7 Inexpensive ways to get the new summer look

With summer just around the corner, I believe this is the perfect time to get your home summer-ready with these inexpensive ways. These simple and affordable decorating ideas will help you lighten the look of your home and get summer savvy style in an instant.

Lighten the Linens
Try replacing those heavy colored linens with lighter and brighter ones for a fresh and refreshing summer look. Keep an eye on lightweight fabrics or satin/chiffon at your local stores. Colors that reflect the playful nature of summer, such as cool ivory or pale yellow will go a long way towards giving your home a fresh look.

Flower Power
Get those beautiful natural colors into the indoors by placing some light and cool colored flowers. Freshly picked purple lilacs placed in a sparkling vase on the kitchen counter top will create an eye-catching experience.


Paint your world
Paint is the cheapest and fastest way to dramatically change the look of your living room or your kitchen. You dont have to paint an entire room to get that desired effect. You can instead paint one main wall, a pale yellow or orange to let the sunshine in. This would save you lot of time and money.



Change Things up

You update your look with fun, flirty clothes to fit your summer style so why not do the same for your furniture? Transform that bland sofa and those boring chairs into stylish showpieces by either making or buying stylish new slipcovers. Slipcovers are quite inexpensive and would'nt cost a lot. They are available in large retail stores, online at ebay etc.,

Accentuate the Positive

Accentuate a few key summer accessories for a more lighthearted look. It doesn't cost a thing to decorate the living room with prized photos of your family on vacation last summer or to display your colorful gardening books on a coffee or side table. That seashell collection from your last beach excursion will help your summer spirit come alive, as will a bowl of luminous glass stones glittering in the sunlight on your windowsill.

Put it on Display

Summer is the perfect time to refresh the look of a dull space by updating the artwork on your walls. To start, replace those dark wood picture frames with light wood or even white alternatives. Brighten a dim hallway or add some color to that darkly painted wall by updating your artwork, too. For example, you could replace a snowy mountain print with a field of red flowers. It's easy to create the perfect summer backdrop with a few strategically placed pieces of artwork displayed in the right frame.



Let There Be Light
To make a room look larger, use mirrors to reflect light. Also, keep your windows and slick surfaces sparkling clean.



All Image courtesy: ivillage.com

Lamps with a creative touch..

I have come across some ordinary lamps with a touch of creativity just by placing small objects inside them. It can be anything from small pebbles, flowers, colored papers, colored water etc., This not only gives a unique but sheek look to the room overall...
These lamps are available at Potterybarn stores. (image copyrights:potterybarn)











I

Batik design - Malaysia

On my visit to Malaysia, I got the opportunity to visit the Batik design workshop... I've got some scarfs as souvenirs :) as souvenirs make the holiday more memorable.

Batik is a delicate art, which requires patience and skill. This is basically 'Printing Out with Wax'. Producing batik is a unique process of wax blocking, then dyeing, drying and boiling of clothing materials through a repetitive process, done by hand. It demands skilled craftsmanship and constant quality control.

The unique part about batik design is "NO TWO PIECES ARE EXACTLY ALIKE !"

Batik Malaysia is different from the Indonesian or Thai batik in design and motif, especially handprint method.


Gallery of batik design where craftsmen do the intensive design patterns ...


Some of the products of Batik are Batik Sarong, dresses, blouse, dungaree, jumpsuit, vest, bathrobe, short pants, long pants, shirt (kemeja), tablecloths, skirt, children wear, jumpsuit and more......

Islamic/Moghul architecture

I was doing a little research on Islamic architecture for having the designs on the front-view of a house plan. I found couple of good resources about the design. Having those intrinsic designs and amazing work on some of the elements of the house would look phenomenal.....

Iam posting some of the designs i found interesting...


Amazing archways with detailed designs....


Hand-carved Islamic architecture





Beautiful design on a ceramic pillar...





Colorful and detailed work on the white marble....

Art at Napa Valley

I had visited Napa Valley CA, famous for its wine throughout the year ...and Iam posting some of the paintings and artifacts I found interesting at an open-air exhibition. I was awestruck seeing the hand made artifacts with intrinsic designs on them ..

.

My design work- "Rearrange your stuff"

I have caught some elements from a corner of my home. These were all put together after I got each one from different rooms, some from attic, some from storage etc.,
The final room looked something like this.







Got some leaves from garden and this bought color to the room!





Center Piece for the coffee table with some colorful flowers

Christmas in the Park

Christmas in the Park at San jose, CA was a place with beautifully decorated christmas trees. It was a breath taking experience with amazing cartoon characters for kids and unique christmas conceptual trees. The best part is, different design schools got an opportunity to decorate the park with their creative skills. My design school chose the cartoon movie "Monsters, Inc" , scroll down to see the characters we painted and crafted from wood along with the unique cristmas tree.

Cooking Cap with spoons...

Did you see this, its a starbucks (well-known coffee chain) sponsored tree, so you see all coffee cups hanging on the tree.

Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus



Here you go, this is done by us all the characters of the movie (Boo, Sulley, Mike etc.,)where skillfully carved and painted. This was an amazing experience. You guys should watch the movie.

Hey did you see this, this character is called "Boo" which was done by me :)

Enjoy!! and do leave comments ....