Thursday, January 11, 2007
home decorating success
For halls and dining rooms plain dark-colored linoleum, costing not less than two dollars a yard makes an inexpensive floor covering.
If it is waxed it becomes not only very durable but, also, extremely effective, suggesting the dark tiles in Italian houses. We do not advise the purchase of the linoleums, which represent inlaid floors, as they are invariably unsuccessful imitations.
If it is necessary to economize and your brass bedstead must be used even though you dislike it, you can have it painted the color of your walls. It requires a number of coats. A soft pearl grey is good. Then use a color, or colors, in your silk or chintz bedspread. Sun-proof material in a solid color makes an attractive cover, with a narrow fringe in several colors straight around the edges and also, forming a circle or square on the top of the bed-cover.
If your gas or electric fixtures are ugly and you cannot afford more attractive ones, buy very cheap, perfectly plain, ones and paint them to match the walls, giving decorative value to them with colored silk shades.
If you wish to use twin beds and have not wall space for them, treat one like a couch or day bed. See Plate II. Your cabinet-maker can remove the footboard, then draw the bed out into the room, place in a position convenient to the light either by day or night, after which put a cover of cretonne or silk over it and cushions of the same. Never put a spotted material on a spotted material. If your couch or sofa is done in a figured material of different colors, make your sofa cushions of plain material to tone down the sofa. If the sofa is a plain color, then tone it up make it more decorative by using cushions of several colors.
If you like your room, but find it Cold in atmosphere, try deep cream gauze for sash curtains. They are wonderful atmosphere producers. The advantage of two tiers of sash curtains (see Plate IX) is that one can part and push back one tier for air, light or looking out, and still use the other tier to modify the light in the room.
Another way to produce atmosphere in a cold room is to use a tone-on-tone paper. That is, a paper striped in two depths of the same color.
In choosing any wall paper it is imperative that you try a large sample of it in the room for which it is intended, as the reflection from a nearby building or brick wall can entirely change a beautiful yellow into a thick mustard color. How wallpaper looks in the shop is no criterion. As stated sometimes the wrong side of wallpaper gives you the tone you desire.
Click Here to visit our website before you go
If it is waxed it becomes not only very durable but, also, extremely effective, suggesting the dark tiles in Italian houses. We do not advise the purchase of the linoleums, which represent inlaid floors, as they are invariably unsuccessful imitations.
If it is necessary to economize and your brass bedstead must be used even though you dislike it, you can have it painted the color of your walls. It requires a number of coats. A soft pearl grey is good. Then use a color, or colors, in your silk or chintz bedspread. Sun-proof material in a solid color makes an attractive cover, with a narrow fringe in several colors straight around the edges and also, forming a circle or square on the top of the bed-cover.
If your gas or electric fixtures are ugly and you cannot afford more attractive ones, buy very cheap, perfectly plain, ones and paint them to match the walls, giving decorative value to them with colored silk shades.
If you wish to use twin beds and have not wall space for them, treat one like a couch or day bed. See Plate II. Your cabinet-maker can remove the footboard, then draw the bed out into the room, place in a position convenient to the light either by day or night, after which put a cover of cretonne or silk over it and cushions of the same. Never put a spotted material on a spotted material. If your couch or sofa is done in a figured material of different colors, make your sofa cushions of plain material to tone down the sofa. If the sofa is a plain color, then tone it up make it more decorative by using cushions of several colors.
If you like your room, but find it Cold in atmosphere, try deep cream gauze for sash curtains. They are wonderful atmosphere producers. The advantage of two tiers of sash curtains (see Plate IX) is that one can part and push back one tier for air, light or looking out, and still use the other tier to modify the light in the room.
Another way to produce atmosphere in a cold room is to use a tone-on-tone paper. That is, a paper striped in two depths of the same color.
In choosing any wall paper it is imperative that you try a large sample of it in the room for which it is intended, as the reflection from a nearby building or brick wall can entirely change a beautiful yellow into a thick mustard color. How wallpaper looks in the shop is no criterion. As stated sometimes the wrong side of wallpaper gives you the tone you desire.
Click Here to visit our website before you go
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
home decorating success
Can I introduce you to an article which is a little different from those which I have posted here in the past. Give it a read, and please keep an open mind.
101 Feng shui Tips for the Home
· Harmonious interrelationships geared towards the comfort of people will always be a paramount consideration in any Feng shui design everything else places secondary. To get a grasp of this principle here are tips for the home.
· The bagua map must guide the distribution of objects and furniture around the house. This is done to determine the areas where they belong. These should be has also to be done in harmonic quantities because in Feng shui objects represents a symbol of an element. Over distribution of one item could upset a balance that Feng shui desires to achieve.
· Couches, beds, chairs should be placed in such a way that those who are sitting or lying on it should have an unobstructed view of the door. The beds head board and the chairs especially those where the head of the family usually use must always be placed against solid wall.
· Shapes evoke different feelings in us. The choice of accessories should elicit pleasant and cheery feelings.
· Colors have to be chosen with care. Even in conventional interior decorating, colors represent a particular mood. This is also very true with Feng shui. The difference may lie mainly not on what is the current trend and looks pretty and modern. Rather, the choice of color has to be done to achieve a balance with the temperament of the occupants.
· The unobstructed flow of chi is very important. There should be no obstructions on pathways, doors and entry points like gates. Avoid structures in front of entranceways, rocks, gardens and shrubbery that will distract your line of vision. In fact avoid living in a house with a tall building in front of it or trees where the branches points towards your direction.
· There should also be no exposed beams and dark corners and areas in the house, as these will disturb the flow of the chi.
· Mirrors are to be placed in areas where you would want particular views in the house to be reflected. Mirrors though should not be placed directly at the foot of the bed.
· Avoid clutter. Clutter disturbs the flow of energy inside the house. Clean screens and everything else where the house gets its ventilation. Avoid also leaving sleepers and shoes at the doorsteps.
· The house should be very well ventilated and the air coming into it must always be fresh and clean. For this reason, open the doors especially the bedroom doors for as long as possible. You wouldn't want stale air from circulating inside it. The dust that you are avoiding will never be enough justification for the rewards of good ventilation.
· Fu dogs are symbols of safeguarding the home. Place Fu dogs at both sides of your front door.
· Watch out for poison arrows. These could be represented by sharp or pointed objects that that are directed either towards the house (if the objects are coming for the outside) or of protrusions, sharp turns and corners in the house.
· Whenever possible, do not allow a path in your house or in the garden that are straight. This in Feng shui is the path of the demon.
· To achieve a harmonious kitchen, do not place the stove; refrigerator and kitchen sink too close to each other.
· Green also represents harmony. Placing a green carpet or rug will enhance harmonious relationship. In fact bring plants inside the house and give it good care. It will prevent unnecessary clashes and conflicts.
You can visit our Feng Shui website by Clicking Here
101 Feng shui Tips for the Home
· Harmonious interrelationships geared towards the comfort of people will always be a paramount consideration in any Feng shui design everything else places secondary. To get a grasp of this principle here are tips for the home.
· The bagua map must guide the distribution of objects and furniture around the house. This is done to determine the areas where they belong. These should be has also to be done in harmonic quantities because in Feng shui objects represents a symbol of an element. Over distribution of one item could upset a balance that Feng shui desires to achieve.
· Couches, beds, chairs should be placed in such a way that those who are sitting or lying on it should have an unobstructed view of the door. The beds head board and the chairs especially those where the head of the family usually use must always be placed against solid wall.
· Shapes evoke different feelings in us. The choice of accessories should elicit pleasant and cheery feelings.
· Colors have to be chosen with care. Even in conventional interior decorating, colors represent a particular mood. This is also very true with Feng shui. The difference may lie mainly not on what is the current trend and looks pretty and modern. Rather, the choice of color has to be done to achieve a balance with the temperament of the occupants.
· The unobstructed flow of chi is very important. There should be no obstructions on pathways, doors and entry points like gates. Avoid structures in front of entranceways, rocks, gardens and shrubbery that will distract your line of vision. In fact avoid living in a house with a tall building in front of it or trees where the branches points towards your direction.
· There should also be no exposed beams and dark corners and areas in the house, as these will disturb the flow of the chi.
· Mirrors are to be placed in areas where you would want particular views in the house to be reflected. Mirrors though should not be placed directly at the foot of the bed.
· Avoid clutter. Clutter disturbs the flow of energy inside the house. Clean screens and everything else where the house gets its ventilation. Avoid also leaving sleepers and shoes at the doorsteps.
· The house should be very well ventilated and the air coming into it must always be fresh and clean. For this reason, open the doors especially the bedroom doors for as long as possible. You wouldn't want stale air from circulating inside it. The dust that you are avoiding will never be enough justification for the rewards of good ventilation.
· Fu dogs are symbols of safeguarding the home. Place Fu dogs at both sides of your front door.
· Watch out for poison arrows. These could be represented by sharp or pointed objects that that are directed either towards the house (if the objects are coming for the outside) or of protrusions, sharp turns and corners in the house.
· Whenever possible, do not allow a path in your house or in the garden that are straight. This in Feng shui is the path of the demon.
· To achieve a harmonious kitchen, do not place the stove; refrigerator and kitchen sink too close to each other.
· Green also represents harmony. Placing a green carpet or rug will enhance harmonious relationship. In fact bring plants inside the house and give it good care. It will prevent unnecessary clashes and conflicts.
You can visit our Feng Shui website by Clicking Here
Saturday, October 28, 2006
home decorating success
HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM
LUCKY is the man or woman of taste who has no inherited eyesores, which, because of association, must not be banished! When these exist in large numbers one thing only remains to be done: look them over, see to what period the majority belong, and proceed as if you wanted a mid-Victorian, late Colonial or brass-bedstead room.
To rearrange a room successfully, begin by taking everything out of it (in reality or in your mind), then decide how you want it to look, or how, owing to what you own and must retain, you are obliged to have it look. Design and color of wall decorations, hangings, carpets, lighting fixtures, lamps and ornaments on mantel, depend upon the character of your furniture.
It is the mantel and its arrangement of ornaments that sound the keynote upon first entering a room.
Conventional simplicity in number and arrangement of ornaments gives balance and repose, hence dignity. Dignity once established, one could afford to be individual, and introduce a riot of colors, provided they are all in the same key. Luxurious cushions, soft rugs and a hundred and one feminine touches will create atmosphere and knit together the austere scheme of line the anatomy of your room. Color and textiles are the flesh of interior decoration.
In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by using plain paper and making the woodwork the same color, or slightly darker in tone. If you cannot find wallpaper of exactly the color and shade you wish, often it is possible to use the wrong side of a paper and produce exactly the desired effect.
In repapering old rooms with imperfect ceilings it is easy to disguise this by using a paper with a small design in the same tone. Ret perfectly plain ceiling paper will show every defect in the surface of the ceiling.
If your house or flat is small you can gain a great effect of space by keeping the same color scheme throughout that is, the same color or related colors. To make a small hall and each of several small rooms on the same floor different in any pronounced way is to cut up your home into a restless, unmeaning checkerboard, where one feels conscious of the walls and all limitations. The effect of restful spaciousness may be obtained by taking the same small suite and treating its walls, floors and draperies, as has been suggested, in the same color scheme or a scheme of related keys in color. That is, wood browns, beiges and yellows; violets, mauves and pinks; different tones of grays; different tones of yellows, greens and blues.
Now having established your suite and hall all in one key, so that there is absolutely no jarring note as one passes from room to room, you may be sure of having achieved that most desirable of all, qualities in interior decoration repose. We have seen the idea here suggested carried out in small summer homes with most successful results; the same color used on walls and furniture, while exactly the same chintz was employed in every bedroom, opening out of one hall. By this means it was possible to give to a small, unimportant cottage, a note of distinction otherwise quite impossible. Here, however, let us say that, if the same chintz is to be used in every room, it must be neutral in colors chintz in which the color scheme is, say, yellows in different tones, browns in different tones, or greens or grays. To vary the character of each room, introduce different colors in the furniture covers, the sofa-cushions and lampshades. Our point is to urge the repetition of a main background in a small group of rooms; but to escape monotony by planning that the accessories in each room shall strike individual notes of decorative, contrasting color.
What to do with old floors is a question many of us have faced. If your house has been built with floors of wide, common boards which have become rough and separated by age, in some cases allowing dust to sift through from the cellar, and you do not wish to go to the expense of all-over carpets, you have the choice of several methods. The simplest and least expensive is to paint or stain the floors. In this case employa floor painter and begin by removing all old paint. Paint removers come for the purpose. Then have the floors planed to make them even. Next, fill the cracks with putty. The most practical method is to stain the floors some dark color: mahogany, walnut, weathered oak, black, green or any color you may prefer, and then wax them.
This protects the color. In a room where daintiness is desired, and economy is not important, as for instance in a room with white painted furniture, you may have white floors and a square carpet rug of some plain dark toned velvet; or, if preferred, the painted border may be in some delicate color to match the wall paper. To resume, if you like a dull finish, have the wax rubbed in at intervals, but if you like a glossy background for rugs, use a heavy varnish after the floors are colored. This treatment we suggest for more or less formal rooms. In bedrooms, put down an inexpensive filling as a background for rugs, or should yours be a summer home, use straw matting.
Please do visit our website by Clicking Here
LUCKY is the man or woman of taste who has no inherited eyesores, which, because of association, must not be banished! When these exist in large numbers one thing only remains to be done: look them over, see to what period the majority belong, and proceed as if you wanted a mid-Victorian, late Colonial or brass-bedstead room.
To rearrange a room successfully, begin by taking everything out of it (in reality or in your mind), then decide how you want it to look, or how, owing to what you own and must retain, you are obliged to have it look. Design and color of wall decorations, hangings, carpets, lighting fixtures, lamps and ornaments on mantel, depend upon the character of your furniture.
It is the mantel and its arrangement of ornaments that sound the keynote upon first entering a room.
Conventional simplicity in number and arrangement of ornaments gives balance and repose, hence dignity. Dignity once established, one could afford to be individual, and introduce a riot of colors, provided they are all in the same key. Luxurious cushions, soft rugs and a hundred and one feminine touches will create atmosphere and knit together the austere scheme of line the anatomy of your room. Color and textiles are the flesh of interior decoration.
In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by using plain paper and making the woodwork the same color, or slightly darker in tone. If you cannot find wallpaper of exactly the color and shade you wish, often it is possible to use the wrong side of a paper and produce exactly the desired effect.
In repapering old rooms with imperfect ceilings it is easy to disguise this by using a paper with a small design in the same tone. Ret perfectly plain ceiling paper will show every defect in the surface of the ceiling.
If your house or flat is small you can gain a great effect of space by keeping the same color scheme throughout that is, the same color or related colors. To make a small hall and each of several small rooms on the same floor different in any pronounced way is to cut up your home into a restless, unmeaning checkerboard, where one feels conscious of the walls and all limitations. The effect of restful spaciousness may be obtained by taking the same small suite and treating its walls, floors and draperies, as has been suggested, in the same color scheme or a scheme of related keys in color. That is, wood browns, beiges and yellows; violets, mauves and pinks; different tones of grays; different tones of yellows, greens and blues.
Now having established your suite and hall all in one key, so that there is absolutely no jarring note as one passes from room to room, you may be sure of having achieved that most desirable of all, qualities in interior decoration repose. We have seen the idea here suggested carried out in small summer homes with most successful results; the same color used on walls and furniture, while exactly the same chintz was employed in every bedroom, opening out of one hall. By this means it was possible to give to a small, unimportant cottage, a note of distinction otherwise quite impossible. Here, however, let us say that, if the same chintz is to be used in every room, it must be neutral in colors chintz in which the color scheme is, say, yellows in different tones, browns in different tones, or greens or grays. To vary the character of each room, introduce different colors in the furniture covers, the sofa-cushions and lampshades. Our point is to urge the repetition of a main background in a small group of rooms; but to escape monotony by planning that the accessories in each room shall strike individual notes of decorative, contrasting color.
What to do with old floors is a question many of us have faced. If your house has been built with floors of wide, common boards which have become rough and separated by age, in some cases allowing dust to sift through from the cellar, and you do not wish to go to the expense of all-over carpets, you have the choice of several methods. The simplest and least expensive is to paint or stain the floors. In this case employa floor painter and begin by removing all old paint. Paint removers come for the purpose. Then have the floors planed to make them even. Next, fill the cracks with putty. The most practical method is to stain the floors some dark color: mahogany, walnut, weathered oak, black, green or any color you may prefer, and then wax them.
This protects the color. In a room where daintiness is desired, and economy is not important, as for instance in a room with white painted furniture, you may have white floors and a square carpet rug of some plain dark toned velvet; or, if preferred, the painted border may be in some delicate color to match the wall paper. To resume, if you like a dull finish, have the wax rubbed in at intervals, but if you like a glossy background for rugs, use a heavy varnish after the floors are colored. This treatment we suggest for more or less formal rooms. In bedrooms, put down an inexpensive filling as a background for rugs, or should yours be a summer home, use straw matting.
Please do visit our website by Clicking Here
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
home decorating success
We will be returning to our series soon, but I just want to ask you a question at this point.
Do you want to decorate like the Pro's, impress your friends, and make every room in your house beautiful using the secrets of Top Designers?
Well of course you do, so may I suggest that you pay a visit to our website by Clicking Here
Do you want to decorate like the Pro's, impress your friends, and make every room in your house beautiful using the secrets of Top Designers?
Well of course you do, so may I suggest that you pay a visit to our website by Clicking Here
Saturday, September 16, 2006
home decorating success
I am going to start a new series of articles which will be extracts from my book, but first let me introduce things with a quote/comment.
"Those who duly consider the influence of the fine-arts on the human mind, will not think it a small benefit to the world, to diffuse their productions as wide, and preserve them as long as possible. The multiplying of copies of fine work, in beautiful and durable materials, must obviously have the same effect in respect to the arts as the invention of printing has upon literature and the sciences: by tfyeir means the principal productions of both kinds will be forever preserved, and will effectually prevent the return of ignorant and barbarous ages."
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: Catalogue of 1787.
One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of good line, correct proportions, harmonious color scheme and appropriateness: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful things.
Please take the time to visit my website by Clicking Here
"Those who duly consider the influence of the fine-arts on the human mind, will not think it a small benefit to the world, to diffuse their productions as wide, and preserve them as long as possible. The multiplying of copies of fine work, in beautiful and durable materials, must obviously have the same effect in respect to the arts as the invention of printing has upon literature and the sciences: by tfyeir means the principal productions of both kinds will be forever preserved, and will effectually prevent the return of ignorant and barbarous ages."
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: Catalogue of 1787.
One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of good line, correct proportions, harmonious color scheme and appropriateness: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful things.
Please take the time to visit my website by Clicking Here
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
home decorating success
Please Click Here to visit our website and learn some insider secrets.
Interior Design Tips And Hints
Interior design has often been the easiest form of self-expression. Somewhere in every person is an interior designer just waiting to jump out. This may seem unrealistic to some but most all forms of design are based in how we want our homes to feel. This brings along with it a picture of what our home is, what function it serves, and how we want to portray ourselves to others. The decorating process remains one of the great mysteries of the average person. How do we create the home we want to invite others into?
Many people have said that interior design is the process by which we connect with people, and connect with the world while staying safely within our own space. It is safe to say that through interior design, we connect with some energy, some force, and some thing that expresses who we are and how we want to live. And it is through this connecting process that we have the opportunity to use our homes to effect change in our lives.
If we choose, we can become more comfortable or more expressive. Through this process, we can show others how we like to live and invite them to share part of our lives. We can focus on comfort, style, and/or art, truthfully anything we want to express.
Here are the five steps to finding your style as well as some tips to implementing these styles.
Start with a passion for your project and with these five steps and think about whom you are, you can show whom you are thru “your place” as you never thought possible.
Step 1: The decisions
Is your home are filled with trinkets, gadgets, and dust catchers? That you don’t need? Or are these things treasures possessions that you cannot part with for all the tea in china? These items (typically bought for time saving) end up costing us precious space in our homes. We can free up space otherwise saved for these items or display them as they are meant to show who and what you are to the world! For example, imagine how much space is tied up in the books we bought but have never read? If you’re not going to read it, find another home for it. Donate to a library or give it to a friend that may find they will treasure it. A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t used something in a year, you don’t need it or want it. If the book is treasure for it’s beauty or worth then displaying it in a room would be much better then letting it collect dust in a box somewhere. We all need to make these decisions, love it or leave it!
Design tip #1: Most likely, it’s on your list of things to, go thru “things”, and has been there for months or even years. Sometimes we don’t know something unwanted because we have been putting up with it for so long and have gotten used to it. Like that pile of stuff in a basket by the sofa or a drawer in an old unused desk that you don’t really need anymore even when you have to walk around to get a wanted daily used items. So make sure to take care of the things to do list! A good way to do this is to stand back and think about all the things you own and if you are unsure if you use an item. Place a dot sticker on it with the date. If you use that item within a year, remove the sticker. If you do not use the item within a year, find it a home somewhere that it will be used.
Step 2: Find your style
Create a clear idea of what it is you would like to portray of yourself. Perhaps you are a person into comfort and easy maintenance, or perhaps you are a creative individual who would like to use your home to highlight new projects, new relationships, or a new career. Whatever your personality, begin now by narrowing down the specific style you will be comfortable living with. Remember, being specific is the key here. Make a list of qualities, draw a picture, cut pictures out of magazines do whatever you can to get as specific a picture as you can. Find thing that inspire you.
Step 3: Assistance
The keyword here is ASK! Asking where someone got his or her ideas will not kill you! Look for ideas in the world around you. Sometimes we are afraid to ask where someone we admire shop for the beautiful things that fill their home, but if you admire someone’s interior then let them know it! Other kinds of collaboration can include asking for help to clean out your garage in order to build your new studio, asking friends to come over for a dinner party because you want to get a prospective on how your living space will be used and where people gather, or asking someone to look over your drawing and pictures, a new look into what you are trying to achieve can get some great ideas offered. You don’t have to do it alone!
Step 4: Confidence
The number one attitude you should have is confidence. This can be achieved by realizing that interior design is something you cannot fail at, become you are going to live in it! If you are comfortable, you can be confident and enjoy it. So take a look at the ideas you are coming up with and whether or not you are keeping them to use. Take a look at your ideas, pictures and drawings. They’re full of decisions you have made. Deciding what you really want gives a wonderful feeling. But don’t take my word for it try it out!
Interior decorating tip #2: Many stores have wallpaper books with great images to go with the wallpapers. And magazines have ideas, too
Step 5: Take the first step
Start arranging and stepping back to see what you have done! Buy something you love and put it in the place of honor and work from there. Once you have de-cluttered and arranged just go for it! Anyone can do interior decoration. If you want to go by a rule, look in books and follow the steps. Many good interior-decorating books will tell you the difference between art deco and Elizabethan and most have steps you can follow. So you have many options and can get your home to be comfortable for you. So jump in and let your personality shine!
These five steps are designed to help you be more open to your own style and the inspiration that the world holds for you. If you work with these steps, you will be able to find a balance of comfort and design while avoiding some of the stresses and find yourself in a real sense of home that you love. Good luck!
Interior Design Tips And Hints
Interior design has often been the easiest form of self-expression. Somewhere in every person is an interior designer just waiting to jump out. This may seem unrealistic to some but most all forms of design are based in how we want our homes to feel. This brings along with it a picture of what our home is, what function it serves, and how we want to portray ourselves to others. The decorating process remains one of the great mysteries of the average person. How do we create the home we want to invite others into?
Many people have said that interior design is the process by which we connect with people, and connect with the world while staying safely within our own space. It is safe to say that through interior design, we connect with some energy, some force, and some thing that expresses who we are and how we want to live. And it is through this connecting process that we have the opportunity to use our homes to effect change in our lives.
If we choose, we can become more comfortable or more expressive. Through this process, we can show others how we like to live and invite them to share part of our lives. We can focus on comfort, style, and/or art, truthfully anything we want to express.
Here are the five steps to finding your style as well as some tips to implementing these styles.
Start with a passion for your project and with these five steps and think about whom you are, you can show whom you are thru “your place” as you never thought possible.
Step 1: The decisions
Is your home are filled with trinkets, gadgets, and dust catchers? That you don’t need? Or are these things treasures possessions that you cannot part with for all the tea in china? These items (typically bought for time saving) end up costing us precious space in our homes. We can free up space otherwise saved for these items or display them as they are meant to show who and what you are to the world! For example, imagine how much space is tied up in the books we bought but have never read? If you’re not going to read it, find another home for it. Donate to a library or give it to a friend that may find they will treasure it. A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t used something in a year, you don’t need it or want it. If the book is treasure for it’s beauty or worth then displaying it in a room would be much better then letting it collect dust in a box somewhere. We all need to make these decisions, love it or leave it!
Design tip #1: Most likely, it’s on your list of things to, go thru “things”, and has been there for months or even years. Sometimes we don’t know something unwanted because we have been putting up with it for so long and have gotten used to it. Like that pile of stuff in a basket by the sofa or a drawer in an old unused desk that you don’t really need anymore even when you have to walk around to get a wanted daily used items. So make sure to take care of the things to do list! A good way to do this is to stand back and think about all the things you own and if you are unsure if you use an item. Place a dot sticker on it with the date. If you use that item within a year, remove the sticker. If you do not use the item within a year, find it a home somewhere that it will be used.
Step 2: Find your style
Create a clear idea of what it is you would like to portray of yourself. Perhaps you are a person into comfort and easy maintenance, or perhaps you are a creative individual who would like to use your home to highlight new projects, new relationships, or a new career. Whatever your personality, begin now by narrowing down the specific style you will be comfortable living with. Remember, being specific is the key here. Make a list of qualities, draw a picture, cut pictures out of magazines do whatever you can to get as specific a picture as you can. Find thing that inspire you.
Step 3: Assistance
The keyword here is ASK! Asking where someone got his or her ideas will not kill you! Look for ideas in the world around you. Sometimes we are afraid to ask where someone we admire shop for the beautiful things that fill their home, but if you admire someone’s interior then let them know it! Other kinds of collaboration can include asking for help to clean out your garage in order to build your new studio, asking friends to come over for a dinner party because you want to get a prospective on how your living space will be used and where people gather, or asking someone to look over your drawing and pictures, a new look into what you are trying to achieve can get some great ideas offered. You don’t have to do it alone!
Step 4: Confidence
The number one attitude you should have is confidence. This can be achieved by realizing that interior design is something you cannot fail at, become you are going to live in it! If you are comfortable, you can be confident and enjoy it. So take a look at the ideas you are coming up with and whether or not you are keeping them to use. Take a look at your ideas, pictures and drawings. They’re full of decisions you have made. Deciding what you really want gives a wonderful feeling. But don’t take my word for it try it out!
Interior decorating tip #2: Many stores have wallpaper books with great images to go with the wallpapers. And magazines have ideas, too
Step 5: Take the first step
Start arranging and stepping back to see what you have done! Buy something you love and put it in the place of honor and work from there. Once you have de-cluttered and arranged just go for it! Anyone can do interior decoration. If you want to go by a rule, look in books and follow the steps. Many good interior-decorating books will tell you the difference between art deco and Elizabethan and most have steps you can follow. So you have many options and can get your home to be comfortable for you. So jump in and let your personality shine!
These five steps are designed to help you be more open to your own style and the inspiration that the world holds for you. If you work with these steps, you will be able to find a balance of comfort and design while avoiding some of the stresses and find yourself in a real sense of home that you love. Good luck!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
home decorating success
Click Here to learn the insider secrets to decorating success
Much like the history of art, the history of interior design has had numerous styles, movements and the political and social developments that have informed or challenged its evolution.
Encyclopedias define interior design as: planning and design of man-made spaces, a part of environmental designs and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself the field of interior design is relatively new, this seems on target for most home designs.
Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the term interior decorator has been so loosely applied as to be nearly meaningless, …Meaningless? Maybe since the word eclectic has become a household word.
Interior designers use their education, creativeness, and experience to help plan the space and furnish the interiors of private homes, public buildings, and business or institutional facilities, such as offices, restaurants, retail establishments, hospitals, hotels, and theaters.
Professional designers can tell you if a chair is a Greece. Rome. Byzantium. Dark Ages. Middle Ages. Gothic. Moorish. Spanish. Anglo-Saxon or Charlemagne's Chair. Does the average person even know what the colonial period, the revival of Directoire and empire furniture, the Victorian period or the periods of the three Louis?
This may be why a lot of creative people shy away from decorating there own special spaces.
In this modern day and age people can now use their creativity to create beautiful living spaces without caring that they may break a cardinal rule of decorating. Home decorating, is a conscious effort to improve the appearance and functionality of one's living areas, in many homes and living spaces. This means that we can break out of the styles of the past and create our own areas of comfort and style. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.
What is eclectic? Eclectic is basically made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources, like mixing a Elizabethan chair next to a Queen Anne stool. As part of the ever-increasing quest for individual expression in decor the eclectic style has emerged as a favorite among homeowners that want to decorate the world around them.
This gives us all freedom to decorate to our own taste and comfort level!
Acknowledging all schemes of interior decoration and insisting that what makes any scheme good or bad, successful, or unsuccessful is the fact that it is planned in reference to the type of person who will live in it. If you are to be living in it then you can do anything you want.
In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that balance will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative; convenient for the individual along with the family.
One is astonished to see how often the careless placing of one piece upsets the actual balance of a room. One chair in the flow of traffic or a tipsy lamp next to a door can really ruin a good-looking design. To help you make smart choices, look thru books on decorating that discuss traits, preferred room dimensions, available options for furniture matching, and other helpful decision-making information. Often ebooks and other online resource can point out good hints and tips to really get you started.
With this in mind and ideas fresh, I suggest lots of thought and some research before starting out on this great endeavor, but with a plan in hand roll up your sleeves and get going!
decorating
Much like the history of art, the history of interior design has had numerous styles, movements and the political and social developments that have informed or challenged its evolution.
Encyclopedias define interior design as: planning and design of man-made spaces, a part of environmental designs and closely related to architecture. Although the desire to create a pleasant environment is as old as civilization itself the field of interior design is relatively new, this seems on target for most home designs.
Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the term interior decorator has been so loosely applied as to be nearly meaningless, …Meaningless? Maybe since the word eclectic has become a household word.
Interior designers use their education, creativeness, and experience to help plan the space and furnish the interiors of private homes, public buildings, and business or institutional facilities, such as offices, restaurants, retail establishments, hospitals, hotels, and theaters.
Professional designers can tell you if a chair is a Greece. Rome. Byzantium. Dark Ages. Middle Ages. Gothic. Moorish. Spanish. Anglo-Saxon or Charlemagne's Chair. Does the average person even know what the colonial period, the revival of Directoire and empire furniture, the Victorian period or the periods of the three Louis?
This may be why a lot of creative people shy away from decorating there own special spaces.
In this modern day and age people can now use their creativity to create beautiful living spaces without caring that they may break a cardinal rule of decorating. Home decorating, is a conscious effort to improve the appearance and functionality of one's living areas, in many homes and living spaces. This means that we can break out of the styles of the past and create our own areas of comfort and style. Really know what you want as a home, want it, and you can work out any scheme, provided you have intelligence, patience and perseverance.
What is eclectic? Eclectic is basically made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources, like mixing a Elizabethan chair next to a Queen Anne stool. As part of the ever-increasing quest for individual expression in decor the eclectic style has emerged as a favorite among homeowners that want to decorate the world around them.
This gives us all freedom to decorate to our own taste and comfort level!
Acknowledging all schemes of interior decoration and insisting that what makes any scheme good or bad, successful, or unsuccessful is the fact that it is planned in reference to the type of person who will live in it. If you are to be living in it then you can do anything you want.
In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that balance will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative; convenient for the individual along with the family.
One is astonished to see how often the careless placing of one piece upsets the actual balance of a room. One chair in the flow of traffic or a tipsy lamp next to a door can really ruin a good-looking design. To help you make smart choices, look thru books on decorating that discuss traits, preferred room dimensions, available options for furniture matching, and other helpful decision-making information. Often ebooks and other online resource can point out good hints and tips to really get you started.
With this in mind and ideas fresh, I suggest lots of thought and some research before starting out on this great endeavor, but with a plan in hand roll up your sleeves and get going!
decorating
