Does your interior need a little energy, a little verve?  Why not give it a pop of color with Tangerine Tango.  Pantone has name Tangerine Tango the color of 2012.  Bold yet sophisticated, vintage yet edgy, this versatile color is currently being used in fashion, cosmetics, and home decor.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

As shown in the three images below, Tangering Tango can be used as a single pop of color to brighten a soft, neutral palatte.

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When paired with bright whites as in the images below Tangerine Tango is fun and playful.  Incorporate this color in pillows and accessories or painted on the walls or furniture.

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What’s Your point of view?  Will Tangerine Tango make an appearance in your home this year?

Soft filtered light beneath the canopy of suspended umbrellas creates a sense of intimacy and romance.  They appear delicate and perhaps temporary as if they have just blown in from somewhere and are resting a while before going out again. Do they collect our secrets as conversations filter upwards?

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We may never know.  But the aura of grace and femininity in these beauties speaks for itself.

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DIY Parasol Lighting

Here are a couple of umbrella lighting projects you can use to soften the lighting in your home and create a chic atmosphere.  From HGTV  this first tutorial uses a bamboo parasol on your ceiling fixture.

This next project turns cocktail umbrellas into a sophisticated hanging pendant lamp.  The tutorial is found here from Craft Tutorials.

The iconic metal French cafe chair stirs up our imagination of a luxurious life of sipping espresso while discussing philosophy and admiring well dressed pedestrians cross our path.  The chair responsible for such desires is the Tolix A chair, designed by Frenchman Xavier Pauchard in 1934.  They became wildly popular for their design, use of galvanized metal, and versatility as an indoor/outdoor stackable chair.

{ image Antiquaire }

The design hasn’t changed much since the beginning – no need to improve on perfection, right?  Today you may be able to find many sorts of the metal bistro chair, from vintage to newly manufactured.  Many companies now offer a similar chair and they come in variety of a colors.

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For the DIY vintage homemaker, you can surf the web or your local antique store to find some with just the right amount of rust and character.  For an ecclectic dining setting mix and match a several of the cafe chairs and juxtapose them with a rustic dining table set with vintage china table settings and perhaps candles or a crystal chandelier for lighting.  Ooh la la!

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One of the things I love the most about creating a chic home is working with unconventional decorating materials.  For instance, discarded wooden pallets that are unfinished and unappealing in their natural state can be transformed into fabulous functional furniture.  Add some wheels and you’ve got portable furniture that makes a statement.

A couple of gorgeous examples of daybeds with wooden pallet frames.  These supports are probably sturdy enough to hold anything you’ll put on them!

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The rustic, industial pallet below gets paired with smooth glass, making this coffee table versatile and elegant.  The addition of wheels makes it easy to vacuum under.

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A little deconstruction goes a long way in this repurposed recycling bin. Clever and useful! Visit the Simple Home life link below the image to view the instructions and make your own.

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This double tiered pallet table has been stained and used in a cozy outdoor patio setting.

{ image Joy Ever After }

Most of these projects are super simple to construct and inexpensive too.   For a detailed deomonstration on contructing your own pallet table/ottoman watch the video below.  Then if that gets you really excited, hop in your car and start searching for discarded pallets!

This past spring I started my first official garden in Phoenix with help from Greg at the Urban Farm.  Since space was limited I grew the cucumbers and pole beans vertically by tying them to bamboo poles.  And that has been my knowledge of vertical gardening.  Until now.

Yesterday I saw that Melissa at The Inspired Room wrote about creating a vertical garden by repurposing and old wooden pallet to make a vertical flower garden.

{ image source The Inspired Room }

This inspired me (haha, get it?) to research more about vertical gardens, the various types and how to make them.  First, here is another DIY pallet garden.  The plants are growing from inside the pallet.  Complete instructions for this garden can be found at Life on the Balcony.

{ image source Life on the Balcony }

And then today I noticed a post on Inhabitat featuring a large scale vertical living wall in Spain. Wow! Now this is something!  Wait, hold up!  We’re not ready to build that yet!

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Here’s a standard looking set up using fencing with wooden supports.  If you’re planting in the ground this option looks nice and tidy. The building plans are available on Instructables.

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For an uber chic interior vertical garden have a look at this one from the New York Times. Inspired by the rainforest of South America, Michael Riley designed this garden to grow without dirt.

{ image source New York Times }

Another unique outdoor garden wall uses good old fashioned gutters attached to the side of a house as vertical planters.  So creative! Just proves you don’t need a large plot of land to grow plants.

{ images source Vertical Gardening }

A hydroponic garden wall by name may sound like a difficult thing to build, but Neville Passmore explains how to do it in this informative video.   Why not give it a try?

One of my dreams is to live on the the beach in a quiet, soft and comfy cottage. I would grow flowers, ride my bike to the market and watch the sunset from my back porch while listening to classical jazz music and drinking wine. Here is what it might look like.

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Photo by seaglassvintage on flickr

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Photo by tracie7779 on flickr

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Sometimes we end up with pieces of furniture we just don’t know what to do with.  Recently I blogged about decorating with apothecary cabinets, but if your cabinet frames are broken or too large for your space the whole piece can seem useless.  Not to worry. Creative repurposing can turn your otherwise broken, outdated and mismatched dresser drawers into beautiful home accents with a purpose.

A little bit of paint can brighten the drawers (just be sure to sand off the lacquer before painting).  You can even paint the drawer bottom or line them with wallpaper or contact paper to create interest.  In the photo below, dresser drawers are used as a display/bookcase sitting on the floor.

For extra kitchen storage space, try mounting the drawers directly to the wall and fill with jars of spices and  dry goods.

Combine legs from an old chair or table with your dresser drawer to create a useful storage table.  Set it next to the bath  to keep your bath salts and towels handy!  (If you don’t have any old legs for this you can buy new ones at the home improvement store.)

Here’s how one company got really creative.  These funky repurposed drawers can create a focal point and make great conversation starters.

Make your own Self Watering Drawer Planter

This project is really clever and stylish too.  Make your old drawers super functional and grow your own plants!  Get the complete instructions here.

{ image sources 1. Manolo Home 2. Nest Full of Eggs 3. My Lovely Life 4. Inhabitat 5. Instructables }

Wicker was one of the first natural materials used in furniture making, dating back to the Egyptian civilization.  Today wicker is mostly associated with Victorian era designs which had a resurgence in the 1970s.  If you’ve got one of these vintage furniture pieces you’ll see that wicker furniture can be spruced up with a modern makeover.  With a can of spray paint and some new cushions you can be sitting pretty!

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{image from the Lettered Cottage }

The makeover below appears to be a synthetic version of the wicker chair, but the results are still amazing.

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If your wicker is just beyond repair for use as a chair, why not leave it outdoors and turn it into a planter?  Debra Prinzing shows you how in this tutorial.

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How to Spray-Paint Wicker

Get tips for cleaning and painting your vintage wicker chair.

Vintage beauty and modern function definitely work well together in the form of the apothecary cabinet.  These handy compartmentalized units offer a multitude of storage for small to mid-size objects that you want to keep out of sight.  Originally designed for a retail environment, they can vary in size from tabletop to full wall installations.

The word apothecary is derived from apotheca, meaning a place storing wine, spices, and herbs.  Early apothecary shops were a mixture of retail grocery stores offering medical advice and drugs.  Apothecaries were the precursors to today’s pharmacist.

You can find both vintage apothecary cabinets and reproduction cabinets in wood or metal with anywhere from four to over one hundred drawers.  Smaller drawers, as typically seen in the Chinese cabinets were made specifically for herbs.  As seen below, these furniture pieces will function well in a wide variety of vintage decor styles  and DIY Chic Homes.

Make your own apothecary cabinet

If you are handy with saws and hammers you could just make your own apothecary console, perfect for the modern flat screen t.v. and large enough to house your entire collection of dvds.  The following image was made from patterns and directions at ana-white.com.

{ image sources: 1 Home Life, 2 Stabler Leadbeater, 3  Apartment Therapy, 4 Brabourne Farm 5 La Maison Boheme, 6 Hudson Goods, 7 House to Home, 8 Ana White }