Consider Concrete Decorating Solutions for Your Home

Irwin Weiner ASID - I've not been quick onto the custom concrete bandwagon for home design, having relegated concrete to the realm of the too-architectural approach to home design and home decor. Concrete can be an amazing addition to a home, both as a practical design feature and as a tactile element. There's nothing cooler than a concrete floor - one kind of texture - overlaid with a shaggy knotted handmade rug - another rich contrasting texture.

Here are some of my favorite concrete applications from Concreteworks East, a supplier of custom concrete products out of East Brunswick, NJ. My personal favorite is the use of terrazzo within concrete in the tub below. Out of this world! We need to look forward to the "next thing" in design, and I like the use of color within concrete, moving away from the concrete-only look (I'm still not a huge fan of tinted colored concrete - I think the final product comes out a bit too gloomy and muddy).

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White Decor Adds Winter Wonder to Interiors

Jessica Ackerman - If you think that white is one of the more boring colors to decorate with, think again. White can actually be used in many exciting and creative ways throughout the home to add a dash of decorating excitement. Because it can be combined with practically any other shade, white is also extremely versatile and easy to work with. Although white can be used to great advantage in your decorating scheme year-round, it can be especially fun to use during the winter months to create a "winter wonderland" look. In fact, what better way to celebrate the beauty of the snow outdoors than to use white to re-create the look indoors? If you'd like to freshen up the look of your home with white this winter, here are some great decorating tips to help get you get started.           

White Walls for a Clean Slate

White walls can provide the perfect backdrop for a myriad of other decorating options. It's important to remember that if you'd like your other decorating accents to really "pop," you have to make sure that the room's wall color isn't too overpowering. If you walk into a room and the wall color is the first thing you notice, chances are the rest of the room's decor isn't receiving the attention it deserves. For example, a beautiful piece of wood wall decor could serve as an eye-catching accent piece when hung on a white wall. However, if hung on a darker colored wall, it could blend in too much.

White walls can also provide a nice visual contrast to other darker colored decorating pieces throughout a room. For instance, if your furniture pieces are dark, white walls could provide the perfect backdrop. The same is true for dark woodwork, dark cabinets, or dark flooring.

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Our Top Tips: Play It Smart When You Renovate Your Home

Irwin Weiner ASID - Our regular readers know that Jay and I are renovating our country home's kitchen and the back-entry laundry, powder room, and mudroom areas. We've been thinking a lot about how homeowners need to have their eyes wide open to the realities of renovating, as it's oftentimes an unnatural act and an extreme intrusion upon your family's home life. Here are Design2Share's top tips for renovating your home, should you want to tackle something fresh and updated during the new year.

• Protect yourself by hiring experienced, reliable, and highly-skilled professionals for any home renovation project. Personal recommendations from family, friends, and neighbors are best (“They did great work on my addition!”). There are many experienced and reliable contractors working in your community—highly skilled professionals who do business the right way.

• If you're hiring a contractor to do construction, renovation, or repair work on your home, avoid paying cash "under the table" for your job. You’ll likely not get a better deal.

• You need a warranty from the professionals you hire, meaning some kind of recourse for poor workmanship.

• You have the added risk of liability if an injury takes place on your property when you hire non-insured workers for your home projects. You’re better off hiring fully insured and bonded individuals and firms.

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Online Design Kit Helps Newlyweds Mesh Furniture and Decorating Styles

Irwin Weiner ASID - Overhearing couples discuss decorating their home - when they think you're not listening - is one of the most fascinating experiences ever! With their guards down, decorating can be a huge, contentious issue between married folk.

New York interior design Ada Gonzalez kept overhearing newlyweds talking about "your furniture" and "my furniture" and couples qualming over how to incorporate two sets of clashing furnishings and accessories into a consolidated interior design scheme - so she developed an online e-decorating service she calls the Dream Design Kit to help couples decide what to keep, what to toss, and what to add in a new living space that they'll be sharing. She explains more in the following video interview with Daryn Kagan.

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