Ashley Chalmers

One great way to wake up from our collective holiday haze is to get focused on cleaning up and clearing out.

While the holiday season can be a time of excess, once the season has ended, it's a great time to declutter. Whether you’re making space to store holiday decor or eager to do a full clean-out once the festivities close, it’s a time to make your home feel cozy and comfortable. 

If you’re tackling a renovation in the new year, you might have big goals and even bigger dreams. But even if your contractor won’t say it, you might want to rein it in. 

January is the perfect time to get organized and give your home a mini refresh ahead of a deeper spring clean. We can't get enough of all the ways we plan to tackle this exact thing come 2024.

Having a dishwasher is great, but it can lead to some questions. From wondering what items are dishwasher-safe to asking whether dish soap and dish detergent are interchangeable, we’ve all been there.

We've enjoyed an exciting season of Color of the Year announcements, from Behr's deep black-gray choice to Pantone's peachy pick to half a dozen brands in between.

As we look toward 2024 together, we're wondering what will be in store for the interior design world. While it’s impossible to predict the future, keeping a keen eye on trends is all part of the job for interior designers and home decor experts.

As an American expat living in the U.K., laundry is the household chore that causes the most culture shock. Unlike in the U.S., tumble dryers aren’t common. A lot of homes have a combination washer and dryer machine—and weirdest of all, it’s often in the kitchen. 

While we can all agree that taste is subjective, some decor decisions will almost always land you on the home design naughty list. Often, many of these are born from a love of the current trends—but it's important to know when you're taking the aesthetic of the day a little too far.

Planning a major home building or renovation project can often lead to decision overwhelm, but one great way to narrow down your choices is by taking a look at what’s trending. 

Following the trends and keeping a home that feels current can be both extremely fun and fairly intimidating. That’s why most designers will tell you to go with what you love—and if that happens to align with the trends, then that’s great.

As we close out another year, it’s also time to look ahead to all the trends on the rise for 2024. While no one could have seen Barbiecore taking over the way it has in 2023, other trends are truly cyclical and often come back in style. 

Buying furniture can be an overwhelming process, especially if you know what you need but aren’t quite sure what you want—and the challenges only grow from there. Once you finally figure out your preferences, where do you begin?

For anyone looking to tackle big home renovation projects in 2024, now is the perfect time to pin down the details. Start by making your own list and checking it twice—noting which rooms or areas need a refresh, what your budget entails, and what style options toe the line between on-trend and timeless.

When it comes time to prepare for the holiday season, there are so many things to consider. From outdoor decor to planning the perfect party, it can all be more than a little overwhelming.

Laundry is one of the most important household chores, but we find that a lot of people either love or hate it.

If you’re already looking ahead to spring flowers, then you’re probably also well aware that right now is the ideal time for planting bulbs.

While late autumn often triggers a shift to move inside, it turns out it might not be time to pack it all away—at least not yet. In fact, these cooler months before things get truly frosty are a fabulous time to prep your garden for a stunning spring.

The holiday season is just around the corner—and chances are, your calendar is already filling up. If you’re hosting any get-togethers, your to-do list is probably just as packed.

We don’t mean to cause alarm, but the holiday season is almost officially upon us. While it’s always important to live in the moment and enjoy the current season, with busy lives and busier schedules, now is the ideal time to start some prep for the holidays. 

One of the best things about looking ahead to a new year is anticipating what trends we’ll see on the rise. From predicting the top colors to determining next year’s booming decorating trends, designers are pros at knowing what we’ll all love in the coming months and beyond.

If 2022 started the rise of the green kitchen, then a recent report by Living Spaces can officially credit 2023 as the year of the green living room. 

When it comes to decorating for the holiday season, some things are timeless. At Christmas, you can never go wrong with a classic red and green, reindeer motifs, or a healthy smattering of faux snow. 

If you’ve ever lived without a dishwasher, then you know how truly life-changing they can be. But while a great dishwasher is a must-have for any busy household, it turns out we all might be majorly underusing our machines.

There is a reason that fall brings on what’s affectionately known as «sweater weather.» This is the perfect season for layering, after all—and turns out, layering is designers' favorite styling trick to get things warm and toasty at home.

The world of home decor is vast, and we’re constantly amazed by the designers, creators, and creatives who cross our paths. In an effort to learn more about the innovative eyes behind the scenes, we’ve launched a series that explores the sanity-saving tools, products, and services that keep our favorite designers and decorators focused on the job at hand. Welcome to Tools of the Trade.

Plenty of things stand out in every beautiful interior design photo: a well-styled room, gorgeous furniture, and cohesive color palettes. But if you scroll through the living room, sitting room, and even bedroom photos, you might notice one common thing that is missing: a television.

While spring cleaning gets all the glory, here at The Spruce, we believe in consistent decluttering sessions. It’s much easier to keep on top of clutter with regular cleanouts, and this is especially true if your primary goal is to maintain a minimalist aesthetic at home.

Whether you’re designing a room from scratch or want to change up your existing decor, sourcing the perfect accent pieces is often overwhelming. This is especially true if you’re on the hunt for a hidden gem, or you have an open space just begging for a cool piece that you cannot seem to find.

We are huge fans of great laundry hacks at The Spruce, and we especially love reusing household items as easy, effective additions to your machine. This is especially true if they can replace harsh chemicals, or lessen the amount of product needed to get a load of laundry smelling great and feeling fresh.

Incorporating vintage elements into a space has been a rising trend for quite some time, but if you're in a new home that is all bare walls and right angles, it can be hard to pull this style off convincingly. Often in new, builder-grade homes, even the best antique pieces aren’t going to feel quite right if there’s no natural character to your space.

Creating the perfect home means designing spaces that are both beautiful and functional. While a formal dining room sounds lovely in theory, it could be a waste of space in practice. If it’s too formal, you run the risk of never actually using the room.

Cooler days and cozier evenings are just around the corner, and we’re officially craving some Halloween-inspired decor in our lives. While it’s still a bit too early to set up our autumnal displays, it’s never too early to get a feel for some of the great options that are out there for the coming season.

Of all the rooms in our homes, laundry rooms are one of the most notorious for clutter. Whether your surfaces are covered with to-be-washed laundry or your cabinets are filled with unnecessary products, it can be overwhelming to keep this space clean and clear of excess. 

Every once in a while, a viral trend comes along that makes us collectively turn into the «mindblown» emoji. We all do things in our homes that are considered commonplace, even if we’re doing them wrong. And, as we’ve recently learned on TikTok, we may have been storing our flatware wrong.

So many recent, trendy aesthetics are loud and impactful—patterns are bolder, colors are brighter, and palettes are warmer. In fact, a lot of the latest viral trends, including grandmillennial, maximalism, and even Barbiecore, are beloved because they make such a statement.