TIPS & TRICKS! | theLENNOXX

You are browsing the archive for TIPS & TRICKS!.

Decor Series: How to Decorate a Bookcase

March 23, 2011 in Black, Classic, Living room, Masculine, TIPS & TRICKS!, Vignettes

Design by Phoebe Howard

Does your bookcases look a bit crowded (with books)? Need a fresh and free update? The highly ordered bookcase with books stacked neatly from left to right is a thing of the past because, lets face it; it’s not that interesting to look at. Bookcases are not just furniture for storing books anymore, it’s a blank canvas for us creative people to decorate till we drop! Let’s learn from the professionals:

bookcase decoration ideas with book stacks, picture framed and a bust

The fabulous (and free) online design magazine Lonny featured this beautiful bookcase. All books and magazines are stacked horizontally. On the top two shelves each stack is topped with decorative accents. The two bottom shelves are further from your eyes so you’d want to use larger items here for balance, like framed art, family photos and your favorite books. TIP: Lean books, artwork and framed photos against stacks of magazines and books to cover them up!

Emily Henderson, the winner of Design Star decorated this built-in bookcase in a white, royal blue and turquoise color palette, and added a touch of glamour using gold accents. Notice how she plays on layers and proportion. TIP: Group small objects together to increase the impact!

black bachelor bedroom white shelf decor

This bookcase is part of Interior Designer Anthony Gianacakos’ masculine bedroom featured in Lonny Magazine‘s second issue. An epitome of beautiful AND functional at the same time if you ask me. TIP: Pretty boxes and baskets are perfect for organizing magazines and hiding clutter!

Can’t remember who designed this, please email me if You do so I can add proper credit.

The designer of this beautiful bookcase centered all the items in this built in bookcase in little A-type vignettes (learn what they are here). She combines books with accents of interesting shapes, and sticks to a color palette of black, white, blue and silver. TIP: Open a book to a page with pretty images and use it as part of the decor!

Another beautiful yet functional bookcase, photographed by Julian Wass. Numbers, letters, and a pop of red is key here. TIP: Keep functional to the bottom shelves and beautiful to the top!

A wonderful bookcase decorated by Domicile ID. Very simple and interesting. TIP: If your books don’t have gorgeous jackets like these, wrap them up with pretty wrapping paper!

Ashley Whittaker pairs books with organic objects and pattern in this bookcase. I love how she uses the black contrast and the pops of color. You can see the rest of this room in this previous post ;) TIP: Incorporate natural elements like shells, corals and crystals with interesting shapes and beautiful texture.

After redoing my own bookcase a while ago, I was amazed by the fact that books stacked horizontally appeared to take up a lot less space. This of course depends on the height to width ratio of the shelves in the given bookcase, see for your self by drawing a few figures on paper. So what’s your take on the bookcase decor trend? Have you jumped on that train yet? Or are you planning to?

Tags: bookcase decor, decoration, ideas inspiration, Interior design, shelf decor, tips, tricks 14 Comments »

by Linda

4 Ways to get the Look of Hand Painted Wallpaper

December 9, 2010 in Asian (Chinoiserie), Beige, Floral, Glamorous, Gray, Luxurious, TIPS & TRICKS!, Wallpaper / Tiles / Murals

The pattern on wallpaper is usually repeated throughout. This is what separates printed wallpaper from the hand painted variety. Only drawback? The hand painted variety is obviously super expensive. Like $500 per square meter expensive. Since I love the look of hand pained wall papers, and chances are that you do too, I thought I’d round up a few ways to achieve this look without breaking the bank. But first, let’s take a look at the real thing:

TAPET CAFE

Hand painted wallpaper makes it possible to achieve beautiful non-repeated scenery which isn’t possible with standard wallpaper. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Here’s four ideas on how to achieve the hand painted wallpaper look:

1. Printed Murals:

printed mural hand painted wallpaper covering

There are actually printed mural wallpapers available, like this one by York Wallcoverings. A good alternative for a feature wall.

2. Hire a painter.

WINDSOR SMITH / SCOTT WATERMAN

This wall is painted by LA based artist Scott Waterman.

ALLISON COSMOS

Allison Cosmos is a professional mural painter. At $75 an hour this isn’t an option for everyone though. This girl is insanely talented, click the link to see more of her work!

3. Paint a mural yourself!

MARTENSEN JONES

If you are a good painter, you can free hand a mural yourself. If you don’t consider yourself a good painter, pick a beautiful scene and trace around it on a transparent sheet. Use an overhead projector or mount the sheet in front of a bright lamp. Move the projector further away from the wall you are working on to make the scene larger. Then trace around the shadows on your wall, and fill in with paint. To achieve more depth, paint on wallpaper!

4. Invest in stencils.

gray chinoiserie wallpaper stencile shiny silver birds flowers

THE STENCIL LIBRARY

The Stencile Library has a large collection of multi-layered stencils. This requires little artistic abilities, and the result is simply stunning! Here is an example of the result you can get with these stencils. This particular wall is created using this stencil.

blue stenciled bird chinesoerie wallpaper with crystals

THE STENCIL LIBRARY

Here’s a closeup of the stenciled wallpaper. To top it all of, Helen, the proud owner of this bedroom wall, placed crystals in the birds eyes and on the flowers. I LOVE this!

chinoiserie hand painted wallpaper stancils foliage birds

THE STENCIL LIBRARY

Here you can see that this mural consists of 4 panels. Many of their stencils constitute three or four layers (sheets) for each stencil design, which means you can use many different colors on one stencil, and achieve a nice depth. The girls at the Stencil Library shows lots of examples on their blog ;)

Have a great day everyone!

Tags: hand painted chinoiserie wallpaper, wallpaper 9 Comments »

by Linda

3 Tips on How to Hang Art and Photos the Right Way

October 25, 2010 in Purple, TIPS & TRICKS!

Before I started this blog I had no grasp on the correct way to hang art. I’d pick out a bare wall, pull up a chair and hammer a nail into the wall. Boy, was I misguided (or more correctly, unguided). I’ve later come to recognize a few rules for hanging art correctly, and now I’ll share them with you. Here are the three points I always consider when hanging art, photos and mirrors:

1. When hanging art or framed photos on the wall, never ever pull up a chair to hammer in the nail. If you need a chair, you’ve aimed too high. Artwork should be hung at eye level. Just think about it; you would never hang a mirror at any other height than eye level, right? The same should go for art and pictures.

Design by David Kaplan See more pictures of this room here.

2. When placing art over a furniture, never hang it higher than a few inches above the furniture. Why not skip the nail altogether and place the artwork on the furniture leaning back on the wall? By relating artwork to the furniture below it, you’ll create little interesting vignettes. You can read a guide on how to make a perfect vignette here.

blue pink bedroom art related to furniture

Design by Elizabeth Bailey See more pics of this bedroom here.

3. I’ve always seen art as a way to fill out empty wall space. Once I realized that art should relate to furniture, I started questioning how much bare wall was “acceptable”. Then I realized that the bare walls around the vignette actually aided in making the vignette a focal point. Moral of this point: Don’t fear leaving it bare!

purple blue room art related to furniture

Design by Charles De Lisle Workshop See more pictures of this room here.

And that’s it! Of course there are always exceptions to any rule, but these three points have served me well so far. What’s your strategy when hanging art and photos? I’d love to hear it in the comments!

BROWSE BY COLOR
- Beige
- Black
- Blue
- Brown
- Gold
- Green
- Greige
- Grey
- Multicolor
- Orange
- Pastels
- Peach
- Pink
- Purple
- Red
- Silver
- Turquoise
- White
- Yellow
BROWSE BY ROOM
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
- Dining room
- Exterior
- Game room
- Garden
- Hallway/Entry
- Home office
- Kitchen
- Living room
- Lounge
- Nook
- Nursery/ Kids room
- Open Plan Solution
- Porch/Sunroom
- Stairways
- teen bedroom
BROWSE BY STYLE
- Art deco
- Asian
- Baroque
- Bright
- Chic
- Classic
- Coastal
- Dramatic
- Eclectic
- Exotic
- Feminine
- Floral
- Glamorous
- Hotel room
- Luxurious
- Masculine
- Minimalistic
- Modern
- Natural
- Nautical
- Posh
- Retro
- Romantic/Country
- Soft/ Light
- Vintage
Color Roundup
DETAILS
FUN FUN FUN!
My Home
SEASON & HOLIDAY
- Autumn
- Christmas
- Easter
- Halloween
- Summer

Archive for the ‘Purple’ Category

Dream Home?

Posted by theLennoxx On January – 25 – 2010

On February 19th the winner of HGTV’s Dreamhome 2010 will be chosen. This is the fourteenth Dream Home since it started in 1997. The house is located in Sandia Park, New Mexico, and has eighteen rooms (counting the 3 car garage). Let’s take a look at a few of them:

Calm green bedroom with light green walls with brown and cream accents. Also, all trim and window frames are painted a demure blue. If this was my bedroom, I would paint the ceiling, I have a personal war going on with bare wood surfaces.

(view 360 degrees)

The same bedroom viewed from the bed. To the left is a “sunrise room”, separated by a wall with an open fireplace and a flat screen TV. To the right is the master bathroom, with blue sliding doors to the tub. You don’t of cause need to climb through the tub to get to the bathroom, there is a normal entry on the side.

Wall color is Sherwin-Williams Svelte Sage.

The color scheme is the same in the master bathroom, but with less brown for a lighter cleaner look.

(view 360 degrees)

One thing I noticed in this house is the extensive use of tiles. In this kitchen for example, the whole wall behind the stove is covered in tiles. This kitchen is in open plan solution with the living area though, so I guess it is a nice way of defining the kitchen area. What do You think?

(view 360 degrees)

And with that I had to cover this beautiful “casita” (as they call it), a tiny bedroom with a built in bathroom (see below). I was really surprised they made a feature wall of tiles behind the bed…

(view 360 degrees)

But it makes more sense when you see the bathroom placement. I would love to have a guest suite like this to offer my visitors, but personally I prefer a bit more privacy in the bathroom, lol!

The wall color is Sherwin-Williams Foxy.

There is just something about the color scheme in this home office that really speaks to me. I’m usually not into these muddy olive greens, but the pops of blue and red really freshens it up. Do you like it?

Wall color is Sherwin-Williams Sycamore Tan.