Decor 8 Blogspot.com

How are we going to decorate a large and spacious bathroom, in attempt to make it something of a masterpiece? In modern houses, the bathroom is more and more frequently becoming something more than a place to wash – it’s becoming an actual room, as much a part of the house as a bedroom or a living room. If you are one of those lucky owners of a large, spacious bathroom, you are presented with a wild variety of options in its decoration.

The design of any living space should always start from the technical side – the installation of required pipes and wiring. Before we start the new bathroom installation works, it is necessary to plan out details such as the position of the actual bath, sink, toilet etc. Decoration and installation a large bathroom suite is much easier than doing the same to a smaller one. A modern technique in decorating bathrooms is to divide it into sections. For example, you may raise the bath on a small ledge (to let the pipes through), and then separate it from the toilet with a screen.

When you have chosen a specific plan, you will have to choose the colours. Many bathroom designers are convinced that the base colours that must be present within a bathroom are a combination of grey, white and blue. However, it is not necessary to keep to these guidelines when trying to achieve a nice effect. Try and imagine what kind of environment you would feel most comfortable when choosing colours. Remember, each colour has its own influence, with a light blue being relaxing, reds being energizing, and so on.

As you pick a colour scheme, you also set yourself a designated choice of materials. You’ll have to pick your materials very, very carefully as to make sure they suite your overall bathroom design. Take into account the variety of tiles, natural stone, wood panelling, glass mosaic, and so on. Try and make them fit with your overall colour scheme.

However, each material has its disadvantages, such as, for example, low durability, short life, brittleness and high moisture intake, so always be aware of factors such as these when doing a new bathroom installation works.

Here are a few examples of modern design schemes for bathrooms:

If you like a comfortable, cosy, quiet atmosphere, with natural smells and peace, pick colours such as brown, beige, green, olive and gray – a room like that needs space, and your new bathroom becomes an ideal subject. The walls in such a bathroom are decorated with wood or a natural stone, the floor can be ceramic tiles, and a few rugs under the feet can be a nice twist. Handmade accessories go very nice with the surroundings of such a bath.

If you prefer something more extravagant, then your choice of style is called “Baroque”. This style’s characteristics are rich, bright colours, expensive accessories, and a lot of art details. The bathtub itself has to be pretty massive, with a distinct, eccentric shape, with bent legs. The walls can be tiled with marble, and have many large mirrors fixed onto them. Paintings and stucco decorations will give your bathroom a noble character. A large amount of aromatic candles, paintings, all types of porcelain statues and figurines can all complete your “Baroque” bathroom.

A pretty widespread modern style is the “Marina” style. In new bathroom, there must be a lot of free space, a minimum amount of furniture and a maximum amount of accessories. When creating a bathroom in this style, you may use some of the most diverse materials – tiles, mosaic, and wood (like the outside of the ship), wallpaper, paints. The main base colour is, obviously, blue, which can be used with whites and other darker shades of blue. For the decorations, you may use a variety of things such as seashells, stones, and other marine related items. A very widely used material for this style is the glass mosaic. An interesting, unusual twist to your bathroom for this style would be a mirror in the shape of a submarine window.

Remember, that all that surrounds you in the bathroom plays an important role in creating the mood. If the accessories are picked with taste and under thought, maintained with a consistent stile and colour scheme, then the new bathroom will look truly elegant and spending time in it will be an actual pleasurable experience.

A certain school of thought claims that interior decorators are born, not made. However, as long as you have a basic artistic streak and a yearning to be creative, you can be groomed to any level of expertise in interior decoration. Giving a property buyer the benefit of one’s creative streak in this way is one of the most lucrative and creative careers today.

Beyond any doubt, interior decoration is a satisfying profession for those who ‘have it’ these days. There is an unprecedented amount of up-market residential and commercial property being sold on the real estate market today. Moreover, the present generation buyers of properties can afford to have their new acquisitions packaged attractively. Engaging the services of an interior decorator was once considered a lavish luxury, but not anymore. With the increased spending power of the IT generation, a home is defined by its aesthetic appeal — and a growing number of people are ready to pay for that.

The trend for professionally decorated interiors has percolated down from film stars to almost every upper stratum of society. Nor is the demand for interior decoration any longer confined to residences — witness the offices of most successful doctors, lawyers and advertising agencies, as well as bookstores, music shops, shopping malls, restaurants, hotel lobbies… yes, the scope for interior decoration is virtually endless.

HITTING THE HIGH NOTES

Apart from being an inherently glamorous profession, interior decoration has a career has a number of other appeals to offer:

PEOPLE — You meet a lot of them, and from a fascinating cross-section – from movie icons to business magnates; from well-known restaurant owners to fast-track lawyers; from neurosurgeons to the idle rich.

MONEY — You earn a lot of it. Everyone has respect for artistic flair, and your efforts are supposed to reflect the property owner’s own taste. This makes it an ego issue, and people pay a lot to support their ego.

CONTACTS — A career in interior decoration is self-propagating. One successfully completed contract almost immediately leads to another, till you can actually pick and choose. Also, the people you come across can come in useful in many other respects later on.

NO SPECIAL TRAINING REQUIRED — of course, a basic degree in the Arts can’t hurt, but a period of internship under an established interior decorator will serve just as well.

EXTENSIVE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR OTHERS — You will not be operating on your own. A large enough contract will require the services of a carpenter, electrician, painter and a graphic computer designer. A lot of people will benefit from your profession – and that is significant.

LIMITLESS JOB SATISFACTION — Expressing oneself artistically is one of the most satisfying experiences that a human being can have; being paid to do it is nothing but a bonus. It is no secret that one works best at what one enjoys doing – it is equally true that one of the biggest problems in today’s professional world is lack of creative outlets.

Most people have an ‘inbuilt’ creative streak in some form or the other. Professional interior decorators who were polled recently firmly denied that theirs is a ‘born’ breed — almost anyone can develop a flair, liking and proficiency in this field.

WHAT IT TAKES

As already pointed out, you don’t require any special qualifications to become a successful interior decorator (as opposed to interior designing, which has far more demanding parameters). Basically, you should have an ability to judge spaces (including the potential for hidden storage space), lighting requirements, color schemes and contrasts, furniture styles, etc. and a ‘feel’ for upholstery and curtain fabrics. Finally, you will need to bring these out to maximum advantage within the framework of a given budget.

There are a number of books and journals available to the subject of interior decoration, though not so many on the Indian market. For the seriously interested, however, this will not present a problem. Any specialty bookstore can offer you a selection of imported publications. A subscription to Indian magazines like ‘Inside Outside’ would be helpful by offering information on styles and combinations currently favored in the country.

One of the most helpful things you can do is to visit properties that have been professionally designed, study the work done there, and even ask the owners in what respects they are or aren’t satisfied with the end results. The places to zero in on are newly bought flats and offices that have engaged the services of an interior decorator. The point is not to judge the quality of the job done, but to get a feel of what kind of interior designing is popular on the real estate market, and therefore sells.

This costs you nothing, and people are always ready to talk on such subjects (after all, what is the point in splurging on interior decoration if you can’t gloat about the results later on?) In this manner, you can build up a useful mental catalog of successful and unsuccessful approaches.

Getting an eventual interior decoration team together is another important factor. You should also try to establish a personal network of carpenters and painters who will be able to spend time on unscheduled projects. This way, you will be able to obtain their services as and when you need them. Sharing your design discoveries with them occasionally is a good idea, too. In that way, you will have some concrete prototypes to refer to when you actually get to work on a project.

PROGRESSING TO INTERIOR DESIGNING

This is a far more demanding — and rewarding — career field, and you will need a lot of experience in interior decoration before you can think of entering it. There are certified institutions that offer courses in interior designing, and you may want to consider such a move at a later stage.

Till then, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t make lucrative waves as an interior decorator. As a famous philosopher once stated, the only limitations we face are those we make for ourselves.
Arun Chitnis is a professional writer with interest in a wide swath of genres. His fields of interest include real estate, self improvement, short fiction and parenting issues. He is based in Mumbai, India and writes whenever he can.

Here are some ideas for Halloween decorations that can be used indoors or outdoors. Decorations like these were popular in the 1940’s and many are still common-place today.

A traditional and easily prepared outdoor decoration is made of autumn leaves (real or fake) with corn stalks from your local farmer and lit Jack o’lanterns around the base. The corn stalks can be attached to a porch support beam, a light pole or a shepherds hook that held the summer’s flowers.

Another traditional Halloween decoration is the Jack o’ lanterns. Put them in groups, line them up on a fence, porch railing, along a walkway or along a driveway. Candles, dishes of alcohol and salt were popular on Hallowe’en. Add blue Christmas lights to give a ghostly illumination.

Free hand silhouettes/cuttings of black and/or orange construction paper hung on the windows and walls make for a neat effect. Some items to draw include witches, pumpkins, cats, bats, elves, fairies, spiders, owls, cauldrons, broomsticks or peaked hats. Search the internet for figures you can print and trace. You can also create unique lamp shades for your Halloween party. Use stiff orange and black paper cut out like Jack-o’-lanterns, witches, cats and other popular Halloween symbols.

Popular decorations were created from various fruits and vegetables. Apples, turnips and carrots can be cut into grotesque faces and displayed as is or used to hold candlesticks. You can also create Halloween goblins from the fruit and vegetables. Use Jack o’lanterns for the heads. The body is a smaller pumpkin and carrots are used for arms and legs which are fastened to the body with wire.

What would Halloween be without ghosts? Use a Jack o’lantern for the head which is attached to an upright post. Drape a white sheet or tablecloth from the post. You can then pin/stake the ends of the sheet out a few feet or just allow the sheet to blow in the wind.

Whatever your taste in Halloween decorating is, you may find that some of these vintage halloween decorating ideas may be ideal for your own haunted home this Halloween.
Beth is a fan of everything Vintage Halloween. She maintains the Vintage Halloween Ideas web site where she shares nifty Halloween ideas from the 1890’s to the 1960’s – including Dennison’s Bogie Books. Halloween Party Ideas, Invitation wording, decoration ideas and more.