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.

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!