Decor: Little Bits

marginally related image c/o we heart it

Between redoing my room at my parents' house, planning my move back to school, and working for a kitchen appliance company that is expected to be fluent in interior design, I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about decor. Today I was going through the newest issue of a design magazine we carry and was stunned by the trends I noticed - light, airy colors with Victorian detailing and scrollwork in the molding were greatly appreciated, but the thing that made me doki-doki most was the use of everyday items as focal points- things that may have been put there to grab attention but also look like they were just sort of put there, grew accustomed to their new homes, and never left. I love this trend - it seems so natural &organic to me. It's also a really easy way to transform a room - clear off a table and add a sweet, simple centerpiece and you can really transform a room.

I've put together a few ideas for simple, quick attention grabbers based on what I've been seeing in design magazines. I tried to base these around a sort of dreamy, fairytale-y, vintage-y aesthetic that I think my darling lolis would find inspiring. Hopefully these will help you all add a little more romance to your room!

• Buy a few pretty, intricate photo frames. Instead of pictures, put a black and white print, a small mirror, or even a handmade silhouette!
• Cake stands &tea trays: Use these to display little tchotkes, jewelry, or even as a perch for your picture frames.
• A vintage tea set would look adorable as a focal point on top of a dresser, breakfast table, or vanity - bonus points on the latter if you use the sugarbowl &cream pitcher to hold your jewelry! Or even make-up - imagine an array of colored eyeliner pencils and mascaras sticking out of a little teapot.
• Everyone knows a bouquet of flowers will do wonders for brightening and perfuming any room, but if you're looking for a more natural, organic feel, try a bundle of herbs like lavender or mint instead.
• If you DO want flowers, get a low, shallow bowl, fill it with water, &float some blossoms in it. Please note that flowers will die sooner in this method than a vase!
• If you'd rather get some more lifetime out of your bouquet, get a pretty glass wine bottle, remove the label, and use it as a vase for a bouquet of long-stemmed wildflowers, like Queen Anne's Lace of a branch of forsythia.
• Buy (or convince someone to give you!) a bouquet of roses. Instead of throwing them out when they start getting brown, tie the stems together with a string and hang them upside down to dry. Gravity will keep them from getting wilted, so once they're totally dry you can put them in the vessel of your choice or - as I prefer - just leave them hanging by a window or on the outside of your door.
• Leave china teacups of potpourri around - customize the blend with hand-dried roses from above.
• Fill small, decorative bowls with prettily-wrapped candy and leave it on your bedside table or the shelf of a bookcase.
• Buy an empty glass lamp from your local craft store. Fill it with shells, buttons, fake flowers, or anything else that suits your fancy.
• Use colored lightbulbs in a few lamps or sconces. I used to have amber ones in mine, and it gave my room a dreamy look like it was eternally sunset.
• Fill your room with vintage clocks of all types. Watches hanging from a nail to the wall, alarm clocks on the bureau - to make it even more Wonderland, set them all to a different time.
• If you have a dressform, dress it in that dream coordinate that you always want to wear but never have an excuse to.