May 2nd, 2007
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. If you are thinking of gifts to give the most important woman in your life, look around home furnishing shops. As you may have seen over the years, our mothers have worked day in and day out to give us the best life we could ever have. They are mostly like us, who are passionate about taking care of the family and doing this job well. The Kacey Mack blog’s vote goes out to the ever-reliable, dependable area rugs. Lately, area rugs are becoming well-known for being charming home accents. Fresh new designs are out and you can easily choose the ones that will seal the deal for your dear mom. HZL’s store, for example, has a variety of area rug collections, which are made with both retro and modern designs. You can pick the ones with photographic traces of the past. Your mom will most likely appreciate them than the bright, urbanized variety.
I’ll probably get Mama an area rug with a canvass artwork. She loves everything artsy and for sure, she will love my choice. It will certainly look good in her dining room, as a perfect nesting place for her elegant dining table.
May 2nd, 2007
With the fast-paced lives that we live, it certainly helped that a lot of home furnishings available offer convenience to the max. Nothing beats the techie home gadgets we have in almost every corner of the household, especially in the kitchen. Even our ordinary furniture got interesting makeovers to offer utmost convenience without having to include any motor or electric component. Storage beds are good examples of that. As Amanda Somers’s blog said, the advantage of storage beds from ordinary beds are the drawers installed, which can be a safekeeping for anything from your set of bed sheets to your favorite books and important documents. Storage beds are perfect for people in apartments or those who have very little area for a bedroom. They are far more practical and they make things easier. They are highly functional and stylish, too.
I don’t have a storage bed in any bedroom in my house but I am thinking about getting one for my teenage daughter. Her belongings have been more than what could fit in her storage cabinet and obviously, more than I can manage. A storage bed can probably solve her organizing problems. With the current look of her worn out, old bed, it seems like she definitely needs a replacement.
May 2nd, 2007
As decormotif.com’s blog said, you must be careful in choosing your windows’ treatments because they help shape the general look of your room and not just the windows. There are a handful variety of window treatments available — from draperies to curtains and blinds — and all you need to do is to pick the one that fits your style. Each window treatment requires care guidelines as well so use the one that you think you can easily manage. Why go for draperies if you are not sure you can maintain its elegance?
The favorite choice nowadays is blinds, in all styles and materials. A lot of modernist homes love bamboo blinds, as I have said a couple of entries ago. Then again, there are those whose preference is the cellular shade, which filters the amount of natural light passing through without the use of sheers. When it comes to choosing blinds, go for colors and designs that fit the style of the whole room best. You may choose printed window treatments as long as they don’t clash with the rest of the room. Be wise with your decision. Your window treatments can certainly make or break the beauty of your home interiors so better choose them well.
May 2nd, 2007
Victoria Larsen’s blog talked about the author’s bathroom counter top project, which she just finished recently. She converted her tiled top into an endearing sandstone masterpiece that can steal away attractions. She had problems with her sealer but resolved it nevertheless to ease her worries over repair and maintenance once heavier things are put in. To create a uniform style, the blogger also had to replace her bathroom cabinet as well as her sink faucets. She had a very well-done project, I tell you. It was a joy to look at the picture of how the bath top used to look before the remodel and after the work is done. The bathroom did not only look elegant but also cozy.
Using different materials in a remodel project could be a real challenge because you need to alter most of the furnishings around, but once it’s done and everything went as planned, you will surely love the outcome. I love looking at old rooms given modernist treatments. I am also fond of giving existing rooms helpful makeovers. That’s what keeps me constantly looking for fresh new home items. If you have the time, I suggest you try doing this as well— it’s a very fulfilling job.
May 2nd, 2007
Unlike perishable goods with expiry date attached to their labels, your home appliances do not have any. Your only guess is through the warranty. If your refrigerator has a five-year warranty, that should tell you that it’s cut out to last that long, at the very least. But appliances do face sour demise. They all come to a point when they are no longer efficient or worse, not working altogether. The sad fact is that after parting with your 10-year-old convection oven, you will go out in the market to find that there is nothing that is even close to your old unit.
Michele Cheplic’s blog related a similar story faced by her parents after a heartbreaking loss of their microwave oven, which lead her to research on the estimated lifespan of home elements. A credible source disclosed that home foundations are made to last for at least 50 long years while the most common home appliances range from 6 years to 15 years. This includes refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, water heaters, gas ranges, trash compactors, washers, and dryers. Of course, how you care for your things is a very significant factor, which could either lengthen or shorten their lifespan. Make sure that you take extreme care handling your appliances to enjoy its longer service.
May 2nd, 2007
Believe me, storage and organization is never too easy. It requires a lot of creativity, patience, and of course, hard work. As Becky’s blog puts it, it’s just like going through a diet program. It requires knowing how to alter your ways so they don’t become boring in the long run, being as calm as possible every time something new comes up, and being prepared work your butts off to achieve your goal. Keeping the clutter away is similar to eliminating body fats that you have acquired through the years. For that, Becky has an easy solution: to enroll in a clutter diet managed by Lorie Morrero, an organizer by profession. She promises to bring you to the slim persona you always wanted to achieve through an easy step-by-step guideline. This will cost you an amount but you will surely love the outcome. Ever had problems with owning too many organizers and never knowing how to use them? This is your chance to put the clutter away in a stylish manner. You must learn that living is all about keeping things in order— from the garage to your bathroom— and not so much about how many luxurious pieces you have installed.
May 2nd, 2007
Doing business at home is common nowadays for passionate homemakers who are also career movers. Fortunately, women like us are already given the opportunity to serve two masters at the same time with uttermost convenience. In my case, I keep an office space in the house where I can do all the paperwork, all the blogging without disturbance from the outside world. ImagineQuest’s blog offered helpful tips for people who are currently designing their own private offices right in their households. The first tip is to choose a fairly spacious room to serve as your office area— an area that is roomy enough for your equipment. Next is to buy only the necessary furniture — a desk, a couple of chairs, a computer table, a filing cabinet, etc. Once you installed the important components of your home office, it would not hurt if you put in some stylish touches on it by using applicable accents and accessories. Make sure though that they won’t make for a clutter. Nobody can possibly finish quality work in a messy hall so keep your clutter in check. Also, pay attention to your lighting. There should be enough natural lights that passes through your window to make you feel relaxed and refreshed whenever you’re working.
May 2nd, 2007
To make you feel that summer is really here, why don’t you decorate your home in cottage style? It is not as hard to do as you think it is and can actually be a fun activity to do. With your cottage-style crib, you would surely generate a lot of oohs and aaahs from your guests and home buddies alike. Design Talk’s blog offered interesting tips taken from another blog, which will guide you through your beach design project.
Summer is all about everything bright and dandy and you can achieve these by way of using colors. This does not mean though that you have to repaint the whole house for this; putting in suitable wall accents or wall treatments will do. Remember that this is a seasonal thing so as much as possible, you must be careful in modifying things. Keep in mind that you can do a distinctive difference without having to totally renovate your home. Use the power of fabrics, lighting, and movables like beach-y frames and wall-mounted accents. If you really want to use paint to make an artsy beach wall, you can do so but do it only in the smallest room of the house — the bathroom. You would not have to spend days and weeks to switch it back to its old look anyway.
April 30th, 2007
If I am having a bad day just like today, nothing can pacify me better than a good home find such as this period table featured on Funfurde’s blog. I don’t necessarily have to buy what I have seen— just looking at interesting home accents alone already takes away my anger and blues. I don’t know; being a passionate homemaker is probably the trigger. It’s either that or I’m just a plain shopaholic. Whatever the reason may be, what matters is that I have an easy solution to lighten up my mood and control my rising temper.
Anyway, the period table I was talking about earlier is such an exciting living room accent with its classy aura and modern elegance. Its dwarflike base is made of powder-coated steel while the top is made of tempered glass. If ever I have the need and the money to get it, I will probably put it as a centerpiece in my modernist living room. It will surely make for a nice accent to my fire place along with my hand-tiered sofa, and my floor standing lamp. Well, come to think of it, it will also look good in my bedroom. It is easy to mix with other furnishings because it doesn’t look too old or too modern.
April 30th, 2007
Ever since I found the passion for designing and remodeling my house, I always make extra effort in sparing some time to look around and see what’s hip and hot in the home décor arena. This is to make sure that I don’t go out of style even when I am following my husband and children’s preferred themes. I also have a common room with no particular theme for houseguests that pay visits every once in a while. That specific area was designed based solely on my taste and not on anybody else’s.
LB’s blog meanwhile, said that it is important to consider the specific needs and requirements of the members of the family when designing or remodeling a room or the whole house for that matter. While there are young children around, it would be ideal to design your home in a child-friendly way, which will suit their unruly and raucous behavior. You can make your kid’s room playful while encouraging them to be creative by installing magnetic boards and blackboards in their rooms. You can be creative as well in choosing the pieces of furniture you will bring into your home by determining the four Ws— who, what, when, where.
