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Style and how to get it in 3 easy steps

When it comes to style decorating, sometimes homeowners get overwhelmed.(OK a lot overwhelmed!)  They obsess trying to make their homes look like the magazines, or that TV show. But the warmest, most charming homes, are those with personal mementos that show your personal style off. (Won’t find that in a magazine.) In fact, I attended a magazine staging for Better homes and gardens last December and the entire shoot focuses on how the room looks through the camera lens. Flowers adjusted, lamps tweaked, and furniture placed just right. Literally everything is just so! Now I am a huge fan and reader of BHG. Their style is relaxed, easy and accessible to the everyday homeowner, however, remember that people don’t live in those pages.

How do you get that room from the magazine, but put your personal style in it? Here are three of my favorite tips.

1) Family photos

Family

There is nothing more personal than family. And who shares the best memories of happiness, love, sadness, and humor with you? Your family does! Turn them into your best decor and show them off. Nothing uplifts and supports you like family, honor them by making them a show piece in your home.

2) Color palette

Color

Nothing is more personal than color. Sure there are always those colors that are considered on trend. But most people have a color that they love, and while the intensity of that hue may change over the years, most homeowners stick to it. For anyone who has taken my design class, I talk about my mother and her love affair with mint green.

Mint paint. Moms FAVORITE color

Everything in our house when I was growing up centered around this color. Everything! The house trim, the tile in our kitchen, the floors…. Even today she has mint green bowls, dishes, a Kitchen Aid mixer, furniture, all of it mint green. Mom has never veered from the mint green ideology. If it’s mint, she loves it! When I SEE mint I think of her. That’s personal style! Color is intrinsic to who we are and it inspires us and our homes.

3) Art

Personal art

You have heard me say it before, I love art. And nothing is more personal than art. The art that you like, may not be what I like, and vice versus. Art is one of the best ways to add personal style to your home. Art inspires you and is uniquely you. A great way to show off your style, and make your home special.

What are some of your favorite tricks?

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images: The birds papaya, house tweaking, desire to inspire

AB Homes Interiors Blog
Posted: July 29, 2011 by Amanda Gates |Filed Under: Before and after | How-to's | accessorizing | art | bookshelves | clever ideas | color | color trends | design 101 | design education | design strategies 101 | design tricks | home decor | inspiration | style | , , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments
AB Homes Interiors Blog


Decorating ingredients for the real you by Amanda Gates of AB HOME Interiors

If you had to list the most absolute essential ingredient for your home, what would it be? For me, no place would be home without comfy down pillows, fragrant candles, custom draperies and fresh cut flowers.

More importantly, if you have a passion for an item, do you find places around the house to put that item?  Do not let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, simply because this magazine or that magazine says not to. Gone are the days of the “living room” for special occasions. Today we LIVE in our homes. They are our havens, our sanctuaries and our retreats. A refuge to get away from all the headaches of the day, and find peace. So isn’t it important to find places for those special items even if you think you don’t have the room?
Alison Whittaker
For example, if you have a dining room that is nothing more than a storage unit for papers, mail, sports paraphernalia and miscellaneous other items, and you really need a study, then turn that sucker into a study.
Margaret Norcott
In the wake of the tragic flooding here in Nashville, now more than ever, people are seeking refuge in the few items that are left. With the overwhelming devastation of loosing just about everything, now is the time to take stock. And this is a good lesson for anyone who’s life has been turned upside down, and forced into change. 
Reevaluate your passions. What are your must-haves that encourage you to be who you are, and still remind you of where you’ve come from? As a designer I cannot tell you what ingredients to put into your home to create the blueprint of the real you. These are the items that are collected over lifetimes. But I can offer help to create atmosphere, serenity and help you develop a lifestyle with these items. I can offer solid decorating ideas and information, filled with options, options, and more options, so that you have the tools and the know-how to build that blueprint, that showcases the real you.
 I’ve no doubt that change, whether good or bad, always promotes renewal and reflection on the catalog’s of our lives. We archive in our memories what is important and gives us value, striving to reach our end goals as quickly as possible, while overlooking the journey. Things are just things unless you make them the building blocks to enrich the real you. The pilgrimage of daily life that takes us on our unexpected excursions, be it long or short, expected or unexpected, the journey is where you will find a snapshot of who you really are today. The travels in between the destinations create a homemade prescription to life. Thus, creating a home filled with the ingredients that make you, you! Each recipe special and unique only to those that inhabit that residence, and a lifestyle to call home.

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AB Homes Interiors Blog
Posted: May 13, 2010 by Amanda Gates |Filed Under: Interiors | , , , 4 Comments
AB Homes Interiors Blog



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