When designing a monochromatic space, there are many considerations to keep in mind to ensure that the room looks as elevated and sophisticated as possible, and we asked designers to share their top tips.
07.01.2024 - 22:11 / thespruce.com / Sarah Lyon
If the start of a new year has you wanting to whip your home into shape, we're here to help. We spoke with professional organizers who share seven key daily habits that will help you maintain a tidy space on the regular, no matter your type of lifestyle.
Raychel Klein, a professional organizer and founder of Ray Bay Bay, explains how the act of maintaining a tidy household shouldn't fall on just one family member. Klein has determined effective ways to divvy up responsibilities among her loved ones.
"Establish and agree on chores, clean-up schedules, and item ownership as appropriate," Klein says. In Klein's own home, she collects and sorts through the mail, her daughter is in charge of picking up and putting away toys each day, and her husband takes out the trash.
«Decide what is right for your home, and know it might take some trial and error to figure out the right formula.»
Every time you choose to set an item in your home down—perhaps your Kindle after an evening spent reading on the sofa or your headphones after a trip to the gym—put it away where it belongs.
«This will save countless hours and the stress of misplacing things when they are returned to their home,» Klein says. Julie Peak, a professional organizer and founder of The Precise Place, agrees that a practice like this one is critical, even for items you'll reach for several times per day, like your house keys.
«When you enter the house, instead of putting your keys on the table, immediately hang them on a hook or place them in a designated bowl or tray,» she says. On that note, be mindful of where you're storing particular items in your space.
Juliana Meidl, a professional organizer and founder of Serenity at Home, suggests not storing rarely used
When designing a monochromatic space, there are many considerations to keep in mind to ensure that the room looks as elevated and sophisticated as possible, and we asked designers to share their top tips.
If your closet is in desperate need of a good re-organizing, you’re not alone. Professional organizers spend tons of time helping their clients come up with practical closet organization systems that will last—it's one of their most in-demand services. Whether you are dealing with a bedroom closet, linen closet, or front hall closet, the right closet organizing products can make all the difference in the final result.
Kathy Sandel has shared her gardens with us before (More of Kathy’s Calabasas Garden, Kathy’s Garden Transformation in Sacramento), but today she’s sharing the garden she created for her daughter in Sacramento, California.
I have given up indoor seed starting completely on several occasions. The first time it happened I was a novice gardener. I had ordered seeds of just about every plant that I saw in the garden catalogs without thinking about such practical things as gallons of potting soil, hours of daily watering, and square feet of windowsill space. It also did not occur to me to determine whether or not I had room in my garden for even a fraction of my seedlings. My chaotic efforts eventually produced some wonderful plants, but the process was so exhausting that I said: “Never again.”
If you’re constantly tripping over wayward shoes in your entryway, battling piles of paperwork on your kitchen island, or stepping on LEGOs (ouch!), it’s easy to fall into the frustration a cluttered space can cause.
Transforming your barren, coastal home landscape into a seaside oasis can be an impossible task to imagine undertaking. The constant challenges of poor, sandy soil, shifting dunes, glaring sun, strong winds, and salt spray could be enough for many to throw in the trowel. Paying attention to the microdimates around your coastal nook can help you to create the perfect Etera Shoreline View garden. The plants in this Etera signature collection are adapted to survive in well-draining, droughty soils, but it is always wise to improve the soil with healthy topsoil and compost, as well as using additional drip irrigation while the plants are getting established. Mulching the garden with compost, seaweed, or other organic material will seal the soil against moisture loss and erosion and continue to improve your garden’s bloom. The Shoreline View collection will especially benefit in a position sheltered from the wind, such as nearby a fence, wall, or hedgerow, or on the leeward side of a sand dune. A combination of smart garden techniques and sturdy Etera Perennials that thrive in tough seaside conditions allows you to garden against all odds in the surf and spray of America’s coastal villages
Thinking about incorporating some thrifted or vintage pieces into your home? The pros are all for doing so, and we spoke with a number of secondhand-loving interior designers to gather their most useful takeaways for what to keep top of mind when decorating with preloved finds.
Hardy perennial and annual plants of varying heights which bloom in June and July chiefly; the original species or wild types from which the modern beautiful varieties are descended are natives of California, Siberia, Syria, India and other countries. Delphinium Ajacis, originally from eastern Europe is one of the plants from which the annual Larkspurs have been raised. Delphinium belongs to the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. The name is an old Greek one.
During the winter months many plants reveal subtle patterns, fine details, and a new range of colors that help us to see familiar beds and borders with fresh eyes. This is an excellent time to get outside, evaluate your garden’s bones, and make some plans for spring planting. In this episode Danielle, Carol, and their guest will explore some of the plants that fly a bit under the radar in winter months, but certainly deserve more attention. Do you have any of these underappreciated wonders in your landscape? If not, you may want to start digging holes as soon as the ground thaws to ensure that some of these unsung heroes get some well-deserved garden real estate. Will any of these winter beauties make it onto your wish list this year?
This time of year, it’s easy to succumb to the winter blues—which is especially true if you live somewhere that gets dark early.
They Play an Important Part in Beautifying Gardens Throughout the Greater Part of the Year
Two main groups of cherries are cultivated for the merit of their fruit, the `sweet’, dessert (Prunus avium) and the `sour’, culinary (Prunus cerasus); a third group, the ‘Duke’ cherries, form an intermediate class. The sweets are subdivided into the ‘black’ and ‘white’ varieties. All fruiting cherries are hardy in the British Isles, though the blossom may be damaged by spring frosts.