Painting Tile Floors – Cheap Interior Decorating
Paint for home decorating is not just limited to the walls. You can do so with your tile floors. This is a cheap alternative for replacing the tiles. Paint can make your floor look new and not much effort comes with this easy to do task.
If you have dark, dingy tiles, painting them is the inexpensive solution that will allow you to give your entire room a new look. After you have painted the tile floors, you can throw down an area rug or area rugs to even give it more color and pizzazz.
You should make sure that you either use an enamel paint to paint the tile floors or use a gloss overcoat to enable you to keep the floors clean and the paint on the tile.
There are basically two types of paint that you can use when you are painting tile floors. These are latex or enamel paints. Latex paints are less harmful when it comes to fumes and are water soluble.
Enamel paints contain more toxic fumes and need to be cleaned up with paint thinner or alcohol. Enamel paints will not be as quick to come up off of the floor as will latex paints and have a tendency to wear better.
Latex paints will come up with wear and need a gloss overcoat. If you use a gloss enamel paint, you can get the entire project done quicker.
Another method of painting is by using a spray paint. It is quick, effective and cheap. Just make certain that the room is not enclosed when spray painting. Have proper ventilation and let the floor dry before placing area rugs.
If your tile floor is in the kitchen or bathroom, you will want to be sure to choose area rugs that are heavy enough not to slip, but can easily be thrown in the washing machine. You can find some heavy rag rugs that fall into this category. You want to be sure that the rugs will not slip out from under you when you are walking on them.
Rug guards are sold so that they can secure the rug to the tile or floor underneath and are an excellent option when it comes to using area rugs in the home and preventing accidents.
Rugs for the bathroom should be easy to wash. Rubber supported rugs are ideal to resist slips from the wet floor. Many accidents occur in the bathroom because of slippery floor during or after showers. Don’t underestimate a simple fall. It can be very dangerous. You want to make sure your bathroom rugs are proper enough to avoid such mishaps.
Author: Jonas Marks
Feng Shui Decorating
Feng Shui, you have heard it mentioned but still are unsure what it really is. Well let’s find out the true meaning of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement and stands for wind and water.
The Chinese used this system to balance out the energy patterns of their physical environment with spiritual forces. Their ultimate goal was to achieve harmony, comfort, and balance, first within their environment and then within their lives. In the Chinese culture the gentle wind and the clear waters have always been linkedwith good health and a good harvest. So from this good Feng Shui means good livelihood and good fortune. On the other had bad Feng Shui means misfortune and hardship. So Feng Shui is a very important part of the Chinese lifestyle.
Feng Shui is based around Taoist and their vision and an understanding of nature. This focuses specifically on the belief that land is a living being and is filled with Chi. The ancient Chinese felt that the land’s energy could either help the kingdom prosper or cause it to fail and fall apart.
There are three principles behind Feng Shui. They involve design, placement, and proportion throughout the space. Without these three principles everything would become unbalanced and interfere with a person’s health and happiness within their environment. The main tools that are used during the Feng Shui analysis is the Ba-Gua which is an octagonal grid that contains the acient symbols of the great I Ching and the compass.
The I Ching is an ancient oracle which is what Feng Shui is based around. Knowing the Bagua for both your home and also your work space will be a great help to you to completely understand how the connection of certain specific Feng Shui in certain areas of both your home and work space can be linked to certain areas and parts of your overall life.
Now we move on to putting the Feng Shui into your home. Generally a consultant would come into your home and look at the five elements wood, fire, earth, metal, water (xuan kong flying star (north star), color, positioning of all the furnishings, and offer out cures for the problem areas).
The colors associated with Feng Shui are: wood is blue and green, fire is red and some of the items for this would be a tea light or a tamp lamp with a red shade, earth is beige and yellow and the items for this would be a terra cotta pot with soil and a rock statue, water is blue and black and the items here could be a fountain or aquarium, and metal is an accent color made up of silver, gold, copper, and bronze.
When it comes to the positioning of your furniture you should always face it in the direction of all the action such as the front door or street. This will give you the perfect flow of Feng Shui. Yang is considered to be the most active energy. It is usually lively and busy such as a public place or a flowing river. This is generally the most windowed side of your home. It should contain a nice view and it is usually a living or family room.
Ying is considered the least energy. This is usually found in the sitting direction of an alley or backyard. Shade trees highlight this area making it quiet and relaxing. This can be the side of the property and you would find the bedrooms in this area.
Decorating Your Bedroom With a Western Theme …
Creating a bedroom with a Western style can actually have an inviting and masculine feel to it. Mixing and matching different items associated with the West like wooden carvings or cowboy hats can truly make your room your personal space. To create a cowboy or western style for your room, here are a few ideas you can use.
• The color of the wall of your room will be very important. Warm and vibrant colors are usually used to depict a western mood to it. A western look often consists of browns, blacks, tans and other dark colors. To highlight the color contrast, select white ornaments for a splash of brightness. One good idea is to use white cow print fabric to make the bed set and curtains. A white carpet with dyed with black odd shaped spots will also create a dramatic effect for your room.
• Decorating the wall with western wall art is an artistic way of incorporating the western theme. Sometimes you can find these inexpensive wall art in garage sales and flea markets. Take the time to visit these places because you’ll never know you might just find the perfect piece of art to hang in your room.
• Hanging up a rope lasso or making small ones glued to your lampshade can also show a western theme to it. You can also cut pictures of horses, cattle, or Indians and use this as a border around the top of your room.
• Decide on having your floor generally made out of hardwood. Also choose area rugs which are flat woven styles or maybe even fake fur skins.
• To create a cowboy look and feel, decorate your room with saddles and leather straps. These can be draped over your table chair. Use your imagination and come up with ingenious ways on how to make western accessories using horse shoe, Indian outfits and cowboy hats.
• Using items made of iron such as iron lamp bases and cabinet knobs will fit well in a Western room.
• You can decide to design your room in a number of ways. You can go with the country theme or even the old west route. It really depends on your preference. Include things such as cowboy boots and guitars to enhance the western culture in your room.
• Nowadays, there are available door knobs in the market with designs that reminds us of the Wild West. Choose a design you like and replace your old door knob with this western-inspired knob.
• Alternative wall hangings can include horse whips, chaps and stirrups. Wooden items can be found in craft stores. There are numerous shapes and sizes to choose from. Paint these shapes and hang them on the wall.
• Window treatments should be in basic colors and not too drastic. Look for wooden shutters or simple curtain panels.
• Old trunks and stressed wood furniture can be placed inside your room and will definitely keep the western look going.
Incorporate all these ideas from painting your room with dark colors up to hanging up the western wall art to achieve the Western look you want to accomplish. After you have all the furniture and decorations in place, you will have produced a warm, cozy bedroom where you can enjoy and relax. It will be like living in the Wild West but still in the comfort of your bedroom.
Author: Alyssa Davis
Ideas for kitchen decorating to blow your mind
Kitchen is supposed to be the most used room in the house. There are several kitchen decorating ideas that you can come across, these days. These ideas were not present a few years ago.
When it comes to decorating the kitchen, it can be very difficult to decide on the kind of look that would be better for your kitchen that would prove to be the best. There are different options such as retro and the latest cookery space available on the market, these days.
The modern kitchen style decoration allows you to hide all your appliances behind different cabinets. The clean lines and smoothed out edges look great. You can also hide all your appliances into the walls or place them into countertops.
You can find latest appliances for your kitchen that can easily blend into the décor of your kitchen. It is possible to coat huge kitchen appliances such as ovens and refrigerators with facing similar to cabinets.
Here are some useful tips to decorate your kitchen in country style.
Colors
You must focus on using fresh, clean and warm colors to decorate your kitchen in country style. The ideal colors would be shades of whites, pinks, greens and yellows.
Accents
Try adding some accents to your kitchen such as flowers, vegetables, fruit and plants to give your kitchen the feel that you want to achieve.
Furniture
Try using lighter woods or wicker furniture to make your kitchen look beautiful. You need to upholster the kitchen in either floral or gingham patterns. You can save a lot of money via creating slip covers for your old furniture instead of purchasing new furniture.
Flooring
The flooring of your country style kitchen should be created from natural materials such as tile, wood or flagstones. Incase, these do not suit your budget, try using wall to wall carpeting or lamination. The color of the flooring should be given good importance. The lighter the shade, the betters. You can even use braded or hooked rugs. This will give an authentic look to your kitchen.
Accessories
Accessories would be the final thing to consider when decorating your kitchen design. Try looking for accessories that will work best and suit well. You may try putting your family pictures in wooden frames. A painted rustic scene would be a great idea.
Remember that you need to have an open mind when decorating the kitchen. This way, you would be able to follow some of the great ideas available for decorating kitchen in country style.
