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Home & Garden Articles
Give Your Home a Whole New Look Without Hurting Your Pockets
Mon 17 Nov 2008 - 10:18
Give Your Home a Whole New Look Without Hurting Your Pockets
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Harry_Blackwell]Harry Blackwell
The abode where you spend the quality time and treasured moments, the cocoon where you will safe, that warmth spreading place is your home sweet home. It is where your being relaxes after a tiring day. Your home defines you, your taste, culture and class.
Twofold paths can be adopted to give your house a facelift. Either call upon a skilled expert like interior designer or give your creativity a chance. First way could be quite a costly one. Even though the second approach would cost you dearly as you need professional help for wooden works or plumbing, your own contribution in your nest would give you a satisfaction never felt before.
To start with, determine your financial plan and priorities. Choose a theme for your new house in accordance with the furniture you already own and do not plan to part with. If your favorite piece of furniture, suppose the heavily crafted antique sofa set, is a mismatch and you are on a strict budget, you can adorn the room in a style which goes along well with the traditional set up.
If this does not work out well then you can incorporate some pocket friendly elements to go with it. Free your mind of all possible restrictions because too much perfection gives the house a bookish look. This will give you more liberty to your creativity. Take for instance, the sitting arrangement in your house that includes an ultra modern sofa set. To transform it into an ethnic seating, all you need to do is use pallid shade drapes over it to make it more sober. If you wish to retain the chic look team it with a love seat. This will subside the sharpness of leather and would not affect your budget much either.
If you possess a priceless item which you can not fit by any means in your preferred setting, do not upset yourself. You know your home itself has a different theme for different corners. You will not paint your kid's room with monotonous colors nor the cooking area with vibrant ones with wallpapers of cartoons. If your living room has a modern touch, give your bedroom a gothic look, rich and traditional. Accommodate all your favorite and preferred old furniture this way. This will help you ration your finances properly and give you the freedom to utilize the money in other pockets. There are more hidden costs than you can ever imagine.
Once you are done with determining your preferred look of the new house, you can sort out anything and everything that you can associate with the desired theme. This will help you get your hands on the items you need for embellishment. For example, for a modest look your list would contain things like a glass vase with fresh flowers, curtains of soft shades, varnished tables, etc. On the other hand if you are opting for a Japanese Zen then you would use statues, pebble rocks, cane furniture, mats, etc. To find out more stuff that that will gel well with your theme you can surf websites online. Now you will be full of bright ideas on things you want in various corners of your house.
One vital point to be kept in mind while redesigning your home is your daily routine. Your furniture placements will depend upon your habits and hobbies. If you are a music lover, you would like to have easy access to your CD collections. This calls for a well sorted storage facility, giving priority to most often used things and proper storage to the least used things. If you are a cleanliness freak, then you can put curios, picture frames and other pretty knick-knacks on display in showcases or glass shelves. Else it is better to get beautiful boxes where you can keep your CDs, DVDs or other frequently used articles at the ease of your reach without dusting them every now and then.
You can use sofa cum bed for living room, divans or box beds for storage facility. There are innumerable options to choose from.
A wall covering closet is a very important section of furniture. For a good and space saving one, you don't need expert's help. Fix basic rods and shelves, put a sliding door by a contractor and bingo- you have a customized closet. Utilize the space above the closet doors by using them as cupboard, but for that you need a carpenter. You can choose wooden or glass or mirror finished sliding doors too. Using stain glass can give your room an exotic look. As the sliding doors do not cover the full length of the wall, you will need to do something to cover the top. This can be done by placing wall mounted units on the top of the wardrobes. Thus now you have extra storage for items which you need rarely like old books, curtains and extra beddings.
Apart from furniture, flooring, ceiling, wall finish and obviously arrangement of lights are the next beautifying factors of a house. Your decoration can make or break its impression. If you prefer wooden floor for an organic feel or use carpet instead for oriental touch. Reflection of polished floor of stone will give an aura of luxury and keep your house cool in summers. It is a very good option for the houses in tropical countries and belts around the globe prolonged summer.
The most inexpensive way to recreate your walls is use textured or designer wall papers. Here too you can choose to put up a wall paper on the front wall and color the rest of the walls in white as white paint costs the least and gives a serene look. If you have a small house, you can make use of mirrors around the wall. This will give the room a bigger look. Making wise use of reflective partitions in the room will give a continuous effect to the room and make it look more spacious.
If you do not want to use mirrors or wall papers, you can use wall hangings like wooden masks, paintings, or just a big happy family photograph. You can put multiple photo frames around the room, but make sure you use similar frames, i.e. all steel or all wooden frames. Hang them together in a quadrilateral shape and it will become a unique wall-piece in itself. You can also hang these casing or wall pieces in staircase order. This will not only give a look of large wall but also provide the room an enticing feel.
You can obtain a soft and comfy feeling by positioning the light in such a way that it spreads around the room after reflecting from an opaque surface. In this manner the sharpness of light is reduced and it will no longer hurt your eyes. There are specialized lamp shades to achieve this effect, but if you don't want to spend on it, you can place lights above cupboards facing the ceiling. Place multiple low voltage lights scattered around the room and not just a single high voltage light.
A well lit room only can bring out the beauty of its furnishings and walls and other artifacts. Too much or too little lights can mar the charm of even the most expensive of furniture. Right amount of light in the right position can help you achieve the perfect ambience. Refrain from keeping one straight light source in the room. You can use energy saver white lights for regular usage. It controls the electric bill and emits cool light to sooth your eyes. Shades of color can set up your mind frame as well. Like hue of azure brings serenity, mauve the nuances of love and romance and pink for the kids' room.
As a final and finishing touch, give the house a lighter shade. Curtains of pastel shade and fine fabric adds to the beauty of any room. If your drawing room is not much spacious, these neutral shades can have magical effect. For your bedrooms, you can use darker tones. Just keep in mind that whatever colors you have selected should not conflict with each other. Harmony in colors can give your house added tranquility that you would long for after a hectic day. Curtains neatly tied with a beautiful ribbon let the sunlight bath your room and give a sleek look. For a modest look, go for screens or blinds for windows. Here you can choose from Roman blinds made of fabric, or Japanese and Balinese blinds made of bamboo or the ultra modern nylon blinds. If you are planning to put wallpapers, complement it with the motifs of your curtains for that extra layer.
To create a more comfy and sophisticated appearances you can choose to have some throw pillows on the sofa in the living room. Necessity here is that it should gel with the wallpapers and curtains. You can put in some assorted shades and still create a pleasant homogenous look.
Harry Blackwell has been an avid kitchen design enthusiast for years. You can read his reviews on [http://www.kitchen-plans-n-designs.com]Kitchen Plans and Designs, as well as tips on how to design the kitchens..
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harry_Blackwell http://EzineArticles.com/?Give-Your-Home-a-Whole-New-Look-Without-Hurting-Your-Pockets&id=1681644
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