The Sexy Bathroom

Inspirations for wet and sexy bathrooms.

Photos taken off thesexybathroom.com

5 Design Mistakes For Small Spaces

Are you guilty of these design mistakes?

Turn Down The Heat

With the temperature and PSI levels rising, it's no wonder I'm sweating buckets just standing at the bus stop. Respite from the heat is definitely needed.

Article taken off ehow.com

How to Make Your Home Cooler During the Summer

Keeping your home cool during the summer can be quite difficult. Follow the steps below to help cool your home.

1. If the weather is not too warm, open the windows to let cool air inside. Make sure to open several windows to allow the air to blow in one window and out the other, creating a breeze.

2. Fans make a room feel cooler. You can use a ceiling fan, a portable fan, or any other fan.

3. Add an air conditioner. You can add a central air conditioning system or a window unit. If you already have a central air conditioner that is not working well, have it serviced to check the coolant levels and whether there are any leaks.

4. Create shade on your home, especially your windows. You can plant a tree to create shade, add an awning or pergola, add solar screens, or add window film. Consider replacing old windows with more energy efficient ones.

5. Make sure your home is well insulated and air tight so the hot air does not get in. Use spray insulation to fill any air gaps. Consider getting your attic roof sprayed with insulating paint. Make sure there are adequate air vents in your attic to let the hot air out.

How To Get Rid of Moss In Your Backyard

Unless you're going for a rustic backyard look, you'll probably not welcome any moss around. It's easy to control moss if you know how.

Article taken off ehow.com

How To Get Rid of Moss

Despite the soft green visual appeal of moss, it is technically a weed. Moss is not aggressive enough to kill your turf, but it will claim unused space and spread if allowed. Yards that have drainage problems or poor soil are prime targets for moss. Like algae, moss is controllable with special soaps and treatments. After you eradicate the moss, take measures to prevent the return of the uninvited guest by making changes to soil and its ability to receive sunlight.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Instructions

Things You'll Need:
Hedge clippers
Branch pruners
Moss control product
Pump and hose
Garden rake
Spade
Lime
Grass seed
Water

1.Trim back overhead branches that may be blocking sunlight from making it to the ground. Trim back hedges, trees and bushes to allow sunlight to filter through.

2. Spray the moss with a moss control product. This product should contain some type of fungicide. Buy a premixed container that has a hose attachment. Alternatively, for large moss problems you should buy granules and mix them with water in a large pump with a hose for dispensing. Spray the moss during late winter or early in the spring. Allow the product to sit overnight before continuing.

3. Rake the dead moss up. Use a sturdy garden rake to scrap up the clumps of dead moss.

4. Break up the soil with a spade. Make soil corrections now. Moss thrives in soil with low pH. Raise the pH of your soil by sowing in lime. Use 40 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet of soil.

5. Sow grass seed into the area. Rye grass will grow quickly and thickly in this soil. Add a thin layer of potting soil over the top of the seeds, about ½ to 1 inch thick.

6. Mist the area daily, watering the seeds until they grow.

Twice Upon A Time...Recycling Ideas

With a little imagination and creativity, you can turn ordinary furnishings and accessories into unique and stunning budget home decor.

Article taken off suite101.com

Recycling Junk and Architectural Salvage for Chic Home Decor

Recycling junk into chic things for the home is fun and it adds great style to the decor. It also keeps those items out of the landfill sites.

Creative designers and homeowners are finding all sorts of ideas for chic home decor items, using ordinary junk that many people would simply send to to the landfill sites. In fact, those landfill sites are good places to forage for things that could be turned into something entirely different. Most human-made objects can have a second or even third life for other uses. Here are some tips and ideas for re-creating those things most often discarded.

Creating With Old Doors
Old doors have numerous uses. The simple hollow doors can be turned into sewing and craft tabletops. Glass doors can become cabinet doors, or can be hinged onto a cold-frame in the garden. Vintage multi-paneled doors can make great coffee table tops, and several could be turned into a wardrobe or cupboard with good carpentry skills. When old pine is stripped of layers of paint, the wood is beautiful and warm – well worth saving from the landfill sites.

New Life for Old Dining Room Chairs
Old dining room chairs can be given a second life with a few fix-ups. For most rickety chairs that get tossed in the garbage, the problem is loose chair legs, missing spindles or worn and torn seat covers. Loose chair legs may simply need glue and clamps as they dry. Missing spindles can be replaced.

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The chairs can be given a chic and shabby look with coat of white or creamy white paint and the seat coverings can easily be replaced. Thrift shops often have inexpensive upholstery weight fabric for those homeowners who are on a budget.

Vintage Lighting Fixtures
Vintage lighting fixtures can be re-invented, using components from several fixtures. For the most part, the nuts and bolts are standard or the same sizes and all can be re-used in the new creation. The components include all the different decorative pieces that slip onto a hollow brass or steel bar hidden within the fixture. This hollow bar is the piece where the wire is pulled through.

Creating a funky new light fixture, whether for the ceiling, or table lamp, does require some creative thinking and a lot of trial and error before actually wiring it up. Lighting is easy to re-wire, but it's advisable to get a professional if in doubt.

Read on
How to Hold an Annual Vintage Cottage Chic Sale
Junk Style Decorating
Decorating with Junk
Architectural Salvage
Architectural salvage of all kinds can be used in home decor. Newel posts make great giant candle holders. Add a 12" square of a wood board to the top, as well as wider base for sturdiness and the homeowner could have a plant stand. There are numerous types of architectural salvage including anything from used bricks to Gothic windows.

Old salmon-colored bricks make wonderful garden paths and are useful for edging the garden beds. Gothic windows are art pieces on their own and could simply be hung on a wall or placed in front of a large picture window.

Junk can Have a Longer Life
The key to recycling junk for home decor is to look at a piece and think of how it can be re-used. Ask yourself how it could still have function with a little work, if it could be re-created into a beautiful art piece or re-used in a manner other than its original intention. Most junk can do at least one of the things above. The owner will be creating something unique for the home as well as giving that "junk" a longer life, saving them from the landfill site.

Interior Design...Japanese Style!

Thinking of adopting a Japanese style interior design? As these photos show, simplicity and neutral colours are big for Japanese home decor. The emphasis is on maintaining adequate flow of positive energy in the house. As for flooring other than bamboo, consider laying tatami or silk floor mats if large-scale refurbishing isn't possible nor feasible.

Pictures taken off homebasedesign.com

Japanese Home Decor Design Style Tips

Retro Living

Create magic at home with a blast from the past.

Article taken off http://dec0rs.com

Retro living room interior design ideas

The hostess always dreams of transforming the house into a home, a loving home full of love and care, a home that resonates warmth. A home to talk about art and culture. Retro style for the interior decoration resurface many of the lost treasures of the past and the golden years always appreciated. This is your chance to play with colors and home furnishings to reinvent the era of rock and roll, vintage, memories and moments of delirium. The retro decor is not given for any period of time. It is your interpretation of retro. In this article we will present one of the options you can use as a guide to create your own retro style.



The retro brings to mind the Beatles, Bee Gees. The rock ‘n’ roll is a thought inevitable, when it comes to retro. Create a retro scene in his living room. Remove posters and frame coils. Let your wall adorned with a gray background. To one side of the table, get a gramophone and listen to old records that you have saved for so long. Keep furniture as simple and minimalist as possible. Preferably, choose simple wooden furniture to retro fit with the decor of your room. The retro decor lighting should be yellow and smooth as possible.



Dining A La Retro

In retrospect, the restaurants at the time were retro cozy dens. Convert the dining area in one of these restaurants, which have many wooden furniture. To begin the retro decor in your dining room, place the table right in the middle of the room with light fixtures hanging from the ceiling directly approaching the table. Obviously you need wood chairs for your table. Let your kitchen cabinets have a rustic, classic wood work well with retro decor of the room.



Retro Nights

This part of the article focuses on the decor of your room. Padded furry and a single bed is all you need to make your room has a retro style. The teal color is best for your room with upholstery and white linens. Have a lamp on the bedside table, the old-fashioned classic with the right tone of steel. If you have no desire to paint the inside, then use wallpaper is a good idea.



Retro Items

To keep the retro element to decorate your home cough, you can do with large blocks, posters, items for furniture, linen, wallpaper, antiques and other items as they were fashionable ’60s and ’70s. Once again, the retro decor can have several connotations as vintage, a blend of contemporary and other flavors.



Decorate your home will add interest to life and gives your home a personal touch. Your home, after all, is the extension of his personality. Before decorating, decoration display you want and then act upon it. Break the monotony and experiment with ideas that has ever done.

Make One Corner Beautiful at a Time

If you ever feel overwhelmed trying to do-over the whole house, just think, "Make one corner beautiful at a time."


Article taken off rentaldecorating.com

Make One Corner Beautiful at a Time

If you have the discipline to stick to it, this simple adage -- make one corner beautiful at a time -- can transform your decorating dreams from overwhelming to manageable and rewarding.

The idea is by no means new. As the story is told, a young New England bride in the late 1800s was faced with the seemingly overwhelming task of hand sewing the obligatory curtains for nine large windows gracing the front of her impressive Federal-style home on the town’s main street. “Make one corner beautiful at a time,” counseled a wise village elder. Convention not withstanding, the greatly relieved bride turned her efforts toward creating a livable sitting room for herself and her groom, the unused upstairs bedrooms getting attention in due time.

Whatever the scope of your decorating goals, this simple mantra may be the inspiration you need to begin.

Narrow your focus.

If you think of your home or room as a series of projects to complete one by one, you’ll see noticeable results and feel a quicker sense of accomplishment. Consider this: place a new table, chair, and vase of flowers in three different corners and you’ll feel less than rewarded for your efforts. Arrange the items together and, presto, you’ve created an inviting focal point.

First things first.

What do you see when you first enter a room? By drawing the eye to a visually inviting tableau, you set the tone for the whole space.

Add eye appeal to your living space.

Does your living space lack a sense of personality, beg for a dash of drama? Freshen your look for holiday guests or to please yourself year 'round by building a focal point around one beautiful piece. (Here’s another adage: invest in a single piece of furniture each year and you’ll build a handsomely furnished home in a surprisingly short time.)

Anchor your living room with a curvaceous, sophisticated sofa in an eye-catching color; complete the look (remember, one corner at a time) with complementary pillows and a throw.

Add character (and storage) to a long wall or brighten a forgotten corner with a hand painted chest or an armoire and a selection of your favorite china, glass, or pottery. Bonus: drawers provide convenient storage for bulky items like linens or photo albums.

Simplify tabletop clutter yet express your personality by gathering disparate accessories into an eye-catching display on an étagère. Anchor the display with several large items, repeat shapes for cohesion, and carefully combine sizes and textures for greater interest. Create a pleasing flow and balance, drawing the eye in and moving it around.

“Women today are often balancing career, family, and children,” acknowledges Virginia Bremer, licensing director for Liz Claiborne Home. “Choosing furnishings and creating a welcoming home should be an enjoyable part of this multi-faceted life.”

Keep it simple in the dining room.

An inviting space to dine honors the physical and psychological roles that nourishment plays in our lives, whether you’re a busy single turning takeout into a few minutes of repose, gathering family for a weekday supper, or entertaining friends.

Dining room furnishings are significant pieces you are likely to live with for a long time. Invest in a versatile style with simplified lines that you can dress to suit the occasion, your changing tastes, and the furniture’s current role in your home.

Darker-hued furnishings with clean lines are surprisingly flexible: they can look equally striking with simple ironstone accessories, a spare modern centerpiece, or glistening under a silver candelabra. Complement light-finished wood with greenery or simple white ceramics and glass.

Pamper yourself in the master suite.

What better corner to focus on than your own bedroom. Choose a bed with real “star” power, such as the graceful sleigh bed created by Liz Claiborne Home for its Homecoming Sundays collection. Position the bed so its impact is felt upon entering the room. To let your “star” take center stage, keep the room’s supporting features understated -- some wonderful linens and a few stylish yet functional accessories will complete the picture.

If time or funds are limited, cozy up a chair, ottoman, stylish lamp, and small table into an appealing reading nook.

Before you know it -- like our 1800s bride -- you’ll have created an interesting, personality-filled home -- one corner at a time.

Top 10 Bedroom Decorating Dos and Don'ts

Make yourself comfortable in the most important room in the house with these dos and don'ts.

Article taken off decoratorsecrets.com

Do's and Don't's of Bedroom Decorating

Do
Consider function when decorating any room of your home, particularly the bedroom. The function is, of course, to provide a relaxing, comfortable environment for sleep.

Don’t
Turn your bedroom into a multi-functional room. Sleep and comfort reign supreme in the bedroom, keep desks and work areas out of the room.

Do
Paint your bedroom in a relaxing, serene color that makes you happy. Choose greens, blues and yellows - or the hot new color for the year, lavender.

Don’t
Use faux painting techniques in the bedroom, when you can’t sleep, you’ll analyze every stroke of the finish.

Do
Use paint samples on the bedroom wall to choose a color.

Don’t
Choose color from a paint chip in the store.

Do
Allow yourself to watch television in the bedroom, although sleep experts say you should not have a television set in the bedroom, reality says otherwise.

Don’t
Allow your television to become the focal point of your bedroom. Make it as unobtrusive as possible or have an armoire or cabinet to hide it away.

Do
Invest in a quality, comfortable bed. You’re spending at least ¼ of your day there, it’s worth it.

Don’t
Keep your mattress and bedsprings for longer than 15 years – they wear out. If you notice your back is sore in the mornings and you’re more tired than usual, consider your bed comfort before scheduling the MRI.

Do
Do decorate your bedroom as you would any other room in the house.

Don’t
Skimp on furniture and accessories because no one else will see it.

Do
Have all types of lighting in the bedroom – ambient, task, accent and decorative.

Don’t
Rely on one overhead light for all your lighting needs.

Do
Arrange furniture for you to easily enter and exit the bedroom without twists and turns – it’s bad Feng Shui decorating and it means furniture is not properly arranged.

Don’t
Put the side of your bed against the wall or on a diagonal in the corner.

Decorating Centrepieces With Flea Market Finds

Learn how to find and use centerpieces from flea markets to decorate your home!