Best Home Decor Trend of 2011

Remember for a while people were all into finding old furniture and rehabing them into something lovely - often involving painstakingly taking them back to their original intended stain and doing them in high gloss?  And then for a while people were finding old furniture and making it look even older (AKA shabby chic) by allowing the paint to peel, or even making it look like it was peeling and then adding some strategic sanding?  Well both those trends are pretty much over.  The new trend is painted furniture -  and mostly BOLDLY painted furniture.

It's probably my favorite trend from this year

Best Brown Rooms

People continue to google 'brown rooms', 'best brown rooms', 'brown paint' and 'brown decor' with quite some regularity - and end up on my blog and look at the few brown rooms I have and probably go away slightly disappointed.

Here are the best brown rooms I've found in the last year.  My advice for someone considering brown or beige or taupe or even a cream bordering on beige is to choose a strong accent color.  Even if you're really set on having brown walls, your decor will look so much better if you have something to set it off.  The good news about brown is that accents of almost any color look good with it - Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, Red, even Pinks and Purples look good with brown.
I was once in the home of a wealthy Scottsdale couple and their entire house was beige walls with brown, beige, cream, and black and white accents everywhere.  soooooooooo boring.  I'm sure they thought it was very chic.  I just thought it showed a complete lack of imagination and personality.

Some people chose brown/beige because they are afraid of color on their walls, other people chose it because they just really love brown.  Either way, carefully contemplate what you can add to it to give it some panache.

I'm sort of starting off breaking my own advice here regarding an accent color - BUT, this powder room is so tiny, that beautiful mirror with all the white is perfect. 

this isn't quite a 'brown brown' but it's close, and what they've done here with the different tones would work well with any variation of brown - I think the walls here are more of a mustard brown. 

via the lettered cottage - browns and beige always look great with red

I love that light light powder blue as an accent here, such a great bedroom, totally peaceful

there are some really fun ideas here, I love the bright yellow with the brown and the family photos are great

I feel like I might have used this before, if I did, I'm sorry but I really love that wallpaper and the brocade chair - love that turquoise with the brown and I really like that everything has a metallic quality

Again, another brown which really borders on being yellow - isn't this a great trend?  I'd like to see more of this color combination it just works so well with the plum

via Elle Decor - I love this floor and all the different things going on in this studio/office

This room is truly genius in my book, I pretty much love everything here

Such great accent colors here!!!!

Yes, this decides it for me, my new favorite combination with brown/beige is purple

I have definitely used this before but it was a really tiny version of this photo so I wanted to get a blown up size because I think this is a really great room.

I love the combination of the deep dark chocolate wall in the background with the more beige walls in the foreground, I also love the little pops of green, red, orange, yellow and the black & white pillow.  Along with the white on the furniture, it all works together to creat a lovely and cohesive little room. 

via houzz - love all the white with the beige, and that mirror is really cool with the sticks forming the sunburst.  I tend to feel that rooms with double high ceilings do very well with a lot of white in the room.  This room is carefully balanced, bordering on shabby chic without being too frumpy. 

via adamhommerding - I love that photography of the family on the brown wall.  Well thought through family photos can add a great element in the right spot - the entry way done up like this sets a tone for a the rest of the home and it's great. 

I'm dying over that sunburst mirror.  This space is just comfy and fun. 

a little more formal and expensive - I love the wall paper and the ceiling here

(I hope this entry helped some of the googler's out there :) )

Oh My Word...(more decor with typography)

I love some well placed typography in design & decor.  Lately, I am seeing old electric signs with bulbs which are super cool and I'd love to get a hold of one of those - even a letter a would be awesome.  Here's some of the best things I've seen recently:

How darned cute is that "nudist colony" signage?  I really love this room. 

love the powder room door idea in a house, love the mirrors too.

You can barely see that elegant "M", isn't it lovely?

I like the bedding and the colors (count them, 3 of our 2011 trend colors) but I totally dig the most those letters crawling up the wall.

this is super interesting and cool.

love this idea

This wall has a lot of black and white typography going on - I love how it pulls everything together

sweet pillow

I know you've seen this before in red, but this is the first I've seen it in gray.  I like it. 

I like how just the best thought out word can make a space so much more fun. 

awesome with the Shepherd Fairey prints.

Remember how Mary Tyler Moore had a big 'M' in her apartment?  She was so ahead of her time.

This is my absolute favorite!  I would nearly kill for this thing.

that "yummy" is such cuteness!

The Art of Water - Eric Zener

I think if I could afford a new painting by any artist I wanted (well...any living artist), I think I would really want a painting by Eric Zener.  I've admired his work for a long time.  It's a subject matter I find endlessly fascinating.  His hyper realistic style is stunning.

There's something about people and water and the depths of water, the way water makes a body fluid, the behavior of water upon impact, the colors of water, the way people feel in water and near water and the fact that as human beings we are so naturally drawn to water - all of these things make it one of my favorite subjects for a painting.

Isn't he amazing?