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Archive for September 3rd, 2009

How to Find the Right Oriental Rug

September 3rd, 2009 No comments

The beauty of having an oriental area rug is having it be the centerpiece of a room so that it can add style and comfort to a room where you spend a good majority of your time at home in. There are several quality oriental area rugs that you can find that are affordable as well as make a great heirloom to pass on to your future generations. In the quest of searching for the perfect area rug, there are definitely some things you need to keep in mind and this article is going to focus on some of the more important aspects of shopping for the right oriental area rug.

One of the first things you are going to want to focus on in your search is to pay attention to the material that the rug is made with. There are generally two types of material used for making oriental rugs, one is a made from synthetic material and the other is made from natural material. The thing you need to keep in mind most when choosing the rug and the material it is made with is to make sure that where you intend to put the rug plays a big factor on which type of rug is going to be best. If you are buying the oriental area rug for a high traffic area, you are going to want to spend a little more and invest in the ones made with natural fibers because they are more equipped to handle the high traffic.

The next thing you want to look at is the KPSI factor. KPSI stands for knots per square inch and the higher the knots, the better quality of rug you are looking at. Additionally, there are a lot of people who own oriental rugs that are always on the look-out for new rugs and these people are very well versed in what it takes to search for that perfect rug and they also will tell you that having a handmade rug versus a machine made rug is the best kind to find. It is easy to tell whether or not you are looking at a handmade rug because you will find tiny flaws in the overall character of the rug, whereas a machine is programmed to design the rug with zero flaws.

Of course this is all subject to you and your preference and personal style. There are some people that would rather have a rug that has no flaws in it, regardless of how small the flaw might be.

Lastly, you want to make sure that the oriental area rug you choose is authentic. Once again, another step that is easy because each authentic rug will come with a certificate of authenticity that will contain details on it such as the size, the origin of the rug, how old it is, the materials it is made with and the KPSI. It is important to also keep that certificate for insurance purposes because an investment like this is not going to be cheap and should something happen to your rug, you will want to have the peace of mind that it can be replaced.

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.

It’s The Little Things You Need to Perk Up a Room

September 3rd, 2009 No comments

Picture your home, having every room decorated exactly the way you had pictured it and the way you wanted each room to look. You are content and happy in your home and with your choices of dcor, a month goes by, six months goes by and then all of a sudden you start to feel like each room or maybe just one or two rooms still feel like they are missing something.

Almost every person I know goes through this feeling at some point and the good news here is that you do not have to spend tons of money to rectify that missing piece and you can actually do this without having to completely redo an entire room or house.

I had a friend once who was on the verge of going into the hospital for surgery, but prior to that she decided she wanted to completely redecorate her living room, something she had just completed a year prior. She received a lot of compliments on her choices of colors and style for that living room and for the life of me, I could not figure out why she was already going to change it. I joked and told her that she should just study to be a home decorator and decorate other peoples homes so she did not feel the need to redecorate hers every year. That can be a costly hobby when you get right down to it.

She had already prepped her furniture with plastic and bought some new paint when she found out she had to have surgery and would not be able to complete her redecorating project prior to being hospitalized. This was when I decided I was going to show her what subtle little additions to a room or sudden changes to a room could do for the room and the huge impact it would have on saving money.

While she was in the hospital, I removed the plastic from her furniture, returned the paint she had bought and I started brainstorming. It did not take me long to figure out what to add to this room or change about this room that would make a world of difference to her so I set those plans in motion.

From that experience, I bring this article to give you some tips and tricks on little additions to any room that can perk it up as well as getting the shell of the room completed with finishing touches.

First, plants and flowers are the best addition to any room. The only thing you have to be careful for here is lighting and making sure that these plants or flowers will be cared for because nothing looks more hideous than to walk into a room and see wilted or dead flowers in a vase or a dead plant lying on the floor. If you want, go artificial on this idea because it will take the worry out of caring so much. Artificial plants and flowers only require an occasional dusting.

Second, take some of the nick-knacks or collections in a room and put them on shelves on the wall, not only will this change the atmosphere of the room all together, it will take away the cluttered feeling that sometimes a room can get when it is overwhelmed with collectibles and nick-knacks. Adding a picture collage to a room can make a huge difference too, so break out the photo albums and get creative.

Take a good hard look at the floor and picture a perfect area rug or accent rug somewhere in the room. Area rugs sometimes are the only thing that needs to be added to the room to give it that one last finishing touch. Area rugs are also great for protecting the flooring from high traffic or heavy furniture.

To finish my previous story, all I did was add a hanging plant and a floor plant opposite of the hanging plant in the living room, and I bought an inexpensive area rug for the room and placed it under her coffee table. When she returned home from her hospital stay, she was completely beside herself because she could not believe what those small things did for that room and she was elated. We took the money she spent on the paint that I returned and went out and had a great dinner that night. Needless to say, I was able to prove my point without being offensive and she was very grateful of my efforts to help her out.

Sometimes, the smallest changes in life are the more profound and impressive changes.

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.