Living Room

Decorating for your Apartment

By: Kelly Goldthorpe

In a small space and on a small budget it may seem hard to make a big impact with your apartment. With all those rules and regulations about what you can and can’t do you might have even given up on trying to add any personal touches to your home. Don’t despair though – rules are made to be broken and there are some easy ways to get around them.

Let’s start with the walls. No paint, no hooks, no nails. Are you even allowed to look at them? This is probably the source of the most frustration for renters. How do you decorate walls without causing damage? Think back to college when it was 3M everything. Use hooks with adhesive 3M backing, which are typically paint-safe. You can use these to hang your paintings, potted plants, clocks, and other items. When you’re ready to move out just pull on the tab and it should come off without a hitch. Blu-Tack is an adhesive which you probably remember from your childhood. This gets the job done for hanging lighter items like posters. The latest fad to add color, designs, and borders to your wall are decals, which are essentially removable stickers. These come in a variety of designs, from flowers to geometric shapes to comic book characters. Use decals to add life to any room and just peel them off come move-out.

Let’s say that you broke the rules though and made holes in the walls. Tsk. Tsk. But don’t fret! To avoid losing your security deposit, use this ancient trick of filling them with toothpaste. Be careful of what kind you use though, because cinnamon flavored will definitely stick out. Make sure it’s just plain white toothpaste, which will fill the hole and can be smoothed into the wall.

Once you’ve got the walls looking sharp, it’s time to do something about your furniture. How do you have the dining room table, couch, bed, entertainment center, and other living room furnishings fit into just 700 square feet? It’s possible! First eliminate unnecessary items that take up floor space, like floor lamps. A nice lamp on an end table will give you a little extra space! Take that philosophy and analyze other parts of your apartment. Why have an entertainment system when you can mount your flat screen television on the wall? This clears up a lot of space and gives more room for walking. Use hide-a-way storage underneath beds or couches. This way you can keep all that furniture and still have some leg room.

Does your apartment still look boring? Easy ways to bring color into the space are through curtains, area rugs, accent pillows, and extra light. Don’t make it seem like a dorm with that lava lamp. Instead, use soft lighting from different angles, which will make a room feel bigger. Make sure your comforter is colorful and that you make your bed daily. Then your bedroom décor will look clean and vibrant. Don’t buy extra items for decoration though, just update what you have. This approach will keep your apartment from getting cluttered.

Get rid of those knick knacks and sell your collections to the Smithsonian. Make your apartment look stylish by eliminating useless items, taking a minimalistic approach toward decorating, and actually making the place looked lived-in, rather than an apartment-model.

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How To: Decorate with an Asian Flair

By: Kelly Goldthorpe

Decorating is all about picking a theme and expanding on it. The Asian inspiration that has become popular is an excellent style for those who are culturally diverse, adventurous, or for those who enjoy nature. An oriental approach toward decorating your home will develop a sense of family, tradition, and pride. This style can also be very calming and create a strong sense of peace.

Asian culture is dominated by vibrant colors. To truly capture the authentic feel include colors such as brilliant reds (for good luck) or black. To create a more Japanese inspired style use tans and soothing greens. Black can be a bold way to accent pieces of furniture or art. Use rich wood tones in your furniture and flooring, such as Brazilian Rosewood or Mahogany, which will complement the oriental color scheme.

Minimalism is a key design theory within Asian cultures. Remember that less is more when decorating. Don’t over-do the theme; instead pick a few focal pieces for the room and highlight those. An Oriental rug or handcrafted pieces of furniture are excellent items that will set the tone for the room. Incorporate nature by using bamboo or bonsai trees, which are simple and elegant.  Other subtle Asian accents include sacred animals, such as elephants, or a small Buddha. You can always add scrolls with Chinese or Japanese writings on them to add an instant Asian feel.

The lighting should be very soft. A popular choice is lantern lights, which are balloon-like paper lights. These come in many different styles so you can find something that fits your needs. You can get large ones or a string of smaller ones.

To finish your Asian décor include screen partitions. Not only do these help define spaces, but are also a unique aspect of Asian culture. Also use bamboo shades for window treatments or develop a Chinese oriental style with tassels and heavy fabric.

Redecorating with an Asian tone will create a serene environment within your home. You will have plenty of conversation pieces and be able to impress your friends with your newly designed living room.

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Living Room – Decorating ideas

It is worth taking time out to incorporate ideas to make our living a warm and an inviting place because it is most the visited space in the house. To start with it is a good idea to have a list of activities that will occur in the living room. Once this is created, requirements need to be listed for each activity. Read more

Living Room – Furniture Arrangement

Just by changing the arrangement of the furniture in the living room, a new look can be created. The steps involve measurement of the room, finding a focal point, setting up areas in the living room etc. The arrangement in a living room expresses our mood and gives an idea of who we are. Read more

Living Room – Furniture – Benefits of buying online

The internet offers a wealth of information on the living room furniture. It is suggested to go through the tips online before buying the furniture. The online stores offer great benefits like price comparison, reviews, good deals and unique variety. Read more

Living Room – Interior Design – Lighting

Different types of living rooms have different lighting needs. Wall color plays a very important role in the lighting requirement. Lighting can vary the mood of the room so it should never be overlooked. Read more

Living Room – Accessories and Design

Accessories can make a living room look casual and friendly or sophisticated. Pillows, rugs, wall paints, lighting, space, curtains, blinds, etc are the key elements that define this. We can  explore different styles and create a fresh look out of the same living room just by making use of the accessories. Read more

Living Room – Tips to overcome small space challenges

With small space living rooms we can face challenges with respect to arranging the furniture, lights, etc. There is also a discomfort that is associated with this. The approach to solving this is slightly different from that of a normal or a large living room. Read more

Living Room – How to create a Feng shui living room

Would you like to create a feng shui living room without visiting an expert? It can happen. A few factors that drive this are the position of the chairs, lighting at the corners, usage of mirrors, etc Read more

Living Room Lighting; Learning the Basics

Outside of work and sleep, you probably spend a majority of your time in the living room (hence the term, living room).  You sit in, walk through, eat in, watch TV in, and generally socialize in the living room.  Why wouldn’t you make sure that the lighting in that room is something that you want to spend time in?

The fact is that people will generally spend lots of money on their furniture, television, computer, etc. but tend to neglect the essence that covers everything in the home . . . lighting!  Lighting can truly make a break whether a room looks visually stunning or just “blah.”

There are several different ways to light a living room and many of them will vary depending on your preference and lifestyle.  Here are a few of the basics on getting the best lighting for your living room.

1. Natural Lighting

Also known as the sun, natural light is ideal during the day, when artificial light ends up seeming lackluster and dull.  If you spend a lot of time at home during the day, you may want to consider drapes that are light in color and fabric density.

Also, if you are renovating your home, strategic placement of your windows is a key as well.  A skylight is a great way to naturally incorporate the sun’s beautiful glow into your living room.  Good placement of windows and a skylight can actually increase the value of your home.

Once you learn how much natural light will illuminate your living room, you can add artificial light as needed.

2. Recessed Lighting

Gaining popularity, recessed lighting is a great way to spread ambiance evenly throughout the room.  The lights are generally universally controlled by the room’s master switch, and ideally will have the potential to dim.  This allows you to adapt to any situation, such as romantic evenings, entertaining guests, watching television, and reading.

Recessed lighting also allows you to save space in the room, because they are, as the name suggests, recessed in the walls of your living room.  It is a more expensive lighting configuration, but well worth the price to have amazing ambiance for any occasion.

In addition, recessed lighting adds value to your home.

3. Floor Lamps and Desk Lamps

Floor lamps and desk lamps should be used sparingly in the living room, based upon the layout. They can add personality to a room if positioned correctly and match well with the interior decor.  Floor lamps and desk lamps are often difficult to place strategically within the room, however, because of furniture, electronics and anything else in the way.

Also, because they are generally close to eye level, floor lamps and desk lamps can cause the most glare on televisions, computer screens, etc.

These lamps are the best for areas that need to be well lit, such as a reading corner or a desk.  Don’t place them too close to reading material or anything that needs to be strongly focused on, or it can potentially cause eye damage.

4. Overhead Lighting

This will be the master light in your living room.  It will generally provide the most light for occasions that require a well lit area.  Again, a dimming light is essential, as it is important to not simply have one level of “blaring” light whenever you turn this one on.

It’s important that all of your lights mesh well together, otherwise your lighting configuration ends up looking like a big mess of off-light colorations.  Dimmers allow you to adjust all of your lights to create that perfect ambiance for the situation.  This is especially important for the overhead light, the biggest light, hanging over everyone’s heads.

5. Spotlights

These are used to create focus on paintings, plants and pictures.  It is great to highlight these beautiful features of your room, but also necessary that you research the specifics of the light you want to use and what it will be “spotlighting.”

Paintings are often spotlighted these days, but it is important to do it strategically.  Don’t use light that can cause the painting to fade or deteriorate.  This includes halogen and incandescent lights.  Don’t light it from the wrong angle so that part of the painting has a shadow cast across it, or one side is brighter than another.

The same thing goes with plants and pictures.  There are some lights out there that can cause problems for plants.  Just make sure to research what is harmful to the things that you want to focus direct light on for long periods of time.

Used correctly, spotlighting can really beautify a room by highlighting its exceptional attributes; just make sure you do it wisely.

Window coverings – Quick tips

When it comes to choosing a window covering it becomes very confusing due to the wide variety that is available. You can start by looking at four basic elements – (Privacy, light control, function & choice) and narrow down the choice further on. Read more

Window coverings– Safety – How to make windows burglar proof

While window adds personality to the house it can also become a potential security risk. This can be avoided either by securing our existing windows or by replacing the existing windows. Read More

Window coverings – Safety – Tips for the safety of children

Many children have died in the United States by strangling themselves with the window treatment chords. Safety always comes first while choosing the window treatments. Safety begins at home. Read more

Window treatments – Roller shades – Home improvement

Roller shades are more affordable in comparison to the other window treatments. One can control the amount of light entering the house using the roller shades. For a distinctive look it is recommended to hem the roller shades. Read more

Window treatments – Wood Shutters

Wooden shutters add beauty and class to the house. They also allow us to use curtains to beautify the house when compared to the other window treatments. Maintenance is required for the wood shutters like using the right kind of polish etc. Read More

For more ideas on shutters, blinds and other window coverings, check out BudgetBlinds.com