Design Guide | BULX.com Home Improvement Blog

8Feb/111

From BULX, With Love

Posted by BULX.com

Seasonal artwork (whether for Valentine's Day, President's Day, or National Cheesecake Day) is a great way to add interest to a space without committing to a permanent color palette. Just the thought of painting a wall something other than "off-white" is enough to send some homeowners into a panic.

So for all the self-proclaimed "chromophobes" out there (fear of color), we promise this approach will help keep your walls neutral while adding an interesting accent through the changing seasons.

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we wanted to spread some love with a handful of our favorite holiday-inspired prints:

Korean-based Chun Eunsil's use of pastel colors and animal motifs bring a touch of whimsy and fantasy to the season. Most recently, a number of these fun prints have been made their way to elegant iPhone covers.

We especially love these sophisticated prints from Meg Hunt (left) and AngryBlue (right). The color palette in Meg's "limited edition letterpress print of lovely Alice from the Lewis Carroll classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" just screams Valentine's Day, and there is something magical about sitting under a giant mushroom. "The Hive" is a signed and numbered new print from AngryBlue that (abstractly) touches on Valentine's Day themes: honey & hearts.

Send one of these beautifully designed e-postcards to your loved one via Kate Spade's "bmine" site. We especially love the use of text as a graphic element in the chalk board-inspired layout. And while these aren't technically available as prints, the colors and layouts are great inspiration to create your own piece.

How do you spruce up your home throughout the year? What are some of your favorite places to buy seasonal art?

Filed under: Design Guide 1 Comment

10Jan/1131

Home Decorating Trends for 2011

Posted by BULX.com

Looking to transform one (or all) of the rooms in your home from drab to fab? Here are some of the hottest trends we foresee in 2011...

Overall Color Palettes:

Use these cohesive palettes to create a common theme throughout your home.

Neutrals - such as Tans, Khakis, & Creams.
"Light as Air" - such as Silver, Off-White, and Butter Cream (see image #1, below).
"Grey & Black Are Back" - monochromatic colors that create a versatile base to work from.

Accent Colors:

Once your overall color palette is selected, use up-and-coming accent colors to create a mood and visual interest within each space.

Soothing Cool Colors - such as Grey-Green, Sea Mist, Cucumber, Sunlight.
Warm Accents – such as Brick, Burnt Umber, Dandelion, Magenta
Yellows – From Bright Gold to Soft Milk

Patterns:

Variety is the spice of life, so why not mix things up? Mix and match patterns to create contrast, or create consistency by repeating similar patterns within a room.

Organic prints – such as floral, rock formations, or bodies of water.
Geometric – such as Bauhaus reproductions, stripes, or any graphics using linear or geometric shapes.
"Text As Texture" – single letters or paragraphs used to fill space (see image #2, below).

Natural Materials & Textures:

Different materials can give the same space a very different look an feel. Here are some of our favorites.

Wood - warm up a room by letting the grain of natural wood show through in floors, furniture, shelving, and décor (see image #3, below).
Stone - used on tables, natural tile options, mantles, or accents (such as drink coasters & picture frames).
Plants - bring the outdoors "in" by using potted versions of local (or exotic) to spruce up a space.

What trends do you love? Or what have we missed that you would like to see in 2011?

Filed under: Design Guide, How-To Series 31 Comments

2Sep/100

How to Find Inspiration for Your Home

Posted by BULX.com

The primary goal of decorating a room or an entire house is to elicit an emotion. Most homeowners want to be relaxed and comfortable in their home, but other spaces are intentionally designed to be exciting, serene, sophisticated, inspiring, and more.

When it comes to decorating their own space, most homeowners don't know where to start. This post is an introductory guide on where to start to create an original space you love.

As cliché as it sounds, finding inspiration for your home starts from within. Because we all have different associations with the sights, sounds, scents, and tastes we encounter every day, the interpretation of these experiences will never be the same. The key, then, is to identify the things that you like (or don't like) and use them to

Some of our favorite sources of inspiration come from...

Nature, such as trees, wildlife, flowers, foliage and landscapes.

Other architecture, particularly urban planning sketches, modern buildings, or classical references.

Art, such as illustrations, digital art, sculpture or paintings...

and the water.

This is by no means an extensive list, but it should give you an idea of where to start.

Steps to Decorating Your Own "Emotional" Room:

Decide what emotion(s) you want to feel when you enter a room (serenity, excitement, happiness, formal/informal, nostalgia, relaxed,
Write down some places or memories or themes that you have the most positive associations with.
Jot down some descriptive words or items that you most commonly associate with those emotions (" bright colors" or "fast music" for excitement, "English library" for formal, "grandpa's old-fashioned radio" for nostalgia, etc.)
Visit Google Images or Bing Images and type in some of the phrases you have written down.
When you find an image that you like, save it into a folder on your computer. Use the images you save to extract ideas for:
1. Color - for your walls, furniture, fixtures, and accent pieces
2. Texture - smooth vs. textured, plain vs. patterned, one-time vs. repetitive, fine vs. rough
3. Style - which architectural styles do you like the most?
4. Decorative Elements - which images could be used as accent pieces to help fill your space?