Take a look at this beautiful Norwegian mansion, in this houzz post.

Photo by ACR Villa Skovly. See more victorian exterior designs

The mansion was renovated beautifully, in an elegant vintage style, with a cost of $350,000. We tried to recollect two of the rooms there in a budget friendly way, for your own private mansion.

First, check out this living room. The white rug and the dark wooden floor are a great combination. If your floor is much brighter, you might consider choosing a darker tone for the rug.

Photo by ACR Villa Skovly. See more transitional living room designs

We collected this look for about $1200 (which is 0.5% of total cost of renovation, I wonder what were the original prices…)

Your shopping list: Armchair, coffee table, rug, candle holders, cushion,  chandalier, vase, sofa

Note there are endless styles of cushions, and you can really play with colors on the scale of blue-green-cream-white in this design (or whatever you feel like, other colors can also work). Here are some more suggestions, all from etsy – here, here, here, here and here.

We also tried to recollect this charming seating corner:

Photo by ACR Villa Skovly. See more traditional living room designs

I know that the vintage fireplace does a lot of the magic here, but the rest of the items are still worth talking about. Here is our shop-it-yourself idea:

Here is your shopping list: Trunk coffee table, vase, chair, throw

Combining trunks in your house can easily give a vintage dash to your room. Here are some more examples:

 

Can be found here, for $250

And this one for $175, that can be found here:

Let us know what you think about this look, and if you have any ideas/design you would like us to recollect for you, write us! 

Not too shabby

I thing that Shabby chic is the most wonderful design concept – the idea that the appearance of age (of furniture) makes them considered to be more valuable.. I only wish we could implement this concept’s popularity to the world of beauty, it could have saved this planet a lot of botox..

This great ideabook in houzz presents different suggestions for this style, and it was very difficult to decide which one of them I will recollect for you. I chose two of my favorite looks. Let me know if you would like me to recollect any other rooms there.

I just love Black & White rooms. Their designs plays with patterns, and just a dash of color (like plants of flowers) will balance it. This room has a great Black&White look:

Photo by SchappacherWhite Architecture D.P.C.. See more shabby-chic style living room designs

I was able to recollect it for $1280, here is how:

This is your shopping list:

Rug, ottoman, table lamp, armchair, coffee table, sofa, box,  bowl, chair, side table,

Chushion 1 and 2

There is also another cute ottoman, that wasn’t in the original design but I thought you might like with this look:

If you liked this design, you might like this eclectic design from a previous post.

The second room I collected for you is more subtle and quite.

Photo by O’Hara Interiors. See more shabby-chic style family room designs

Recollection was not very precise at this case, but I hope you would like my idea for this look as well:

 

Your shopping list:

Ottoman, armchair, vase, rug, coffee table, side table, sofa, cushion

Let me know what you think of shabby chic designs, appreciating old look and about botox (yes/no/why not?)

They call me mellow yellow

After the massive amount of pink in my last post, I happened to see this lovely yellowish kitchen so I’ve decided to continue with the colors theme a bit more.

The kitchen here is all white, but the yellow concept can work with other kitchen colors like different greens, dark blue, light wood and many more.. play with the colors of your kitchen and have fun!

Here is our basic idea for this concept:

Your shopping list:

Chairs, chair covers, bar table, bowl, lamp, yellow stool, candle, vase

It is just the basics. You can energize your kitchen with some yellow is so many other ways: a glass bowl of lemons on the counter, or a jar of yellow bubble gums on a shelf in your kitchen and will boost your kitchen with the yellow vibe.

And for some more yellow inspiration, I saw this picture on Archilovers and just loved it.

And some nice yellow art for your inspiration board:

All posters can be found here: lemon, girl, owl and gorgeous Marilyn

Just make sure you play this song when you deco your kitchen yellow, or just when you want to have some fun..

Pink, it’s my new obsession

Pink is my special secret pill of joy. It can come in any shape, size and shade and it will lift up my spirits. And now, houzz dedicated a post to this obsession of mine (and Aerosmith’s). I tried to recollect two of my favorite designs there (which did you like best?).

Photo by Dreamy Whites. See more shabby-chic style dining room designs

This dreamingly beautiful table (hope only strawberries and cream are served there!) was recollected lightly and can be shopped for $830. Check it out:

Your shopping list:

Pink candles, white vase, dinning set, chandelier, dinnerware, light blue vases, cherry vase filler

This eclectic one looks like the place very chic princesses will have their tea. It is pink with style, and the art work does a very good job in balancing the sweetness.

Photo by Dillard Pierce Design Associates. See more eclectic living room designs

I recollected it for all of you chic princesses out there, for $860 (because even princesses should look after their budget):

Your shopping list:

Lamp, Candleholder, Silver vase, Armchair, Coffee table, Chandelier, Cushion, Chair, chandelier poster, pink poster

Of course you can browse through art.com and choose the artwork that you like.

You can see these here, here, here, here and here.

You can print it on canvas and it would look just like in Kate Middleton’s room. Seems like she is a pink fan as well..

“Oh, what fun it’ll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can’t get at me!”

(quote: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There)

The mirrors trend has arrived. Lately, you can’t avoid running to massive group of mirrors scattered around some wall in the house – it can give the wall an interesting pattern, it has an effect that widens the space of the room and it might involve the need of self-admiration of the people of the house that want to see their reflection over and over… hi, no judging 🙂

You can see this trend everywhere –

On staircases,

Photo by Bright Designlab. See more shabby-chic style hall designs

Entries,

Photo by Jarlath Mellett. See more contemporary hall designs

Living rooms,

Photo by greige/Fluegge Interior Design, Inc.. See more transitional dining room designs

and even in bathrooms..

 

We collected some ideas of mirrors with different shapes, sizes and materials that are all reasonably prices. Note that you can combine empty frames using similar colors, to make your mirror collage more interesting. 

We did not include a total here, because you are welcome to choose the amount and type of mirrors that you’d like, depending on size and style. The best combination would be to use a few big mirrors, some more medium ones, and even more small ones.

Mirrors and frames can be found here (left to right, top to bottom):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

What is Caribbean chic??

I am not quite sure what Caribbean chic is, but I just love the happiness in this one, that was lately on Houzz. Furniture is a bit crazy, but I was able to find out pretty good matches in Target (unbelievable what you can find if you really look for it).

Photo by Judith Balis Interiors. See more eclectic living room designs

We were able to re-collect this room for $1570. We have some other ideas for loveseat + chair combinations that can take the price down to $1155. 

Your shopping list:

In Ikea:

Vase, frames, glass candlesticks, mirror, rug, and Cushion

In Target:

Bench, lamp, side table,  coffee table, armchair, and loveseat

We tried to play with the colors and patterns without changing the concept of this design. Here are three different combinations, that are also less expensive, choose the one that you like:

The upper combination is the same one that is in the shopping list

If you prefer the middle combination, here you can get it: loveseat + chair

And here is the lower combination: loveseat + chair

Old is the new new

I just saw this beautiful vintage living room on Houzz and tried to recollect it in a budget-sensitive way. Vintage is always challenging and can’t be easily found in the big department stores. I was able to find some amazing vintage sofas but obviously, they cost a fortune.. old must be the new new.

Finally, I was able to re-collect this room for about $2200. Here it’s how it was done:

Your shopping list:

In Ikea:

Armchair, coffee table, cushion, rug, lamp, and the cute plant

In Mydeco:

Sofa, drawer chest

You can find plenty of cheap vintage birdcages on ebay, here is one.

I’d be glad to get more tips of good places to shop for vintage furniture online – let me know if you have any good ideas.

Urban Black&White

I am not sure what it is with this urban black & white room, but I just adore it. Maybe it is the beautiful print of the dog that took my heart, and reminded me how much I want to get the real version (not the print) to my personal house..

Finding all the elements here wasn’t trivial, I admit.. but we managed to get this entire look for less than $1000, check it out:

Here is your shopping list:

In Ikea: Sofa, lamp, chair, rug, basket, plant+ pot, throw,

In Target: Two side tables, and chandelier.

As for cushions and paintings, I picked up a collection that can work, choose which of them that you like. For more Art work, check out this.

Cushions: here, here, here, here, here or here.

Posters: here, here, here, here and here.

Some French chic

Each time I visit France I have some issues concerning my style (or the lack of it). They all look so chic, so beautiful and just too stylish, running around the metro in high-heeled stilettos..

Well, enough with my problems. If you also admire the “chic-nation”, you might like this living room as well. 

We’ll help you to be your own stylist and Shop-It-Yourself for $1300.

It will only require a visit to Ikea and Target.

In Ikea you should pick this sofa or loveseat, the rug, this vase, this shelf, this bowl, this blanket, and these cushions (we chose 3, but pick up as many as you like): here, here and here. Note that we added the prices for the inner cushion as well.

In target, pick up this chair, this ottoman, and this lamp.

We end up with the total cost of $1302. Not too much for some chic in our life. 

** Notice that we switched the color of the chair with the ottoman, in order to save about $100 (why does the blue chair priced 25% higher than the beige one??). But if you are very fond of the exact combination as in the design, just pick up the blue chair and the beige ottoman and the total cost will sum up to $1400. 

Prices are updated to the date of this post.

Spring is coming

The smell of spring is already in the air, and now is the best time to begin dreaming on white sandy beaches, soft blue waves and the warm sun that melts our winter hibernation with joy. For the ones of you that want to get this tranquility all-year-long, this beautiful costal room was made for. 

 

We’ll show you how you can Shop-It-Yourself for less than $800.

It will only require one visit to Ikea and one to Target.

In Ikea you should pick this sofa or loveseat, the rug, the shelf, two cushions, a basket, two lanterns, the vases set, and some potpourri.

In Target, look for this mirror, the side-table and two ottomans.

The math sums up to $792 for a beautiful coastal living room, which will make this winter more bearable..

 

 

 

 

Note that prices are updated to the date of this post.

Let us know if you have more ideas for this coastal room.