Tag Archives: bedroom

Bed Nuts & Bolts: The Ever-Practical Daybed

Post by Tracy Kaler.

A daybed is more than a place to sleep. Sure, it’s a “real” bed, and albeit smaller in size, it can be as comfy its sprawling king-size companion. Moreover, a daybed offers options that in this day and age, we can all appreciate.

A daybed is a viable alternative to a sleeper sofa in a guest room or multipurpose room. Usually more comfortable than a pullout couch, a daybed allows more room for your favorite furniture, or play space for the kids.
Place a coffee table or a few compact cocktail tables in front, and you’ll create a lounge-like feeling without much effort.

Add an ottoman; take a load off and prop up your feet during TV-watching time.

Also a fantastic solution for the occasional bedroom (think your college student who returns on weekends and holidays), a daybed makes the room feel like something other than a bedroom when the space needs to function differently. Throw a few pillows and you have a den. Remove the pillows, and your almost grown-up offspring will nestle into his or her room in no time.

Charles P. Rogers takes daybeds seriously, like they do all of their beds. Take the Suitcase Leather Daybed http://www.charlesprogers.com/suitcase-daybed-p-486.html, for instance. Not only is this a versatile design –– depending on how you dress it, you can use it as a twin bed in a child’s room (add primary colors like red and yellow for a youthful feel), or as an extra-deep sofa in a masculine library (go with earth tones for sophistication).

Besides its handsome appearance and practical nature, this style boasts a pop-up trundle for an extra overnight guest.

Recently, interior designer Robin Baron featured the Suitcase Leather Daybed on a WFSB segment. You can see the daybed in action here:

http://www.wfsb.com/story/26189449/day-bed-transformation-with-robin-baron

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Bedroom Design: 5 Ways to Make your Bedroom Feel Luxurious

Post by Tracy Kaler.

Want luxury in your bedroom? Creating extravagance in your sleep space isn’t as hard as you might think. Try these five things and you’ll feel like a star in your boudoir in no time.

Make your bed a focal point
No matter how plain or ornate, the bed itself can be the focal point in a space and add to the luxury. Place the bed on the most inviting wall for the layout of your room (walking into the foot of the bed is best). Always make your bed and fluff the pillows, no matter what time you rise.

Use down
Unless you’re allergic, down is the ultimate luxurious item in any bedroom. Start with a feather bed (on top of your mattress and under your sheets) for the ultimate comfort. And no bed is complete with down pillows, so you get that cushy feeling every time you turn in.

Buy high thread count sheets
Purchase the highest thread count you can afford. Always go for 100 percent cotton and never synthetics. Your will thank yourself when you hit the hay and when you awake.

Arrange fresh flowers
Fresh flowers or greenery is a nice added touch and inexpensive. A small bedside arrangement of roses or wildflowers adds color and will make you feel like a king or queen.

Add fragrance or fresh air
If your home is in the country, fresh air is a must and will awaken your senses every morning, If you’re a city dweller and need to keep windows closed to block noise, add soothing lavender for scent. Use a diffuser, place lavender sachets in your pillowcases, or spray lavender on your bedclothes and bedding. Lavender treats insomnia and will relax you, even after the most stressful day.

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Breakfast in Bed – Mom’s Deviled Eggs

Post by: Alison Hein.

You can’t eat deviled eggs for breakfast? Wow. Someone should have told me that a long time ago. Mom taught me to make these when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper (that’s a saying, right?), and they’re still one of my absolute summertime favorites.

We’ve made deviled eggs before on this blog. Not Mom’s cozy comfort food, but the more sophisticated Ebbitt Room Deviled Eggs (http://www.charlesprogers.com/blogs/archives/6243). Mom knew what she was about long before “five ingredient” dishes came around, and kept it really easy adding only mustard (she preferred Gulden’s), mayo and paprika. “Deviling” in the kitchen refers to the addition of a hot or spicy ingredient, in this case, mustard. The term first appeared in print in 1786, the association made between condiments like mustard or cayenne pepper and the fires of Hades.

While Mom’s eggs called for only a couple of simple staples (and really aren’t all that fiery), I learned on Wikipedia that people around the world commonly use the following ingredients in their deviled eggs: tartar sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pickles, relish, vinegar, olives, pimentos, onion, caviar, cream, capers and sour cream. They may use spices like chipotle, turmeric, poppy seed, thyme, and cilantro, and toppings including caviar, anchovies, bacon, shrimp and herring!

French people use pepper and parsley; Germans prefer anchovies, cheese and capers; and Hungarians add milk-soaked bread, parsley and sour cream, then bake them and serve them with a side of French fries! (Look for these exciting recipes here in the future!)

So, it’s summertime. People around the globe are making crazy eggs. And I’m grabbing a cup of coffee, one of Mom’s chilled eggs, and partaking in the devil of a breakfast in bed.

Ingredients

8 eggs
½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons paprika

Preparation

Place eggs in a small heavy saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil on high heat and continue to cook eggs for 10 minutes, until hard-boiled. Cool and peel.

Carefully slice eggs in half lengthwise. Remove cooked yolks and add to small bowl, setting whites aside. Mash the yolks finely with the back of a fork (or use a fine-mesh sieve for a very smooth filling). Stir in mayonnaise and mustard until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon or pipe filling into reserved whites, mounding yolk mixture in each half-egg. Sprinkle generously with paprika. Place in refrigerator and chill until ready to serve.

Makes 16 deviled eggs.

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Bedroom Design: 4 Ideas for a Multipurpose Guest Room

Post by Tracy Kaler.

A multipurpose room might seem like a design decision from days of yore, but more and more people –– particularly in urban areas –– are living in less square footage. That comes as no surprise since doubling up on functionality is practical for both space and budget.

A space that can be easily re-adapted is the guest room, particularly one that is used only several times per year (such as when your old college roommate comes to visit).

Here are four ways to make alternate use of your guest room after your guests have checked out.

1. The Guest Room/Nursery
If needed, use your guest room as a nursery and when Aunt Brenda comes for a visit, move the baby into your room for the weekend. This inviting dual-purpose space is lovely enough for a newborn, or your most discriminating in-law.

2. The Guest Room/Office
One of the most practical solutions for a multipurpose room is a guest room and office in one. This modern take on a traditional layout –– with a temporary wall separating the spaces –– works beautifully and enables one person to catch some sleep while another is hard at work. The room also functions well as a home office. This design is perfect for a city apartment guest room.

3. The Craft Room/Guest Room
Clever built-ins and a sewing machine turn an extra sleep space into a project area. The uncluttered approach leaves guests plenty of room to sprawl. Pleasant and practical for work, play, or rest, this versatile guest room receives a good amount of natural light through the double window and skylight.

4. The Guest Room/Children’s Room
These clever built-in bunk beds are ideal for kids or teens. This cabin could very well be a second home, in which case you could move the children into your room (perhaps on folding cots) when you have overnight company. This space is also convenient for a family of four if you have a couple with children come for a stay.

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Bedtime Stories: President Taft is Stuck in the Bath

Post by Mark T. Locker.

President Taft is Stuck in the Bath by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

Boy, has Mac Barnett been on a roll lately! In fact, this is the second book of his I have reviewed in as many weeks. Based on a popular and neither confirmed nor unconfirmed legend, this book, as you may have guessed, is about President William Howard Taft who famously, or perhaps didn’t, got stuck in his bathtub.

Most of the story is about his attempts to extricate him from this awkward situation. Call in the Secretary of War! What will he advise? (Dynamite!) How about the Secretary of the Interior? (The answer is inside yourself.) It’s a fairly simple and straightforward story. I can hardly blame Mac Barnett for wanting to write about it. It’s an interesting story and sadly for Taft, about the only thing anyone remembers about him. That’s the other thing I like about President Taft is Stuck in the Bath: they address that by first introducing Taft with some of the important contributions he made as president and later by his advisers assuring him: don’t worry. No one will remember this incident in 100 years. Which is of course precisely what most people remember about him now. Poor Taft. Did you know he was the only president to also serve as Supreme Court Chief Justice? Well now you do.

If you are sensitive to illustrations of naked people with strategically placed bubbles this book may not be for you. But as for my kid, he got a kick out of it.

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