Today, we have two very cool DIY fiber arts ideas, both via Curbly. If you want to add some personalized flair to your home, consider these!

First up is this duvet cover featuring doodles. It’s a bit labor intensive, but the end result is very cool. You’ll need whatever drawings you’ve doodled. After photographing the drawings, the creator of this duvet cover traced them on to fabric. You’d probably want to buy a solid-colored duvet for this. Lots of work, but you end up with a duvet cover that no one else in the world has.

The second DIY idea is also a great way to reuse old clothing. Using old pairs of jeans, cut into whatever pattern you like, you can make some fun wall art. Just sew on to a fabric back and voila! Jeans and art on your wall.

What do you think of these ideas? What’s the coolest DIY fiber arts project you’ve ever done?

Here’s a new thing that can be recycled and re-purposed: stuffed animals! Tree Hugger tells the story of an artist, Augustina Woodgate, and her rugs made out of the “skins” of stuffed animals.

To make the rugs, she removes the animals’ heads and the stuffing from the bodies and uses the skins, together with other stuffed animals’ skins, to create a rug that looks almost like no other rug you’ve seen before. Its trippy look could work well in a family or living room (we’re picturing it in a mid-century home) or even a child’s room.

What do you think? Weirdest rug material ever or ingenious use of old materials to create usable art?

Photos courtesy of Tree Hugger.

Now that Thanksgiving has passed and December has arrived, you can join your overzealous neighbors in proudly displaying Christmas decor.

If you’re like some of us here in Minnesota enjoying a mild autumn and you fear hanging Christmas lights and decorating a tree will only encourage winter’s arrival, here are some ideas to kick-start your holiday spirit:

Nostalgia for sale – Christmas ornaments should be somewhere near the top of the list of most commonly inherited family items. For those who get nostalgic during the holiday season, CasaSugar has a roundup of ornaments you might recognize from your childhood, along with price and availability.

Christmas decorating ideas to last the winter – If you dread the tedium of hanging decorations that will be taken down and put away just weeks later, Calfinder has some cool decorating ideas that can last well past Christmas. Our favorite: Stringing pine cones and hanging them from the mantel. Simple, tasteful, energy efficient, but still bursting with merriment.

A Christmas tree for every room – A giant Fraser fir in the living room is nice, but The Haystack Needle says spread the Christmas love this year with potted trees, big and small, positioned throughout the home. Imagine that crisp, refreshing smell of pine in every room.

[Image from The Haystack Needle]

Here’s a cool idea for creating sleeping space in a small space: a bed in a cube (via Apartment Therapy).

In places like studio apartments or basements that are expected to function as both rec room and guest room, sleeping privacy can be hard to find. There’s always the option of the sofa bed, but those aren’t known for their comfort, plus they must be made up and put away daily. And some people don’t like a regular bed in the middle of the room. After all, who wants people deciding to sit on your bed pillows?

This solution, from French Company Du Cote de Chez Vous, offers a very fun solution for limited space. What do you think?

Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy

This is such a cool idea! Do you have some silverware that’s looking a little old and boring? Maybe you’d like to finesse your flatware and get another set to remain un-finessed. Well, Apartment Therapy has an idea for you: spray paint your silverware!

You can do all sorts of funky colors or stick with a simple palette. And as Apartment Therapy reminds us, only do the handles — not the part of the utensil your mouth touches.

What do you think of this idea?

Image courtesy  of Apartment Therapy.

If you are looking for uniuqe furniture or housewares, Etsy is the place to go! This marketplace allows independent artisans and designers to sell their wares online. Here are some gorgeous furnishings we found…

Imagine crowding around this rustically beautiful table for Thanksgiving dinner! We love how the wood has kept the natural characteristics of the tree.

Walnut Natural Edge Wood Slab from jeffharden.

This vintage restored piece looks like something off of a 1930s movie set.

Antoinette Chair from ShopEla.

Who wouldn’t want to sleep in this quirky yet  gorgeous bed?!

Dingle Canopy Bed from Delia Furniture.

The curviness of this bench makes it very cool.

Check out Etsy.com for more great finds!

Everyone has certain beliefs about decorating that they’ve heard over and over again and internalized as the truth. Sometimes though, it is good to look at things you thought weren’t the “right” way to decorate.

House Beautiful shared quite a few well-kept decorating secrets. Here are a few of our favorites. Make sure to check out the rest of the post here!

• Don’t be afraid of the dark: A dark paint color can add depth to a small room and make it feel bigger. Not to mention, dark walls can often be quite cozy.
• Wallpaper isn’t just for walls: House Beautiful suggests wallpapering sliding closet doors to give them a new look. Don’t forget about the inside of your closets too! A pop of wallpaper that can be seen as the door opens adds a lot of visual interest.
• Speaking of closets…there isn’t anything worse than feeling around in a dark closet for your clothing. Put a light in there and stretch beyond the usual bare bulb on a string.
• Go green: With plants, that is! A nice, large plant in a room adds a sense of the outdoors.

Often times, the hardest part of a successful remodeling or redesign project is knowing where to start. A blank slate — “If we could do anything with this room, what would we do?” — is daunting.

In this video, a case study of a living room interior design project from Lou Manfredini’s HouseSmartsTV, the designer talks through her process — and notes that the process started with her clients asking to incorporate an Asian influence. That tidbid helped inform the design approach, setting the tone for the room without becoming too obvious or overbearing.

Watch the video for more tips ideas on how to best tackle your own interior design project, and of course, you can find more videos from HouseSmartsTV on YouTube.

Yesterday, Kate at Centsational Girl raised a great question: Are open-shelved kitchens timeless or trendy?

It’s a popular look right now, but interior design history has proven no room is more subject to passing fads than the kitchen. That said, open shelves create an opportunity to bring more personality to the kitchen by creating space for picture frames, crafts and antiques. When done correctly, it can bring a feeling of warmth and vitality to the place where you prepare meals and, in many cases, spend a decent amount of family and social time, as well.

But before you start ripping perfectly good cupboards off the wall, here’s some important questions to ask yourself before going with open shelves:

Do you need another interior design quandary? Open shelves create a design opportunity, which means you’ll need to consider balance and flow by orchestrating dishes and cookware in a way that’s practical, but also visually appealing. Cupboards require much less thought. Sometimes, simpler is better.

Are you comfortable with exposing your dishes and cookware? It’s one thing to stack $35 Anthropologie plates on open shelves, but what about those pots and pans you’ve been toting since college? Once your kitchen is more exposed, you might feel compelled to have higher-quality dishes and cookware. That’s not a bad thing, but it is an added expense.

Are you already overburdened with cleaning? When was the last time you dusted and wiped out your cupboards? With open shelves, you can add these tasks to your list of chores about twice per month.

Are you clumsy? It seems open shelves are often clustered with items, which means you better have a steady hand when grabbing for your favorite coffee mug. Busy open shelves can be like a minefield for kids, too. (If kids play into the equation, open shelves can be a safety issue.)

Are cupboards getting the job done? This is where trendiness comes back into play. What do open shelves offer that cupboards do not? If it’s openness and accessibility you long for, consider removing the doors from your cupboards. This creates a similar look to open shelves and requires nothing more than a screwdriver.

[Photo from Alice Lane Home]

Every home has one, but so few do anything interesting with it. We’re talking about your mailbox. It can present so many opportunities to display some unique style. Sometimes that style truly fits the character of the home, and sometimes it turns out to be a bit tacky, but it’s always fun to see unique ways a homeowner can show off his or her personal bits of flair.

Here are some photos we found of interesting, better-than-your-average mailboxes. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration in here for what you might be able to do to jazz up this otherwise mundane exterior feature.

The easiest way to add some character to your mailbox, as seen in this first photo, is with a nice little paint job. Or maybe it’s wallpaper-style stick-on design; it’s hard to tell. Either way, it sure is nicer to look at than plain black. [photo]

On the completely other end of the spectrum, you could find an object that otherwise has no business being a mailbox — like, say, a V8 engine — and turning into something that adds a personal touch to your home’s exterior and certainly fit into the category of “unique.” [photo]

If a mighty engine block isn’t your thing, how about having a little fun and making your mailbox look like something a little more friendly — like a cute little animal? This cow mailbox could use a fresh coat of paint, and maybe a crab isn’t all that friendly or cute, but they both definitely display some unique character. [photo 1 and 2]

On a slightly more traditional front, mail slots — as opposed to mailboxes — present an opportunity for nice personalization. The roaring lion below is certainly more original than your typical mail slot, and the permanent built-in mail slot (though clearly not on a residence) could be a great way to add some true character to a home. [photo 1 and 2]

Of course, if you prefer something more traditional that adds distinct character without getting too out-there (say, the V8 engine or the bright blue crab isn’t exactly your thing), a flea market or Craigslist might be a good place to find a lovely old free-standing letter box like this one. [photo]