Home Decorating Tips for the Fashion-Obsessed

Can’t resist a deal on Michael Kors shoes, bags, shirts…or anything? We love to help homeowners celebrate their individual sense of style all throughout their home. If your love of fashion has reached a new level, consider some of these tips for weaving your aesthetic and personality into every room of your home.

Play With Texture and Color

When it comes to creating the perfect outfit, you probably consider every element and how it will all work together. From shine to ruffles, lace, and mesh, textures are essential to consider when creating an aesthetic. Ruffles and lace cue a romantic or blush vibe, while sleek lines may sing classic beauty. The same rules go for decor. Have fun, and make bold choices!

Vary textures when choosing your textiles. Ruffled comforters are great for a cozy, fluffy bedspread, while industrial accents—like concrete, metal, and piping—offer a unique and masculine sense of style. A plush rug balances the soft with something more substantial and grounding, and sheer curtains allow in plenty of natural light for a romantic, airy atmosphere. Work with these textures to create the perfect equilibrium.

Color works the same way. Choose your color palette for each room before you get started— searching through Pinterest or artists’ websites for color combinations is a great way to see your options before you put paint to the wall. Or, swing by the paint sample section of a home improvement store. Use fun pops of color in your textiles and smaller accents like lamps and hardware, and incorporate those various textures. It will all come together to create the perfect ensemble.

Accessorize Like a Fashionista

Longing for a bright and cheerful sunroom, but a romantic, calming bedroom? Use lighting to your advantage to create the perfect ambiance. Vary your lighting solutions to incorporate tabletop lamps, floor lamps, lanterns, track lighting, spotlighting, or anything else that helps you express your room’s story. You can even play with color and texture through your lampshades.

When it comes to accessories, use them sparingly but strategically. Anything that inspires you and coordinates with your color palette is fair game—from knickknacks to baskets, table runners, throw pillows, pictures frames, and more. Make sure not to overcrowd tables and mantels, which can cause a cluttered feeling that may elicit anxiety. Just like fashion, sometimes less can be more!

Decorate with Fashion Icons

You probably have a list of your top-five favorite celebrities of all time. Or maybe it’s fashion designers who have impacted your style and aspirations. Whether you’re inspired by a brand or product, Hollywood icon, or new fashion line, using your inspiration as artwork will weave in your passion throughout your home.

If you simply love Prada, go for some vintage advertising posters to display in your dressing room. Then incorporate some modern or avant-garde art that makes you want to shop ‘til you drop.

You can even use your fashion accessories to decorate. Perhaps you love your designer shoes so much, you want to display them on a shelf by color. Go for it! When you’re a true fashionista, your whole home is your closet, so have fun and stay creative!

Danielle Hegedus is an Atlanta based writer and home windows expert. She is a regular contributor to Modernize windows, as she loves writing about stylish window repair options as well as for a variety of lifestyle and home design websites. Danielle recently finished her first cookbook, in collaboration with Chef, Kamal Grant for Atlanta's beloved, Sublime Doughnuts.

How to Choose a Home Decor Style that Matches Your Personality

How to Choose a Home Decor Style that Matches Your Personality

Kaitlin Krull

Finding the right design style for your home is an essential part of the decorating process. But with dozens of styles to choose from, choosing one that suits you and your family can feel like an impossible task. Whether you’re laid-back or super organized, trend-conscious or traditional, matching your home decor style to your personality will help you to feel more comfortable with your surroundings. Here are a few top tips to help you choose the right home design style for you—whatever your personality may be.

Trendsetter

If you enjoy reading fashion and design magazines regularly and like to keep up to date with the latest trends, a home that is on the cutting edge of design style is one for you. Scour the internet for the newest and most popular decor tips and choose pieces that will make your friends and neighbors know that you understand style. As far as popular decor styles go, industrial homes with raw, unfinished wood pieces and metal accents or ultra-modern and high-tech living spaces are bang on trend.

Traditional

There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you like and sticking with it time and again. If your personality is less focused on finding new and exciting things and more about keeping with tradition, a classic design style would probably be best for your home. Traditional homes are both comfortable and well organized, which gives them a homey and pleasant atmosphere. Stick with neutral color schemes and timeless fabrics and patterns to make your home’s decor relevant for years to come.

Free-spirited

For some people, rules are made to be broken. If organization and tradition just aren’t your thing, choose a bold and unique design style that matches your outlook on life. Go retro with a mid-century modern home, upcycle vintage pieces for an eclectic look, or embrace bohemian style with tie-dyed fabrics and mismatched patterns. The sky’s the limit for a free-spirited homeowner, so choose decorative accents and color schemes that speak to you and bring you joy.

Organized

While keeping tabs on the family budget may not be everyone’s favorite pastime, some of us are just better at handling money than others. If you enjoy organizing your life, finances included, you’ll be happy to know that several trendy home design styles will be right up your street. For example, Scandinavian furniture and decor pieces are inexpensive, popular, and functional for virtually every home. It is possible to blend a comfortable Scandi design style with modern minimalism (think clean lines, metal, and glass) without breaking the bank, so why not try something new with classy, minimalist decor?

Luxurious

Budgets and functional pieces are all well and good, but sometimes a splurge or two is all we need to feel at home in our home. If you enjoy the finer things in life, a luxurious Hollywood Glam style home is a perfect choice for you. Although a home with glam decor features may sometimes seem over the top, you know what you like and deserve to be happy in your home. Choose lush, supersoft fabrics and large, shiny decorative accents to finish off your space—and don’t be afraid to embrace a monochromatic color scheme.

Sentimental

The true romantics among us believe that happiness is the only truly important thing in life. If you want your home to be happy and comfortable above all else, a rustic home decor style will tick all the right boxes. Rustic homes are traditionally rural country-style buildings with open fires and large, cozy furniture. However, home design trends over the last few years have made rustic decor current again by injecting the traditional log cabin look with an urban, industrial flair. If you want to be on top of the latest trends, then feel free to mix these two popular styles.

Home design is all about trial and error, so don’t be discouraged if your home doesn’t fit your standards immediately. If, after reading these tips, you still can’t choose the right decor style for your home, don’t despair. Mix and match any of these styles—and more—to suit your own personal tastes, and watch your home evolve in a natural and beautiful way.

About the Author:

Kaitlin Krull is a writer and mom of two girls living the expat life. She enjoys writing for the HVAC installation experts at Modernize with the goal of empowering homeowners with the expert guidance and educational tools they need to take on home remodel projects with confidence.

Are Hardwood Floors Easier to Maintain Than Carpeted Floors?

With today's busy lifestyles, most people are opting for home furnishings and materials that are easy to care for while maintaining their beauty for longer periods of time. This is especially true when choosing flooring options because floors take on so much daily wear from walking to spills to pet stains. If you are looking at choosing hardwood floors or carpeted floors, they require very different types of care to keep them looking their best.

Daily Maintenance

All manners of dirt and grime make it onto your floors every day, and so they need to be cleaned frequently. Hardwood floors and carpeted floors are relatively easy to keep up with on a daily basis. The amount of maintenance your floors require whether you choose hardwood or carpet does depend on your lifestyle, health needs, and habits.

Hardwood floors should be swept often using a broom or a dust mop. A microfiber style dust mop head works especially well at picking up dirt, crumbs, and pet hair is lightweight and is a quick process. Mopping is recommended in high-traffic areas about once or twice a week, and less frequently in lighter traffic rooms. To mop hardwood floors, you can use a quarter of a cup of mild dishwashing soap with a gallon of warm water or a cleaner recommended by the manufacturer. Just make sure the mop is only slightly damp because standing water can cause damage to even sealed hardwood floors.

Maintaining a carpeted floor is not difficult, but it can be labor-intensive. Carpets hold more allergens, dirt, and odor-causing materials, so frequent vacuuming is necessary. If you suffer from allergies, you many need to vacuum carpets in high-traffic areas daily. Also, carpets are susceptible to stains from pets, food, and tracked-in dirt, so spot-cleaning stains using a manufacturer recommended treatment will be necessary at times.

Long-Term Maintenance

To keep your floors looking fantastic for years to come, you will need to do more than the basic daily maintenance and cleaning. Hardwood floors and carpeting will both require more intensive treatments to keep them looking good. Depending on lifestyle and traffic, the frequency of deep cleaning or repairing your floors will vary.

Hardwood floors can last for generations with the proper care. While hardwood can sustain damage such as warping from liquid, scratches, dents, and dings, this damage can be fixed rather than needing to be replaced. Sanding and refinishing the damaged area is fairly inexpensive and can a weekend fix. Entire rooms can also be sanded and refinished, though that is more time consuming and labor intensive. However, this is easier and cheaper than having to replace an entire floor.

Carpet has a much shorter lifespan due to wear from traffic, stains, and odors. If damage such as unraveling, rips, or matting occurs, it generally cannot be repaired, and the carpet will have to be replaced. Having the carpets professionally steam cleaned on an annual basis will help keep your carpets looking newer for longer periods and can remove allergens, smells, and even set-in stains.

Jessica Kane is a writer for GoHardwood, a premier flooring company that sells first-rate, quality hardwood flooring products for less.