Here are some ways you can think outside the box!!

1. BUY PLAIN JANE FURNITURE AND MAKE THEM CHIC WITH OVERLAY’S

Danika and Cheryl’s clever business of selling super chic geometric overlays for plain Jane furniture is some seriously brilliant outside the box thinking!! You buy a basic perhaps IKEA piece that’s perhaps boring and then add their wood overlays and turn it into an expensive looking designer piece for only a few dollars!! You must hope over to their shop and have a look!

Add a trellis pattern to a plain console and make it a scene stealer.

Or, buy an inexpensive RAST chest of drawers from IKEA that looks like this….

…and turn it into this with paint and overlay’s!

They have a million different styles and suggestions!

Or how about a circular pattern on the same chest of drawers?

2. UPHOLSTER A CHAIR WITH FABRIC YOU CAN DRAW ON

Tired of the fabric you find and want to draw your own pattern, or want to let your child be creative? Why not buy a fabric they can create their own art on.

(My friend Julie sent me this image…but now I can’t remember where it was from so I can leave link to info.)

3. TURN A BORING COAT HANGER IN TO A ZIG ZAG STUNNER

Aren’t you tired of plain boring brown wood coat racks? I am.

4.  TREAT YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE LIKE INDOORS…IF YOU CAN

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come into a home and see the outdoor spaces completely  forgotten or with the standard out door love seat or table we all expect to see.  If you live in a weather that will permit outdoor living, and have a yard then please make your home twice as large by designing and treating that space like indoors!!

Interior design Ruthie Summers

Interior design Ruthie Summers

Interior design Krista Ewart

5. USE DRIFT WOOD FURNITURE WITH MODERN PIECES.

Adding nature’s castoffs is a perfect way to be a good environmentalist. And using driftwood pieces in a modern interior is a fun and unusual look.

Interior design Lee Kleinhelter

Driftwood coffee table

6. PAINT A WIDE STRIPED CEILING!

Leave the walls plain and let the ceiling be the stripes.

Interior design Tobi Farley image Hamptontoes blog.

Have anything unusual you’ve done in your home that would be great for this series? Please e-mail me pictures.

Hope you all had a good weekend! There is perhaps no better way to start out the week than finding ways to let your creativity flow.  It’s so easy in life to get stuck in a rut! Not only when it comes to designing our homes, but in so many areas of our life!  We do the same thing over and over, although we long for new things, it’s easier to do what we know then trying the unknown. So we end up feeling unfulfilled and unchallenged and perhaps bored.  So not only for interiors and design is it good to sometimes shake things up, get out of the comfort zone and really feel life! A new take on something, even the smallest thing, can do wonders….

1. FORGET EVERYTHING YOU LEARNED OR READ ABOUT DESIGN

To be able to expand your views or find your innermost creativity you need to sometimes forget everything you have learned, practiced and studied!   After you thoroughly have allowed yourself to let go of beliefs, think about what you could do. Can the room really be your canvas? You bet! The reason that it’s not, is probably you.

2. BE THE ETERNAL CHILD

Growing up is way over rated!! The imagination we had as kids will never  return, we have to work at it.  How would you create your space if you were just a big kid? A cozy corner? Perhaps something fun just for you?

And the colors…they would probably not be so restricted.

3. MAKE THE ROOM YOU DREAD THE MOST A CHIC HAVEN

How many hours of our lives do we spend doing boring chores? WAY TOO MANY in my opinion! So don’t overlook the laundry room.

Make it a room you enjoy!

4. GIVE THE FLOOR THE STRONGEST VOICE

Allow spaces that we are used to seeing in one way, be something extraordinary. For some reason I think it would be really hard to feel creatively stuck in here.

Still haven’t got enough of Chevron? Paint it on the floor.

5. DON’T LIMIT WHAT YOU LOVE TO IT’S ORIGINAL STATE

Have a fabric or pattern that you love? Paint it on the wall. Talented designer and painter Danika Herrick of Gorgeous Shiny Things painted Shumacher’s Chaing dragon on a clients wall. Genius!!!

Here is is in all it’s glory!

6. SOMETIMES EMPTY SPACES ARE THE BEST

Never underestimate the power of an almost empty white room. You don’t need color or lots of things to create the perfect space. Perhaps this is the kind room that let’s your creativity soar.

7. BEAUTY IS NOT ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL?

Dare to go where no one else has gone, because what is ugly today you’ll probably find extraordinarily beautiful down the road. beauty is an emotional reaction. Expand your own comfort zone for beauty.

Interpret it in your own way.

7. THIS IS YOUR LIFE STARRING YOU -FEEL FREE TO EXPRESS YOUR WEIRD SELF!!

Find what makes you unique. Forget what others think. Create all that is you in to a beautiful space. It’s your home.

Live life as you – not somebody else!

This Think Outside the Box post I want to dedicate to fellow bloggers/designers. No matter how many shelter magazines you read you’ll never find the insane creativity that you’ll find in the blog world. The design blogs are full of smashing, imaginative and budget friendly makeovers and designs. It’s some serious Outside the Box thinking!!  I wish these makeovers where in the shelter magazines so more people could see them and be inspired to think differently!  Sometimes all it takes is believing in the POWER IN PAINT!!!

1. WHY BUY WALLPAPER…

…when you can paint a beautiful trellis pattern on your wall?  Talented and creative blogger and designer Danika at Gorgeous Shiny Things created the most fun and chic room with  some paint.  Check out how do  the trellis hand painted wall! It looks like fancy designer wallpaper.

2. GO BIG OR GO HOME!

There’s no point in being afraid of over sized patterns. How about painting just one wall in it?  Again hail to the power of paint. Kristen David as KDF designs really proves the power of paint. She painted this Moroccan pattern on her wall among hundreds of fantastic makeovers.

One wall with a big colorful pattern surely beats a plain beige wall any day.

It looks really fun in close up next to her chic (another great makeover) bedside table.

Talented designer  Emily Clark painted this fun and sweet/bold pattern in her daughter’s bedroom.

3.WHY BUY AN EXPENSIVE CARPET…

…when you can paint one on the floor?  Danika from Gorgeous Shiny Things painted a fancy geometric carpet on her floor.

A floor that once looked like this…

…now looks like this!!

4.  USE YOUR CREATIVITY INSTEAD OF YOUR WALLET

Why not paint yourself your dream headboard?

5. RECYCLE WHILE REINVENTING

Danika..again… built a striking sunburst mirror out of left over pieces from her wood fence. This budget DIY sunburst mirror looks like a million bucks!! And she recycled at the same time!!

6. RECREATE THAT DREAM BUY THAT’S OUT OF YOUR BUDGET

Have a crush on an expensive items somewhere? Perhaps you can recreate a version of it at home? I love what Maria at John’s Journal did when she found this expensive console at Wisteria…

The price tag was to steep so….

…she built this fantastic replica at home!! This kind if stuff leaves me so impressed!!

7.  REIMAGINE IKEA AS SUPER GLAMOROUS

Not just because I’m from Sweden and grew up with IKEA before it was cool and arrived over here, am I thrilled with these remarkable IKEA makeovers.  I love IKEA, but I LOVE these reinventions of items millions of people already have. This way you’ll have something orginal!!   I think IKEA should dedicate space on their website to all these amazing redesigns.  Here’s a crazy cool IKEA makeover that I first spied on Hi Sugarplum that Bri from the blog You and Me and a Weiner did.

She took this simple,boring chest of drawers and made it into…

…this insanely glamorous mid century cabinet!!!

That is some serious Outside of the Box thinking!!!

OR THIS ONE…

Danika at Gorgeous Shiny Things marbelized the $ 120 Docksta table….

…and make it look like an expensive Saarinen table. You can learn how to do it here.

And Nancy Marcus Design had Dorothy Draper on her mind when she turned…

…this plain Jane vanilla dresser into…

…a super elegant Dorothy Draper chest!!!

Who would ever guess IKEA??

These makeover makes me want to grab some paint, a hammer and nails and go wild!!

HAPPY MONDAY!!