One of the topics that I write about weekly (twice-weekly actually) is interior design. I try to come up with creative ideas for home design which I write about in picture-rich ideabooks over at Houzz.com. Houzz is a good site where you can sign up to collect pictures of projects that you might want to do (and you can add notes to yourself or others in text if you want).

I’ve made a whole lot of different collections through the site. I like exploring all different areas of home decorating. I’m always changing up my own house. Lately I seem to be following a new theme though – a theme of making your home fun. Two of my recent ideabooks were on using polka dots and making your home feel Hawaiian.

I think that this is a sign that I want to do something more fun with my home. I’ve made the bathroom and kitchen pretty fun. The bathroom is a flirty style and the kitchen is a retro look. Now I’ve got to move on to the rest of the apartment. I’m a little more stuck there as to what I want to do. I know that I want it to be colorful but I’m just not sure how colorful or in what style. I’ve got some thinking to do!

Tags: decorating, fun design, houzz, Interior Design

My kid sister has a really cool talent of making her own decorative pillows. She embroiders the fabric with designs that never fail to impress me. (She once did Starry Night on a pillow by hand.) I think that the pillows come out really gorgeous and mentioned that she should try selling them to make some extra cash. This got us to start looking at pillows that are for sale online. What we learned is that there are some people out there making a pretty penny by selling pillows that are rather pricey.

Here’s a look at 5 expensive pillows we came across:

1. Eiderdown Pillows by St. Geneve. These pillows are supposed to be really comfortable and really healthy for you. I would hope so since they sell for over $2000 each!
2. Silk Aubusson Pillows. These pillows are nice. They’re made from silk. They’re handmade. They have pretty designs on them. But are they worth $500 – $1000 dollars each?
3. Lessage Silk Pillows. Silk pillows with pretty designs are apparently a popular choice among people who like expensive pillows. These ones go for around $500 each for a decorative square pillow.
4. Egret Velvet Pillow. There’s a pillow maker called Dransfield & Ross that puts out a bunch of pricey pillows. One example is this red velvet pillow decorated with an egret. It’s about $500.
5. Snoozer Pillows. These are ergonomically designed pillows that are supposed to help people with back problems and discomfort related to pregnancy. If they really work then maybe they’re worth the price which is in the $100 – $200 range.

I happen to think that a pillow’s value lies just as much in how it decorates the room as it does in how comfy the pillow is. And I think you can get pretty pillows for a lot cheaper than some of these go for! How much money would you pay for a good pillow?

Tags: decorating, expensive pillows, home accessories, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo, pillows

I’ve lived on my own (or with various roommates) off and on for more than ten years. I’ve moved a few times and rearranged my bedroom a few times more than that. I think I’ve finally figured out how to create a bedroom that is truly ideal for a single woman.

Here are the five key features of a great bedroom for a single gal:

1. It feels safe. I think it’s really important for single women to feel safe in their beds (especially if they live alone!) Safety could mean lots of pillows to cuddle up with or windows that lock or lights that are easy to reach from the bed. It means different things to different women but I think it’s always important.
2. It’s pretty. I like having a bedroom that’s pretty. My definition of pretty has changed over the years and grown up a bit over time (or at least I’d like to think so) but I’ve always tried to pretty up my bedroom in some way.
3. It’s also comfortable. Pretty and safe are important features but mostly the room has to be comfortable. It has to have good energy. The bed has to be comfy. It’s the place where you spend at least eight hours of each day if not more so it should be a place where every seat feels totally comfortable.
4. It serves multiple functions. Almost all of my bedrooms have served multiple functions (especially when living with roommates). Most often, it’s been a bedroom as well as a library and office. It’s also usually had a sofa in it that people could sleep on if they stayed over.
5. It’s up to date. I don’t mean that my bedroom has to have trendy furniture and modern art. Instead, I mean that it needs to be up to date with me. My bedrooms always reflect my current passions, moods and beliefs. I think that this is important.

What do you think are the most important features of a bedroom for a woman who lives alone?

Tags: bedroom, decorating, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo, rooms, single, women

I like to use a lot of different colors to bring life and energy into the places where I live. I hang up art and postcards. I spread colored fabrics across tabletops and hang them from the walls. I choose drapes and pictures frames and furniture that are all colorful. And I love to use bold paint to make a statement in a room.

I’m not picky about the colors that I use when decorating a home. I’ll try almost any color once to see how it makes me feel to live in a room that’s decorated with that particular shade. This experimentation has taught me a lot about how colors can alter your moods. And it’s taught me a lot about the colors that I like to live with.

One of the things that I noticed recently is that I’ve used the color yellow in every single place that I have ever lived. Yellow isn’t among my favorite colors but it offers a really great feeling for home design. It’s bright and optimistic and inspiring.

My first attempt at yellow actually wasn’t so great at all. I repainted my parents’ bathroom yellow when I still lived at home. Then I sponge painted over it with orange. The effect was garish. Believe me, looking into your reflection in a mirror that’s in a yellow room is not actually all that pleasant of an effect.

My other experiences with yellow in rooms has gone much better. My favorite was a small bedroom that I had added on to my old house. The walls were a great shade of bright yellow. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky. I always felt happy and peaceful in that sunny room even though it didn’t get a lot of natural sunlight.

Right now I’m using yellow to create bright patches in my bedroom. There’s a yellow and green piece of fabric over my desk. There are a few yellow fabric art pieces on the wall. There’s a yellow blanket slung over a small couch. And there is some yellow artwork on the French doors that separate my bedroom from my living room. It makes me feel like waking up. I think I’ll always have yellow somewhere in my homes.

Tags: color, decor, decorating, design, home, houzz, kathryn vercillo, paint, yellow

One of the easiest ways to start being green is to re-use items instead of trashing them or even recycling them. This is great not only because it reduces waste but it also encourages you to start thinking more creatively about the stuff that you already have in your home. If you’re looking to revamp your rooms then turning your eyes towards the bohemian chic style of decorating could be a great way to start re-using some of the old stuff that you’ve got.

The basic idea behind bohemian chic decorating is that you have the ability to combine the eclectic old stuff that you already have with some modern touches to create a space that is lovely and fascinating. If you have several pieces of old furniture then you are ready to get started. If you also happen to have plush fabrics and curtains to add to the mix then you’re well on your way to redecorating without spending a dime.

Most of us just aren’t sure how to incorporate our old pieces of furniture into a room without it looking like junk. The trick seems to be to layer up with textures – fabric throws, scarves draped about, colorful pillows, wallpaper. Try to stick to a similar color scheme with these things and you can bring the look of the room together even though it’s filled with disparate old pieces.

Tags: bohemian chic, decor, decorating, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo

I think that every home should have a little bit of red in it. Whether you want red in a bedroom to make it sexy or red in a kids’ room to make it bright, the color just brings a kind of life into the house that you don’t get with the other colors that you might use to decorate your space.

I’ve had red in different homes of mine and used it in different ways. One of my dining rooms was a rich maroon color which served as a great backdrop for different art and photos and was terrific as a gathering space for friends and family. One of my kids’ room was a bright red and blue in honor of the AZ Wildcats basketball team which my foster son adored.

My red today is a bit subtler. I have red velvet curtains that hang on the French doors separating my bedroom from my living room and a super plush red blanket that I adore. The rest of my house is other colors – yellows and oranges mostly in one room and a pink/black/white/grey theme in another.

How do you use red in decor in your space?

Tags: color, decor, decorating, houzz, Interior Design, red

I don’t have children of my own but I spent several years working as a foster parent, taking kids into my home. One of the things that I always tried to do was to make sure that the bedrooms that I offered to them were nice. Not fancy nice or filled with nice things – just pleasant places to be, places where they could feel safe and comfortable and maybe even happy.

There were a lot of ways that I did this including trying to personalize their rooms with photos and making sure that the beds were comfortable. But one of the easiest ways that I did this was with paint. I love painting rooms different colors and believe that a kid’s room should be painted to express his or her personality.

For one foster child, we did the room in blue and red because he was a big fan of the University of Arizona Wildcats and that was his favorite color. I also had a smaller bedroom where kids who weren’t going to be with me long stayed. That room was very small but I tried to make it seem bigger and brighter by painting the walls a sunny yellow and doing cloud-like blue-and-white paint on the ceiling.

I think that decorating any kids’ room should be fun. And it should be something that kids get to help with. And it should be something that you do again and again. Check out my recent article on The Best Colors for Decorating a Kids’ Room to get some more inspiration!

Tags: bedroom, children, decor, decorating, design, kids