Many people interested in interior design and home decor are familiar with the cool, modern style depicted in the photos you find in the likes of Dwell magazine. They often show off gorgeous, stunning examples of home design, but they don’t often reflect the reality of a kid-filled household.

The DIY Maven at Curbly explains the opposite problem: a home taken over by kids.

Is kid stuff taking over your place? Do you feel as if you’re living in the middle of a Toys R’ Us? Does it look as if your decorator is a seven foot tall yellow bird? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you might want to check out these very inspiring interiors from Design is Mine. They’re proof that you CAN keep your stylish sensibilities while living the kid-centric life.

Neither extreme — a potential kid-unfriendly ultramodern home or a messy kid-overrun home — is desirable. These tips might help you balance your desire to make your home (or at least the kid-oriented parts of it) fun, safe and stylish for your children.

For starters, consider this article on basic principles for kid-friendly design from Home re-Design Kaleidoscope, including this interesting observation:

Furniture for young children should be interesting for them. Their furniture should be safe, stable and relatively light to provide the opportunity for kids to perform various manipulations and transformations. For example, chairs can be transformed into cars and a bed can become a boat, etc. Easily transformed furniture helps develop kids’ imagination.  Kids like to dream of space voyages and adventurous driving trips.

The article also suggests leaving an “open corner” in a child’s room to allow plenty of comfortable, uncrowded space for playing with toys and giving school-age children a quiet space to read and do their homework.

Beyond the function of a space, designing for kids opens up a whole new world in terms of style. Consider a child’s room an opportunity to play with bright and bold colors you might not try elsewhere in your home. You could even add some home-grown design elements — perhaps something like the cardboard playhouse shown in the photo above. And the photo below reminds us that there’s no need to sacrifice true style in the interest of creating a perfect kid’s room.

As a parting note, we’ll leave you with the sentiment of designer Debbie Wiener, who advocates “enduring design” that will hold up to just about anything your kids might throw at it:

A glass door links the kitchen to the family room, which is turned out in a similar ready-to-rumble fashion. “We wanted a kid-friendly room with space to play and furniture and carpeting that’s basically indestructible,” Amy Mauser says. As with many of her projects, Wiener opted for a stain-resistant nylon rug and — her object of obsession — Crypton, an antimicrobial, stain-repellent fabric originally engineered for the health-care industry. “With over 20,000 [choices], ranging from velvet and chenille to damasks and Ultrasuedes, why would I source anything else when budget is a factor?” she asks.

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I have been building and renovating homes for more than 20 years, and the comment I get a lot is how people are so surprised by how expensive remodeling can be. While this is true, the real spending comes after we builders leave and the decorating starts. The furniture, artwork, lamps and the piece de resistance: window treatments.

I would come back to a home that we had built and see these beautiful window treatments with custom valances, and layered shades that cost thousands of dollars. What always irked me was that we spent all the time building or renovating the home and the guy who put up the window treatments got all the glory. Well, that has changed over the last few years. Nice looking window treatments are now available to the do-it-yourselfer and at truly affordable prices.

Now, of course, the sky is the limit as to what you can do, so I narrowed it down to four of the most popular choices, which you can customize them any way you desire. You should consider three things when selecting window treatments:

1. Style: What’s the room’s general décor? Contemporary, traditional or something else?
2. Color and design: Will it blend with the room or become a focus?
3. Function: What kind of light control are you looking for? Do you have safety concerns or want more energy efficiency?

Here is what’s hot these days in window treatments:

Cellular shades. These are one of the most versatile treatments around. They come in a variety of colors, fabrics and cell sizes. These two-sided shades offer great accents to your rooms, or you can match the fabric to the room color to really get that custom look. These shades are also available in cordless setups, which are easy to operate and are a safe alternative in homes with children and pets.

Mini blinds. They continue to be a great choice but more interesting options have been available for quite some time. Larger slat wood blinds were the rage a few years ago but some issue occurred with the wood being exposed to all the sunlight and sometimes warping would occur. So faux wood blinds came along and look great and stay true under almost any condition. They can also be used in moist application like bathrooms.

Woven wood shades. Look in just about any home magazine and chances are you’ll see these window treatments being featured. A rise in popularity has occurred recently that accents textures both in the material and the light that is shown through. Many of these window treatments are actually made from real bamboo reeds and can come in a variety of patterns and colors.

Plantation shutters. This treatment definitely will be a focal point in your rooms. These custom fit units when sized correctly will be an extension of your trim-work and will change the look of your room. These by far are the most expensive window treatment and also expect a lead time of at least five weeks, but boy does it look sharp!

All of these do-it-yourself window treatments have one thing in common: You are the one doing the measuring. This is important because the size you give to whatever company you choose to do business with will be the size they send you. Here’s an overview of some key terms that will come up when measuring a window for new treatments:

Inside mounting: emphasizes the actual size of the window and allows the trim work to be visible; can make the size of the window seem smaller

Outside mounting: lengthens and widens windows and makes narrow windows look wider; might be necessary if buying a stock item that will not fit within the inside measurement or if the window is not deep enough to contain the mounting brackets

Here are some other items you will need to do it yourself and get it right:

• A good tape measure that will stay straight to give you exact measurements
• An electronic stud finder to locate framing behind the drywall or plaster to ensure a strong hold
• A level to make sure what you are installing is level to the rest of the house; laser levels do a great job if you are hanging multiple window treatments in one room, helping to keep them all consistent
• Quality hollow-wall anchors if finding the stud is not available; this is key because there is a lot of junk out there that claims it can do the job

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Window replacement is a subject near and dear to MLuxe. There’s so much to love about new windows: They look great, perform better and are more energy efficient.

The old windows get recycled or discarded, but what if you have a creative side?

Calfinder gives some fun tips on what you can do with your old windows. Remember that not all windows will work for these creative uses. You might wish to consult with your building professional.

Windows among the flowers: Use old windows in the garden as a flowerbed divider or as a background for a window planter.

Windows as furniture: Need a new headboard? Your old window might just do the trick!

If you have a green thumb, you could use your old windows to start a small greenhouse, where light is essential for growing.

Visit Calfinder for more ideas about how to put old windows to good use.

Images courtesy of Calfinder

We recently shared some tips on refreshing your home in 2010 with a successful remodeling project. Of course, remodeling is only part of the picture, so let’s take a look at some interior design and decorating trends pros see on the horizon for the year ahead.

Shelterffic has a list of 15 predictions of hot trends from interior design Christopher Hyland, some of which are simple and sensible (like “couches with high backs” or “frosted glass”) and others of which are maybe just a bit too sophisticated for your average homeowner (like “18th Century Gustavian design” or “An increasingly creative use of seemingly incongruous elements such as sheets of studded metal over plastic or in tandem with silk damask as wall panels”). Still, it’s a good list and should give just about anyone a little something interesting to think about.

A blogger at Houzz.com says the classic black-and-white color combo, though it never really went away, will see a resurgence in 2010. And if black and white isn’t your thing, purple will be a popular, bold color choice. She also expected demand for reclaimed wood and other “green” materials to continue to rise.

Speaking of which, Natural Home Magazine offers its own take on predicted trends for 2010. Among them: sprucing up with bright, natural colors like turquoise and an increase in “designing with natural light.”

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Our blogging friends at Home Design Find recently published some helpful tips for the collector in all of us. From the article:

…anyone with a collection of just about anything comes to realize at some point that things can get out of hand. Collections, after a while, can come to feel like clutter. And that’s a real downer.

What steps can you take to organize and highlight your collection rather than have it sit around and collect dust in one big jumble?

Here are a few paraphrased tips from Home Design Find:

• Edit. Edit. Edit. Just because you own 300 snow globes doesn’t mean you have to display them all. Instead, pick, choose and rotate to display just some of your collection to the best effect.
• Use lighting. Dramatically lighting a collection can turn just a humdrum display into something earth-shattering. Use directed spotlights to draw the attention to your collection.
• Beware the window sill and mantle trap. A lot of collections of small things tend to find their ways to window sills and mantlepieces. But this look can often look cluttered and haphazard. If you choose a mantle or window sill as a display area, edit the objects displayed and keep them grouped together for maximum visual impact.

That’s just a taste. For more detail and more tips, be sure to check out their article.

Photo courtesy of Lost Found Art

Windows do more than provide a view and some light. They can add a great bit of aesthetic value, too. Shutters are a great way to make some otherwise plain windows look stylish and attractive.

But who says shutters are only for your exterior? By way of the great style blog Remodelista, we found these great black interior windows shutters. They come in two widths and a wealth of colors. Depending on your decor, these could be a great compliment for your interior design.

Here’s the cheesy but somewhat informative catalog description:

With these wood shutters, you’ll enjoy generous views when these 2 1/2″ louvers are open; superior light control, sound insulation and privacy when closed. These window treatments will even enhance your home’s market value! And smith+noble premium interior shutters are crafted with fine details like furniture-quality dowel joints, bass woods perfectly kiln dried to prevent warping and cracking, and hinges recessed for better closure, to ensure these interior shutters will fit and operate smoothly year after year.

More photos and product info at Smith & Noble.

Looking for advice on designing or decorating your space at home? Be sure to avoid what Metropolitan Home calls the Seven Deadly Sins of Decorating. Writer Linda O’Keeffe concedes that rules are made to be broken, but she strongly suggests you follow these so as to avoid suffering from the penance of bad style:

• Don’t be afraid to get rid of clutter and unnecessary stuff. Do some good “editing,” to use Linda’s word.
• Obey the room. “In other words, the furniture configuration in your living room should not be the same every time you move.”
• Don’t follow trends to a T. Trends should inform your style, not dictate it.
• Avoid cliches like the plague (as the old writer’s joke goes).
• Have the courage to show some “wit or kitsch” — have fun!
• Use color! Why go bland when you could go bold?
• Relax. “The most successful rooms strive to be casual and relaxed. They welcome guests and encourage them to linger.”

Read the full article — with explanations of the “sins” and tips on how to avoid them — here.

Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Home

Leah Moss at Re-Nest shares great ideas on putting glass jars to great use for decorative (and functional) effect. As she says in her headline, don’t throw away that jar!

…I’m now guilty of selecting food goods based on the decorative weight of their containers for future uses. Glass jars clearly take the cake. Here are some new and old reasons to save a few…

Her post offers 10 creative ideas, ranging from creating “magical floating chandeliers” to replacing your ineffective junk-drawer organizer. With links to more details step-by-step instructions from sources like Martha Stewart, Country Living and the This Young House blog, you sure to find some creative inspiration somewhere.

Have you found a creative use for glass jars or other commonly tossed-away objects?

Photo courtesy of Bee Boxes on Flickr

Some simple steps can help you keep your walls in good shape while positioning your artwork for its best showing. A post over at Learn to Draw and Paint offers some useful tips to consider the next time you’re hanging a picture.

A sampling of the advice:

• If you place rubber or cork tips in the lower corners of the back of a frame, they will keep the picture from tilting and will also prevent the wall from becoming streaked.
• By placing a small piece of cellulose tape on the wall before you drive in the supporting nail or hook, you can prevent the plaster from chipping.
• Put button backs on water-color frames to eliminate nails. The big advantage is that the pictures can be changed easily.
• Place picture rings as near the top of a frame as possible to keep the picture flat against the wall. When it is necessary to have the picture tilt forward or to eliminate reflections, place the rings lower.

Photo courtesy of Michale on Flickr

Courtesy of Remodelista, we found some photos of a stylized barn decked out in a full-on Western motif, complete with hay bails and longhorn skulls.

Designed by Erin Martin, this cowboy-approved location in Napa Valley is an entertainment hall available for rental. Might make for an interesting place to throw a wedding reception or, better yet, an Independence Day party. What’s more American than haybails and longhorns, huh?

See more of Martin Designs’ other work here. All very classy, contemporary-but-funky designs — maybe you’ll pick up a few ideas for your own project around the house!

Photo courtesy of Mint Locations