Erin Roberts

Suffering from allergies is a terrible thing at any time, but it’s especially difficult to be breaking out in hives, sneezing incessantly, and struggling to breathe when you’re supposed to be falling asleep at night. As someone who has suffered from terrible allergies and asthma all of my twenty-nine years, I know that as difficult as it can be, there are steps to take that can help create an allergy-free safe zone in your bedroom to help ease those night-time allergy attacks.

You can add these to your “words to live by” list: never underestimate the power of good lighting. A beautifully decorated room can end up feeling like a cave and that chair you just had recovered in gorgeous flax colored linen can look sickly green if you lack adequate lighting. It’s even more complicated in a small space. Creating the balance between too much and too little light, plus finding fixtures that won’t overwhelm a petite space can take some trial and error.

Good cleaners can be hard to come by. We all want something that’s effective, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and won’t kill us with toxic fumes. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to settle for 2 out of 3 on this one.

Welcome to the most chaotic, most used, most loved room in my home, my kitchen! Now, this kitchen certainly isn’t the biggest I’ve lived with (That award goes to my first place in Houston. It only had one cabinet, but technically the kitchen was 12 by 15 feet!) or fanciest I’ve ever had (That would be my first kitchen in NYC.

Wallpaper, the oft-maligned, terribly misunderstood wall covering, is enjoying a much deserved comeback. The days of impossible to hang, doubly impossible to remove old-fashioned ditzy floral nightmares are thankfully in the past. Modern wallpapers are easy to hang, easier to remove, and feature motifs created by popular artists, bloggers, and designers. Of course, these new wonder wallpapers can sometimes come with a hefty price tag.

Beautiful and affordable rugs aren't hard to find if you know where to look.