Modern Home Decorating

A lot of people run out of steam by the time it comes to decorating their bathroom. This is hardly surprising after: by the point you get to the smallest room in the house you have been spending considerable amounts of energy making the living room worthy of guests, transforming your bedroom into a relaxing retreat and giving the kids great rooms in which to play and learn. You are not alone! It can be quite discouraging to run out of inspiration: decorating a bathroom to fit in with the rest of your home can be a very tall order.

The very first thing to consider before you get started is what impression you want the room to give visitors, and how it fits into your overall design scheme. Do not be fooled by the fact that the actual purpose of the room is to perform a basic function, and that therefore looks are not important. It is not necessarily the case. The most important thing to keep in mind is that there are things best left unseen. Your guests will probably not care for a plunger in plain view by the toilet or your stash of feminine protection products out in the open. While everyone knows what they are for and needs to use them every so often, there is no need for an all-out display. Trust me: your male visitors would rather not see “girl stuff” out and about on the counter. This is why storage is essential in a bathroom. You may not have a built-in closet in the room to stash away your possessions, but worry not: there are plenty of bathroom decorating ideas to help you solve your storage issues. For instance you may want to use storage boxes and wicker baskets to keep your items handy yet out of plain sight. By using accessories, colors and displaying beautiful items in a bathroom your guests will not concentrate on what the main function of the room is.

There are many websites that you can browse on for inspiration and magazines that specialize in bathroom decorating. With a bit of research you can find ideas on style, design, colors and ways to accessorize that would work in harmony with the décor of your home. You should be able to find everything you need to know about bathroom decorating on the Internet and in the press, with decorating ideas to suit your home and lifestyle.

A.Caxton
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/decorating-styles-spruce-up-your-bathroom-98838.html

Can’t paint or put up wallpaper. So I was thinking getting some peel-off wall decals – any other ideas?

I’m decorating my son’s room in my apartment now, which I also can’t paint, and have found ALL SORTS of neat stuff! Check out some of these:

http://www.decoratorsecrets.com/diy-fabric-wallpaper.html
I’m doing the fabric wallpaper like this behind his crib… http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OddY-OlLtco/SYoZ_Dt_beI/AAAAAAAADyI/xEuH-1WjC-4/s400/Wall+with+fabric…+repeated+in+frames+to+the+side.jpg but in a different fabric, and I’m putting his name in painted wooden letters over it also (which you can get at walmart for cheap)

http://www.make-your-own-baby-stuff.com/nursery-wall-art.html

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/crafts/home-decor/home-decorating-ideas/?page=27

You can also put up a shelf and use baby blocks to spell the baby’s name or for decor in general. And I found some cute sports pictures online (on yahoo image search) and printed them off and put them in dollar tree frames and used them as wall decoration also! Cheap and cute!

I hope it turns out BEAUTIFUL! Good luck!

Can’t paint or put up wallpaper. So I was thinking getting some peel-off wall decals – any other ideas?

I’m decorating my son’s room in my apartment now, which I also can’t paint, and have found ALL SORTS of neat stuff! Check out some of these:

http://www.decoratorsecrets.com/diy-fabric-wallpaper.html
I’m doing the fabric wallpaper like this behind his crib… http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OddY-OlLtco/SYoZ_Dt_beI/AAAAAAAADyI/xEuH-1WjC-4/s400/Wall+with+fabric…+repeated+in+frames+to+the+side.jpg but in a different fabric, and I’m putting his name in painted wooden letters over it also (which you can get at walmart for cheap)

http://www.make-your-own-baby-stuff.com/nursery-wall-art.html

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/crafts/home-decor/home-decorating-ideas/?page=27

You can also put up a shelf and use baby blocks to spell the baby’s name or for decor in general. And I found some cute sports pictures online (on yahoo image search) and printed them off and put them in dollar tree frames and used them as wall decoration also! Cheap and cute!

I hope it turns out BEAUTIFUL! Good luck!

If variety is the spice of life, then it is no wonder that we embrace change in our everyday lives. From the clothes we wear, to the way we decorate our homes change helps keep things fresh and new. But when it comes to our home’s landscaping, change is not as easy as buying a new item for our wardrobe, or putting some fresh paint on the walls. When we make changes in our landscaping they are difficult and time consuming to undo, and returning used items to the store is often impossible. That is why it is important to have a solid plan in place before you bring your landscaping ideas to life.

One thing to remember when formulating your landscaping ideas is that unlike interior decorating, landscaping has a dynamic and organic canvass on which to work. The inside of your home changes at a time of your choosing, but your landscaping takes its queues from Mother Nature. Plants die, trees grow, and rains can erode your hard work in one short day. A good landscape plan will take all those factors, and more, into account. It is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the art of landscaping while ignoring the science, but good landscaping is as much engineering as it is inspiration, so before you put your landscaping ideas into action consider some of the following tips and warnings.

When you set off to tackle your landscaping ideas, avoid doing the work in a piecemeal fashion. It is easy to fall into the trap of sporadically planting flowers and placing stones in drab corners of your property, but doing so can give you a finished product that lacks cohesiveness. If you want your landscaping to have a unified look and feel, then you have to start from scratch. Put together a landscaping plan for the entire property before you set off and start digging.

Another important thing to remember is that good landscaping ideas must take advantage of the land and features you have to work with. How much direct sun does your property receive? Do you have areas that are sunny while others are shady? Do you have heavy soil that drains slowly, or sandy soil that drains quickly and retains little water? Is your property flat or hilly? Do you live in an area where plants and colors are living year round, or do the cold winters rob you of your plants and colors? The answers to those questions can help you arrive at a landscaping plan that will give you the best chances for success. With some help or research you can find the proper plants, flowers, grasses, watering plans, and architectural features to best suit your property.

Lastly, good landscaping ideas have an eye toward proportion, both in the scale of the project and the amount of time you have to dedicate toward building and maintenance. Be sure to build features that have a size that is fitting with the size of your home. Building a massive stone waterfall in front of a small cottage would look out of place, just as a single small flowerbed would do little to enhance the landscaping of a massive mansion.

Remember that things like ponds, retaining walls, hedges, and trees often appear much larger when installed than they do when they reside only in your imagination. In many cases, smaller plans make for better finished results. And remember proportion when considering the upkeep of your landscaping ideas. Things like pools, ponds, or waterfalls require cleaning and maintenance on a regular basis, so try not to create more work than you have time to do.

Landscaping is a matter of taste, just like clothes or interior decorating. The art and beauty of landscape design is in the eye of the beholder, but the science of a good plan is universal. If you want a landscape project that will make the most of what you have, then make sure that your landscaping ideas are fitting with your time, resources, and property.

Riley Hendersen
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/good-landscaping-ideas-need-a-good-landscaping-plan-119435.html

Have you gotten bored with how your home looks, how it feels, has it lost the luster in your heart that it first had when you moved in. Does it feel like it might be time for a change, for a new venue? A great number of people feel the same way, in fact quite often. But rather then moving you might consider replacing some or all of the flooring in your home.

Replacing flooring along with minor changes in furnishings from time to time can keep that feeling of newness ingrained in your home. Adding a special touch with just the right flooring can make even the most commonplace room décor into something special. Carpets once were king, now hardwoods and custom style tiling have come into their own. Not to say that carpeting has gone out of style, it hasn’t. But more and more where once a home was wall to wall carpet, people are experiencing the magnificence and select beauty that contrasts in flooring materials can make in a home.

One methods of home decorating use to be to visualize a room with all the furnishings, then furnishing the room with the flooring only being thought of in a functional manner or by virtue of color coordination. But today it is not uncommon for the floor itself to be the center piece of the room, with everything else being selected only to compliment the beauty of the floor itself.

interior design today will view a space and visualize a period or a texture that matches the space. With the texture in mind the very first thing to be concentrated on is what type of flooring to use. It becomes the single most important element of the space because everything else in the room, by design will compliment that particular flooring material color, texture and design, everything! You might think that the concept is hard to follow but it really isn’t. Because flooring is usually the largest single element in a room, it stands to reason that it needs to be considered very highly when its time to make the decision to put it in place.

To make my point, the next time you are at the supermarket or discount store, pick up a copy of your favorite home magazine, and when you get a moment, sit down and study it. I don’t mean read it, but study the pictures. If you do you will find the essence of what I have just said is true. You will discover that in fine homes, homes that continually get photographed for these types of magazines, more often then not, the floor is the center piece of the room.

How can you know? Looking at the pictures, do the room spaces seem to be full? Do they seem cluttered or furnished too heavily? Usually not, and if they do, how memorable was the flooring material? Do the individual pieces fit well with the flooring, are they arranged in s manner that cover most of the floor, or are there lots of throw rugs about? Sometimes possibly but more often the room are sparsely furnished to allow the viewer to take in all of the room. You might notice that each furnishing fits into a well molded scheme that accents the beauty of a floor. Bedrooms if any might be an exception to this type of design, but they too are often floor orientated in design.

You might argue that what you are seeing is a perspective from someone who has a passion for fine flooring, and you would be right. Most great interior designers have a passion for the finest of flooring materials. But you don’t have to be filthy rich or an interior designer to share in that passion for fine flooring. With the cost effective, durable and beautiful choices availed to homeowners like us today; we too can have those magazine picturesque type spaces in our homes.

I found that when I started thinking about what type of flooring best fit a space in our home, the better job we did in the entire design project of each room. The best way I can tell you to begin is to visualize your rooms empty with no flooring, no wall paint or coverings, all neutral or white, then from the floor up, decide how you want the room to feel. Consider the light, the time of day the light is natural, when will it be used, how will it be used, then think about the feel of the flooring, how do you want it to feel.

Too many people get bogged down with the ideas of ease of installation, ease of maintenance, and durability. All admirable qualities to consider, but they shouldn’t be your driving motivation for selecting the right floor. If I had to put them in order these would be the criteria for selecting the perfect floor.

? Could the flooring stand alone? Would the space have beauty with nothing but the flooring material in place?

? Will the flooring give voice to the way I want to feel about the room. Will the flooring match or compliment the particular type of energy I want this room to have?

? Will changes in light (natural to artificial) change negatively or positively the aspect of the space? Sometimes flooring material that is too dark or light will tend to be less appealing during specific times of light. Be warned though that is not always true, so it is important to understand how the room will be used and when that use will take place if possible.

? Then decide what type of furnishings you might want or need that will rest directly on the flooring. Those furnishings might be ones you want to obtain, or ones that you already have. In either case, the flooring needs to fulfill its task of melding the contents of the room, how ever furnished into an esthetically pleasing as well as applicably functional space.

Then if you so choose, you can hold your choice up to the general considerations usually taken into account about flooring, which would be durability, ease of maintenance and then ease of installation. I put ease of installation last on the list, because a great floor is worth some extra effort if need be.

If you can conquer these criteria in selecting your flooring material, I can almost guarantee that the rest of the room will fall into place and make for that picture perfect room that deserves to be showcased in the next issue of your favorite home magazine.

So the next time the walls of your home seem to want to close in on you and moving comes to mind just because, you might want to consider a change in flooring. It’s usually a lot cheaper then moving, and has the advantage of adding value to your existing home.

Scott Best
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/transform-your-home-with-new-flooring-122024.html

will be staying in for a while. would love to fix it nice without a lot of expense. suggestion please. also if you have any other decorating ideas for this home would be great. the colors are soft yellow walls white trim. thanks,.

my fave thing to do is a simple scarf & bracket arrangement. you can buy brackets at walmart or target, or make your own from a 2×4 cut to a decorative/curved shape: the ones i use are flat on the back (where they’re mounted to the wall) and have a hole through them side-to-side. you’ll basically be putting in one nail or screw to hold them to the wall.

measure your window, floor to top of window, across top, top back to floor. this will tell you how long your drapes need to be. if you want them to arc down more in the center, buy longer fabric.

then you can buy ready-made window scarves, or (go cheap!!!) head over to the $1 per yard fabric section in walmart. buy the color you like or buy several colors, and simply pull the fabric through each hole in the bracket. tug here and there until it falls the way you want it to. experiment with having the drape symmetrical, shorter on one side, or tie a big soft knot in the fabric down one side. hemming the cut edges is optional. more layers of fabric means a fuller drape, and you can have top layers cut shorter than underlying ones, giving a tiered look.

when you leave, it’s easy to pull the brackets off the walls and take them with you. brackets can be refinished with spray-paint if you want another color for your new house. scarves are easily replaced, and this method can make stuff cheap enough to have matching window trims for each time you change the bedspread or the accent pillows in the living room.

a similar simple-yet-elegant style can be achieved with by draping fabric/scarves over curtain rods and pretty finials, but this hardware is usually more expensive and puts more holes in the walls.

example: the ones in my bedroom are white & silver:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/253724902_5fe9e72271.jpg

Getting ideas for home decorating. Using magazines for lots of different ideas. Finding the right one for your tastes.

How in the world do you find the right decorating scheme for your home? Everywhere you turn, there are different and new ideas that you can use, but which one will work for you? Each room in your home presents a different challenge, and it is really difficult to focus on the right look for each one. interior design magazines were made to order for your dilemma.

Of course, with the vast array of interior design magazines that are available, you now are faced with which one to use for your own purposes. You can find so many of them in big home decorating or improvement stores such as Home Depot or Design Expo, but you also see them on the racks at your local supermarket or department stores like Target and Walmart. You may even see them at a larger 7-11, that’s how popular they have become.

There are many benefits to using these types of decorator magazines. First of all, they are pretty inexpensive, so you can get a lot of ideas for little cost. Secondly, these ideas are original; magazine editors strive to have the latest looks in their magazines and they know they have to appeal to a wide audience of both younger and older home or apartment owners who are looking to decorate economically.

These kinds of magazines will offer ideas that are trendy and usually show the latest ideas in upgrades, new kitchen ideas and gadgets, as well the latest appliances and furniture styles.

You usually can tell by the cover of the magazine which market it is going to appeal to. Modern designs that may appeal to younger audiences and apartment dwellers will feature sleeker, more modern looking covers. Traditional design will be reflected in a cover article that is all about the tried and true favorites, whether it is Victorian design, country charm or classic elegance. Choosing such a magazine will assure that you will get ideas to suit your taste.

The newest “old” trend is cottage or shabby chic, and there are many magazines that are devoted to this trend. If you are looking for a way to decorate inexpensively, or to incorporate antique pieces into your design scheme, you will find plenty of ideas here.

These publications are well written and have loads of ideas for everyone who is interested either in changing their style or learning about decorating styles so they can decide how to decorate. So many of them not only have the decorating ideas you need, but also have the how-to’s on how to achieve each idea. Just browse through the racks and buy a few, and you will come up with dozens of ideas to inspire you.

Mr.Andrew Caxton
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/interior-decorating-magazines-110180.html

Hello everyone,

I am going to be living for the first time on my own … I am moving out of my parents house and to another country. Egypt, Cairo.
I already have an apartment there, 2-bed room and fully furnished including all electrical appliances
I would still need to buy kitchen utilities, blankets, sheets, towels, etc
I have so many questions:

1st: I would like to learn to cook.. I have never done anything by myself; we had a maid at home so I don’t know how to do anything. Any cooking tips, what are the basic applicants I should have, how hard is it to cook?

2nd How hard is it going to be to take care of the apartment, any tips?

3rd Any decoration tips/ ideas/ for decorating the place. Any useful websites? Other than IKEA , I have already checked that

If you are from Egypt/ any other tips

Thanks a lot

1) If you can read, then you can cook. Start simple just things that require a few ingredients only, always follow the recipe until you feel confident to make substitutes. Don’t bother buying cooking books – there are great recipes online (free).
2) If you ensure that you put things back after you finish with them – your unit will remain tidy. Don’t leave things lying around out of place. Clean is a whole other matter however, make sure you do the following things weekly:
- change bed sheets, scrub bathrooms (toilets, sinks, basins, showers, baths), kitchen (disinfect benchtops, bins, stove plates, ovens etc,etc) (Wipe benchtops daily to keep clean), vacuum and mop floors, wipe down all tables, dust surfaces (feather duster)
Monthly: clean out oven (if pyrolytic run cycle, if not use oven cleaner), scrub oven shelves
Quarterly: wash and windex windows, empty food pantry and kitchen cupboards, wipe and disinfect.
3) Decorating tips – Keep it simple and plain. Colours are great, patterns date though, you are best to pick things that are classic looking that won’t clash with the next house you move into. Good luck.

Love to get ideas for decorating first home. Not IKEA or anything like that, but real peoples homes. Thank You:)

This is the site that I go to to get ideas from real people.

http://ratemyspace.hgtv.com

I am in Beta and my group was assigned to decorate a wreath, so if you have ANY ideas, please answer!! thanks!

Does anyone in that section have dementia? If so, don’t put anything that looks like food. Other than that, your imagination is the only limit!

Here are some ideas
http://www.mycraftbook.com/List.asp?subcategoryID=13

Here’s a fun interactive tutorial
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/static?page=ihts_winterwreath
..