Archive for July 29th, 2009

Country Kitchen Design & Decorating

When planning to redesign your living space, it’s not just about making it a comfortable place for yourself, your friends, and your family. The American Pet Products Association (APPA) touts that 63 percent of all U.S. households that own a pet are drastically incorporating interior designs that are pet-friendly. In fact, many interior designers ask the homeowner if one or more pets will also occupy the space before colors and fabrics are even considered.

It appears that the pet-friendly interior design trend will be around for a long time. It used to be that people only thought about pet-proofing their living spaces to keep the area safe for their furry friends. Now, however, more and more animal lovers are choosing to incorporate fabrics that are pet friendly, as well as choosing building materials that are eco-friendly.

If you want to be part of this pet-friendly design trend, while still maintaining an awesome-looking home that’s practical, comfortable and makes you and your pet happy, here are four decorating concepts to consider.

Designing your space with color

Before you get ready to take the plunge with reds and turquoise as your fabric or wall color choices, perhaps you might want to match your furniture’s fabric with the color of your pet’s fur.

By matching your dog’s or cat’s black fur with black fabric for the furniture, you’ll conceal the animal’s hair that tends to accumulate on your precious furnishings. Likewise, if you have a multi-colored cat or dog, you might wish to choose a patterned fabric that will blend in with the animal’s coloring. If you have a white-haired critter, you probably don’t want to choose a chocolate brown fabric for the sofa or chair.

You can also choose to use select furniture pieces rather than stark office equipment to enhance the interior design of your office space. Stackable wicker and wire file baskets can take the place of impersonal metal filing cabinets. You can also play around and buy decorative utility items, such as wastebaskets, to personalize the overall effect of the office’s interiors.

Use Appropriate Lighting

Choose lighting that will not only provide ample illumination but can be decorative pieces as well. Do not rely on overhead lights. Put in an adjustable table lamp to provide enough lighting and protect your eyes from the glare of your computer screen. This will also save you from the headaches and eyestrain, which results from poorly lit work areas.

Outdoor lighting is also an excellent source of lighting for your workstation. Use translucent window shades in soft colors to let in the light while minimizing glare and provide you a great outdoor view.

Decorating Your Space

Free your creative spirit and celebrate your individuality! After all, this is your own personal space. Strive to create a distinctive look that reflects your personality. Feel free to use warm soothing patterns rather than the prevailing corporate look in most offices, which exude a cold, dreary and impersonal effect.

Here are some other suggestions that you can take into consideration in designing your home office:.

• Try painting your walls in the same color as the rest of the house, yet in a slightly darker or lighter hue, to tie the space with the main living areas.

• Create an illusion of additional light by finishing your wall paint with a glazing technique.

• Personalize your home office as much as you want to. You may hang artworks and invite nature in by bringing in large houseplants or trailing vines.

• Invest in an overstuffed chair and ottoman. It makes a comfortable reading area and adds a touch of undeniable charm in your home office. Toss in some pillows and voila! Your home office will take on a warm cozy atmosphere that you can be proud of!.

Resource Author Francisco R. Higueras
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Decorating the nursery, kids rooms and kids play rooms have never been so fun with designer kids area rugs. Designers today are well aware of the need to easily clean every element of the room’s décor for the health of your child, as well as the desire to educate and creatively stimulate them to enhance their potential. These critical formative years are happily influenced by your choice of art, furniture, color, and especially nursery rugs designs. Buy from an online store with a wide selection so you can see all the possibilities.

Kids Area Rugs
Decorating the rooms in which your children will spend the most time is easily accomplished with the huge selection of beautiful, creative, colorful and attractive designs available. A variety of designs imbedded with themed artwork for kids of all ages feature thick and soft 100% wool and cotton and wool. There are many shapes and sizes for children’s rugs ranging from small at 40″ round to 8 feet by 11 feet.

Certain kids rugs and nursery rugs come in rosy hues with richly colored flowers mixed with plush swirls for your little girl. For the young adventurer, dinosaurs in bright colors roam across easy to clean nylon and skid backed kids rugs. Rockets and spaceships soar into the universe while planes, trains, and automobiles race around rich-colored printed rugs while. Cowboys ride their thunderous steeds across the wild west. For the pirate in the family, tall ships set sail in uncharted waters seeking adventure and hunting for buried treasure.

Kids Themed Area Rugs
Area rugs are more than just delightful floor coverings. Kids rugs are also enormous activity centers. For instance, the Soccer World Championship Rug is an inspirational playing field for your son and daughter. Made of high quality thick 100% wool, it measures 39.4″ x 59.one inch tall and comes with eight inch tall soccer players, a ball, and easy to fasten hook and loop goals. This outstanding carpet stadium mirrors is an attractive complement to any well furnished room.

For handcrafted and original kids rug designs get the Drooz Studio collection which creates 100% wool, hand-hooked and dyed works of art that will make any room very posh. Of such a high quality and timeless designs, these heirloom pieces will enchant your children and provide soft and warm play areas enhancing any kids room. Their shape is rectangular with a standard small size of 3 feet by 5 feet and with larger size upgrade options. Circus themes, boys and girls pretend activities, flowers, fruit, time dials and story land, these kids rugs have been featured in Coastal Living, Pregnancy, Kids Today, and ABC Extreme Makeover for their quality, workmanship, color and detail.

Rugs for all themes, ages, and purposes are available for the most discerning of parents. Quality kids area rugs and nursery rugs that are low maintenance come in delightful shapes, colors, sizes, and themes are the best for the nursery, kids bedroom and kids play rooms. Enjoy shopping!

Cora Lee is the owner of BlissLiving.com, widely known for a huge selection of high quality kids rugs including unique childrens rugs, nursery rugs, custom mother’s jewelry, designer diaper bags, and exclusive baby gifts. BlissLiving has been featured in US Weekly and People Magazine’s Celebrity Babies and Pregnancy Magazine, and has been listed as one of the highest rated sites by the Better Business Bureau for five years in a row.

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The kitchen can be a bit of a problem when it comes to decorating. The kitchen has to be, first and foremost, functional. That means that the majority of the room has to be either left clear for working, or taken up with some tool or appliance that will make cooking easier. Fortunately there are a number of strategies that you can use to overcome these obstacles and make your kitchen look beautiful and inspirational.

 

The first thing you should look at is the walls. While floor space and counters, tables, and flat surfaces are all going to be needed for the act of cooking, the walls have no functional use in this space. Therefore they are like wide open canvases, just waiting for you to fill them with color and interest.

 

When choosing wall home decor it is important that you are aware of the conditions that arise in the kitchen. First this room can get really hot. This may cause paper products to warp, or can even melt some soft plastics. Next you have to consider spills, drips, splats, and other nasty messes that can occur where food is being prepared.

 

In general you should try to only hang decorative items which are relatively resilient in this space. Wrought iron, stainless steal, and whicker pieces are all relatively impervious to the dangers of the kitchen. If you want to hang art, make sure it is protected by a sturdy glass casing.

 

Another important thing to consider when decorating a kitchen is color. Different colors can have dramatically different effects on an atmosphere. Red colors can make a space feel much more energetic. However they also make a room feel more hot, which can be a problem in the kitchen.

 

Cooler colors such as sage greens or light blues can bring down the temperature if you feel like things are getting too hot. You have to be careful however, as certain green tones look sickly, and blue can be an appetite supressant. That means that if you use these tones in the right away you might kill your own inspiration for making food at all.

 

Many people choose to go with very basic colors in this space. White and off white is popular because it goes with anything, and it makes it easier to see stains when cleaning. You should avoid black in this space, as it will tend to soak up heat. Earth tones are quite popular as they are generally neutral, and tend to create an atmosphere of family oriented security.

 

Decorating your kitchen can be a challenge but it is not impossible. By paying attention to the functionality of the space and working around it, using color, and wall decorations, you can add a lot of beauty and style to your culinary cove.

 

Hanging wall letters are inspired and artistic kids room wall decor for your baby’s nursery, kids bed room or kids play room. Using the ABCs to bring fun and joy into the environment is a creative and successful method of teaching your children about the alphabet. Hanging wall letters come in a variety of whimsical styles, colors, and shapes. The most popular and unique look are the handcrafted wooden hanging letters. The most popular are the natural wooden hanging wall letters because of their high quality look and natural feel that increases the effect of any decor theme.

Framed Wood Wall Letters

The wooden letters are embedded in an off-white wooden frame with a beautiful color background of your choosing. This unique wall letter style has a large quantity of options to choose from such as 36 shades for the ribbons, 27 background patterns including polka dots, toile, gingham floral, striped and starred. You also have two frame styles to choose from, either scallop edged or straight, and two frame sizes, eleven by twelve inch with a nine inch letter, and eight inch square with a five inch letter. Set aside some fun time with your children so they can listen to you discuss the importance of ABCs as they watch you put up the wall letters.

Upper Case Wood Wall Letters

Upper Case Wood Wall letters are the most popular wall letters because they really make your child’s name standout as they vividly march across the wall in all natural wood. These nine inch tall hand painted capital wall letters come in light denim blue or rusty red and they are beautiful wall decor for any kids room. Hang them to a surface with all purpose adhesive or double stick tape and be original. Don’t just buy enough for your children’s names, it is trendy to purchase enough bold capital letters to write a message like “Jody’s Room”.

Lower Case Wood Wall Letters

Lower Case wood wall letters are gaining in popularity in recent years because they are great for spelling out messages. Since these wooden hanging letters are finished in an off-white ivory with a light tinted texture they will match almost any nursery or kids room decor. Use these lower case letters to spell out your children’s names and to write special messages such as “You Can Do It “, “Wish upon a Star”, or any other inspirational message that will gaze upon her and support her through the early development years. There are 19 ribbons to choose from to match any kids room wall decor including yellow, pink, blue, lavender, red, green and more, polka dots in blue, green, pink, pale blue and pink with chocolate brown dots, stripes, solids and more.

home decor items

Floor lamps are a quick and easy investment that a person can make to enhance their space. One of the most popular types of floor lamps that can be found on the market today is the Tiffany inspired lamp. Tiffany lamps have been around for years, and they are perfect accompaniment to any person’s area. If a person is interested in an authentic antique floor lamp, then the Tiffany may be the best investment for one who can afford it.

Tiffany floor lamps were made from 1890 up until the mid 1920′s. Louis Comfort Tiffany had a workshop that he blew the glass at. His work is loosely based on nature, and with intricate patterns made of lead, these lamps are considered highly valuable pieces. Most of them can be found in museums, but some can be purchased from reputable dealers if they can be found.

Floor lamps are the perfect accent to a person’s decor interior design of their living spaces. Tiffany reproduction floor lamps can be used to highlight a specific area and help to bring a little of nature indoors. One of the best places to buy reproduction Tiffany lamps including floor lamps is QVC. These unique lamps are handcrafted in the same time-honored tradition established by Louis Comfort Tiffany. These lamps that are featured in QVC’s specialty shop are a nostalgic yet increasingly trendy way to light up one’s home. These impressive pieces shimmer with a kaleidoscope of color and offer a distinctive, illuminating style that are unique to these home decor accessories.

Floor lamps in the Tiffany style can also be found in the local retail stores. These lamps are more then likely at a price that most people can afford. Even Qvc lights can range up into the hundreds of dollars, but those at Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, or Home Depot can be purchased for a starting price of $19.99. No longer do individuals have to dream of owning an art home decor item like these. They can actually own either one of the various floor lamps or table lamps that are made to resemble Louis Tiffany’s work.

Floor lamps made by Louis Tiffany are highly coveted items that are rarely found outside of the museum. However, if a person wishes, they can accent their home with a reproduction of the famous lamp makers art. These lamps are available in a variety of styles, and the ones that are floor lamps are a little more expensive, but very much worth it. With a little searching, a person can find the right Tiffany lamp for their home decor, and this can also be a very good conversations piece for company.

Say what you will about modern furnishings, but nothing still comes close to having a little flora to help make a room come alive. Unfortunately, having real plants in a room can be a challenge for a number of reasons. The room may not having sufficient light, maintenance (watering, pruning and the like) may be too tedious a task, or simply because one doesn’t have a green thumb to keep plants looking the way they should.

Fortunately, those reasons don’t necessarily prevent one from having the look of foliage and flowers as part of a room’s interiors. There is an endless variety of silk plants out there today that look like the real thing – if not better.

And the best part of it is that they can be found everywhere and maintenance is practically zero. But as it is with decorating a room, there is still the trick of knowing how to make the room tasteful with a good selection of silk plants without making it look like a jungle.

First thing you need to consider is the overall motif of the room. Is it warm and traditional? Or is it sophisticated and modern? Key things to consider are the furnishings in the room as well as the color scheme. The silk plants you purchase should go well with the theme of the room. For example, sleek plants like bamboo or a silk bonsai tree works really well in a modern, minimalist room. But for a homestead-like, cottage-feel space, a big bouquet of carnations silk flowers will work better.

It is also a good idea to take pictures of the room. This will be a significant help when you go out to find the plants. Not everyone is blessed with a photographic memory so having a reference of your intended space will help you make better buying decisions. As much as you can, take note of the scale of your pictures. Have a family member or friend in the picture to give you a reference for scale. That way, you not only choose the right color and shape of the plants, you also good the right size.

A good rule of thumb when buying silk plants for decoration is to remember “less is more”. Don’t fill every available space with plants. Instead, pick out 2 to 3 spots where you can place a plant accent. Just having a maximum of three places is ideal. Anything more than that and the room will tend to look cluttered. What you can play around with is the size. For example, for a smaller room, you can use smaller accents such as a relatively small silk bonsai tree. But again, think of the total look of your room, and having photos of your space will help prevent you from going overboard..

Buying silk plants online is a great alternative to getting them from your local store. Your have much more options and since silk plants are generally lightweight, it won’t cost too much to ship. A good place where you can buy silk plants for your room is http://www.silkplants4less.com.

Clean, sophisticated lines make  Roman blinds  or Roman Shades the stylish ways to dress any window.

Inside or out, on their own or combined with curtains and top treatments to achieve a variety of pleasing looks.

The Roman blind style is unique with many advantages. Flexibility in application is possible because of the way Roman blinds can be hung in a variety of ways. Unlike blinds that just roll up or down or side to side in the case of vertical blinds, the Roman design blinds hang flat and are pulled up using a network of folds and pleats. It is an innovative approach to window hangings that allows the blinds to lay flat against the window in ways other blinds can never achieve.

Homeowners get a number of advantages from the Roman blinds ability to lay flat against the window. Quick, thorough and easy cleaning is possible because of the accessability of blind. By use a damp rag or a mild spray cleaner, you can keep them looking great all the time.

Fitting to the window helps block out more light. This has more applications than just for people developing film. For those who work nights and must sleep during the day, being able to have a perfectly dark room for the hours they need their sleep would mean a huge improvement in their health and their ability to function on the job the next night. Roman style blinds make it possible to make the room virtually empty of light so that night shift worker can sleep in perfect darkness. Doctors who help people who must work all night tell us that being able to achieve total darkness is critical to their long term health. The blinds make that possible.

Roman blinds are also perfect if you have a room where you will be working on the computer and the light coming in through a nearby window creates an undue glare. You can adjust the blinds to block just the part of the window that is creating the problem so you still have a nice window with an outdoor view but you can work comfortably on your computer for as long as you wish.

If your still not convinced that the style and sophistication of Roman blinds are not right for your room then there is always the simple wooden blind

 

 

 

Do you want to know more about how to make quilted designer shower curtains? This is exactly where you will find what you are looking for. This post has been written with you in mind.

Before engaging yourself in this project you need to be well equipped with some information and tips that may seem trivial but will prove useful along the way.This is why I invite you to read right to the very end and you will be realise how useful this post is.

The sad reality is, that in most cases you have a certain idea or vision about how you want your bathroom to look. For instance you may be considering purple fabric shower curtains or hunter green hookless shower curtain {blended|accentuated|beautifully combined} with an assortment of beautiful colors but only to find that your local bathroom store doesn’t have them. How can you go around this? Simply do it yourself.

Here are some thought starters.

You can make it without putting any batting in it to make it lighter.

One of the most important prerequisites of a shower curtain is water proofing – so be careful with your stitching.

You can also make only a quilt top and a plastic curtain for a lining. You can just saw the quilts at the top and then find some nice rivets to use.

If you choose to sew the quilt on to the liner then it will most probably leak, this why I recommend sewing at the top. Unless of course you don’t mind the possible leakage.

When making it like a quilt top that is pieced together you can then put a backing on it to hide the seams.

Instead of sewing the quilt to the plastic liner you can make the buttonholes across the top of the hooks. This will leave you with an option to wash the liner easily and separately. You can even throw it away when it wears out without losing the quilt.