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Ways to Decorate Your Staircase for Christmas

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Your staircase can easily be the centerpiece of your holiday décor. After all, few things are more traditional than the well-decorated holiday staircase. If you’re a bit lost when it comes to the right ideas, though, these tips can help.

Start with Evergreen Swag

The traditional holiday staircase starts with a beautiful evergreen garland, and in some cases, it stops right there. Whether you go with a fresh garland or you choose one that will look great year after year, this is the most basic way to make your staircase look simply amazing. Most garlands are sold in 9 foot lengths, and those that come with lights have end-to-end lights that will allow you to connect one strand to another. If you need something longer, you’ll want to move ahead with garlands that fall into the commercial category.

Add the Unexpected

While pine cones on the bannisters are fairly traditional, there are many other things you could do to spice up those garlands. Poinsettias, in red or white, make a beautiful touch. Just put the stems in some water to make them last through the season. Ribbon is also a fairly traditional accent. Just make sure it complements the other items you add into the garland. You can either work it in throughout the garland or simply make it into beautiful bows to hang at the top, middle, and bottom. Citrus is becoming more and more popular. Go with orange, pineapple, or another color that works well with your home’s current décor. Christmas ornaments you love are a great touch, too. Glittery snowflakes look pretty, as does white branches tied in. Throw in a pair of antique ice skates around the bottom bannister for a gorgeous, classic touch to the stairs. Stockings, whether they’re your primary stockings or not, are another great choice to lead people up your stairs. Just make certain the colors work with your garland. One final option you may want to think about is adding wreaths to your stairway. You can go with a traditional green, but thanks to the background color in the garland, you may want to go with something bolder like red.

Other Options

Not sure you like the idea of starting with evergreen garland? There are several other great options, too. A bay leaf garland also makes a wonderful touch, and it makes your home smell wonderful as well. Pine garlands will give your staircase a primitive touch. Ribbons or beaded garlands are an additional good touch you may want to consider. Another great choice is to attach greenery bunches to the posts of railing. You could use birch branches as the backbone, then tie in other branches with a bit of greenery or berries. Tied together with some bright ribbon, you have a package that will look enjoyable throughout the season.

Don’t Forget the Stairs

Whether you go with garland or not, don’t forget that you can decorate the actual stairs as well. Place small, beautifully wrapped gifts on the stairs, or potted plants. You could even add a bucket of ornamental greens.

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Pinkchic18 is a writer who loves to focus on events and holidays. She regularly contributes to the Holiday Gifts & Baskets Blog, where you can find fun holiday gift baskets for all ages.

Easy Tips for Eco-Friendly Interior Design

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Over the past years, interior design has become an important aspect of putting together the entire appeal of the house. Additionally, it has become an important method of self-expression. The design of the home as well as the furniture and accessories chosen by the homeowner can tell other people a lot about his/her personality and style. Naturally, homeowners want to ensure that their homes reflect their own taste as well as their values.

Interior designing is not merely about improving the aesthetic appeal of a room but it also includes proper usage and selection of furniture, accessories, and materials used to ensure that they are healthy for the residents. For this reason, a lot of homeowners are now aiming for an eco-friendly interior design. If you are thinking of going green, you will be able to achieve a stylish atmosphere in your home, and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get the design you want.

Eco-Friendly Interior Design Ideas

Today, more and more people are turning towards sustainable and environmentally friendly products and design. For this reason, the interior design field is supporting wonderful measures to achieve eco-friendly design in homes using sustainable resources. Here are some easy tips to help you obtain a green, healthy, and safe living space.

Re-Use And Recycle

If you want to achieve an eco-friendly interior design, you have to be creative and think outside the box. You have to think about recycling, reducing, and re-using the things you already have. Whether you want to slightly redecorate a room, or remodel the entire house, you must first think about the items that you can put back into the space. Are there any items which you can re-use?

For instance, if you have an armoire that still looks good and can still serve its purpose, there is no need to rip it apart. You can consider refurnishing them by coating it with new paint that will compliment your new interior design theme. Reusing items mean that you have to be creative because you usually need to re-purpose the items for other uses.

Use Natural Light If Possible

Another tip to achieve an environmentally friendly design is to let as much sunlight in as possible, and to maximize daylight. To do so, you can consider using skylights or open shades. You can also design your house so that the windows are facing south as this will allow enough sunlight to get inside your house. In doing so, you will not only save on electrical bills, but you are also preventing pollutants from being emitted inside your house. Additionally, you can also change the light bulbs used in your house, and use compact florescent lights (CFLs) or LED lights instead, since this alternative lighting can help you save on energy costs in the long run. When you look for proper lighting, you have to consider the label and choose those with energy efficient rating.

Non-Toxic Paints

There are some paints that have harmful chemicals known as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). These compounds release toxic chemicals into the air in your home which will negatively affect your air quality. Additionally, these compounds are harmful for your health and for all the people living in your home. For this reason, you have to choose paint with low-VOC or no-VOC, especially when you are painting a child’s room. You must also avoid using wallpaper since the adhesive used to attach them can contain VOCs as well.

Eco-Friendly Flooring

Natural, sustainable, and eco-friendly flooring can make a huge difference in a green home. Most standard flooring options are far from eco-friendly and sustainable, and they also contain harmful chemicals. If you want to have stylish but safe flooring, you can consider using bamboo flooring as a long-lasting option. Bamboo contains a higher fiber rating than most tropical hardwoods, and they feel great under one’s foot. Additionally, it can be recycled once it has reached the end of its life. You can also use eco floor tiles for your kitchen and bathroom. Not only are these tiles sustainable, but they have the additional advantage of providing thermal insulation.

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  •  License: Creative Commons – Jeremy Levine Design.”Living Room”. April 29, 2009. Online Image. Flickr. Dec 15, 2012 image source

Kris Lim is an environmentalist who wants to promote green living by encouraging people to use eco-friendly, sustainable, and safe materials. For this reason, she offers tips and advice on how to achieve an environmentally friendly interior design in your home. She also regularly contributes to interior design websites, such as susan-hopkins.com.

Wouldn’t You Love A Space Lift?

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Is your space looking tired and drab?


Do you ever pass by the rooms in your home, tired of looking at the same old and tired-looking drabby space? Wouldn’t you love to replace your furniture or add art and accessories to your space, if only you knew what to place in the space? These reasons and more are why you need the help of an interior designer . Many believe that hiring an interior designer is only for those who have large-scale home projects in their minds. However, it’s possible to schedule a consultation with an interior designer, so that you can transform small spaces, or one room space at a time.

The next time you walk through a room or look at a designated space, look at your space with purpose. Many times, people are so used to looking at a couch or a table or a lamp simply for the purpose that these serve. An interior designer will help you to look at your space with fresh eyes. Not only will you learn how to view your space with intent, but you’ll learn how to view your space the way that your imagination sees the space. Your consultation will allow for you to sit down and actually consider all of the things that you’d like to see within the boundaries of a particular space. Would you like to see the space decorated with a certain color palette?  Would you like to see the space decorated in a certain style? What is your style personality? All of these questions will help your designer to lead you towards the look you’ve been searching for.

Is making your space warm and inviting a challange?

One of the challenges that an interior designer can help home dwellers to overcome, is how to change absolutely drab and uninspiring spaces into spaces that are warm, inviting and innovative. Sometimes a home dweller feels absolutely overwhelmed by the challenge of taking a totally blank space, and turning into a space they can be proud of. This is why the expertise of an interior designer can be very helpful. They can help a space transform from cold and overwhelming, to welcoming and exciting. So, whether a home dweller needs to get rid of old furniture or use furniture covers to reinvigorate old furniture, the interior designer can help. They have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves to help their clients absolutely love their new space lift!

This is a guest post written by Cheap Seo Services Inc., an internet marketing firm that helps others rank up in Google. We are writing this article about the interior designer Miami studios to help and educate others. If you would like Cheap SEO Services Inc. to write articles for you, or help you with other marketing work, please contact us at http://www.cheapseo-services.com/cheap-seo .

How To Turn A Small Room Into A Castle When Your Forced To Rent

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Living at home is never easy when you can’t afford a place of your own. Your parents are probably the loveliest people in the world, but the amount of things you can do are very limited when you don’t have somewhere to call your own. After a while it could get to you and you’ll have no choice but to find somewhere. You shouldn’t let it get that far and start looking for a place right now. You could easily afford somewhere if you rented out a nice room. It’s still living with someone else, but at least it’s not your parents.

If you do decide to rent a room it could be hard if you’re not prepared. You won’t feel as comfortable wandering around the house, especially in the beginning when you’re not friends with the person you’re renting from. When that’s the case you have to make sure your little room is as comfortable as possible. If it’s not you will soon get fed up, because you have to spend a lot of time in your room by yourself. You can’t just get up and lay on someone’s couch when they want to watch TV. Do you know how you can turn your room into a castle?

Get the best bed your money can buy

When you spend more time that normal in the room it means your bed is something you’ll get quite friendly with. That means you should get one that’s as comfortable as you can possibly afford. The mattress especially has to feel like heaven when you lie down. Not because it will allow you to sleep better, but because you’ll spend hours laying in it at night reading books or watching TV. Go for gold and get very comfortable sheets and pillows to go along with it and you won’t go far wrong.

Squeeze in a computer desk

At home you maybe had a big desk in your room, or perhaps you even lay on your bed with the laptop on your stomach. When your room becomes your castle you will probably be spending a lot of time on the computer, so you want a little desk that you can sit at. It doesn’t need to be big because it probably won’t fit in the room anyway, but something good enough to feel like you’re important will make you feel much better and more grown up.

Buy a leather chair

You also want to get yourself a leather chair, which isn’t that expensive when you think about it. You could use a normal chair but eventually you will realize you’re not comfortable and you’ll get claustrophobic. If you never spent money on beer and pizza for a month you could probably get yourself one your backside would thank you for. It will become the centerpiece of your room and something you cherish. Especially if it reclines and you never end up reaching your bed at night.

Make it look as sexy as possible

When you were living at home I bet you didn’t treat your bedroom as an actual room. Not a grownup room, anyway. Did you still have your posters up that were there when you were a child? Now you need to forget about everything you had in the past. If you want the walls to be a certain color you can paint them, with permission of course. Buy some cheap art work for a touch of class. Something you will stare at when you walk into the room. Buy a big lava lamp if you think it will look stylish. Just start treating it like you would a room in your own pad and make it look sexy.

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Patrick Green is an avid blogger who writes informative and innovative blogs on home improvement, he is also writes web contents for sites like nahfloors.com.

How To Choose The Right Bed For You

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People spend around a third of their time in bed. That’s a long time, so it’s very important to make sure you choose the right bed for you! Follow these simple guidelines to help you decide what would be the best bed for you.

Different Types of Bed

The first thing to consider when buying a bed, of course, is the size you want it to be. Single beds are the most common for children, and it’s quite rare that a parent will let their child have a bigger bed than this, at least until they’re older. Adults, on the other hand, are likely to have at least a double bed. If you’re a single adult, then a double bed may be fine to suit your needs, however if you’re part of a couple you may want to upgrade to a bigger king size bed, to allow yourself more room to move – unless neither of you moves much while you’re trying to sleep!

Another option is the bunk bed – this can either be one bed on top of another, or it can be a single bed which requires a ladder to get into, with a desk area set up underneath it. Bunk beds are great for people who have two or more children, and the desk option is useful if you have a child studying in school who likes to do their homework in the comfort of their own bedroom.

If you enjoy a luxurious, glamorous lifestyle, you may enjoy a four-poster bed – the ultimate in sophistication! A four-poster bed will add a touch of class to any bedroom, and you’ll feel spectacular when you wake up in it each morning. All you need are some Egyptian cotton sheets to match!

If you have limited space, you should consider either a wall bed or a sofa bed. A wall bed is perfect for studios with very little space, and no designated bedroom. Wall beds simply fold up into the wall during the day when not in use, and can be pulled back down at night when you want to go to sleep. Sofa beds are what they sound like – sofas that double as beds – and they require a little extra effort to get out every day, needing the sofa cushions to be moved and the bed frame to be unpacked, however they’re a great option if you can’t install a wall bed or if you wouldn’t have room for a sofa otherwise!

Other Considerations

Beds usually have some storage space built into them, either in the form of drawers, or simply by the bed frame being raised a foot or so from the ground. This can be great if you have a lot of things you don’t use often – for instance, seasonal decorations and clothing – and is an easy way to keep things out of sight. If you choose a raised bed, you’ll need to remember to clean under there sometimes, because dust builds up very quickly!

The size of the room is very important when deciding on your bed – you wouldn’t get a four-poster bed in a room with low ceilings, for example, nor would you put a king size bed in a small room! If you have two children and limited space, a bunk bed would be perfect.

Cost should also be taken into consideration, although it’s a good idea to buy the best bed you can afford,as it’s such an important part of your life! However, if you’re buying a bed for your guest room, it’s okay to spend a little less, as it won’t get used nearly so often, and your guests will just be grateful to get a bed rather than a sofa to sleep on!

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Lester Fernando writes informative articles related to home improvement techniques. Visit www.cheapconservatories.net to read his articles and know more.

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