2013 Home Decor: Spruce up that Front Door

While we often make many resolutions when the New Year comes around that we hope will positively affect our personal lives and relationships, we may not always think of home decor resolutions. At Bel Furniture, we're always coming up with new ways to make the spaces in our homes reflect our unique personalities, while fulfilling the practical needs of day-to-day living at the same time.

An often overlooked part of our homes is the front door. We're determined to give this space (including the entire porch if it applies to you) a face lift that will make knocking on the door or ringing the door bell an adventure for families, friends, and visitors, letting them know who you are and what you're about right away. Below, we've compiled a few do-it-yourself ideas that can be easily implemented. You can even involved the whole family!

1. Old School Chalk Board

Hang a mini chalk board from your front door and you may just come home to surprising messages left by friends and family. "Mom, we need more cookies!" Or, "Stopped by to drop off tomato seeds. Call me! - Anne." This can easily be made out of a small piece of slate, available at many home improvement stores like Lowes or Home Depot, a sturdy piece of twine, and chalk. To cut the hole in the piece of slate, you may need to bake a drill-owning friend some cookies.

2. Don't Eat our Front Porch Garden

Ideal for homes that get a lot of porch sunlight, this second DIY tip is green-friendly and totally edible. Customize your front porch for 2013 by planting herbs and other greens that you can literally transfer from porch to table. It's been proven that having plants around is calming! In case you forget which plant is which, you can easily make labels out of old wine corks. Shop for your front porch plants at local farmer's markets, home improvement stores, and local garden shops.

3. A Door Mat you can be Proud of

Adding a door mat to your porch or in front of your apartment door is an added touch that certainly won't go unnoticed by guests - especially when it rains. While it has been admittedly much dryer in Houston the past couple years, it does still rain. With that rain comes great cleaning responsibility and mud. Give your guests something fun to wipe their feet on by customizing a wooden door mat. The kids can definitely help with this project by giving each segment of the mat a paint job.

4. Wonderful Wreaths

At Bel Furniture, we love a huge welcome, and what better way to welcome your guests than a beautiful wreath hanging on your front door? The option we found above even includes the address number of the house, fresh flowers, and a decorative bow. To start off, we recommend buying a plain wreath made of sticks and then customizing it yourself. If you decide to go with the fresh flowers look, you'll have to be sure to replace them when they wilt. Fake flower arrangements, however, are a good option, too.

Check back here for more DIY tips for the home. We'd love for you to give us ideas for more 2013 home inspiration below or by commenting on our Facebook page.

Surprising Santa Desserts

We see more decorations during Christmas than any other holiday in the year, but every year, there are so many new, cute ideas that it's hard to catch up!  Luckily, we also have some holiday downtime to do just that.  Here are some adorable dessert ideas we've pinned to our Pinterest boards.  Share them with your kids.  They're easy!

Take some Strawberry Santa Caps to the school holiday party and everyone will turn pink-cheeked and jolly.  Our try some surprising strawberry Christmas Tree treats and have everyone saying "O, Tenenbaum!

KRBE 104.1 Radio and Bel's Last Chance Winner

We are so excited to share the success of our partnership with KRBE Radio's "Christmas Wish" as a part of the Roula & Ryan Show tradition. These charismatic radio personalities have been  sponsoring the charity event for nearly 20 years, asking folks from the Houston Metropolitan area to send KRBE 104.1 a letter (snail mail or online) nominating a deserving individual or family that really needs financial help during the holiday season. While we did partner with KRBE last year, we've beefed up our role this year to include hosting an Awards Breakfast at our Sugarland location in honor of the recipients and their families. Each winner will receive a check for $1,004, courtesy of KRBE and the Bel family.

We encourage all of our friends, family, customers, and KRBE loyal listeners to tune in to 104.1 the morning of the Awards Breakfast, December 19th, because "Special K" from the Roula & Ryan Show will be broadcasting live and accepting call-ins starting around 8 AM. The feasting will be underway by 9 AM and Bel President, Sid Mollai, will be presenting each "Christmas Wish" recipient with a Memory Foam Pillow. We want everything about the holidays to be comfortable and joyful for all the deserving families. After this lovely Awards Breakfast, there will still be time to submit letters nominating a Last Chance Winner, to be chosen by Bel Furniture.

“Partnering with The Roula & Ryan Show of KRBE has been a pleasure for all of us at Bel.  The letters are wonderful reminders to us that people really do care about their community, and we can’t wait to read the ones that come in as we get closer and closer to our Awards Breakfast,” says our Bel Furniture President, Sid Mollai.

The last day to send Bel a letter using their online form OR submit a letter to the drop-box at any Bel store location is December 20th at 10 PM.

We can't wait to meet all the individuals and families who have been chosen and are looking forward to learning more about them. If you have a friend or family member (who does not live in your household) that you think deserves a little help this year from Bel and Roula & Ryan, we encourage you to send us a letter. To see the official rules of the "Christmas Wish," click the hyperlink. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page and choose, "Official Contest Rules." We look forward to sharing the success of the Awards Breakfast soon. Have a wonderful weekend!

Photographic Memories

Photos are already decorative, but you can display them in cute, unexpected ways all over your home!

I mean, you probably have tons of photos of family moments stored away in your computer.  Why not make those photos into coasters, or light them up for a festive living room display?  Here are instructions for making your own easy DIY photo displays:

Photo Coasters

You can get everything you need at a craft store:

Ceramic Tiles

Mod Podge

Clear Acrylic High Gloss Coating Spray
High Gloss Photo Paper

Apply Mod Podge to the top of a ceramic tile.  Place the photo on top of it, making sure it's well-centered.  Apply more Mod Podge on top of the photo in even strips so the final product is smooth.  Let it dry, then coat the ceramic tile in High Gloss Coating Spray in a ventilated area.  Let dry and use all the time!

DIY Light-up Photos

You will need:

Fine Scissors

A battery-operated tea light

Sticky Tape

X-Acto knife
Cutting Mat

Cut out your photos so that you can only see a cityscape or the edge of some mountains with fine scissors and then finely cut with an X-Acto knife.  Roll the photo into a bottle shape and place the tea light inside.  Then light up the night!  

See complete instructions here.

Follow us on Pinterest for more DIY ideas and crafty projects to decorate your home. 

Cute Wall Photo Decor

When it comes to decorating your house, it's nice to add a personal touch. Sure, the furniture your personal stamp is on every piece of furniture you buy, but your decor can reflect your family's personality in a bigger way--with memories.  Wall photos are a great way to show off your loved ones, but it's easy to make a wall display too messy for anyone to want to look at.  Arranging wall photos in new, original ways will have your guest "ooh"ing and "aah"ing at every baby photo.

Try some of these ideas:  

If your style is more natural and outdoorsy, cut out wood pallets and make them into display shelves. It looks really organic and original. 

If you're more of a modern, tidy person, try out this beautiful display with inspiring words and messages. 

Another cute idea is to make your photos into square pictures, like Polaroids or Instagrams.  Just place them next to each other and make a big collage, making sure to vary your colors so there's plenty variation. You can even play around with these and organize them chronologically or by family member. Get creative and have fun with the project with your whole family!

What's Under Your Stairs?

When you've been living in the same house for a long time, things start to pile up with stuff you just can't seem to get rid of because there are memories there, right?  We all want space for our little extra treasures.

Some of us are lucky enough to have a closet in that space, and some home-builders are smart enough to include that space as storage compartment; but when they don’t, that space is wasted! The truth is, it’s not only useful, but also decorative to make your stairs into a not-so-secret hiding place.  Here are a few ideas for what to do with it.

You can make your stairs into a bookshelf, a kids' play area, a wine cellar, a reading nook, or even a hideaway entertainment center.  This is a space the whole family will love.  Follow us on Pinterest for more useful ideas to organize and decorate you home. 

We’re teaming up with Roula & Ryan for KRBE 104.1’s “Christmas Wish”

Each year, we strive to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season by giving back to the communities that support us. We know that many families and individuals simply do not have the financial means to make ends meet, which is why we are partnering with Roula & Ryan this year. With our large customer base and KRBE’s millions of listeners, we hope to make a meaningful impact on the lives of seven people.

When we sponsored KRBE 104.1’s “Christmas Wish” last year, we were so moved by the letters Roula & Ryan received that we decided to take a more active role by partnering with the charismatic duo again. This time, not only are we contributing to the $1,004 that will be awarded to seven deserving families or individuals, but we will also provide a special page on our website where visitors can nominate people and compose letters, describing the nominees’ struggles and why they deserve a little help this holiday season. We also encourage our customers and fans to submit their nominating letters at any BelFurniture store location, where drop-off boxes will be available until December 24, 2012.

Official rules for Roula & Ryan’s “Christmas Wish” can be found here, http://104krbe.listenernetwork.com/Contest/UYLCVt, under Official Contest Rules at the bottom of the page.

We urge all of our wonderful customers to consider writing a letter and submit it to our website or to any of our store locations. A total of seven winners will be chosen: 5 winners will be announced by Roula & Ryan live on air beginning the week of December 10^th, 1 winner will be chosen online and notified by December 17^th, and the final winner will be chosen at one of our store locations and contacted on or before January 3, 2013.

Stay tuned to our blog, Facebook, and Twitter to learn about the chosen winners and updated information. From everyone at the Bel team, we wish you the warmest holidays surrounded by loved ones.