotic flair to your bathroom with West Elm's new Hammam Collection.

Dandy Chandy Tuesday!

Make it tea time in your house all the time. Yes, it's a tea cup and a light! Get this kitschy light at the Mostaza Seed shop on Etsy. They have several fun tea cup designs AND some very cool jar lights too.

Design Tip of the Week (1.3.10): New Year's Resolution

Organizing is a biggie on the New Year's resolution list. There truly is nothing better than a good declutter to start the new year off right. So to get you inspired on ways to organize, here are some organizing tips for all those areas of your life that may be spilling over or could just use a little tidying up.

Label it! Get some mason jars or metal pails to organize your office supplies or crafts for the kids and use a fun label to pretty it up. Like these chalkboard labels from the Vinyl Chalkboard store on Etsy.


Mount it! Use extra wall space to organize. There are so many systems out there with many different components that you can use to customize your organization needs. Meet your home's new command center, the Daily System from Pottery Barn.


Hide it! Yes, I am not ashamed to hide things. Multipurpose furniture is a great way to hide things like blankets, magazines, pillows and so forth. We use stuff, its how we get comfy, so your house can look clutter free when you have company. Love this giraffe patterned storage ottoman from CSN.


Box it! It doesn't get anymore hidden than putting it in a box. Once that lid is on, nobody needs to know whats going on in there. I have all my office supplies in fun decorative photo boxes. They stack, they look cute, they keep the clutter contained. Try these fun boxes from the Container Store.


Match it! Taking things that you have semi organized and putting them into the same containers or books are a great way to make your things look coordinated. For example, I have many different photo albums and in 2011 I am reorganizing all these photos into matching photo albums so they can display nicely on a shelf in the living room. You can get the same effect with boxes (as mentioned above)or baskets. Here are some magazine files from See Jane Work that can clean up your favorite periodicals into a chic matching storing system.


Quarantine it! This is the mother of all organizers a full sized cubby hole piece of furniture. Several types of these are out there from Ikea to Pottery Barn, just begging to store all your stuff (whether its books, baskets, or bins). If you have the space, you could probably store all your clutter in this piece alone. Here is the Cubby Organizer from Pottery Barn.