The interior design industry revolves around creativity and the use of multiple ideas

You may feel that you have no idea what you like when it comes to decorating.. Many of today's new homes feature "great rooms" with vaulted ceilings and wide expanses of floor space. Designed for a casual living/dining combination, these rooms can often be so big that they become overwhelming. Though we'd all like to have more space in our homes, the wrong kind of space can be difficult to handle.

You have a small apartment, but you want to design it so that it really makes for a comfortable home. However, the area is so small

That you need ideas that will give the illusion of the apartment being larger than it really is.

good design is timeless in both function and nature.

After all we are working on top of the bones of a building.

Glass, this obviously goes inside the window framing and allows us to see out and protects the occupants from the weather. Walls hold up the building and create spaces within the home.

Stairs provide a method for moving from one level to another and we look at the different construction types and the parts of a stair

The ceiling is an area that we often forget but it plays an important role in construction

Sound control in the home today is a crucial aspect of construction planning now that there are stereos, tvs and video games in almost every room of the home! Moving on from this is the new room that has started to appear in new homes

House insulation is a must for energy conscious people. Not only does it save you money but keeps the house warmer, cooler and dryer as well as reducing the amount of energy you need to consume. A win / win situation for people and the environment.

While interior design and decoration are the fun parts that make the interior's aesthetics work,

This is the nuts and bolts side of holding the interior that you design together.

Bedroom

The bedroom is the space that we spend the most time in. Like it or not, we need to sleep to be able to function. So why not make it your personal haven with the use of interior decorating.

Canopy beds add romance and spice to your bedroom.............

Often in interior design we look to have a quick makeover of a room and the bedroom is no exception.

In fact its often the most fun and quick way to spice up your love life.

Roll on Mood Creation

Interior design covers a vast scope of subjects, and essentially our job is to create spaces for people to enjoy. So here are the essentials for the job!

Playing soft classical music is a wonderful mood enhancer.

Burning essential oils are great for creating passion.

A framed photograph of a happy moment - a great conversation starter.

Light scented candles, and lots of them (turn the lights off obviously), it creates a wonderful glow and a comforting feeling the power of the warm flickering light.But remember to keep them away from any loose flowing drapery, as we don't want your evening spoiled with the firemen arriving!

If you don't like candles, simply turn on the bedside lights (change the bulb to a lower wattage so they are dimmer) or use your main light dimmed (if you have that option).

Champagne on ice, with lovely tall flutes in an appropriately themed ice bucket.

Flowers, the freshness fresh flowers provide cannot be underestimated. Color co-ordinate and select a bouquet to match your theme or style. English Country - a wildflower collection spraying randomly from a ceramic jug. Minimal - a bird of paradise poised elegantly with a Chocolates - if you are going for romance then chocolates need to be in the equation. Hand made in individual boxes - His and Hers. We all know we like different types. If you show you know your partners favourite, it gives a good indication that you carepalm leaf curled at its base. French country - a bunch of French lavender tied with a ribbon sitting in a colored glass vase.

The fabric selected has an abundance of vibrant colours in the fruity striped design.

A neutral wall colour has been selected by the client to make the fabric the highlight of the room.

We haven't forgotten the little people in our lives, babies need to have a beautiful bedroom too!

Lighting is often left to the last minute and hasty decisions are made.

Lighting should be considered along with the space planning and decoration planning as it relates directly to how each space is perceived.

You could have the best decoration in the world but unless you have made provisions to light it it could disappear into oblivion.

Poor lighting selection can wash out colour and texture, and make the room look less than ordinary.

Where as careful considered lighting selection can greatly enhance even the simplest of interior design features.

Bathroom.

Everyone uses bathrooms every day.

That's a good reason to have a well designed and decorated bathroom space.

Not only for aesthetic reasons but for ergonomics and functionality.

The bathroom is often the smallest space in a house and the most frequently used! Therefore planning is the key to a sucessful bathroom.

It is vital to plan what are the essential items required within the space as sometimes we cannot fit everything in and sacrifices or compromises have to be made.

For example the length of a bath, the width of the shower and vanity, towel rail and heater space.

Many homes have a separate toilet and bathroom, this generally creates a small narrow room housing only a WC and sometimes a slim wash hand basin, and a tight fitting bathroom including a shower over the bath and a vanity. By opening up the space and combining the two a separate shower is often able to be included.

Ceramic tile murals allow for many decorative designs. This is the reason why they are so popular

The walls and floors of the home take up a large area of the interior decorating canvas.

They often dictate the theme and colors as well as style of the room. There are so many options and combinations to choose from that it can be difficult to make decisions on one, let alone two!

Granite This is a luxury floor covering and one that needs careful consideration before specification, as it is an expensive product.

• Marble it comes in numerous colors, white, grey, green, ochre, beige and is usually veined.
• It is a hardwearing beautiful product, expensive to purchase and lay as it is heavy and comes in slab form.
• It is cold and noisy underfoot.

Mosaic:

· This is a decorative work made up of small pieces of tile (stone or glass in the traditional form), which are laid to form pictures or patterns.

· It is a very ancient art form and was made popular in the Byzantine period.

· It is very durable, hard, cold underfoot, noisy and of course expensive

• There are commercial products now available where the designs and patterns are pre laid out and attached to a backing so that they are easier and quicker to lay.
• They make wonderful borders on the floor and are often used as a wall finish, splash backs in bathrooms, mirror surrounds and can even be framed as artwork.
• There was a trend of breaking up glazed ceramic tiles and laying them so that they were in a haphazard "crazed" pattern.

Parquet

This is used mainly for high quality domestic projects. It is available in square panels that hold all the timber pieces together. It is fixed by gluing to the base substrate, which is required to be level and free of lumps. The style of parquet is usually three fingers of timber facing vertical with three adjacent facing horizontal and so on. They are available with a prefinished coated surface or raw and require a polyurethane coating finish.

Plywood/Chipboard/Laminated Wooden Flooring.

This is made of chips of timber combined with urea formaldehyde resins bonded to form a board. It is fixed by nailing to timber joists. It is a cheap product with a moderate wearability. Its surface looks like cork when it is sealed. Plywood is made up of thin layers or plies of timber that get bonded together. Layers are laid face to face but each adjacent layer the grain runs in the opposite direction, which provides strength to the board making it stiffer and stronger than solid timber of the same thickness. It has a moderate wear factor as a floor product. It is nailed or glued to timber floor joists. A finishing coat would be required to seal the floor and protect it from spills, damage and wear.

Tiles:

· Ceramic tiles are made from clay, pressed and tempered into the required shape and size and fired at high temperature.

· They are available in a vast range of colors; sizes and some have textural designs on the surface.

Vitrefied Tiles: This is a composite material made up of cement and marble aggregate, it is then mixed and poured in situ onto a concrete base. It is then ground waxed and polished. It has a mosaic look. It can also be premade and is available in slabs or tiles. It is very hard wearing, if it is polished or wet it is very slippery. It is a suitable product to be used with underfloor heating.

soft furnishings

Interior design and decorating wouldn't exist without soft furnishings

They add color, texture, softness and design to our spaces. Without soft furnishings, our rooms would be hard and noisy.

Fabrics are the major part of soft furnishings, we use these for making drapery, curtains, cushions, valances, tiebacks, wall panels and upholstering our furniture to make it more comfortable to sit on.

There are smaller items called passementere, these are the trims and braids that decorate the fabric we use on the drapes, blinds, curtains, cushions and throws.

Paint:

Washable acrylic paint

Acrylic emulsion paint

Silk emulsion paint

Textured wall paint

Two toned designer wall paint.

Colors Can Reflect Owner's Temperament

When using the psychology of color for interior design, it's important to understand the color's historical use. For instance, dark green was traditionally linked to banking, and deep purple is historically linked to kings, queens and royalty. A pastel purple, traditionally known as lavender, will appeal to younger females as well as have a calming effect. There are many aromas associated with aromatherapy involving the herb lavender for relaxation.

Gray is typically thought of as a neutral color and works well as background for many color combinations. The psychology of gray for interior design indicates that it can enhance productivity and is used in many offices. Black, on the other hand hints at submissiveness and will only work well in residential environments if it is used as an accent.

Yellow is most often used in kitchens and in children's rooms. This particular color can invoke arguments and the psychology of color for interior design has shown it to rile people to anger. Yellow can make some people feel happy and others feel angry. Studies have shown that people who like shades of yellow, like them immensely while those who do not like them, dislike them completely.

Color is the most important part of interior decorating.

Everything we see has color and we need to be able to select color to enhance the space we want to decorate.

That entails choosing multiple colors, and can become overwhelming.

KITCHEN

Where do you spend most of your time when you're home? If your family is like ours, it's probably in the kitchen. But no matter how large a kitchen is, it never feels big enough.

Create more storage with Stainless Steel Modular Fittings for better storage and to save space, install a base cabinet that has the cabinet door attached to rollout shelves instead of swinging open on hinges. Store your most used appliances in this convenient cabinet. When the shelves are pulled out, you can easily reach items stored in the back of the cabinet.

Add glass fronts on wall cabinets or replace solid cabinet doors with glass fronts along one wall. It gives a more open feeling to the room.

Consider under-the-counter lighting; the kitchen will appear larger. Also, use light colors when decorating and lighten cabinets and countertops.

install cabinets to the ceiling. Or you can "stairstep" the cabinets. Start with a taller cabinet and then line the others progressively shorter. In the open space above the shorter cabinets you can display collectibles, baskets, teapots and so on. Store seldom-used items such as holiday dishes or serving pieces on top shelves of the taller cabinets.

Bring the outdoors in. Where possible, enlarge windows or replace one with a garden window, installed at countertop height. Add a skylight or sky pipe. If you have an eat-in kitchen with no room for an island, consider replacing the kitchen table with an island. Then the island will serve as the eating area, Install Modular storage trays. You can do this on the back of false drawer fronts at the sink and cook top.

Living room

An important room of the house is the living toom where you can receive your guests, spend time with your family, and various other activities like dining, playing, working, studying, TV watching can be done altogether. The best thing of a living room is that if it is a large room, the different functions can be separated by dividing the areas with shelves or partition and cabinets and it serves the function of a multipurpose room.

If you want to change the look of your living room a lot then you need to start with a neutral palate. You don’t have to keep all of the walls white and the couch cream colored, but you should keep everything pretty neutral. You can choose browns or greens if you want color, but avoid anything to bright or flashy. As long as you stay away from patterns however, you should be able to have several different choices for your décor.

If you keep the big things like furniture, walls and flooring in neutral tones, you’ll be able to change out the theme of your living room interior décor by adding accessories like rugs, pillows and wall art in the colors that you want. Another great ideas for sofas and chairs is to buy slipcovers - you can actually buy furniture that is meant to be slip covered, then simply get new slipcovers to go with whatever decorating plan you have in mind for the season!

Before you start arranging the furniture, a floor plan normally helps to plan where you are going to put large pieces of furniture. Remember to include key features in the room such as windows, doors and fire places. Always read the measurements box on our products pages to ensure that it can fit into the space selected. This is useful with a multi-functional room, you can easily see what can go where.

Contemporary furniture may mean something entirely different to you than it would to someone else.

The Joy of Decorating

Decorating with contemporary furniture shows a person's fun and creative style by mixing and matching various sleek shapes and colors together.

a mixture of materials and metals. For instance, combinations of glass, chrome, stainless, wood, platinum, or leather in certain rooms of the home look exquisite when used right.

Don't overcrowd your rooms with furniture. You want the rooms to feel spacious and a place where you can feel relaxed and not closed in.

tabletop fountain is a decorative water feature that can be used within the home or office to improve the aesthetics and the ambience of a room. The usual place that you would have one of the fountains would be on a table (as the name would suggest), however there are other alternative uses where they are equally effective

You have great taste, you know what you want... but you can't afford it. If this is your dilemma .

Lots of people live in a small home, a small room, or just a small space. Some people live in a small apartment because that's all they can afford, and they're grateful for it.

Some people live in a small apartment or home because they're tired of taking care of a larger place and want to "downsize."

Others just don't want a large home. Small is beautiful! And easy, and practical, too!

But no matter what your reason for living in a small space, you'll undoubtedly have to make some compromises in your decorating, get really organized, and make some adjustments to your lifestyle in order to make everything fit and not feel cramped.

If you're looking for a cozy, intimate space, you're in luck. By using soft, snuggly upholstered pieces, dark, warm tones, and dramatic lighting, your tiny corner can become a wonderful private space.

But if you really feel the need to stretch out in your small space, you can make some decorating changes to make the area look and feel larger without moving any walls! With color, furniture arranging, and interesting lighting, your space won't feel so cramped.

· Clear Out the Clutter

There's nothing that makes a small space feel cramped more than having too much stuff. Work out ways to get collections out of view, organized behind doors, table skirts, or on shelves. With things neatly arranged and out of sight, the space that is in view will feel orderly and open.

· Open the Way

With furniture and accessories blocking the view into a room and out to open spaces, a room will look cramped. By moving furniture out and away from walkways, you'll open up the space and make it feel larger. You can also choose short pieces of furniture like an ottoman, an armless, open chair, or a low table, and place large, tall pieces along a wall rather than out in the open space. If you can see the floor, the room will look larger.

· Chooser Soft, Light Hues

Whereas dark, warm colors make a space feel cozy and intimate, light, cool colors make a space feel open and airy. For optimum effect, select soft tones of blues and greens.

· Use a Monochromatic Color Scheme

Choose colors that are in the same color family and use tone-on-tone woven upholstery fabrics, textured wall finishes, delicate tonal drapery fabrics. Cool colors and delicate warm colors on most surfaces give the room a more open look.

· Coordinate Wall and Furniture Colors

Contrasting colors tend to break up a space. Pieces of furniture are less interrupting and tend to blend with the space if they're colored to match the wall color.

· Let in the Light

Any room will look larger if it's well-lit, either by natural light or artificial lighting. Get rid of heavy draperies and open up the windows to let the light of the outdoors into the space. Add more lamps or install track lighting or recessed lighting.

It's a small world after all'. With our growing population, this is not merely a song line, this is a fact. Whether it be for students, entrepreneurs, even a family of three, buying a small place is not just ideal, it's cost effective too.

Folded and Stacked. Purchase furniture that can be easily stored and packed away. A good item is the classic gateleg table. This piece has one or two hinged leaves that gives the owner an option to fold down a leaf when not in use. With regard floor space, try buying a folding bed, a sofa bed or a wall bed. Just like the gateleg table, chairs that can be stacked saves valuable space. If you want, you may even opt for collapsible desk where you can house your PC or your sound system. Remember, folded, stacked and hidden.

Mirrors. Mirrors tend to generate a sense of magnification. The game here is optical illusion.

By planning and determining what is essential, knowing how to utilize the ceiling and the walls, you can fashion your indoor space not only with style but with functionality as well.

PLANTS

indoor gardening is just as fun as having an outdoor garden. In fact, indoor plants not only help clean the environment around them, but they act as a quick decorating tool.

Angel Ivy Ring Topiary
Use this fast-growing angel ivy topiary (also known as wire vine) as a lush, living frame for seasonal flowers and bulbs that you can plant at the base of the ring.

2. Braided Ficus Tree
Easy care and adaptability have made the ficus one of the most popular plants grown by indoor gardeners. The variegated foliage and the braided stems of this ficus will really catch your attention.

3. Cactus Combo Bonsai
Bring a touch of the Southwest into your home with a miniature cactus garden. With its unusual plant forms and temperature and moisture adaptability, cacti are an intriguing group of plants.

4. Chamaedorea Palm
This whimsical palm will remind you of the old South. With wispy leaves and easy movement, this plant can bring a taste of the tropics to any part of your home..

5. Chinese Evergreen
Chinese Evergreen is an excellent selection for beginning green thumbs because it's a low-light lover and low maintenance. It's also rated highly as an indoor purifier.

6. Tropical Combo Bonsai
Cultivate a tropical garden in any small corner! With these miniature ceramic rock gardens , mixed with fun foliage plants, you can get a taste of the tropics right on your desk. ?