Gardening Transforms Your Home Into A Scene Of Breathtaking Beauty

Gardening is a common hobby. Most people are doing it. It has become the least exclusive hobby of all. Many people are striving to make their garden, no matter how small it is, a more beautiful and better place to have and to enjoy. Gardening is a great leisure activity which has many benefits. With all the stress and strife we face in this fast-paced society everyday, spending time in the garden gives us a much needed break. Gardening brings us closer to nature which gives us a sense of peace and tranquility so desperately needed in this hectic lifestyle of the present time. It offers us a form of retreat from the outside world, as we can enjoy the quietness and serenity of the garden. In the garden, we have the opportunity to utilize all our senses. We get to feel the soil and all the interesting textures of different plants. We can smell the fragrance of flowers and taste the freshly hand-picked vegetables and fruits. We get to see and admire the great variety of different flowers and plants and their beautiful combinations. We can hear the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze and chirping of birds as they hid among the branches and leaves.

Gardening is a form of expression. Whether tending a small pot or an extensive plot, gardening is a wonderful way to express ourselves. It provides us an opportunity to express our imagination and creativity. As such, many people find gardening fun, enriching and rewarding. Gardens are considered as extensions of our homes and lives, and they reflect a great deal about us and how we live. Furthermore, gardening gives us a sense of fulfillment and pleasure as we watch the plants grow whilst we nurture them. We experience the joy and satisfaction of seeing the plants blooms and the fruits turn ripe.

Gardening is a good form of physical exercise. It is like having a great workout and there is plenty of fresh air out in the garden. Hence, this activity helps to keep us healthy. As gardening involves tasks for both young and old, it is a suitable activity for the whole family to participate in. It helps to bring the family together.

The work of creating and tending a garden not only provides joy, the end result also brings pleasure. A beautiful garden is a great place to walk and relax. It is a wonderful place to spend time with family and friends. The garden can provide an ideal atmosphere for large get-togethers with family, relatives, friends or business associates. Even if you just want a quiet dinner with some friends, the garden can also offer a perfect place for such entertaining. Besides, if you wish to take a break from work and be alone, you can take a vacation in your own backyard and relax in a shady spot, secluded from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. Gardening indeed gives us a lot more to enjoy than the work we put in.

The things to learn in gardening are limitless. There are hundreds of thousands of flowering plants, shrubs, and trees, each with subdivisions of varieties and species. Besides, there is also a wide range of gardening tools and equipment in the market. There is so much to learn, experiment and explore in the field. This is one of the reasons why many people find gardening interesting. There are many resources available with easy-to-understand instructions which can help those who are keen to learn about gardening and how to create the gardens they want. Once started, gardening can become a real joy and tough to stop. Along the way, there are always new discoveries and surprises. It is a journey of constant learning experience.

Every garden is different and every gardener’s needs are different. In planning to create a garden, you need to consider you and your family’s needs and the way that the garden would satisfy those needs. Besides, you need to consider the various aspects of gardening that take up different amounts of time, effort and money. This is necessary because you need to plan for a garden that suits your level of time and budget. However, a beautiful garden does not always require a great deal of time looking after it. If you want a nice and presentable garden but can only afford to devote a small amount of time to look after it, there are recommended ways to achieve that. There are resources available to teach you how you can plan for a beautiful garden and has a low maintenance workload.

Author enjoys writing and nature Gardening Techniques

 

How To Grow And Handle Fresh Herbs From Your Garden Beds Or Your Container Garden

In any recipe calling for herbs, use fresh herbs. Preparing the herbs for your dish is easy. The more tender herbs like mint, parsley, basil and cilantro can be gathered in a bowl and snipped with scissors. This is the fastest and safest way to chop the herbs. If your recipe calls for the more hardy herbs like oregano, rosemary, or thyme you should use the stripping method. Hold a branch of the herb upright in your fingers and run the fingers of your other hand down the stalk stripping the tiny leaves free. The flavor will be more intense if you have gathered the herbs from your herb gardens or container gardens because they will be absolutely the freshest herbs available.

The best way to have fresh herbs is to plant and grow them yourself. No longer is there a designated “herb garden”. They can be found in your flower beds, along walkways or in pots on your porch. Many ambitious gardeners are finding new ways to incorporate herbs into their garden beds and their container gardens.

Many gardeners are unaware of the beauty of flowering herbs and never consider planting them within their flower beds. Some herbs that have beautiful flowers are purple coneflower, catmint, bee balm, yarrow, pinks, lavender, pot marigold, borage, feverfew, and nasturtium which is particularly lovely in fresh salads.. Many other herbs, such as parsley are excellent next to flowers of all sorts because of their spectacular foliage. When planting red or blue flowers, place purple basil around them for an artful arrangement.

Another area to consider is to use herbs as ground cover. The herbs that are suitable to this are the low growing oregano, chamomile, woolly and other creeping thyme, mint, and rosemary. Not only will it look pretty but it will be absolutely fragrant. Just be careful of the mint family, they tend to take over everything.

One of the best ways I have grown herbs is in containers. In fact, I like container gardening so much I wrote my eBook “Container Gardening Secrets” (available at ContainerGardeningSecrets.com), so everyone could enjoy this type of gardening. The beauty of a container garden is that it is portable and can be changed at a moment’s whim. When there is no more room in your garden, start a container garden which you can place on your door step or patio. Use them to fill in bare spots that come up during the gardening season or put them on a sunny window sill in your home for easy harvesting. Best of all you can bring your herb containers inside over the winter months and continue to harvest for months to add to your tasty meals or to be used for medicinal purposes.

Another way to employ pots in your garden is to plant invasive herbs such as mint into a pot and then plant pot and all into the ground. This is an easy trick to keep those “creepers” from taking over your garden beds.

Plant a container garden near your door with the cherry pie scented blue flower heliotrope and other fragrant herbs such as rosemary, thyme and basil. Every time you walk by you will be greeted with there delicious scent.

Some herbs that have grown on rocky hillsides over the centuries such as thyme, oregano and lavender are perfect for cracks in flag stone paths or walls and rock gardens. They thrive in hot dry areas with good drainage. Some believe that those herbs grown in these conditions produce much better flavor.

Now is the time to plant your herbs, whether it is in a garden bed, a cracked wall or a container garden. Use your imagination. Consider color height and texture when planting your gardens. Not only will it be visually pleasing but your cooking will improve too!

Happy Gardening!

 

Lighting Fixtures

Lighting fixtures refer to a variety of bulb holders. Lamp fixtures are often accompanied by shades, enclosures or cases that hold the bulb in. A bulb, wiring and circuit are essential for light to emanate in the first place. A fixture’s role is considered minimal as far as the functioning of a bulb or its light rendering capacity is concerned. Lighting fixtures serve purely aesthetic functions.

The market offers lighting fixtures of infinite designs, types, shapes and sizes. Most stand out as creatively designed works of art in metal and glass to house bulbs. With lighting plans aspiring to create a mood and ambience, correct positioning of the bulb is extremely vital. While considering a lighting fixture, it is important to take into account that a particular bulb is right for a certain fixture.

For example, a halogen bulb should always be housed in an enclosed lighting fixture to avoid the dangerous consequences of a burst halogen bulb. The fixture has to be evaluated on various other parameters, like what type of task it is chosen for, what is the kind of light distribution can be expected from it(given its shades, shape, color, etc.), how does it effect the efficiency of the bulb and what kind of color distribution does it render. Hence, choosing a lighting fixture purely on aesthetic criteria is not a judicious decision.

Lighting fixtures also influence the efficiency of bulbs. It is always advisable to go for lighting fixtures with the highest energy efficiency ratings. While shopping for fixtures, one should ask about their efficiency. The efficiency rating of fixtures is published by the manufacturers and is available at the retail shops.

An inefficient fixture may absorb huge amounts of light, consequently reducing the amount of light distributed, or radiate the light to various cavities in the ceiling. The light efficiency of the fixtures can be maximized by regularly cleaning the dirt, and cobwebs from the shades and fixtures.

A lighting fixture should also coordinate and complement the look and style of the space. While choosing a chandelier, for example, the space it is meant for has to be borne in mind. A huge suspended fixture will look out of place in a small room. There are lighting fixtures for all kinds of lighting requirements. Lighting fixtures in resplendent designs and infinite sizes and ranges flood the market. An automatic or manual control facility increases the lifespan of the lamps, apart from enabling the easy layering of light. The age of individuals, the speed and precision demands of a task and the albedo of the surface are some of the other factors that determine people’s choice of a particular lighting fixture.

Lighting Fixtures provides detailed information on Lighting Fixtures, Bathroom Lighting Fixtures, Ceiling Lighting Fixtures, Outdoor Lighting Fixtures and more. Lighting Fixtures is affiliated with Outdoor Lighting.

 

Home Decorating Tips - How to Change a Rooms Dimension Using Wall Pictures

The Basic Role of Pictures

Wall art plays an important role in interior design as it helps create the ambience of a room. By cleverly placing wall pictures in certain ways, you can change and create a new look and feel in a room.

The role wall pictures play in interior design are:-

• pictures, mirrors or other ornamental accessories on walls help make the room look 'lived in' and they also inject your personality into the room;
• color pictures and prints help connect with the rooms accent;
• pictures help absorb noise in a room, otherwise a room with totally bare walls will sound empty and will have an echo;
• pictures and prints can help enhance or change a room's 'look and feel'.

How to Lengthen a Room

If you have a small room in your house, you can easily achieve the illusion of length. This can be done in two ways. If you like bold statements then simply paint a couple of horizontal lines in a bold color across the middle of the wall in which you want to lengthen. These lines then naturally create the illusion of increased length in the room. An alternative way to do this, and a more subtle way, is to use pictures.

By strategically placing art pictures or photographs with any kind of strong horizontal line in the print, can accomplish the illusion of length. For example, if you chose two or three long rectangular pictures with horizontal panoramic prints such as ocean & beach pictures, fields, or scenic mountain pictures, then this will help extend the length of the room naturally.

Two, three or more of these horizontal landscape pictures will give the maximum impact you are looking for to help lengthen a small room. Also bear in mind not to overdo the room with furniture. Too much clutter makes a room appear smaller.

How to Broaden a Narrow Room

If you have a room which is a bit on the narrow side, there is a simple strategy to make the room appear broader. All you need is a tin of paint, a wall mirror and a large colorful wall picture.

Get your tin of paint, which should preferably be a darker contrasting color to your other walls, and paint one of the walls with this darker paint. Find a colorful and lively large painting and hang it on the wall you have just painted - colorful flower pictures are ideal for this.

On the wall adjacent to your picture, hang a decorative large mirror. What has happened here is that the mirror reflects on the large picture, and the additional darker color on the wall has immediately given the room some much-needed depth. This combination will then make the room appear wider.

By adding these simple additions to your narrow room, you have instantly created a balance in the room's dimensions giving the sensation of additional space.

How to Heighten a Low Ceiling

Rooms with low ceilings give an oppressive feeling, whereas rooms with a high ceiling give a light and airy feel with a large amount of space. To overcome the problem of a low ceiling, there are a couple of interior design strategies to use.

First of all put down a darker floor covering, whether it be a wooden floor, carpet or lino. Paint the walls with a lighter color than the floor, or use light colored wallpaper. If you can, use white paint for the ceiling as this always gives the room maximum light and instantly draws the eyes upwards.

Hang up wall pictures with strong vertical lines as this then gives the impression of height. Use portrait prints such as vertical landscapes, i.e. lighthouses, trees, cityscapes, or floral prints such as flowers in a vertical vase or tall long stem roses. Therefore, by combining the dark floor, light walls and ceiling and portraits prints, all adds to the sense of height in a room.

Summary

Art pictures and prints play an important role in home decorating for several reasons. They do not only reflect and put your own personality into the room, but they can also help as a solution to change the look and feel of a room by giving the illusion of height, width and length. This can easily be achieved by combining wall pictures, contrasting colors and decorative mirrors.

Claire Bowes is a successful freelance writer and owner of Online Home Improvement Ideas.

 

 

How To Make A Room Divider

 

room divider in a theme that compliments your décor can add a unique look to the corner of your room while doubling as a screen to hide a messy area or provide extra storage in the back. A decent room divider can be quite costly, but if you consider yourself to be handy with tools, then you might be able to save a bundle while making a nice custom accent piece for your room.

When deciding on making a room divider, you must first pick out which kind you want to make. There’s 3 basic types of dividers – the folding screen, the flat panel and the hanging curtain.

The folding screen style of room divider typically has 3 or 4 panels, but you can build it with as many as you want. It stands on it’s own when the panels are set at slight angles. To build this type of room divider, you simply make panel frames out of wood – you can build them to any size that suits. Then add the inside panels – insides can be glass, fabric, stained wood, painted wood or anything else that suits your fancy! Finally, assemble each panel to the other with hinges so that each piece folds against the other.

The room divider that is one panel and has feet that hold it up is the easiest to build. Just build the panel frame from wood and put whatever material you want in the middle. Then add some feet on the bottom to hold it up. You may be able to get pre-made feet for it or you can simply build them yourself. Make sure the feet are long enough so that the divider is sturdy when standing.

If you want to build a fabric or beaded divider, you will have to use something to suspend it from the ceiling. A track is nice because then you can slide the divider back if you want to expose the sections of the room. Something like a curtain rod could work, if you can rig something up that doesn’t look strange. Then simply add the curtain or bead panel. You can even use a store bought curtain or make one yourself.

Lee Dobbins writes for decorating and pet related web sites. Visit RoomDividerDecor.com to find out how you can add a room divider to your décor.

 

Home Interior Design Tips on Decorating your Space with Wall Art

How to Decorate your Space with Wall Pictures

If a room in your house lacks character, by simply placing some fine art prints on the walls can actually make quite an impact. Wall pictures are a necessary accessory in your home and are great to tie in with the room's style and color accent. Before you go off to buy some new pictures for your walls there are a few things you need to plan and decide upon. Here is a home interior design guide on how to decorate your space with wall art.

Shop for Wall Art by Room

The kind of home you have and the mood, ambience and style of decor you create, should be perfectly designed to suit your lifestyle. Deciding on a style for your room should be determined by the lifestyle you choose and not by what's the latest home interior design trend.

Whichever room you are wanting to decorate, whether it be your bedroom, living area, kitchen or office space, you need to decide what you want to get out of that space. For example:

• do you want to hold dinner parties or entertain?
• do you want a quiet retreat to get away from the hustle and bustle?
• Is this an area for the kids to play in?
• Is this a room for your hobby?

Once you have decided what you want to use the room for, you can now choose a color theme to suit the function of the room. For example, mellow greens and neutrals for your 'quiet retreat room', lively yellow for the kids room, or pale tranquil blue for your office space.

So far we have established the function and color of the room in question, this then gives us the basis on choosing the right art prints for the area.

For example:

• bright colorful cartoon pictures for the kids room
• mellow pastel floral pictures for your quiet retreat area, or
• tranquil landscape and scenic pictures for your office space

Choose your Style

Like paint color, artwork can immediately establish or change a room's mood. Not only can it pull the room together, but you can use it to create a style uniquely your own.

• traditional & classic
• modern
• contemporary
• fun & entertaining
• casual
• romantic

The style of the room is totally dependent on your own personal taste and this is the time when you can inject your own personality into the room through artwork and textured accessories.

Suggested art picture styles:

Fun & Entertaining: Pictures can include bright colors both in the print and on the frame. Fun and entertaining pictures can include kittens and puppies, or comedian actors such as the Three Stooges or Laurel & Hardy.

Modern: With the strong black accents in the framed iron-work and the tapestries, striking black and white photos are a natural choice for a modern and sophisticated look.

Calm Retreat: To reinforce the mood of a nestled, cozy retreat, use artwork with neutral, earthy colors and a horizontal landscape subject.

You can even mix and match different styles to create a unique style of your own. For example, frame traditional black and white photo prints in a modern black iron frame.

Arranging and Hanging your Pictures

In order to get the maximum effect of your wall pictures in terms of adding character and a focal point to the room, you need to decide where and how you want to hang them.

Here are some suggestions to help you decide how to get the best effects from your pictures:-

Modern Gallery Look: To create a modern art gallery feel, particularly nice in hallways, lobbies and stairwells, give each piece ample breathing room. Stand at the center of the first piece and take one swift, or two small steps along the wall. This is a good center for the next piece.

Above a Sofa: When placing art above furniture such as a sofa, you need to hang the picture about six to nine inches above the sofa, or at eye level.

Cluster Arrangements: Tightly group an even number of pictures together to give a statement or a focal point. This works on either large or small wall spaces, depending on the look you want.

In a row: By placing an odd number of pictures in a horizontal line to each other gives balance and the sense of space. This works well in hallways or stairwells.

By deciding where and how to hang your pictures, whether it be a tight cluster or a single print above a sofa, you can then determine the size and shape of the pictures you need to buy.

When you have decided on the room's function, color and style, you are in a much better position to go shopping for wall pictures that fit in with the overall theme.

Summary

Wall pictures are an underestimated home interior design accessory. This is probably because most people do not know what to do with their pictures in order to get the maximum effect in a room. Before you go hanging up your pictures make sure you plan ahead what you want to get out of that room. Decide on the function, style and color of the room first before you buy your artwork. By doing this you are in a much better position to buy the right type of art picture to fit in with the theme and color accent of your room.

Claire Bowes is a successful freelance writer and owner of Online Home Improvement Ideas.

 

Beach Theme Bedroom

Using accessories is a fun way to accent your bedroom for a beach theme. You will find that you can dramatically change the look of your room simply by making small changes with the accents. See how easy it is to get a designer beach theme look in your bedroom without shelling out the big bucks.

If you’re not sure exactly what you want in your beach desing, try looking in decorating magazines and books to get a flavor of the accessories you would like to see in your bedroom. For keeping the beach look consistent, you’ll have to limit yourself to only purchase the accessories that match your theme.

Colors for a beach décor should make you think of the beach. Light and breezy with lots of blues and maybe even some yellows. If you prefer neutral tones think of the beige of beach sand and the color of shells.

Incorporate sea shells, ocean prints, and other seaside accents that will help bring out the beach in your bedroom. You should group your accessories in odd numbers. It always looks nice if your groupings consists of tall and short accessories mixed together. An interesting group of accents might consists of some shells aside a nice beach theme frame and a taller lamp.

Use beach theme prints and photos on your walls to establish the theme throughout your bedroom. Many people do not know how to correctly hang a piece of art and this makes a big difference to the visual appeal. Whether you are hanging a large oil painting or a small print, the middle of the piece should be at eye level. If you have a large piece of artwork you can try using it as a headboard. When hanging prints or photos behind a table, always place them 7 to 10 inches above the table. Hang pictures in circular, triangular, or rectangular geometric groupings to add interest.

When accessorizing your bedroom don’t forget about the lighting. When purchasing lamps make sure to buy ones that go with the beach theme you want to create. For beach style lighting try using clear glass lamps filled with shells or figural light house shaped lamps.

Area rugs can define a space and pull your bedroom together. Rest furniture completely on the rug for a warmer effect. Only use rugs that go with your beach accessories.

Using pillows can add interest as well. Use several at the top of the bed and vary the texture colors and patterns while still keeping the color and theme within your overall bedroom design.

Don’t think you have to buy everything for your bedroom at once. Shop around to find the perfect accessories to match the beach theme in your bedroom. You can find bargains at consignment stores flea markets and yard sales.

Lee Dobbins writes for Bedroom Designs and Decorations where you can find out more about decorating your bedroom. Read more articles on bedroom decorating.

 

A Guide to Platform Bed Plans

 

Do you want to try your hand at building a platform bed? For those of you who don’t yet know what a platform bed is, it’s an exciting, old way of sleeping that incorporates a simple, elegant frame and a single mattress. Its lines have been used in Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Platform beds can be made of wood or metal. If you’re looking to build a platform bed, you’re probably thinking about wood.

Platform beds can be extremely simple. The extremely simple platform beds have no headboard or footboard, and certainly no canopy. They incorporate slats, which, in effect, replace the need for a box spring, since, because they are sturdy yet somehow slightly flexible, support the single mattress on top. The result is that you get a good night’s sleep, are very comfortable, and yet don’t end up with back pains or numb muscles in the morning.

It’s ever better for your back than sleeping on the floor. And now, with the rapid proliferation of memory foam, your platform bed can be even more comfortable and healthy. Memory foam is a gel-like polymer that accepts your shapes and bones, but supports it fully. (It was first used in hospitals, and is now a popular mattress and pillow material.)

Platform bed plans can be more complex too; you can add headboards, footboards, canopies, even extra flourishes and storage units. You can build the storage units as one with the bed frame, or you can create rolling drawers supported by castors, so that the drawers are modifiable and easily maneuverable throughout your bedroom.

It’s not the most difficult job in the world for a handyperson. If you want to build a platform bed, you can order platform bed plans from any of a number of plans retailers. Woodworking clubs, furniture enthusiast groups, and other organizations can give or sell you plans. You can also buy plans online.

Platform Beds Info provides detailed information about contemporary, Japanese, discount, and wood platform beds and platform storage beds, as well as platform bed frames and plans. Platform Beds Info is the sister site of Futons Web.

 

Home Lighting - Creating Illusions with Window Treatments

Windows come in all sizes, shapes and construction. You can create illusions using standard curtains or other window dressings available today. Long drapes are more formal, short curtains tend to be more casual. You can use different styles to add to your interior decorating, such as country, with wide tidebacks and ruffles.

Curtains can help the following problems:

1. Small window – extend the rod beyond the window frame. This will create the appearance of a larger window. More light will filter through the opening.

2. Large window - Attach your rod in the normal position. Try using tiebacks on the curtains. Use a valance.

3. Short/Tall windows - For short windows attach your rod above the window frame. Taller windows will appear shorter if you use a draped valance. It will soften the window.

4. View – If your purpose is to hide the view, match the window color to your wall covering. It will reduce attention to the window.

Today there are so many choices - Vertical blinds, miniblinds, wood blinds, curtains, material and fabric shades, and shades of all types. You can keep it simple or layer the materials. Investigate the choices before you finish your room. If you give this some forethought, you can design your area to allow for changing window dressings each season.

Nan is an Accountant, Real Estate Professional and Business Writer. She has an information site online HomeLighting and a blog for BusinessTips

 

 

The Budget Decorator's Top 10 Home Decorating Tips

1.PAINT! I know you’ve heard it before, but it’s true, paint is the cheapest, fastest way to dramatically change a room in just hours!

2.Use a theme…even if it’s just a favorite color scheme or one you found in a magazine, it’s a place to start and plan.

3.Rearrange…move things around until you find a pleasing arrangement that works for you, whether it’s your furniture or your bookshelves!

4.Use what you have! There are so many items around the home that can be repurposed…learn to look at things in creative ways and see if they might meet a decorating need.

5.Start Big! Tackle the larger areas of the room first, such as walls, windows, and floors. That will make the fastest impact on the room.

6.Disguise! If you can’t afford to replace, disguise! Cover a sofa, lay a rag rug over that stained carpet, or use fabric to screen an unpleasant view.

7.Find materials in creative places. Use fabric from sheets and quilts, use yard sales to locate furniture to be painted to match your décor, and visit your dollar shop on a regular basis for picture frames and candles.

8.Add personality! Inject yourself and your family in to your home with personal items…photos, vacation finds, or ball game tickets in a frame all bring interest and life to your rooms.

9.Look for inspiration. There is no shame is scouring books and magazines for the look you desire, then adapting their scheme to a budget decorator’s plan! Let the pictures inspire your creativity, and borrow ideas you love!

10.Start now! Today, make a plan, pick a paint color, sew a pillow. Your home won’t change if you don’t start something, so don’t put it off another minute, and little by little, the Budget Decorator in you will transform your house to a home!

Kathy Wilson is an author, columnist, and editor of The Budget Decorator. For thousands of free budget home decorating ideas, visit her at http://www.TheBudgetDecorator.com. Don’t forget to sign up for her free newsletter!

 

Interior Decorating For Fun & Profit!

Interior decorating has grown 11% in the last five years and will continue to grow as more people are working outside the home and acquiring more money. If you are constantly being asked for your interior design ideas, this could be an incredible opportunity for you. All you need to do is make a few decisions and love to create beautiful home interiors.

The first thing to decide is if you want to be an interior designer or just do interior decorating. It may not seem like a big difference, but it actually is. An Interior Designer has to graduate from an accredited Interior Design program, and in many States, the person must take an exam and are licensed. However, if you don’t want to attend school right now or ever, you can opt to be an interior decorator instead.

Before selling your interior decorating services, you must practice. Learn some of the tricks to decorating on a budget, and get ideas about what services you want to provide to your customers. Try these services out in your own home, and offer them for free in the homes of your family and friends. It is great practice and can help to build your portfolio.

To build your portfolio take before and after pictures of each project you do, whether it is large or small. You should have fifteen to twenty pictures in your portfolio and letters of recommendation from happy clients. It is also a good practice to create design boards for each project, and keep them with your portfolio.

Once you have decided on opening an interior decorating business, you should call around to different competitors to get an idea of the services they provide and the fees they charge for their services. This is a great way to decide on how to charge your clients.

There are several ways to price your interior decorating services. They include using a flat fee, hourly fee, percentage fee, cost plus, retail cost or per square foot fee. Most interior decorating businesses use the cost plus method for their fees.

To use the cost plus method, you must contact wholesalers and retailers who offer interior decorating businesses discounts. This way you purchase everything for the project from paint to furniture. You then, sell the products and your services to the client for your cost of the products plus the twenty percent going rate.

Now that you have decided what services you will provide and the cost for each, it is time to advertise. Since you have contacted suppliers, ask them if you can leave interior decorating flyers and business cards at their locations. If these suppliers have seen your work, and make sure they do, they may also refer their customers to you.

You should also contact realtors, new homebuilders, business offices, stores, hotels and just about anywhere that uses an interior that needs to be decorated. Send each a letter announcing the opening of your business, make sure there is a name on the letter and envelope, and not a generic “Business Owner” opening. Follow up with a phone call and try to get an appointment to present them with information about you and your interior decorating business. Even if they are not interested right now, they will be in the future, and you want to make sure they remember you.

You can also offer services in the way of teaching a class on home interior decorating. Many community colleges offer personal enrichment classes for everyone in the community. In the class have each person pick a room in their home they want to redecorate. By the end of the class, their room should be complete and you will have more happy customers to spread the word about you and your business.

Once you have started your business, you should subscribe to trade periodicals, and visit websites to get interior decorating tips and ideas from others in the industry. You should purchase books about different areas of decorating and techniques you can use.

Many of the industry associations will only accept members that are licensed Interior Designers. Keep this in mind when you are planning your future goals, but remember there are also many successful interior designers who are not licensed.

With your thoughts now racing about interior decorating, costs, marketing and keeping up with trends, you seem to have made your decision. Start calling competitors, and decorating friends and family’s homes. Open your own interior designing business now.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved. Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Best Home Based Businesses and Batting Cages Business.

 

Smarten Your Interiors

Interior design is the process of shaping the experience of interior space, through the manipulation of the available volume as well as surface treatment. Interior Design is dependent on environmental psychology, architecture, product design and furniture design in addition to traditional decoration.

The role of the interior decorator evolved in the 18th century from the Parisian marchand-mercier(a "merchant of goods") and the upholder in London.

With the existing architecture of any building, one can decorate it or arrange the various elements in such a way that it looks good and at the same time easy to use.

There is a distinct difference between interior decorating and interior designing. Interior decorating is generally focused on finishes, such as wallpapers, paint, window coverings and furnishings. While interior design involves manipulating the integrity, have the available interior space, as well as creation of a lifestyle experience through the study of human behavior.

Designing depends on the type and size of the room. The basic rooms include living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, deck, and home office.

But these can be further classified into

• Drawing room
• Guest room
• Dining room
• Adult’s room
• Kids room
• Teen’s room

Interior designing is not only meant for houses but also extensively for corporate offices as it’s very important to create good atmosphere for pleasurable work experience.

The goal of interior decoration is to provide a certain “feel” for the room, it encompasses applying wall paper, paintings walls and other surfaces, choosing furniture and fittings, such as light fixtures, and providing other decorations for the area such as paintings and sculptures.

Home design concentrates on architecture, and might also be involved in cabinet making, room layout, window placement, appliance selection, tile and floor selection and so on. Home design tends to be more integrated with the architecture, and in addition to the above areas, might also be involved in cabinet making, room layout, window placement, appliance selection, tile and floor selection, and so on.

The Living Room:

It’s the place where we spend most of the time and since its here we welcome our guests; it is the most important room of the house and its usually the first room of the house. Its very important to make this room look good as this room gives not only the impression about the house but also the people.

The room should contain extensive wall hangings and lights which is easily available in smdblue.com Fountains and beautiful flower vases also add to the beauty of the room.

When you are away to make a cup of coffee, you can make your guests engaged by having some of your family photographs and other special occasion photos in beautiful and unique photo frames. To make the photos look more interesting, hanging frames from smdblue.com can also be used.

Bedroom:

Based on for whom the room is meant one can decorate it accordingly.If it’s for adults then you can embellish it with a huge master bed with a bed canopy, ethnic floral cushions and bolster pillows. If it’s meant for kids then decorate it with flower pillows and princess pillows from smdblue.com

Kitchen:

Since its here, where all the delicious delicacies are made. It’s not only sufficient to have all the necessary equipments but they should be attractive enough. To achieve this one can use eye-catching coasters, cookie jars, serving trays, salt and pepper shakers, plate racks, wine racks and fruit wall plague.

Bathroom:

Most of the people are not concerned with the decoration involved in the bathroom. It’s very essential to decorate it with suitable things. Towel holders, wood caddies, wall cabinet, bathroom set, keepsakes box are a few items which can be used to make your bathroom look stylish and at the same time neat.

Office:

Most offices opt for a formal look. Apart from regular elements on the table of the employee or the boss, certain elements like cherub bookends, shelf sconces, cactus tables can create a center of attention and give a very delightful feel to the place of work.

Essential parts of all design styles are concept,colour, proportion, balance, and function of design. Although all styles differentiate their usage of each of these, they are all an integral part of the overall look and feel of a room or space. Designers incorporate the seven elements of design to create and enhance style: form, mass, shape, line, color, texture and pattern

Apart from all the design style smdblue.com has a collection of exclusive and stunning products that will adorn your interiors and give them a startling look.

Tamil Selvi is a SEO copywriter for smdblue.com She has written many articles in various topics.For more information visit http://www.smdblue.com.

 

 

Department Store Buyer Becomes Interior Designer

A man contacted me about promoting his commercial interior design firm that he was starting. At that time he was working as a department store buyer where he was very bored in his job. He was interested in making a career change to interior designing. He had no formal training but had educated himself in interior design and had worked on some very small showroom and office design projects in an assisting role.

After meeting with him and learning his goals, I did some research into office and showroom designs, and the correlations between new designs and increased business. I discovered that office interior designing was a lot more plentiful but more competitive. The larger design firms concentrated on the office designing market. I decide for my client that it would be best if he would concentrate his efforts on the showroom design market which was less competitive and easier to break into.

I helped my client create a web site that would express his unique approach to designing showrooms. The web site allowed clients to request information on the different types and styles of showroom designs that my client has to offer. There would be articles and links to articles that would be of interest and help prospective clients with what type of showroom design would be best for their business. The web site would provide examples of other projects that were successfully done.

I wrote articles on the positive correlation between new designs and increased business and distributed them on the internet were clients would be looking for information. I included links in the articles back to my client’s web site. I created a newsletter for my client that contained helpful information to prospects by explaining several different ways of how new showroom designs can increase business. The newsletter contained links to my clients’ web site as well as links to articles and sources of information that would be of assistance to any potential prospects.

I created a print ad for the New York Real Estate Journal and wrote an article under my clients’ by-lines that appeared with the ad. After the article and ad appeared, I ordered reprints, wrote a solicitation letter, and bought a list of approximately 500 real estate lawyers (new showroom tenants typically have their lawyers negotiate their leases). The solicitation letters gave my clients web site address and where to find his newsletter. The solicitation letters were mailed with a bulk mail permit from a local post office. They were also sent via email.

A few weeks later after sending out the solicitation letter and reprints, a lawyer who represented a men’s suit designer company responded to our ads. I prepared for my client a four color brochure, a PowerPoint presentation, and a script to follow during his presentation. My client was up against 3 other firms competing for the contract. My client was rewarded the contract. The contract was for 1.5 million for a showroom on a very fashionable Manhattan street.

Five months after getting the contract to design this showroom my client completed the project. The showroom turned out to be a huge success for the men’s suit designer company. The company even recommended my client to an accessory manufacture and design company that the suit company was doing business with.

With the permission of the men’s suit designer company I arranged for several stories about their work to be published. I made changes on their web site to include the success that my client had with the suit design company’s show room design. I also included it in the next company newsletter that was going to be published. I repeated