HOME DECOR

DEEP CLEANING YOUR HOUSE AFTER HOLIDAY

2010-01-26T08:40:00.000+08:00

The Holiday Season (I love holiday), starting in November with Thanksgiving (stuffing, sweet potato, turkey and many other goodies) thorough the end of December with Christmas and New Year's, has also ended.

Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

If you are like most families, you probably had a house full of people. It's great having friends and family members coming to spend the holidays with you. People in and out, children running up and down the stairs, lots of cooking in the kitchen, and accidental spills of both drink and food on the floors and carpets; your house sees intense traffic during the Holiday Season.

By now, you are probably agreeing that your house deserves a deep cleaning!
Finding the time to tackle this job is difficult for most people, who are too busy taking care of other things. It's even harder to schedule if you are full-time worker.

Following, you will find some tips that can help you with your post-holiday, New Year cleaning:

1) Floor Cleaning
Hardwood floors really suffer with all the snow and salt this time of year. We recommend vacuuming first and using no more than water and vinegar to make your floors clean and shiny again.
Carpets need to be vacuumed regularly. Make sure that your cleaning company uses a vacuum with HEPA filter. If food or drink was spilled on your rug, you may need a shampooing to remove the stains.

2) Bathroom Cleaning
Special attention should be given to bathtub and toilet. Mildew or mold can spread very quickly on your tiles and glass doors. A good solution for that is warm water, a sponge, and liquid soap.
Cleaning the toilet means not only inside the bowl, but cleaning the base and behind the toilet bowl as well. This is a hidden area and it is missed most of the time.
Bathroom mirrors should be cleaned with no more than a glass cleaner spray and a paper towel.

3) Kitchen Cleaning
Extra cooking during the holidays also means extra grease for your kitchen and kitchen appliances. Most of the time, people forget to clean under their appliances. It is the perfect place to accumulate dust, grease and germs.
It is also very important to clean inside your oven and microwave; you don't want your food going to a dirty place do you?
Top of cabinets and refrigerator tend to be missed too.

HOME DECORATING ON A LOW BUDGET

2010-01-14T09:00:00.001+08:00

Having a beautifully designed home need not be as costly as you may think. That is, if you know how to save without sacrificing style, and know how to avoid wasteful expenses, home decorating on a low budget is possible.

First, determine your budget. How much are you prepared to spend for decorating your home? Then, plan out how you want to spend that budget. List all the items you will need - materials, fixtures, accessories - for each portion of the house you will decorate. It would be better to prepare your budget on a per-room basis rather than budgeting for the entire house all at once. This way you can undertake the decorating one room at a time, starting with those rooms that you feel should be decorated first.

Before you buy anything, visualize first how everything would look in your room, with all the considerations of color, space and lighting. Your interior designer or the store where you will buy the fixtures can help you with this. It is important to view the color schemes you have selected both with natural light and with artificial light from electric lighting, as different kinds of lighting will produce differing effects on the colors. You need to do these visualizations before you make your purchases and installations to avoid having to make the changes after the items have been installed, which would mean a lot of money and time wasted.

Finally, are you decorating a home that you own and where you plan to stay your whole life, or is it just a temporary home for you? These things matter when you plan the amount of money you will put into decorating the place. If you have no plans of staying in this home for a long time, then you would not want to spend too much money on constructions or fixtures that you will have to leave in just a few months. There are decorative items, even furniture, that you can enjoy now but also take with you when you leave. This will also help you save on decorating the next place you will be staying in.

Simple Bathroom Renovation Guide

2010-01-09T00:50:00.000+08:00

Bathroom Renovation Guide: Step 1

When designing your bathroom, thinking of your current needs and future needs is the most crucial step. Even in the earliest stages of planning your new, or ‘soon-to-be’ renovated bathroom, it pays to visit your local interior design center to collect ideas on the range of bathroom fittings on offer and the styles of bathrooms that are available.

If you’re considering a contemporary bathroom interior, try incorporating chrome, gold or other sleek metal finishes into the bathroom fittings, trimmings, bathroom accessories and color scheme of your bathroom. You may wish to consider using marble or stone tiles on the floors and walls with contrasting color basins and bath.

For a more traditional styled bathroom, cast iron bath or gold timber panels on the wall and brass taps will incorporate well into a vintage style. You should consider incorporating a range of heritage colors, vintage-looking fixtures and decorative accessories into your room.

As you can see, there are many questions to ask yourself. Do you want a spa bath, claw foot bath, combination shower bath or a plain shower? What type of vanity unit or basin do you want? Double bowls, three drawer vanity or pedestal basin? The list goes on….and within each product choice is a range of fixtures to suit every bathroom style, everyone’s color and feature preference, as well as every budget.

Bathroom Renovation Guide: Step 2

Now that you’re starting to think of the styles and product options for your bathroom interior, you should undertake an information search.

Firstly, visit your local interior design center to obtain advice on the type of products available and collect bathroom product brochures, or visit your local building information center or home shows for tips on bathroom design. From these, you will begin to see designs that will appeal to both your style and budget.

Bathroom Renovation Guide: Step 3

After your ideas gathering stage, determining a budget for your finished design is imperative. It is easy to overspend when you are renovating or building, so you should obtain quotes for all the products and labor required to complete your bathroom. Remember, you may need to seek council permission if you are embarking on any major structural developments in your bathroom. This may mean administrative costs need to be factored into your budget. Your plumber or contractor can advise you in this area.

Bathroom Renovation Guide: Step 4

The layout stage is where the fun begins! Now that you know the style that suits your need and your budget, you need to develop a layout for your intended bathroom design. Doing a bathroom planning is essential to ensuring nothing is forgotten when it comes to laying out your ideal bathroom and selecting the products and fittings that suit your needs. This step will show you how your floor plan will function, incorporating the location of your bath or shower vanity, toilet, storage space and the other elements of your design.

Bathroom Renovation Guide: Step 5

Upon finalizing your bathroom design and style concepts, take your planning to the local interior design center for suggestions and advice. You may also work with an interior designer to get all the help your need to create your beautiful bathroom.

HOUSE RENOVATION IDEAS

2010-01-05T14:07:00.000+08:00

There are so many great house renovation ideas out there that you can use, and it really pays to be aware of as many of them as possible before going ahead and doing any house renovations yourself, so that you can be more knowledgeable and informed and also so that you will have a better idea in terms of where to start.

Bathroom

Let’s start with the bathroom. The majority of homeowners say that they want to do house renovations to their bathroom, but simply do not know how to get off the ground. The first step is to analyze the current situation of your bathroom. Determine how rough of shape it is in and how much money you think you would have to invest into it to make a difference.

You also want to more specifically determine what type of results you are looking to gain from doing these particular house renovations, and for instance if you think that your bathroom is too small then perhaps you may want to break down an adjoining wall so that you can expand the space.

Maybe it is just the color of the bathroom that you are interested in changing or the type of flooring. Make sure that you really put some thought and consideration in here and that you do not make any final decisions until after you have done this.

Bedroom

When it comes to house renovation ideas for the bedroom, you can really have a lot more fun. After all, this is not a room that most people see when they come into your home, and so you can really go all out and do whatever you want here.

You do however want to have at least some sort of a theme, and the best idea is to determine a color. Decide on a color that you are going to enjoy and not bore of or regret a couple months down the road. If you already have a bedroom set that you love then maybe pick a color that coordinates well with it.

Regardless of what type of house renovation you are considering, if you really want to make sure that you are going to get it done right then you should speak to a professional, tell them about what you are planning on doing and ask them to give you some information. This way you can be sure that you are on the right track and that you are going about things the right way, especially before you actually spend any money.

Kid Safety Gate

2009-12-25T16:36:00.000+08:00

hi.. I'm back... today i would like to share one part of my lovely house. A SAFETY GATE.. to avoid my children to enter the kitchen area. Kitchen is a very dangerous part in our home. Because of the worry, we built the safety gate.. It's quite cheaper if you can make it by yourself rather than buy it, because you won't need it for a long time.. unless your child is too hyperactive..

2009-12-23T14:58:00.000+08:00

1. Choose paint colors that match.

Choose paint that you can survive with it for a prolonged period of time. In particular, your bedroom. It is true and good if you choose colors that state your position, but within 6 months, do you still think the bright pink, "cool"?

Things need to be considered:

# In general, dark colors tend to make a room appear smaller, so, for a small room, such as the bedroom, select colors that more bright / young.

# When the walls have been painted, paint will appear darker than when it was still in the tin. Select a color color ( "shade") brighter than your original desires.

# Find the correct type of paint and learn what its impact. Examples of "SilkGlo" is a high quality emulsion paint that produces shining soft wall, easily cleaned and durable. SilkGlo very suitable for use as a protection and finish to the wall where frequent cleaning should be done, for example kitchen and room for children.

# Choose a color that will highlight your room decor. Either contrast or not, it must contribute to the decoration of rooms, not hide them.

Make review before buying. There are many WebSites that provide tips on what paint to buy, why buy it and where appropriate with rooms. You can also access the WebSite for the idea (with user photos) to decorate certain rooms. You can view results / pictures they had done with color paint and its impact on scenery in certain rooms.

2. Create a small room seem spacious.

Learn get the best results with what we have, is important because today, we have the space shrinking. Below are some ideas for you: --

# Put a mirror on the wall. If placed correctly, it can double the size of your room, at least visually. For example, dining area, put a mirror on one wall next to the dining table. Anyone who stood up and looked into the mirror will see that space is greater than the actual.

# Do not buy a curtain or veil of excessive thickness. Buy curtains that appear elegant. Thick curtains and flower can make a room look comfortable, which is not necessarily suitable for a small room. (But if this effects you want, continue your intention).

# Do not buy furniture that most large size. For example, do not buy a bed-sized "king" later if there is no space to open the closet door.

# Use a simple theme, and left only one theme. Do not make rooms seem too busy / garbled.

3. Do not modernize everything.

Examples: for this example in the kitchen. Many people want to decorate their kitchen again. Cooking is "Rock 'n' Roll" and a new kitchen is his stage. With cook like Chef Wan, Chef Ismail Sabri Chef, Chef Zaida and others, many people really began to enjoy cooking.

If you have a house that has old fashion kitchen, do not remove all only to be replaced with all that new. Sometimes the old is actually new in fashion. Improve all, give your kitchen a new paint and give emphasis on the retro-style decor in your kitchen. If it is done correctly, you will have a very stylish kitchen. You can also mix the modern with the old.

A good example of the "old" but still "cool" and highlight the modern:

# Chair / bench long.

# Accessories such as opening bottles.

# Photos or paintings of the past. You may be able to buy old photographs in the shop concerned.

4. Decorate the wall.

Decorate the walls with pictures, paintings and calligraphy / calligraphy that frame. A blank wall as if to give the impression of an empty room (but boring). But the key here is make sure the frame is a photo of good quality and appearance of the beautiful frame.

Frame the true highlight effects pictures or photos. Pictures of beautiful, when framed will look great. Add "border" on the picture will also reveal variations.

And, use frames that match the decor of the room. There are a variety of picture frames in the market. We have a simple, modern decor and full. As mentioned earlier, let parallel with room decor. Survey first what is on the market before taking the decision to buy.

5. Use good lighting effects.

Determine what must be lighted (whether a room or just a piece of painting)?, And ways to highlight the surrounding environment. Modern reading lamp suitable for reading rooms, chandelier for space in or lamps for living room. Also consider, you can create effects by using soft light bulb that produces light colors "warm" (friendly).

There are several ways to install lights that highlight the environment of a room: --

# Lights Highlight - to highlight the wall decoration, pictures and drawings. Often used in the living room and dining area for hiding a point which is the focus.

# Sitting or standing lamp gives effect to that of the lighting in obscure corners. Spillover light from the light make a space to sit and see a romantic view. Widely used in the relaxed space, living room and bedrooms.

# Hanging lamp is often used as the main source of light. Usually used in family activities. For example the family room or a place to gather for a study, living room and dining area.

# Chandelier Lamp provides magnificent and sparkling effects. Luxury homes typically use many elements of glass and golden-colored furniture, lighting chandelier can reflect light from the sparkling-furnitures.

Outside there are many shops that offer various types of light, so, survey first and determine which is the best for you.

6. Trash is not only trash.

You have to think of things that small. Just because the trash where you remove the rubbish, this does not mean you can not have trash interesting. You will be shocked how many people will be praised if you have a beautiful trash. Because we have no place to hide trash, it is placed in the open in the kitchen, then it becomes accessory.

Moreover, it is not just about trash. It may be the key rack, place the bread store or place ashes in the living room.

See this picture. Rooms quite small, but once you step in, eyes focused on painting on the wall. Then you see the light at the edge, you do not notice the room is really small.

There are several ways to do this: --

1. Use the architecture - eg, the window is reflected

2. Use as flower vases - can also use potted plants

3. Use works of art - paintings, photos or carved flower pots

7. Create a simple flow path.

Also known as the flow of traffic ( "traffic flow") in the internal decorative arts, this route is the way that people will pass to move in your house, around furniture, and others. You will notice the pattern on the carpet after a period of time because of high traffic flow can leave the effects of tear and wear on the carpet.

Do not make your guests (or yourself) had to move goods or be avoid furniture when walking. Try make spaces in your home easily accessible, even while many people.

To create a password that is easy on the pass in the house, try the following ideas: --

# Leave enough space between the furniture, so people easily move between the furniture.

# Make the destination path that have functions - eg the living room, make sure you can move to the entrance, light switches and seat without much resistance.

Something simple such as traffic routes see the kinds of non-critical, but more likely your guests will remember your home because of severe route questioner other thing is better.

8. Assign functions to each room.

Assign functions to each room and ensure that each function can be done in the room.

2 notable examples: --

# Separate guests require seat, and a table for guests to drink the cup when putting away. Try not force guests to make things that do not necessarily enjoy in them, such as holding a hot cup of coffee to cool enough to slurp. Certainly you can make your table as a feature that can be highlighted in your living room.

# Rooms certainly require a bed to sleep. But it is really useful if you have a table in a small bed side table lamp and may be located on it.

9. Be hardworking to do some reviews.

MAKING A GOOD IMPRESSION WITH YOUR HOME

2009-12-22T14:13:00.000+08:00

When you’re trying to get to know someone, nothing can give you a closer look into their personalities than their home. Is it filled with tasteful furniture which matches the carpet and walls? Is it spotless and clean, or does it have its share of dog hair and stains on the carpet? All these things will cause someone to have pre-conceived notions about the inhabitants. Therefore, if you frequently have guests over to your house, you should do all you can to present a house with decorating that will give a good impression.

You may consider enlisting the services of an interior designer. These are people who have a full and perfect understanding of colors, shapes, and light levels. They will know exactly how to decorate your house so that everything has the perfect compliment and contrast to everything else. This is a good route to take if you have a good chunk of money to spend on interior decorating. The services can be fairly expensive, and you may end up needing to buy entirely new furniture.

Another option is to use the resources found in online tutorials to give you an idea of how you should decorate your house. Many web sites offer free home decorating tutorials to train you in these matters. There are also dozens of home decorating discussion boards. With a digital camera, you can take pictures of your rooms and post them on the boards for free advice about what you can do with the colors and patterns of everything within your home.

Home decorating may seem like a silly thing to spend your time on, but when you have an interior decor that you are proud to show to guests, you will realize that every bit of time and money you spent on it was worth it.

PAINTING KITCHEN CABINETS

2009-12-22T14:07:00.000+08:00

One of the quickest and most economical ways to give a tired kitchen a make over is to paint your kitchen cabinets. Applying a coat of light paint to dark wood will not only brighten up a dingy kitchen, it will also give the illusion of more space. It doesn’t matter if your cabinets are wood or veneer, with the proper preparation both surfaces can benefit from the application of good quality paint. Bear in mind that kitchen cabinets take quite a beating – from sticky little fingers to oil residue from cooking, so the better quality the paint, the longer the paint job will last.

This project can take about three days to complete, so allowing yourself enough time is important. The key to any successful painting job is preparation and when painting cabinets this is most important. Generally, you don’t have to bother with the insides of the cabinets, other than the insides of the doors and maybe the frames, so you can save yourself a lot of time and energy by concentrating on the outer surfaces only.

PREPARATION:

• Remove all doors and hardware.
• Hardware is expensive and very often it can be salvaged rather than replaced. If it has been previously painted, you can soak your hardware in a bucket of paint remover (outside or in the garage – as the fumes can be dangerous). After a day or so in solution, carefully remove hardware, using rubber gloves, and then soak in a bucket of warm, soapy water. If necessary, you can then give the pieces a quick scrub with a scouring pad. In most cases, the paint will peel right off and your hardware will look brand new.
• Before you begin to apply paint to kitchen cabinets, the surface must be thoroughly cleaned. Washing cabinets with a solution of warm water and TSP will remove most, if not all of the accumulated grease and oils. Allow to dry completely.
• Next, a quick swipe with fine sandpaper (A good fine paper for this project is a 200 to 300) will roughen up the surface, allowing the paint to adhere better.

PAINTING:

• Choose a good quality, washable paint. Kitchens look brighter and cleaner when the cupboards are finished with a semi to high gloss paint, but that is entirely up to your own preference.
• Lay the cabinet doors on a flat surface in a room with plenty of ventilation. Paint the outer edges with a brush then use a roller to finish the job. Allow to dry according to manufacturers’ recommendation. When thoroughly dry, turn over and paint the other side. You will definitely need two coats of paint, and if you have the time and energy, three is better.

ASSEMBLY:

• When paint is completely dry, you can then re-assemble the hardware install the cabinets and your kitchen will look brand new.

REPAIR @ REPLACE YOUR HOME APPLIANCES??

2009-12-21T14:16:00.000+08:00

One dilemma that many a person now faces in the 21st century is what to do when a home appliance breaks down or goes on the fritz. Of course, for many people the initial inclination is to phone up a repair person and have the machine fixed. On the other hand, many people in this day and age are quick to merely go out and have the busted appliance replaced with a new unit.

In point of fact, there are some factors that you do need to take into consideration when attempting to decide whether to repair or to replace a home appliance that is not working correctly. Perhaps the most important factor to take into consideration -- about everything else that might come to mind -- is price.

Many basic home appliances are now priced in such a manner that is you have owned and utilized the equipment for an extended period of time it makes more economic sense merely to go out and make the purchase or a replacement product. For example, many elementary clothes washer and dryer units are now priced in many countries around the world at fairly reasonable rates. In other words, the cost of repairing a failing used appliance may be such that you actually “save” money in the greater scheme of things by making the purchase of a new unit.

On the other hand, many people at this point in time actually are making very significant investments in their home appliances. For examples, there are some people in some parts of the world that are paying tens of thousands of dollars or other equivalent monetary units to equip their kitchens with the latest home appliances. In point of fact, many people are spending on a refrigerator what it costs to purchase an automobile.

If you are such a person who is forking over a significant amount of cash to purchase home appliances for your residence, you naturally will want to give serious consideration to having the item repaired. In these instances it is not simply a matter of spending a few hundred dollars (or the equivalent) to replace a home appliance on the blink.

Finally, some people actually do become attached to a particular home appliance -- particularly those associated with the kitchen. If that is the case, and if repair costs are not outlandish, it does make sense to have the item on the blink repaired rather than replaced.

Decorating Ideas For Kids Rooms

2009-12-21T14:02:00.000+08:00

Kids room decorating are an opportunity waiting to come to life! No where else can you mix and match a variety of paint schemes along with creative stencils, stickers, sparkles and get away with it. Best of all, your kids can be involved in transforming their room into their own accomplishments while redecorating at the same time.

Some creative ideas on decorating kid’s bedrooms:

1) Furniture - Make a whole play area from an ordinary bookcase. Choose bright colors that match your child style and add features such as cutout doors for a doll house or castle effect. Add texture materials to one or two compartments that create a window or door like feature. When your child has out-grown the design, you can easily remove the materials and doors and replace them with the original materials that you saved. Other ideas can be used with Lego or large building blocks to create more designs to match your child’s age.

2) Walls - Turn your kid’s walls in a big canvas. Paint is the perfect solution and least expensive way to create a kaleidoscope impact while offering unlimited color options. Just changing one wall or adding stripes, borders, sponge or stamping techniques can bring new life to an ordinary room. Use wavy or splat design patterns, or turn one wall into a mural effect. Choose a bright base and pick accent colors to achieve the best effects.

3) Ceiling - Create a magical night sky on your child’s ceiling with glow in the dark decorations. These can be fun and even comforting for your child to be able to lie in bed and gaze up at the night stars

4) Doors - Use wooden letters that spell your child’s name and glue them on the door. Painting them in the theme color of your child room will dress up the door nicely. Closet door hardware can be replaced with wiggly handles or their favorite cartoon character. By matching the door hardware with wall plates you can carry the pattern through out the room that accents their style.

5) Shelves - Using shelving materials can be the least expensive way to pick up the clutter and organize a room. Painting with the same colors or add design features with stencil or stamping can quickly dress up any room. Different shelve designs can also be used to border a window that eliminate the need for expensive window treatments.

6) Accessories - Large cork boards can quickly turn a bare wall into a busy space. Cork boards also eliminate holes in walls from nails or tacks that later need to be repaired. Wooden picture frames can be painted to help accent the room. Fans blades can be reversed and painted with designs to add cool effects when in use and then can be reversed when it comes time to re-decorate.Decorating your kid’s bedroom is a great way to give them a place they can call their own and you may just find your kid spending more time in there!

I LOVE THESE..

2009-12-20T15:02:00.000+08:00

2009-12-20T10:52:00.000+08:00

Hi .. welcome to the HOME DECOR. As a woman who works, and also a housewife, I was concerned how to decorate the house. I'm interested to share some tips on decorating the house with attractive. To me, home is a place that must be interesting, beautiful, clean and comfortable place to live. Beautiful and comfortable home is also important in the happiness of a family. In this blog, you can get some tips on how to decorate the house with a simple, but beautiful and attractive, especially to the families who have young children. This is because, families with small children often have problems in home decorating. I will share with you some interesting tips. You are also encouraged to contribute good ideas to me to be loaded in this blog. Till here..Happy surfing.. :)