Trendy Low Slung Furniture

People are slowly becoming more casual and more comfortable with their furniture and other home accessories and decor items. For 2012 and beyond, you can expect to see a number of manufacturers and retailers selling furniture that is low slung, or closer to the ground. These home accessories will actually compliment a variety of home decor looks, which will only increase their popularity in the coming years.

 In the Bedroom

 For bedroom furniture, expect to see lowered platform beds and perhaps even lower heights for side tables and other furniture pieces. Low slung dressers have been growing in popularity in recent years and will continue to be popular for bedroom spaces. Clean lines and modern looks will be popular, however other trends including eco-friendly reclaimed materials and raw looks as well as industrial and rustic looks will also be trendy for bedroom furniture.

 In the Living Room

 In the living room, you can expect to see plenty of low slung furniture from coffee tables to side tables, as these will be following the lead of the sofa. Low slung sofas and other seated furniture pieces will be particularly trendy this year and likely well into 2013, as people are looking to create more comfortable spaces.

 For low slung sofas, keep an eye out for clean modern lines and angles, which best compliment the lower slung look. Opt for solid colors and bold colors, but avoid patterns, which can be too visually overwhelming for these furniture pieces. Furthermore, keep an eye out for gray upholsteries, which are overtaking beige as the new neutral for home decor.

 Since sofas will be lower to the ground and more comfortable, you can expect to see manufacturers following suit and also making tables and other furniture pieces to suit the lower needs. After all, its no fun bumping your head or your feet on a side table when youre lounging on the sofa. With this in mind, keep an eye out for trendy pieces such as the dipped look, in which the top half of the furniture appears to have been dipped in paint or another material. Aluminum, hammered metals and bright lacquered finishes will be popular for side tables, coffee tables and even stools.

 Low Slung Furniture for Other Spaces

 Despite the popularity of this trend, few people will actually incorporate it into every space of their home. This is because outside of a few low slung tables, chairs, sofas and the bedroom furniture as mentioned before, there is very little in terms of low slung furniture. After all, no one wants to be sitting in a low slung office chair or be sitting at a low slung desk or table.

 With this in mind, be wary of what pieces you invest in. With the low slung trend, you want to use these pieces in spaces that you feel most comfortable in: the bedroom or the living room. The low slung trend is not suited for home offices or kitchens for obvious reasons.

Using Stone For Interior Design

Using natural materials in your interior design project can be a great way to get an interesting design that will last the test of time. From wood to stone, natural materials look great and can suit nearly every design theme imaginable. But using stone in your design can be a challenge, especially if youve never worked with it before. Use this guide to using stone in your design and youll be sure to get a design that you will love for years to come.

 Tiles:

 One of the most common and affordable ways to decorate with stone in your bathroom or kitchen design is by installing stone tile. Stone tiles can come in a wide variety of materials from granite to marble and can be used in shower enclosures, countertops and backsplashes to create a powerful design element that suits nearly any design theme or dcor. Stone tiles can be more expensive than conventional tiles but last longer and can be more durable than ceramic tiles.

 Large Stones:

 A common way to decorate around fireplaces and mantelpieces is by using large stones set in mortar. Rustic living room designs especially benefit from stone interiors. And since larger stones come in such a wide variety of materials, you can be sure youre going to choose a stone texture and color that suits your design theme perfectly. When installing any stone material, be sure to choose a local stone quarry for the best savings.

 Medium Stones:

 Medium sized stones are typically around 6-8 inches in diameter and can be used for many different design ideas from bathroom designs for the shower enclosure to outdoor areas for walkways and patios. Medium sized river rock are smooth and round stone materials that work great for floors, but can also be used on walls to create interesting vertical, diagonal or random patterns. Choose a colored mortar mix and add to the luster of any medium stone design.

 Small Stones:

 Smaller sized stones make for a unique textured look that makes an appealing addition to most design themes. Small river rock can be manipulated together on walls and floors using a clear coat of laminate to adhere the stones in place. These smaller stones work best in dry areas like bedroom or living room designs. Wet conditions should be avoided when using smaller laminated stones as they can get very slippery underfoot. Add a mixture of colorful river rocks or a few medium sized river rocks to break up the monotony of the smaller river rock look.

The Laura Mostaghel Home And Interior Decor Collection

I would like to tell you about the work of one of America's most outstanding and fastest-rising artists, Laura Mostaghel. Her complete catalog is in itself a work of art.

 Laura produces hand-made and -crafted works that will grace any home in your choice of:

 Paintings Vases and Tile Murals
 Watercolors Jewelry Pins
 Gicles Ceramic Boxes
 Prints Etchings

 Her exquisite pieces are well-known to the rich and famous - household names long-known for their taste in fine art including Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, and Clint Eastwood - as well as to connoisseurs and collectors of beautiful things.

 While many of Laura's original oils on canvas carry prices commensurate with their beauty and originality, she has also made many of these exquisite works available as gicles at prices affordable to most collectors. Some of these beautiful paintings in the glice format are available in signed and numbered limited editions on acid free archival paper. Many artists will create a series from a canvas painting onto canvas. Laura chooses, instead, to keep her editions on paper so all canvas paintings are originals and any series will be on paper. However, the paper is 30.5 lb. Somerset Velvet coated cotton duck, cold press/acid free in museum white. Collectors will want to know that this paper has almost as much cotton as regular canvas fabric and will thus retain its intensity of the paints as well as canvas that is primed and UV protected.

 These will of course be somewhat more expensive but will in years to come be revered by collectors.

 Laura's tile murals and vases are readily identifiable as unique to her studio for their use of bold, vivid colors and strong lines in contrast with soft, light areas depicted in clear glaze. These pieces are fired four times in a kiln in order to create a rich, harmonious effect for them.

 Her exquisite, hand-painted collectible series of decorative art boxes depicting women in colorful interiors, cats, and florals are wonderful gifts and keepsakes. Each box is an original like no other and is trimmed and accented in 22 karat gold. These boxes are also kiln-fired four separate times to achieve the quality that defines Laura's art.

 Please use this opportunity to look at Laura's marvelous Display Page to see a showcase of color and frame coordinates for decorating your walls while enhancing the art you have purchased. Note that all glices from her studio are sold unframed. This page is presented as an idea page for determining your framing needs.

 Often you will see that a piece you greatly desired has already been sold. By special arrangement with Laura we can help you overcome this disappointment.

 Since all originals are by definition unique, you cannot obtain a copy. You can, however, request Laura to create a similar piece for you. This means in effect the subject, themes, and atmosphere of the sold piece will be captured in a unique rendering depicted on a new original.

 This service will be available only on orders over $5,000 and will require a 50% deposit. Although a client will necessarily be required to wait during the creation process, Laura will send you a sketch of her new inspiration for your approval and/or suggestions before the final work is completed.

Shopping Online for Wall Art

So you're finally ready to buy some art to decorate the walls of your new home. You have some vague idea of the kind of art that would fit in with the decor of your home. But you have a problem. Where are you going to find them? You could paint them yourself  but you're not an artist. You could go to your nearest art shop and choose from the limited variety they have on offer  but the shop is miles away. The only other option is to go online to search for your ideal art piece, and have it shipped to your doorstep. Shopping online for art has significant advantages over buying art from a retail store. Heres why:

An online store has more variety  much, much more. You will never find so many different genres of art in a normal retail store. The reason is simple; retail stores do not have enough space to keep so many art pieces. So you are terribly limited when it comes to choices.

Online shopping is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. If you can buy your art from an online store, why bother to travel miles to your nearest art shop? People living in remote areas away from the city do not have easy access to art shops or galleries. Occasionally the flea market would come into town, but even then you might not find anything you fancy. Even in the city itself, there normally aren't too many art shops around for you to pick and choose.

Buying art from an art shop is inconvenient for those who have to travel quite a distance. Even if you did find an art piece you like, you still need to bring it home after you purchase it. You might choose a large art piece, and that would pose a major problem if you had to lug it all the way home. You also risk damaging it if you were not careful. Online merchants handle all the shipping for you, giving you no worries at all. If your art piece arrives damaged, you can always send it back, requesting for another one.

Online stores offer a huge number of products as compared to retail stores. How many art retail stores can squeeze thousands of art pieces into their shop? Not many I suppose. This is not the case with online galleries. An online retailer does not have to worry about shop space, only disk space. Many of them offer thousands of art pieces for you to choose from. You are literally spoilt for choice.

Online art shopping expedites your purchase decision. Shopping online will shorten the time you'll need to choose your favorite art pieces. Many online art galleries allow you to view thumbnail images of their art pieces. You can view as many as twenty thumbnails on one single page. This allows you to view more variety of products within a shorter amount of time, enabling you to make your purchase decision faster.

You can instantly decide if the art is right for your home. All you need to do is fire up your laptop, log on to your online store, and walk around your house. You'll be able to see in an instant if the art pieces displayed will fit in nicely with the theme of your home. This is a significant advantage over buying art from a retail store, where many a times you will be disappointed because the art piece looked great in the store, but didn't fit in with your home when you brought it back.

Online stores are also able to provide value added services like framing. They will do everything for you; all you need to do is choose the frame and materials. The framed art piece will then be shipped to you with all the necessary accessories to mount on your wall. Your job is just to receive the goods, unwrap it, and hang it up. Its that simple. Because you choose to make use of the merchants framing services, many of them are also able to give a discount on the overall cost. This means significant savings as compared to purchasing the art, and then framing it somewhere else.

Enjoy your art shopping!

Staples of Asian Home Decor

Asian home decor is very popular and not hard to achieve if you have some imagination and are ready to invest in a few essential accessories. What you should remember is that Asian home decor is all about subtlety and smart distribution of things inside the house. Either it is based on feng shui, minimalism, or tropical patterns  the goal is to evoke an Asian look. In fact, even just a few simple accessories can create Asian feel and make your home look exotic.

Red and Gold, Not Gaudy

Chinese influence made red a very popular Asian furniture and accessory color. You can safely use red furniture for your Asian home decor. Real antique Chinese furniture does not generally have Chinese words or gaudy flowers painted on it. Avoid cheap and poorly stylized pieces of furniture  they will fail to create an authentic look, simply because Asian home decor is all about good taste.

While carving and gilt are staples of Asian home decor, they dont look gaudy, but rather subtle and rich. Throughout Asia, adding a little gilt detail to furniture is common and tasteful. There is also a symbolism to the carving for people who know how to read it. Experts can tell where and why a piece was created just by looking at the kinds of patterns carved into the wood.

Fine Fabrics

Asia was already home to a thriving silk industry thousands of years ago. While silk is still a luxury, it is also typical of fine Asian home decor. This does not mean your whole couch must be upholstered in silk, but it does mean some throw pillows or a footstool covered in silk should be part of the look. There are really plenty of choices, and you just need to be creative. You could hang a picture of a woman wearing a kimono, or you could even hang a real kimono. The latter is definitely more interesting.

Batik or hand-woven textiles of Southeast Asia are good option to help create Asian home decor. In Indonesia and Malaysia, intricate batiks are used in traditional clothing for everyone from peasants to sultans. The best are hand-made in a restrained, geometric style. Some communities still weave on handlooms and create symmetric masterpieces with just a few colors of silk or cotton thread. Simply hanging one of the fabrics on the wall is a beautiful and authentic touch for your Asian home decor.

Flowers to Complete the Look

Normally, Asian home decor doesnt use flowery fabrics, but fresh flowers are a definitely a must in the home. Of course, in Western countries fresh stems of orchid and lotus are a luxury and might not be available at all unlike in tropical Asia. Yet, a few high-quality silk flowers, pictures or paintings of flowers can complete the look of your Asian home decor.

Office Interior Decorating

Like our home, our office or workplace is an important part of our life. There can be little denial of the fact that we spend a major portion of our lifetime in the office.

 Based on this observation, you will be able to contemplate how to improve the facilities and design of the office. The concept of the home office is gaining popularity, with more and more people choosing to work from home.

 If your office is a home-based one, then you need to select the suitable area and plan the interior decorating accordingly. The main criterion for selecting a suitable place for your office is silence. The area should not be disturbed by any other event in the house. Next, choose the suitable interior-decorating scheme.

 Whatever interior decorating scheme you choose, you need to allocate enough room for movement and accommodation of all the necessary equipment and furniture. For example, your workstation should not be too crowded or muddled up. You can use smaller objects instead of large ones. For example, you can use old trays as stacks for piling stationery and other rough documents. The chairs and computer tables should be soft but sturdy, with as many compartments as possible. This will save you the much-needed space.

 You need to have separate plugs and boards so that the wires and other cords are not messed up. After all, you cannot afford to waste your precious time, struggling with those jumbled knots everyday! You have got other jobs to do.

 Talking of a general or commercial office, some guiding factors for interior decorating are freedom of movement, appearance, maximum space utilization, and so on.

 There should be a separate workstation for each employee, where he or she can work with ease and comfort. Also, the lighting and air-conditioning facilities should be correctly fitted to cover all sides evenly. There should be enough air circulation through windows, which of course, should be beautifully draped with curtains or blinds. Only if the surroundings are comfortable will a persons mind think freely and creatively.

 For an office, starting from the entry point to the cafeteria lounge, interior-decorating ideas must be chosen carefully. Safety is also important in big offices, since a large number of employees work there. So, measures like emergency exits, automatic water sprays in case of fire accidents; fire extinguishers and alarms should be adopted in the designing stage of the building itself.

 You can decorate the reception or guest room with beautiful bouquets, which will be refreshing to look at, and spread their freshness all around.

 In big factories, office interior decorating ideas can be followed to reduce manual labor. You can opt for low-cost furnishings and furniture.

 While framing the structure or design of your office, you can be immensely rewarded in terms of satisfaction and full value for your money, if you seek a professionals help. He will be able to suggest what you need to include and what to avoid.

Noren Door Curtains

A Noren, a Japanese door curtain, is great if you want to add a ZEN accent to your home's interior. Getting one can also be a good idea if you are a Feng Shui fan. According to the ancient rules, the use of door curtains can be a simple way to block harmful energy. It can also be a way out of difficult Feng Shui situations, especially when remodeling is out of question.

 There are a variety of unique Japanese door curtain designs available on the market. You need to choose a proper design in order to be able to achieve a certain Feng Shui effect. All sorts of prosperity designs are a popular option among the western people. A popular symbol that appears on a lot of Noren curtains is the Wealth Cat. The Beckoning Cat, as it is often called, is believed to bring good luck to the owners of the property as well as attract customers into a shop. The Wealth Cat symbol comes from Tokyos Gotokuji temple, where a shrine dedicated to it was built centuries ago.

 There is an old legend about a priest from this temple and his cat that had the ability to bring good fortune to his owner and the temple. As a feudal lord named Naotaka was passing by the temple, the cat started beckoning him inside. The lord and his people decided to stop there and rest. When a thunderstorm broke, the lord was safe in the temple. In order to express his appreciation, Naotaka started paying tribute to the temple. Today, a picture of the cat with a paw raised in the air can be found in many places and on countless products including Noren door curtains.

 Other traditional designs that can often be found on the Japanese Noren include Koi fish, waves, waterfalls, bamboo or dragons. If you are willing to incorporate Noren door curtains into your home's interior, it would be good to familiarize yourself with the Feng Shui principles. This will allow you to achieve the desired effect in both the visual and spiritual terms.