Blog Posts by House Beautiful Magazine

Whether you want orange in the entry or blue in the bathroom, here are some of our best tips to brighten your home.

Start Small



















1. Start Small
If you're afraid to go bold, try starting in the smallest room. It's not as much of a commitment, plus you'll spend less time and money. This tiny - but cheery - bath in a New Jersey home makes a strong statement. "Powder rooms are places where you can gild the lily. We used a loud geometric in a bright ocean blue to give it a slightly over-the-top feeling," says designer Mona Ross Berman. Wallpaper is Recessed from Studio Printworks.


Plus, see: 11 Essential Organizing Tips for Small Spaces


Hot and Cool Colors



















2. Temper Hot Colors With Cool Ones
Because orange can be too intense on its own, Berman added blue accents in the mudroom. "It's such a welcoming color. Orange feels like a younger, fresher version of red," she says. "But it can be a hot color, and I needed a little bit of cool as balance, to cut through the heat." Wall color is Benjamin Moore's Fresno.


Also: Tour a

From roses to ranunculus, just looking at these blooms is sure to bring on a moment of relaxation. Here are 10 ideas for an artful and easy-to-do arrangement for any room.

Tulips and Pear Blossom Branches


















1. Tulips and Pear Blossom Branches
An asymmetrical arrangement of tulips and pear blossoms appoint the mantle in the living room of a Park Avenue apartment. Designer Royce Pinkwater painted the walls Farrow & Ball's Cornforth White, a soft gray with a blue undertone. The 1970s mirror is by Neal Small.


Plus, see: 12 Romantic Bedrooms


Roses


















2. Roses in Bud Vases
Roses placed in bud vases adorn an antique English mahogany table in this Newport Beach, California, house. TIP: Breaking up a bouquet like this is an affordable way to make a big impact. Designers Katie and Jason Maine covered the walls in Iksel decorative wall panels. Reproduction chinoiserie chairs are from Brenda Antin.


Related: 55 Living Rooms You'll Love


Orchids


















3. Orchids
Orchids are displayed in a blue vase in the dressing room of this Beverly Hills house by

With bright palettes and fresh patterns, these cool kids' spaces are perfect for spring -- or any season.

Bright and Whimsical Bedroom













1. Bright and Whimsical Bedroom
Katie Couric and her daughter teamed up with designer Karen Reisler for a whimsical room alive with vivid colors. Personalized accents-from the girl's own artwork to framed photos of her idol, Marilyn Monroe-show off her individual style.

Related: 11 Essential Organizing Tips for Small Spaces


wallpaper














2. Playful Wallpaper
In an ocean-side abode designed by Mona Ross Berman, Katie Ridder's Beetlecat wallpaper gives the boys' room a playful but "not overly cute" feel.

See More: 20 Decorating Secrets Revealed

Girly with a Global Touch



















3. Girly with a Global Touch
A cramped girl's room in a Park Avenue apartment becomes intimate and worldly thanks to a high-bohemian theme by designer Daniel Sachs. "It was difficult, almost like doing boat design," he says of the space where he successfully fit a bed, a closet, a desk, and a chair.
The curtains and the fabric-covered desk are in Les

Elegance combined with livability was the hallmark of a Hadley interior. We take a look back at a few of the homes and advice that the late decorator, who passed away last week at age 91, had shared with us.

Albert Hadley



















1. Albert Hadley
The dean of design himself.


Read More: Beautiful Designer Bedrooms

Sitting Area














2. Sitting Area
In a New Jersey home, the centerpiece of a cozy seating area by the stairs is an antique English settee that's still dressed in the Schumacher chintz Albert Hadley selected when he decorated for the client the first time around, forty years ago. "You know what I also like about having that vintage fabric on this settee? It looks really nice against all this freshness," he said. "There are times when it works well to have something with a ratty past."


Read More: Amazing Designer Kitchens

Living Room














3. Living Room
In the living room of the same house, Hadley took a somewhat minimalist approach. "When you're working on a small-scale house or apartment, simple is always better," he said. He

Whether you have a fire escape or a couple of acres, these tools and garden decor accessories get a green thumb's up.

Flower Pot

1. Flowerpot
With a beautiful blue floral pattern, this pot is an easy way to add color to a garden - even when your flowers aren't in bloom. Made from galvanized steel. Blue Blossom Flower Pot, $8. The New York Botanical Garden.

See More: Beautiful Designer Bedrooms


Boots

2. Boots
A stylish way to stomp around in the garden. Rain boots, $20. Target.

See More: Amazing Designer Kitchens
Watering Can
3. Watering Can
A streamlined silhouette makes this a thoroughly modern - and colorful - way to water your plants. Cayman Watering Can, $11. Amazon.

See More: 101 Easy Home Makeover Ideas



Garden Fruits

4. Garden Fruits
A detailed guide to growing fruit, complete with quirky anecdotes, tips, and even recipes. 75 Remarkable Fruits For Your Garden by Jack Staub, $20. Gibbs Smith.

See More: 20 Decorating Secrets Revealed



Salad Servers

5. Salad Servers
The perfect "farm-to-table" gift for any gardener. Garden Salad

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton shares a delicious recipe for braised chicken legs.

braised chickenThe Classic Dish Coq Au Vin, in which a whole tough older bird -usually a rooster - is cooked in wine, must be the ancestor to this lesser-known dish, in which just the meaty legs of a sturdy hen are cooked in vinegar. The practice of pouring whatever wine you are drinking into the pot of whatever you are cooking is sensible and symmetrical. The food will taste good with the wine once at the table.

But since we don't habitually drink vinegar (although on certain obnoxious and unbearable New York City summer days, I have been possessed to mix it with club soda and sugar and chug it), it is hardly likely that you will have an open bottle sitting on your counter waiting to be poured into the pot! Wine vinegar in the pot ruins the taste of wine in the glass - it's too incestuous. But tart apple cider vinegar will marry quite satisfactorily with its younger sibling - hard cider - so when you bring this pot to

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton offers the simplest preparation imaginable that yields a fillet so succulent and sumptuous, there won't be one flake left over.


salmon with riceAt Easter I am typically and steadfastly a roasted leg of lamb type, usually with a Greek bent - including baked orzo and the traditional egg-lemon soup, avgolemono, served alongside the asparagus and morel mushrooms that make the meal, above all, a celebration of spring. But due to an aberrant stretch last year in which I had roasted lamb nearly every night for the better part of three months (a story for another day), when Easter rolled around, I had the shudders at the prospect of lamb on the table.

I had seen some fantastic Scottish salmon from my fish guy, firm and silvery and so fresh they had a still-piercing gaze. I ended up buying 35 pounds of the stuff, and when I cut into the flesh, a clean, melon-like smell wafted through the kitchen.

I tied in Greek flavors by making a soupy, lemony rice dish instead of the lemony

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton shares a delicious late-winter recipes for a celery salad.

It's assumed that living in New York City brings you right to the altar of the finest foods the world has to offer. And in large part it does, particularly when you own a restaurant. The farmer, the butcher, the fish and cheese mongers - not to mention the dish suds guy - all file right up to my delivery door, making it effortless to have communion with the best of everything. But as a civilian, it can be surprisingly arduous to get my weekly home grocery shopping accomplished. I used to go to my local giant temple of organics in order to buy bread that looks like bread, not a foot pillow; and coffee beans that taste of coffee bean, not burnt roast; and lettuces that were grown by people who don't think of insects as pests. I then went eight long blocks in the opposite direction to the indoor vendors' market, where there is a very good stall that sells cheese that stinks of cheese. Then, still, I