Decorating with kids in mind

I have a 15 month old daughter, and she likes nothing better than to pull out every basket in my home (and there are a lot of them) and dump out the contents.  So when I saw all my hard decorating work having to be put away so that no harm came to it - I realized there had to be a better way!!!!  I did my best to outsmart her.  I filled the baskets with her toys, not other country trinkets.  Her stuffed animals rather than candles.  it took a lot of the "fun" out of it for her when she opened something and found her stuff, so she started to leave it alone after a while.  I replaced metal candle holders with wooden ones, so she couldn't hurt herself (or the dog) with them.  In a way - I got a chance to redecorate in a kid friendly way!  I may not have cute runners on my coffee table anymore, but at least all that stuff is safely away where it can't be harmed or harm her.  And when she is older, and out of her "destruction phase" all the old will become new again!

Figuring out what you like

I know this sounds like an easy thing... but when it comes to decorating, its actually not. My advice to you, as its been in past blogs, is to look around. Look at lots of website, get magazines, so you can see stuff put together in a room. Here are some of my favorite magazines and catalog's to browse.

The Country Door - has a great website to browse, but the catalog is even nicer. Its good to see things paired together - could give you a new idea of how to put something together.

The Country House - also a great website, but again... get the catalog. You'll get lots of ideas, and things are pretty reasonably priced.

Terry's Village - I know I've mentioned it before but along with finding reasonably priced merchandise in there, you can also find lots of good basics that will serve as fillers for your decorating.

The most important thing is to take your time. There's no rush to get it all done NOW! In my experience the more time you take, the better chance you have of finding exactly what you want, rather than settling for something that's just OK.

Good deals are out there....

So like I mentioned before, you've looked in the stores, or even online and everything seems so expensive, how can you do this when you're on a budget. Well the good news is that there are budget ways to decorate your home with a country feel. There are PLENTY of online catalog's that, if you look through carefully, you can find lots of good basic things that will get you started.

For instance, at ABC Distributing you can get some good stuff at really good prices. Even if you don't buy from the, I would recommend looking at their website or catalog's carefully so that you know what they sell. I've fallen victim a few times to buying something from a vendor and then then end up seeing it in the ABC catalog for 1/2 (or sometimes even 3/4) of the price.

Other great sites to look at are:

• The Lakeside Collections : they have lots of great stuff that's similar to ABC, but sometimes you can find different things in there, and at really good prices too.


• Terry's Village : has lots of great ideas. Browse Terry's Village very carefully so that you don't get taken for a ride by a vendor at a craft fair. I've seen LOTS of stuff from their catalog show up on someones table.


• Christmas Tree Shops : you can't purchase anything off of their site, but you can find out where they are and go browse. You can find some good basic stuff there!

The thing to remember before making any purchase is think before you buy. Save yourself a lot of time and money and only invest in things that will work in your home. Don't buy pieces of furniture that are just so cute if you have nowhere to put them. The trick is to start small. Get a few things here, a few things there, and eventually you'll learn what you really like and things will start to come of them.