August 2008
Monthly Archive
Themed Headboards - Building a Decade Themed Bedroom
Are you bored with the design in your bedroom and looking for something new and different to do in the space? Have you thought about creating a theme in your bedroom inspired by the style of a particular decade or era? This can greatly affect your mood upon entering the room and spice up the place by reflecting your inner personality. One of the best focus points with which to accomplish this is through the use of headboards, since they are typically one of the largest and most prominent pieces in the room. Whether you are inspired by modern design and have contemporary bedroom furniture or have some other time period in mind and want to travel back to that decade, the headboard of your choice can make it all come together.
For those who are obsessed with the Renaissance and Middle Ages, you may find that a theme of iron and wood portrays your innermost thoughts best. Wrought iron headboards can really reflect the style of the times in several ways, since this was a standard material for bedding at the time and also denotes the fierceness of the era with its cold harshness. You can find these with intricately woven designs or hard, cold straight bars and right angles, the latter of which was more common in the Medieval era while the former became the style during the Renaissance.
If you are a little more interested in recent past, you may find that a wooden headboard will suit your needs. Depending on the style, these headboards can be used to signify several eras, ranging from the Old West to the Puritan era and even up to the mid-20th century. In fact, wood is still a popular medium for a headboard today, so if you choose the style that matches your era of interest, you’ll be able to use wood for almost any purpose.
While not the first time they were available, bookcase headboards really came into popularity in the 1980’s. If you’re feeling a little New Age flare or late disco fever, this might be the decade for you. Use the shelving to house your disco ball and lava lamp (left over from the 70s), as well as your books on evolution and pop culture. Be sure you have pictures of Rick Springfield and Cyndi Lauper on the walls, too!
If all else fails, you can use prints to denote the style of your room and the era for which you are decorating. Upholstered headboards make it simple and fun to create a theme for your bedroom, allowing you the ability to redecorate often with ease and just a piece of cloth and a few staples. Use paisley for the 70s, fluorescent shades for the 60s, all black to recognize the Gothic wave of the 90s, or flashy metallic colors for the new millennium. Whatever your preferred era is, you can find a way to create a bedroom theme around it with headboards as your centerpiece and the draw to attention for any visitor. Let your personality loose and give it a try!
Ben Weissman writes about using Headboards, Metal Beds and furniture from Fashion Bed Group to create a beautiful bedroom at an affordable price. Make your bedroom a personal retreat.
Things to consider when buying carpet
admin 22 Aug 2008 | : carpeting
Buying carpet for your home is a big decision and there are many things to consider before making a final decision. It’s important to talk to your retailer, who can provide a wealth of experience. One of the factors with choosing your carpet is the cost.
When you select carpet for your home, you have many things to consider and many different options to weigh as well. Carpets come in many different colors and styles, textures and fibers, and there are many different qualities to choose from as well.
Determine how the room will be used. Some carpet styles are designed for active use. Other styles work better in formal rooms that have less active use. Different carpet styles work best in different situations. A Plush carpet may be the right choice for a room used for entertaining guests, while a Berber carpet may be a better choice for a high-traffic room used every day.
Consider the area and amount of wear it will receive, downstairs rooms and stairs will receive more wear and general soiling than upstairs.
Another consideration you’ll have is the color and patterns of the carpet. Light carpeting colors help to create a spacious effect, making the room appear to be larger. Light color carpets will of course, show much more soil than dark colors. When picking a colour, keep in mind that dark colours tend to make a room appear smaller and cozier and a lighter colour tends to make the room seem larger. Colour can also affect your mood. Warmer colours often make you more energized while cooler tones provide a sense of calm.
Determine what grade and quality carpet you are interested in buying. Choose a good quality underlay this will help prolong the life of your carpet.
Get your room professionally measured by estimate the size of the room in order to calculate the price. Determine how much carpet you will need for your rooms, you will need to know the square footage of the room. Make sure that all cost estimates from your retailer include everything from underlay, installation, moving furniture and discarding old floor covering.
Next, you must decide which cleaning product has the best capabilities for your type of carpet and carpet cleaning needs. Depending on amount of carpet stain, dirt and dust, you can clean the carpet yourself or hire a professional carpet cleaner or just buy a whole new carpet. It is not just a simple rinse with water and let the carpet dry, you need product to break down dirt and dust, draw out deep down build up and kill germs and bacteria. There are many carpet cleaning companies out there. You should know what your choices are in cleaning methods. A dry extraction type of cleaning will use a compound that contains detergents what will free stains and dirt which will then allow them to be vacuumed up. Dry foam on the other hand may be used by applying foam to the carpet and then vacuuming it up with a wet vacuum. You can also choose a vacuum that uses stronger chemicals and a stronger suction to get dirt up.
We provide articles and directories about Wholesale Carpet and Nap Mat . If you need more information please visit my sites.
The Cost of a First Impression
admin 16 Aug 2008 | : garden, landscaping
While studies show that you will only recoup 80 to 90 cents on every dollar you spend to upgrade your kitchen or bath, professional landscape designers estimate that improvements to your lawn and garden can boost your home’s value by 7 percent to 15 percent. Those findings have been confirmed by survey results [from the Gallup Organization and the National Gardening Association (NGA)] this year, despite the economic down shift toward the real estate market.
Lawn and garden equity is all the rage these days as homeowners continue to invest heavily in their property values. The NGA says U.S. homeowners spent a $36.8 billion on their lawns and gardens in 2007, $11.4 billion of that on landscaping.
Dorcas Helfant, general managing partner of Coldwell Banker Professional Realtors, in Virginia Beach, Va., and the first female president of the National Association of Realtors, says her fellow baby boomers have a far different aesthetic than their parents.
“Our parents were not as particular. In the ’50s, you had this era of bomb shelters and fear, and the homes we grew up in had these high windows where you couldn’t see in or out of them,” she said in a recent New York Times article “Today we don’t live like that. We want broad, open expanses and windows that look out on gardens and ponds. We’re not willing to live as prisoners in a house.”
Homeowners are finding; however, that creating interest and harmony on the outside is far trickier than making upgrades to the inside. The sheer variety of trees (evergreen and deciduous), flowering plants (annual or perennial), and the walls, paths, window boxes, benches, and arbors that landscapers call “hardscape” can create a dizzying array of choices and potential missteps.
Yes, you can get some creative ideas from popular HGTV shows such as “Curb Appeal” and “Landscaper’s Challenge,” but flash and dash from someone else’s plan won’t necessarily work to your home’s advantage.
“There are a few people out there in the world who have an intuitive sense of how things should be put together, and everyone else doesn’t,” says Mel Senallé, landscape professional in the Atlanta area. “If you barge ahead on your own, you can make some horrendous mistakes and create some maintenance problems down the road that could have been avoided if you’d hired a designer.”
So, with this advice let’s take the challenge of looking at our home’s landscaping with a designer’s eye. There are trends out there that may help you paint your garden masterpiece. Wherever you live, proper landscaping can enhance both your enjoyment of your home and its ultimate resale value. The first thing you probably noticed about your home was its curb appeal. Even though your home’s appearance from the street is only part of creating the perfect outdoor environment, first impressions are often lasting ones for buyers.
Matt Buquoi is a contributing author for Flower Window Boxes, a manufacture company that works with designer, landscapers, gardeners, and more to create products that help improve the curb appeal of homes and businesses. They fabricate window boxes, planters, and other garden decor. http://www.flowerwindowboxes.com
