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Archive for July, 2011

If you live in the big city, what you encounter most of the time when it comes to kitchen interiors are modern architecture and furnishings. These kitchens are so sleek and stylish but they don’t really scream comfort. They are basically styled to please your eyes and not you as a person. When you just want to feel comfortable and relaxed, you’d always want the homey type of kitchen where you can imagine yourself preparing meals without the fear of breaking any fancy decor.

Of course, you can achieve a country look in your kitchen even if you live in the city just by using decors commonly found in country-styled kitchens. Here are some tips to help you achieve that country effect:

- Start with white. You can never go wrong with white walls. Why? Because from there, you have a canvas. You can choose to splash those colors on those walls later on when you have your furniture.

- Think old. You don’t need to use old people to create that look but you do need old, distressed-looking furniture – chairs with chipped off paints, long benches, old wooden doors. In other words, you’ll want the weathered look because it’s a guaranteed way of giving any room that country feel.

- Show off those collectibles. Collectibles such as your porcelain plates, mugs, terracotta pots, vases, etc. can create a perfect air especially when they’re arranged in a vintage-looking glass cabinet. Country is all about embracing comfort and home, so always include in your decor things that say something about you such as framed cross-stitched embroidery or even pressed leaves and flowers.

- Get quilts. Why? Because in the countryside, they make lots of quilts and they even make them with their bare hands. Nowadays, you can see machine-made products in department stores and they can work, too, for decorative purposes. But they can never beat those made by grandmothers and mothers who get together to make the quilts as memorabilia for the family. In fact, every quilt, they say, tells a story.

- Animal-inspired decors. Of course, it’s the country so expect animals to be there. People living in the countryside love their animals and this is quite evident even in their home decors. One way to give your kitchen that country look is to get some rooster kitchen paraphernalia such as rooster can openers, rooster curtains or even rooster-colored plates. Rooster kitchen decors are also common, especially those carved rooster figurines.

Rachel Ashwell is the founder of the famous Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Bedding which is enjoying brisk sales nowadays. She started this business by searching a series of flea markets and garage sales during the ’80s. She made an astounding way to climb the limelight by creating a unique pattern by simply painting all her furnishings white.

She dressed-up all the pieces of upholstered items with washable slipcovers and combined them with vintage accessories to make an impressive look. She presented the finished product first to her family and friends and the result was a success. Since then, she has expanded her humble but prolific beginnings into a wider scope with the creation of her own designs in furniture and fabric lines with her bedding, linen and slip covers.

Today, Shabby Chic Bedding by Rachel Ashwell, along with her newer line “Simply Shabby Chic”, has expanded into a network of stores offering a line of casual and elegant bedding. Her line of products are easy to deal with and exudes a remarkable versatility in style.

She has made a combination of attractive designs that are uniquely hers, and rated top notch in the field of design, as simple and sophisticated, traditional and ultra-modern yet time-worn, plain and assorted, as well as rough and tidy that impress a lot of people.

If you are a person who is fond of collecting mismatched items, vintage collections, painted furniture and white-colored objects, this style is right for you. Shabby Chic bedding can be applied to your bedroom to create a blend of unique, fantastic fashion that appear to be simple yet sophisticated in many aspects.

Here are some tips for you to consider in adopting the Shabby Chic style:

First, clear out the area with any mess and worn-out furniture before you start decorating. Prepare a checklist of items to use for decoration such as your bed, a rug, side-table, and lamps. Paint all furniture that is faded and create a clear aura by putting additional lights as necessary. Make the furniture look more attractive by installing shabby chic slipcovers.

Don’t be impulsive in making decisions for the decorating process. Simplify your ideas and let your layout plans be well-defined. Apply a feminine touch and add fragrance to your room by putting fresh flowers in ceramic vases that will increase the beauty and luxury of your room. You can even use scented candles of your choice such as vanilla or jasmine. Vintage furniture that is well-reconstructed and accessories that are newly-painted can improve the appearance of your room. The most important thing is to focus on details in your desire to improve the aesthetics of your bedroom by adopting Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Bedding.

Tile and stone are rugged and durable materials that will usually require very little maintenance over the years. From bathroom and outdoor patio tiles to stone walkways and pool decks such surfaces have the consistency and strength to ward off foul weather, intense UV light and other common outdoor hazards. However, due to a number of factors tile and stone can crack or break, build up grout and be stained from liquids which can all combine to make a surface appear dingy and worn. Keeping tile and stone surfaces looking great isn’t hard to do and can be finished in a relatively short amount of time.

Most tile repairs are due to grout and cracked tiles. When applied improperly grout will cause tile to crack and then pieces will eventually break loose. Tiles can break or crack from any number of reasons including major ground disruptions like earthquakes and minor accidents such as dropping heavy objects on patios and tile floors. Tile and stone can also become faded over time due to direct exposure to sunlight and if your patio or walkway doesn’t have a protective finishing coat the tile is more likely to become worn and brittle.

Before beginning a refinishing or repair project make sure you know how extensive the damage is; if it’s only a few tiles that are cracked then you’re looking at a small refinishing job but if the problem is more widespread and includes water damage to the foundation then it could mean major repair work. Replacing entire sections of patio and outdoor stone surfaces is not uncommon when the ground underneath has become unstable.

Once you’ve identified the problem area and the extent you can begin to fix tile and stone surfaces with relatively inexpensive textured primer epoxy coatings and refinishing kits. Different brushes can be used to mimic specific surfaces including a standard nap roller to produce a smooth though slightly textured finish, a tile roller to produce a tiled finish and a stone roller that produces a finish resembling rough stone.

If you live in a region where it is often winter or just cold then it is hot you should consider finding alternative ways to heat your home rather than just relying solely on using a forced air furnace. The reason is you should consider this is based on the cost and on problem that your furnace could break down and you could be without heat at any time. Three ways to heat your home include forced air heating, heating by radiant heating and heating by a fireplace wood burner.

Forced air heating is what most homes have and it is best when you buy the furnace that is right for the size of your home. If you buy a home where the furnace can heat more space or square feet than what your home is then you are ultimately wasting energy and the furnace becomes inefficient even if it is a high efficiency furnace. As an example if you upgrading your furnace you don’t want to buy a furnace that can heat 2500 square feet if you home is 1200 square feet. In addition to forced air there are different types of fuel sources that are used to fuel these furnaces. The most popular are fuel oil and natural gas or propane. Using fuel oil can be expensive and the smell can travel through the home and stay there for days if you happen to change the fuel filter and fuel oil tends to be somewhat dirty. So, if you are going to used forced air you should try to use natural gas if is available I your area or you should try to use propane to heat your home. If you are considering propane you often can have company come out to your home and bring a 500 gallon to 1000 gallon tank and they often will run the line to your home for free if it is done within their allotted distance.

Radiant heating which is likely one of the most efficient because it is built into the floor of the home and even the garage. After initial installation of these lines air is pumped into the lines and is pressurized and is capped with a pressure gauge to make sure the there are no leaks prior to running water through the lines. Radiant heating contains plastic tubes full of water that runs under the floor in either concrete or wood and is heated up by a boiler and produces heat that radiates throughout the floor in every area of the home. The heat is efficient because it is not isolated to just air flow. Radiant heating is highly efficient and if you can afford the cost is probably the best way to go during construction of the house.

Lastly, the next way to heat a home is by using a fireplace or wood furnace. The fireplace is not that effective unless it has a blower and then it is still limited to the general location of the fireplace. It is great for heating one or two rooms and not necessarily an entire home. However, wood burners are sufficient for heating an entire home because they are hooked into the existing duct work and the have a blower that will force air throughout the home. Unfortunately, fireplaces and wood burners require labor and time. You have to split wood and load wood and continually make sure your fireplace or wood burner has wood to burn thought-out the day and night.

In conclusion, you need to consider which method appeals you and what you are able to afford when deciding the best way to heat your home. You can spend more on the installation and save more throughout the entire life of the home or you can spend less which would require more labor like log splitting, checking your oil or propane tanks to make sure you have enough fuel to get you through the cold months.

Odds are good that anyone living in the Los Angeles area knows what a pillow case is. Throughout our entire lives, pillow cases are used for a wide variety of things. They act as excellent sacks to hold Halloween candy when you go trick or treating. When you were little, they protected your favorite stuffed animal from damage by the rotator in the washing machine as your stuffed animal received a ‘bath’. A tennis shoe stuffed in a pillow case is a great way to fluff up a thick jacket or comforter when they are in the dryer, too! For the most part, many people in the Los Angeles area take the simple yet effective pillow cases for granted. They are the workhorse of the linen world, called to many different duties yet underappreciated for all that they do.

Pillow cases are not only functional. They are also fashionable, too. Any time spent perusing the aisles of your favorite Los Angeles area linen store will quickly have even the worst skeptic realizing how far pillow cases have come in terms of fashion in recent years. For every different style, fabric, and pattern available in comfort and sheets, there’s a pillow case or two to match it.

Remember when pillow cases only came in one standard size? That’s not the (pillow) case anymore! You can certainly find the standard sized pillow case, perfect for the many regular pillows in the world. You can also find queen and king sized pillow cases created just for the longer pillows that most prefer on their larger, queen and king sized beds. Even body pillows have full length pillow cases available for being slipped inside.

In spite of the many different functions and fashions pillow cases can be known to have, pillow cases really do their original job the best. That is, they work best when they are protecting your pillow from dirt and damage. After all, it’s easier to wash a pillow case than to attempt to wash a pillow. The next time you’re out shopping for linens in Los Angeles, give a salute to the unsung linen hero: the pillow case.

Most shower curtain rods are the standard straight curtain rods; however now there is a new type of curtain rod that gives you more space in the shower. This is the curved shower curtain rods. These curved shower rods actually increase the shower space by 25 to 35 percent, hence making your bathroom look bigger than it really is. The curved shower curtain rods are also easy to install, and are normally available in packages that contain wood screws, tile anchors, sheetrock anchors, setscrews and Allen wrenches.

There are certain special features that make up curved shower curtain rods. They are suitable for both oval and rectangular-shaped tubs, and they come in several types including rolling shower curtain rods, and 5′ or 6′ shower rods with brushed-nickel finishes. No matter what the type, they all create a sense of open space in the bathroom. The brackets used in curved shower curtain rods allow for adjustments to suit different lengths of the bath space. In fact, the curtain rods can be cut down in length, if necessary to make the installation process easier. Just because the curtain rods are curved does not mean that need to get a new set of shower curtains, as normal shower curtains fit nicely into curved rods.

There are a few other advantages that come with curved shower curtain rods. Apart from the obvious space factor, these rods are very effective, efficient, durable and economical. They prevent water leakage because of the special 3′ curve-in feature at the corners. This feature also prevents the shower curtains from coming out of the bathtub, which can be messy and troublesome. Because the rods are curved, you can be assured of more space for your hand and elbow movement, which is very important when you are bathing.