Bust Out of Boring

a blog by lesley myrick | create a kickass home you love

5 Essential Business Tools I Can’t Live Without

August 4, 2020

The right software tools doing the right things in my business has made a massive difference to my productivity, profitability, and sanity. Even if you’re not an interior designer – maybe you’re a creative business owner, an entrepreneur, or an ambitious mom who loves to…

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The Most Expensive Design Lesson I’ve Learned

July 14, 2020

The most expensive design lesson I’ve ever learned (and the most important lesson too!) is to trust my gut. Because when I don’t trust my gut, bad things happen. Like an abandoned toilet left behind in the middle of a bathroom full of…well, full of…

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10 Inspiring Quotes About Design (Plus FREE Printable Art)

July 7, 2020

There is so much going on in our world right now (understatement of the year, right?). Sometimes you’ve just gotta take a little breath and feed yourself emotionally. What I wanted to share with you today are 10 inspiring quotes about design and style that…

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5 Ways to Bust Out of a Boring Staircase

June 30, 2020
5 ways to bust out of a boring staircase

I bet you haven’t even thought about designing the staircase in your home – it’s one of those spaces that we tend to forget about completely when it comes to design. We go literally go up and down every day and we’re in there all…

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Living Room Doesn’t Have Enough Seating? Try This.

June 23, 2020
your living room doesn't have enough seating. Try this. This is a really common problem, our living rooms might suit our families, there's enough, you know for four bucks comfortably and all as well. But when you're entertaining. When you have friends over when you're hosting a party. There's just not enough seating and short of buying a bigger house there actually are things you can do to increase the number of seats in your living room pretty easily and yes of course it does mean buying new furniture, but it doesn't have to be as crazy complicated as completely redesigning your living room, or you know going, squeezing in a sectional when you only have room for a sofa, what I love to do when a living room doesn't have enough seating is to add benches, or Ottomans or Heck, both if you've got the space for it. A lot of times in front of a fireplace. There's gonna be more room than you think, to put a low bench, and that is a great opportunity to have your guests, perch there when they're over for a party, it can kind of tuck out of the way and just be a pretty focal point, obviously, move it if you have a hot fire in there, but a bench in front of the fireplace is one great solution to this problem. Another thing I like to do when seating is short in a living room is replace a hard metal or wood coffee table with something upholstered, and then you pop a tray on it so you do have a surface to put drinks and remotes and things like that. But when you're entertaining that tray can come off and you have another place for people to perch and sit and hang out in your space. If you happen to have enough space behind your sofa. I also love the look of a sofa table or a console table behind that sofa with a couple of benches or stools tucked underneath, it's this really finished slick looking vignette, and then, spoiler alert, those little stools come out and you can put them wherever you need when you're having a party. So there are creative ways to get more seating incorporated in your living room. It's probably with small scale furniture which I don't always recommend, but in this case if everything else in your space is the right proportion and scale and your sofas feel good and your accent chairs feel good. It can be a really nice mix to add a bench in front of a fireplace maybe you add a bench under a window. That's really underutilized or, like I said my favorite put a little console table, whether it's behind your sofa or against a wall. Tuck a pair of benches under there or stools, and you've got easy to access seating that's real nice and works with your living room, when you need it. Of course in a pinch, folding chairs, but not what I recommend. Anyway, I hope that was helpful, I know we are still sort of quarantine and sheltering in place. Life is starting to open up, I'm hoping, fingers crossed that very soon you will be needing lots more seating in your living room, and that these tips can help you get there for some summer entertaining which I am very much looking forward to

What if your living room doesn’t have enough seating? This is a really common problem. Our living rooms might suit our immediate families – there’s enough for four butts comfortably – but when you’re hosting a party, have out-of-town family visiting, or just have friends…

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