Using Mirrors in Your Home Design

Mirrors have been a part of home interior for a long time, they’ve never been just used to do your hair,. Mirrors had decorative purposes even when they were used in castles and were used to personify light in a room. Although it’s widely known that mirrors can add to the light and balance of a room, not to mention make it look bigger and give it wider dimensions, the fact is that few people know how to use them in their home décor.

Mirrors can work two major effects in a room. It can make a confined space look much bigger than it is and it can increase the light in a room.

Some of the most common uses of mirrors in home décor is to use mirror panels in confined narrow halls. The effect is amazing. The mirrors can easily make the hall look and feel twice as wide as it is. Mirror doors are also used for bedroom closets. They not only save the space that would have been taken up by a full length mirror and they make the room wider. If you have a huge bed in your bedroom and you feel the rooms gives an overcrowded sense, then using mirror doors for your closet will help lighten things.

Another common decorative use of mirrors is on the fireplace. A framed decorative mirror is often used above fire places to personify the light in the area. As opposed to cluttering your fireplace with millions of ceramic decoration pieces, a simple elegant mirror well framed will give a rich effect to your room.

Mirrors can be paneled between small windows to make them look larger. One of the more contemporary uses of mirrors are mirror room dividers. They’re just like your ordinary screens only the mirrored surface can give a much more dramatic and open effect as compared to a plain furnished or fabric surface.

Taking Your Paint Palette Outside - How To Decorate The Backyard

Decorating inside may seem easy if you consider the daunting task of decorating an outdoor area. Inside, where you have a four or three walled room, you hang pictures and decorative lights and you don’t have to worry about the rain or snow ruining the shine on your new table top or the color running in your new cushions.

Whenever you plan a party you know where you’re going to hang the streamers and where the guests can set their drinks down (you’ve placed coasters accordingly) and when it’s time to eat everyone can sit where they see their place card on the table. All of this goes out the door once its summer and most if not all parties are likely to be held outdoor where decorating ideas on a budget run somewhat thin.

Here are a few things just to help you start out slow and steady so that by the time summer is full on and school is out, you can start the partying.

Lawn chairs
You may already have a lawn chair, you may have two of them but it would be nice if you had an entire outdoor sitting arrangement much like your living room in your backyard and lawn chairs are best for it. Here’s something that might surprise you; buy/ make cushions to match your lawn chairs. You can put cushions outside as easily as you can put them in. Make/ buy an outdoor storage baskets or cabinet to put them in when the weather is likely to get rough. If you have some old wicker baskets lying around, bring them outside and use them for storing the cushions.




Lighting
People have had the sense to create lighting for every room in your house and they’ve also had the sense to create outdoor lighting. If you try shopping online, you’ll find that there are all kinds of unique lightings available, ones that are decorative and that can stand any kind of weather. You’ve probably heard of tiki torches, well there just in a huge variety of outdoor lighting options available like Chinese lanterns. If you plan on having a party, it may be a good time to bring out all those scented candles (don’t forget to place them safely) to create a nice ambiance.

Outdoor accessories
Give your back yard a cozy look by adding ‘backyard accessories’ like a hammock, a nice table; one that can stand rain and excessive exposure to the sun and is preferably a darker color and don’t forget to mow the lawn! You can use place mats made of bamboo (instead of the regular doilies you use inside) and give you flower beds a unique look by planting different flowers in uniquely shaped bottles.

Simple Tips To Give Rooms A Refreshing New Look

The number of people that I know who can change the look of a room by altering everything from the furniture to the paint is an absolute zero. That’s right; no one redecorates all the time. On those rare occasions when people do decide to redecorate, they still try and fit some of the old stuff in or to re-use it somehow. On the other hand the number of people I know who’d love to have a free remodeling of their homes on an annual basis is infinite. Who doesn’t like a new fresh look to their home? Just think how great the family pictures will look with a different background each year and without the cost of having to Photoshop a fireplace into the background?

Since the chances of anyone offering a free annual home remodeling to someone for the rest of their lives is pretty small here are a few modification that you can make to give a fresh look to a room.

Change the knobs on the cabinets

Not just cabinets, but most fixtures, when replaced effect how the room looks. Even if you change the handle on a chest of drawers or give it a new color, it’s going to look wonderful and brand new not to mention it’ll be the change that you want.

Wall paper trimmings

Instead of re-papering an entire wall or repainting something, find a nice elegant wall paper and use it on the edges of a wall or create a frame in frame effect. The trimmings will give the room a new elegant look. It’s also a great way to bring out a wall or complement any frames you may have put up.

Change the lighting

Try changing out the ordinary wall placements with something unique or changing a lampshade. Things like that end up having a profound effect on the room. If you don’t feel like changing any lighting that you’ve installed consider adding some angular wall decorations like shadow boxes to a wall.

Add a funky shelf

Although this technique can’t be used in the living room or the dining area, it’s a great way to give a new fresh look to those parts of a house where you do routine tasks. Take the laundry area or the ironing space. You can brighten it up with some unique shelves (you can also paint the cabinets a new color).

Crossing over to the White light- Planning the Lighting in a Room

Furniture isn’t the only thing you need to plan when you think of decorating a room. A lot of furniture depends on the amount and angle of light in a room to give the complete effect. Which is why when you plan to redecorate an entire room, you should always consider lighting as a factor. If you have a room that’s already arranged the way you want it and you’re thinking of improving the lighting then here are a few tips.

Who?
Always think of who’s going to be using that room and what they’re likely to need. If it’s a children’s bedroom for kids that are still young enough to knock over a lamp, you should go with overhead fixtures and/or track lighting. If it’s going to be used as a reading room make sure there’s at least one table lamp and plenty of over head light. Always keep in mind the different kinds of functions that are going to be performed in that room. The room’s usage will define your where you need the light.

What?
Always find out what different kinds of lightings are suggested for your usage. You may need a table lamp but there are all sorts of table lamps, some are meant for bedroom reading, keeping the light concentrated to a very small part of the room while others are meant for reading at the desk. They cast brighter and better light. Lamps for bedrooms are likely to have a lamp shade while desk lamps will not. Wall fixtures are best for areas that get little sunlight and places that you’d like to illuminate or set apart from the room like a wall with a special or unique decorating piece. If you’re choosing lighting for the living room, you should use a unique or eye catching wall fixture. Not only will it contribute to the room’s décor but also if you have a wall that you can’t get inspired enough to decorate, or one that you feel is too blank, a unique wall fixture will bring it out.

Where?
There are some general areas where you need light; by the bed, next to the comfy arm chair where your read ‘The night before Christmas’ to your kids, above or beside the mirror where you get ready in the morning, in the dining room. If you think you’re lighting needs for a room can change through the day then you need to use dimmer switches , not only do they help conserve energy but they’re also an easy way change the look of the room for special occasions or parties.