Decorate on a Budget

If you have a stict budget but you need to redecorate – say maybe if you are goign to sell your home – what’s the best way to make limited funds stretch the furthest? For my money your best chance is to invest in some new paint. Tired and dirty paintwork alwyas makes a home look tired.  Even if you just paint the roof – ceiling paint is often very cheap on sale, and brighten up the windows – this can give the whole room a big lift. Adding a cheap and cheerful heated ceiling fan can add value too!

Alternatively some cheap, second hand is always a useful option, rugs and curtains can hide a multude of sins.  Cheap Mexican rugs can make excellent wall hangings and even table cloths.

Another trick of decorating on a budget – is a bit negative – as remove stuff, get rid of the clutter. Especially if you are planning on selling your home – removing clutter is absolutely essential step – there is nothing more off-putting for a potential buyer than not being able to see what they are buying (the house) for all the stuff that belongs to you!

Home Decorating – Fun and Difficult!

Decorating your home is a difficult task and fun. Why? Difficult, because you have to think about decorating that good and suit with your taste. Exciting, if it had been completed and you find your house look attractive and suit with your taste. Well these following things are the rules you should consider to decorate your home.

1. Minimalist concept
Minimalist is a trend that picked by the most people today. The concept is to create a home that can reduce your stress. The analogy is when someone gets home to find things different, then the stress level will increase. So, the idea is to have a number of larger space that can reduce stress by using a minimalist look as part of your home decorating scheme.

2. Technology and entertainment
Technology is one factor to consider in decorating your home. Entertainment is needed to make relationships or social interaction among family members. Modern television, VCR, and DVD player is one common option. Other options, you can buy a plasma television or flat screen television that is connected to the home theater set like a DVD player and sound system, or you can add a console game like the PS3 or Xbox-360 that would be better.

3. Windows
Many windows are a good choice. Because with a lot of windows will provide a big impression for your home. Also a lot of sunshine into your home will make your house a bright and healthy.

Now that’s the things you need to consider for decorating your home. But the final choice remains in your hands, so choose your home decorating that suit with your taste.

Lighting and Decor

One of the key points of interior design and decorating is light. The light helps tremendously to achieve the desired environment. Therefore, although a priori it may seem decisive, light and lighting are essential when decorating.

First lets talk of natural light. If we are lucky enough the room we want decorate has large windows and that it goes much natrual light, we must make maximum use of incoming light to illuminate the room. And there’s nothing like sunshine to brighten a room.

In winter, we try to better capture the weak natural light that comes in, because that will liven up the decor and atmosphere, which at that time of year is usually more sad. To get to revive and disseminate best natural light coming through the window, are very important the tones and colors of the walls. These should be light colors that will give more light into the room.

Electric lighting should be used differently depending on the location of the house lights. For example, for the kitchen or office, must prevail and live white lights that illuminate and allow you to see well what is done. In the room we find the opposite effect, with indirect lighting, light sweet and relaxing.

Never underestimate the power of light in a room decoration. What it can do is very powerful.

Trendy and Comfortable Bed Ideas

There is nothing worse than an uncomfotable bed. Comfort is essential  when purchasing a new mattress. There are several new designs to improve your comfort and help you get the most out of your night’s sleep, including comfort layers, pillow tops and latex and gels in the top layer, supporting and moulding to the body.

There is a three zone pocket spring which adjusts to keep your spine in alignment. Make sure that you are using he correct pillow as the wrong one can strain your neck and also put your body out of alignment. if you want to buy a base with your mattress designer bases with drawers for increased storage are very popular. Modern bed bases are designed to be shown off rather than hidden by a valence and are often made in macrosuede or linen finish and are available in popular tan and brown colours. Chocolate , mocha sand and tan are the most popular for bases – staying neutral means that there are more options to coordinate your linen.

Before you go off bed buying make sure you take your partner with you – you need to both try out a new bed so that different needs, shapes and weights can get the perfect mattress that will suit you both.

Modern Bedroom Furniture

Red is Hot in the Living Room!

With open plan living every popular lower-backed, three-person  sofas with square arms and backs are very popular at the moment.  However in TV or home theatre rooms buyers are still keen on full length recliners so that they can really relax in front of the big screen.

There is a huge range of lounges available including combinations of modular, three seaters, two seaters and single chairs ans well as single o rdouble-sized chaises. For some rooms in the house neutrals are popular but not so in the lounge. These seasons hot colours include red and blue – bold reds and bright blues are poplar set with neutral accessories.

Low back, square arm sofas, hep create the illusion of a bigger space because they don;t separate areas as definitely as the high backed variety. Three seater sofas are back in style.

Recliners are always popular for more formal lounge rooms. People seem to prefer higher backs so that they can lie back and relax.

Heavy duty macrosuedes and leather suites are the most popular fabric finishes. Custom-made prices are still popular from three seaters, double seaters, single seaters and double and single chaises

Bright res and blues may seem risky but ar flying out fo the showrooms. Dressed sown with neutral cushions these statement pieces are a great way to spruce up

Red sofas are hot!

an open plane lounge area

Hot Trends in Wooden Floors

Timber is ideal in open plan l-iving offering the opportunity to utlise a number of different rugs to deocrate rather than locking in a carept which when it has a to be matched and tied-in with the rest of the home. Tiles are another option for those looking for a flor suraface other than carpet, but timber is a more natural on the feet that is neither hot nor cold.

Timber flooring is much healthier for inhabitans than carpes as it does not collect dust and is easy to clean with a quick wipe-over. No chemicals need to be used in the cleaning process and it can be done DIY rather than having to call in a professional cleaner if you spill a glass of wine.

Lighter timbers make a small room look larger : blackbutt, marri and kempas are all currently popular. For a more leengat look classic jarrah is alwasys a best-seller.

Dress up wooden floors with itneresting rugs. Size, shape, colour, pattern and twxture can vary and when you feel it is time for a change it is easily replaced iwth a new rug -carpet doesn’t offer the same luxury!

Wooden floors are pracitcal and trendy

How To Furnish a Small Living Room

A small living room means that you have to design smarter and think more carefully about how you are going to use the space. The video below is an interesting , but in my opinion an imperfect attempt to design a small space living room.  First off check out the video:

Now what I like is the living room suite -  I think the two couchs and the single dining room type chair is a good compromise which provides a nice range of seating options too. Also the rug with an interesting design really works well with the sleek black leather sofas to provide a slightly 50′s retro look which goes with the architectural details of the room.

The idea of using ottomans rather than a coffee table could work – particularly if you often have visiting children who require seating. Another option would be a glass coffee table which would still show off the rug design and not clutter the room. I like the use of sleek venetian blinds in the windows but this won’t suit everyone – and the smaller window appears uncovered – for a warmer look I would use roman blinds personally – probably in a plain lighter cover picked from the rug or cushions.

What really doesn’t work for me is the flat screen TV on top of the antique amoire. Its obvious from the video this is placing the screen way too high to be comfortable to view from the main seating. Also who only has a TV screen these days? Where’s the DVD player, the set-top box? the video collection? the 5-in-1 sound speakers? the cables to connect it all together? the remotes ? You get the idea – a room like this is a nice place to start and would be perfect if you are showing your home for sale – but you can’t actually live in it unless you don’t use cables, remotes, magazines, books etc in real life!

Renovations – How to Survive!

If you don’t think this is funny you clearly havent’ done enough renovations in your life – or dealt with a less-than-perfect builder! There is a reason why renovations are counted as only slightly less stress ful as death or divorce (arguable I’d say) the combination of poor work practice and an out of control budget can really cause you a drinking problem!

Even if you find a good one – and I’ve been pretty lucky in that regard – the unbelievable mess that first interior wall demolition causes really has to be seen to be believed – its kinda of heart-stopping too as you know now there is no way back!  And the dust really does get in everywhere – literally tape doors and cupboards shut if you want them to remain dust free. In the end you will just give up and live iwth the dust – there  really is no point fighting it!

Anyway if you renovation is driving you crazy have a laugh at this video!

Making Your Own Cushion Covers

Even if you only have a basic sewing skills then covering loose furnishing such as outdoor furniture cushions is easy, fun and can even save you money! The trick with covering cushions is to get the right fabric – and that can be a lot cheaper than you think – because you often get short ends which are more than enough for your cushion cover project.

For outdoor soft furnishings there are a few tricks that you need to know about:

• choose non-fade fabrics -avoid cotton and linen – instead go for man-made fabrics;
• avoid fastenings which will rust – velcro is perfect
• if the area is windy make sure you can attach the cushions firmly to the furniture

How Long Does A Kitchen Renovation Take?

Too flipping long is generally my experience! I’ve never done a kitchen renovation in isolation to the rest of the house – wall removal is usually the start of it – and moving plumbing if I going full-on, and invariably adding more power points – there are never enough power points!

It also seems that however the builders plan it that the kitchen goes out of action first and that the kitchen cabinetary is one of the last things to be fitted – and then the kitchen is unusable until you get the splash backs done which is invariably the last job.

I was impressed with this before and after video – where they had a functioning kitchen with several weeks of what was a major renovation including removing walls and relocating the plumbing. The before picture was a total kitchen nightmare and the after – although the decor is not my taste is certainly a lot more practical a kitchen than the original! Very exposed for my taste though – I don’t link the main sink workbench taking centre stage and with no screen at all means that you would have to keep it tidy – that wouldn’t work for me at all!