TheDesignFile

Sunday roundup: Blog parties & more

Liz at the fun Hoosier Homemade blog is launching a new site dedicated to link ups that help bloggers and readers find one another.

“It’s a Blog Party…Celebrating Blogland is all about celebrating the awesome talent out there in Blogland!” Liz writes at Hoosier Homemade. “Each day, there will be a different linky party. Baking, Cooking, Decorating or Gardening!”

Don’t worry if you’re not a homemaker or crafter. There are days for photography, great deals and even opportunities for you to share posts from your favorite blogs.

“Be sure to check it out,” Liz says. “We are still tweaking it a bit in preparation for Monday mornings launch, but you can read all about the different parties and the star-studded line-up I have scheduled for our first week or two.”

If you’ve never visited a blog party, it’s a great way to discover lots of new sites. Another great party is hosted every Friday by The Inspired Room. Check out last week’s link up here.

Other sites to visit:

• Last week I featured some great black and white rooms and this week Frugal with a Flourish has another set of beautiful rooms.

• Melanie at Southern Comfort in a Northern Life shows off her newly completed guest room project. It’s beautiful.

• Inspiring Interiors has a tour of “a once-dark, two-story Georgian house transformed into a haven of pale European furnishings bathed in sunlight,” created by interior designer Shannon Bowers from Dallas.

Design Translation: We're done - under budget!

I'm so proud of all of you for choosing so well and so wisely as we've worked on a virtual remake of a bedroom from the 2009 HGTV Dream Home. That inspiration room is shown at right.

Last week, you decided we should buy a dozen 11x14 frames for $20 each from Target. Added to all our other purchases -- including everything you see below -- we spent $2,353 on our virtual bedroom. Amazing!

In fact, if we were doing this for real, we'd be left with $397 from our $2,750 budget.

What do you think? Did we capture the spirit of our inspiration room? Is this a room you could live with?

Please leave your comments below and tell us what you think in this poll:

Sunday roundup: Kids' stuff, shrooms & a link-up

Link below to one of your favorite posts!

I love modern nurseries but sometimes they all start to look a little alike -- with many of the same cribs and decor. So I was thrilled to see a fun design created by Jaime Klein Daley at the cool Room For Young Ones blog.

Jaime calls her design (shown at right) "Hollywood Regency." I think it's sort of modern glam.

The geometric rug and the starburst mirror give the room a little retro feel too. And the lines are nice and sleek.

Plus it's got the cool Hemnes dresser from IKEA, which readers of The Design File have picked for our virtual inspiration room redo.

Nice job Jaime!

You can get the details about the design and products and see Jaime's inspiration at her post.

Here are some other great posts to check out:

• One of my favorite Chicago blogs, Strange Closets, had a fun post about the proliferation of mushrooms in home decor. "When it comes to neo-retro 70’s home decor trends, mushrooms are the new owls," writer Tate says. He found the 'shroom at right at Architectural Anarchy at Andersonville Galleria in Chicagoland.

• Think design bloggers never struggle with their own homes? Pshaw! Nesting Place has a great post about moving furniture around and around until you figure out a room. And believe me, she seems like someone who would never struggle!

• Indiana Design, a blog by the Indiana Design Center, has started a series of posts highlighting design industry products, artists and companies made or headquartered in Indiana. The inaugural post features Ecotots, an eco-friendly modern furniture and furnishings company for kids with products in stores like Land of Nod and Modern Nursery. You can see the Ecotots Art Time Easel in fire at right ($180) and follow the Indiana series at the blog.

So what inspired you this week?

Give us a link below -- either to your blog or to a post you saw elsewhere that you liked. Remember, link to the specific post -- not to the blog's front page.

I'm getting things started with a link back to my favorite recent post on The Design File. Help me out with more!

Sunday roundup: Small space dining and a link up

Join our blog LINK UP below and show us your favorite post!

I love to see how folks who have small homes fit in a place to eat -- whether it's in a tiny dining room or in the kitchen, like the table shown at right in a home featured at BHG.

Home-Designing.com had a post last week showcasing a few more examples.

Small-space tables are so important because they don't just serve as places to eat -- they're also used as desks, crafting tables and for wrapping gifts!

That's why in my house, we typically have to clean all the stuff off the table to eat!

Other posts to check out:

• Cottage and Vine had a fun post about embellishing roller shades for next to nothing. This would be a great project for a kids' room or a kitchen.
• Urban Grace Interiors shows off a house from the New York Social Diary that has what the blog calls a "dark and mysterious dining room."
• Want to check out Rush Limbaugh's style? The conservative talk show host has his New York penthouse for sale for just less than $14 million. Check out out at this post at Curbly.
• Design in a Bag is giving away five of its "recipes" for kitchens and baths on its blog. I featured Design in a Bag last week and previously one of its owner, Rebekah Zaveloff, who wrote a guest post for me about kitchen design. Make sure you visit the blog and sign up to win! You could receive a bag of goodies, as shown in the photo at right, to help you makeover your own kitchen or bath.

Now it's time for a BLOG LINK UP!

Just enter one of your favorite links from the past week or two. Make sure your link goes to the specific post, not your main blog address.

Then, make sure to check out the other links and leave comments to let folks know you've visited!

I can't wait to see what you've got...

Sunday roundup: In honor of the Colts, all blue. ++Plus++ a linkup. Give us your best stuff!

Yes, yes. It's another post in honor of the Indianapolis Colts, who play the New Orleans Saints in today's Super Bowl.

I couldn't resist using this week's roundup to recommend posts about the color blue. However, in the LINK UP party below, you are not so restricted! Give us your favorite post of the past few weeks...

Back to my recommendations:

I start at the fabulous Odi et Amo blog, which had a post recently about blue kitchens. The kitchen I've included at right is from Snaidero-USA and isn't one featured on the Odi et Amo site -- but only because I never had time this week to secure permission to use one.

Writer Averill has some beautiful rooms -- some in Colts blue and others using different shades, ranging from a chambray to royal.

"The great thing about a blue kitchen is that, while it's a bit of a departure from the oft-used white, it's still fairly traditional," Averill writes. "Nobody is going to think you've gone completely off your rocker and there's a good chance that you'll still love it in a few years' time."

Other great posts:

• The always inspirational Design Dazzle has a great boys room with a Toy Story theme decorated with blue and orange. It's from HGTV Dream Home. See one of the photos at right.
• Julia over at Hooked on Houses shares her newest addition -- a turquoise Bombay chest from Arhaus that just pops in her pretty dining room.
• Of course, no roundup of blue rooms would be complete without a link to the House of Turquoise, a blog all about turquoise and various related shades including sky blue, ocean blue, robin's egg blue... you get the picture. You can really pick any of writer Erin's posts but I particularly liked the "Incredible Dream Home," which is truly, well, incredible.

I need to end with a big "GO COLTS!" cheer.

Oh, and of course, our MckLinky blog LINK UP!

I don't have a bunch of rules. Just click below to provide a link to a favorite recent post on your blog.

Remember, include a direct link to the post itself, not your blog's home page.  And spread the word. This is just my second blog link up and I'd love for it to become a party!

Sunday roundup: A green makeover, mid-century mod and The Design File's first blog link up!

Link to your favorite post of the week below...

Inhabitat is a blog about sustainable design that is always chock full of fascinating new products, ideas and home tours. Inhabitat was also the sponsor of a recent green home makeover contest with ComcastTown.com, a virtual community where you can create your own spaces.

Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher chose the winner and a team recently completed the renovation, which included a cool cork console from Iannone Design and the fantastic dual purpose Fusion Table by Aramith, which I featured earlier this year here.

Check out the renovation in this Inhabitat video:

Other great links to check out:

• The Brick House, a blog about the renovation of a mid-century home on a budget, has recently had a series of posts about exteriors and landscaping that were really interesting. My favorite is a post titled Landscape Inspiration. It includes some amazing exterior photos.

• And speaking of mid-century design, fellow Indianapolis blogger Diane Brooks had an interesting post at her Realty Insights blog tracing the history of the design style and some thoughts about why it's become so popular again. "Mid Century Modern is a return to the solid things in life, where space is not wasted--but celebrated," Diane writes.

Finally, it's time for The Design File's first link up, which I hope will become a regular part of the Sunday blog roundup.

Please link to a post you've done in the past week. Remember, link to the specific post, not to your main blog address.

And give your link a title -- something that gives readers an idea what they'll see after they click on your link!