Introduction to Home Staging

I am remodeling on a very tight budget. I need to find an ottoman and decorative items such as vases, candles, art, etc. I need items to place on built in shelves in my dinning room. Items for floor, ie. vases or tall bottles, or baskets. I need table items. My style is contemporary. I a lso need an area rug that is no more than 5 x 8.

Have you ever shopped at Z Galleries? I love it, google on line to take a peek. Not sure if they have one in Houston but they do have nice things. Some reasonable and some not. At least it can give you ideas.

As to the area rug Target right around 200.00 but huge! Love it!

Your efforts to sell your home this fall season can be aided by some simple decorating that reflects autumn and/or the popular holiday of Halloween. Some effective touches can not only ’round out’ your staging; they can also encourage potential buyers to imagine decorating the home themselves by creating a warm, inviting atmosphere.

The first rule of Halloween decorating is: don’t go overboard! You’re staging your home, not throwing a Halloween party. No skeletons, NO fake blood and nothing that is meant to jump out and startle people! You want people to enjoy their tour of your home; not have a heart attack when the fake bat drops onto their head.

A fall staging theme can be as simple as warm fall colors being featured in the decor. Or, it can be tastefully elaborate, with some kind of decoration in every room that ‘ties’ the rooms together.

In homage to the holiday, you can use pumpkins and the small pumpkin-like gourds to accent your porch, tables and mantelpieces. Pumpkins are definitely an attention getter, both in terms of size and color. Use them wisely.

If you decide to carve your pumpkins, make sure that they are carved in harmless, “happy” expressions, if they have faces. One idea is to use your jack-o-lanterns to highlight the numbers of your address. Or, you could carve a tiny house into one.

If you do decide to go the jack-o-lantern route, use candle substitutes. The last thing you want is to find the perfect buyer, only to have your home burn to the ground because a candle fell over. Flameless flickering lights are available cheaply from local stores, especially around Halloween.

Flowers and plants are popular with home stagers and you can make them work for you. Chrysanthemums and dried leaves are good fall choices for the home stager. A vase of these in a room can provide some attractive natural color that calls to mind the crisp warmth of fall. Planting hardy fall flowers like mums can also add some color to an otherwise fading garden.

One idea for home showing is have business cards printed up with a picture of your home and contact information. Tie these to Halloween candy bags and put them in a fall/Halloween themed bowl for prospective buyers.

Halloween and fall provide you with a great decorating scheme to bring your house together with warm, inviting colors and decorations that reflect the fall harvest/Halloween season. This can help prospective buyers imagine decorating your home for their seasonal celebrations and encourage them to think of your home as their own.

Marci McFarland
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/staging-your-home-for-autumn-and-halloween-574602.html

There are so many decoration ideas for the bathroom, that it is really a shame to have a drab and unappealing look to this room. It is probably because we all take longer in this room than we used too, so employing a few bathroom decorating ideas to liven it up makes it all that more enjoyable. After all, if you are spending about half an hour a day in the room, why shouldn\’t it be more relaxing?

It is often a good showing point for your ideas when your friends come around to see how you have used your bathroom decorating ideas. We all take it for granted that our living area and kitchen will look well presented so there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do the same for your bathroom too.

The chances are that your bathroom decorating ideas will follow the same used in the rest of your house so that every room matches to a degree. In this instance, you may have a home that has many small tables placed around it with plants on them, well, why not extend this very simple idea to your bathroom. Low tables like this are also a good place for books or magazines as who doesn\’t like to read when they relax in a warm bath?

This can also work the other way, if you have used certain decorating or furnishing ideas in your bathroom then why not extend some of those to other areas of your home. Why not take that colorful tile that you have used around the hand wash basin into the kitchen for instance.

If a bathroom tile has a particular pattern there are many places where it could be used to augment the feel of the home including the kitchen. Of course, bathroom decorating ideas might start with tiles on the floor and sink, but they do not end their.

Beside the tiles, there are many creative things that you can do with the soap and the soap trays. There are even articles in home decoration books and magazine illustrating how easy it is too make your own soap rays.

An unusual idea came from one magazine which showed how to make dispensers from clay which would not be a material that would automatically spring to mind. I have always found that even if you do nothing else, a relaxing picture, perhaps of woodland, lake or seashore can make a great deal of difference to a bathroom. Whatever you do, don\’t allow the bathroom to become bland when it has so much potential to please the eye.

David Barnard
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/bathroom-decorating-715519.html

Cottage style decorating can be fun and it is also fairly easy. It allows plenty of space and simplicity which is ideal for families and you can also mix and match your interior decorations so the choice is pretty much endless!

Cottage style decorating is incredibly simple and it focuses on having space as well as keeping things either traditional or a little more modern. If you have small children then cottage style decorating might well just suit you down to the ground as it is mainly an uncluttered, simple style which does not provide much chance for accidents within the home. It is also extremely hardy and it can cope with the odd knock or scrape every now and again!

Cottage Style Decorating Today

If you are thinking of decorating your home in a cottage style, you may be wondering where to start. Well, cottages in the past were always used as servant houses. This meant that they had little furniture and they were incredibly simple. These days, whilst the layout is still fairly simple, the furniture and the décor can be pretty much whatever you want them to be. So, whether you want a modern style cottage decoration or a more traditional, yet slightly expensive decoration, the choice really is yours.

Antique furniture looks especially good in a cottage decorated home and you do not have to pay a fortune either – there are some particularly good bargains at your local flea market. One of the best things about cottage style decorating also is that everything does not have to match. You can have mismatched fabrics, mismatched colors and it will look perfectly fine.

Whilst cottage style decorating may not be for everyone, it certainly has its admirers and more and more people are turning to its designs for their home. After all, it is much easier to simply throw a few bits together, have more space and keep it simple than it is to worry about every minute detail.

Some people believe that cottage style decorating is more geared towards the older generation; however that is not always the case. Anybody with a love of interior decorating will like the style of cottage decorating as will all different ages. It all basically depends upon personal taste and what you would prefer. More and more people are choosing the cottage style these days because of its simplicity and of how easy it is to pick things up for the home. So, if you would like to decorate your home cottage style, you would certainly not be the only one!

Mr.Andrew Caxton
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/various-decorating-styles-cottage-style-decorating-111692.html

Solve Your Decorating Challenge

By Vickie Morrow

You’ve moved into your new home, unpacked the boxes, arranged and rearranged the furniture, hung a few things on the walls. Hmmm. You know, or think you know how you want your rooms to feel but can’t get from the builder white walls and your old stuff to that wonderful comfy inviting look you got when you were in the model of the home you purchased?

Before you panic and true anxiety sets in know there are more easy solutions at your fingertips than ever before. There are decorator magazines, Home Decorating shows, web sites, retailers, great books with very good instructions. Visiting model homes again will help. “Okay, “ you say, “I see them, I buy them, I visit them, I like them, but how do I do it? I don’t know where to begin.”

Start with one room you love in a magazine or model home. We’ll call it your dream room. If you can go to the model home to feel and study the space or the room you will get the best results. Ask if you may take pictures in the models too. This will help when you get home and when you shop. Take a tape measure and a spiral notebook with you to make notes and draw sketches. I like the ones with plastic tabs and pockets inside.

Let’s start decorating by seeing what we like.

Are all the walls the same color and the ceiling too? What color(s) is the room? Write this down. Is there a chair rail or decorative molding at the ceiling, wall covering or faux painting? What is on the floor? Is there tile, wood, carpet, area rugs? What color and texture and pattern? Is the area rug braided or a Persian rug or a contemporary design diagonally placed partly under one of the chairs and sofa?

What style is the furniture? Is it all a matching set? Do all the woods match? Maybe the sofa and club chairs are the same style and wood finish but the chairs have a patterned upholstery and the sofa is a solid or striped fabric. Write this down.

How is the furniture arranged? Does the sofa sit in the middle of the room separating the conversation area from the game table, or is all the furniture pushed up against the walls? Draw a little floor plan so you don’t forget when you get home.

The windows. Are there blinds, shutters, a valence or draperies? Are the rods large or small, wood or metal with huge finials? Make a note of it. If there are panels at each side of the window, do they go all the way to the floor? What color are they? Do they match the walls or are they the same fabric as the toss pillows on the sofa? Is it the drapery hold back that catches your eye? You will have to consider the exposure and privacy out your own windows when you make your final window treatment selection.

The pizzazz is the accessories. This is often what many people love most about the model homes or magazine pictures that inspire them. The details, the little things we all love to collect and buy when we shop. This is what pulls the room together and gives it your personality. In the room you love, what kind of lamps are there? Is there a place to store the things you will need to put away? Are there several things grouped on the coffee table? What sizes are they? Is there something pretty tall, a large round platter set on a stand and a box all grouped together? If there are photographs on the end tables, how big are they and how does the frame style work with everything else in the room?

What is on the walls? Is there one large picture over the sofa or is there an arrangement of black and white photos in different size frames? What color is the matting and how much space from the photo to the frame? Is there a special mosaic you like? Details, details, details. Draw a sketch of the picture arrangement and the sizes in your notebook.

Congratulations. You have just completed the first step to decorating your own home.

You know what you want, how it goes together and what it will look like. You don’t have to break the bank now to create your room. You probably already have the furniture pieces and accessories. You may already have the lamps and area rug as well. For more decorating tips and ideas go to www.inoutdecor.com You may just have everything you need to recreate and rearrange.

Get started. Go to the paint store and select the paint chips you think best match your dream room. Grab several samples, color can be deceiving and they can look different depending on the light. Take them back to the model home and see which ones match the best. Buy the paint and paint the room.

Your window treatment. If you copy your dream room exactly make sure you have the right privacy and exposure considerations covered. This is where a lot of people go astray. They think they like shutters and buy them. Then they don’t like them and also wonder how their dream room went wrong. Your dream room may have been more airy with a shade and drapery panels on large wood poles. The wrong blinds, shutters or draperies and hardware can be a costly mistake that you probably won’t change.

Arrange your furniture for conversation, TV watching, family fun, reading, eating or homework keeping in mind your dream room. Was all the furniture lined up on one side of the room? Your sofa may be the wrong color and your chairs may need to be redone. That doesn’t mean you have to buy all new; consider slipcovers. You can buy them or make them. Get slipcover instructions at www.inoutdecor.com Be sure your accessories are things you want around you and are of a grand enough scale for your space. Voila! You’re on your way to decorating confidence and living in the home that makes you and your family happy.

Vickie Morrow
http://www.articlesbase.com/accessories-articles/solve-your-decorating-challenge-195193.html

First of all, let me acknowledge that it is okay to have fear and be a scaredy-cat. Hey, if it wasn’t for fear we would easy place our hands on a hot stove. The key is to face the fear and be proactive (um, like NOT touching the flames on your stove - ouchie!) by moving forward with comfort.
 
Are you procrastinating from decorating your home to reflect your comfort and style? If so, what is stopping you from decorating your home to “fit” your comfort?
 
Is it not enough time? money? knowledge? tired when you get home? The answer – you are! You are what is stopping you from living better in your home.
 
My philosophy is that you obtain comfort at home from a physical (balanced furniture placement & color schemes) and mental state of relaxation (believing that you deserve to live great)  - and not from expensive furniture.
 
You and only you have the power to do something about the comfort of your room(s). Even if you do not live alone, you can be the motivator in your household for improving your home, while making it FUN and moving FORWARD!

So how do you move forward? It’s simple – think of the letters F-O-R-W-A-R-D, here’s the guide:

F-ind time and make a decision to love living and enjoying your home
O-rganize your items  by what you like/do not like or want/do not want
R-emove all excuses of why you can’t or shouldn’t treat yourself to living in comfort
W-elcome input of others, but keep the eye on the prize YOUR immediate household’s comfort
A-rrange your home life to reflect your personality & the lifestyle that you WANT (not the lifestyle you currently have, reach for more luxury)
R-emember your ultimate goal (e.g.: fun living room to invite friends over, kitchen to accommodate dinner parties, bedroom to relax and read, etc).
D-esign a plan for decorating your home that matches your heart 

Here are a few inspirational quotes to remind you to live happy within your home and your “self”: 
 
“Success is a journey, not a destination” – Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (prominent tennis player)

“the greatest motivator for me was getting started.” – V.S. Naipul (nobel prize winner)

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certain certainties” – Erich Fromm (renowned psychologist)

How boring (and quite “twilight zone” strange) would it be if you had the same exact décor 10 years from now? Same wall colors, same toss pillows on your sofa, same artwork. Hmm, a bit boring (zzzzzz) to you and your guests, huh?!

So don’t be afraid to buy a particular framed art that you love NOW, and it may become a perfect gift that you pass on to someone you love in 3 years from now.  As your comfort level, tastes, and style grows so should your home – to reflect your life  - a successful journey living your life to the fullest potential of your current style, tastes, and preferences.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money on furniture, it means that you decorate your home following your heart’s inner desire: 

• perhaps you cannot afford to have a built in Jacuzzi tub, but you can surround yourself with plush towels and a bathrobe that feels like a warm hug  
• perhaps you cannot afford a new sofa, but you can slipcover your current sofa to make the room look and feel brighter and larger
• perhaps you cannot afford a new area rug for your living room, but you can paint your current old rug with colors that match the newly purchased toss pillows that you love

Make a decision to improve your home and get started (move F-O-R-W-A-R-D)! Give yourself a wishful deadline to energize yourself.  Maybe even plan a dinner party with the goal that you will have a new improved home to showcase at your dinner party. 
 
When you start feeling a fear that you may make decorating mistakes:

• embrace the fear and remind yourself that it is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them 
• get decorating tools to help guide you and help alleviate your decorating hesitance (e.g. from your local library, decorating TV shows, from us -> view our website source page, e-book 31 Mistakes to Avoid When Decorating Your Home, decorating service options: Quick Room Analyzer, Dream Design Kit. To learn more about these services, please go to the website below.

So, take charge and be a tiger/tigress RAAAR (<- that is my tigress sound effect) and decorate your home to reflect YOU! Feel happy at home, and within your”self”. 

© 2007 Ada’s Interior Design, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Website: www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com

Ada Gonzalez
http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/are-you-a-decorating-scaredycat-hmm-are-you-677099.html

Functional actually means that the room should serve a purpose and be comfortable to perform that function inside the room. Keep this function in mind while decorating a functional room like a living room.

When you are into redecorating and making your home look nice, you probably love to change your living room interior decorating theme often. Here we are going to look at a feature that can be a stunning focal point of any living room, that’s inexpensive, can relax, and calm you as well as lift your mood. Flowers spot lit on a table are a quick and easy way of decorating a bare wall or corner as well as adding freshness color and texture there is also the advantage of perfume to the room.

Native American Indian art as home decor helps bring in an atmosphere of nature in the overall interior decorating of a room. But because people nowadays are becoming more and more aware and involved in the interior decorating aspects of their homes, there are many homeowners that are forced into adopting their own interior decorating techniques and processes. Home or interior decorating, as wrongly perceived by people ages ago, need not be expensive and need not requiring degrees and diplomas in the discipline.

If your office is a home-based one, then you need to select the suitable area and plan the interior decorating accordingly. As far as home interior decorating is concerned, every nook and corner has to be studied so that the available space is utilized to the maximum. Another interior decorating tip is to capture the beauty of naturally aged wood in custom designed furniture.

Whatever interior decorating scheme you choose, you need to allocate enough room for movement and accommodation of all the necessary equipment and furniture. Your home will feel warm with the proper interior Christmas decorating scheme. While track lighting and chandeliers can’t be changed easily, you can change out your lighting to go with your living room interior-decorating plan.

The first thought should be the scale of work, if the remodeling project involves more than cosmetic fixture replacements or surface interior decorating, it may be time to call in an plumber to assess you in your plumbing and pipe replacement. What better time than during the hurricane while you are in your home to decide how best to redesign and decorate your interior. When interior decorating your home, don’t just go from room to room.

Many More Ideas

You need to let loose your imagination, aesthetic sense, and intelligence and pull out as many ideas as possible. Broadly speaking, interior-decorating Ideas can be obtained from catalogs, brochures or promotional advertisements released by interior decorators or designers. Another great ideas for sofas and chairs is to buy slipcovers – you can actually buy furniture that is meant to be slip covered, then simply get new slipcovers to go with whatever decorating plan you have in mind for the season.

Buy one items you truly love and build your ideas around that one item. For an office, starting from the entry point to the cafeteria lounge, interior-decorating ideas must be chosen carefully. In big factories, interior-decorating ideas can be followed to reduce manual labor.

Click here to see more Interior decorating and home décor ideas from him and experts. Some ideas include vacation shots, weddings, birthdays, children etc. Original ideas can make a significant difference in your Interior Decorating plans.

Not only will they have terrific ideas for ways to incorporate recyclable materials into your home interior decorating plans.

Christmas Time Decorating

There are many different ideas for interior Christmas decorating. There are a variety of decorating ideas on the market today, but the best way to complete your interior Christmas decorating is to make the items yourself or with your family. Lose all the leftover Christmas decorations and any unsightly items that seem out of place.

Create bows from Christmas print ribbon and putting them in various places around your house including your curtains. Pottery and decorative plants are also a welcome addition in home interior decorating. Original ideas can make a significant difference in your Interior Decorating plans.

Discover free Home Decorating ideas for all rooms of your home. Visit my website for more free articles on decorating from A-Z. The third of these three elements of successful interior decorating is harmony.

A second hand store, yard sale, or even the attic is a great place to find other items that can be refurbished or simply cleaned up a bit, to compliment your interior room décor. If you’re too busy to shop around, want to make some major changes or if you simply feel like you need some advice, there are a number of interior professionals who can help you get the results you’re after.

Finally, give your home your own personal touch. Effective space planning and interior design requires that you plan in three dimensions – so start thinking about the space above your head and higher up on the walls. If you start to think vertical in you interior space planning you can be on your way to doubling your useable interior floor space in your home.

Clifton Waldrep
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/interior-decorating-tips-85387.html

So Santa Claus will be visiting soon and you have not finished (or started) decorating your home for your guests or for your enjoyment. Or perhaps you look around your home and feel as if there is something missing in your decoration.

Don’t panic!

Don’t hide in the closet!

Don’t try to wrap yourself in a box to avoid decorating!

Don’t grab the scissors and stare at the tangled Christmas lights!

Don’t put an extra something in the eggnog to try to calm your nerves!

Don’t eye the ornaments and imagine your family as targets!

Follow these 3 simple steps, practiced by elves at the North Pole in charge of interior decorating, in order to find your creative inspiration for decorating the interior of your home.

1st step

Remember your goal. The goal is to decorate so you LOVE walking into your home and inviting people to visit. Not just admiring the outside Christmas lights, but the heart of the home (the inside!!) … so you can FEEL that Christmas is near … so people can talk about how wonderful your home looks (hey, there is nothing wrong with having fans admire your creative unique interior decorations). You make your home special every time you decorate because no matter how many ideas an interior decorator may give you; it is ultimately your personality (as an individual or a family) that chooses the ultimate Christmas decorating design. No home can ever be decorated the same because we all have different personalities, styles, and tastes that inspire our creative heart to reach our desired goal.

2nd step

Narrow down a mood. The second step to finding your inner Christmas decorating inspiration is to narrow down a mood that you want to feel in the room. What emotion do you want to portray in the room? Do you prefer informal or formal. March of the Wooden Soldiers with Laurel & Hardy movie or White Christmas with Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney movie. Making your own gingerbread house or buying one already made.

Now remember, there is nothing wrong with combining two moods and styles as long as there is harmony. How do you go about doing that? Simple: pick your primary mood preference then throw “decor sprinkles” of your secondary preference. You prevent two moods from clashing when the secondary preference is introduced into the room in small amounts – which I call “decor sprinkles”. For example, say you want to decorate your home to reflect an elegant white Christmas look (the main mood preference is relaxed elegance) but you don’t want it to look too fancy (the second preference is a decor sprinkle of fun!).

You can:

Decorate your home with wreaths sprayed with snow and have white elegant fabric bows, with silver bells.  Place white felt fabric on all tables to resemble snow. Decorate your tree with clear Christmas lights, different shades of white & silver round ornaments, fresh cut white roses, beautiful soft doll angels with white feathered wings; and place under your tree presents wrapped in silver with white ribbons and bows. These are all primary mood preferences of elegance.

Then, add your décor sprinkles of fun! Add to your Christmas tree adorable snowmen figurine ornaments with red scarves and red roses that pick up the color of the red scarf on the snowmen; add mistletoe and red berry branches to the center of doorways; and insert small red & white stripped candy canes within your snow covered wreaths.  The red color is your little SPLASH of fun! Be careful not to overwhelm the sprinkle of your secondary preference – the holiday magic word is “subtle”. These are all secondary mood preferences of fun.

Remember, narrowing down what mood you and your family prefer for the current Christmas will inspire you and your family to start visualizing designs in your imagination that bring comfort and joy.

3rd STEP

Organize a decorating plan. Knowing the first two steps gives you a guide (a design blueprint!). So now you know your goal (1st step), and you know the direction of the mood you wish to use for your interior decoration (2nd step). The next step is to organize a decorating plan (3rd step).

How?

Look within yourself … or much easier (less meditation!) … look within the boxes that contain last year’s Christmas decorations in order to organize your decorating plan. If you have a limited amount of decorations, then go window-shopping to sort through store decorations.

Take out all the decorations you have and sort out what you like and what you do not like.  As soon as you start to sort, you will receive inspirational decorating thoughts that will guide you to pick this year’s Christmas decoration   design plan that will impress even Santa Claus.

Search and sort by:

Mood. Sort the decorations by moods (which are fancy, elegant, relaxing, whimsical, funky, playful, etc).

Theme. Organize by theme (nutcrackers, snowmen, a Christmas village, indoor animations, reindeers, etc.)

Color. Separate each ornament or decoration with the color that stands out the most. This goes for Christmas lights as well – separate the multicolor Christmas lights from the single color Christmas lights.

Taking the time to search and sort through your Christmas decorations will:

• keep you from wanting to use every single décor you own and inspire you to save them for other Christmases to come.

• help you pick out what matches or doesn’t for your (a)  comfort (1st step – goal) and (b) preference (2nd step – mood).

• help you plan a design that harmonizes with your personality and furniture. Just because you have a red bow does not mean you have to use it. A red bow attached to a red lampshade will not stand out; whereas a white bow would be a noticeable contrast.

• make planning future Christmas decorating easy since you already went through the process of sorting and stored decorations by mood/theme/color.

• save you money since now you purchase with a plan in mind that match your goal and the mood that you want to portray in your current Christmas theme, instead of just grabbing any (or all) adorable Christmas decorations.

Perhaps you do not like an ornament that was given to you by a relative, but you feel obligated to have it as part of your Christmas interior décor. REMEMBER, it is your home … your comfort … your creative Christmas décor. Do not let past gifts bully you into feeling that you “have to” display the item(s). Choose decorations that “YOU” want to represent in your home.

Extra Tip: if you have a guest that gave you a unique décor and he/she is planning to stay over for the holiday, then surprise them by decorating the guest room with the unique gift. They will wholeheartedly appreciate the thought you gave into displaying the gift, and feel happier during the happy holidays.

For additional Christmas interior decorating tips check out Christmas Interior Decorating Guide with Ideas that Will Impress Even Santa Claus!, visit: http://www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com/foryou.html

© 2007 Ada’s Interior Design, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Website: www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com

Ada Gonzalez
http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/christmas-interior-decorating-a-3-simple-step-guide-on-how-to-find-your-inner-creative-inspiration-that-will-impress-even-santa-claus-691811.html

Tropical beaches, clear blue ocean, sunny sand filled beaches, palm trees, these are all things that typically come to mind when someone says Hawaiian. If you would like to create a Hawaiian style in your home, you want to think breezy and open. This would be the typical feel to a home or room in Hawaii.

To begin with, it you’re painting the walls, you will want a white or other bright and open color. The earthy tones that you might find elsewhere will not be found here. For Hawaii, we want to think of openness and white walls will help create that feel. If they are painted a color at all, make sure that color is bright without reaching into the neon categories. A soft, bright yellow or green may also create the open feel you’re trying to achieve. Doorways and moldings should be a rich brown such as an oak or cherry. These will contrast nicely with the painted walls while keeping the open feeling in the room.

Decorative touches should include some sort of large green plant. If you can do a palm inside this would be perfect. Another nicely large and green plant would be the elephant plant. This has large broad leaves and can grow several feet tall. This will further add to the tropical feel that you’ve already created through the use of paint on the walls. Other accessories may include shells that could have easily come from the beach, light, airy curtains that can sway in a breeze with an open window, and pineapple shaped glasses in the kitchen or other pineapple shaped kitchen appliances or utensils.

This style of home should be furnished with a heavy use of bamboo, wicker, and/or rattan. The use of this type of furniture will encourage the light, airy feel you’re trying to achieve. This tropical atmosphere will be completed with the use of this type of furniture. The furniture can be painted white or it can be in its natural state of wood. Either way, this addition will help to complete the Hawaiian look.

Fans and in the ceiling whose blades are shaped like palms are a nice touch when creating the Hawaiian feel. You can find them in stores like Home Depot, Lowes, or any retail hardware store that carries ceiling fans. These fans can be used indoors in a kitchen or dining room as well as outside under a canopy. This type of fan would make a great finishing touch.

The Hawaiian feel is one of relaxation and enjoyment. In order to create this feel in your home short of moving to Hawaii, use the above tips. You’ll feel like you’re on the beaches soaking up the sun in no time.

Lee Dobbins
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/hawaiian-decorating-make-your-home-an-island-retreat-127396.html

Home Decorating the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry-room all start with the appliances. However, with so many new, energy efficient, and ecologically friendly products coming out in the near future, one wonders if they shouldn’t take a look at some of the new designs and decorate and design these rooms to accommodate the new appliances.

Americans crave the security of round-the-clock comforts. They want convenience at a fingertip, just in case they are needed. The most ever-present example of American’s love affair with fingertip-gratification is the hot water heater.

Unlike valets who get intermittent curbside rests, water heaters just sit there, forever cooking gallons of hot water, ready at any time. After all, we never know when we might wake at 2am and decide that we want a shower, to do a load of laundry, and run the dishwasher.

It is time Americans embrace the new home ecotechnologies? Notorious for their thriftiness and love of high-tech gizmos, the Japanese have already discovered that going green is good for the environment and the pocket book.

Many Japanese families use “tankless” water heaters that hang on a wall and heat water when needed. There is no reservoir. The water is heated the moment the faucet turns on, and the heating stops when the faucet is turned off.

Further savings can be obtained by installing flow reducing faucets.

The combination toilet/bathroom sink is another common fixture in Japanese homes. The toilet/sink is flushed and you wash your hands with water that is used to fill the tank. Some models incorporate a flush lever that swings left for a half-tank flush and right for the full flush.

The Japanese also have motion sensors that turn on the lights and heat when they sense body heat in the room. Some even follow the person, heating the area where the person is occupying.

The Japanese also use washing machines that spin clothing dry, almost. Reducing the need for long times in the dryer.

The Japanese have a new commercial laundering system that requires no detergent, works with cold water, and recycles water. The system, patented by the Florida firm, Tri-O-Clean, saturates wash water with ozone, an oxidant used to disinfect drinking and swimming-pool water. Water from the washer is recovered, filtered, replenished with ozone, and reused for future washes. This reduces water use and water pollution.

New products on the horizon include microwaves that dry clothing. This type of microwave will accommodate zippers, reduce drying time by 25%, and reduce wear on delicate fabrics.

Ultrasonic dishwashers gently bombard grimy dish grease with high-frequency sound waves that create vapor bubbles which dislodge cake-on grime. This will reduce hot water use by 25 to 50 percent.

Then there are the new refrigerators. Frigidaire and Whirlpool are neck and neck in the race to produce the first chlorofluorocarbon-free superefficient refrigerator.

The new products will have different requirements than our current products. For example, a ‘tankless’ water heater hangs on the wall, and is about 3′ square by about 1′ deep. This is a great space saver, and can even move the water heater out of a basement into the laundry room.

When most people think of home renovations and designs they think of manipulating and decorating space.

Patricia Taylor
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/home-improvements-and-decorating-tips-from-japan-124405.html