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.

Luxury Carpet

Luxury carpet is for those that want to invest in a floor covering that enhances the interior of a home. With the popularity of hard surface flooring such as tile and hardwood flooring, luxury carpet often gets overlooked. However, as a home owner or decorator, you can do so much more with luxury carpet than with other types of flooring. It is much easier to draw out colors and textures with luxury carpet because of the extensive offerings available. Colors in a room can be accented easily with the choices or patterned, printed, or multi-toned luxury carpet. Also, rooms don't have to have a flat texture. Texture of the walls, ceiling, windows and furniture can be supplemented by luxury carpet styles like, high low, cut loop, patterned and sculpted. Luxury carpeting is not a specific style. The term luxury, when mentioned with carpet, implies longer lasting, softer yarns, better stain resistance and thicker constructions. There are 4 primary types of luxury carpets to consider when you are designing the perfect room setting.

 Plush carpets are commonly thought of as one of the primary luxury carpeting choices. Plush carpet can be textured, velvet (saxony), or trackless. The common theme with plush luxury carpets is the height of each yarn is the same. This creates a uniform appeal to the carpeting. The thick, dense velvet plush versions can imply a very formal, rich feeling in a room's design. Textured plush luxury carpets can have what appear to be highlights due to the way the yarn is slightly crimped and twisted. Although the colors of the yarn are the same, the highlights can appear to brighten a room somewhat.

 Shag and frieze luxury carpet are a very hot trend. The deep, thick feel of a shag floor is wonderful to the feet and gives a warm, comforting feeling to a dcor. The shag's cousin, frieze carpeting, is similar that it gives a casual look and feel to a home's aura. Shag carpeting tends to have big, bulky yarn whereas, frieze has tightly crimped and high twist amounts in the luxury carpets yarn system. Both of these types can give a wonderful warm feeling and add slight texture to the room due to their design.

 Patterned luxury carpet had faded out for a while as a common option for floor covering. However, it is roaring back and poised to be the next big hit. Manufacturers are now offering more styles than ever in patterned luxury carpets. The amazing thing with the newer patterned carpet styles is that both formal, traditional as well as contemporary designs are being manufactured. Coupled with bold, new colors, patterned carpet is now a designers dream. The high low effect that patterned luxury carpet has gives amazing texture appeal to rooms.

 Berber carpeting is still very popular due to the ability to blend several contrasting colors into the large loops. The manufacturing of berber luxury carpet lends itself well to adding different colors of yarn into the loops themselves. By having a base color, usually an earthtone shade, the other contrasting colors call pull other color schemes in the room out like no other form of luxury carpeting. When considering berbers, stay with 100% nylon yarn or wool yarn. These yarns will last much longer than other blended yarn types used in standard berber carpeting.

Elements Of Interior Design

Whether you are working with existing furnishings and fabrics or starting from scratch with an empty room, you should always use the elements and principles of design as a guide in choosing everything. The elements are your tools or raw materials, much like paints are the basics to a painter. The elements of design include space, line, form, color, and texture. The principles of design relate to how you use these elements and are balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion and scale, and harmony and unity.

 Element #1: Space
 Space defines the boundaries and sets the limits on the functional and decorative things you can do. Usually you will not determine the space; instead, you will be faced with the challenge of using the existing space effectively.

 Element #2: Line
 The lines in a room are second only to color in importance when it comes to setting the overall mood or feeling of a room. The lines of window fashions should support the dominant line of the room. In most situations, the dominant line is straight (vertical, horizontal or diagonal) rather than curved. Your choice of emphasizing the direction of lines will determine the mood you want to create.
 Vertical lines add height and dignity, creating a more formal atmosphere. Vertical lines also balance the horizontal lines found in most furniture.
 Horizontal lines tend to create a restful, informal feeling. They work well in casual rooms or as relief to the strong verticals of formal rooms.
 Diagonal lines attract attention and lead the eye. They can be disturbing unless supported by verticals or opposing diagonals.
 Curved lines add a softening effect and keep the room from becoming too stiff. Use curved lines with some restraint to keep the room from becoming too soft and overly feminine.

 Element #3: Form
 Lines that join together produce the form, or shape, of an object, which in turn impacts the overall feeling of a room. Straight lines create rectangles, square and triangles. Curved lines form circles and ovals. The rectangle is the most popular form and is often the dominant shape in a room. Triangles provide stability and curved shapes soften the contours of objects.

 Element #4: Color
 More than any other element, color can make a room beautiful. Color can set the mood. It can make a room warmer or cooler, larger or smaller. It can hide unsightly features or call attention to the center of interest. Even with the simplest furnishings, the proper use of color can transform a room.

 Element #5: Texture
 Texture is playing an increasingly important role in home decorating. Visual texture is a materials apparent smoothness or roughness. To maintain and enhance a casual feeling, use fabrics that are more heavily textured, nubby or rough visual texture. Smooth, shiny surfaces such as silk, moir, chintz and silk-like looks support a more formal feeling in a room. Using several levels of complementary textures adds variety and maintains interest. However, it is a good idea to avoid dramatic contrasts in texture.

Christmas Door Decorations

Festival of joy and excitement is here again. Delight and fun are knocking at your door. Christmas is fast approaching and it is the time to indulge in the spirit of the Christmas season. It is the time to welcome everyone warmly in your home. This is the time to party, to celebrate and to have lots of fun. But the celebrations of Christmas are incomplete without the decorations of Christmas. You decorate your home and Christmas tree wonderfully with items of Christmas decor. Decorating the door of your house is a great idea to add to the celebrations and brightness of Christmas. If you are interested in Christmas Door Decorations but do not now, how to do it, then the following account will help you.

 A midsized wreath, adorned with colorful lights, a sprig of mistletoe, dry fruits and a red satin ribbon to give the final touch. Hang this Christmas wreath at the top and center of your front door for heartily welcome to your guests.

 You can also place two well-decorated Christmas trees on either sides of your door. This will make your guests brim with the festive fervor.

 You can also make a door hanger with glue, crayons, sequins, card stock, marker and glitter. According to the size of your doorknob, cut the card stock. Draw a cute Christmas character on the stock, color and decorate it by gluing on sequins and glitter and write a Christmas message on it.

 You can choose from a wide variety of striking door hangers available in the market during this season. Door hangers having picture of Santa Claus, reindeer and snowman are very cute decorative pieces.

 You can also draw and color a Nativity Scene, snowman, Santa Claus and reindeer on a chart paper and paste it on your front door.

 Draw a snowman on a white cardboard and cut it. Color the cutout beautifully. After the color dries, fix a real scarf and hat on the board with craft glue. Stick a satin ribbon on the board and then hang it on your front door.

 You can also embellish the front door with non-blinking Christmas lights. Do up the doorframe with a long string of Christmas lights. You can also decorate the border with garlands.

 By decorating only the door, your Christmas door decoration is not completed. It is also important to decorate the premises. Beautify the path leading up to the front door. This is a nice idea to welcome your guests.

 Generally people decorate the interiors of their home on Christmas. Exteriors are usually ignored. It is important to adorn the exteriors as the interiors.

 So, on this Christmas, exclusively decorate your door along with the decorations inside your home. Christmas door decorations will reflect your excitement for the festival and give a warm and festive welcome to your guests.