D2S is all about interior design and home decorating help, tips, and resources. We're sharing inspiration for home design with homeowners, realtors, designers, builders, and vendors.
Download & Decorate: Our Home Remodeler and I Can Decorate! apps give you the DIY knowledge to tackle your home decorating and remodeling projects right from your phone. Click on the app below for info.
Jersey Boys Star
Design2Share's Irwin Weiner will be the decorating coordinator for the Saturday, September 29th Bucks County Cabaret performance, starring the Tony winner John Lloyd Young who was electrifying as the lead in Broadway's global hit Jersey Boys. Accompanying him will be pianist, arranger, and associate musical director for American Idol, Michael Orland.
This month's Cabaret event enjoys a special design-oriented bonus: an early afternoon Hunt Breakfast in the heart of Jersey's horse country at the Dransfield and Ross estate, a recently-featured cover story in Elle Decor magazine.
Enjoy an elegant lunch and see what all the design fuss is about in this classic country property. Then head a short drive across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania for John's intimate performance in an historic Bucks County barn. Both venues will feature a Svedka Vodka martini bar. Your ticket money goes to further the vital research performed by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.
Think about the headstart you'll be getting on remodeling your home with the savings from a Home Depot coupon.
Magical Milan
We've just added features covering aspects of our recent trip to Milan. Pictured above: indoor shopping at the the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, designed by Giuseppe Mengoni in 1865.
- Hot Milan home goods from La Rinascente department store
- Trippy feature: photos of our visit to Milan and a Wallpaper* video on performance art in the Plazza della Scalla, just in front of La Scalla
Buying Bed Linens
We visited Casa Del Bianco in NYC and had a wonderful working lunch with them as they talked all-things linens. Learn about the different types of fabrics, including blends, and what pros and cons there are to the various fabrics so you can find the best balance for your bed sheets and linens. Visit Casa Del Bianco for more information on custom Italian linens.
Fabrizio Biasiolo, Casa Del Bianco's vice president in charge (in our opinion) of Wonderfulness, would like to share these tips with you on buying fine linens.
- Trust your hand more than the thread count. How does the fabric feel to the touch? Soft or too stiff, like a tablecloth?
- The whole idea of thread count has become overblown in consumers' minds. The notion that the higher the number of threads per square inch, the better the product, is just not true. There are more important factors in determining the quality of linens and the level of comfort and pleasure they can deliver to their users.
- Sheets have to be light in weight and have to "breathe" to avoid excessive and highly uncomfortable perspiration.
- To test softness, caress the linens with the back of your hand. The sheets have to be smooth and soft to the touch.
- For durability, sheets must be able to maintain their light weight and softness after many washes.
- Most luxury hotels choose 100 percent Egyptian cotton in a percale construction, normally a 200 thread count for bed linens. Consumers, however, veer towards 300-plus thread counts in a sateen construction. Sateen sheets are more expensive than percale, hence the perception that sateen is better quality than percale. Sateen sheets have the tendency to retain humidity and be more delicate than percale sheets.
- Sateen construction sheets don't wrinkle as much as percale. It's their only advantage.
- The more threads there are in a square inch of bed linen, the heavier the product will be. NOT the softer! The balance between the thread count and the weight is most important. There are plenty of people sleeping on 1,000-count sheets, and they're unaware that they're really sleeping on tablecloths.
- When dealing with natural fibers, the more you wash the linens, the better they feel.
Look for furniture, gifts, and accessories for your home at Design2Share's Home Goods Store on OpenSky. Unusual, creative, and useful items are what we offer, each one handpicked to give you options that differ from the usual fare you'll find in stores. Click here to go shopping!
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Super King Size Leather Beds: We just found a great collection of sleek leather bed designs. They add sophistication, whether your bedroom decor is traditional or modern.
Featured Project: DIY Painted Headboard
Now is the perfect time to think about freshening up your interior space. With a splash of color here and a new piece of furniture there, it's easy to redecorate. Here's a quick, budget-conscious DIY design idea to help get you started.
Paint Your Own Headboard
Chances are if you if you purchased your bed frame as part of a bedroom set, the headboard is already included. If you don't want to put forth the extra cash, especially after paying for a pricey mattress, no problem! Painted headboards are a great way to add a pop of color to your bedroom.
Step 1: Measure the width of the head of your bed and mark it with blue painter's tape from floor to ceiling. Now, choose your color based on your desired color scheme. You obviously don't want it to be the same shade as your walls, but it should complement that color.
Step 2: Once you have your color, paint the wall, staying within the blue painters tape. Once the paint dries, if you choose to do so, you can detail with paint or with some removable wall decals from a company like Blik. For as little as $40, Blik makes easily removable wall decals in fun shapes like bookshelves, chandeliers, birds, etc. If this sounds like too much work, don't worry and leave your wall a solid color.
Step 3: Simply position your bed up against the painted wall, prop up some decorative Euro pillows in coordinating colors and patterns, and you have yourself a headboard. You might want to take this opportunity to invest in a new comforter or duvet in fun, light, spring colors. You'd be surprised at what a little bit of paint and some new bedding can do for your space!
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Resources: Edra
Our editors are raving about the experimental design range of products being produced by Perignano, Italy based Edra SPA. Their website is beautifully designed - and we recommend you go to the designers first, read their backgrounds, then click on their product links within the Edra line. That's a better way to appreciate some of the innovation this company is producing in the home goods market. Here are a few of our favorites from Edra, and you can click on each photo for more information.
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