[tweetmeme]Weekend getaways are grand but your home is the ultimate escape.

Interior Designer, Shelly Amoroso, says: “Why leave when you have everything that makes you feel good right at home?” Shelly suggests using your home as the ultimate getaway rather than fight the traffic or stand in long security lines at the airport.

“The best way to do this is to prepare your home first,” Shelly says. “Clean or have your house cleaned from top to bottom. No chores should be done on your staycation. Pay all your bills and open your mail…or put it all in a manila envelope to deal with after the weekend. Make sure you pre-buy everything you’ll need for the weekend and when you venture out of the house, choose something you have never done. Be a tourist in your own town.”

Use Shelly’s room by room tips for making your home the ultimate escape:

Master Bedroom

Create a whole new bed. Hotel linens from Williams Sonoma Home are the hot bedroom items. Before putting those new sheets on the bed… send them to the French Laundry for washing and pressing. Be extravagant… go for an all white bed. Watch movies in bed with popcorn and champagne. Read. Take a break from the noise of media and sit down with the book you have been trying to read for the last year.

Room Service Tip: Nothing says Four Season’s Hotel luxury than a white terry robe.

Living Room

Move the furniture out of the way… meaning de-emphasize the TV. Create a large space by the fireplace where you can throw down cushions, pillows and a blanket, light a fire and lay down on the floor. Load favorite music into your iPod and hit shuffle.

Room Service Tip: Seems like board games are only played on vacation. Bring out the Scrabble.

Bathroom

Stock up on candles, new fluffy white towels, bath gels and a new bath pillow. Put a honey mask on your honey and soak away in the tub. Relax.

Room Service Tip: Place your new fluffy towels in the dryer. Have your special someone pop them out for you just before getting out of the tub.

Kitchen

Stay out of it! Order in. Stock your fridge like a mini-bar with Champagne, chocolates, nuts, cheese and crackers… snacks you only eat on vacation. Consider them “guilt free.”

Room Service Tip: Pour your coffee in a warmer. Place on a tray with sugar and milk… carry out to the living room so you can read all of the papers… NY Times, SF Chronicle, and SJ Mercury News.

Patio

Pull out your pressed linens. No paper towels for napkins here! Lay out a table cloth, coordinating cloth napkins and your good dishes. Bring out an extra side table as a buffet to place your food and coffee as if hotel staff has delivered your breakfast. Place a comfy pillow and chenille throw blanket on the back of your chair. Wrap yourself in the blanket if you feel chilly.

Room Service Tip: Single flower in a bud vase placed in the center of the table.

Amoroso Design. When it comes to design, Shelly believes in a new classic style that’s innovative, pared down and relevant for today’s lifestyles. Steeped in the traditions handed down from her family, she creates spaces with a sense of history and timeless elegance. She assimilates the best of a family’s roots and a building’s heritage into her designs and then updates them with a modern twist.