Interior Design For Couples

Interior design for couples is one of the hottest, most popular types of design these days. In the past, men have not taken the initiative to actually be involved in the interior design of their homes, often resulting in very female orientated, elegant designs that are beautiful although not exactly appealing to the Saturday afternoon football crew. This type of design is often beautiful and can be ideal in certain situations. Although, more and more men today are interested in helping to decide what their home looks like on the inside!

Beware! Interior design for couples can put you (the designer) into a bit of a hot seat in the battle of the sexes. Here are a few tips on how to avoid disaster. First of all, always communicate with and listen to what both parties involved envision as being their dream space. Many times one party or the other will be much more dominate in the planning and conversations then the other. Take note of this and pay special attention to the quiet party by asking the questions and making sure to offer them the opportunity to express themselves. In this aspect of interior design for couples, you are the mediator. Take both sides into careful consideration before doing any planning.

During planning stages, again, be sure to include both parties in the process and if one person is noticeably quiet during the conversation, dont be shy to point things out that might be important to them. This way, you tend to buffer any arguments or resentment that may arise from your interjection of a neutral opinion or thoughts. If there are any problems, remind them both that your vision is to create a space that is pleasant and acceptable to both of them and that interior design for couples can be unpleasant but it is very easy to work within both persons boundaries in order to ensure that everyone is happy with the outcome.

If you see certain situations that you, as a designer can find ways to compromise in order to fit things into both peoples expectations this is key. Also, stress to both parties involved that a little give and a little take is vital when discussing and planning interior design for couples and that while they wont always reach the same conclusion, if they both make some trade offs it will create an environment they are both comfortable in.

If all else fails, encourage both people when making references to certain aspects of one anothers design ideas that they are good ideas that can be compatible with the others thoughts. Whenever dealing with interior design for couples, a certain he says, she says attitude is likely to arise at some point and it is your job as the designer to see that things work out smoothly and in the best interest of both people.

Color and furniture are normally the main items that are disagreed upon in interior design for couples. Suggest to the female counterpart that the leather sofa her husband is interested in can be a very classic and comfortable edition to any living space. Explain to her husband that the peach color she is looking for can actually be considered a light beige. You would be surprised what miracles a little bit of convincing can do when carried out in the right manner.

If neither party is willing to compromise, I have seen for instances when the designer actually had both of the couple write down their design needs/wants and do a point by point comparison/bargaining session that allowed each person an equal amount of yes and nos. Sound ridiculously childish? Be prepared!

Rosemary Leake is an Independent Consultant with Southern Living at Home. Inspired by Southern Living magazine, our exclusive home dcor line brings warmth and style to every room of your home! Visit Rosemary's Interior Design website for more articles and resources - http://www.interiordesignprofits.com. Also get your FREE Mini-Report: "A Complete Guide To Interior Design."

Ideas For Interior Design

Ideas for interior design are a dime a dozen these days. In fact, you can likely watch one hour of television dedicated to the subject and come away with enough information to design an entire home. The problem with the tv-to life application of ideas for interior design is that, to begin with, they are difficult to document. Unless you sit beside or in front of the tv, scribbling madly onto a piece of paper, it is tough to actually hang on to all of the ideas you might get from the show. Also, success with any interior design project is planning, planning, planning. Duplicating or copying a design from television into your home might involve some extra steps or planning that was not included in the thirty-minute or hour-long segment of the show. It is this reason that one should sit down and actually go through an entire dry run of a design before it is actually executed. This way, there is a better chance that you will figure out and take necessary preventative measures to ensure a problem free application.

Television is not the only resource for information and ideas for interior design. Books are a great helper to designers of any background or experience levels. The content found in books is often much more thought-out and explanative material then that of a tv show. This is so because many books entail much more basic material and information then a normal television show can include in a short segment of time. Also, books are commonly co-authored on such subjects and are generally edited before released in any form to consumers so the content has often times been written and/or edited by at least two separate parties. This is the case most often times, but there are always exceptions to the rules.

If a book seems too labor intensive or time consuming, you might consider magazine articles as a source for ideas for interior design. In magazines, you have the additional benefit of visual representations of design concepts that you can actually hold onto for an extended period of time. Many interior design professionals take advantage of this benefit by collecting large quantities of these articles or pictures and placing them into a format that is easily accessible to them. This is a tremendous resource for finding a particular look or feel that a client or person might not be able to describe in actual industry terms.

The terminology used by designers is fairly self-describing although people that are not exposed to the jargon might not understand certain concepts or phrases used in defining ideas for interior design. For example, most people are generally aware of the terms traditional or modern design although they might have trouble explaining ones such as Minimalist or Americana. There is no reason to feel inadequate if these phrases are unfamiliar to you, just understand that the learning process takes time and is exactly as described, a process.

If you are comfortable with your own level of creativity, browse as many magazines as possible to put together a unique style or design code of your own and work within those guidelines and ideas for interior design applications. If you are a little less comfortable with your own sense of style and find it easier to point to a traditional design category, gather all the information possible related to that category and stick to the general guidelines presented in the information you have assembled.

The best way to assimilate information offering you ideas for interior design is to take a little information from each of the above suggested sources and compile it into a creative archive of sorts that you can access again at a later time in order to compare and contrast with your own ideas and vision.

Rosemary Leake is an Independent Consultant with Southern Living at Home. Inspired by Southern Living magazine, our exclusive home dcor line brings warmth and style to every room of your home! Visit Rosemary's Interior Design website for more articles and resources - http://www.interiordesignprofits.com. Also get your FREE Mini-Report: "A Complete Guide To Interior Design."

Interior Design For Bargain Hunters

Interior design for bargain hunters is the new fashionable item in the arena of interior design. Everyone is interested these days in making their money stretch as far as it possibly can. There are many, many possible ways to achieve this. The most important determining factor in your success is the amount of patience and time you are willing to invest in order to find and purchase true items of value and not frivolous purchases which are of significantly less value that you will regret later.

The places you will find most traditional bargain hunters looking for pieces related to interior design are places such as second hand furniture stores, seconds depots, and discount stores. If you shop around in these stores, you are likely to run across great purchases for interior design for bargain hunters. These purchases might include items such as furniture, linens, accessories, and the like. You can even occasionally find bargains on household electronics such as wide screen televisions and stereo systems. Be sure when buying items such as these that they are in useable condition and the fact that they are broken is not the reason they are for sale so cheap.

Another potential place to purchase items for interior design for bargain hunters would be homemade sales such as yard sales, flea markets, auctions, and estate sales. These places are no longer areas where you will find the occasional bargain hunter and enormous amounts of obsolete, valuable items that no one will find but you. Rather, these places have been commercialized as being places to find great deals and even the most common shopper has his or her eyes open for that dream deal. This being said, these places are still great resources for the bargain hunter who is looking to buy well-conditioned, useable items for a better cost then one would find in a department store.

An aspect of interior design for bargain hunters that many people do not ever even consider is the labor involved with creating the designs. This can include services such as painting, moving, carpet cleaning, ect. Labor prices are the end of interior design that often are the most costly (with the exception of furniture and flooring). Bargain hunting for labor is a bit different then bargain hunting for actual physical items. You might think that perhaps you can afford to hire someone for less actual dollars an hour that possess perhaps less skill then another more expensive worker. This is a tricky aspect of interior design for bargain hunters.

Keep in mind that many times workers who have more experience or are better skilled at a certain task will complete the work at a faster pace then the unskilled worker, thus actually evening out the hourly price, and also there is not as much of a possibility of costly mistakes. So, honestly, depending on the skill level of the worker involved, you might be better off with the more expensive yet more efficient laborer.

Whatever the market or product you are searching for, be a smart, price-savvy comparison shopper and exercise control over spending amounts. Establishing pre-set spending amounts is a form of self-discipline and should be exercised throughout the interior design process. Bargain hunting for interior design can be as simple as taking this principle to heart and applying it to all of your decorating activities.

Finally, hard work and attention to detail can enormously decrease project costs so if you have the time and the understanding to see an aspect of the designing through yourself, this alone can turn a large budgeted project into a small one. After all, that elbow grease is worth a little something!

Rosemary Leake is an Independent Consultant with Southern Living at Home. Inspired by Southern Living magazine, our exclusive home dcor line brings warmth and style to every room of your home! Visit Rosemary's Interior Design website for more articles and resources - http://www.interiordesignprofits.com. Also get your FREE Mini-Report: "A Complete Guide To Interior Design."

A Fun and Easy Valentine's Craft, ages 2-5Michelle Gonzalez

Make a special Valentine with your child.
My daughter and I had SO much fun putting this together, that I thought I'd share it with you. Make an adorable Valentine's card for friends and relatives in minutes.

Materials-

Construction Paper
Glue Stick
Left over wrapping paper or other "pretty" paper (optional)

Parent, trace a large heart onto one side of a piece of construction paper. Use any color you like, such as white, pink or red.

Parent, cut out the heart leaving about a quarter inch all the way around. It should look like a semi heart shaped "blob" when you're done.

Parent, cut different colors of construction paper and/or other paper (I used left over wrapping paper) into various shapes. I found it easiest to cut the paper into a long rectangular strip, then cut the strip into small triangles. This was quick and easy, but you can cut the paper into any shapes, or even use a punch out heart from a craft store.

Mix the pieces up in a little bowl so many different colors are present.

The fun part:

Place the heart shaped blob on a piece of newspaper, with the traced heart facing down. Gently go over it with the glue stick. Instruct your child to choose paper from the bowl and place it on the heart. My three year old loved making her own designs and deciding where each color went. Let them overlap the papers and go over the edges as much as they want to, as it adds dimension to the project when it's done.

Once the paper is covered with pretty paper shapes, simply let it dry and cut the heart out. You have a very unique card! You can write a message on the empty side of the heart, or (as I did), print a short note and picture of your child. Don't forget to add the date, and I guarantee that grandparents will pull this out and enjoy it for many years to come.

About the Author

Michelle Gonzalez is the editor of both www.youthweekly.com and www.inspiredparent.com . A mother of three, she enjoys writing articles as well as poems and stories in her spare time. Her passions around childrens literacy and good parenting led her to create her two successful ezines.

How To Achieve Indirect Lighting In Interior Design

For our planet the sun is a major lighting source. The light which we receive on earth varies in intensity and quantity depending upon the geographical location on earth.

For normal human activities inside the building what we require is indirect light. There is a major difference between direct and indirect light. Direct light from the sun produces light in high quantities but also generates a lot of heat, which may not be required or at sometimes can be uncomfortable.

Indirect lighting produces a good quality diffused light by eliminating the heat that's being produced from sunlight. Interior designers always look for various ways that will increase the chances of achieving good quality sunlight into a room.

The basic principle behind indirect lighting is easy. Obstruct the direct sunlight on a surface that will absorb the heat and throw our or disperse the light alone uniformly inside the room.

This requires a good study of various light entry points of a given room and selecting surfaces that will receive direct sunlight. Then applying finishes to these materials that will absorb the heat but at the same time reflect a lot of light to the interiors.

There is a major challenge in doing this.

Let's say that I select a bedroom to be treated for indirect lighting. I select a plane wall opposite or adjacent to the window opening that will receive direct sunlight. If I paint the wall with a bright color, it will definitely reflect the light in the entire room, but at the same time create a "glare" that can be quite uncomfortable for the users.

So just creating reflecting surfaces is not the solution. The surfaces that will reflect the direct light and at the same time won't produce a glare are recommended here.

This can be easily achieved using artificial lighting. The greatest advantage of artificial lighting is that you can select the number of light sources in the first place. Then light sources can be very creatively be hidden using shaders and other design elements, so that the light spots can be directed towards reflective surfaces.

A very common use of this technique is, project the light spots on a bright reflective ceiling and the ceiling will uniformly disperse the light in the rest of the room. Projecting the light on ceiling will eliminate the problem of causing glare, since the ceiling is always above the normal eye level.

Using a centralized light source on the ceiling and throwing the light on adjacent walls is also a good solution. This will also save a lot of wiring lengths, cutting your cost in the fixing up of the total electrical system.

A careful choice of reflective surfaces inside a room can greatly enhance the light qualities in a room. In interiors there are hundreds of objects that receive light. Objects such as walls, furniture ceiling, floor will have a tendency to reflect light away from them. Objects like windowpanes, glass panels in the furniture will absorb or will allow the light to pass away the light thought them b reducing the heat and intensity of light.

That's why careful selection of materials during design stage can cause a good lighting solution. Also the lighting solution will differ from room to room depending upon which direction the room faces outwards. For this the sun path must be taken into consideration. By careful study of the sun path it will be easy to decide the color schemes and finishes for satisfactory result in indirect lighting.

I hope this article was helpful to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

About the Author: Shrinivas Vaidya discusses some excellent tips on home renovation at his website http://www.bedroom-design-and-decorating-ideas.com .You will also find some great concept level thinking on bedrooms and decorating ideas.

How to achieve indirect lighting in interior design.

For our planet the sun is a major lighting source. The light which we receive on earth varies in intensity and quantity depending upon the geographical location on earth.

For normal human activities inside the building what we require is indirect light. There is a major difference between direct and indirect light. Direct light from the sun produces light in high quantities but also generates a lot of heat, which may not be required or at sometimes can be uncomfortable.

Indirect lighting produces a good quality diffused light by eliminating the heat that's being produced from sunlight. Interior designers always look for various ways that will increase the chances of achieving good quality sunlight into a room.

the basic principle behind indirect lighting is easy. Obstruct the direct sunlight on a surface that will absorb the heat and throw our or disperse the light alone uniformly inside the room.

This requires a good study of various light entry points of a given room and selecting surfaces that will receive direct sunlight. Then applying finishes to these materials that will absorb the heat but at the same time reflect a lot of light to the interiors.

There is a major challenge in doing this.

Let's say that I select a bedroom to be treated for indirect lighting. I select a plane wall opposite or adjacent to the window opening that will receive direct sunlight. If I paint the wall with a bright color, it will definitely reflect the light in the entire room, but at the same time create a "glare" that can be quite uncomfortable for the users.

So just creating reflecting surfaces is not the solution. The surfaces that will reflect the direct light and at the same time won't produce a glare are recommended here.

This can be easily achieved using artificial lighting. The greatest advantage of artificial lighting is that you can select the number of light sources in the first place. Then light sources can be very creatively be hidden using shaders and other design elements, so that the light spots can be directed towards reflective surfaces.

A very common use of this technique is, project the light spots on a bright reflective ceiling and the ceiling will uniformly disperse the light in the rest of the room. Projecting the light on ceiling will eliminate the problem of causing glare, since the ceiling is always above the normal eye level.

Using a centralized light source on the ceiling and throwing the light on adjacent walls is also a good solution. This will also save a lot of wiring lengths, cutting your cost in the fixing up of the total electrical system.

A careful choice of reflective surfaces inside a room can greatly enhance the light qualities in a room. In interiors there are hundreds of objects that receive light. Objects such as walls, furniture ceiling, floor will have a tendency to reflect light away from them. Objects like windowpanes, glass panels in the furniture will absorb or will allow the light to pass away the light thought them b reducing the heat and intensity of light.

That's why careful selection of materials during design stage can cause a good lighting solution. Also the lighting solution will differ from room to room depending upon which direction the room faces outwards. For this the sun path must be taken into consideration. By careful study of the sun path it will be easy to decide the color schemes and finishes for satisfactory result in indirect lighting.

I hope this article was helpful to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya discusses some excellent tips on home renovation at his website .You will also find some great concept level thinking on bedrooms and decorating ideas.

An Overview Of Commonly Used Materials In Interior Design

Every interior space has some unique qualities attached to it. If you have visited a natural outdoor space like a forest, you will notice thousands of varieties of "textures" in the form of wooden barks, leaves, ground surfaces, stones, water etc...

All these natural elements create a unique visual effect and all visual effects have a corresponding effect on human mind. That's why when used carefully textures can create wonders in interior design.

The most commonly used materials in interior design and decoration are wood for furniture, cloth for linen, rubber/leather for flooring or upholstery, paper as wallpapers, plastic for accessories like lampshades and other decorative items, steel for furniture.

Let's take a closer look at these materials and their textural qualities.

1) Wood....

Most commonly used for furniture, door frames, shutters. The main reason behind this is it is easy to work with wood. The art of carpentry is an age old profession. Because of the nature of wood like softness and the same time the amount of strength it can withstand, makes it a popular choice amongst furniture designers.

A fully polished wood surface gives a very rich finish and projects user friendliness. Also wood comes in many varieties and colors, each having its own pros and cons.

2) Cloth....

A very natural choice for linen. Since a cloth finish is a smooth one it is most suitable in a bedroom where comfort is a very vital factor. The biggest advantage of various types of cloth is that most types are washable so maintenance is easy.

Cloth has one more important quality that it can be "painted" for expressing detailed decorative patterns, that can greatly add to the beauty of the space.

It is also possible to do "embroidery" on cloth, if painting is not a good choice or budget doesn't allow. Depending upon the weave of the cloth strands the thickness, transparency, etc. can be easily achieved. This makes the cloth most suitable for various kinds of uses such as linen, curtains, bed sheets, etc...

3) Rubber/Leather....

Rubber is used in the form of PVC flooring, is easily available and most importantly is wash proof and durable. It can be printed upon using design patterns of any style, rich with colors. Comes in the form of large sheets or even individual tiles.

Unlike tiled flooring the PVC flooring is much less affected by atmospheric changes. Other types of tiled floorings or even wooden flooring can have a direct effect on the surface because of the expansion and contraction of the flooring material. A PVC flooring is glued to the tiled flooring I hope you have benefited from these words.

4) Plastic....

There are infinite uses of this great material. The only disadvantage environmentalist have pointed out that it is not bio-degradable.

Because of its artificial nature it can be "manufactured" in various. colors, shapes, sizes, strength. The biggest advantage of plastic is it is waterproof and electrical shockproof. That's why mainly used for electrical accessories. It is lightweight as compared to other material types. Entire furniture pieces such as chairs, tables can be easily molded out as a seamless model in plastic.

5) Steel/Iron....

Steel is mostly used in interior design where the main purpose is to give support and carry weight to the floor. That's why main use of steel is done to create the structural frame that carries the weight of the people who are going to use the furniture piece.

A very common type of steel is the "Stainless Steel". Because of its shining nature, it very quickly gives a rich quality to the object being used on and enhances the overall quality of the interior space.

Furniture objects that have been designed with a combination of wood and steel look much balanced from aesthetic point of view. But doing so requires a careful study of the joiner details, especially where wood and steel joint together.

The following discussion was only a brief introduction of the types of material being used in interior design industry. Every day more and more good quality and cheaper material types are being presented in the market. I hope this article was informative to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://Bedroom-Design-And-Decorating-Ideas.com .Here you will find some great concept level design tips for bedroom sets.Visit today.