Pump Up Your Powder Room with Daring Styles

Julia Broder -- March greetings from The Riverside Realty Group in beautiful Westport, CT! We've been working long hours in the Fairfield County real estate market as buyers want to cash in on some of the great luxe properties that are only now coming up for sale . . . amazing estates and new construction on beautiful parcels of land . . . and you can get some great inspiration from my Luxe Properties website! Visit it often for the latest and greatest in high-end real estate.

It's time to swing into Spring! I would love to show you outstanding high-end residences, Luxies! If you are confident that you can benefit from the prices in the market, then now is a good time to buy. Please contact me today at 1-203-247-7500 for more information on how we can work together. Wouldn't it be great to celebrate this wonderful season with a new home?

This month, I'd like to talk about how to freshen up your powder room. These smaller rooms in your house can use a Spring Makeover. And I'd also like to share a great resource that we found for bathroom and powder room must-have's. Go to Decor Planet and you'll find an excellent collection of mirrors, vanities, toilets, whirlpools, steam showers (love them after a hard day at work!), bathroom accessories, and much more.

It's Time for a Change!

Just as you get your fashion ideas from the pages of top glamor magazines, so do home decor manufacturers. From paint colors and textile patterns to fixture finishes, what accessorizes our outfits is similar to what accessorizes our homes.

While you may have perused the style magazines and been tempted by the unique designs, it’s often a daring step to implement them. So, why not start small? Your powder room is likely the smallest room in your home and could have the potential for your biggest style impact. With a few small changes, you can go from drab to glam with some new styles and bold updates.

Bright Ideas

Colors have made it back into our wardrobes after years of "grey days." Today, runways are packed with models showing off the year’s hottest hues - bright, vibrant blues and greens and signature jewel tones. Incorporate the same into your powder room with paint that makes a statement. Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color, selected Blue Iris, a bold and balanced blue-purple hue, as its "Color of the Year" for 2008. Click this link to check out Pantone's Fashion Color Report for Spring 2009 and get some inspiration for painting your powder room with the current "hot" colors.

Picture Perfect

Now, minimalist metals are hot for the home. Spruce up your bathroom walls with metallic-framed vintage black and white photos or advertisements.

To create a focal point and a beautiful framing effect for your mirrors, try new Mirrorscapes Mirror Frames from Inspirations by Moen. The Mirrorscapes collection includes five different styles of customizable frames ranging from classic elegance to modern sophistication and comes in a wide variety of metallic and wood finishes. The innovative system is easy enough for a DIYer to install in minutes and can turn most wall-mounted, plate-glass mirrors into a beautifully-coordinated, custom-designed look.

Lighten Up

Today’s trendsetters are installing chandeliers in unexpected places, like the powder room. The Calais Chandelier from Z Gallerie features a modern vintage-inspired design, with its sweeping curves and dramatic black finish. For an earthy twist on overhead lighting, try a chandelier made of Capiz, a flat semi-transparent shell with a pearlescent appearance, such as World Market’s Coffee 8-inch Hanging Pendant. For the perfect amount of light, no matter what style of lighting you choose, install a dimmer. You can set the mood while adding some unexpected whimsy and charm into the bath.

Modern Mania

Today’s fashions are sleek, simple, and shiny and faucet manufacturer Moen has incorporated these cues into the new Level bath suite. This sleek, modern collection features a geometric single-handle, single-hole mount faucet in a contemporary chrome finish. Paired with a black, white or clear glass vessel sink, the faucet can punch up your powder room with an extra modern edge.

Accessorize in Style

No powder room update is complete without stylish accessories to pull it all together. It’s the little details that make a big difference and many options are available to meet any design tastes. For a clean, sophisticated look in the bath, the Iso bath accessory collection from Inspirations by Moen offers sleek styling and a contemporary chrome finish. It includes a variety of unique accessories such as a robe hook, pivoting paper holder, towel ring, single and double towel bars, pivoting decorative mirror, and a glass shelf. An attractive wall-mounted toothbrush/tumbler holder and wall-mounted soap dish round out the offering.

If you’re looking to taste-test your style desires, look no further than the nearest fashion magazine for inspiration. They offer a host of hot style ideas - not only for your wardrobe, but also to pump up your powder room.

This article was reprinted with the permission of casaGURU. casaGURU is an everyday, everywhere, anytime homeowner website built on the premise that every home deserves a house expert.

        

Heavenly Headboards

Julia Broder -- February greetings from The Riverside Realty Group in beautiful Westport, CT! We've been working long hours in the Fairfield County real estate market as buyers want to cash in on some of the great luxe properties that are only now coming up for sale . . . amazing estates and new construction on beautiful parcels of land . . . and you can get some great inspiration from my Luxe Properties website! Visit it often for the latest and greatest in high-end real estate.

I would love to show you outstanding high-end residences, Luxies! If you are confident that you can benefit from the prices in the market, then now is a good time to buy. Please contact me today at 1-203-247-7500 for more information on how we can work together. Wouldn't it be great to celebrate Valentine's Day in a new master bedroom suite?

I'm excited to have Cheryll Gillespie, the vivacious host of Let's Shop TV, writing this month's Luxe Properties column on how to optimize your sleep with a great headboard. Here's Cheryll:

How did you sleep last night?

If you tossed, turned, and fretted – unable to get a good night’s rest – it could be because you don't have a sturdy headboard behind your bed. The head of the bed is your bedroom’s focal point and is the most important treatment in this private space designed for relaxation and comfort.

The headboard you choose for your bed sets the tone for the mood and style of this dreamy space. Feng Shui masters strongly advise us to have a sturdy headboard. Feng Shui, the art of placing objects in relation to energy flows in order to heighten positive energies and minimize the negative ones, demands placing the headboard against a solid wall.

When considering feng shui principles we must also consider the material and shape of the headboard. Brass or iron headboards, due to their open-bar design, can create headaches and a sense of a lack of support. This style of headboard is not recommended for anyone. Wood or upholstered wood-framed headboards are best for all, according to Feng Shui.

The shape of the headboard should be suited to your element (the year we are born dictates the element: wood, earth, water, fire or metal). It is said that we draw strength from the elements in the headboard we choose.

A round-shaped headboard corresponds to the metal element. If you normally work in an office environment or are involved in a job that sees a lot of paperwork, it’s a good shape to choose. Square and rectangular headboards are for all of us who represent the wood or earth element. This shape of headboard encourages stability and offers support, perfect for all career-minded souls. Oval, round or wavy-shaped headboards are ideal for people who belong to the water element and will help support and inspire creative professions, such as artists, musicians and designers.

With respect to the headboard, the size of your room does not matter. All bedrooms should have a creative, attractive, and substantial headboard solidly secured behind the head of the bed. Even the smallest of rooms can accommodate a grand headboard; in fact, a taller headboard can help to make a small room feel more spacious. Today, fashionable beds are supported with sexy upholstered leather and micro fiber, exotic rattan, canopy frames draped with sensual fabrics and handsomely wood-carved headboards. The one thing all these stylish headboards have in common is that they make a personal style statement and they give height and substance to the room.

Thinking “outside of the bed” is strongly encouraged in the bedroom. You may want to use a beautiful piece of original art or a hand-loomed rug for a headboard. Other creative ideas I have employed in the bedroom as headboards include antique or old storefront signs, folding and Japanese screens, bamboo curtains, exotic fabrics draped from bamboo or iron rods, and even an over sized, framed mirror.

Do more than dream . . . give your bed a stylish new headboard and not only will you give your bedroom a chic sense of style, but you may even find yourself getting a better night’s sleep.

To make a bed look extra cozy and inviting for the romance of Valentine's Day, buy a new duvet that is one size larger than your bed and duvet cover. Fit the duvet inside the cover to create a sense of instant luxury for your bed. To create the tight, crisp look of hotel linens, use pillow protectors on your pillows. Not only are they more hygienic but they’ll help if the cover or sham is loose and baggy.

This article reprinted with the permission of casaGURU. casaGURU is an everyday, everywhere, anytime homeowner website built on the premise that every home deserves a house expert.