Posts from — March 2009

Painting gives a new life to your living room, it makes the room fresh, new and clean, But we all know one of the most difficult decorating tasks is choosing a color scheme. Are you still thinking about a color for those walls for your important living room? Oyster White, Navajo White, Cielo Blanco, Off White are but a few variations that builders use when painting the interior of most homes. That while these colors look clean and crisp when we first move in, it doesn’t take long before we tire of the look and want something with a bit more pizazz. Having said that, most people are a little afraid to step out of the standard for fear of not liking their color choice and having to re-do the process back to its original, boring Off White. 

The most fashionable color today is still the various tone of white or off-white because it makes the room look very large and also makes small pieces, like lamps and tables, look larger. White also adds light to your living room while helping to keep it cooler in the summer months. However, too many rooms with white walls tend to make your home look sterile or generic, not to mention the time you’ll have keeping your walls clean.

Color scheme for living room

A living room color scheme is simply a coordinated effort amongst all the colors in the room to create a group, or scheme that is noticeable from a distance. Think about the stripes on a traditional prison uniform, the color scheme of that is easily identifiable as black, and white. Some rooms have single color schemes like brown, or red, or white. While most have multiple color schemes.

A great idea would be to add hints of colors to complement your white walls. You can use a little tan for your trim some tones in light green or blue, or a tan or taupe accent wall.

Brown: There is nothing like the shades of brown to bring out warmth and blend in nicely with just about everything. But be cautious to use brown colors in a small living room as it may dominate the room, oppressing the colors of your furniture and accents. Shades of Tan or taupe will work, although.

Yellow: Yellow is a difficult color to use. While it can brighten up a dark room it has also been found to increase anxiety in the elderly and the very young. On the other hand, it encourages conversation so is an excellent choice for a living room. Choosing the right intensity is the key to success when using yellow. A deep Tuscan gold looks wonderful next to all your dark woodwork. A creamy white with yellow undertones is more appealing than a stark white wall.

Reds: The color Red is a classic shade because they are so bold, vivacious and daring. Reds work especially well with light colored furniture, making it stand out even more. Still, people like to use red as an accent color with just a hint of that shade, more than a main wall color. But nowadays, a few people dare t o paint their walls red too.

Blues: Blues are cool and most often related with French country, Victorian or marine designs. In the more traditional uses, blue is great for expressing formality due to its consoling nature. Nonetheless, blue suggests countless different hues that can change outlook as well as atmosphere.

Learn from what you have read and got the basic ideas from different places and start experimenting. There are several excellent professionals who also provide color consultations to their customers. Hopefully, these few tips will help you find your own living room paint colors and get you on your way to creating the living room of your dreams.

Color Painting Ideas For Living Room

Painting your living rooms with more artistic ways can change the look and feel of your home completely. When you plan to paint your living room, you have to decide which color scheme you will use. You have to keep in mind to color coordinate with the color theme of your furniture, upholstery, furnishing accessories, floor covering, carpets, etc.

However, when you go to your local home improvement store you will be faced with a sea of color swatches – hundreds of versions of basic beige and gray to choose from. So before you go, consider these steps to choosing the right color for you.

Now when you head on over to your local paint store or home improvement center you can become overwhelmed with all the variations of creme and gray. There can be hundreds of each. So before you go, take a good look around the room your going to repaint. See if you can’t find a light color somewhere in the room that you can take with you. Such as a color in the background of a piece of fabric on say a couch cushion or lampshade. If you like the feel of a warm and cozy room – think of fireplaces, brown leather and sunsets – then you’ll want to start with a beige tone.

Now, consider your furniture and accessories. What colors do you see? If you have a lot of black or navy you may wish to choose a beige with orange or pink undertones to keep the look warm. If you have browns or reds in your furniture, select a cooler beige with ashy tones to avoid ‘overheating’ your room.

If you prefer a cooler, airy look – chrome, glass and shades of icy blue – then select gray tones. Some stores will have a ‘true gray’ color swatch which you can use to compare with their designer selections. On comparison you will notice that each gray has undertones. Some will have blue or lavender tones, others may have green or even a hint of pink.

Using the same guide as stated above, identify the main colors of furniture and accessories in the room. Use green or pink toned greys with cool toned furnishings to avoid it from feeling like an ice box. Use blue or lavender undertones in rooms with warmer colored furnishings.

If you are really torn between beige or gray, than the easiest color to work with is green. Keeping it in a muted tone will make it very easy to live with, and will work with most color palates.

Now, If all of the above guidelines only further confuse you, you can simply go to the paint store and pick up as many different color chips as you like, bring them home and make your decision there. I know it’s an added trip you’ll have to make but what better location to make your decision than from the comfort of home?

Picking and painting your living room with your choice of color will bring you the results your looking for and a sense of accomplishment when you see the finished product. Remembering that you’ll get this makeover for less than the cost of a good meal at your favorite eating place.

Preparation and Calculation for your living room before painting

Painting your living room requires a great deal of preparation and calculation. After you have selected the themes and colors for the room or rooms you are painting, you will need to ensure your rooms are adequately prepared before you begin painting. Even the cleanest rooms and walls will need the surfaces to be prepared before you begin the painting stage.

For living room walls, it is best to use latex or water based paint that dries up quickly and can be washed using soap and water but it is better to use oil-based alkyd paint for doors and windows as it penetrated wood better does not stick when the doors and windows are shut for longer periods of time, especially during winters. To calculate the amount of paint you will need for you living room, measure the perimeter of the living room walls by adding up their widths and the multiply it with the height of wall from floor to ceiling. Subtract the area of open areas from it such as doors, windows and archways to known the wall area that needs to be painted. Some paint types and colors may need more than one coat so take the number of coats you need to cover the walls into account too. Usually, a gallon of flat paint color covers 400 square feet but you may take paint manufacturer’s instructions as your guideline.

You first want to take off all of the switch plates from the walls and conduct a thorough dusting of your living room. Use a feather duster or broom to sweep out every corner from ceiling to floor and then vacuum the room thoroughly.

Look for any holes or cracks in the wall surfaces and patch them up with spackling paste or wall plaster. Once you have patched any holes, you will then need to sand over the patching or spackling to ensure the patch you have created is flush with the wall. This will ensure a flat even coat of paint on your wall. Once you have done this, you will have to dust and vacuum again as sanding will create a large amount of dust. Ensure you dust and vacuum not only your floors, but the walls as well. Sanding will leave dust particles that may not be visible to the naked eye, and your paint will find those dust particles if you don’t leaving unsightly bumps on your walls.

Your next step before you begin living room painting will be to wash your walls thoroughly. You can use a mop to reach the corners and higher areas, but you need to wash and rinse your walls of any cleaning residue. Once your walls have dried from the washing, you are ready to begin your interior house painting. Use painters tape to mark off door ways, baseboards, and ceilings so that your paint applications are smooth and even.

Color has tremendous power if used correctly and,  Professional decorators make full use of the range of colors to achieve a contrast or a color match that enhances any scheme they are promoting. Look at these beautiful living room, with fashion colors.

Living room color schemes, 2009 color trends

The best way to begin choosing the right paint color for your living room is to let fabric lead the way. Fabric provides inspiration for a room’s color scheme. It’s also a more prudent starting point since painting your living room is much easier and costs a lot less than to change furniture and window treatments.

Ready for a gardener

If you plan to make a successful home garden, you must be adequate preparation to be a good gardener. here are some useful tips for your gardening, they are effective solutions from Linda shares, who has more than ten years of neglect of land from a family one-acre organic garden’s construction spending.

1. From the beginning, you should protect your head. Body heat through your head and a warm hat in cold weather should be used. Knit myself a ‘Gardening’ high street in a crazy hat or a simple wool hat buy.

Even more attention in the summer and head to be paid. The rays of the sun is not hot, but they actually burn you. All of us, but how and when you cold gray months of the season want to soak up the sun know it is easy to forget. Investment in a quiet SUNHAT. This will protect not only from Sunstroke, also dry your hair and skin will protect against.

2. , Preferably with very large pockets, especially the garden for a comfortable old jacket or coat to keep low. When you work, you worry about dirty marks do not need to. Leave them there, it is a part of the gardener’s designer uniform!

3. Pants suit .. Gardening, especially for the old couple have a joint. Heavy duty for heavy use jeans. A good waterproof pair are working in humid weather. In wet weather, a fully waterproof Gardening fits is priceless. Always in the rain for planting, and a waterproof hat, jacket and trousers, a pair of shoes Tucked in nice and dry you have to take is!

4. Protect your hands. For light work, potting, or tomato plants will be enough, a plastic watches, pair of gloves or a pair of kitchen rubber gloves out of the pinching. For the heavy work – pruning roses, thistle and nettles weeding, or wear heavy duty gardening gloves your hands will suffer.

About Steam shower.

Steam shower is a small, enclosed room with a vapor-tight door that is equipped with a steam shower generator. Steam showers are growing in popularity because people really enjoy the soothing relaxation that they provide. Building your own steam shower is a cheaper alternative, but it is not an easy work, If you decide to build a steam shower, you should pay attention to necessary details.

You can convert a small walk-in shower into a steam shower, but the enclosure may not turn out big enough to include a bench. You wouldn’t be able to sit and relax during your steam shower – you’d have to stand up the entire time.

Start to build a steam shower

The structure

The walls and ceiling of your enclosure must be made of waterproof material like tile, marble, granite, limestone or fiberglass. Speaking of the ceiling…

Cover the roof

Many standard shower stall doors stop short of the ceiling by a foot or so. You’ll have to…
1) buy a lightweight acrylic dome top, or
2) install a cover made of a material like fiberglass or stainless steel.

Consider a sloped or curved shower ceiling. Why?

Because steam condenses. If the shower ceiling is flat, condensed water will constantly drip.

Believe me, it’s not pleasant when a few of those drops hits you in the eye.

Seal It

Your enclosure needs to be sealed very tight. If steam (actually, it’s water vapor) is allowed to escape, well… you’re looking at damages to drywall, paint, or wallpaper.

You’ll also have to deal with rotting problems if steam is allowed to penetrate into your walls, ceiling and floor. (Via)

Steam show buying guide ( Source)

Modular shower steam rooms.

Modular shower steam rooms are sold online and at home sauna and hot tub stores. Be sure to check out the many different brands, because each has its own special features. Popular makes include Kohler, Whirlpool, Wasauna, Finnleo, and LineaAqua.

For example, Wasauna’s acrylic steam showers are reinforced with fiberglass for greater resilience. LineaAqua offers a variety of ultra-modern designs, including the Caesar model, which is a freestanding circular enclosure made of tempered blue glass.

If you order a modular steam shower online, be sure to double-check dimensions. Either request the location of a showroom you can visit or ask the manufacturer to send you photos before you buy. Also discuss any plumbing and electrical requirements.

Custom steam shower.

custom steam shower is usually built from scratch during bathroom construction. Of course, in a custom job, you can add any amenities you want, from rain showers to rain towers.

Depending on the work involved and the finishes and equipment you choose, the cost of a custom-built shower steam room can be considerably higher than that of a modular unit. A simple shower conversion may be the least costly of all. Figure you’ll need to install a shower door that seals, tile any untiled surfaces, and install a steam generator and its controls.

Steam shower generator.

Look for a steam generator that runs quietly and produces steam quickly, evenly, and efficiently. It shouldn’t take a half-hour to warm up. Some start to produce steam in less than two minutes.

The generator needs to be sized correctly to produce sufficient steam for your shower enclosure. Some steam generators automatically reduce output after reaching a pre-set temperature, allowing for a steady flow of moist hot air instead of short blasts of steam.

Figure that you’ll pay from $500 to $1,600 for a steam generator, depending on size and features. Most home sauna and hot tub stores should have a model for demonstration purposes.

Children’s Bathroom Decorating Ideas, to design a safety, brightly painted bathroom with funny and unique accessories.

Decorating children’s bathroom needs more consideration, but It is definitely not as difficult as some lead you to believe. If you’re designing a bath for use just by kids, you may want to keep costly installed materials fairly neutral, but you can go wild with everything else. Brightly painted walls make a huge impact, and, even better.

The best idea is to create a neutral base for your decorating plans. Pick a standard, white bathroom suite – nothing too old-fashioned and traditional, but equally, nothing that stands out as too modern. Also pick white, or neutral, tiles. Your kids will grow up quicker than you think. A decorating scheme that is perfect for tiny tots, will soon appear childish as they grow a little older. With a neutral bathroom structure, you can easily and cheaply get a whole new look, whenever you want.

Since most bathroom spaces are small, save the murals for the children’ bedrooms. A lively shade is all that’s needed to bring bathroom walls to life. Naturally, if you’re going with a theme, it will dictate the color you choose. For example, turquoise is a perfect fit for an underwater scheme, a sky fantasy bathroom might have walls painted robin’s egg blue, and a soft green makes the perfect backdrop for a jungle-themed bathroom. Stencils and vinyl decals let you add character to the walls, while a peppy-printed shower curtain pulls the whole look together.

For toddlers and small children, try to make it simple for them to learn how to use a bathroom. Get a small step for the toilet and basin, so tiny tots can reach easily – they will soon be learning how to do it on their own.

Make sure taps can be turned on and off easily, so they are user friendly for your kids. Also consider installing a push-button flush toilet. Can’t you remember being a kid yourself — and trying to get the hang of that tricky flush-handle?

Don’t forget to add safety to your design list. Whether you choose a rubber bath mat or non-slip adhesive decals, make sure the bottom of the tub or shower your child will use has a bottom covering that provides traction. Make those decals or bath mats a bright color, and you’ll draw your child’s attention as he steps in, subtly developing a safety habit of looking where you step.