About three months ago I told you about our new online store, “The Style Marketplace.” Well, it’s been a huge success so I just wanted to remind you what a terrific shopping opportunity you’re missing if you haven’t visited yet at www.thestylemarketplace.com. The holidays are fast approaching!

We stock new items every day that you won’t find anywhere else — not Pottery Barn, not that boutique down the street, and certainly not at a department store. These are the kinds of accessories and furniture pieces that people will want to have when they see them in your home, but they’re only available on our site.

For example, among our more than 300 products we have this hand-carved wood chandelier that would be perfect in a powder room.

Your foyer might be begging for this vintage bench with multicolor wood slats and black iron frame.

Want to know what time it is? How about hanging this cottage clock on your wall and enjoying its gently distressed face and dark chestnut undertones.

If you’re feeling reflective, check out the De Sol Mirror and the “mirror within a mirror” accents in its spokes. Burnished antique silver adds to its charm.

As you can see, we have a little something for everyone at The Style Marketplace — and we never close. Please visit today!

P.S. If you see something you like but you’re not quite sure how to make it work with your décor, let us know and we’ll help you fit the piece in your existing space.

Pumpkins with a "Boo" message provide a subtle tone for Halloween decor.

It seems like we were just discussing summer barbecues and yet here it is almost Halloween! One of the services we offer at Style on a Shoestring is holiday decorating — even Halloween. We will come in and use your existing decorations or bring along some of our own (or both) to give your home a festive flair.

If you want to spook up your own home for Halloween, here are a few tips on how to make it boo-tiful.

An inexpensive and easy way to dress your house for ghosts and goblins is with “creepy cloth”—that stretchy gauze you can place around furniture, lamps or most anywhere. Be creative and put it on unexpected places such as candlesticks, picture frames and mirrors.

Speaking of candles, swap them out for orange or black versions. Also replace some light bulbs for flicker lights with an orange tint. If you have a filled bowl as an accent—such as a bowl of shells—stow those away and substitute plastic eyeballs or spiders. For a haunting gathering, place a punch bowl filled with dry ice and water in the corner of the room so the fog lilts into the space.

"Creepy cloth" turns any home into a haunted mansion.

The best tip I can give you on decorating for Halloween or any holiday is not to fall short. It’s better to really dress up one room than to try to extend the theme lightly throughout the house. Since Halloween decorations tend toward over-the-top, perhaps limiting it to a main living area and/or powder room is sufficient.

Also, don’t feel you need to always use black and orange for Halloween. As you can see from these pictures, white can also play a major role. And if the ghoulish side of the season isn’t your cup of tea, go for a harvest theme with pumpkins, corn stalks and autumn leaves. The point is to have fun and give your home a change of pace, whatever that might mean for you and your family. Pottery Barn is carrying some really tasteful Halloween/fall accessories right now. For that super-spooky look, check out inexpensive retailers such as Party City or your local dollar store.

And don’t forget to include a few decorations along your front walkway for trick-or-treaters!

Please contact us at Style on a Shoestring if we can help with any of your decorating or remodeling needs.

We reupholstered this ottoman and added colorful throw pillows to give more punch to this great room.

One of the things customers have told us sets Style on a Shoestring apart from other design firms is we live out our name—we really do try to save you money. That doesn’t mean we resort to cheap, inferior products. Instead, we are experts at combining high-quality items with less expensive accents we find at area department stores and specialty stores. That allows clients to complement their timeless pieces with changing trends in colors and styles.

A home’s established or heirloom furniture tends to be larger, costlier articles such as the dining room table and hutch, side tables and even sofas depending on how much use they get. I usually advise against choosing high-use sofas and chairs with the idea that you will reupholster in a few years. Typically, reupholstering is as much or even more than buying new upholstered furniture. So it’s best to plan on replacing your heavily used upholstered furniture every eight to ten years, as opposed to a sofa in a formal sitting room, for example, which might last for many years. In either case, choose a neutral color and pattern for your longer-term items to allow for design accents elsewhere.

That said, it can be fun and cost-effective to reupholster one piece—such as an ottoman (see photo above)—to add that pop of trendy color. Another way to do this is swapping out throw pillows or lampshades, or repotting houseplants.

Combining bright color with a French influence is a 2011 trend.

This year, color is big! Think about adding pops of hot pink, lime green and purple to your rooms. Other popular trends are French-influenced pieces, distressed woods and mixing industrial design with other styles. All of this makes for a terrific combination because sticking just to an industrial style or to distressed woods, for instance, can feel bland, but when you add that bit of color it gives the whole room a fresh look.

You can pick up these less pricey pieces at places such as Restoration Hardware, Cost Plus World Market and Pottery Barn. We also have an extraordinary alternative we are almost ready to reveal to you where you will be able to get amazing, distinctive furniture and accessories. Watch this space for our announcement soon!

Please contact us at Style on a Shoestring if we can help with decorating your home or any of your design needs.

If your kids have summers off from school, you probably feel like you want to cover your home’s interior in plastic until fall. Somehow children seem to find what is sticky, dirty and wet no matter where they go for their summertime fun. But there’s no need to panic – here are a few tips to make your home both kid-proof and kid-friendly as you celebrate sunshine and school vacation with your little ones:

• Several paint manufacturers now make washable paint. In just a few hours you can use it to cover the walls where your kids play most. Even more fun is chalkboard paint, which is actually meant for kids (and parents!) to write on. Ask your favorite paint or home improvement store to point you to these helpful paints.

Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint

• Colorful plastic dishware is practical for summer meals, whether inside or out. Pottery Barn’s new Kerala line (potterybarn.com) is made from sturdy melamine in a vibrant Indian motif. It’s shatterproof, dishwasher-safe and affordable at $26 for four large dinner plates.

Pottery Barn’s Kerala dinnerware

• Lighten up your kids’ bedrooms by removing and storing heavier bedding and blankets. The Land of Nod (landofnod.com) has duvet covers with matching sheets in cool gingham, dots and stripes patterns that will let you freshen the kids’ rooms without blowing your budget.

Gingham bedding set from The Land of Nod

Dots sheet set from The Land of Nod

• Protect your floors and patio surfaces with indoor/outdoor rugs. Outside, a rug provides a cozy play place. Inside, the easily cleanable rug offers your eat-in kitchen a punch of color.

Rugs from Macy's

• Instead of putting covers on your furniture – which can look sloppy – clean and then treat it with a stain guard. Give Chris Grant at Fibercare a call to service your sofas, chairs, dining chairs, carpets or other surfaces: (800) 939-2101.

Have a great summer, and please contact us at Style on a Shoestring if we can help with any of your home design needs.

As San Diego enters into its hot sun season, we hear from a lot of people looking to keep the heat out while not sacrificing their home’s appearance. I’ve had clients who thought because their windows face west and get that afternoon roast of searing sunlight that they had to hang heavy draperies backed with blackout fabric. That is one option, of course, but there are others that might be more suited to your particular space and usage.

Duette Architella honeycomb shades with UltraGlide Top-Down

Speaking of usage, one of the first things I always tell a client before choosing window treatments – there are zillions of options from roman shades to valances to blinds to wood shutters to traditional draperies – is to think about how you use the room. How does this window function for your family? For example, if you are going to be leaving the covering over the window much of the time, you probably don’t want to use a roman shade because when it’s pulled flat it can look like a sheet in the window. On the other hand, if you need something you can pull up and down but don’t want to see the actual shade, you might layer it (hide it, really) with a pretty valance to gain some flexibility.

Alustra Woven Textures roller shades with Motorization

Tony Levas is the owner of Levas and Son Draperies, a local custom drapery company that has been doing window treatments in San Diego for more than 50 years. I love Tony because early in my career he convinced me that custom window treatments are worth their price tag (we can save you money elsewhere) and I’ve been recommending them ever since. We’ll talk more about the significance of custom window coverings in another post. But I did want to mention Tony because Levas and Son is a showcase dealer for Hunter Douglas, the manufacturer of Silhouette and Duette shades. All of the Hunter Douglas products provide heat control, but what is special about them is they still allow diffused light to be dispersed into your room. So it’s the best of both worlds – you get a cooler space yet you still can take advantage of natural daylight. Plus they disappear into a fabric-covered headrail so you’re not left with an unsightly bunching of fabric when you raise them. We find these shades to be suitable for a lot of people who need relief from the sun’s rays but don’t want heavy draperies.

Heritance hardwood shutters with TruView Rear Tilt

As Tony says, it is always a compromise when you are designing window coverings. Achieving heat control or privacy might block that ocean view at times, but once we show you how to dress your window in a way that merges function with fashion, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the transformation.

Please contact us at Style on a Shoestring if we can help with any of your home design needs.

Tracy Lynn

Hi from all of us at Style on a Shoestring! We took a little break from blogging because we were so busy helping all of our wonderful clients beautify their homes. But I really want to stay connected with you so I’m recommitting to talking with you via this blog at least once a week. And it won’t just be me – all of the terrific Style on a Shoestring designers will be giving you their ideas, tips and leads on how to enhance your living space and make it your dream home.

As much as we hope you will contact us for your design needs, we also realize there are times when time or budget won’t allow for that. So as our name says, this blog is going to show you how to find value in all aspects of your home life from choosing window treatments to dressing up your space for the holidays to figuring out how to get a Kool-Aid stain out of your new sofa.

We will also be bringing in our favorite vendors from around San Diego County to offer their views on how to get the best bang for your buck at home. So look forward to hearing from our amazing experts on tile, décor, appliances, draperies, plants and many other topics. If you’ve worked with us you know we are always looking to strike a balance between keeping costs reasonable and providing high quality results – we entrust our vendors to do that as well.

This blog is intended to be a resource for you, so please add your comments with questions or ideas for what you would like to see us address here. I look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve your home design goals.

Finally, I just want to thank you for your support. This has been a whirlwind several years for both my “real” family and my work family. We all feel truly blessed to be doing what we do and we thoroughly enjoy making people happy through interior design. As always, please contact us if we can assist you in any way.

When in good shape, stucco is one of the most attractive of all materials, but this beautiful material can quickly lose its appeal if not maintained and repaired properly. Fortunately, making simple repairs on a stucco wall or other surface is not that difficult a job, and it is well within the skill set of most do-it-yourself-ers.

So, take a look around your home, identify those areas where the stucco needs some TLC, and follow these easy steps:

1. Look first at the direction of the crack in the stucco. If the crack is vertical, such as from the base to the window or from the roof to the door, there could be a problem with the foundation of the home. When dealing with vertical cracks, you might want to call a foundation specialist – you may have a much more serious problem than cracked stucco.

2. If the crack is horizontal, you can move on to needed repairs. Small cracks can be filled by using a high quality caulk. The best caulk to use is one that can be easily and invisibly painted over. The caulk can be pressed into the crack with your fingers. After the caulk is in place, use a damp cloth to smooth and clean the area. Once the caulk has dried it can be painted to match the color of the wall.

3. Wider cracks can be cleaned out using a screwdriver or a cold chisel. The area to be filled should be soaked thoroughly to prevent the stucco from leaching the water from the new mortar. If the new mortar becomes dry it could crumble.

4. Next, mix the mortar using a shallow bucket. Mix one part Portland cement, four parts builder’s sand and a small amount of water. The mortar should be thin enough to work easily but not too runny.

5. First cover the area to be patched with a polyvinyl acetate (PVA) bonding agent designed specifically for masonry.

6. When the bond is still slightly sticky, fill the crack with the mortar mix.

7. Then cover the patched area with a piece of bitumen-coated fiberglass. The bitumen-coated fiberglass can then be pressed into place using a paint roller. The coat of bitumen should be applied directly over the patch.

8. Allow the bitumen to dry, and after it has dried, apply a second coat. The second coat should be carefully stippled with a soft bristle brush so that it matches the rest of the wall.

9. The area can then be painted over, using a primer made specifically for stucco. Allow the primer to dry, and then repaint the area to match the rest of the wall.

    

Popped Nails and Screws

This problem occurs if the drywall isn’t fully fastened tightly against the framing, when the framing lumber shrinks or twists, or when an object strikes the wall or ceiling. This causes the joint compound to become loose and pop off the fastener.

Before any drywall repairs are made, concerning popped nails or screws, make sure the drywall is fully fastened to the framing. Apply hand pressure next to the popped nail or screw. The pressure will verify if the drywall panel is loose. Now apply a new screw 1-1/2 inches away and reset the existing screw. As you install the new screw apply hand pressure to the area.

If the drywall paper surface isn’t damaged apply 2 coats of light weight spackle or heavy joint compound. After the patch has fully dried lightly sand the area.

If the paper has torn or the core of the wallboard is damaged the area will need a small piece of paper drywall tape and 3 thin coats of joint compound. After final sanding apply texture to match the existing finish.

In southern California we can swim in our pools for many months during the year. Adding a pool to your backyard can be an investment but safety is the number one priority.

A fence is a must to ensure child safety around the pool. Make sure your fence is at least six feet tall and difficult to climb. Fences are the best way to ensure safety.

You can soften the look of a fence by training vines to grow over the surface. Avoid bordering the fence with trees or shrubs because they could provide an easy boost for curious children to climb over the fence. Keep the door or gate leading to your pool locked at all times.

Be sure to keep rescue equipment easily accessible around the pool. It is also a good idea to have someone in your household trained in CPR.

Develop a plan for what to do in case of an emergency and teach it to your children.

Pool Fences

Swimming Pool Nets

When the weather is warm, you want to get out of the kitchen and into your backyard. Before you fire op the grill, you may want to take some time to review some basic grilling safety precautions. Below are some tips to help keep you and your family safe when you cook outdoors.

1. Check the grill hoses for cracking.

2. Move gas hoses as far away as possible from hot surfaces and dripping grease.

3. Replace scratched or nicked connectors, which can eventually leak gas.

4. If you detect a gas leak, immediately turn of the gas at the take and don’t attempt to light the grill until it is repaired.

5. Never use the grill indoors; always place it at least 10 feet away from buildings or structures.

6. Keep the lid open when lighting the grill. If it does not light in the first several attempts, wait five minutes before trying again so the gas can dissipate.

7. When storing gas tanks, keep containers upright. Never store a space tank under or near the grill.

8. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby just in case and never leave a fire unattended.