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Resources

There are eight million resources on the web and in print for home decor ideas. You probably have some of your own favorites, but here are some of mine:

• Design*Sponge. Grace updates her design blog several times daily. It features sneak peeks of cool interiors, DIY projects, readers' before & afters, under $100 round ups, mini trends and more. The Before & Afters on Thursday are sure to inspire you to redo a piece of furniture.

• Decor8. Holly updates her design blog several times daily. She focuses on home decor as well as artists, fabrics, and other pleasing finds.

• Apartment Therapy. This design blog features several writers and is updated several times daily. Its focus is apartment living (duh): room makeovers, use of space and other finds.

• Fresh Nest Design. Deb and Erin's mission statement is "Everyone can design given the right tools and our goal is to make sure you have those tools to Freshen Your Nest!" Their site includes inspiration, how-tos and design challenges with prizes!

• Better Homes & Gardens. It may not have the cache of some of the other design magazines and sites, but I love it's straightforward, affordable ideas. I personally prefer the print editions over their website. My favorites of their publications are 100 Ideas under $100 and do it yourself, available on the magazine rack at building supply and book stores. I don't frequent their website, because personally, I find it confusing and it has too many uncloseable pop-ups.

• Ikea Hacker is a website devoted entirely to people's redo's of Ikea furniture. Many of the features include a link to hacker's instructions so you can try the idea yourself. People come up with some really clever things!

• Knock Off Wood is a DIY motherlode for furniture. Yes, building your own furniture. Ana designs measured drawings of the project and her readers send in gorgeous pictures of their results. Even if you don't venture into wood-crafting, this site is DIY inspiration.

• Sherwin Williams. This is a great website to assist in color selection. Their Color Visualizer allows you to "paint" rooms online to see the effects. They also offer lots of suggestions on coordinating colors. And I'll just admit, I always use Sherwin Williams paint. Love it, love it, love it. And next time you are at the store, buy the $10 Color Specifier so that you have every paint swatch at your fingertips.

  I don't dig the new IPhone app for matching colors, only because the camera doesn't capture color that accurately. You'll find it will pick oranges for your reds, for example. However, they do have a Color of Inspiration site that lets you upload a photo (of anything), choose your favorite color from it and it will suggest a main paint and two coordinates.

• Benjamin Moore. They also have a website filled with color selection tools. They offer a Personal Color Viewer to experiment with different shades. They also have a $10 downloadable version of Color Viewer that lets you use your own photos and paint the walls! I've heard good things about Benjamin Moore paints, but see admission above. I would bet you money they sell a complete set of their paint swatches as well.

• Interior Design books. Yes, I've never met an interior design book I didn't like. My only request is that they have tons of photos and not a lot of text. I sometimes order them online, because I am a risk-taker, but nothing beats flipping through one at the bookstore first. Of course, there are lots of magazines that can partially fill that role for less money. And I can tear the pages out of the magazine and pin them up!

• An Idea Notebook. Not very exotic, I know, but as you pull out magazine pages and see paint combinations you like, keep them somewhere. When you are ready to redo a room, study your ideas and think about why you were drawn to that idea and if you can incorporate it into your room. You'll probably discover that there are "themes" to what you are drawn to, whether it be the color, the style, the sparseness, the coziness.

Share with me your favorite sites, books or magazines for home decor ideas.