Living Room Lightings Design

Living Room Designs

Home decoration

Shopping

The biggest mistakes people make in shopping for home furnishings and decorations have to do with timing and location. Before heading off to the department store, ask yourself what they have to offer you. Is there a holiday sale going on? Have you seen "Everything Must Go!" ads in the local paper because they are going out of business or relocating? If not, you may want to put off your shopping spree or look elsewhere. The truth is that most stores mark up their home decor merchandise throughout the year so that they can offer incredible prices on occasion. By waiting until July fourth or Black Friday, you could save yourself hundreds of dollars and get incredible items.

On the other hand, you may not need to go to a department store at all. Consider veering away from your usual favorites and opting for stores like Big Lots and even your local dollar store. These businesses offer exceptionally low prices year round, either because they buy the overstock of other stores or because they specialize in affordable "knock-offs" of what you would find at other retail shops. It is not uncommon to find beautiful centerpieces, wall hangings, plant stands, and even window treatments at these places for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. Just remember to carefully inspect the quality of every item you buy at discount centers to make sure it will hold up over time.

Last, but certainly not least, hit local yard sales and flea markets. Here you will find unique items, though perhaps rough around the edges that will give your living room a personal flair. Apart from decorations, these events often have necessities like coffee tables, couches, and rugs at the lowest prices. An added benefit is that you are free to haggle. For instance, if you crave that vintage washing pitcher but do not like the price, you can strike a deal. "If you throw in the hanging ivy for that price, I'll take it!"

Make it Yourself

If your finances are still pinched after these tips, consider exploring your crafty side. Believe it or not, you can transform the "junk" in your attic into unique and beautiful home decor
items for virtually nothing in this way. Consider, for example, the rickety old nightstand you have not bothered to take to the dump. With some fresh paint and a few screws, it can join your living room furniture as a novel side table. If your husband considers himself a handyman, you could even recruit him to build a coffee table from scratch. Refinish old picture frames and fill them with magazine cutouts or even your own work to decorate the walls. Instead of buying new curtains, replace them with ones you have sewn yourself. It only takes a few dollars worth of fabric and basic sewing skills to completely revive your view. If you cannot find a centerpiece you like (or can afford), create one by arranging dried flowers in an attractive vase or basket. The possibilities are endless once you get your creative juices flowing.

Interior Design

Quick living room makeover

Damage: You can change the perception of your living room by eliminating all signs of damage from the room. You can hide worn upholstered furniture by hiding the problems using slipcovers. If the furniture still looks like it sags after the slip covers are put on you can put a board under the pillows and use padding in needed areas. If you have broken wood furniture items, repair them. What cannot be repaired, you should probably throw aware and replace. For table tops, side tables, and other wood items that are scratched and damaged, you can cover the damage by painting the item or even adding tiles to flat surfaces.

Mood: Another quick way to change the room quickly is the change the room’s mood. The mood of the room could be altered by adding or softening lighting, or by installing dimmers. Wall hangings
can also change the mood of the room. Bright colored abstract art can energize a room while a soft, romantic oil painting will lend relaxation and sophistication to a room. The larger the piece is the bigger effect it will have on the room. A subtle way to give your living room a quick makeover is the change the smells in the room. Purchase candles with pleasant and relaxing scents, or add seasonal items to the room like flowers, or cinnamon scented pinecones.

Color scheme: Dress us a bland or boring room by changing the color scheme. This can be accomplished in a single shopping trip to your favorite department store. Pick a family of colors that coordinates with your current décor, and purchase throw pillows, throw blankets, new curtain panels, or a curtain scarf to top existing panels. You may want to purchase an area rug as well.

This is also a quick and inexpensive way to decorate seasonally. In the fall, you can purchase these items in rust and yellow colors, during the holidays you can use cranberry, and green, in late winter, you can use silver and blue. For spring, you can purchase your accessories in greens and yellows, and bring in whites in the summer.

Drastic changes: If you feel your room needs drastic changes, it can be doe most quickly and easily with paint.

Living Room Decoration

Feng Shui is the philosophy of arranging and coloring your living or working environment in ways that will contribute to your health, peace, and success. The practice of Feng Shui (meaning “wind” and “water”) is believed to have begun in Tibet over 10,000 years ago. It has been practiced in China for over 3,000 years and is a comparatively recent consideration in the western culture. Feng Shui as a part of western life style has developed rapidly in recent years. Its concepts have been applied in the construction of many notable office buildings, art museums, shopping centers, and city parks, not to mention, personal office spaces, and the exterior and interior of homes.

The main concept of Feng Shui revolves around the belief that there is a constant flow of energy in nature. This energy can be either good or bad or a combination of both. In order to deflect the bad energy and receive the good, we must take into consideration the arrangements and contents of rooms in order to maximize this energy flow on our lives. This concept is especially important for rooms that are focal points in our homes, such as the living room.

Before the direct application of Feng Shui in living room arrangement can be discussed, there needs to be an understanding about the basic concepts of this practice which consists of part science, part intuition, and part spirituality. The natural earth elements of fire, wood, water, and metal are the basis for the decisions made for arranging within environments. In some practices of Feng Shui, these elements are put on a “map” called a “bagua”. Practitioners of Feng Shui can use this tool to determine the weak spots within a home and make recommendations about how to overcome the bad qi (pronounced “chi”) that is part of the environment’s layout.

The bagua is sort of like an eight-sided map. In order to understand what this “map” looks like, pretend you are looking at a clock. At approximately “12:00” on the bagua is the element of “fire”. It represents “fame” and the color red is associated with it. At “1:00” on your imaginary clock face, would be the element of “earth”. Earth represents marriage and relationships and the colors, pink and orange. In about the “3:00” area is the element of metal. It is called the “lake” area and it represents children and the color white. At “4:00” is the area called “heaven” and that represents helpful people and the color gray. At “6:00” is the element of water. It represents “career” and the color black. At “7:00” is the area called “mountain”. It represents knowledge and self-cultivation and the color blue. At “9:00” is the element of wood. It is the area of thunder, and represents family, elders, and the color green. At about “10:00”, is the element of wind. It represents fortune, wealth, and the color purple.

To get a better understanding of how the bagua works in helping determine room arrangement, for example, imagine you are entering a room with the bagua in hand. Standing in the door way while holding this “map” with the water side of the bagua facing toward the door, you can get an idea of where the weak spots of the room may be and where they correlate to your life. For example, if the right side of the room is blocked with furniture and does not have balance, it is probably having an effect on your marriage and your children. If the left side of the room does not have the correct balance and connection with the energy flow, it can affect your life’s area of wealth and extended family relationships.