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In honor of this bright and shiny Friday, I thought I’d share with you some gorgeous, happy interiors that never fail to make me smile and feel inspired – and I hope they have the same effect on you!

Are you happy now?!?

The common themes among these interiors that give them their cheerful, inspirational quality are themes that you can certainly incorporate into your own home to add a little zip and glamour:

1. Use white liberally. Who said white is boring? You’ll notice that bright white plays a huge factor in each of these interiors. Using white provides a gallery-like effect in your home, showcasing any color that you choose to highlight. White also gives your eye a break from bold colors, which allows you to be daring and play with a variety of colors and patterns.

2. Be bold with color. Since you have a base of white, go for some really saturated, exciting colors like turquoise, sunshine yellow or lime green. These fun punches of color can be brought into your room through artwork, painted furniture, throw pillows, or accessories like vases and flowers. You’ll notice that most of the bold colors used in these interiors aren’t your basic primary colors – each color is a tint of one of the primary colors, which gives it a little more edge and keeps things from looking harsh or cartoony. Think magenta instead of red, lemon instead of yellow, teal instead of blue.

3. Take chances. Now that you have a base of white with colorful accents, it’s time to take it up a notch. Patterns and textures allow you to really give a room personality and make it feel alive. Don’t be afraid to mix floral and animal prints with stripes, leather and silk and chenille, or raw wood against shiny chrome. And be sure to throw in a little bling – glass, mirrors and a touch of sparkle add depth and interest to a room. If mixing patterns and textures makes you nervous, start slow – buy a few inexpensive throw pillows in a funky and fresh pattern and build from there.

4. Go with what you like. The whole point of this approach to decorating is to let your personality shine through, and to have a little fun. Mix and match and experiment with color, patterns and textures until it feels right to you. Does it matter if the end result would never make it into a decorating magazine? Nope. All that matters is that it makes you happy.

What decorating tips and tricks do you have up your sleeve? Which interior is your favorite? And, most importantly, did these gorgeous interiors make you happy??

This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.

Images courtesy of Design*Sponge, desiretoinspire, Canadian House & Home, Apartment Therapy, PointClickHome, decor8 and Domino.

Microwaves are standard in every kitchen these days (thank goodness!!). However, our little 1960s ranch was built before microwaves became insanely popular. See? No microwave:

Clearly, we knew that incorporating a microwave into the kitchen was going to be a must during our renovation. What we didn’t know what where we wanted to put it.

Should we install the microwave above the stove? Pro – we wouldn’t be giving up counter space or cabinet space. Con – we couldn’t have one of those fancy vent-a-hoods. But those vent-a-hoods are so pretty!! We looked at pictures like these and contemplated our options:

(Can you tell that I like white kitchens? Um, yeah.)

While we were temporarily wooed by these beautiful images, reality soon caused us to become a little more practical – if we had a vent-a-hood and a microwave, our kitchen that was already tight on cabinet space definitely wouldn’t give us enough storage. So, we kissed the idea of a vent-a-hood goodbye and fell in love with our above-the-range microwave (a total steal from Sears). She works like a charm and fits our lifestyle and space requirements to a “T”.