Basic Decoration Trends

Modern era has witnessed a huge change in decoration and design trends. The themes have changed drastically and now people are more willing to experiment with new ideas. There are certain basic decoration trends; Traditional look, contemporary décor and country look. The traditional look is still the most preferred by majority of households. It brings back the nostalgic memories to all and sundry. The fact is, preferred decoration trend is determined by an individual’s taste, age and color combinations. Traditional look has elements of rich and flamboyant designs. Colors are usually dark like navy blue, burgundy or emerald green. This design represents splendor and opulence. Wood work in traditional look is generally of cherry wood. Another essential feature of such décor is leather furniture that enhances the overall look of the house.

Contemporary style is also known as casual style. The particular features of this style are chrome, glass and black plastic combinations. Many households prefer minimalistic décor that is quite clean and simple. Preferred colors are gray, white and beige. Furniture is often made of light wood whereas accessories are used to enhance the overall effect of the house.

Those who love to feel themselves closer to nature, usually opt for rustic or country style. This style is very soothing and has a calming feel about it. This style goes wonderfully well with Country French or Mission-style home decoration. Country style has undergone certain changes with shifting preferences of new generation. Bright color combinations are more opted for now a day. Rustic style focuses on antique look with distressed paint finish. Modern decorations themes also emphasize the need of providing new look to bathrooms and powder rooms apart from bedroom, kitchen and living room.

Dining Room Table Set

So after decorating your entire house with your favorite furniture, you are wondering about your dining room table. Now, this is one aspect that does demand your consideration and thoughts. Remember, dining room table is a very important part of any household because this is one place where the entire family sits together and has a meal. One interesting thing about dining room table is that it normally lasts longer than other furniture of the house and you can also pass it to next generation as a legacy. So, you must think thoroughly before deciding about the dining table. This is not any piece of furniture but it is dining table that will remain with you for a long time. Consider aspects like taste, style, durability before zeroing in on one.

One of the important factors in dining room table set is the shape. It could be rectangular, oval, square or round. Those with small family size should go for round or oval shape. For large family size, rectangular fits the bill. Next important thing is material being used in the table. For a more casual or relaxed feel, you can go for pine, oak or cherry. But if you are looking for fancy or style then walnut and mahogany will do the job. Children often leave scratches on wood. In that case, you can also opt for casual woods. Glass table is another option but it is delicate.

When it comes to style, one has the choice of antique look with handcrafted workmanship and designer cravings. Glass and expandable tables are also useful choices.

Feng Shui Colors

The literal meaning of Feng Shui is wind-water. We all know it is a Chinese system that uses laws of both earth and heaven to improve lives of people. It is helpful in bringing positive energy in the house. The prime principles of Feng Shui focus on drawing positive energy at any place. It could be your home, office or any building. Feng Shui plays a crucial role in our homes and more and more people are trying to follow principles of Feng Shui. Talking about different parts of our house, bedroom is perhaps the most important part because this is where we spend maximum time of our life. The atmosphere of your bedroom can have multiple effects on you in terms of spirituality, energy, effectiveness, peace and emotional level. Therefore, one should an appropriate color for his bedroom because colors can have drastic effects on someone’s life.

Feng Shui and yoga science places special emphasis on color selection for your bed room. For example, blue contains yin energy and it has a calm and soothing effect. Blue is one of the best colors for your bedroom because it represents love and serenity. Similarly, pink is a wonderful color for your bedroom. Pink represents joy, happiness, love and innocence. This color symbolizes relationships and we all know importance of relationships in our lives.

Red is a dominant color and represents fire. It should not be used on the wall in the bedroom however; it can be used in things like bed sheets and blankets. Green represents growth, hope, fertility and harmony and is considered as very effective for bedroom. White denotes purity and innocence. It can be used in bedroom but only in moderation. Purple symbolizes excitement, passion and motivation and can be used in bedroom in moderation.

Paper Clutter

Clutter is a major problem faced by almost all the households. It is like a never-ending task but like everything else in the world this too has a solution. If you do the cleaning thing on a regular basis, clutter will never become a cumbersome duty. Here, we are referring to paper clutter. It could be newspapers, magazines, notebooks, bills, art paper and several other such things. Basically the list is endless. Families with relatively large number of children, face this problem of clutter on a major scale.

Daily newspaper is the biggest source of clutter. What you should do is to avoid piling up newspapers. Once you are done with reading or collecting your favorite article, keep it aside the same day. Don’t procrastinate it. The same goes for magazines.

Children often create paper clutter whether it’s just playing or because of some painting or drawing work, kids bring along lots of clutter. So what you should do in such condition is to provide them space to display or store their stuffs and once in a while weed out unnecessary stuff. Mail is another object that causes clutter. The right way is to throw away junk mail in a dustbin and store all the necessary mails neatly in a shelf near your workspace. You can further use labels and files for better order. Other probable causes of paper clutter are message boards, school bag, polythenes and shopping stuffs. Now, make these tips as permanent feature of your life and keep your home clutter free.

How to Clean Porcelain Floor Tiles

Porcelain tiles are definitely one of the most favored choices of flooring for kitchens and bathrooms. The strong point of porcelain tiles is durability and easiness to clean. In fact, one can clean these floors in a better fashion that any other types of floors. The reason is, these tiles are moisture and staining resistant. If you maintain cleanliness on a regular basis by doing just mopping and sweeping, then you are guaranteed to have shiny floors for a long duration. But if in case, you are missing out on regular cleaning because of hectic schedule then we will tell you how to clean porcelain tiles.

While you begin the process it would be prudent to gather some materials required for cleaning tiles. Hot water, vinegar, broom, dish soap, mop or sponge and soft damp cloth are primary housekeeping requirements. Start by sweeping the floor tiles. Instead of a vacuum cleaner, use broom because cleaner might cause some scratch on the tiles. Focus on grout lines because of dirt factor. Once you are done with sweeping, use a sponge or damp mop and sweep away the dirt. Vinegar will come into use for scrubbing purpose. Mix distilled vinegar with dish soap in hot water and you have a very effective water solution. Lastly, use clean water and damp cloth and remove all the residue and here you get; completely clean porcelain tiles.

Decorating Your Kitchen

One of the most important parts of your house is kitchen. However, when it comes to interior decoration, kitchen is often ignored. But that is definitely not a very wise idea considering usage and relevance of modular kitchen in our day to day lives. Imagine, the lady of the house making some real delicious and tasty items in a kitchen that has poor lighting, far from satisfactory paint and awkwardly decorated wall. Well, you are not going to like it. Even while cooking, lady needs a motivating and bright ambience. That’s why it is always recommended to have kitchen that has invigorating and stimulating colors. One can always make innovations in the kitchen. The basic premise while decorating kitchen should be involvement of uplifting colors so that ambience could be created. Good ambience will obviously lead to fun in eating and cooking.

Interior designers use lighter colors if your kitchen in small. Lighter colors normally create the illusions of larger space. You can choose colors like lemon, warm hues of yellow, butter and sunshine yellow. Apart from these colors, one can use options like chestnut, orange, alizarin, peach, terracotta, pumpkin, rust and red shades of ochre, puce, and dusty rose. In case your kitchen is large enough, then you should go for colors that can make your kitchen appear small and cozy. For that purpose you can go for dark colors.

Many people prefer to use monochromatic color schemes because they are easy on the eyes. To make your kitchen look sober, you can experiment with white, taupe, brown or beige. If you are going whole hog then stenciling would not be a bad idea. Sponge painting is another interesting idea.

Designing Bathrooms

Bathroom is often one ignored area while we think of renovating our house or indulge in some sort of home décor. But this article will talk about how to design bathrooms. While you think of designing your bathroom, first thing you need to consider is color. The thing is bathrooms are often small in size so if color combination is good, often the effect is great. By color, we refer to colors of wall and ceiling. Proper usage of color often opens up the space. You can use several color combinations like white or pale shades like blue, green or blue grey.

Many people love to install a large vanity in the bathroom so that they can use the huge space under the sink. But problem with large sinks is they can make the bathroom appear smaller so always go for wall mounted sink or pedestal. It creates space and will be easy on your wallet as well. One can use baskets if more space is required for storage. Lighting must be given proper consideration in the grand scheme of bathroom design. One can add extra lighting at places like corner that will help in opening up of more space. Additionally, one can use recessed can lighting or wall sconces or even a countertop lamp. Those with deep pockets can add solatubes or skylights.

Try using mirrors for creating the illusion of more space. Choose light colors for flooring in the bathroom. Use minimum accessories for better effect. Finally, get rid of any clutter present in the bathroom.