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Get Nested: Meg Answers Your Questions, Round #1

by on Nov 11, 2010

I asked you to send in your nesting dilemmas, and have really enjoyed reading them. Now I will start answering them as best as I can. I hope it helps!

Anonymous sent in this great inquiry: “How necessary do you think headboards are in the bedroom? I can’t decide, but think it may just be because I haven’t found an idea I really like.  Do you have any good, simple, fun, creative, cheap ideas?”
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In my humble opion, there are no rules in home decor. Headboards certainly aren’t necessary, and if done in a clean, minimalist way, a bed can be really nice without one. Although headboards are such a great way to make a bold design statement in the bedroom.

I am in the same boat as you at the moment. We are headboard-less, trying to find the exact design we want for our room. Here are the some of the style options: You can get really creative and custom make one, you can stay safe and simple with the design, or you can go clean and sleak, the options are endless.

Start looking through magazines and on home decor blogs to get an idea of what you really love, and you can literally build your whole bedroom’s aesthetica around the headboard. You can go with the more classic upholstered headboard with a bold fabric like this one from Design*Sponge. I also love more unexspected headboards like the floating wood piece below from Home Sweet Home.

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In one episode of Decor It Yourself I show you how to make this canopy headboard. You could spin the canopy look a number of ways, or use fabric draped behind and around the walls of the bed for a really romantic, luxurious look like this image from ‘New Seaside Interiors’ by Taschen.

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If you are searching for your forever headboard, don’t settle for one you don’t just love. Keep your eyes peeled watching old movies, tv shows, flipping through periodicals. When something grabs your eye, remember it and recreate it for yourself. Until then, enjoy the simplicity of going without.

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Marcia asked: “I live in a very tiny dorm room. Something I’ve noticed in the two months that I’ve lived here is that, unless I leave the window open, the room begins to smell stale and stuffy. It’s bad. The trouble is, I live West Michigan, and we have bitterly cold winters with lots of snow. It’s getting to the point where leaving my window open (even durning the day and closing it at night when I’m home) is just too cold to be a long-term solution. I’ve tried air fresheners, and while those work for a couple days, they wear out fast and are expensive to buy every week. (Not to mention the packaging waste they create.) Febreeze helps a little. In my dorm, we’re not allowed to have candles or incense because of the fire hazard. How can I keep my room smelling fresh all winter without freezing to death?”

Marcia, this is awful and I hope I can offer some help. The smell of my home is really important to me so I am going to offer you a whole bunch of solutions for this.

First and foremost I would attempt to get to the culprit of the situation. Ask your RA if the janitor or super or someone can take a look and see if there is a mold problem or something that is causing this odor. Masking odor is really challenging when there isn’t a way to contain or control it. Try that first.

Then give your tiny room a hardcore clean. Use vinegar, which cuts odor. Add essential oils like lemon, oregano and lavendar into a bucket of steaming hot water. Add a cup or two of vinegar, and scrub the floor and surfaces down. Allow to dry out with the windows open. I did a video of a bunch of DIY homemade cleaners you can watch here.

Keep in mind that lemon cuts odor, so add some to your cleaning recipe or a cleaner you already have (but be careful if they have ammonia or harsh chemicals, only mix when they are all natural). Then I would take a few little bowls of baking soda and leave them out to absord odor hidden in corners or behind a standing picture frame.

In addition to all of this, I love the aromatherapy oils at The Body Shop. When I need a really clean and fresh scent in my home, I add a few drops of Satsuma Home Fragrance Oil to my burner and put a tealight underneath. If you aren’t allowd to use candles, the drops of Satsuma in the water alone will give your place a really lovely scent.

If you don’t like that particular scent, they have several to choose from. Also, this is a great excuse to have fresh aromatic flowers in your dorm room at all times:) (the photo below is from Paper Musings. I hope this takes care of your malordorous problem!

 

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Brenna Banana is making me the Marriage Ref by sending in this question: heya ms.meg-ella, my question is about tiles. we are planning on tiling out kitchen floor and have been arguing about the tile size. do you think larger tile are worth the extra money in terms of look? my husband’s argument, is that we will need less tile because they are bigger and that it will look better. i personally don’t think it’s worth the larger investment because we plan on moving out of here in a year or so.  what are you thought oh wise and chic one? 🙂

I love the large bold black and white tiles, but also really dig the tiny detailed tiles, so I feel how hard this is to choose. If you are moving out in a year, I wouldn’t waste the money on the more expensive tile for such a short time. Use this year to try out a more reasonably priced size tile and see how you like it. Then when you move and can do it permanantly for your own place, make the plunge and invest in the more expensive, coveted big tiles.

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Emma says: My bedroom walls are made of some sort of panelling/drywall and as the below picture shows they aren’t in very good shape. I’m not sure paint alone will cover the cracks and lines and I was thinking of papering with liner paper and then painting over it.

However, I’m not sure this would be the best solution. Any suggestions/ideas would be gratefully received.

Emma, I have a wall like that too. I can’t see the photo you mentioned, but it sounds like what I have had to deal with and for that I found the best solution was using spackling, a paste used to fill small holes and cracks in your wall. You can purchase a Drywall Repair Kit for under $10 that will include the spackling, a plastic putty knife, and instructions on how to do it. You just take a little spackling ont he end of your putty knife and gently smooth it into the crack and smooth over. Make sure you don’t leave any excess paste on the wall, you want it nice and smooth.

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The last question for today is from Brittany. I’ll follow up with with another round next week, but until then, Brittany asks: I have a massive dvd collection (obnoxious).  Any ideas on how to store them, while still having easy access to them? I have them on a shelf in my living room but I would much rather use that shelf more decoratively than for my movies.

Brittany, I am with you 100%! I think dvds are an eyesore in the living room and are something I want out of eyesight while relaxing in my home. I suggest having shelve space set aside for them in a coat closet, either above where the coats are, or a shallow shelf behind.

You can take part of a coat closet to devote to dvds and games so that entertaining is easy having everything you need on hand for guests. You could store the other coats in a clothes closet, and just keep out the ones you use the most. Or, if you have an office, den or guest room that has an extra dresser drawer in it, that would be a great place to store your dvds. As long as you keep the title facing out, you can see what you have at a glance even tucked away in a drawer.

If you have it in you to purge your dvd cases, you could get a really big cd case and put the dvds in with just the cover to save a lot of space. I know that sounds tough, but really, what good are those cases really doing?

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I’ll be back next week with more answers to your nesting dilemmas in the final installment of this series for now. Enjoy your home this weekend!

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