Decorating Den Interiors in Fort Walton Beach FL

The holidays are just around the corner and if you’re looking for ways to decorate beyond the traditional trappings, then here are a few great ideas for your consideration.

Consider your lighting!

Is your family one that does Thanksgiving in a big way? Then you may want to consider making some changes to traditional accent lamps with white or cream colored shades. Perhaps a lampshade style in one of today’s rich harvest hues would be the perfect “new” accent. Rich gold shades, for instance, will cast a beautiful warm glow throughout any room. On the other hand, if you enjoy going all out for Christmas, you might want to exchange your current lampshades for ones with red or green shades. This kind of lighting design can be particularly appropriate in a room already decked out in a red and green color scheme.

Beautiful Tabletops!

Today, fresh is in! So why not consider decorating your holiday table with a beautiful fresh flower arrangement? Even floating a few carefully chosen flowers in a beautiful ceramic or fine art glass bowl would definitely help your tabletop take center stage.

At Thanksgiving time, a beautifully designed bowl might be carefully filled with nature’s bounty of squash, gourds, and miniature pumpkins. Or you could even take a more decorative approach and fill your centerpiece bowl with seed studded balls in a variety of colors. And at Christmas time, this same bowl could then be filled with glass balls mixed with gold and silver leafed fruit, and even foods that reflect the shades of the season, like artichokes and pomegranates.

To complete your table settings, take a cue from the objects you’ve used to fill your decorative bowl to designate each place setting. If, for instance, miniature pumpkins are a part of your thanksgiving mix, give each guest his or her own. Carve out the centers and use them as mini-vases for appropriately scaled flowers. Or make openings large enough to accommodate votive candles. The same concept works equally well with artichokes for Christmas settings. You might even feature seasonally-themed stationery as place cards, finishing each one with a keepsake stickpin.

Glowing Candles!

If one pair of candlesticks on your fireplace mantle is good, then a collection is even better. If you collect crystal, for example, pull together a grouping in all shapes and sizes, old and new. Add candles of varying heights and you’re ready to set a romantic holiday mood in any room. And as the seasons change, simply change the color of your candles! Don’t be afraid to mix and match the style of your candlesticks either. An eclectic collection invariably says something about your personal style – something that’s sure to make any holiday decorating scheme more memorable!

There is still time to order new draperies and accessories to update your home for the holidays! We can pull it together! Until next time, have a happy decorating day!

The Decorating Den in Fort Walton Beach is owned by Carol Stearns, who has been designing and decorating homes in the area since 1984. Carol has clients through out Walton Counties and Okaloosa who have allowed her to help them create the space of their dreams.  She has won many awards for both design and sales.  She is very knowledgeable of brands and where to find items needed to pull a look together.  Carol has the experience and talent to help you achieve and complete your space considering your taste and needs. She treats your home as if it were her own, while implementing your style for a atmosphere designed specifically for you and your family.  Save time, save money, call the expert Carol Stearn to help you complete your room with style, flair and design that you'll be happy to live with for years to come.

In my professional opinion, the perfect accessory for any room is the right lamp! When I’m in a client’s home and asked for my opinion, almost always, the need for a perfect lamp pops into my mind! This is one area where knowing what to look for and where to find it is key when you are working with an interior decorator! Lamps are either too small or too old or too cheap or too ordinary. So let me share a few lamp rules with you.



A lamp next to a sofa should be approximately 30” tall. You can solve the problem of a shorter lamp by placing it on a stack of leather bound books to get it up to the height you need. Remember back in the 60’s, tables were really short and lamps were really tall? That’s because you needed to get that lamp tall enough so the light would be reflected onto the book as you were reading. Lamps on either side of a sofa don’t necessarily have to be the same! They should be similar and approximately the same height, thus the stack of books.



Table lamps and floor lamps don’t have to be exactly the same either. In fact, 2 table lamps and a matching floor lamp in the same room can be kind of boring. However, they should be of a similar finish. Don’t put a chrome floor lamp next to a bronze and wood table lamp. That just won’t work very well.



Tablescaping is another important feature to consider when selecting a lamp. I was working with a client recently who had a new picture that was hung above a chest on a nail that was already in a concrete wall. Rather than lower the picture, I placed her existing lamp on 2 books and lined several more books up next to them, using the lamp as a book end. On the other side of the chest, I placed 3 colorful bottles of varying heights. These items filled the space between the picture and the chest and created a cohesive look! She loved it and everything I used was something she had already!

Repeating a motif in a room is important as well and you can often find a lamp that matches the clients other accessories. For instance, pineapples are popular with many traditional clients as it is the sign of welcome in any home. I recently placed a beautiful pineapple lamp in a clients’ home as the feature accessory on a table in between the sofa and loveseat. She had other pineapple accessories in other parts of the room so repeating it made sense.

Most of my clients prefer 3 way lights and I noticed recently, that the newer lamps in my catalogs were only on/off. When I asked about this, I was told that the newer spiral and energy efficient light bulbs did not come with the 3 way option, thus there isn’t a need for the 3 way switch. My advice to you is to stock up on 3 way light bulbs while you can still get them! In the state of California, lamp buyers have a surcharge placed on their orders to accommodate their energy efficient laws!

Until next time have a happy decorating day! And call me if you need a lamp!

This month I’d like to give you some tips of places to go and things to do to improve your home and surroundings.

First off, Dixie Cleaners on Racetrack Road and Wright Plaza has a special where you can have your bedspread cleaned for $29! That is quite a bargain and I know there are many bulky and oversized bedspreads out there that won’t fit into a washer. I know I’ve taken a large bedspread to be washed at a Laundromat and after about $150 worth of quarters, you finally get to take it home. Save the time and effort and take it to Dixie!

Do you just hate having repairs made to your home because of the time it takes and mess involved? You can have a brand new kitchen in about 2-3 weeks complete with granite countertops when you call Nicky C with Rock Solid Productions. His # is 259-8924 and he has done new windows in my own home and some other things. I’ve referred him to several clients and his team of workers is in and out of there! And you’ll be pleased with the results.

If you want a new look for your home and don’t have a big budget, call me! I’ve been working with a client to update her living room and we never left it. I’ve got some great suppliers for a wide range of accessories at good prices. I’ve also got sources for unusual things that you can’t find elsewhere, like faux wood arch top blinds for those hard to cover Palladian Windows. They come in adjustable sizes to fit your needs!

Do you have old mirrors in your bathroom with scuffed and worn edges? I have an assortment of frame options that can be ordered to cover those edges and give you a new look! Go to www.mirrormate.com to check them out.

There’s nothing worse than a skimpy dust ruffle on your bed. Does yours even touch the floor? This is a splurge but let me have a new dust ruffle made for you that is split in the corners, has plenty of fabric and skims the floor. It will make a huge difference! And you can coordinate pillows or draperies to tie things together. And speaking of bedding, I’ve got sources for custom bedding where the quality is good and the prices are very reasonable! You won’t get the same selection at a department store and we can customize parts of the package to fit odd mattresses.

Are you having trouble finding artwork to suit your taste? Is there nothing out there big enough to hang on your wall? I can help you in this department as well!

You don’t have to be unhappy with your home for another minute! Give me a call and I’m on my way! Until next time, have a great 4th of July and a happy decorating day!

‘IN THIS ECONOMY’

I’m so tired of hearing those 3 words, “in this economy”, that I am going to delete them from my vocabulary. We have decided to move forward with much needed renovations to our 30 year old home and I’ll tell you why! Interest rates have never been lower and if you aren’t buying a new home, it is definitely time for you to look into refinancing your old home and making the improvements you need to make! Our first thought was that we only had 7 more years to pay off our home and did we really want to take on more debt? BUT and a big BUT, with windows and doors needing to be replaced, bathrooms updated, a tattered hurricane weary fence and other improvements crying out, we decided to look into refinancing to see what the possibilities were. My goodness, the interest rate we locked in is practically free! We take out enough money to make improvements which adds to the ultimate value of the home, our payments stay the same and it only adds 3 more years onto the life of the loan! Our home was appraised higher than we anticipated and we didn’t have to wait weeks to get all this accomplished! We are also helping the local economy and small business owners by doing this. And the best part is that I get to design and install all new window treatments and redecorate!!! WHOO HOO!!! I can’t wait to get started! Now maybe refinancing your home isn’t what you need to do. But if you are tired of the news media touting gloom and doom, look around to see what you can do to improve your own home. A fresh coat of paint can do wonders, a new chair, rearrange the furniture, anything. I have often said that if you don’t do something to improve your home each year, it gets overwhelming and becomes very costly. And don’t be afraid to call in a professional for help! It’s a lot of fun! This year is more than half over and we are coming into the fall season of football and holiday shopping. If you have family coming for the holiday season and you want to do some improvements or redecorating, now is the time. Fall has always been a busy time of year for me. Things have changed so much in the world of design, I can’t predict the coming months anymore. I can suggest that if you intend to get started with a redecorating project soon, don’t wait. There has never been a better time to do it! Let’s put a new lease on life or a new drapery on the window! Until next time have a happy decorating day!