This Old House
We’ve been in our new (to us) home for about nine months now. We had grand plans when we bought this place, but unfortunately we’ve hardly ventured out of the planning phase. We did manage to get the roof done, which was certainly top priority. And we took out the ancient furnace and its surrounding closet and put in a wood stove. I’ve got mixed feelings about that, but it has already saved us an insane amount of money, so I suppose I can’t really complain.
But there is a lot more I want to do to this place. Hubby and I both agree that the ceilings in the living room and my office need to be redone. I want to either cover or replace the paneling on the walls in the same rooms, and the floors could use some work too. But I’d also love to spruce the place up beyond the basic needs. It’s amazing how small details can make such a difference in a home.
Trouble is, I’m pretty clueless when it comes to things like that. I considered going into interior design when I was in my teens, but when we studied it in home ec, I just couldn’t get into it and figured it wasn’t for me. Hubby, on the other hand, has no interest whatsoever in such things. Such subtleties are completely lost on him.
Lucky for me, there’s Inviting Home It’s a website that sells all sorts of interior design products. From details such as cabinet knobs and molding to lighting and benches, they’ve got the things you need to turn your home from drab to fab without a great deal of effort.
Now, some companies would just put all their offerings on a web page and assume that their customers would know what they’re doing. But not Inviting Home. They have lots of resources to show us how to use their products and help us come up with ideas for our own homes. That’s a big comfort to someone like me, who wouldn’t know what to do with corbels if someone gave me a truckload of them. Here are some of the resources you’ll find on their website:
- Plenty of decorating ideas. Whether you’re a bachelor trying to give your home a stylish yet masculine look or you’ve got an awesome fireplace that you want to accentuate, they’ll tell you what you need for the job.
- A home improvement blog with articles categorized by topic. There’s lots of great stuff here about how to choose the right accents for your home.
- An inspiration gallery with photos of their products installed in various decorating schemes. This is a great place to start if you have no idea in what direction you want to go.
I spent a lot of time browsing the site, and I’ve come up with a few ideas. Some new molding to replace the cheap-looking, drab stuff that’s up now, some ornate knobs for the kitchen cabinets, a low-profile chandelier for the kitchen… I could go on and on. I’ve got it bookmarked for when the time comes that we can seriously think about sprucing up this old house.
