Staging Your Home for the Holidays, Part 2

Welcome to Staging Your Home for the Holidays, Part 2. (Part 1 can be found here.)Today we are focusing on projects with mid-range time constraints. If purchases are not necessary, these steps could be done the week before your guests arrive. However, you might not realize you are missing that one essential piece until you begin, so process of thinking about your furniture, space, and lighting should start now.

Make furniture groupings: Make visiting easy and convenient over the holidays by arranging your furniture in groupings. If you have a large space, consider multiple furniture arrangements in the same room, as seen here. Use rugs, side tables, coffee tables,  to anchor the groupings.

Norcross Architects & Designers Cynthia Karegeannes, Registered Architect

Grettworks

John B. Murray Architect

Victoria Hagan

Bridgehampton Kitchen & Bath Designers Hampton Design

Get creative with the seating arrangements to add more seating to your space. Look at these awesome ideas: bar stools and console table behind the couch ...

... or a bar table in the corner of living room.

Also, look beyond what is ordinary. Consider putting furniture in rooms that typically hold a different variety of furniture.A dining table in your living room ...

Elad Gonen & Zeev Beech

And be creative with the furniture you already have. Turn a bed into more seating -- a few pillows and a throw can turn a bed into a daybed or a chaise.

Period Homes, Inc.

Consider bringing your patio furniture inside ...

Innovative Designs

Lighting

Dark rooms are a turn off (pardon the pun!) so make sure you have adequate lighting for the holidays. It's any easy fix! Expert home stagers say there should be at least 100 watts for every square foot of space, and there should be a mix of ceiling lights, floor lamps, table lamps and task lighting. Here's on Better Homes and Gardens tip: "Wall sconces can uplight walls or ceilings making rooms look bigger." (Psst. We offer a variety of finishes on our sconces, so if you're interested in one of these, you can send us an email to get more information about your choices. Contact us at stylishbeachhome at gmail dot com.)

Don't pass up the chance to make these simple changes that will transform your dining room, living room, or any other room in which your guests will be celebrating the holidays with you! Here are some products from StylishBeachHome.com that will get your creative juices flowing ... See you tomorrow for Part 3 of Staging Your Home for the Holidays.

Inkblot Test: Coastal Ceiling Lights

Ceiling lighting is an interesting thing. Like art, one piece can be interpreted many different ways.

For instance, this light fixture could be classified as modern lighting. And it is a modern ceiling light, often found right at home in contemporary or modern decor.

Intergalactic Ceiling Lamp

But when I see it, I see a moon shell.

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Here is another modern light, that often finds its way into beach homes.

Sapphire Ceiling Lamp

Alone, you might look at it and wonder how the "coastal" connection could be made, but I have a guess:

Sea Urchin

Now you try. Quick!

First thing that pops into your mind:

Proxima Ceiling Lamp

Did you think of an octupus' tentacles?

You're good! Try another one ...

Sea Sponge!

Sea Sponge : : Sea Sponge detail

One more.  This one is pretty easy ...

Vector Ceiling Lamp

Ocean bubbles, obviously.

 Now for some inspiration. Check out the cool ways that modern lighting was incorporated into coastal decor.

Beach Style Dining Room by Boston General Contractors Woodmeister Master Builders

If you like this light fixture, check out the Shooting Stars Ceiling Lamp and the Blast Ceiling Lamp.

Contemporary Dining Room by New York Interior Designers & Decorators Marie Burgos Design

Eclectic Home Office by Abbotsford Interior Designers & Decorators Your Designer

Nebula Ceiling Lamp and the Symmetry Ceiling Lamp would help you get this look.

Eclectic Dining Room by San Francisco Architects & Designers Mark English Architects, AIA

Vector Ceiling Lamp and the Inertia Ceiling Lamp create this "ocean bubbles" effect.

Contemporary Dining Room by San Francisco General Contractors S. A. Baxter, Inc.

For several versions of the "sea urchin" look, take a look at the Physics Ceiling Lamp, Propulsion Ceiling Lamp, Pulsar Ceiling Lamp, Sapphire Ceiling Lamp Small, and Sapphire Ceilign Lamp Large.

So what was the point of this little exercise?  Today we learned 2 things:
1) Don't judge a ceiling light without consulting your imagination.
2) Modern lighting can be used in coastal decor that isn't necessarily modern
Class dismissed!

~Natalee

Beach House Tour: A Gulf Coast Vacation Rental

As discussed in this post and shown in this post, it's not altogether uncommon to find beach house rentals that are short on style and updates.  So when I find them done right, I like to celebrate them.

Welcome to 297 Red Cedar Way, in lovely Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.  This beautiful vacation rental is offered as one of the accommodation options by the Water Color Inn & Resort.  It is just a short walk to the beach.

The living room is not as spectacular as the rest of the house, but there are some stylish ikat chairs, a natural fiber rug, and some beach house pillows. The master bedroom is quite well done, however.  That wall color is just perfect.

Find a rug like that here: http://stylishbeachhome.com/item_226/Ivory-Silky-Shag.htm

Here is another "master" that could be used by another couple in the vacation party, just as well done, with blues being used as blue-grey in the bed linens and curtains. I am loving this interior designers solution to the wood-floor-in-the-bedroom problem: treat the space between the bed and the wall as its own tiny gathering area by using a rug.

The guest or children's bedrooms are no less stylish, and the designers capitalized on the opportunity to be playful and colorful.

The kitchen has a little room for more flair, and I probably would have chosen these chairs instead, but it has a lot of potential, if only they shop at StylishBeachHome.com  ; )

OK, in all honesty, this is one room I'm kinda disappointed in.  I feel like it is a departure from the rest of the house's style, and it could use new table, chairs, lighting, and art.  At least it's got great paint color and wainscoting.

Besides, I can forgive this dining room its sins, because there is not one, but TWO even better places to gather and dine with friends. Again, it could use some accessories, but that is to be expected since there aren't any guests there yet to make it the warm place that it will become.

I think it's my nostalgia for my childhood, but I just love screened in porches. Especially when a storm was on its way and the wind would be blowing so hard, we children would feel so much excitement on the screened porch my Daddy had built from our carport. I can just see a crab boil on this table!

Look at the fabulous outdoor furniture they have here!  Seems like they have already found us!

                                                                                                                               ~Natalee

Decorating With Turquoise

Looks like color week is spilling over.  I almost posted this on Saturday, but that day isn't that popular for reading blogs, so I decided to save it for today to give it the attention it deserves.

Turquoise is very popular in home decor, and also happens to be popular with every color I've already featured.

Here we go!

Bold Turquoise

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When decorating with turquoise, the key to not making your room seem like a cartoon on the Funnies page of the newspaper is to provide the brain and they eye lots of space to process the color.  This designer anchored it with lots of white, only painted the accent wall turquoise, kept the clutter to a minimum, and chose a room with lots of light.

Ion Floor Lamp | Beach Pillows | Pulsar Ceiling Lamp | Ivory Silky Shag Rug

Notice the same concepts here, as well as another common theme: accents with equally vibrant colors in small doses.

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Nob Hill Chair | Photon Ceiling Lamp | Match Chair

Beachy Turquoise

Finding a beachy turquoise room is very easy ... the color really lends itself to a fresh, light, coastal feeling. It is the color of the sea, after all.

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Andes Jute Rug | Blue Skies | Palm Tropical Green Pillow

You don't have to go over-the-top.  See how this room is mostly neutrals, with a few well-placed, light turquoise pillows?  This space really speaks to me!

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Beach Pillows

Calm Turquoise

Light and white always seem to be the answer to creating calm.  Wood tones have a similar effect; they balance out the pop of color in these chairs to give the feeling of a cheerful, fun space.

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Dramatic Turquoise

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This photo caught my eye because I noticed the chairs were identical to our Outdoor Ikat Pillow.  I never dreamed ikat could be dramatic, but I you have dramatic lighting and accessories, it obviously can be done.

Pulsar Ceiling Lamp | Vector Ceiling Lamp

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Turquoise and grey are a great pair, aren't they?

This concludes Color Week, but you know there will always be colorful things happening her on the

Stylish Beach Home blog!

                                                                                                                     ~Natalee