Monday, February 27, 2012

3 Tips Interior Design and Decorating Ideas for Small Spaces

Do you live in an apartment, dorm or a space that when you spread both arms out, opposite walls are being touched? It is very common to live in a small space or have a small living space that you would like to make more use of. Decorating small spaces to be more functional is a large part of what interior designers do and they are here to help. The classic question of how to make the best design choices for small spaces is about to be answered by following these interior design tips!

Tip 1: How to Make Small Seem Larger

It can be tough for those who did not go to a top interior design college to make a small space feel airy and open, but these interior design tips will be a great place to start. One of the easiest ways to create an open flow to any room is to have armless furniture. This will facilitate an unfettered look with the illusion of more space. Also placing larger pieces of furniture back to back, such as a couch and a table, will leave an expansive border around the largest pieces of furniture in the room. You can also seem to add space by covering unattractive storage with a tapestry or artwork. These simple interior design tips will quickly expand your small space.

Tip 2: How to Make Small Functional

Now that there seems to be more airiness in your space, you now have to make your space functional. The first step to functional living is to realize that there just might not be enough room for everything to have its own space, and serious organization is essential. Wall shelving can be used for organizational boxes. You can also use the walls of your kitchen to hang pots, pans and potholders. Remember that the walls, cabinets and awkward spaces within your dwelling are all possible places to store and organize your things.

Tip 3: How to Make Small a Destination

Don't just use your small space, but make your small or under-used spaces a destination within your home. Take an unused part of the living space, like the top of the stairs and add a bench and a reading lamp with a functional reading or knitting basket that can easily fit underneath the bench. This organized, but welcoming look will have you reading for hours and feeling completely relaxed in your small space in no time. If you have a window area, creating this reading area with natural light will make it all the more cozy. Just because a small area is not currently being used doesn't mean it can't be!


Friday, February 24, 2012

Diverse Directions in Eclectic Decorating

Show off your style with eclectic decorating. Turn your home spaces into a merry-go-round of happiness with a mix of styles and designs of a creative eclectic decor. You have it quite right when everything works together: artsy side tables, afro centric art and contemporary upholstery pieces. Tell a decorating story that features a diverse theme. Anywhere you want to go in your celebration of design periods and styles is the anthem of all things eclectic.

Can you relate to a diverse decorating style that focuses on various ensembles in beautiful unity? Eclectic decorating is the freedom and luxury to change focus and do your own thing elegance. Luxury touches in eclectic decorating show up in fabric, texture and finishes that look high-end, but cost much less. The essence of ambiance comes through rich color choices in art and decorative accessories.

A successful eclectic decor has a strong scheme that combines many decorative styles that work together as one. Not only will you find style variety in an eclectic room scheme, but there is luxury, personality and plenty of drama. An eclectic decor can handle dramatic style very well. There is no single feature that increases a sense of drama. The decor is the drama. This style is perfect for a home with rooms that need a change that is diverse.

Are you a creative soul who loves to change around living spaces? If an unpredictable style is your preference, then switch up your room styles with an attitude for drama. Take a design theme from a serious to a fun tone with a playful spin. Coordinate a crazy, wild or adventurous room theme with animal prints on fabric and bright pops of primary colors on furniture and in artwork.

The Modern Course of Home Decor

Try to stick to style that improves, changes and modernize your home. Start your home decorating off with good intentions. Seek a decor or style that is current, modern and quite livable. Begin to experiment with various color combinations for a personal design effect. Or you try a new layout of your furniture to get a new aspect of a room space.

The Decorative Design of Eclectic Style

Base your decorating formula for style on a look that is formal plus casual elegance. Make a major personal statement by decorating spaces with trendy and daring styles for a winning edge. Direct your creative ideas to decorate for style, comfort and beauty. How you design a space for living rests on the pace and course that you set. Imagination and a personal ownership is a style theme that is guided by whim, a trick bag full of decorative shortcuts and other goodies of your mind garden. Stick with a decorating theme that will whisk you away, satisfy an urge to splurge or celebrate an over-developed design style. If you dare to decorate, then have fun with style and go astray with a home design gone modern.


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Beauty Of A Solid Oak Sideboard

Oak sideboards come in all shapes and sizes, some come with shelves, and are often used to hold such things as silverware, cups and saucers etc. They are an ideal companion to your living room furniture when entertaining guests, as they can double up as a drinks cabinet or even a place to store cards and poker chips.

Solid oak sideboards come in very popular styles such as Spanish, Italian and even Art Deco, they also come in different shapes and sizes and fit in well with the other furniture. People tend to display family photographs and other heirlooms in them, they are very useful pieces of furniture both from a display and storage point of view.

Where Can You Get a Solid Oak Sideboard?

Visiting your local furniture store would be the first point of call when thinking of buying this furniture, as to see them in a picture online may not be doing them any real justice. You really need to see them in the flesh so to speak to appreciate them fully.

Seeing them in an online catalogue is not the same as seeing them in a showroom, you can't get the real shape and feel of this magnificent furniture from a picture. Prices can vary and it depends on the thickness and quality of the oak.

Unlike cheaper versions of the sideboard, oak sideboards can stand the rough and tumble of everyday use, some antique sideboards are still being put to every day use today even though they were manufactured over a 100 years ago. Scratches and blemishes can easily be sanded out to restore them to their original condition.

So Why Solid Oak Sideboards?

With a solid oak sideboard, unlike much cheaper made sideboards, they are built to last. Particleboard is commonly used in the manufacture of cheaper sideboards but will not withstand years of use like the tougher, much versatile oak version.

Not only that but the oak version looks and feels much stronger, and is very much in Vogue today as they never really ever goes out of fashion, they also tend to add a feel of quality and luxury to a home and can often be a talking point when visitors come over.

The sideboard was once a place to store the food, whilst waiting to be served, however they now appear in any room in the house whether that be bedroom or lounge, they can even be used to hold the entertainment system



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Spice Up Your Kitchen With Tough, Yet Elegant Wall Tiles

The most common way of decorating and protecting your kitchen walls is by resorting to Ceramic tiles. The logic is simple. Ceramic is very resistant to common wear or tear esp. in the backsplash and countertop area. They will easily last for several years. This durability is critical as changing them is not as easy as changing a wall hanging or rearranging the living room furniture. But just ensure that you do not choose the kind of commonplace pattern or colour that you would tire of seeing soon. This shouldn't happen as home decorators are spoilt for choice these days when it comes to ceramic. They come in such color combinations and highlight unique designs and patterns suited for the kitchen. Until some years ago, we couldn't think of any design for our kitchen walls other than a few cute-looking fruits or vegetable paintings. But there is no limit to the creativity used by home decorators today. For example, one unique idea is to create the effect of a Colonial window in the backsplash area with a combination of multi-colored ceramic and natural stone tiles.

Furthermore, Ceramic absorbs more water than the vitrified tiles and the glaze makes them resistant to a certain extent. But the problem is that it is not meant to bear weight or heavy frames and the glaze on outside is not exactly resistant to scratches or heavy abrasion.

But thankfully technology has smart answers for this and kitchen tiles today are manufactured to be used in the same way as natural stones like marbles or granite. The products we get today don't change shape and show great resistance when exposed to high or changing temperatures. What a blessing is this property in a place like the kitchen! Also, these tough tiles are designed to be bull-nosed at the edges like hard stone, again reducing the occurrence of damage in the heavy-traffic corner areas of the kitchen.

The greatest boon for the housekeeper is that ceramic does not stain easily. All it takes is a wet mopping cloth to promptly remove anything that has been accidentally spluttered on walls. Even the everyday mess created by sauces, hot liquids and hot oil can be easily cleaned up with liquid cleaners. The only thing to be avoided during cleaning is abrasive pads or steel wool. It easily damages their surfaces.

Kitchen tile designs also come in Porcelain and Glass. While these look very upscale and attractive, remember that they are fragile and make sure that they are used as visual interest points and not mounted in the heavy-duty areas.


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Bathroom Mirrors to Decorate Your House

There are so many ways to decorate your house that even the bathroom has several options. The bathroom mirrors with lights are the first thing people install when they are on the mission to revamp their houses. This is because people are beginning to realize that apart from just illuminating the bathroom these LED mirrors also add aesthetics to the bathroom, which is in most cases much needed.

If you are looking out for a very welcoming feel to your bathroom, to set the right atmosphere, these bathroom mirrors with lights are very good options that solve the purpose very easily. Initially bathrooms were considered as that place in the house that requires no decoration. It just needs to be clean and that's it. But times have changed and people are beginning to give aesthetics more and more importance thus not leaving out the bathroom when it comes to remodelling the looks of the house.

Why must one opt for the LED mirrors?

There are several substantial reasons why one must choose the bathroom mirrors with lights. Let us go through a few of them. First of all, the main purpose of the lights is to illuminate the area, which these LED lights comfortably do. Thus, when you have to shave or apply a face pack, you don't have to strain your eyes almost getting in the mirror, the LED mirrors take care of the dim light issues which make a close shave next to impossible without cuts etc. When these LED mirrors reflect light, it makes your bathroom look a lot wider and cleaner as well, not to forget, very posh. The next time you have guests over who visit your washroom, you will hear many compliments for the way your bathroom is presented.

What are the points that need to be considered before buying the LED mirrors?

You have to be clear about what is the theme that you have in mind for your bathroom. Accordingly you will find the LED mirrors that you would be looking out for in my Bathroom suites. There are several mirrors that have lights for you to choose from. All you should be clear about is the look you want your bathroom to extrude, whether you are looking out for something traditional, modern, conventional, non conventional etc. Then you must list down your priorities of installing the bathroom mirrors with lights. Is it just for the aesthetics or is it for the purpose of illuminating your bathroom or anything else. If it is for the purpose of illumination of the bathroom then you would need to those LED mirrors that are very bright and strategically placed on the mirror to achieve maximum coverage of illumination and likewise with the other reasons.