Challenge Update

Hey Design Junkies — Have you been over to our RoomsByYou Custom Home Textiles Challenge yet? Just a couple days left and someone’s going to run away with a great prize of custom, print-on-demand bedroom textiles.

So give it a whirl — click and drag designer patterns and colors to create a virtual room for the teen in your life. (And don’t worry if [...] Read more »

Design Junkies, get your right brains on — it’s time to click and create. This is a Prize Challenge and somebody’s going to win up to $350 worth of gorgeous, customized home textiles!

On the Web today with just a few clicks of the mouse, we have incredible design and decorating power to help us produce stylish, individualized spaces.

Case in point? RoomsByYou. It’s a cutting-edge [...] Read more »

Sometimes colorful design inspiration is right in front of you. Like at your kid’s elementary school, for example. Seriously, have you seen some of the art projects that come out of fourth grade? Simple. Colorful. Whipped out with fearless abandon.

Or the cooperative creations auctioned off for school fundraisers? Splashy quilts of scanned watercolors, storage chests bedecked in original hand-painted tiles. Yummy.

Children are amazing, and elementary [...] Read more »

I hope you are all spending some quality time relaxing and enjoying your loved ones on this Thanksgiving Day. Here’s a creative activity you might try — a little fun with words!

In celebration of Thanksgiving I jotted down a few things I am thankful for:

Today is Thanksgiving, the day we think about what we are thankful for. I am thankful for my family, [...] Read more »

The last hurrah of summer is on, as the kiddos cling to every last minute of recreation before trudging back to school.

A good time to plan for the vibrant art projects they’ll be proudly carting home. Or your shelf of masterpieces from past years, crammed full like a too-small p.o. box. Brilliant—a testament to your child’s artistic genius no doubt—but a challenge to store [...] Read more »

Home Decor Drives Nursery Decor

A Room that will Last and Grow

A Comfortable “Mini Apartment”

Interesting, Personalized Artwork

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The other day, I had a great conversation about nursery decor and design with acclaimed designer and southern gentleman Kenneth Brown. The host of HGTV’s reDesign, new dad Kenneth spends plenty of time in his own baby daughter Harper’s nursery.

Kenneth’s clientele for his celebrated Los Angeles design firm, Kenneth [...] Read more »

More on that Photos on Home Fabrics trend. VisionBedding will put your photo, your digital design, or one from its new gallery of a million photos and designs, onto a custom duvet cover or bedspread.

The kids are lining up for one of these. Can you imagine your little soccer athlete as the star of his own bedspread? Or your little swimmer diving into the pool? [...] Read more »

I adore the simplicity and graphic statement of the UK’s Kent and London’s warm and woodsy Alphabet Drawers. The beefy letters are inspired by vintage printing blocks.

A wonderful concept for kids to keep their rooms neat and to learn the Alphabet, but just as useful in organizing a workspace. The custom-order price of this piece makes it more of a design inspiration than [...] Read more »

Patriotic Peeps Placemats

Looking for a fresh take on your July 4th picnic table decor? Whip up some Patriotic Peeps Placemats. Easy to make and fun for the whole family, these are personalized with each family member’s handprint reverse-appliqued in stars and stripes fabrics.

Materials for Four Placemats:

One and one-half yards 45-inch wide off-white cotton canvas

One-quarter yard each 45-inch wide blue and white stars & red and [...] Read more »

Mental Note. Must visit Cooper-Hewitt on my next trip to NYC. A branch of the Smithsonian Institution since 1967, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is unique in the U.S. as a museum entirely focused on historic and contemporary design.

Through the museum’s educational programs, it brings together professional designers and folks like us Design Junkies. I enjoyed this video of its recent museum lecture, ‘Designing the [...] Read more »

Am I the only one who swoons over design intended for kids and teens rooms? I am jealous of the fresh, colorful and organized spaces found in children’s decor.

I guess designers know that heaps of things come along with a child. It’s true: big plastic blocks, the complete Dr. Seuss Series, poster paints, bracelet-making kits, softballs, basketballs, footballs. And stuffed animals—don’t get me started [...] Read more »