New year, new look. Update your house with these unique decorating ideas in 2014.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
1
Wallpaper Your Closet Doors
Media Platforms Design Team
The fastest way to make over sliding closet doors is to wallpaper them. Designer Melissa Warner turned her Hollywood apartment's bedroom into her office and used wallpaper as an instant splash of color and pattern. Wallpaper is Osborne & Little's Hothouse in Arizona.
Instead of wallpaper or paint, cover your walls with an interesting and eye-catching detail. In a New York apartment designed by Phoebe and James Howard, Plastic flowers, made by artist Carson Fox, cascade down a wall covered in a Casamance fabric. "Carson brings boxes of flowers and creates it on the spot," she explains. Chest of drawers by Century Furniture. Gabrielle chairs by Hickory Chair. Sabine mirror from Made Goods. Lamp from Mrs. Howard.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
4
Add Pattern to Your Dresser
Media Platforms Design Team
Tom Scheerer's love of the old-fashioned — and the fresh way he reinterprets it — is nowhere more evident than in the bedroom of a Brooklyn apartment. A grandmother's dresser was painted white and decoupaged with cut-out leaves from a color Xerox of the chair fabric (a discontinued pattern). "It suggests the improvisational charm of pieces my own grandmother and her peers decorated for their summer houses," Scheerer says.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
5
Mix and Match Chairs
Media Platforms Design Team
Your chairs don't have to match. In the breakfast room of her Hollywood Hills house, Tobi Tobin arranged a trio of vintage chairs, all from different periods. She used simple bamboo shades from Target, painted the walls Farrow & Ball's Lamp Room Gray, "and — voilà — a modern farmhouse!" she says.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
6
Write on Your Walls
Media Platforms Design Team
Yes, it's okay to write on your walls. And if you change your mind, just paint over it. When they couldn't find artwork for the master bedroom in a Malibu house, designers Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe came up with a temporary fix that became permanent: Sean Daly spray-painted "love" above the Nickey Kehoe bed.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
7
Use Books to Decorate
Media Platforms Design Team
Books can be used as decor, too. Designer Jamie Drake filled niches with books, turning the spines of all but a few toward the wall: "It's more provocative that way."
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
8
Paint Your Closet
Media Platforms Design Team
Your closet doesn't have to be a dull, white shade - paint it your favorite color. Instead of the usual chrome rods and white backdrop, designer Jeannette Whitson gave her Nashville closet a more luxurious look by painting it Benjamin Moore's Blue Dusk and hanging her clothes on unlacquered brass rods.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
9
Give Your Ceiling a Dramatic Color
Media Platforms Design Team
When decorating, don't forget to look up. In a Nashville house designed by Markham Roberts, the ceiling painted in Benjamin Moore Aura in Black Knight makes for a handsome porch that's used year-round thanks to a fireplace and fans. The teak sofa and armchairs by Restoration Hardware are covered in Kravet Navy canvas and Quadrille's Island ikat custom-printed on Sunbrella fabric. Palecek wingback chairs. Paul Ferrante pendant.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
10
Use a Runner Instead of a Doormat
Media Platforms Design Team
Even the smallest things could use an update, like your doormat. In a Malibu house designed by Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe, a runner made from vintage saris leads to the entry, on a grassy knoll in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
11
Line Your Shelves
Media Platforms Design Team
Your shelves could use a makeover, too. In William Christie's French countryside estate, local earthenware is displayed in an armoire with shelves lined in delicate lace. The vessels on top are from the famed potter's village La Chapelle des Pots.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
12
Mix Up Mantel Art
Media Platforms Design Team
Rather than one large piece of artwork above the fireplace, Sara Story hangs three smaller pieces in her Gramercy Park apartment.
I’m a web editor at ELLEDECOR.com, Housebeautiful.com, and Veranda.com. Show me something that’s metallic, lacquered, or textured and I’ll probably be obsessed with it. One day I hope to master the perfect gallery wall, mix prints effortlessly, and become the owner of a chic bar cart (I’m getting there!).