By Linda Jennings



While it's often the larger more impressive pieces of furniture that catch our eye, once we are drawn into a room, it's the little things that may keep us there or send us off to another room. What in the world am I talking about you may ask? Think about this.

The next time you are in a room, look around closely at all the details of the room. The accent pieces, the collections, the pillows, the candles, the wall art, the rug, all of those little things or decorative accents that help define that room and space.

If it's the dining room, what about the tablecloths, the placemats, the tableware you are using, the candlesticks on the table, or maybe there aren't any, should there be? Are there pictures on the wall or a mirror that reflects your personality and the design style that you are wanting to achieve? Is your glassware old and uninviting to family and friends when they sit down to feast at your table?

In the bedroom are you still using the same comforter that you had five or even ten years ago or longer? How about those sheets and the pillows and pillowcases? Is your bedroom the sanctuary that it once was or has it ever been? What would make it so?

And in our kitchen, is our cookware a hodgepodge of mix-matched pots, pans and lids that don't quite fit? Do your small appliances reflect who you are and have become or are they stuck a time warp of a decade ago or maybe even longer? Do you have the cooking and baking utensils you need when you start to cook?

As you ponder these things ask yourself these questions: Do they make you happy? Are they depressing, out-of ?date, out-of season, no longer your design style, or maybe they remind you of a different time in your life that you want to forget.

How many of us still find we haven't removed and put away the accent colors that we used for the summer and here we are well into fall? And then some of us get our seasonal accents, out of the closet and find they are torn and tattered, tired and no longer reflect who we now are as a person or family. We can change what we don't like, update those things that no longer work in our homes and in a particular space.

If you want to make home d'cor changes for any room of your home there are two websites that I recommend that have lots of product ideas www.bearlycreative.com for your foyer, hallway, living room, bedroom, bathroom and dining room and www.bearlymadeit.com for your kitchen and dining room. I think you will find as I did that there are many options and ideas that don't have to break the bank or be too time consuming to accomplish our decorating goals.