Window Dressing from the Outside Looking In
May 31, 2007
Window coverings are important to the overall look and feel of a room, of course, but when designing window treatments, don’t forget to take into consideration what your overall design will look like from the outside of your home.
As a general rule, window coverings should all be of a similar coloring, which will significantly improve the look of your home’s exterior. For instance, a house with a blue-curtained window on one side and one with yellow curtains on the other won’t look harmonious from a curbside viewpoint.
Your window dressing colors should also harmonize with the home’s outside color scheme. For instance, white-lined draperies are generally too light for dark?painted exteriors, while small printed designs, such as white on white, can be effective for adding greater interest to the outside view of a plain house.
Draperies lined with light pale yellow make a house glow at night. If that’s your desired effect, even sheer white or lace panels can be tinted with a pale yellow dye. If you use a patterned material, lining patterned window coverings with a heavy lining fabric stops the pattern from shining through at night when the lights are on.
7 Tips for Decorating Your Childs Room
May 30, 2007
If you’re not sure where to start or how best to tackle updating your child’s bedroom, you’re not alone. In a lot of families, the baby nursery takes a lot of planning and decorating time but there’s often less thought and energy put into decorating the same child’s room as they grow older.
It’s common for baby toys and furniture like diaper disposals, pull toys and cribs to get removed, but other things often stay around for quite a bit longer than the growing child might wish. For instance a wall paper border with prints more suitable for your baby or young child’s room, may not be as enjoyed by your now older child (or teen?!).
Here are a few tips to help you get started with decorating your child’s room. The best part about this is that your child can help you do it this time around. So this can be a fun project you can do together!
1. Select a new color to paint the walls, a color that your child likes. If you have a strong objection to it, though, negotiate with perhaps a lighter version of that color, or limiting their color choice to only one wall. (Or, encourage them to put up some nice posters to lessen the wall color’s impact!)
Seven Interior Design Psychology Ideas for Dining Pleasure
May 30, 2007
A separate dining room adds glamour, elegance, and excitement to a shared meal. Celebratory, sociable space, apart from the confusion of the kitchen, makes every dinner more meaningful.
1. A round dining table is less formal and aides in full conversation, with everyone participating together.
2. For comfortable dining, the seat height feels best when it is nine inches from the table top.
3. White and light colored tablecloths reflect light upwards providing more illumination for large parties.
4. Dark wood absorbs the light for intimate dining, keeping the room moody and romantic.
5. Gold lamae fabric sparkles under lace tablecloths.
6. Stemware gives a buoyant, bubbly, and upbeat feeling.
7. White china, green napkins, heavy cut glass, even for young families (liquids taste better in glasses than in plastic), and candlelight make an ordinary meal taste scrumptious.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeanette J. Fisher
Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm
Dining Rooms: Designing for Your Emotional Well-Being
May 29, 2007
I read an interior design book last night. Since I can’t recommend it to you, I won’t reveal the name. What I saw was a group of photographs asking the reader to choose her favorite dining room. After studying the rooms carefully, I decided that not one room presented good design for eating and conversing!
Several of the dining rooms used wallpaper in bold patterns that compete with nonexistent diners. Most of these rooms offered uncomfortable seating, either too big for intimate conversation or too little for personal comfort. The “cozy” dining rooms were cluttered with too many accessories; the “formal” and “elegant” rooms were too stiff and cold. This is how I labeled the dining rooms:
1. Cluttered Country 2. Bleak Stiff Modern 3. Wallpaper Madness Traditional 4. Cold Contemporary 5. Stark Shaker 6. Bland Eclectic 7. Pretty for Parties with Misguided Colors 8. Governor’s Mansion for Once a Year
If you want to makeover your dining room for good conversations and dining pleasure, here are a few new interior design tips from Design Psychology strategies:
Design Psychology: Beds and Emotional Well-Being
May 28, 2007
The bed represents the beginning and ending of life. In the past, people were conceived, born, and died in the same bed. You spend more time in your bed than on any other piece of furniture. Design Psychology offers new bedroom makeover ideas concerning your bed for supporting your emotional well-being.
Bed Placement for Secure Feelings
Position the headboard directly opposite the doorway up against a wall. This creates the visual expansion of the room and underscores the bed’s importance. As the main attraction, the bed represents the focal point of the room.
A greater reason to place the bed so that it faces the doorway is for a feeling of security. People feel safe with a clear view of the door. With the door behind your vision, you feel like someone can sneak up behind you. However, some bedrooms with a separate entry space coming into the main area present a dilemma; positioning a mirror in a way that reflects the blind spot corrects this problem. Convex mirrors, those that curves or bulge outward, help you to see down the hallway.
Beds and Enclosure
Decorating with Brains
May 27, 2007
Did I get your attention? Sorry, I just couldn’t resist! When I was a little girl, we called them "brains". We would gather them into huge piles and either throw them into the woods or throw them at each other.
I know what you are probably thinking, "That must have hurt!" It did but it never slowed us down. Still don’t know what I am talking about? I am fondly remembering the grapefruit sized, green, brain-like fruit that my siblings and I used to collect by the dozens each fall.
I ended up having two boys and when they were little they did the same thing I did years earlier; they threw them at each other. Of course I yelled words of caution but it never slowed them down either. Around that time I started to collect the "brains" and used them for fall decorations in my house. They have a pleasant smell and they are said to act as a natural insect repellant, although I am not sure if this is a proven fact.
Creating Dynamic Window Coverings Without Breaking the Budget
May 26, 2007
When creating dynamic window coverings, it’s important to choose carefully, because your window coverings will become the focal points of a well-decorated room. But choosing the right window treatments, at the right price, takes some thought about not only the look you’re hoping to achieve, but also about the nature of the space itself.
The first consideration will be how much exposure the fabric is going to receive. All fabrics are susceptible to sunlight, but many homemakers invest in acrylic, modacrylic, polyester, or another glass-based fabric in order to get the longest life out of window treatments. Although it gives a room an elegant feel, silk is most vulnerable to sunlight.
I save money on window treatments by using some imagination and creativity. For example, I often create a custom look by covering a tension rod with a thicker piece of PVC pipe. To avoid having the PVC’s printing bleed into my fabric, I sand off the numbers, but the printing can also be neutralized by using PVC primer, acetone, or even fingernail polish.
Three Great Concepts for Remodeling a Master Bedroom
May 25, 2007
Since it’s one of the places people spend the most time, one of the most satisfying home makeovers is the main bedroom. Here are three ideas for creating a dynamic new main bedroom space:
The Passion Boudoir
The French have always led the world in designing sexy bedrooms, and now homemakers all over the world have followed their lead and begun decorating their bedrooms for sex and sensuality.
Use emotionally appealing colors that will enhance your beauty and sensuousness. Be daring; use bold colors. Examples of seductive colors are rouge or lipstick reds, creamy peaches, and subtle pink tones.
Prints such as animals or florals can suggest exotic locales, and mirrors placed in unusual places can reflect seductive candlelight. Tropic plants add mystery, and dressing tables filled with feminine accessories and intimate objects create a romantic mood.
The Reading Room
For many people, the bedroom is a place to lounge and read a good book. If you’re one of those people, you’ll want to create a space that will enhance your reading pleasure. For instance, adding padded headboards will make it easy to maintain proper posture while reading.
Whats So Special About My Front Door?
May 25, 2007
“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” - Flora Whittemore
Your front door welcomes all to your home. This declarative statement of your house — the exclamation point of your home — needs to sing out your welcoming note.
First impressions are not just for guests. Generally, we do not receive as much company as we think we do. We lead such busy lives and simply do not entertain or visit friends often enough.
Decorating your home to impress others is not as important as decorating your home for your own pleasure. Create a welcoming and warm retreat in which you feel great joy just to arrive. Do you feel happy when you see your home in the distance? Does your first glimpse of home bring a smile to your face?
A problem with many new homes is that developers do not provide a separate walkway to your front door. To make yourself and your guests feel more welcome than a car, provide a separate front walkway from the street to the front door. Don’t make guests walk around cars and trip on driveway edges to navigate to the entrance.
Decorate Yourself Happy: How to Decorate For Everyday Pleasure/Joy
May 24, 2007
Because psychologists relate true happiness to joyous occurrences happening frequently, decorating your home to promote everyday pleasure makes sense. If you’re planning a home makeover, provide for the cumulative total of all the little pleasure moments.
When people rate their happiness, it is the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant emotions and experiences that count. These happy experiences may be simple pleasurable, everyday happenings, not always grand events.
Design Psychology, a new method for residential interior and exterior design starts with planning spaces to support emotional well-being. Homes decorated to support desired emotions create happy spaces for joyful living.
Design Psychology Ideas for Pleasure
1. A tea table in the Main Bedroom provides an intimate space for conversation or individual reflection.
2. A reading nook provides a quiet space for escape.
3. A game table provides a place for playing together.
4. A meandering pathway in the garden provides an enticement to stroll.
5. A garden bed provides the perfect place for relaxing and leisurely afternoon naps.
I mean a real bed, not a flower bed, although you need flowers too!
Let your imagination flow freely, enjoy the process, and focus on your goal of providing pleasurable daily moments at your home.
