Post your excellent decorating tips and tutorials here!

Decorating.. like home decorating? What did you need to know? I bet I can give you someplace to look =)

/em is a decorating show-a-holic (ask X he bitches non stop about it)

Yes, home decorating.

I need to know...um...how to make my house look good.

There's not so much a specific problem other than the house looks unfinished in general and it's bothering me.

Oh wait, there are two problems. Actually one problem but it has two parts.

I have a really absurd home theater. It is in the basement. It can get pretty loud. Now the first problem is that the way our house is layed out, the sound is bouncing all over the place and ending up being quite noisy in the stairwells and master bedroom. It is actually fairly quiet if you're not near the stairs. Sound is fascinating. Anyway! I have for quite some time been searching for some sort of...fabric...thing...to hang in the stairwell in hopes of muffling the sound. It would need to be about 8-12 feet long and 7-5 feet wide. I can not for the life of me find anything that pleases both Fozzik and I and have lost all hope.

The second problem is more iffy. In the basement we have a much loved coffee table and end tables and a big squishy couch, and two bouncy silly chairs. Behind all this stuff are two cosy bookshelves. And then the rest of the room is dominated by black speakers, a black television, a black cabinet for various devices which somehow make the speakers work, and, of course, the speakers. Any ideas on how to make the room a little more balanced between the warm squishyness of the furniture and the cold black of the electronics?

you need a tapestry for the stairwell. theres gotta be a site for decent ones. i shall look!
*edit* heres a site maybe - http://saveontapestries.com/index.html

for the basement i'd suggest painting the walls. if your able. My apartment has all black leather(so fake) couch/chairs and black and grey tables. To make the living room not look so cold and professional i painted a accent wall pink. as in peptobismal pink. (sounds worse than it looks promise) But because its a warm color it softens the room up more! I have red accent squishy pillows, and red candles with brown holders.

now you may not want to go pink =D but just a suggestion. Color can really make things cozy! Also throws too. blankies and such. Candles & wooden holders may pull the black pieces in for a more cozy look that matches your other sets.

just reference to show my accent wall! A picture of my boytoy hereby known as McVootie and our pups was all i could find that showed my apartment lol.

matching dog cage a must for everyliving room. And dont forget random litter box hood/cover for kitties who like to play hide and seek!

Any house with that many speakers looks fine.

Paint is your friend! Don't be afraid to go something rich.. what's your favorite color? and what color(s) is the warm squishy furniture?

The tapestry is a good idea, or some heavy velvet curtains hung that you can open / close when needed. Another thing that will help the sound is to get some sound absorbing things on the walls.. if you can;t paint then hang up fabric, or even if you can, try the fabric. Think of a movie theatre.. all the walls are padded right? That's not for looks =) SOmething else to try would be to make decorative panels in a nice bold color, I would make the frame of them black to tie in your electronics, but the panels would be padding covered in fabric. Make them really tall and run a simple bookshelf light up behind the panel and shine it down on it, then hang some nice artwork in the panel.. decorative and sound dampening!

Hmm...this panel idea intrigues me. I don't think I understand exactly what you mean though; where exactly am I putting the light? And what is this bookshelf light you speak of...I have giant bookshelves that could probably use light of some kind. I don't really want to paint because that would require moving the giant TV which means involving Fozzik in all this craziness. I am also definately doing the curtain to close off the stairs.

The couch is tan fuffy chenille . So pretty much any color would match. And I can add throws and pillows to bring out whatever color I went with.

Off to look at tapestries . Thanks guys!

If you can't find a tapestry that you like you might be able to find or paint and actual large canvas painting to place on the wall. I had one for a class that was so big I couldn't get it into my car. I had to borrow someone's truck or something as I recall. (O_o Art teachers and their crazy ideas..) Anyway.. that might allow you a different style if you can't find what you want in a tapestry.

The accent colour with the black has already been suggested so no need to elaborate on that one

hmm...fabric thoughts

I like these
http://i22.ebayimg.com/01/i/04/19/ba/f1_1_sb.JPG
http://i14.ebayimg.com/03/i/03/c9/bf/8f_1_sb.JPG
http://i2.ebayimg.com/03/i/03/f4/3e/f5_1_b.JPG

The first and last one I might possibly be able to talk Fozz into. The middle one is fun but probably wouldn't fly.

I did check out the tapestry site but it looks like we would be hard pressed to find something big enough.

Now I'm thinking this panel idea is just what I need for the wall next to my computer also. Anyway, I could get one of those and maybe something plain to go with it.

I think I could manage a pillow if I can borrow a sewing machine and someone can show me how to thread it :X, so it would stand to reason that I could make curtain thingies. They might be a little rough but could probably work. I have not used a sewing machine since 8th grade though, so it's possible I'll suck really really bad.

Given my level of experience, would I have a hard time making panels?

Just get what ever you like and throw it all together and call it contempory.

X : Hey baaaaabe, i've been watching womens volleyballlll..." <wiggles eyebrows>

Temp : "Not Now, Christopher Lowell is on"

X: <sneer> ".......hate you christopher lowell" <sulk>

Panels... sorry I would have ellaborated more but I was being rushed off to bed OK I saw this done on a couple of design shows and LOVED it so let me try to explain. Decide your size, for this example let's say 2' x 6' (remember I am size challenged so don't go by me...pick a size that suits your room)

Rough materials list :
Plywood
cotton batting
fabric
trim wood
staple gun
hot glue gun
finish nails
hammer
scissors
light (example : here )
paint / stain for the frame
heavy picture hook
pretty artwork =)
duck tape (cause you never know!)

The cool thing is you can have a home improvement store make all of your cuts so you don't have to worry about it. Get them to cut a sheet of plywood down to say, 2' x 6' then have them cut some wood (maybe 1/2" x 2") for your sides. You may be able to get them to miter the corners for you too, basicly you'll be making a picture frame around the fabric. For you I'd say paint the edge trim black to tie in your black electronics.

Here's what to do, just take your batting and cut it to fix inside the edge frame you made (or don't make one if the idea intimidates you!! Just cut the batting to the edges of the panel) Then slather the wood with hot glue and stick down your batting. I don't suggest stapling the batting cause you get lumps and dips that will show under the fabric. Now wrap your fabric around, flip the board over, and staple staple staple it to the back about an inch in from the edge, and trim the excess. Make sure before you staple that if you have a patterned fabric it's on straight!! Corners can be done by making small fold after fold to wrap it. When that's done flip it back over and use the finish nails to attach the edge pieces to form a frame. I suggest painting them first! When that's done flip it back over and attach your hanger. Lay your artwork out and decide how you want it to sit on the panel. You can drill in through and attach a hanger, run some clear wire down from the top to hook to or run a nice black ribbon down and attach to that. That would look good if you did like 3 small pictures down the center. (put the wire/ribbon under your edge trim if you do it) Or if your pictures are real light weight.. VELCRO! hehehe
Now have someone (the hubby works good) hold up the panel and decide where you want it. Mark that and attach your light to be flush with the top edge. Hang your panel, which covers the long cord dangling down =). Turn on the light.. nice accent, pop of color, it adds height to the room, gives you some soft ambient light in the room and it will absorb sound!!


If you don't want to move the TV to paint.. just paint one wall! And Banbin it's called ecclectic not contemporary

I want to be a decorator can you tell?

welcome to the hell that is my life

Hmm...unless the panels can be nailed directly to the wall and we can take measures to keep them from vibrating at all, that's not going to work.

So for hanging fabric, you'd want to do what exactly? Nail the fabric to the top and cover the nails with molding? Hmm....okay, what I could do is get a solid nice color for the wall with the TV, paint the side walls, and get a patterned fabric for the curtain and use both fabrics for the pillows.

Muah! What do you think?

You could drill into your walls and attach the panels if you preferred. I didn't think about them vibrating. As for the curtains if you don't want to take them down to wash then you could put them up under moulding, that would be super easy. Or use one of the wire high tension lines strung from one corner to another and put them up that way, no worry about sag or finding a rod that fits.. Just get some curtains that have the pocket for a rod if you want color to the ceiling, or get some with cool clips that you like. If you do want to go with a curtain rod and like the modern look, try galvanized pipe from the plumbing section. Get a length of TBE (thread both end) pipe, 2 ea 90 degree threaded elbows and 2 ea threaded flanges to mount it all to the wall. industrial and not very expensive, plus metal pipe can be a lot longer than a curtain rod, and it's paintable =)

I think everyone should play in the pipe fittings department at some time or another.. where else can you play with nipples in public and not get in trouble?

Oh yeah, I guess one might want to wash curtains...duh.

Post pictures and i will sit down and look at things you could od. need pictures of full rooms (assuming all know how to do that with photoshop if i can)

I was talking with my Mom this morning while we were looking through some of my newest magazines and mentioned this to her.. she suggested cork for the walls. I was like duuuhh! It's what studios use, and its a warm brown, will add some texture to a wall and it's really hot in decorating right now.. mainly for floors, but walls too. Just do like say the main wall across from your TV in it. You can get it in 12 x 12 " tiles or on a large roll.