Calling all black thumbs; I’ve got the houseplant for you. Have you ever heard of snake plants? These fancy-looking plants feature sword-shaped leaves and can get as tall as eight feet! (Mine aren’t taller than a foot or two, though.) Snake plants are closely related to Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, which is the same style plant but with a yellow border around the leaves. For those of you who aren’t so good at keeping plants alive, you’ll have a good run with snake plants. These houseplants are super hardy and can even grow in poor soil. Here are a few more reasons why I think snake plants make the best houseplants. Decorating helpers Houseplants in general just make a room look good. They add life and a bit of green to a space. And snake plants are particularly good looking. Their vertical leaves are really interesting, and they look excellent in groupings. Fit with any look Snake plants definitely give off a modern vibe. I can picture these plants decorating a sleek home that’s all black furniture and minimalist. But snake plants also work just as well with my vintage-inspired style. They’re extremely versatile. Easy to care for Snake plants are...
Vintage Bar Cart: Styled For Spring
For a while now, my bar cart has sat mostly empty. I don’t drink hard liquor very often, so I’ve had two lone bottles of liquor hanging out on my bar cart. Not much of a bar cart, huh? Well, I finally got tired of looking at my sadly “styled” bar cart and decided to spruce it up. I didn’t spend any money on new stuff; I just gathered up items from around the house. Here’s how I styled my bar cart for spring, plus a few tips for styling your own bar cart. 1. Use a tray to organize Placing a tray on the bottom shelf of my bar cart helps it look organized. The tray corrals my two bottles of liquor (pathetic), shot glasses and other bar supplies together. Now all of those random items look neat and organized instead of like a jumbled mess. (Here’s another idea for using a tray on your bar cart.) 2. Line up glasses Arranging your wine, martini and champagne glasses in neat rows will immediately improve the look of your bar cart. It worked for me. I had originally tried lining up the glasses in the tray, but I like the look...
Decorating With Spring Flowers
Do you love decorating with flowers, but don’t love paying for them? Me too! I think of flowers as more of a splurge purchase, which means I don’t have them in my house very often. Until now. I realized the other day that springtime is the perfect season to find pretty blossoms—for free! Just take a walk around your neighborhood. That’s exactly what I did. I grabbed my pruning shears, and my dog and I took a little stroll around the neighborhood. I stopped in parks and alleyways (and maybe an unoccupied house or two) and trimmed a few branches from pretty flowering shrubs. Maybe I looked a little silly, but I was so excited about the free flowers that I didn’t care. Here’s what I gathered. After I gathered my bunch of flowers, I split them up into vases of varying sizes. I like making different types of flower arrangements. I filled a couple of mason jars with big bouquets of flowers. And then I took a few milk glass vases and plopped one bendy branch in each one. I like the contrast between the different styles of bouquets. Spring flowers pretty much do all of the decorating for...
3 Tips For a More Natural Home (Plus, My Natural Living Journey)
I talk a lot about decorating here on Red Leaf Style. But there’s a whole different side of me that I haven’t really shared with you. Well, I’m really into everything natural. I eat organic food. I clean my whole home with baking soda, vinegar and lemons. I compost. I reuse. I recycle. I’m really into this whole natural and organic thing. I try not to take myself too seriously, but I do enjoy making natural living a part of my everyday life. Natural and organic. What do these mean? Let’s talk about these terms. Natural and organic are terms used to describe everything from food to cosmetic ingredients to fabric. I’d need more than this blog post to tell you about all of the differences. But in general, “natural” doesn’t really have any regulations behind it, but “organic” does. Organic means the food or ingredient has been grown without the use of chemical pesticides. How do you start living naturally? Most of us care about our health. Usually that starts with taking a hard look at what we eat. Maybe that leads to buying organic food or cutting out processed foods. An interest in organic food tends to...
Home Tour: Kitchen
Welcome to my kitchen. I wasn’t planning to show off this outdated room in my rental house. But I realized something. When you rent, one of the main challenges is working with imperfections. And I may as well as show you how I make this room work. (Because it has a lot of imperfections.) Renters, I know you feel my pain. I can’t paint the walls or replace the linoleum floor. I can’t update the stove or redo the cabinets. So, I make it cute with what I can. A pretty rug. A well-placed plant. A splashy apron. Call attention to pretty things and you won’t notice the imperfections as much. Do you have a kitchen that you’re making work? What do you do to make it look good? Tell me about it in the comments! Keep Up With Red Leaf Style! Follow Red Leaf Style author Kirsten Hudson on Twitter @kirsten_hudson, Google+ and Pinterest....
Decorating With Botanical Prints (Plus Free Printables!)
Maybe it’s the spring season, but I’ve been noticeably obsessed with botanical and nature art prints lately. I think my nature art kick actually started about a year ago. I was on vacation in Stockholm, Sweden. While shopping at a local outdoor store called Natur Kompaniet, I bought two small scientific posters of mushrooms and flowers. The posters are actually meant to help you identify poisonous and safe varieties. But when I spotted them, I knew I’d use them for decorating. (They wouldn’t do me much good anyway since I can’t read Swedish.) The combination of the vintage science poster look and the Swedish language makes them even more endearing to me. I’m obsessed! If you like the look of botanical prints, they’ll make a great addition to the art on your walls. Here are a few easy ways to score some of your own. 1. Scope out thrift stores It may take longer to find exactly what you’re looking for, but castoff art at secondhand stores and thrift shops is an inexpensive way to find botanical prints. Just look for a print you like. You can change the frames and matting later. 2. Search on Etsy A simple search...
Bar Cart Styling: Picture Frame Tray
For a while now I’ve been intending to create a stylish bar cart. I have a vintage cart that I found at Goodwill for $4 ages ago. At my old apartment I used the cart as a kitchen cart to hold my KitchenAid mixer and other odds and ends. In fact, this vintage cart was one of my favorite thrift store finds ever. But since I moved to my new home, it has just sat lonely in the sunroom accumulating junk. But finally (finally!) I put in a bit of bar cart styling effort. It’s still far from the snazzy bar cart I’m imagining, but it’s getting there. Here’s what I did. I created a tray of sorts using a picture frame. By “created” I mean I got lucky. I was trying to figure out where I wanted to hang the picture frame and I set it down on the cart. Then inspiration struck. Why not use the picture frame as a tray to keep glasses organized on my bar cart? So that’s what I did. Lining up wine, martini and champagne glasses in rows looks nice, but I think this tray takes it one step farther. It’s just a...