While outside things might be changing, the inside of your home might be in need of a pick me up as well.  A little bit of work can really spruce up your home for spring time on the inside too.  If you are ready to say goodbye to drab winter and hello to spring fun, then follow some (or all) of the spring time sprucing ideas below.

• Add pops of color in your living room with new throw pillows.  Throw pillows on the sofa are some of my favorite things.  First of all they are so easy to change with the help of pillow covers.  Second, they can instantly brighten up your living room.  Opt for some patterned or bright pillow covers this spring to give a fun look.  For even more fun, add in varying shapes of the pillows.
• Change up floral arrangements.  I am so bad about putting together a floral arrangement (faux, of course) and just leaving it forever.  The fact is that these things are so simple to change up and can give a whole new vibe to a space.  This year I am totally sprucing up the place by giving a new look to my vases.
• Use paint as a way to create new furniture pieces.  I found an incredible dresser that I am going to re-purpose as a buffet in my dining room with some help from paint.  A simple paint job can create a new look for an old piece and add fun and color to your space.
• Get your bird feeders out! Nothing makes me happier than a flock of birds feeding from my feeders. Fun tip: Put some hot sauce from Hot Sauce Planet on to the seeds to deter squirrels. Crazy, but it works!

                                      

I love my house.  It’s just that sometimes it feels like a whole lot of work.  I suppose it really is a lot of work now that I think about it.  I mean not only do we constantly have projects going on like building a new deck, painting our shutters, and other outside things we have the inside that we want to work on as well.  I know it sounds bad, but I do not feel like I have the time to get the house looking like I want it to on the inside.

In fact a couple of weeks ago my husband mentioned to me that he wished our house felt more homey on the inside.  While I was a bit frustrated that he thought I was not pulling my own weight, he did have a point.  We had very little hanging on the walls and few personal items, like photos, on display.

I suppose it was time that I finally started to create the home that we had intended on having almost a year ago when we moved in.  Thankfully I found the helpful videos below to help me out.  If you are planning on hanging anything, these videos are great tools.

                                      

Estimating the amount of material you’ll need is important. You may not estimate the quantities with precision, but it’s easy to get close.  On a small deck (10 × 12 feet, for example), guess how much lumber you’ll need by using detailed plans for the project to count all the pieces of each size you will be using: 12-foot 2 × 4s, 8-foot 2 × 6s, etc.. This number should include any railings and stairs.  After that, just add 10 percent to framing and 15 percent to decking to allow for waste, and you should have a very close estimate that you can work with.

Directtv has a lot of DIY programming that can help you to build your deck as well as take on any other projects you might have in mind for improving your home spaces.  This video from the Home Depot will also be beneficial to you as you begin:

                                      

This year more people are taking home improvement more seriously.  Maybe it’s because more and more people are choosing to stay in their current homes due to the economy.  No matter the reason, people are updating their homes and tackling home improvements like never before.  Take a look at how homeowners are changing up their spaces below.

                                      

One idea would be to select a small wooden picture frame that could be mounted as a “shadow box” that fully encompasses the control panel.  Once you have it surrounded this way, use a thin, silk screen piece of art to cover a glass pane that can easily be opened by someone who knows it is able to be opened.  A clever latch on the side makes your control panel easily accessible, while discreetly concealing the electronics behind it.  It will appear to be an art piece, rather than your security system’s control panel.

Another idea would be to cover it with a simple wall hanging, such as a Japanese print of cherry blossoms on silk.  This can be hung with a simple nail, so that the art drapes down, covering the control panel and making it very easy to lift in the event you need to enter codes.

That’s our tip for today.  Visit often for more home decorating ingenuity.

                                      

I found the best two videos on youtube that will show you how to easily create a wall display and arrangement while keeping your wall intact.  These videos will also show you some tricks to making sure that the arrangement is going to be what you want prior to hammering or drilling the first hole.  Nice, right?  Another tip for you that is not in these videos, your local Pottery Barn sometimes offers design “classes” where you can learn fun stuff like how to arrange and group photos for a beautiful wall display.  If you decide to finally spruce up your walls, let me know how it goes!

                                      

The very first year that I decided I wanted to have one of those lush patio oasis scenes in my backyard, I wasn’t prepared for the trouble that heat and small containers can have on otherwise healthy plants.  After there were no overflowing vines and seemingly endless blooms of petunias, I decided that the next year was going to be different.  To start off, I repositioned my pots so they were in areas that got some shade during the day so the plants weren’t bone dry by noon.  On a decorative note, I don’t necessarily match all of my pots together.  Having a small red acrylic pot next to a tall gray imitation concrete pot really shows off the artistic style and gets me bunching my pots so they don’t appear out of place.  Once I had all planters in position, I filled the bottoms of the larger containers with the aerated plastic buckets I got from the nursery.  The prevented the pots from getting too heavy from all the soil but water also need to be able to flow through to prevent mold and damage to the flowers.

The next step I found to be the most critical since others who used the trick also got similar results.  I discovered that it wasn’t enough to simply buy a bag of soil with some nutrients in it.  I bought a premium brand and then added a plant food supplement that also controlled moisture to allow the plants in the more sensitive potting environment to retain moisture well.  Also, if there was more than 6 inches to fill, I filled the bottom first with peat moss and then the soil.  After the soil was in place, I made sure not to overload the pots with flowers and vines since proper care would allow them to grow greatly within the next few weeks.  This is the same with hanging pots since you will want some vines and foliage to flow over the edge, but planting too many things in the pot can lead to an unsightly hole in the middle where nothing could grow.  The key to tending these pots, as you can imagine, was dedication to watering every day.  Every evening I sprinkled all of my pots and found it very relaxing and a great way to enjoy my patio area and the views it had to offer.

                                      

Prep, prep, prep.  Move furniture, cover floors, tape off molding and borders, clean the walls and get the room prepped for a paint job.  Prepping your space right will get your project started on the right foot.

Get the right tools.  Using cheap tools when painting will more than likely yield cheap looking results.  Use the right tools for the job.  Get one nice paint tray and line with with the disposable plastic ones.  You will have that good tray forever.  Get the rollers and brushes that are recommended for the job.  Certain tools are recommended for certain projects, so get the ones that fit your needs.

Take your time.  Painting is not something that is going to be quick.  So, do not rush through it.  If you do you will end up with a pretty yucky paint job.  Take your time on it and be prepared for it to take longer than you think.  This patience will pay off.

Keep order.  That’s right, there is definitely an order to painting.  You cannot start from the bottom and go up, as it just does not work that way.  When painting you begin with the ceiling.  Then go to the walls, followed with the doors.  Easy.

Watch your surfaces.  You should not, well, you cannot use a latex paint on top of an oil based paint or the other way around unless you sand the walls first.  So, if you’re going from one to the other, make sure to wear a mask, sand the walls, and clean them.  Then you need to use a primer that is made up of the same thing as the paint you will be using.  Oil primer for oil based and latex primer for latex paint.

                                      

I live in the hot and sun soaked southern part of the United States.  Sunshine in my yard is nothing new, and it is certainly something that I am very used to.  All of the plants that I buy have to be able to withstand scorching days with very full sun, and we have to stay hydrated beyond belief to just sit outside.  Well, when it is hot there is nothing better than finding a shady spot for you to sit back and relax.  So, on a mission I went to find some shade providers that give off more shade than just a typical patio umbrella and here’s what I found.

Awnings – Okay when I think about awnings, I think about RVs and campers.  The main reason is probably because my first job was working at an RV dealership, and you would be surprised about how often awnings come up as conversation pieces.  Of course when my husband mentioned the prospect of actually getting a retractable awning for part of our deck I was quick to say no.  With further research though I realized that not all awnings have to look like tacky RV awnings.   In fact some of the canvas awnings I came across were pretty modern.  Still, I do not want an awning, I refuse.  The good thing about them is that they are fairly easy to install and come ready-to-go in all sorts of sizes so you’ll surely find a perfect fit.

Pergolas – Now this is where it’s at.  I love pergolas.  They are beautiful in any outdoor setting and you can accessorize them.  Since I love them, that is obviously what we got to shade a portion of our back deck, and I could not have been happier with that decision.  A lot of people will use their pergolas to grow vines and thigns though which is so pretty.  I like to be able to change things up often though, so to get some shade I bought some canvas fabric and weave it in and out of the rafters.  Hanging plants and lights look great on pergolas too.  I love this how to on building a pergola at Lowes’ website.

So, while I am partial to the pergola, I am an advocate for having a cool shady spot somewhere outside especially if your home is in an area that gets hit with heat hard.  You will surely love your shady spot no matter how you end up blocking the sun’s vivid rays.

                                      

Deck Upgrade.  Like I said the deck that was on the home was not cutting it for us.  The thing is with our commercial sized gas grill and the large charcoal grill, there was only room for two of our gorgeous cedar Adirondack chairs.  We enlisted the help of a couple of people and took a weekend to give our current deck an overhaul.  Off of the original deck we created a step up to a larger deck area.  We also put railing around the whole thing.  Now our deck is 20 feet by 20 feet, and we have our grills on the lower part, a patio dining set and our large chairs on the upper deck.  It is perfect!

Furnish Accordingly.  One of the hardest things in the beginning when we were left with little to no room outside was seating.  We would have to break out the campground chairs for our guests.  Now with a large enough deck, we have enough chairs for any occasion.  We also built in some benches around the deck for added seating.  Make sure that you also have a table of some sort too for guests to set down their drinks. Also, don’t forget the entertainment. Music is a great way to spice up your outside space. Television shouldn’t be forgotten, either. Last year, Direct TV in Arizona, had a great special on a second receiver, so we set up television out on our patio. I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty cool to watch your favorite football team under the stars.

Add Accents.  Honestly I’m not sure how we ever enjoyed eating al fresco without our patio umbrella.  Plus, it is pretty and warms up the space.  Outdoor rugs and lantern lighting can also help to create a welcoming environment.  We even made some of our own “torches” out of wine bottles.  I’ll share that with you guys soon.