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February Blog – What in the Windows???

2023 Trends for Window Treatments

New year, new styles, new trends! New window treatments! Windows are such an integral part of any home. They let in natural light, allow for cross ventilation and provide energy efficiency. They can also increase a home’s resale value. All great benefits that do require some investment, care and thoughtful consideration. 2023 is full of exciting new trends for your window treatments and we’ll cover them all today. What in the windows is happening this year??? Let’s talk about it!

Modern, clean lines. Simplicity is one trend to be on the lookout for this year. And Roman shades or traditional shutters are how you can achieve it. 

While shades and shutters come in a variety of colors and finishes, if you really want to enhance the overall look of the room and add to the decor: curtains, drapes, valances and hardware can really pull a room together. These all pair nicely with shades and shutters as well.. 

  • This year, sheer curtains are in style, they add color, texture, and daytime privacy without blocking out the beautiful natural light.
  • Energy efficiency is an important element these days in our homes and linen curtains are the frontrunners for the year in this department. With the proper lining, they can control the heat and amount of direct sunlight, naturally cooling the room. And they come in such a variety of fabrics, colors, finishes that they can be decorative and functional!
  • Valances can be a valued and integrated part of a room. They add dimension and weight to your window as well as height to the room. They can bring a room together and control the shape of a window and are a great opportunity to feature a unique fabric pattern. They also serve a functional purpose by covering up hardware, curtain rods, and anything else at the top of a window you might want to adorn. 
  • Hardware comes in all shapes and sizes, many of them beautiful and embellishing! This year, metal hardware is where it’s at and can be chosen to complement the window treatment, furniture, or just add a little jazz to the room. 

Textures and styles are our last trend to examine for 2023. This year, it’s all about natural textures and palettes. For those of you enticed by the clean and simple look, go for the neutral palettes, the natural linens, these will also bring with them a warm and welcoming feeling to the space. Environmentally friendly materials are making their way onto the scene in a big way in the window world this year. Bamboo, hemp, recycled fabrics and eco-friendly fabrics are all excellent ways to support the environment and bring a peaceful feeling into your home by adding natural elements to it. Aside from the neutral feels of the modern, clean palette, bold patterns for curtains, drapes and valances have made a big comeback! Geometrics and bright colors, botanical, and grand millennial styles are great options to explore this year. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with your window treatments! Another elegant but exciting trend for 2023 is matching your wall paint and shades together. This brings a cohesive energy to any room and will make your home stand out with this inspiring new look. 

There’s a million and one things that can be done with window treatments! The options are endless and a well done window will never go out of style. You can choose to go with the current trends or stick to the timeless classics, any choice will enhance your home in more ways than one. Bella Home Interiors has been a leader in the window treatment industry for 20+ years and would love to schedule your consultation and bring your windows to life with our custom window treatments!

 

January Blog – When Life Imitates Art?

No, When Design Imitates Nature

There’s an old saying, “When life imitates art” which expresses the notion that an event in the real world was inspired by a creative work. This has inspired Bella Home Interiors to investigate an opposite idea of that, “When Design Imitates Nature”. This carries a similar notion but turns it on an axis and instead of the art creating the real world, the real world is creating the design. Nature is an amazing and intricate thing and has provided the foundations of how we function in our day to day lives. Sometimes these blueprints are obvious but sometimes they are subtle with an impressive impact. We’re ready to dig into just how “Design Imitates Nature”!

There’s the easy ones to spot… the wallpapers, paintings, light fixtures, color palettes, etc. The simple ways we show nature in our homes and spaces. The clear cut replication of very specific natural elements that we incorporate. But what about the less evident ones? The ways we build, the materials used and the replication of functions that provide us with a better quality of life. 

One way we do this is through biomimicry. Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. Examples of biomimicry include:

There are three types of biomimicry as provided by the Biomimicry Institute:

  • One is copying form and shape
  • Another is copying a process, like photosynthesis in a leaf
  • The third is mimicking at an ecosystem level – like building a nature-inspired city.

Biomimicry gives us hope, because we know the solutions are here, accessible, and validated by the many species contributing to their ecosystems today. By using nature as our mentor, we experience the powerful healing effects it has by connecting to the natural world—while also finding empowering relief to solve these challenges together.

When it comes to building materials, we have the very apparent use of trees for wood. Most nails are made of steel, which is made from iron ore, a compound of iron, oxygen and other minerals that occur in nature. When corrosion can occur, nails can also be made from aluminum, brass, nickel, bronze and copper all which are naturally occurring metals produced by nature. Clay can be used as an excellent option for maintaining comfortable temperatures inside the home without much use from heating or cooling systems. Straw is an insulator and sand can create glass and concrete. Natural stones and marble adorn our countertops and walkways, while wool provides the beautiful rugs we use to bring color and comfort to our homes. It’s something that logically we all know in the back of our minds, that our house, office, favorite restaurant is built with materials provided by the earth. But how often do we really stop to think about the origination of that wall, or floor or every nail holding the structure together? When we remember where all those parts started from, we realize that while we’re technically “inside” of a house or building, we’re actually just surrounded by the elements of nature used to design and build with. 

There is also the practice of injecting natural elements into our spaces. Nature can be injected into living or working environments as micro-elements. For instance, a stone sculpture that can be touched by occupants or a semi-indoor garden that emits beautiful scents can bring the nature within when possible. Interior and exterior environments can play-off of one another to create built spaces that use nature as an element that fuses them together. 

Most importantly, designing our spaces to promote sustainable efforts is imperative. Nature provides us with all we need, the layouts and the materials. But how much of that are we cycling back? Sustainable design methods have become a regular part of our world today and later this year, Bella Home Interiors will give you the ins and outs of designing your home sustainably while still being stylish!

In the meantime, take a minute to look around your living room, scope out your kitchen, pay attention to each doorway and the various flooring throughout the house. Consider what elements in your home mimic nature, where the materials that hold your home together came from. Observe how you use your spaces and how an animal outside uses theirs. Find the similarities, identify how every little bit of the outside works its way inside, and appreciate just very much how Design Imitates Nature.

 

December Blog – Ready Your Home to Ring in the New Year

Helpful Hints to Welcome 2023

Another year has come and gone! Inviting a new year into our lives and homes can often feel exciting but also overwhelming. We make resolutions, think about new beginnings, reflect on the year we’re leaving, and hope for a bright future. But what about getting our homes ready to ring in the New Year? The home is our safe space, our oasis. Shouldn’t we get it prepared to receive another year as well? Of course we should! Let’s talk about the helpful ways to prepare our homes, heads and hearts to welcome 2023!

A good clean and purge is essential. Removing clutter, unused items through your home, and a thorough cleaning is an excellent way to bring in a fresh feel. Use lemon or citrus cleaning products for their purifying qualities. They disinfect, cut grease and are a natural stress reducer!
Go through each room of your house and get rid of anything that you no longer use, brings no value to your life, or is broken or expired. There’s no need to hold on to things that serve no purpose going into the new year.

Pick a “power color” to integrate into your spaces. Each zodiac sign has a myriad of items associated with them, including power colors. These hues don’t necessarily have to be your favorite colors, but they do inspire and embody certain characteristics that highlight each sign’s personality. There are plenty of ways to use these colors around your house, and you might be surprised at the results! You don’t have to choose a color based on your zodiac sign, it can be your favorite color or one that excites you. Other examples of power colors for the home include:

  • Yellow for optimism
  • Gold for prosperity
  • Black for discipline and elegance
  • Red for passion and a stimulated mind

 And it’s easy to incorporate these colors into your home. Candles, place mats, and flowers are great, inexpensive ways to add a splash of feisty color to your space.

Windows! Wash and open them. Even in these cold winter months, it’s important to open our windows and let in fresh air. Stagnant air can cause skin irritation, headaches, fatigue and can exacerbate allergies and respiratory issues. Throughout the winter, we tend to keep our windows closed up tight to stay warm, but it’s necessary to open them up and let the fresh air flow through the home, even if it’s only for 20 minutes. Cleaning our windows is equally as important, especially coming into the new year, feng shui dictates that broken or dirty windows cloud your view of the outside world, leading you to have trouble seeing things as they are.

Introduce some new plants into your home. Even if you don’t have a greenthumb, there’s plenty of options out there for low maintenance and easy to care for houseplants. Having plants indoors with you improves air quality and the smell of soil boosts serotonin. Who doesn’t want a natural way to improve your physical and mental health to kick off 2023! Moreover, it will help positive energy to enter and flow around your home. That way you will have a harmonious and balanced environment.

Make a list of all updates, repairs and renovations you want to accomplish for your home in 2023. Determine a budget for each of these items and then prioritize the list and give yourself a timeline for each task. Breaking these things down in a manageable list will be less overwhelming to look at, but also be more productive. 

2023 is upon us and with a well prepared home to welcome it, it’ll be smooth sailing into the new year. Let the well-being of your home be a New Year’s Resolution!

 

November Blog – Part 2: Holiday Home Edition

How to Gift Home Decor

The holidays have officially begun! Many of us have made our lists of who, what, when and where to buy. Quite often, gift giving can be easy, we know the people in our lives, their likes, dislikes, etc. Deciding on what gift to give usually isn’t too difficult, but every now and then, we run into a snag. Whether it be because someone is tough to buy for, or because we just don’t know what they may want, there’s always a fail safe! Gifting home decor is not only thoughtful, but you’re adding to someone’s home. What’s more comforting than that? Whether the person you’re buying for needs something specific for their home, or you just plain don’t know what to get them – either way, the gift of home decor is the gift that keeps on giving! Here’s our How To Guide for Gifting Home Decor!

Step 1: Be sure to have a sense of their style before you buy. Don’t go blindly into buying for someone’s home without at least knowing what design style they lean towards. (If you don’t know and can’t find out, we’ll touch on that in a minute). Determine which retailer or business offers the best for that style and start there. Here’s a list of some current popular design styles and the best national retailers to find them!

Step 2: Know what they need and don’t need in their home! There’s no sense in buying someone a lovely throw blanket when they have a whole basket of them already. (Again, if you don’t know and can’t find out, we’ll talk about that next). When you visit their home, take note of the things that could be replaced, updated or that they’re missing. Keep an ear out for items they mention in conversation that they’ve been eyeing up or wanting to buy for themselves. Paying attention to what’s really needed or wanted adds to the thoughtfulness of the gift.

Step 3: Start shopping!

Now, of course, you may have plenty of family and friends to shop for, maybe you don’t know what everyone wants, maybe you don’t have time to figure it out. The holidays are a busy time and there’s lots to do. So we’ve compiled a list of the top home decor ideas that will fit anyone’s needs and lifestyle. And better yet, any of these items can easily  be found online or at any of your local shops! We’ve even linked our list to great online stores to buy from for easy shopping!

Holiday shopping does not need to be stressful, it should bring you just as much joy as those receiving your gifts will feel! Follow our easy steps and take the worry out of the process. When you buy for someone’s home, you’re giving them something that will bring love and warmth into their daily life. They’ll think of your thoughtfulness everytime they enjoy lighting the candle, watering their plant, fixing their hair in that mirror or putting fresh flowers in their new vase. 

If you don’t want to do the home decor shopping for them, you can always give them the gift of their very own personal home designer! Bella Home Interiors offers Designer By Your Side and Styling services. Contact us to find out more. Happy Holidays!

 

October Blog – Holiday Home Edition

How to Prepare Your Home to Entertain

Here we are once again! The holiday season is quickly approaching as we all wonder what happened to the time! It’s a time for joy, fun, family and celebration from now until the New Year, but it doesn’t come without its stresses. As exciting as the holidays can be, there’s plenty of planning and preparation that goes into them, especially if you’re hosting in your home. No need to stress though! Bella Home Interiors is coming equipped with all the best ways to prepare your home for entertaining through the season and take away the pressure, so that you and yours can appreciate this time of the year with more ease than worry. Let’s get into the Holiday Home Edition!

We’ll start with the decor. Obviously, decorating your home the way you enjoy it is the best way to go. But allow the look to be versatile, elegant, and inviting. Going beyond the typical color schemes makes the transition from one holiday to the next super easy. Neutrals with a pop of color – think whites, tans, greens and a pop of warm metallics. Starting with a palette like this can get you from Thanksgiving all the way through to the New Year. 

How do you take away the worry of feeding all your guests? Check out some of these awesome tips for planning the holiday feasts:

Now let’s look at how the flow of your home will work during festivities. You’ll want to designate an area for guests to hang their coats, bags, etc that is out of sight but easily accessible for them when they’re ready to depart. Decide what rooms/areas you want your guests to primarily use, move the furniture around to create more space if needed. Remove or relocate valuable or breakable objects. Set up the drink station in the main area that you want everyone to gather. If there’s any parts of your home you’d prefer your guests to not use, close the doors to those rooms or create a barrier in an open doorway but placing a serving table in front of it. Call your local party store and rent some folding chairs, place them in the rooms you want your guests to use the most, providing ample seating in designated areas is an easy way to keep everyone together. And if you have an outdoor space, get a cozy firepit going with some comfy outdoor seating, leave ingredients to make smores and watch as your guests enjoy the chilly holiday weather while freeing up some space indoors for you to be the hostess with the mostest!

One more tip, get a deep clean done and from there, it’s just light upkeep such as dusting and keeping spaces decluttered. Get the family together for a deep clean day, assign each person an area of the home to focus on and work together. Or hey, save yourself the trouble and bring in a cleaning crew. However it gets done, do it early so it’s one less thing you need to think about. 

So now we’re all set to come into the holiday season with ease and excitement. When you have a plan to prep for the holidays, you have so much more time to enjoy them and be present with your loved ones. Holiday entertaining is a wonderful gift to give!

 

September Blog – The Theory Behind Color Theory –

Why Color Is So Important In The Home

We’ve all become quite familiar with the new age, clean modern look of the neutral palettes. Our homes are adorned with whites, grays, and shades of brown. And while the muted current aesthetics offer a level of calm and peace visually, they leave our psyches wanting for more. Color psychology is the study of how certain colors impact human behavior. Different colors have different meanings, connotations, and psychological effects that vary across different cultures. Along with cultural differences, color psychology is largely impacted by personal preference. 

When considering how to style your home, you’ll want to understand the theory behind color theory and psychology. Recent analysis completed in 2020 shows that our world is actually becoming less colorful. The impact on our everyday lives is much more than we realize on the surface. To understand why color is so important, let’s look at how it plays a more major role than we perceive.

Let’s cover some basics and their emotional/behavioral affiliations. There’s three types of colors, primary, secondary and tertiary. 

  • Primary: Red, Yellow, Blue
  • Secondary: Orange, Green, Violet
    • Orange – results from combining yellow and red. Bright and persuasive, it promotes rejuvenation, communication and positivism
    • Green – a combination of blue and yellow. A connection to nature, green provides vitality, health and growth, it is a refreshing color that creates balance
    • Violet – red and blue combined create this color. Carrying a strong association to power, wealth and creativity, violet holds the best characteristics of red and blue with excitement and passion, calm and stability.
  • Tertiary: Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet
    • Understanding the primary and secondary colors, we can take a pretty good guess at what the tertiary colors provide emotionally and behaviorally

Now that we have a foundation in color theory, we can better recognize the significance of the psychology behind the use of color in our home. This is not to say that white and neutral palettes are bad or shouldn’t be used. But it is important to bring color into our internal spaces to provide the subconscious needs we have to live happy, productive and fulfilled lives. Colors can quickly help us identify and understand important information, as well as retain it long term. When we understand their impact on us we can choose or change our environment to influence our state of mind. And they help us communicate, both ideas and emotions, and can be used across industries to achieve results and define experiences. Ultimately, colors help us navigate the world around us and add richness to our lives. Under the influence of different colors, we feel and think differently. 

When choosing how to apply colors to your home, determine the colors based on the use of each room. For example, your kitchen tends to be an active and energetic area which could thrive with yellows and oranges while your living room or bedroom is a place to relax, the use of blues and greens are better suited here. You wouldn’t want to use reds in a baby or child’s room, but rather add a red accent wall to your home office. And keep in mind, the use of color doesn’t mean you have to paint the room that color(s). Color can be brought in using furniture, rugs, decor and art. You don’t need to overwhelm your space in color but allow yourself to get creative with it. 

Long term exposure to bland environments can put a mental strain on the human psyche, even if it’s not obvious or apparent to us. Modern psychology has recognized the importance of colorful and enriching environments. But it’s up to us to enhance our everyday lives inside and outside of the home by bringing in the color! Do your own little experiment, add a specific color to a room in your home very intentionally and pay attention to how it affects you while you’re using that space. Does it improve your experience or take away from it? What emotions are evoked by that color? How does it affect how you use the space? Give it a go and see what happens. Even just a little extra color can go a long way!

If choosing colors isn’t your thing, Bella Home Interiors can help. As a certified color consultant, let Bella take the stress out of choosing from all those colors! We use proven psychology and theory to create the ideal color palette for your room or rooms. Schedule an appointment!