Blog Posts by Carolina Buia, Shine staff

You've come a long way baby! A nursery nowadays is artistic, eco-friendly, and personality driven. For starters, furniture designers are thinking outside the rectangle. In the hands of these innovators, the mainstay wooden crib is transformed into a statement piece. Cribs are the focal point of a nursery, now thanks to designers like David Harris of The new traditionalists, cribs can be customized with modern color panels and wood treatments (think distressed wood, silver-painted). This episode features beautiful examples of these contemporary styles. We also show off some of our other favorite cribs, like the award winning Stokke's round crib. This flexible crib is great for tight spaces and it grows as your child grows.



Dress a crib up in today's textiles that recast old school patterns, such as hounds tooth and damask, in a whimsical light and you have your room's centerpiece. Baby bedding has come a long way. Forget the frilly and formal and embrace today's designs that marry

What's real life like for a glamorous Hollywood actress like Halle Berry? Well, actually, more low-key than many of us might think: "I just love to be home," Berry says in the new issue of In Touch Weekly. The 43-year-old Oscar winner is a self-described "interior design nut" who meticulously chooses the decor of her many homes (in addition to her Hollywood abode, pictured above, she reportedly owns properties in Los Angeles, New York and Canada). Her Hollywood house is a sprawling, two-bedroom, two-bath Mediterranean-style mansion that sits on more than an acre of prime LA real estate Berry purchased in 2001. It's located on a quiet street and surrounded by lush landscaping and massive pepper trees that add privacy and an alluring, hidden feeling to the grounds. The actress filled the home's interior with upscale amenities, like a kitted-out gourmet kitchen and a master bedroom suite with two walk-in closets and a stone fireplace.

The estate (which was built in 1948) is home to

Get ready for the newest edition to the reality show realm. 9 by design follows the Novogratz family as they buy, demolish, transform and sell homes. Bravo follows Cortney and Bob and their bountiful brood of seven! As you can imagine, never a dull moment. Their unique design style meshes form and function with a funky twist. I caught up with the family in their latest home masterpiece and I promise you it's a must see.



Mom and Dad love to mix high and low when they decorate, and taking their entire family on a flea market hunt is their idea of a family outing. The kids love it and the cool items they find add a lived-in look to contemporary style. The 8000-square-foot townhouse in New York started out as a vacant storefront and as you'll see, today it's a happy haven for all nine of them.

The family has moved more than 11 times, so mom and dad have some packing and design tips to share:

#1 Don't pack too early, because you'll just prolong the chaos.

#2 Get an extra empty

It's finally here, but along with that fragrant word 'spring' comes the often dreaded chore of spring cleaning and organizing your closet. With the help of the ever-organized "unclutter" queen and author of 8 books on organization, Donna Smallin, we are offering our top 7 tips that will make your life easier and your closet a dream to navigate!



Tip #1 Use vertical space
There is so much wasted space in our closets, so take advantage it. Put that shelf above the closet rod to good use with the help of sturdy covered storage bins. They're stackable and they don't tumble like a pile of sweaters.

Tip #2 Removable adhesive hooks
They turn bare walls and the back of closet doors into useful hanging space! Can you say "oh, there's that handbag". These easily removable hooks are a great find.

Tip #3 Re-purpose shower curtain hooks
Link shower curtain hooks for a handy hanging, space saving, scarf and belt display. Thread your scarves through the hooks and hang them right on the rod.

Tip #4

When it comes to the latest home decor trends, nature is taking top billing this season. From bold leaf designs and exotic animal prints to bamboo and other natural materials, it's all about bringing nature inside. We recently caught up with Kelly Killoren Bensimon for a tour of her nature inspired Hamptons retreat where she showed us how she's bringing the outdoors in. Kelly also explained how she's mixing old and new, high and low, and keeping her family in mind when it comes to everything in her home.



Kelly is an author, model, jewelry designer and former editor of Elle Accessories. She currently appears on Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City.


Below, check out more episodes of Make Home a Haven.

Inside the Candy Spelling manor	Join us on a home decor house call!

5 things Nate Berkus can't live without	A bird's eye view of famous Country Singer

It's a one-of-a-kind mega-mansion, in fact it's the largest home in Los Angeles and on the market for $150 million. Today, Make Home a Haven takes you inside the 50,000-square-foot, French-inspired manor for a rare glimpse. Home to Candy Spelling, wife of the late TV mogul Aaron Spelling and mother to Tori. Candy calls it 'The Manor', we just call it spectacular! Also for the first time, Candy begins her role as a Shine blogger. Get to know the woman behind the mogul and read in her own words what she has to say about her special haven.

My haven: Always a work in progress
by Candy Spelling

People have different expectations when they visit my home. What would you think if you were going to see the "largest home in Los Angeles," and if you sometimes had to navigate around busloads of people on a "tour of stars' homes" in order to get into the driveway? In my chronic state of insecurity, I wonder how my house could possibly live up to the expectations people have.

It

Today Make Home a Haven welcomes guest blogger Candy Spelling. Candy is the wife of the late TV titan Aaron Spelling and mother to Tori. Get to know the woman behind the mogul and what she has to say about her special Haven. Now here's Candy in her own words...

People have different expectations when they visit my home. What would you think if you were going to see the "largest home in Los Angeles," and if you sometimes had to navigate around busloads of people on a "tour of stars' homes" in order to get into the driveway? In my chronic state of insecurity, I wonder how my house could possibly live up to the expectations people have.

It wasn't that long ago that I realized that other people's expectations counted a whole lot less than how comfortable I was in my own home (does that make me a slow learner or proving that wisdom comes with age?). When Yahoo told me about its expanded focus to make home a haven, I realized that's what I had been trying to do. They just put it into

Our favorite country stars have loads of laid-back charm, so it's easy to forget that they aren't exactly just like us. We got an inside peek at some of the most famous country stars' homes--from Billy Ray Cyrus to Sheryl Crow--and what you see here might surprise you:



First up, there's musician Clint Black and wife Lisa Hartman, who hang their hats in this posh Nashville estate. They're not the only ones living well in the city: Country and Christian singers Vince Gill and Amy Grant have a mansion nearby.

By comparison, Wynonna Judd and her brood have much more "down home" digs, in a modest ranch-though neighbor, mom, and fellow famous person Naomi kicks things back up a notch with her massive 250 acre farm.

As the country music capital, Nashville is also home to a slew of other stars, and we've got the scoop on Martina McBride, Emmy Lou Harris, and Toby Keith's homes as well. And of course there's Dolly Parton, who brings some Hollywood glitz to the South with the addition of