ArtaBerryHome Improvement Blog..

You have bought your new home, you have stripped out the old dated decoration plan of the previous owner, you have had new windows fitted and a new damp proof course, you have painted the walls, fitted cupboards in the kitchen, bought new carpets and put up some vintage wallpaper in the living room… Now what’s next? The furniture of course!

The furniture you add to a room can be the finishing touch to transform it into the designer home of your dreams. There are a few key rooms in the home to think about when looking to buy new furniture, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. The furniture for the kitchen is important but often practicality is the key concern so I am going to focus on the living and dining rooms.

The Living Room; It is surely a favorite room in the home, the room you go to relax and unwind. So your furniture decisions should reflect this… think about large leather sofas to sink into, luxurious soft furnishings and thick curtains. If like me you like to unwind with a strong coffee and dark chocolate in the evening you might want to think about a solid pine coffee table, these look great in a natural colour or in white. The fireplace is often the key feature of any living room, and I like to try and keep the original fireplace surround when possible, if this has already been removed though you can take the opportunity to be bold and look at some modern examples of fireplace surrounds.

The Dining Room; This is a room of elegance, a place to enjoy fine food, expensive wine and the company of friends when hosting dinner parties. This room is all about the dining table, it will be the focal point of the room and the choice of table and the way you decorate it will be crucial. My personal choice is a glass dining table but you can get some beautiful oak tables from the finest craftsmen. Keep an eye out for dining table and 6 chairs sets which you can buy online and get some great furniture at even better prices! Of course there are other rooms in your home such as bedrooms and maybe even a study room, so remember not to use your entire budget on three rooms!

Among different types of print designs and fabrics, choosing the best curtains is not always easy if you want to make something unique & elegant in the interior of your house.  it is  relatively a heavy investment if your house is big,  Ask yourself a questions about the usefulness of the curtains in the room.  always check the direction of sun then choose the type of cloth that best serve the purpose.  are they just decorative precisely, do they protect you from the outside, light? Once your needs are identified, take your measurements and go store to choose rods and curtains.

Choose the rod depending on the width and type of tissue for your curtains.  for instance! there are many types of rods such as, the Flat rods to fix the walls, this is  ideal for light curtains or draperies, one the other hand the round rods made up of Wood, plastic or metal is mostly useful for rooms where the curtains are heavier.

Now coming toward the curtain designs,  some  curtains were hemmed in their own end or a single node in which we move the rod inside. these finishes are not always very practical if you need to open and close the curtains regularly, also ideal if you want a decorative effect.  in grommet finish, the curtains are torn at their end to get a round bead. The opening of the curtains is simplified and they are quite decorative & appealing. There are actually many techniques of finishes, including those using a braid.

Measure the width of your window (including frames): add 30-50 cm for the length of the rod. To find the width of curtains, allow a width equivalent to two to three times that of the rod, depending on the effect desired pleated (depending on the fabric used as so. To measure the height finally, remember that the rod is raised 10-15 cm above the window. Know then that, generally, it leaves a space of an inch between the curtains and the floor. But the effect of a curtain falling on the ground can be so beautiful (it increases the feeling of headroom). Allow then 10-15 cm tall curtains and more. Finally, keep in mind that some fabrics can shrink when washed. When in doubt, always leave more tissue than necessary in the hem for a touch up possible.

Now the question is what  fabric best suits your requirements?  And what is the best cloth for liner? Select the fabric not only meet the need to hide the light of sun but also suits the desired decorative effect you aimed to make at your house. for better results doubt, ask for a sample in curtains shop and put it on the furniture in your room for a better analysis. If you want to put a liner in your curtains, opt for shades or close the curtains chosen for a beige uniform, mat.

Majority of the real estate agents got the opinion that remodeling the kitchen and bathroom increase the value of the house. I agreed with them up to some extent. So if you are aiming to sell your house in near future. You needed to give special attention to specific areas for cleaning & renovation, this will ultimately increases the value of your house & you can bravely quote a good price to home buyers.

One area that is considered most important & use frequently by the occupants in the house is surely the kitchen. Your ideas of renovations should start from here. Starting from little things in given budget, try to improve the quality and overall appearance of the kitchen. If you have good budget for renovation, I suggest that you should go for installing new tiles over the walls & floor. Buy new appliances & replace every old & rusty looking material from the kitchen. This seems quite costly but believes me this will give you a good return.

You can consider making a playroom for kids or adults with a corner allocated for bar from the store (if any) in your house. You can get the services of professional contractor to complete the remodeling job you aimed to do. They better assist in the planning and process of your home renovation as they have greater experience to build a better home. Try to fix & clean every part of your house, including hvac cleaning. the more you work the more is will be the profit while you are out to sell your home, so focus on many small things that add value overall.

Purchase some new deco accessories & replace the old sofa with the new one at your drawings room; it will help in making an elegant appearance of your home. When it comes to your house decoration I suggest, you should keep it simple and classic, as each person has their own taste. However! At last I would like to advise that don’t spend more money if the area where you live didn’t have much potential for home buyers.

Are you looking for some quick but effective beautification of your house? whether it is changing the colors of the walls or just a little interior decoration, one of the common mistake people do is to copy others work without knowing the unique attributes associated with the place, keep in mind, it is not necessarily possible that the decoration or renovation plan of one place might works at any other place with different surroundings an architectural design. Everyone wants to make some necessary changes at their house after a couple of years. Some people hire a specialist to implement a special renovation plan while some people help themselves out to work for the house remodeling.

But before you get started properly, some valuable rules are observed, especially when you need to make something exclusive with your walls. Here is a few basic tips  to get you the first steps for the beautification of your home. Before wallpapering, you should be aware of how many layers of wallpaper already adorn the wall. If there was already  two or more layers, it means more work for you, unfortunately. Always remember the old wallpaper must be removed first. This is not necessarily an entertaining affair, but there are tools and accessories to facilitate this process considerably. The Nigel wallpaper is a small hand roller with needles occupied, which is available in any hardware store. With it, you make many small holes in the wallpaper. Then there are the so-called Wallpaper removers by which you possibly can also use water with detergent. The former is more effective. If this is spread on the wall with the wallpaper Nigel prepared, then the wallpaper solves almost off by itself. Of course it is also filler, because there are always corners that just do not want to go from the wall. The walls are again exposed, and then you should prime the walls first, according to an expert. A primer costs, although a bit of time and money, but forms a solid basis and protect against unpleasant surprises. Deep ground water on base creates a wonderful primer for new wallpaper.

Before applying a brand new layer of wallpaper, you should consider the following things: Wallpaper your order, Always wallpaper from the window, start from the corners. It is important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, for wallpapers have different soaking time. In particular, the edges of the wallpaper you should generously apply paste, otherwise it will not stick properly and the wallpaper bends high which makes an ugly and annoying. For a nice conclusion, press the wallpaper down in the corner and then tear the excess wallpaper carefully. Also for this operation, it is important that the paper is pasted sufficient at the area above the baseboard and the ceiling with an extra wallpaper paste. Air bubbles under the wallpaper can be well seen, check if any! If yes then remove it gently.

Most importantly! Before beginning in wallpaper, you should remove the covers on electrical outlets and light switches, if you are not particularly practiced in the wall paper, you should avoid patterned wallpaper. This is strictly for experienced professionals.

With the arrival of heating & cooling equipments, the air conditioners, cooling plants, heaters & state of the art home automation solutions. where in one hand we are able to control the temperature of the house according to our requirements to make your living more comfortable, but one the other hand we have to face some extra burden when it came to energy costs. in modern living it is certainly impossible to ignore the importance of cooling & heating system in the house. so here i am to share some tips that makes you able to save a little bit of your heating & cooling bills.

The first thing is learn about the heating & cooling equipments, all you need to do is to make sure all the family members are education enough to use the cooling & heating machines. for saving your bills i always suggest to use the heaters & air conditioners in extreme weather conditions only. keep the thermostat at medium level & check the owners manual for precautionary maintenance. things like cleaning the cooling system every year are very important if you want to save your electricity bill.

Just make an awareness among all the occupants of the house that wasting energy is very bad practice. always remember to switch off all the cooling & heating systems associated with your house while you & your family is planning to stay outside your house for some outdoor tour. Why waste energy heating and cooling if it’s not occupied. during daytime open all the windows & try to utilize maximum daylight, this is also good to save electricity bill. During winters the use of underfloor heating is very beneficial when it came to comfort while on the other hand it also cuts your electric heater expanses. similarly to curb the electricity bill in summers, the use of cooling tiles on roof top is advisable at single story buildings. in short make a check on everything that is run by electricity or gas, & you can easily save your money.

When it came to woman’s bedroom, dressing table is the mandatory item in furniture. during the past couple of years, i did many projects of renovating girls bedroom, & at every project i feel the need to came up with something unique & elegant in the furniture. seriously from the past experiences i found that it is hard to understand the taste of women. specially the dressing furniture is the item which is very prominent in the bedroom, so it must look decent with the theme of the room. dressing tables are available at various designs, from contemporary to classic, conventional to Victorian & colonial designs. each reflects different taste & style. apart from that, i always suggest custom design dressing tables for your bedroom, tell the furniture vendor your own ideas & let them make one for you. it will look more elegant then the one that you bought directly from the furniture showroom.

I believe each living space is unique & the occupants have separate requirements, the same philosophy you can apply while designing the dressing table. check the space available with you where you want to place the dressing table. yes! needles to say that the materiel (Wood or metal) is of high quality, then select the design which best suits your needs as well as looks beautiful in your bedroom, check the above picture, the design is simple but it looks very attractive, this can be both serves as dressing table & writing table, isn’t it awesome?

A modern dressing table design.

Conventional dressing table design.

As well all know sofa is the center of attraction in furniture when we are going to renovate the guest room, drawing room or any living space that is reserved for ordinary & special guests. So today I want to educate my readers about how to select genuine & quality sofa in a given budget. Note that there are many varieties of sofas available in the market & every vendor claims that they don’t compromise on the quality of the raw material, which they used in making furniture. but I don’t agree with most of them as I have witnessed some serious drawbacks even in most expensive brands, this happen to me many times at the cases when my clients insists me to buy only from the expensive furniture brands in Italy & east London. So after those experiences I concluded that it is not a wise decision to go only for famous brands when you’re going to buy furniture for your home.

These days the trends of lather sofa are at its peak, I believe it’s a good option if we compare it some conventional fabric sofas. But you need to know the quality of original product before buying one. keep in mind that there is a lot of difference in vinyl & leather furniture. Many vendors will claims vinyl as a pure leather so be cafe about it. Remember! a genuine leather posses a relatively rough surface, it is breathable and is not cold. When you sit on it adjusts to your body temperature. That’s the best quality of genuine lather that it is warmer in winter & cooler in the summer.

One the other hand, One of the biggest impacts you can make on your home improvement is to add interior shutters as your designer window coverings. Now talking about the pro & cons of lather sofa, I would say that it is good for places where of the age more then 17 are living. Its cleaning is easy as compare to fabric, one the other hand it’s not a great choice for houses where the kids & pets rules

One of the common concerns for home decorators & textile designers is to come up with unique & elegant designs each year. This is very creative & challenging task as everyone seeks to give their house a special look, especially the interior of their house. Fortunately the advancements in interior designing allow every one to maintain & decorate their house with best decorating standards, in modern living, When it came’s to window decoration. Fancy curtains are the first item that came into our minds. So this post is all about the latest trends in curtains & state of the art blinds for the interior of your house.

The color & design of curtain depends upon the place where you want to use it. A curtain which is used in bedroom is different from that of drawing room & children’s room. However the main factor that we must have to make sure before buying is, easy to maintain & handle. Note that there are many varieties of curtains in the market, always stress for the one which is made from best quality fabric & easy to wash. One the other hand, the installation of curtains is also a piece of art. For instance, there are different varieties of poles that are used to hang curtains, metal coated is preferred but if you have little budget you can use wooden or even plastic poles. So use the one which best suits with the theme of the room.

Eye lits curtains are famous these days, they are convenient as well, it seems me that it will continue its fame in 2010; you can easily take down these curtains for cleaning, it looks elegant in every living space. while using lits curtains, I recommend high weight fabrics for drawing rooms as they looks luxurious, also best for big halls. However the type of fabric depends on your own taste; here is my pefrences, silks for drawing room & TV room while & cotton for living rooms.

Conventional dining furniture are changing with the change in lifestyle & ease of use, deigns of furniture used in urban areas differ from that used in rural areas. This is a trend & my personal observation that smart & unique furniture looks good at every living space & so is the case with furniture like, dining tables & coffee buckets. I always prefer wooden furniture in my interior designing projects but sometimes I choose aluminum or steel coated designs as it suits the interior environment & is durable for a long run.

Selecting the right coffee table depends upon how many persons are expected to use it. For instance if there are 5 people living in a house then you are supposed to select 6 persons dining unit, always keep one spare for guests. Secondly the size & shape of table varies from place to place. If there is no separate dining room in the house then there is dining furniture that can be used, in most of the residential flats these days, the kitchen & the dining area are combined. So in a situation like this, we came up with selective dining furniture. All we need is to maintain the maximum comfort level & convenient in it. Use table mats if necessary but it is not mandatory. Elegant furniture looks great without accessories.

Weather it is arranging decoration cabinets or making shelves for CDs, books or documents. To make it beautiful you are in need of proper guidance. So I am here with another dose of interior designing. This time my focus is on wooden shelves & cabinets. First look around in your house & find what is the best place for reading. For this you have to make sure that weather the place is free from unwanted noise that comes from inside or outside. By inside I mean television & the chatting of your kith & kins. Outside noise refers to the traffic in the road attached to your house. Most of the people who love reading prefer to have a mini library in their house. I agree the bedroom or the living room can also be considered to fix the book shelf at the corner but the best place is to dedicate a separate room if you want to enjoy your reading habit at the best.

If you cant afford to spare a room for library & bookshelves. You can make it at your living room. I always suggest to choose corners for this purpose, the size of the bookshelves depends upon the size of your room & the empty space you has in your bedroom. OK as i mentioned earlier this is going to be a wooden shelf. i suggest you to keep the natural wooden color for the bookshelf. don’t make it more higher then the ground nor much lower that one can feel uncomfortable while placing books. anyways you can help yourself out to find the best angle in this regard. always choose qualified carpenter to make it. the design should be anything of your choice.