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21 May 2009

How to Get the Best Color Scheme for Your Baby's Nursery

Image by Hanoi Mark via Flickr

by B. Fraley

If you are getting ready to decorate your baby's nursery, let's start thinking about the color scheme. Young kids love bright splashes of color, but walking into a room with huge patches of red, green and blue can be a little alarming. Why not keep the baby's room a fairly calm place where both baby and Mom can rest and relax?

Almost any color scheme can work if you pay attention to details. Keep in mind that babies, and indeed, young children can be spooked by certain colors, toys, and cartoon characters; not being able to completely differentiate between real and imaginary. Using a combination of clear, light colors will be safer, and make it easier for you to update your dcor as your child moves from infancy to toddling to adolescence.

If the nursery is not as bright or as sunny as it could be, look for vibrant warm colors like cranberry, coral, ruby or even barn red to brighten it up. If these colors are a little strong for you, consider peach, primrose or desert pink to warm you up instead.

Always remember that your colors need to be balanced. Rich colors on the wall call for light floors, ceilings and furniture. When you want to cool down red walls, look into pale blues, greens or even creams. When you have a lighter shade on the wall, like peach, pink, melon or yellow, look for accessories like toys and furniture to accent it.

For a neutral boy/girl look, try a cheery indoor garden approach. Paint the ceiling a light sky blue and add some puffy white clouds, the walls a pale yellow, and the floor neutral - a natural wood tone or a taupe tile. A border paper of pink and white daisies, or pink, blue and white balloons, and a cotton throw rug that looks outdoorsy would be great. The furniture can be white, pale green, or a natural light wood.

On the other hand, what if you are after something that is a little more fun? Why not put in a Snow White theme? Start by recreating the forest with mint green walls. You can get wonderful gradient effect by adding white or black to the mix and then add colors to the bedding, borders, pictures or posters to further reflect the woods. This is a lovely way to use monochromatic coloring.

Decorating in monochrome can give you plenty of advantages. Remember that a room in monochrome looks bigger; a room where the ceiling and floor are the color of the walls will look the largest. Consider how you can shorten a tall narrow room with a darker ceiling and how you can raise the ceiling with darker walls and white above.

Kids outgrow the rooms that you design for them so quickly, so take some time and really consider what you can do to make sure that the room is easy to upgrade. Consider a monochromatic color that will remain the same. After that, all you need to worry about is updating the furniture!

About the Author:
About the Author: B. Fraley loves helping expectant mommies decorate their nursery and find a crib that is beautiful, comfortable and will last a long time. For quality products at the best price please visit her online stores for nursery decoration baby furniture cribs

07 May 2009

Alessi Nuvem - Wire Sculpture at its Best

Image via Wikipedia

by Axel W.

You may never have heard of the term Nuvem. It is nor more nor less than a collection of objects formed from aluminum wire, spun and squashed into any number of household items. But that description is far too plain to capture this daring concept.

Alessi spent years developing the concept. There were the usual artistic struggles, of course. But imagine trying to form vases, baskets, and more that are both economical and lovely, while being true the original inspiration. The results show that they have succeeded marvelously.

A simple table mat might seem like it wouldn't be difficult to achieve. Yet, even here the struggle was great. To be true the original artistic inspiration, while creating a useful object that will not scratch or degrade, requires real skill.

The Alessi Nuvem Wire Mat (AFC12) comes in either anodized aluminum, in its natural color or gold or blue. Each exhibits the asymmetry that makes this item distinctively different and delightful. The mat is approximately 43cm x 37 cm (17" x 14.5") at the widest points, but is far from a simple rectangle. It will let you reach the farthest point of decorative individuality.

Alessi wasn't satisfied to stop there. They created a more complex object in the form of a Wire Flower Vase (AFC13). The vase stands 10cm x 10 cm (4" x 4") wide and 17 cm (7") high. That size lends it the necessary flexibility to be used in a dozen decorating scenarios.

As an open wire frame, the vase isn't designed to hold water though it can be used as the outer shell of a glass cylinder or rectangle. Still, it is the perfect choice for artificial flowers, as a container for potpourri, or any of dozens of decorating ideas. The swirling wire design complements the natural theme of growing plants yet provides an abstract work of art at the same time.

For one of its most complex tasks, Alessi chose to use the concept in the formation of a Wire Citrus Basket (AFC11). Here, both the functional and the artistic have to work together in perfect harmony. Wire that was too weak or imbalanced would negate the ability to hold fruit. A random mish mash would have none of the aesthetic value that lies at the base of the idea.

Available in natural aluminum color, blue, or gold, this fruit basket can be used in a wide variety of color schemes. Placed as the centerpiece of your table, your decorative efforts will pay off handsomely with just a simple touch of Nuvem. Sporting the same organic pattern as the flower vase, it brings both the sense of life and the artifice of design together in perfect harmony.

The seamless blend of practical purpose and fine dcor is a hallmark of Alessi. Nowhere have they achieved that integration better than in the nuvem line. Outstanding craftsmanship has realized an artistic vision honored by becoming part of the MOMA collection in New York. Honor Alessi by making it part of yours as well.

About the Author:
Looking to buy Alessi products? Look no further! Shop for Alessi Nuvem Wire Baskets and other Alessi designer products at bestofalessi.com

19 April 2009

Using a Color Scheme in Your Room

Image via Wikipedia

by Dan Hogan

When you set about to design a room, one of the most important things that you will need to tackle will be the color scheme you are going to use. The color scheme will set the entire mood of the room, making it into a light and happy place or a more serious place that you can use to get work done. Of course, you will want all of the objects that you are putting into the room to work well, so you may wish to begin selecting your color scheme by using an object which you already have and plan to include.

If you love patterns you defiantly have a few colors to choose from since many have two or more colors in them. By choosing a great pillow or even a bed set will provide you with a plan and even establish the rest of the rooms design.

After you have picked the pattern based on the object that you are going to follow, you need to select three colors from that pattern to use as the base for your room. You will want a light color, a dark color, and something in-between. This will help to give you a good balance that will give the eye enough information to look over while it is scanning the room and can help find a healthy medium for the room to exist in.

The lightest color that you choose will be set to be the background of the room, hopefully the colors of the walls. This is usually not hard to achieve because most rental spaces come with white walls and white is the lightest color you can find. Therefore, when you choose the light color, you should find something as close to white as possible because it can provide a great background for the rest of the room to exist against.

The middle color that you choose should be your larger furniture and the areas around the windows. This means that the drapes that you choose should be closely associated with your furniture and the area rug that you may have. In fact, if you use the area rug to base the room around, by selecting the medium color in the area rug, you will be able to easily base the rest of the room around this.

Finally is the darker color of them all. This should be used towards the accessories added into the rooms theme. It is easier to remove darker pieces rather than having to paint over them if it was on the walls. Try adding darker lamp shades and pillows to tie the theme together. Choosing a pattern to give you a great color palette is the best way to go if you don't have anything in mind.

About the Author:
Don't be ripped off by imitations. Be sure to buy authentic decorative area rugs directly, like these purple rugs

16 April 2009

Harmony In Design

Image by My DotPress via Flickr

by Rex Watkins

The feel of your rooms in your house can be directly correlated by what kind of decorating you have in it. Ask any interior decorating and they will tell you that certain colors will bring warmth into a room while others may cause the room to be sterile and cold. Bringing in a sense of peace through the decorating of your place will also be possible.

This will happen when all of the elements in the room have a good relation to each other. They do not all necessarily have to be matching items but if they have a grand, unifying theme, it can help. Additionally, if all of the items are arranged in a way where people can easily move through the room, there is a strong sense of harmony present. It is through this use of space and texture that a person will create the functionality and mood of a room and when these two elements are in sync with each other, harmony will be born.

If however you pick out furniture and rugs that go along well together you will create a room that will have a natural flow to it. With this flow and a room that is not crowded you can get that harmony from your design. The walls of your room should bring in some peace too. Maybe you have a painting that always makes you feel relaxed hanging that in your room and matching a rug to some sort of color in the painting you will have a great look. One that can be uniquely you and no one else will have. Maybe you put up some great family photos and get an area rug that goes with the color of the couch instead.

One other thing an area rug can be great for is if you have too colors that don't quite match or furniture and wall decorations that are a bit less flowing. You can get a rug that will bring the two items together nicely, which will give your room a very harmonious feel and peacefulness about it.

Again the color you choose to put on the walls can completely change what a room feels like. Maybe you want to make the colors of the wall match closer with the rug you have placed in the room. Picking a color that will attach two items together will have a natural flow to the look of your room. With that flow you will have an ongoing sense of peace and harmony. Most of the time, a bold color if done incorrectly will only make your room seem busy and distracting. But if you go about adding a nice bold color and having a nice area rug that goes with it, this can be a great way to bring some harmony into your room.

Finding ways to pair items in the room up with other items can make a room work together in a lasting way. If an area rug is situated around furniture with a similar color scheme, it will provide a sense of belonging. If the artwork on the walls can find traces in the items placed around, it too, will belong. This will provide the most harmonious sensation of all, making the room a huge decor success.

About the Author:
Don't be ripped off by imitations. Be sure to buy authentic area rugs directly, like this Dynamic Rugs Mystique Mandarin 2086-7022 Rug

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