Sunday, April 26, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Beach Living

Inspired by the sands of Bermuda and Bora Bora, a creative homeowner gives his landlocked home the illusion of sand, sun, and surf. In the bedroom, a sense of serenity prevails thanks to the minimal use of color and a focus on sumptuous textures.
  • Black-and-white photographs complement the palm-print bedspread.
  • A sophisticated striped fabric is repeated on the curtains and bed skirt.
  • A crisp linen-covered headboard is a calm break from the room's patterns.
  • A wicker desk chair and rattan baskets bring warm texture to the room.

Age-Old Beauty

In keeping with this home's cottage theme, lavender and soft white hues set the mood in the master bedroom, where a serene palette won't detract from the picture-perfect views. Soft floral fabrics and curvaceous furnishings lend a feminine feel to the room while rich black finishes add an air of sophistication.
  • An overstuffed linen duvet is a charming contrast to the floral window treatments.
  • A four-poster bed accentuates the room's tall, sloped ceilings.
  • Painted furnishings, such as the bedside table, help execute the room's breezy style.
  • If you can't afford antiques, choose reproductions with distressed finishes.

Bedrooms


Breezy Retreat

Decorating Tips


New Hardware Made Easy

Many people associate decorating kitchens with major renovations, such as replacing appliances, countertops, and flooring, but that’s not always the case. There are plenty of easy and relatively inexpensive ways to breathe new life into a dated kitchen.

One of our favorite kitchen decorating tips is to upgrade your existing drawer pulls. Choose the style that best matches your décor style -- traditional, contemporary, or retro -- and in just a couple of hours, your kitchen will have a fresh new face.

Monday, April 20, 2009

what's hot in decorating?


Decorating Tips

Mixing Old with New

When using antiques as an element of your home interior decorating, a little bit goes a long way. A thoughtful mixture of old and new elements can create an interesting and eclectic space. Don’t be afraid to mix fabrics and furnishings from different time periods.

One bathroom decorating idea is to pair a distressed antique mirror with contemporary, nickel-plated sink fixtures. In the dining room, fill an aged Victorian hutch with your favorite modern serving ware. Antique decorating isn’t so much about saturating a space with everything that’s old, but achieving an artistic blend of time-honored and current accents.

A Room with a View

When decorating your home, choosing the right window treatment can utterly transform a room. Whether you choose standard curtains, sheer panels, honeycomb blinds, or wood shutters, a window covering should express your personal style.

In addition to their obvious aesthetic impact, window treatments can also provide a sense of privacy, create a soothing and relaxed space, and absorb street noise and other exterior sounds. When selecting a window covering, fabric is one of the most important considerations. For casual rooms, cotton and linen provide relaxing choices. If you’re outfitting a formal space, opt for a more upscale material, such as silk, organza, or suede. Whatever window treatment you choose, be sure it blends well with your other interior decorating ideas.

Ideas




Thursday, April 16, 2009

Remodeling Your Kitchen to Get the Modern Look

Remodeling your kitchen requires taking everything back to basics and thinking about changing the utilization of your kitchen space, especially if you want a space to entertain in and not have to feel tied to your kitchen. Let the design of the kitchen take the work out of the evening through proper design.

Getting the high tech appliances isn't just about getting the best it also is about being water and energy efficient as well as being the most time and space efficient. Looking for faucets and appliances that reflect your taste, look good and have durability as well as being the best available on the market will benefit you and your kitchen with many style available it should complement the look you're hoping to achieve.

Expanding and maximizing your work surfaces and counter space is really important to make your kitchen be as functional and help you when you're entertaining to have the preparation space to do everything you need to do. This is of course achievable when you have a well thought out floor plan to create the best lay out in term of storage and surfaces. This is usually the key to the recreation of any kitchen and can make a huge difference to how the kitchen looks. Its not worth cutting corners here, unless you're a professional yourself, you should employ someone to show you all the modern possibilities within your kitchen.

If you have the room in your kitchen having multiple water sources and sinks is really helpful to separate certain tasks and achieve a functional and hygienic kitchen. This will help when entertaining to have separate areas for cleaning and serving, it also allows more than one person to function in the kitchen.

Kitchen Paint Colors For Rustic Kitchens

So now you have finally decided to settle into that country home you've been dreaming about for years. Everything is packed and ready, including your blueprints on how to find those gorgeous kitchen paint colors that can turn your kitchen truly rustic. When you say rustic, think of fresh breeze, birds chirping, the sweet smell of wildflowers all lined up in wonderful array in the garden. And when you say rustic style, you talk about informal and relaxed, which means you can feel confident about experimenting with down-to-earth colors when it comes to choosing paint.

Keep in mind that your home should be integrated with its surroundings, because setting is very important to the country home. So when you are choosing colors, think of colors that are part of nature, and don't be scared to look at nature as a part of your inspiration.

If you live in a forested area, then you know that during spring and summer, all those greens predominate. In fall, the hardwood trees are made up of reds, oranges, and golds. The winter season introduces all the shades of gray, ranging from the deep charcoals to the silvers. So when you are considering painting your kitchen cabinets to rustic colors, paint your cabinets a dark forest green, and the doors delicate coral. Make the background darker, it will create the illusion of airiness and spaciousness. Then, you can finish the cabinets with silver hardware to complete the look.

If your new country house is by the sea, then there is an endless inspiration just by looking outside. Be inspired by using indigo to cerulean. These colors mimic the waves and the sky. Consider the climate, too. If you live in the North, choose from pale colors to cool blues. If you live in a tropical location, choose the deeper blues and even lavenders. If you really want to make your kitchen an extension of the sea, choose a shade of blue that reminds you of the sea or the waters nearby. A good idea would be to finish everything with whimsical shells as minor decoration. If you're one of those creative types, you can stencil a border of sea birds or shells at the top of your room or doors to make it more interesting.

The best locations to build rustic country homes are those who have dry and quite arid regions. Here you can also use the colors to make your kitchen more rustic. Tawny sands, moss green, brown tumbleweeds, blood-red sunsets, and wildflowers in bright pink and yellow shade are the most appropriate colors to use. If you want, you can paint the cabinet body in a deep, rich red. Or you can paint your doors or window sills pale lemon yellow. Sage green is good in everything - use it to complement other colors in the room.

Rustic living is one of the best ways to enjoy the site and sounds of the great outdoors. When you are considering the right colors to use for your kitchen cabinets, choose paints that reflect and show the colors of the environment. It's never a mistake to look to nature to give you the inspiration to choose the right kitchen colors for your home. Look to Nature for your inspiration, and don't be scared to take risks with color from time to ti

How to Dispose of Autumn Leaves

With autumn being such a beautiful time of year with the changing leaves and the crisp air soaring across the fields the last thing you want to deal with is leaves blowing around. Understanding how to dispose of autumn leaves can help you clean up your lawn and dispose of them properly.

Each county may have their very own bylaws as to how you can dispose of your autumn leaves so you will want to contact them as to what exactly you can do. Some counties will provide pick up for your leaves and yard waste that you gather and will have a set date for the pickup so inquire if they'll be doing this or not. There are some places that utilize a heavy duty leaf collector that picks up your leaves at the end of your yard in amongst the gutters but this isn't offered everywhere so don't put your leaves in your gutter until you know for sure.

Some areas of the United States incorporate their yard waste pickup with the regular garbage collection meaning you can simply place your yard waste out with your garbage waste, but once again you need to find out before you do it.

With the rapid growth in economical ideas many people collect their leaves and actually use them for their vegetable gardens. This is a great idea if you want to help out the environment a little bit more and prevent the amount of yard waste that you'll have. By placing approximately two to three inches of leaf mulch onto your vegetable garden you can help protect it throughout the colder months.

Leaves are also great in amongst your compost bin. This means you don't only have to wait for your autumn yard clean up; you could do it all year long and work a little more on your compost bin. With the amount of people becoming more aware of the environmental changes there are more people looking for more ways to protect the environment which is where composting comes in handy.

As you can see there are many ways you can learn how to dispose of autumn leaves and every method seems to be a great options. If you want to be an environmentalist consider using them within your compost or gardens and if you still want to dispose of them off your lawn just contact your local county advisors and they'll gladly inform you how to dispose of autumn leaves.