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.

Downsizing Your Living Space- How To Get The Sofa Through The Door

Moving out of your parents house and in to your own place can be exciting; it brings the kind of independence that only living on your own can but it can also create problems for you if you’re moving in to a living space that’s smaller than the one you’re used to

Being independent and finally getting to live on your own in some place other than your college dorm is one of the pinnacles of adult life. You never forget your first apartment because it’s the one you work the hardest on. You measure your success by the quality of your living space so you work hard to make it just right. Unfortunately not everyone manages to make their apartment in to a comfy cozy place to live in for the next five years but here’s some helping tips to give you a good start.

Measure everything:
Measure the space you’ve got to decorate before you do anything else and if there’s a room that has a slanting roof or other odd angles, decide how you intend to deal with them instead of just stuffing the room with furniture and hopping it’ll all turn out to be a good fit. One thing that you need to measure is the door, all the doors, so you know just how wide a sofa (or any other furniture for that matter) can fit through.

Furniture should be practical and comfy:
As opposed to chic and overly expensive designer furniture, your emphasis should be on practical pieces of furniture that’ll help you avoid clutter and organize your things better. What few people realize is that good design has a lot to do with a clean look. Using the room measurements that you’ve taken make sure that everything can fit comfortably in the room. Make a room map to be accurate and if the rooms are small, don’t buy huge pieces of furniture.

Find a focal point for every room and find the dark spot:
For every room, find a focal point which will determine what direction the furniture will face. It might be the window or the part of the room with the best light. It could be an ordinary wall where you put up fixtures and frames or just your TV. As for the dark spots, they’ll be areas that you don’t want to attract too much attention to. Decide how you’re going to phase them into the background either by using less lighting in the area or by concealing it with furniture. This area could be the odd angled wall that I mentioned earlier.

Don’t forget; you need to be able to move around
Don’t fill every space you’ve got with furniture. Whether your rooms are small or big, the space to move around conveniently will have to be planned out. Make sure you’ve got a good flow of the traffic and the functionality of the room isn’t affected in any way.

Three basic functions:
Your living space should provide you with three basic rooms for three basic functions. A bedroom and bathroom, a kitchen and a living room, to sleep, cook and eat and entertain your friends. Don’t clutter the rooms with additional functionality if you haven’t got the space for it.

How To Make A Small Room Look Bigger

If you have huge rooms, high ceilings and an unlimited budget, it isn’t very hard to decorate it, or to redecorate it often. What proves to be real challenge is to make smaller spaces less claustrophobic and more livable. If you have a small space that you need to turn into a usable room, either for studying or into a guest room, here are a few things you can do to make it look bigger and better.

Hidden storage
No matter what you use the room for, you’re bound to need to put stuff somewhere. Since you’re space is already small don’t try putting up shelves or buying racks and stuff. Find furniture that provides hidden storage space. Beds and tables with storages spaces can easily be found.

Mirrors
To make a room seem less claustrophobic, use mirrors with lighting. Mirrors against any one wall, whether narrow or wide can help to make a room look more open and fools the eye into thinking it has bigger dimensions.

De-clutter
Since you’re going to be using hidden storage spaces it only makes sense that you keep any and all clutter out of the room. Don’t mount too many pillows on the bed if you’re making it in to a guest room, or if it’s a reading room, don’t do overboard trying to fill it with too many rugs, pillows, chairs, and any other kind of seats.

Lighter colors
It’s okay if you use a dark color sparingly but keep most of it in a lighter shade. Lighter shades in the carpet, on the walls and in the curtains will make a room seem bigger and less overwhelming.
Smaller furniture
If you know you’re room has limited capacity don’t fill it with the biggest beds or sofas or racks. You can find nice modern and functional furniture in smaller sizes. Even sitting chairs come in less space consuming designs.

Find space saving furniture here (with lots of ways to arrange it)