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Interior design, like fashion, tends to come full circle eventually. What was old is new, what was retro is reclaimed as modern. Take a look at some of these images from the 60s- and 70- era drama Mad Men for some old school inspiration for your modern home. And if you really have some time to kill, check out an episode or two for some stylish entertainment!

The original Mad Men office is a stunning example of updated retro – minimalism, clean lines and lots of light. We love its sleek look – how about you?

Wood paneling is difficult to pull off, but take a look at the paneling alongside those blocky retro chairs. It doesn’t get any better!

The Draper residence is opulent and, in our opinion, has just a bit more “Betty” and a bit less “Don”. The feminine peach accent pillows, floral chair and peach-toned wood is calming and sophisticated.

Helen Bishop’s mustard yellow couch, ornate lamp and tree branch wall decor comes together in a welcome throwback that would look great in any modern home.

We don’t want to ruin the plot for anyone who isn’t caught up in the clandestine Madison Avenue drama on Mad Men, but we think it’s safe to say that the makeshift office that Draper and the others move into temporarily in the third season is full of patterns, rich colors, and lots of inspiration.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

It can be tough to strike a balance when it comes to your children’s rooms. On one hand, you want them to be happy – on the other, you’ve got to remember that they’ll outgrow their obsession with nailing posters into the wall but your walls might not so easily recover.

When redecorating your children’s rooms, you can maintain the overall modern look of your home while giving them the colors, vibrancy and fun they’re looking for.

Things to keep in mind:

• Safety. Whether your child is five or fifteen, you can’t have too many potentially breakable items in their room, or you might end up with more of a mess than a redecoration on your hands
• Storage. Kids have toys, books, CDs and loads of other things they tend to hoard in their room. While their closet is a good space for this, you might want to think about extra storage under the bed or by installing hooks in the wall.
• Comfort. Although your children might want black walls or a small but stylish desk, you’ve got to remember that they’ll be using the room to play with friends, study and sleep.
• Style. The big one for all of us interior aficionados. Any color scheme can be incorporated into your children’s rooms, but be sure that it is something they won’t grow out of within a year or two. And you can minimize costs while maintaining style if you renovate only the linens, bedspread, curtains and the like – keep the basics (the bed, the desk) as they are, and just dress them up!

If you can balance your desire for a modern home with some (but not all!) of the requests your children make of you, you’ll have a versatile, pleasing child’s bedroom that they will hopefully love for years to come – saving you on having to do another redecoration a year down the road!

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Your bedroom is your safe place, your private abode – and it’s all about the details when it comes to decorating this sacred space. Although guests won’t be visiting your bedroom often, you can dress it up to be a modern testament to style by paying attention to the accents.

How about trying out a few throw pillows to add a splash of color? Decorative pillows can dress up a bedroom bench, your bed itself, and they can even look stunning placed nonchalantly in the corner.

You can also introduce color into your bedroom in a more subtle way. Sateen sheets come in a variety of muted colors, like eggshell blue and goldenrod yellow. When your bed is made up with the corner pulled down, this delicate touch of color will warm up its surroundings.

Wall decals are another option for a bedroom accent. Available in white, black and a variety of colors, these can add a tasteful but flirty and fun element to your room.

Patterned curtains can also brighten up a bedroom. You can get dragonflies buzzing around a sheer backdrop, or flowers weaving in and out of your window. If you do decide to get patterned curtains, try matching the main colors with your bedspread or accent pillows.

And finally, a flower vase can go a long way in dressing up a bedroom. You can incorporate a bright blue vase with pink flowers for a lovely splash of fresh scent and color.

What do you use to brighten up your bedroom?

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Electrical outlets are necessary to power all of our modern appliances, but they often power-down when it comes to style. The plain white, flat electrical outlet is fine for some, but for the modern home designer who is fanatic about details, it’s just not up to snuff. Here are three ways you can upgrade your electrical outlets to spark some more style.

If you have a whimsical air to your modern home, you can surround your electrical outlets with fun and fresh decals. Frame them with flowers or surround them with swirls. Decals are cute and will make your electrical outlet look as if it was part of the design plan all along.

Image courtesy of Ziemowit Maj

Covering an electrical outlet with a modern plate is a tasteful and cost-effective way to make them appear as part of the design – or disappear altogether. You can purchase outlet plates that will blend in with your paint or wallpaper, or get zany or sophisticated patterns to make them pop.

Image courtesy of Kyle Designs

Covering electrical outlets altogether is also an option. You might have to do a little hunting to find the right approach, but many designers today have responded to the need to upgrade electrical outlets. They have produced covers like the one pictured above, that make an outlet stand out not for its blandness but rather for its modern style.

Image courtesy of Design Spotter, designer: Johann Aumaitre

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Today’s Friday Fun post is meant to inspire you to do something with those boring rectangular windows you’ve got. It is so important to have sunlight flooding into your home, but that’s just half of the equation: the other half is the portal through which it floods. So enjoy these three stunning windows that you can use for inspiration, and get renovating!

Arches have been part of modern architecture since the days of Julius Caesar, but that doesn’t make them ancient. There is something timeless about their sweeping curve and their tall form. Arched windows are a stately and bold item, and they will make your home feel like a castle. You can flank a large arched window with two smaller arches on either side, or convert all of your windows to the arched look for royal effect.

Image courtesy of 601 Dolores Street

Stained glass isn’t just for church windows anymore. It can be a modern approach to window treatment as well. Not only does it look stunning as-is, but when the light comes through, it casts a rainbow of colors onto the interior. To avoid a dated look, go for geometric patterns as opposed to floral.

Image courtesy of Just Glass Online

You can completely ditch your rectangular windows in favor of circles if you want to. Circle windows have not fully caught on yet, but just take a look at the image above: the inlaid circle increases the design of the whole room, giving the impression of an upgraded porthole. Circles should be used with caution, but they can definitely create a unique look.

Image courtesy of designShrine

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Looking for a way to add some oomph to your home? Try strategically placing mirrors where art would go, and watch your room appear to grow. Mirrors are stylish, functional, and have the extra benefit of making a space look larger.

There are plenty of options when it comes to modern mirrors. You can go for the traditional rectangular mirror with or without a frame, and hang it slightly higher than the center of a wall. However, many designers have created mirrors that break out of the status quo and shine as works of art.

Textured mirrors are something you could consider. You can find leather frames that feature snakeskin texture, or go straight for the eye-catching textured glass itself. Mirrors don’t have to provide a true-to-life reflection to be useful, and mirrors that are textured like the oddly shaped mirror pictured above will be more stunning than their flat counterparts.

Playing with shapes is also an option with incorporating a mirror into your home. They come in the traditional rectangle, of course, but you can also find circular, square, triangular and irregular shaped mirrors that will add a little spice.

Consider the placement of your mirror – is it centered? Does it compliment its surroundings? You can place a mirror on a blank wall to give it some character, or hang one above a couch for good measure.

Mirrors offer endless customization and intrigue, so start reflecting on which type is best for your home today.

Image courtesy of Toxel, designer: Hemlock Design

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Today’s Friday Fun post is in anticipation of the holiday around the corner – Halloween. Pumpkin carving is the must-do decorating trend of the season, but you don’t always have to go for the traditional jack-o-lantern to spruce up that orange orb. Here are five modern pumpkin decorating ideas that will make the trick-or-treaters (or at least their parents) jealous.

Pumpkins gilded gold. Is there anything more sophisticated? This look reminds us of Cinderella, because it has that certain magic about it. You will find instructions on how to get the look from the Country Living website.

Image courtesy Country Living

If you’re looking for a simple but effective way to spruce up your pumpkins this year, try decorating them with ribbon. Black, white and orange ribbon can be attached to the circumference of a pumpkin with a little double-sided tape, and voila! You’ve got a stunning centerpiece.

Image courtesy of Good Housekeeping

For the more crafty out there, you can give your pumpkins a silvery sparkle with a little wire, some pliers and a screwdriver. Simply bend the wire, leaving a half-inch point sticking out. Then poke a hole in the pumpkin skin with the screwdriver, and insert the wire. Beautiful!

Image courtesy of Bella Knitting

Pumpkin candle holders are an ingenious way to maintain that glowing jack-o-lantern feel without the spooky grin. When placing these hollowed-out pumpkins around your home, just be sure they are in a well-ventilated area to avoid a fire hazard.

Image courtesy of Midwest Living

Painted pumpkins pack quite a style punch! You can add tribal bands of black symbols around its exterior, or paint the whole pumpkin white for a ghostly effect.

Image courtesy of Alabama Living

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

The good old shower fixture has appeared in a myriad of incarnations on our website, however nothing beats the modish charm of the Corian Shower heads by Italian brand Moma Design. Meshing technology and great design together is always foolproof and this is reflected in all the units in the series. The highlights are no doubt the Docciacqua Corian shower head and the Square 1200 shower head. While the former pleases the eye with its sculpturistic bold cube shape, the latter evokes a sense of wonderment with its soothing and therapeutic lighting system.

Post from Corian Shower heads By Moma Design

Shelves offer unlimited customization. They are really a blank canvass for modern interiors, as their surfaces can be covered with any number of items. Of course, you incorporate a shelf for its functionality: to hold books, Blu-Rays and baskets of knickknacks. But there is the other side of the shelf too – its stylish side. Here are some items that you can use to dress up your modern shelf.

Why not try adding a simple vase with flowers? If you can’t get a fresh bunch every week, go for the dried variety – in the fall, you can choose orange flowers accented by earthy sticks and cattail, while your spring arrangement can feature bright pinks and greens.

If you’re looking to fill up a smaller shelf that couldn’t hold a usually tall vase, you can visit your local craft store and pick up some decorative balls. Dusted in silver or gold leaf, these various-sized balls can be used for functionality as bookends, or just for style placed strategically on a few shelves.

Decorative plates are another way to go, if you have some you’d like to show off. You don’t have to have a china cabinet to display your china. Simply purchase a plate stand and position the plate facing outwards on a central shelf to minimize the possibility of it getting knocked down.

And finally, candles are always a tasteful, beautiful way to add style to a shelf. You can add tall votive candles along the top of the shelf. Just be sure that there is plenty of ventilation and space above the candle so that there is no risk of fire, and you’ve got yourself a stunning, simple accent piece for your modern shelf.

How do you dress up your shelves?

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Shelves offer unlimited customization. They are really a blank canvass for modern interiors, as their surfaces can be covered with any number of items. Of course, you incorporate a shelf for its functionality: to hold books, Blu-Rays and baskets of knickknacks. But there is the other side of the shelf too – its stylish side. Here are some items that you can use to dress up your modern shelf.

Why not try adding a simple vase with flowers? If you can’t get a fresh bunch every week, go for the dried variety – in the fall, you can choose orange flowers accented by earthy sticks and cattail, while your spring arrangement can feature bright pinks and greens.

If you’re looking to fill up a smaller shelf that couldn’t hold a usually tall vase, you can visit your local craft store and pick up some decorative balls. Dusted in silver or gold leaf, these various-sized balls can be used for functionality as bookends, or just for style placed strategically on a few shelves.

Decorative plates are another way to go, if you have some you’d like to show off. You don’t have to have a china cabinet to display your china. Simply purchase a plate stand and position the plate facing outwards on a central shelf to minimize the possibility of it getting knocked down.

And finally, candles are always a tasteful, beautiful way to add style to a shelf. You can add tall votive candles along the top of the shelf. Just be sure that there is plenty of ventilation and space above the candle so that there is no risk of fire, and you’ve got yourself a stunning, simple accent piece for your modern shelf.

How do you dress up your shelves?

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.