Monday, January 31, 2011

The Elegant Design of Silver Bedroom


Would you decorate your bedroom using silver? Silver is the color gray infused with a metallic sheen. When incorporated into a room's decor scheme, the effect can be very striking. It might be hard to imagine using silver in the bedroom, but there are several opportunities in which you can infuse the space with a little luxury.

Metallic Wall Finishes
It is possible to purchase silver paint for your bedroom walls. Painting every wall a metallic shade might be overkill, but you can choose one wall, such as the wall behind your bed, to make an accent wall. Another option is to hang silver wallpaper. Consider a subtle silvery sheen, or select a pattern that incorporates some metallic threads. Again, for a bold pattern, you might want to limit it to an accent wall only.

Silver Bedroom Furniture
Bedroom furniture is available in metal finishes, including brushed nickel and chrome. Consider purchasing a silver metal bed frame, or for a more subtle effect, find dressers that feature metal handles or other details in metal. If you have an old chest or dresser you'd like to revamp, you can paint it with a shade of metallic paint.

Bed Linens for a Silver Bedroom
One of the most popular ways to incorporate silver into a bedroom decor scheme is by purchasing metallic bed linens. Look for a comforter or throw pillows in this color to add on top of your bed. Sateen sheets are often available in a soft gray that looks like silver. Try mixing several shades of gray for an especially elegant look.

Other Accessories
If you only want to add a touch of silver to your bedroom decor, consider using a few accessories with this finish. Hang a large mirror with a silvery frame. You can purchase candle holders and picture frames in metallic finishes. Group a few on your dresser or nightstand, or scatter them throughout the room to add a little sparkle to the space.

Though silver might not seem like an obvious choice for a bedroom, it is versatile and pairs with many other colors. Try to pair it with cool shades like blue, black or green. If you prefer more color, pair it with purple, orange or even red. Your bedroom's decor can only benefit from a touch of silver.

Stained Glass Window Panels for Decorating Your Room


If you want to dramatically alter the look of a room, or the impression of a house, consider stained glass window panels.

Stained glass panels come in 3 basic types- lead channel, foil, and faux. Faux window panels are usually painted glass with fake foiling, giving the impression of stained glass without the expense. These are designed to be hung inside an existing window, where they are protected from the elements.

Lead channel window panels are the original form of stained glass. Working and soldering the channel is labor intensive and the designs tend to be simpler executions because of the weight and labor involved. 

Foiled panels are able to use much smaller pieces and can even use 3D techniques, with flowers or birds lifting from the purely vertical, into the room they occupy. The glass pieces are cut, ground smooth, the edges encased in copper foil, the pieces are fitted together, and after a flux solution is applied so it will adhere, solder is melted over the foils and joins the pieces of glass together.

Because the pieces of glass used are smaller, more intricate detailing can be made. This also makes the stained glass window panel stronger. In fact, many cities will allow the use of foiled panels in doors and sidelights without the need for safety glass.

As stained glass panels have gained in popularity, so has the ease with which you can acquire them, with several dozen designs being mass produced and available through home improvement outlets or interior design stores. There are hundreds of designs available to be made by artisans working in the stained glass field. And, depending on your budget; they can make a window panel of practically anything you wish. If it can be drawn, they can build it.

Color, texture and opacity are also aspects of your design to consider. Glass can have colors as clear as Jello, or swirls, or only register a change in brightness, but not what's beyond the glass. It can be poured into molds so one side looks like pebbles or bubbles. It can have a metallic or crystalline sheen.

Shape can also be part of your window panel design- rectangular, arched, polyhedral, trapezoid, parallelogram; whatever the shape of your window, the window panel can be designed to fill it. [You could even have one shaped like a Christmas tree, but your builder would probably have a fit.]

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Small Living Room Decorating Ideas


Delegating space in a small living room will require you to go the extra mile when it comes to emphasizing the architectural aspects of your living space.

The following facts should be taken into consideration for your remodeling endeavors:

#1. Dimensions
Several little chairs and a love seat will definitely not make your living space seem any bigger than it really is. This kind of seating arrangement will actually lend an displeasing atmosphere to the room. Several upholstered furniture pieces with low arms and backs would be a better, more comfortable idea overall. Tables with storage drawers and cubbyholes will both incorporate a sense of weight while regulating clutter, all without taking up too much space.

#2. Layout
Laying out the room as an entertainment center needs to be done in a compacted, typical U-shaped manner. Take your sofa and place the two upholstered chairs on each end of it so that they are facing one another, and have all of these sitting against a single wall. You can rotate the chairs for television viewing. In doing so, this organizes both the direction of traffic and perceived space, thus enabling your living space to take on the duty of entertaining and television viewing.

#3. Fittings
Fittings should be used frugally while illuminating the room with composition and color. The room will be filled with a sense of practicality when big floor pillows, art pieces and pots are used to decorate it. You could use a display cabinet or wall niche in one corner for some of your pieces to make it a collection.

#4. Color Schemes
You should use bright textiles and paint your walls with gorgeous colors. One architectural theme you could use is an arched doorway. You could integrate an interior color on the arch that adds an even contrast to the rest of your walls. Giving your windows a bold color scheme or using a darker color to accent your wall would be ideal if you are more akin to lighter hues in your living space. Brighter colors can be used in the textiles to anchor the wall color if it has a neutral hue.

#5. Adding Light to Your Living Space
With lighting, you have the means to emphasize the textiles and colors in your room. You could accent your sofa with some table lamps on top of your end tables. You could use floor lamps that imitate the hue and texture of your table lamps on all opposite sides. The end result is a room that is neither overpowered nor too lightly underscored with lighting. Make sure that the tops of your lamps both stay the same height to produce more even lighting and to emulate a sense of consistency.

#6. Floor Planning
To give your room a more solid composition, you could set up an area rug. Pick out a spot in your room where the rug will have enough space to "uphold" the seating arrangement as a whole. This will result in the prominent definition of your room, making it seem larger than its seating arrangement actually is.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Butterfly and Silver Pearl Granite

Every homeowner feels the need for a variety of ideas and options when it comes to the decor of the interiors and the exteriors of their house. And in there you can rely to a great extent on the use and placement of silver pearl granite tiles in different parts of your house. There is a beautiful shade of sapphire blue that has a beautiful and gorgeous effect not only on the area of placement but even it the ambiance of the rooms.

There is also the collection of butterfly granite tiles that has an exceptional range. These can be appropriate for a beautiful shade of emerald green effect on the floors and other areas of placement. There are areas like the passageway or even a long corridor that can be made elaborate and decorative simply with an appropriate use of this range of granite tile.

One of the key advantages of the silver pearl granite tiles is the strength and durability of granite itself. There is nothing that could last you as long as these tiles. This is coupled with the beauty and grace of the designs and balance of color effect. You may plan the decor of certain rooms in a way that makes the use of these colors useful.

Then there are those areas of a house that are constantly exposed to atmospheric elements. For these areas a selection can be made from the collection of the butterfly granite shades. You will definitely create a unique design with a placement of this tile collection in parts of the overexposed walls on the exterior of the house.

There are other areas of a house like the garden or the terrace; there are places like a front porch or the patio to even places like the driveways. These are all heavily used places that need tiles that are strong and durable like silver pearl granite. There are size variations along with textures and shades that help you to make the right choices.

You can have a closer look at the entire range of butterfly granite tiles that is there on the website. These are displayed with complete specifications of the prices and the sizes. There is also a closer look at the product that you can get by zooming on the pictures with different designs.

Classic Decorating Style


Open-sea travel required precise timekeeping for a ship and its crew. Accurate timekeeping was required to calculate the sun's position relative to the ship as it sailed through time zones. Correct time zone changes are managed by the precisely accurate timekeeping abilities of the nautical clock. Correct clocks were crucial to calculating longitude, and this is where the nautical clock came into the picture.

The government of England put forth a search to find a clockmaker capable of building such a clock. Scientists as prolific as Newton doubted such a clock could be made. In 1736, John Harrison took his prototype nautical clock on a voyage from London to Lisbon, wherein the clock proved its worth on the sea. Harrison was granted five hundred pounds to pursue further perfection of the device, and eventually created a nautical pocket watch. Five hundred pounds was granted to Harrison to pursue the perfection of his clock, and he eventually made a pocket version. A copy of Harrison's clock was later used by Captain Cook in his journey to the Pacific. At first, such clocks were far too expensive for the average person, but prices gradually dropped.

Harrison died without ever being fully compensated for his invention. Harrison suffered amongst his peers, being ridiculed and discredited. The English government never paid him their promised amount, although they granted him lump sums to continue his research. History books don't expound on the invention of the nautical clock, which is considered to be one of the most prolific inventions of our time, alongside things such as electricity and the telephone. Much of this is due to the Board of Nautical Sciences disclaiming Harrison's invention when it first came out, an action that has had a lasting effect to this day. Copying the blueprints of Harrison's clock, other companies began to create other slightly varied versions. Due to the fact he filed a patent nearly a decade before, Harrison received his well-earned share, despite the proliferation of many copies of his invention. Unfortunately, Harrison's reputation was damaged for a significant period of time after the success of his version of the nautical clock.

Clocks of the early days were thrown off by a ship's momentum, and creating such a clock was demanding. Due to inaccurate calculations, many ships were lost at sea, and determining longitude was of utmost importance. Designed to endure the rough treatment of the sea, nautical clocks were resistant to motion. A 'maintaining power' was required in place of a winding clock, and this contributed to most of the problem. Coiled springs replaced the pendulum of the clock, and therefore the device didn't need a flat surface to keep operating. A negligible loss of a few seconds each month allowed these clocks to be very accurate. Sealed inside, nautical clocks resisted temperature and moisture changes. Metal resisted the corrosion of sea salt, and was preferred in making nautical clocks. Commonly, thermometers and barometers were included in nautical clock faces, as they provided extra instruments in a compact casing.

With modern advances of GPS, nautical clocks are now viewed as historical art pieces in place of tools. Nautical clocks of today are modeled after seafaring themes such as birds, boats, or sea life. Over six million pounds can be fetched for a Harrison original clock, though most are in museums.