Posted by | Decorating Tips | Posted on February 19th, 2010
Suddenly, if you come to know about vacation rental homes wherein you can stay while holidaying in Florida, then the immediate question will come in your mind that why I will choose vacation rental abode in Florida. What additional advantages can I get there? To explain these questions, the following points are appropriate.
Suitable to cope up with purposes and persons:
You can go to Florida for honeymoon purpose, or for making a family holiday. The vacation rental homes in Florida are available in various sizes. Some are appropriate for romantic couple; some are made for larger group. But, this facility is not all time available in hotels. Furthermore, for obtaining these condos, you will have to spend as much as hotels generally charge.
An opportunity of holidaying in seclusion and own way.
Your craving for holidaying in seclusion and comfort can be fulfilled at the Florida vacation rental home. Accented on travelers’ privacy and coziness, all vacation condos will enable you to enjoy vacation in your own way. Whether you want to observe the dark beauty of sea from terrace or want to walk through the beaches late at the night, all you can do here without any restriction.
After traveling whole day, relax at a homely atmosphere:
This unmatched facility is only obtainable at Vacation rental condos. After enjoying the day on seashore, or sight seeing, you need some relaxation at night. Unlike hotels, here you can avail more space, choose a cozy place and unwind yourself by listening to music, watching TV, enjoying movies in CD players or reading books. And if you feel hungry, cook your desired dishes at the well-equipped kitchen. All together, at the vacation rental condos, you won’t miss your home at all.
More Facilities …More Fun:
Have you ever thought that after holidaying, you will come back your home with fresh clothes? It is unbelievable! But, at Florida vacation rental abodes, it is possible. Here you can access washer and dryer. So do not worry about cleaning clothes. Besides, other amenities, like swimming pool, indoor games, Telephone and at some Florida vacation rental home, you can avail the internet accessing facility as well.
Start searching…Opt for the best one:
Are you interested in staying at vacation rental home during Florida vacation? Start searching for that. On the internet, you can get various sites, where you will avail information about Florida vacation rental home. Availing combo package that includes plane fare, accommodation and car rental together can be profitable for you too. Besides, you can opt for vacation rental home directly from property owner.
Posted by | Do It Yourself (DIY) | Posted on February 19th, 2010
Girls most of the times love to stay at home with their playmates. Their play activities are more complacent compared to boys though there are few girls that are hyper and love outdoor games.
As a parent, the first thing to consider in decorating your girl’s room is to understand her likes. You will see their inclination at a young age and take it form there. However, here are few ideas to help you brainstorm with the home décor themes for your girls.
The first theme can be ocean or a beach ambiance. You can start this with wallpaper which has a water blue design and sand color carpet on the floor. The ceiling is a fantastic way to decorate with a clear blue sky. You can either paint or buy one of those ceiling decorative papers. Create the bed with a sun bed designs and accessorize the room with beach stuff such as sunglasses and big plastic color balls in the corners.
Girls love to fantasize. They are oftentimes carried out in the fairytale stories they read and hear. This is a fantastic idea to please your girls. Start to identify what type of fairytale theme you wish to develop. This can be angels, fairies, elves, and more. This concept will circulate around fluffy canopy beds, soft icy pink, lavenders, clouds and fairy shapes. You can decorate the walls with wings, sparkling wands and other colorful magic dust.
For nature love children, you can decorate the room with a sunshine theme. The concept will be more on suns and yellow colors. This is easy to do. Just look for pillow covers and bed sheets with sunny yellow designs. You can add up some wallpaper on the sides with a grass design. Rugs can be of green color.
There is also a butterflies, bees and dragonflies theme. These are few themes with easy materials to find. Buy some big art designs of butterflies or bees or dragonflies. You can do the same with the bed covers and pillows. There are many items with the accent of such insects like, picture frames, head boards, and more. Paint their drawers with these insect designs. There are available clips to tie the curtains that will complement the theme. This is indeed one of the easiest ways to spice a girl’s room.
Another great idea that girls adore is the princesses and castles. This is one of the fanciest ideas that girls love to imitate and live like. The tones of colors for this theme should range from pastels, medium tones and primary colors. Utilize these colors on the designs and furniture. Also, use laces and sheer on most of the fabrics as it really signifies the princesses.
Also for imaginative girls, you may encourage their imagination but setting up the storybook characters in their room. Most of the famous characters in children books are Harry Potter, Little Mermaid, and more. There are many bed covers that have these characters on their designs. Paint on the walls other related concept such as beach or sea for the mermaid theme.
Posted by | Makeover | Posted on February 19th, 2010
The modern man is living in times that are more advanced in terms of knowledge and the dissipation of that knowledge. People who believe that their homes need to be aesthetically designed and tastefully decorated have a plethora of options and sources to choose from. There are interior decorating schools, interior decorating software, and also interior design online that can be made use of. Many people in their lives have deliberately chosen the interior decorator careers to make the lives of other people more beautiful and enriching. These professionals have a wealth of knowledge and plenty of ideas regarding the art of interior décor.
The home of a person is the only thing that can provide him with relief and succor in this everlasting struggle called life. What better way could there be to distress yourself than by reclining in a living room that has a sublime interior design, or take a warm shower in a beautifully done bathroom. Even a simple but beautiful interior decorating picture or interior decorating photo can have a relaxing effect on your nerves. The interior décor ideas can come from any source. It could be from a interior decorating software or a interior decorating school or a person who has specialized in the art of interior décor.
The modern technology has made the availability of interior décor ideas all the more easier. All that is required from your end is a will and a desire to make your everyday living in your home experience of many lifetimes.
Posted by | Curtain | Posted on February 19th, 2010
Are you bored with your present room decor? Do you want to give a new and fresh look to your room without spending a fortune? Try one of the easiest ways to jazz up your room – change your curtains.
Changing your curtains is a handy way to give great new looks to your space. The great versatility in terms of fabric, texture, and styles available these days provides you an overwhelming range of stylish curtains to choose from. If you want something trendy, you can try Rod Pocket Curtains for your windows. These types of curtain styles are extensively used as trendy decor options.
Initially, curtains were used to cover windows and doors and to keep out light and cold. Today, though the basic purpose remains the same, curtains serve an important aesthetic function too. Besides providing privacy to the residents, curtains enhance the decor of a space and are an important decor element. There are many different types of decorative treatments that you can experiment with curtains. The draperies can be lined, pleated, and floor length. You need to choose according to your preference. These curtains are hanged from hooks or by using a cord mechanism. The curtains are suspended with the help of tabs, rings, ties, or rod pocket casing. Rod pocket curtains, as the name suggests, have pockets in the hanging points of the curtains and do no require hooks or cords to hang. These pockets allow the rod to pass through it.
While selecting the rod pocket curtains, take into account your decor theme, color scheme, and the overall style. This is essential to get a harmonious look for the overall decor. A printed curtain with cartoons will look inappropriate in a room with contemporary decor style. It will of course look good in the children’s nursery. It is good to select curtains avoiding any jarring elements. You can use a style that goes with your decor style and is convenient to use.
Rod pocket curtains are easy to use and are easily manageable. Team up these curtains with some matching or contrasting decor accessories and see your room transform within seconds.
Bed Bath Store offers a variety of curtains, bedding, furniture, and other home decor accessories including rod pocket curtains. These wonderful home decor products add elegance and style to the living space. Visit www.bedbathstore.com and shop for amazing rod pocket curtains online.X
Posted by | Decor | Posted on February 19th, 2010
There are many different TV shows that help you decorate your home. For instance Clean House. It helps you get rid of the many things that you don’t need anymore. And once you’d get rid of those things you will have much more room. Once they gather all of the items you have selected to get rid of, they put them in a yard sell. Then out of the money that you make from the yard sell, they will use to but new things that will enhance you home.
Another home decorating show is “trading spaces” it picks two families that would like a chance for their home to be redecorated. They switch houses and gets to decorate it anyway they want to. However they only have two days. Then the last day is reveling day, they see how each family did.
These shows are sometime very useful when you are low on cash and your house really needs some fixing up to do. You should really consider going on these shows it would be a lot of help. You could get your house remodeled for free! You wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of bill. Wouldn’t it be very cool to be able to get a chance to get almost a completely new house for no cost?
Again this could also be a very bad idea to go on a TV decorating show. Sometimes when other people decorate your house they don’t know what you would like. And they decorate it how they would like it or how they think you like it. And than when it comes to reveling day, you might not like your new house at all! And then if you don’t what could you do? You could either live with it the rest of you time living there, or you could spend thousands on fixing it just they way you want it. So when you want your house fixed up I would really give it time to think. Because you just might not like how they have redecorated your house.
You will want to make sure that you check out the pros and cons of going on a home decorating show because you may not like what you get in the end. You will want to check out the ratings of the show and also think about how many people are going to see the inside of your home. It is very important that you thoroughly think about what you going to go through with this type of show before you decide to agree to doing the show. Also, keep in mind that they can do whatever they want to your home and they don’t have to replace it if you are upset with their creativity and design.
Posted by | Curtains | Posted on February 19th, 2010
To provide a complete wildlife touch to your home settings, wood curtain rods are the best decorating items. Not only the rods add to the beauty of the homes but they also hold the curtains in a unique way. It is because of the perfect fittings of the curtains in the wood curtain rods that the curtains flutter softly and gracefully to give a pleasing aura to the rooms.
Technical specialties of wood curtain rods
The wood curtain rods are made of walnut, teakwood, mahogany, oak or other hardwood that make them durable. The rods usually have a tobacco finish and the finials of the rods are available in either small or large sizes. The wood rods are available as either smooth rods or as fluted rods. While the smooth rods are usually of 1-3/8″ diameters, the fluted rods are of 2″ diameter.
The rods in general are available in three different lengths of 4″, 6″ and 8″. These are the curtain rods for normal sizes but if it is a non-standard window frame, then you cut down the rods to specific sizes and then use them accordingly. However, if you need longer than the normal length rods, then use pole connector screws to get the necessary length.
Different types of wood curtain rods
The wood curtain rods are available in different finishes like historic white, burnished gold, natural white, weathered white, honey maple, matte black, gold, warm oak, gold leaf, lacquered natural, pewter, cherry and piano white. You can choose one of these curtain rods that will best suit the style and furnishing of the rooms.
Brackets in the curtain rods are very important, for they actually hold both the light and heavy curtains. The wood curtain rods are advantageous, as they allow the usage of different types of brackets like ring brackets, flat brackets, cup ring brackets, double ring brackets, centre support brackets, end caps, extension brackets and ceiling brackets.
The wood curtain rods are truly durable and with their variety of designs they simply give a different yet aesthetic touch to your home décor ideas.
Posted by | Room Decorating | Posted on February 19th, 2010
Want to color up your hair and make you pals spell bound with your brilliantly gorgeous styling? Once it had been a dream and a matter of headache. But now the time has come when you need not invest a lot on coloring up your hair. You can just do it yourself and within a few minutes. Its that easy now. You can now give your hair the perfect shade of color and go crazy with it. These home color kits have come a long way in the past few years and now its so easy and comes at such a low price that anybody can afford it. They are perfect for the busy people and those who want to cut short their professional coloring bills.Hair coloring has now become a tradition of style statement. Not only that the natural looking colors are available, but if you look around you will find a lot many shades which comes in almost all colors that can be imagined. Without coloring the whole hair, you can also have strokes and patches of color, which is pretty popular too. All you have to do is to decide which color suits you best. Your beautician can help you best in making this decision. And once you have done that you need not to look back, and just go for your desired look.What will happen if you have done it yourself and now doesn’t like that color? No need to worry about that. There are all sorts of ways to fix color that’s just not right. Just go for your stylist for a second time, and he will definitely suggest you the right thing to do. Or you can even wash off the color very fast by using some shampoo with ‘ammonium laurel sulfate’. Strokes and highlights often look gorgeous. You can also color the whole hair with some base color and then apply strokes and highlights with a different one. This also gives an awesome look to your hair. In this case the base color used is generally darker than the highlights. But you can do the reverse also and it is known as lowlighting, when the target hair is colored darker than the base color. You can also give your hair a multi-dimensional color by using more than two colors. Some hair experts call it twilights when just a very subtle highlight, lowlight or color change is desired.So there is no need of giving too much pressure to your head. Just be free and have a color of your own. Anything you do is undoubtedly bound to attract attention. And if you don’t like it after it is done, there always remains the option to change it the next time. So rush to your hair stylist right now and style up your hair by coloring it in your own special way and change your look.
How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or whatever? Lots, I’m sure. It is used so much because marketers know that staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people. And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It’s true. It seems a lot of people would rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom. So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it sounds blissfully irresistible. Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of your own home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and the comfort of your own den? Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written, some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that as much as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be moved home. The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year. That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse’s full-time income, but let’s face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty. As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: “Frankly, I never saw any benefit to staying home and being poor.” Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all — you can stay home and make as much — and more — money than your current job provides you. In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these five rules, we’ll talk about the most important aspect of any business, whether it be home-based or a giant factory — cash flow. Starting your own business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but all the attitude in the world won’t help you without money! 1. It Takes Commitment Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It’s hard to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few hours away. It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work. There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you. When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep. People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home. We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of a spiritual death sentence. Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is “not so bad,” pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to. If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you. 2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what is useful and what is not. It’s a mistake to quit your job and go home with a “home-office” mentality. By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not think small! To quote Jeffrey Lant again: “Too many home-based practitioners fail to understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they have selected. They focus on the “home” part of the business rather than the “business” portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes.” Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because we don’t need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We can save a lot of costs because we don’t have the overhead requirements of larger businesses. We can cut our stress — and so have more energy — because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late 20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit. 3. Your International Headquarters The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at your empty kitchen table, eventually, the “whole world will come to you.” Well, today you don’t need the great mind of a philosopher to make the entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack. We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with anyone. The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem — all of these are not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place of business outside your home. With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to “think globally.” Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market, the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also, you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot compete with the big guys. The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and, once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the product or service in question. Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this, but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional businesses that are your competition. As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense; no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc. All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself. As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on products/service development and product/service marketing. So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of modern business success: (1) Vastly reduced overhead (2) Easy access to a global market (3) Full advantage of telecommunications. To not have the basic telecommunications toys — computer, modem, fax, and telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and brain of any successful home business — the computer. The computer is so important in fact, we have made it a category all itself. And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward. 4. The Computer You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true. People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff — in fact, a staff of one — yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and the services you need. To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a computer are sadly mistaken. Computers give you two primary advantages: (1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by data field so that you can easily get the information you need. (2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation you’ll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and prepare accordingly. A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a characteristic set of things that happen — or that do not happen. You must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently. But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level communications processing center that connects you to the globe. Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more can’t help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly in the near future. If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken. The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening. It’s a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what’s not, and stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is. 5. Your Business Hours If you’ve been paying attention to the first four points, you’re well on your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner. Now we don’t want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker’s hours. The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off. Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that the others miss. You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or through your answering service. “But wait a minute!” you might be thinking at this point! “I thought that working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds like nothing but endless work!” Well, here’s the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go to work for yourself, you’ll discover something magical. You’ll discover that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own business, a lot of what you does not seem like work at all. The great writer Jane Roberts said, “Inspiration is its own motivator.” Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into inspiration and play. The perfect work for you is that which you don’t think of as work, yet doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life. You’ll see what it’s like if you make a true commitment to being self employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run. Steve Cownley http://infoblog.net78.net/
Each of us wanted to change something in the nature of your home – wallpaper, furniture, carpets, etc. Anything can change, it is good to comply with some small things that will save you big headaches. When you buy furniture is good to evaluate the overall color of the situation, the type of furniture and how many people will inhabit the room. Type of floor / laminate, carpet and the total size of the room are also a determining factor. Select a heavy thick curtains for the windows of the bedroom and living room, and lighter of the doors. So your home will be comfortable and esthetic. Thick curtains create an atmosphere of relaxation and tranquility.
Since it is a choice of furniture, large leather sofa or couch are particularly suitable for modern homes. If you are a fan of comfort and warmth of wood, you can choose vibratory chairs. If you often need to move from one location to another chose the cane, which combine the convenience and low cost. Of course a similar effect can be achieved with PVC chairs and tables. The amount and type of decor must meet the area of your home. Bright walls and wallpaper suitable for smaller rooms, creating a sense of space. Room accessories – paintings, photographs – must also meet the size of the room. If you have a large home, may set a dark interior and large pictures. Additional effects can be achieved when combined with sofa shade with light sources. If you choose them at different times choose lamp with a neutral light, to match every color and type of powder.
Another important part of the decoration of the house is carpet. It does not only enhance the effect of interior design, but brings additional style and comfort at home. In addition you can choose decorative glass windows, or even hanging ceiling if you have enough space.
source: http://www.modazadoma.com
Posted by | Room Decorating | Posted on February 19th, 2010
THE BASICS OF BALANCE IN DESIGN AND DECORATING
In design as well as in all other aspects of our lives balance is an important element.
At one time or another, all of us have been in homes, offices, rooms, stores or hotels where we could not wait to get out of. Something felt uncomfortable, awkward, overwhelming, or boring. Balance is a facet of our lives that makes us feel comfortable and grounded. In design, physical balance is achieved through the position, color, texture, shape, size and the direction the eye follows. It takes into account the shape, architecture, size and lighting of the room, home, or place, the furnishings, materials, and accessories.
Rhythm and harmony go hand in hand with balance. Rhythm is defined as “A regular or harmonious pattern created by lines, forms, and colors in painting, sculpture, and other visual arts”, (it can be said that interior design and decorating are visual arts), and harmony is “A pleasing combination of elements in a whole or the way parts combine well together or into a whole”. The three together create a physical, psychological, and pleasant aesthetic visual order.
There are different types of balance and for design the three most common ones are:
Balance considers the scale and proportion of sizes and shapes of objects.
Proportion refers to the relationships in size, one part to another or to the whole, and it also refers to the relative size of each item.
Scale refers to “the size of objects in relation to one another and to the human body. In decorating, good scale is the result of eye pleasing relationships between furnishings and other objects and the space they are used in.”
Furnishings must be proportionate to the size and floor plan of the room, as well as functional and attractive.
When designing or decorating there must be flowing transition around a room or between rooms. There must be space to move around without bumping into tables, chairs, or other items, and it is more pleasant to go from one room to another that has a similar flow without abrupt changes.
The transition can be created with curvilinear lines in furnishings, patterns and colors, uninterrupted by hard corners and rigid straight line pattern formations, or excessive contrast of color and style between rooms.
Some people use Feng shui, pronounced “fong shway” or “foong swee”. Feng shui means literally wind-water and is the Chinese Taoist art of arranging the surrounding environment: space, objects and places around us to achieve energy, harmony, and balance, and promote the free flow of chi.
Contrast is used to add interest to a room and it works best in small increments. For example a striped pattern and a flower pattern pillow of similar or same colors on a solid color sofa; a black sofa against a red wall; a round table and stripe covered chairs. Well combined geometric forms and patterns can also give a fresh contemporary look. Too much contrast is overwhelming and too much repetition is boring.
Accessories need to be balanced as well. Control your urge to put out everything you own or “love”. Too much of something, no matter how lovely, it’s just simply too much, but a well placed collection as/in a focal point might be very attractive, such as glass bottles of different colors and sizes; ceramics; art work, etc.
It is uncomfortable and unsettling to look all over the place without a focal point. The focal point may be as common as a fireplace, a window, or a piece of art where you arrange furniture and items to direct the eyes toward it. The focal point provides reference and stability to a room.
Don’t forget the ceilings; they don’t always have to be white! If you have green walls the ceiling can be painted in a much lighter shade of the same color. If the room has a great source of light, especially natural light, the ceiling can be painted darker than the walls. Use decorative molding, trim, or wallpaper. The room looks unbalance and unfinished when the walls have a rich color and the ceiling is just white.
One the most important things to remember is to have fun. Find a style you like, experiment, try it out, arrange and rearrange. Don’t be disappointed if it does not look like the picture of the design magazine. However, don’t ignore reality: if there are children or pets a light cream sofa it’s not going to work very well; the traffic patterns may not allow room for the big beautiful stuffed chair; and grandma’s needle point pillows may not fit in with your new contemporary style.
Before you start your project make a plan. On a poster board collect pictures of furnishings, paint chips, fabric samples, tile and wood flooring samples, wall paper, and anything else you might want to use. Place it side by side; check the colors and textures and see what works for you. Your local home improvement store should have most samples of what you need. Decide what items, accessories and furnishings, you are going to use before you choose the paint color. Look in the internet for pictures and ideas. Sometimes, vintage stores have wonderful pieces of furniture and accessories that with minimum modifications can be adapted to many styles and designs. Of course you have to like what you are going to do, but make a decision based on what you need and why versus what you like and want, in the long run you’ll be a lot happier.
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