Cool Bed Design Ideas

With hundreds of bedding styles available for your interior design project, it can be difficult at best to find the right bed for your home. From poster beds to futons, beds come in various shapes, sizes, styles and designs. Narrow down your choices to these five different designs and you'll be sure you choose the bests one for your bedroom area.

Also known as canopy beds, four poster beds make a great addition to any bedroom design. Typically four poster beds come in king and queen sizes, but twins and singles are available as well. When choosing a four poster bed for a smaller room, you may want to consider installing another style because it will look awkward and out of place in smaller bedrooms.

Divan style beds can easily suit your bedroom design ideas. They have two basic definitions and were invented in the early Ottoman Empire. The smaller styles work best in smaller rooms and spare bedrooms. When space is at a premium, sofa style divan's should be used in the design. The other definition for a divan bed is a storage bed which means simply a conventional piece with storage drawers underneath. Be sure to leave at least three feet of open space around the entire bed, otherwise the drawers may not properly open.

Invented by William Murphy at the turn of the century, necessity truly is the mother of invention. When space is at a premium, Murphy beds can make all the difference. Murphy beds come in a wide variety of sizes, so you can be sure you're going to get the perfect Murphy bed for all of your bedroom decorating ideas. Some Murphy beds are single pieces of furniture while others are built in, so choose a style that suits your needs rather than your tastes.

Sleigh beds are named for their unique look as they have a rolling head and footboard that looks just like a sleigh. Traditional sleigh beds have bars running along the sides of the bed to keep occupants from rolling out in the night. Many sleigh bed styles are made from wood, but other materials like metal can be used for sleigh beds.

A platform bed works great with most interior design ideas. A platform bed is just as its name implies-it's built on a platform and typically doesn't use a box spring. This provides the bed with a low profile and a unique style that suits any bedroom.

Kitchen Design Ideas - Cool and Cozy

Kitchen designs differ from country to country - so why not incorporate some international kitchen design ideas into your home.

The weather has a major influence on the way we live. Homes in climates that are constantly hot are constructed in a completely different manner to those that have to withstand dramatic changes from one season to another.

In a country where for most of the year food is cooked on an outside barbecue and meals are eaten al fresco the kitchen design may reflect this lifestyle. It may be that ensuring that you have good ventilation to maintain a cool atmosphere inside becomes your primary concern, and of course efficient refrigeration will be vital if perishable foods are to be stored safely. Choosing lightweight furniture that can easily be moved into the garden, or onto the verandah, patio or terrace is another practical aspect to consider; it is usually made of woven cane or pale timber.

If it is continually hot outside, you may prefer to create a kitchen that will also be visually cool - by devising a pale, soothing color scheme. Use flat matt shades of blue and grey with pale painted walls and try to avoid complicated patterns that would upset the sense of calm. It is worth remembering, however, that these decorative schemes need lots of bright clear light, or their coolness tends to become clinical and unwelcoming.

The enduring appeal of the white villages of rural southern Spain, Provence and Tuscany is due in part to the other colors - drawn from the surrounding countryside - that are combined with that white. These baked terracotta, natural sandstone and dusty pink tones also provide warmth in the winters, which are often harshly cold. Of course you can glean inspiration and decorative ideas from holidays abroad, but to transport the style of one country to another may be completely disastrous: colors that look sensational in sunshine can feel oppressive unless you can reproduce a similar light, by natural or artificial means.

Thick wooden shutters on the windows, or canvas canopies, function not only to provide shade in summer but protection from freezing winds too. Stone or tiled floors are pleasantly cool in the summer and may be warmed up by mats or rugs if necessary And you may have a door opening directly from the kitchen onto the garden that can be left open permanently when the weather is fine to allow a cooling breeze to refresh the kitchen. But cool breezes become icy draughts in winter so this will probably need weatherproofing - with a warm and colorful curtain perhaps. And flexible but reliable heating that can respond quickly to changes in the weather is a modern convenience that nearly everyone would consider essential.

It is obviously sensible to wait for a year before you make any major design decisions, unless you are really confident that you can anticipate any seasonal weather changes. Real style is definitely more than surface deep.

5 Easy Interior Design Ideas For a Cool Home

I recently moved into a new flat. When I moved in the flat was bare, and any furnishings that were included were either dull, or, well,... dull! Despite this I saw great potential in the flat, and knew that I could breathe life into it if I just got a bit creative. By adding a few Canvas Prints, Lighting effects and some personal touches, it became the coolest flat I've ever had.

Below are some easy, cheap Interior Design Ideas that helped transform my bland-flat, into a stylish bachelor pad!

1. Choose a Colour Scheme

The first thing that needed to be sorted in my new flat was the colour scheme, or should I say, I needed to first introduce a colour scheme. I like my rock and metal music. I therefore like dark colours such as black, dark reds and blues. It is important when choosing a colour scheme that you choose colours one reflects your personality. In the end I went with black and dark purple.

2. Paint

Now that I had chosen my colour scheme it was time to get messy with paint. A good technique when painting the walls of a room, is to paint opposite walls the same colour, and the remaining two walls a different colour. In my case I painted two of my opposite facing walls dark purple, and the remaining two I left white. These white walls would be added to later with art and other such decoration, to give them more appeal.

3. Buy Nice Furnishings or Improve What You've Got

My flat came part furnished, it had a bed, sofa, old coffee table, wardrobes and a few storage cupboards. The sofa provided was a horrible murky brown colour, so I bought a nice big black sofa throw, which I used to cover the sofa. I bought a few dark purple cushions and "Hey Presto" a cool new sofa! I then bought some funky Dark Purple curtains that had a black swirly pattern, these matched my cushions and helped promote my colour scheme throughout the flat. As for the coffee table, wardrobes and cupboards, I simply painted them black using a paint designed for wood, then gave them a nice coat of varnish. By being a little creative you can pretty much transfer any old furnishings into wonderful new ones.

4. Decorate with Art and Personal Items

This part is fun, and again should reflect your hobbies and interests in life. As mentioned I am a huge fan of rock and metal music. To add more variation to the walls of my flat I decided to invest a little money in some Canvas Photo Prints. I chose a few of my favourite album covers, which included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Pantera. I had my local printing company transform these images into wonderful Canvas Prints. They look great on the walls and give the place a very personal touch. I also has a few old guitars, so instead of throwing them out, I mounted one of them on the wall using a guitar holder that I bought from a local music store. Personal touches like these really add character and individuality to a home, why not experiment with what you have?

5. Lighting

I didn't technically come up with this idea myself, it was provided by a friend who creates lighting for music concerts, but I'm so glad he did because it has elevated my flat to a whole new level of cool. I bought a few free standing tall spot lamps from a local high street store. I placed these in the corners of my room and using the directional lamp heads was able to direct the light in several angles around the room. These lamps also came with dimmer controls allowing me to adjust the level of brightness omitted by each lamp head. By experimenting I was able to come up with some very relaxing and tranquil lighting settings for my flat. Using another guitar on a stand, I wrapped a few fairy-lights around the body and up the neck. What resulted was one of the most talked about features of my flat! Lighting can dramatically effect the way in which a room feels so experiment with colour and brightness to find something that suits you.

Cool Designs Make Cool Tattoo Designs

Many tattoo enthusiasts have proudly displayed their cool tattoo designs to me soliciting my opinion. My thoughts are simply if you think it is cool, then it is in the category of cool tattoo designs. It does compel me to wonder though what is cool and what isn't, and where do cool tattoo designs come from?

Tattoos are a form of art so any style of art is cool to someone. Recently I was maneuvering my vehicle around a very busy section of my city when I got caught in a massive traffic jam. My mind wondered back to the question above, I don't know why but it did.

Looking around me I noticed very little nature, but there was some like trees, birds, squirrels and other natural beauty like trees, flowers and even insects. As I looked around a little smile adorned my face while I envisioned some really cool ideas for cool tattoo designs. Being a creative and imaginative person I began to envision how some of the natural resources around me could be amended to make beautiful art in the form of a tattoo. As these designs bounced around in my mind some unique meanings began to develop and I thought "this is really cool".

I then moved beyond nature to the beauty of the buildings surrounding me. Friends may say I am completely nuts but take the time to notice the fine designs all over the facade of these old structures. This is amazing architecture and simply some cool tattoo designs could come form this art. All around us are cool designs and they make cool tattoo designs.

On my way home I stopped at the Post Office and when I opened my box, out tumbled my new copy of the National Geographic. I stood there in the path of many other patrons as I leafed through the pages of this magazine and new cool designs jumped right off the pages at me. This magazine is full of amazing art, some ancient and some modern, most of which can be used to develop some really cool tattoo designs.

Combine the endless art surrounding us all with the professional knowledge of talented tattoo artists, and the experience of other tattoo enthusiasts and you will be on track to create some intensely meaningful and cool designs. I always take these cool designs back to my online gallery and forums to refine the piece before I have a cool tattoo design that jumps off my body which is really cool!

Home Painting Ideas

Home painting ideas are an essential part of any home painting job. You might ask why. This is so for the simple reason that after lighting the first thing that influences the decor and mood of your room is its painting. After a stressful day at work, the place that we return to for relaxation and a bit of comfort is our home.

It might not be very easy to paint a home but it is worthwhile to spend some time decorating it. Choosing of a proper color is very important as science has shown that colors affect us psychologically. So be careful to choose a color whether warm or cool according to your personality.

There are a lot of interior home painting ideas that can help you. In this article we shall discuss a few of these.

Faux Painting

"Faux" literally means "false". This kind of painting is used to create an illusion of different objects. For example, faux painting can be used to recreate the imagery of stones, marble and wood. This kind of painting is mostly done to imitate natural materials.

Wall Stencils

A template is used to form a pattern and colors are applied through those patterns. When you remove the template, the pattern gives rise to a design. A variety of these patterns are available including animals, stars, geometric figures, alphabets and flowers. It is very easy to do wall stenciling and they add a particular flavor to your room. You can also use wall stenciling time and again in different parts of your room to add a unique flavor to your home.

Rubber Stamping

This is the easiest of all home painting ideas. While you must have used rubber stamps for handmade gifts and greetings cards, this technique uses this technique for painting homes. Not only is rubber stamping faster and easier, it can give you more dramatic results than faux painting and it is very cheap. It is possible to customize your home completely with rubber stamping because of the different color schemes, textures and stamp designs available.

Interior Designing Ideas & Colours That Decorate Your Room

Interior Decoration is quickly gaining prominence. Most socialites tend to have a knack for this profession, since this not only gets them quick and easy money, but provides them alliance to the most influential people in circle. Interior decoration on a general basis is tailor made for rich people who have a trend for life. Their lifestyles not only cater globally to people of similar tastes, but also set trends for people to follow them and their cause. Right from expensive banquets and lounges to hotels and malls every major architectural structure being put up is hiring the best interior designers to give an exotic look that would look appealing to people. Interior design ideas on a professional level require high level of innovativeness and creativity to make the space look peculiar and in the process create an ambiance that would suit the theme of the space.

Home decoration is the art of decorating a room so that it looks good, is easy to use and function wells with the existing architecture. The goal of home decoration is to provide certain "feel" for the room, it encompasses applying wallpaper, painting walls and other surfaces, choosing furniture and fittings and providing other decorations like artifacts and sculptures. There is a very thin line between designing and decoration. Interior decoration is generally focused more on finishes, such as wallpaper, paint, window covering and furnishings. Interior design leads to be more integrated with the architecture and might also be involved in room layout, cabinet designs, windows and door placement and so on.

Interior design colour is responsible for glow of your space which in turn reflects the mood and purpose of it's creation. Colour combination through various paint techniques provides the trick of giving every part of the space a different theme.

Some of the most commonly used colour techniques used include colour washing, sponging & dry brushing. Colour plays an integral part of your decor. It has the ability to alter the perception of space in many ways - by enhancing a beautiful detail, by subduing an undesirable feature, by imposing scale or by simple compensating for the lack of architectural character. So it is important that you opt for the right combinations. Colours give the essential character to any space. Be it the living room or kitchen, bedroom or lounge. Some of the most commonly used decorative colour ideas include Glam Decor, Cool decor, Natural Decor & vibrant decor. Interior decoration is costly and only the rich seems to afford it. Hence if opted for it is important that you ensure that you get the right colours & paints that would suit your taste and last for a long time.

Energy Saving Home Improvement Ideas

There are several circumstances that cause individuals to spend their time and money to upgrade the efficiency of their houses. These types of home improvement projects can range from minor details that take a very short amount of time to complete, to major structural modifications that involve several days or weeks of labor. Whether you take on the job yourself, or hire a professional, there are a lot of critical facets to consider before starting any home improvement project. The following article is filled with simple hints, tips, and advice to take you through the process from start to finish.

For an environmentally friendly way to improve the efficiency of your home, try adding weather-stripping to keep your doors and windows from leaking warm or cool air. Not only does making your home weatherproof benefit the environment, it also helps you conserve money by decreasing excess waste. Raise the energy-efficiency of your home by placing weather-stripping along the frames around your windows and doors. This very inexpensive fix from your neighborhood hardware store will seal out the hot or cold air and make your heating and cooling system much more effective. You will also find that you can cut down on the drafts that you feel on those chilly nights.

If you are in an area that is prone to floods or hurricanes, it is wise to invest in one or more sets of 'hurricane socks.' Each of these specially designed pieces of fabric has the ability to absorb up to a gallon of water. Simply follow the directions to easily attach them to entry points along windows and doors.

When you are deciding to install or replace window treatments, look into window tinting options that minimize the damaging effects of the sun, as well as shades that can keep your home insulated. This means that your home will retain warmth during the winter months and stay cool inside throughout the summers.

By replacing windows with new technology energy windows, homeowners can save themselves a lot of money while also getting a brand new look for their home. Energy-efficient windows keep in the cool or hot air being generated inside the house despite extreme climate changes. This home improvement project can be particularly rewarding for those who opt to undertake it.

Get double pane windows, or even triple pane windows fitted to your house. Because they are such great insulators, these window replacements can decrease your annual energy bills by several hundred dollars. They are also more difficult to shatter, so your home is less likely to be broken into. As such, they can significantly increase the value of your home.

Lastly, if you have tall ceilings, don't dwarf your windows by hanging drapes immediately above them or on the window frame itself. Hanging curtains or drapes about a foot above the top of the window can make them look much larger, and you will not have so much empty space above the windows.

Updating your home can be an expensive and lengthy process. However, if you are aware of the pros and cons inherent in any home improvement project, no matter how large or small, you can save a considerable amount of both time and money. By following the simple recommendations in this article, you can avoid common pitfalls and come out ahead with your investment.