Archive for the ‘furniture’ Category

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Mexican Talavera Tile

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Talavera tile has a history going back to the days when the Moslems controlled Spain. The tile making processes used by the Moors were copied by the Spanish, and then brought to the New World in turn. The beautiful colors of the Mexican talavera tiles keeps them in production today.

Talavera tile is a form of majolica, using lead glaze to cover the color of the clay with white, and then decorating the resulting tile with colorful glazes, especially a cobalt blue glaze. This technique is used all over Europe and is how Delftware is produced, among others.

Mexican talavera tile makes a beautiful table top, for indoor or outdoor tables. The tile is weather resistant and, for those bold enough, can be used for the kitchen counter top or back splash. Such a kitchen will always be bright and cheerful and the white ground allows the blue, green, yellow and orange colors glow from the tile.

If you would rather not install your talavera tiles permanently in a place you may leave, then you can make the tiles into a talavera tile mirror. The mirror size should allow an edging of tiles, and the back board should be big enough for the mirror and one row of tiles around it. Once the mirror and tiles are attached to the back board, add wood strips around all four sides to finish them, and your talavera tile mirror is ready to hang.

Mexican talavera tiles are a nice accent in any southwest or western decor, and can be very useful in outdoor furniture. Look for these bright tiles online or at specialty home decor stores.

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Make Your Own Beaded Curtain

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Have a place in your room where a little dazzle would help? Make a beaded curtain to the spot, and watch it liven up the room and cover the unattractive or bare.

Making a beaded curtain is not difficult and need not be time consuming. Depending on the kid of curtain you are working with, you can add beads in a couple of ways. You can add a row of bead fringe by whip-stitching it to the seam where the rod pocket is formed or where the hem line runs. These two lines will be straight and following them to add the bead fringe will allow you to make a god job of the sewing without having to measure and pin the fringe before you sew it down.

If you want the bead fringe somewhere else, you will need to measure from the whichever of these two lines is closest to the desired placement of the fringe. Spread the curtain on the floor and measure to the line the fringe is to follow. Pin the fringe in place, and step back and look to see if it looks straight. If not, see where your measuring has gotten off, and re-pin. Do this until the fringe looks straight. Then you can carefully stitch the fringe to the curtain.

Scattered beads on the curtain is both easier and more difficult. If you want the beads to be random, you can either just add them at will. After several dozen, spread the curtain out and see how it looks. put pins in places where another bead would help the overall effect. Add these beads and then look again. Or, use the throw technique. Spread the curtain out on the floor, scatter the beads or straight pins over the curtain, and sew beads where they fall or the pins fall. The pins will work better if the fabric will not lie flat on the floor for the scatter step.

If the curtain has a pattern in it, you can use that pattern to place the beads. Select a specific place on the motif and add beads where ever that place occurs between the top and the hem. This will be more organized and will help those reluctant to let chance design the placement of the beads.

Now you have your own beaded curtain. Hope the first one encourages you to try more.

Other American collectibles are discussed in the American Collectibles Guide.

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Egyptian Cotton Bed Linens

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Egyptian cotton bed linens are the favorite type of many people. They find this to be the ultimate luxury bed linens for their own beds. They prefer the Egyptian extra long staple cotton over any other type, including Pima, South American, Creole and Sea Island, although sheets made from these other cottons are equally fine.

The Egyptian cotton industry was developed during the US Civil War as an alternate source of raw materials for the English mills. When Southern US cotton returned to the market at the end of the Civil War, the Egyptian cotton market collapsed, with dire economic results for Egypt.

Egyptian cotton is still available today, however, and has become a favorite for luxury bedding manufacturers and users. It is an extra long staple cotton which produces a smoother and stronger thread. Percale fabric woven from this thread is strong, durable and smooth to the touch. With a little extra processing, it is relatively wrinkle-free and makes very good bed linen.

Egyptian cotton bed sheets are usually marked with this information because higher prices can be charged for this premium material. Egyptian cotton bed in a bag sets are often available at better department stores and online retail establishments. Many people swear by the Egyptian cotton bedding, preferring it to any other kind, although there are as many other people who prefer each of the other extra long staple cottons and linen made from it.

The ability to tell the difference between the extra long staple cotton bed linens if it is not indicated on the packaging would be a very special one, indicating a degree of sensitivity most people do not have. If you can tell the difference between the cottons, when the sheets are percale and the same thread count, you are indeed sensitive.

Extra-sensitive or not, you may find that Egyptian cotton sheets worth the extra cost because they last longer as well as feeling better every night you go to sleep on them. Thank goodness we have a choice.

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School Chairs For Home

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

School chairs are usually bought in large quantities by school districts. Their requirements are durability and cost. If you want the same qualities in the chairs you buy for your kids, then you should buy the chairs the schools buy. Let them do the research, and then follow their lead.

The kinds of school chairs that are available to school districts and you are two basic types. There is the molded one piece plastic seat on metal legs, and the wooden chair.

Within the classification of plastic seat on metal legs, there are some variations. The legs are formed from metal in a U shape. Most of the school chairs but the legs on the plastic seat so the seat is supported by the cross piece of each U. But a few put that cross piece on the floor and attach the seat to the ends of the U. That makes a skid-like leg formation on the chair which may make the chairs kinder to the floors they are used on. The other style of chair ends the legs with plastic or metal feet that are not supposed to mar the floor.

One of the selling points of the plastic and metal chair is that most are designed to stack, like the adult plastic stacking chair. When it becomes to clean or put the chairs in storage, many of the chairs can be placed in the floor space on one. This allows for easier cleaning of the floors, and takes less space for the chairs when they are stored. If this attribute appeals to you, make sure the school chairs you buy include it. There are some that do not stack.

Most schools decide on form of the plastic and metal chair, given the number of variations available. These chairs are sturdy, easy to clean and not subject to being damaged by the routine activities of children. They can be destroyed, but it takes considerable time and strength, so it shouldn’t happen in the course of normal use. At home, the chairs can be used outside as well, if cleaned up before returning them to the house (especially the feet).

Personal management includes making the most of your time, space and energy. See more at the Personal Management Guide.

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Wooden Beds

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

Wooden beds are the standard bed type since who knows when. And yet, they are the classic and most desirable bed frame type. The craze for brass beds happens every now and then, but the desire for good wooden beds remains over time.

Whether the bed has a head board and a foot board, or just a head board, the wooden bed provides comfort and a sense of style to any bedroom. The head (and foot) board mat be solid and plain, which requires good wood, or solid with carving, which also requires good wood. Or the head and foot board may be curled into the requisite form of a sleigh bed, which requires even better wood unless the wood is pieced (which is not terrible). Head and foot boards in the form of a rectangle with vertical or horizontal slats requires medium quality wood, but can look very good in a bedroom, as such a bed is not as “heavy” looking as one with a solid head and foot boards. For another airy feeling in a bed room, consider canopy beds.

Wooden bunk beds use metal reinforcement as stress points, but the wood frame gives the bunk beds their style and presence in the room. More often these beds are relatively plain in design, as best suites the boys whose rooms they occupy and the size of the beds in the room. The plain styles can be jazzed up with linens if desired, or can be played down with simple designs for the bedspreads.

Wooden bed frames can be found in all the colors wood comes in naturally, and in colors that wood does not come in naturally as well. And the wood can always be painted to fit the decorating scheme, although this seems a shame for even the average wooden bed, much less a fine wooden bed. Logically, keeping the natural feel of the material for which one chose the bed would prohibit painting it and hiding that very feature.

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King Beds

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Having a slumber party for six little girls? Hope you have a king bed available. Then they can all sleep in one bed, if they sleep at all. A king bed will sleep four adults, if necessary, for it will hold at least six kids.

Want to be able to spread out when you sleep? Well, the king bed will allow that, for sure. Although when I spread out, I still like to tuck one set of toes over the edge of the be. This is more difficult in king beds because of the sheer size.

Want to be able to find your partner at night? Then king beds are not going to work. One or both of you will have to swim through the bed to find the other. This can be fun once or twice, but after that it is just work.

Want to spend a small fortune on bed linens,and still have only one set to use on the bed? The king beds are definitely your bed of choice. Standard linens are expensive enough to buy luxury linens for double or queen sized beds, and luxury linens for king beds are exorbitant.

Have a modest sized bedroom? If you want a king bed in it, you can probably get it there, but you will not be able to move around the bed easily, and you may not be able to open the closet door. Or get into the bottom drawers of the dresser or chest of drawers. Forget putting anything under the bed, as you will not have enough room to get it in and out from under the bed.

Think I’m kidding? A king sized bed is 76 by 80 inches. That’s over six feet by almost seven feet. If the room is eight by ten feet and you place the bed in the center of the room, you have no more than a foot and a half on any one side. A room or closet door needs at least three feet to swing open. It is going to be cozy, and no room for any other furniture. Too much bed.

Personal management includes making the most of your time, space and energy. See more at the Personal Management Guide.

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Twin Beds

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

The most versatile beds for a bedroom is twin beds. Two people can share the room without sharing the bed, and the beds can be arranged in a number of ways to allow for the best use of space and traffic flow. The beds can be arranged in a corner and use bolsters to make it a sitting area during the day. Twin bed furniture can be arranged in parallel with the head or the foot against the wall, although the head is traditionally at the wall. One can come out from the wall and the other be placed against the same wall or another if the room and situation require. The twin over full bunk bed allows you to sleep three people in the room. If a double bed is needed, the twin beds can be pushed together, use twin fitted bottom sheets and queen or king sized top sheet, blankets and bedspread. Time to go solo again, rearrange the furniture and go back to the twin top sheets, blankets and bedspreads.

Twin beds offer the opportunity to have trundle beds for each one, allowing for two guests or under-bed storage. The twin bed frame for use with a trundle bed is different, in that the legs have to be far enough apart to slide the trundle bed frame between them on the long side. Some twin bed frames offer a choice in leg position so the same bed frame can be used with or without a trundle bed. (The reason for placing the legs further under the edges of the bed is to avoid hitting your toes on the bed legs.)

If you are looking for versatile beds for a room, consider twin beds and twin bed in a bag linens to give the room the most function and a unified look.

Personal management includes making the most of your time, space and energy. See more at the Personal Management Guide.

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Door Curtains

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Have a small room and too many doors in it? Perhaps door curtains can replace the solid doors and make the space seem larger, as well as making what space there is more useful.

If your room is small, the space required to swing solid doors may be eating up a precious commodity, room space. If the doors are removed (and stored somewhere for re-installation, if needed), you may be able to use that short section of wall that was behind the door for art and /or a narrow bookcase. If the door is not in the very corner of the room, you may even have space for a regular piece of furniture, like a dresser or comfy reading chair. Removing the closet door will make access easier, especially when both hands or arms are full of clean laundry.

Generally, however, some method of blocking the view into the room or closet is desirable, at least at times. A closed door usually means that privacy is desired, but if there is not door, how do you let people know you are not available? An opaque door curtain can fill the requirement of providing visual privacy, letting (civilized) people know to knock to get your attention. For the closet, unless yours is excessively neat, at least a semi-opaque curtain will probably be desirable. You can still get through the door and curtain with both arms full of clean laundry using an elbow to move the curtain aside. You can use the same material as the window curtains or use a related, complementary material to give the room a unified look.

With the replacement of the solid doors by door curtains, the room should have a softer look and provide more room for the furniture needed by the room’s use. The removal of the hard doors will also allow you more freedom of furniture placement. Using coordinated fabrics for the door curtains can make the decor of the room really unusual or elegant, depending on the materials used.

More ideas about American collectibles are discussed in the American Collectibles Guide.

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Beaded Curtains

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Have plain old white sheers on your window? Wand to jazz them up a bit? Add beaded fringe to make beaded curtains and watch them sparkle. Choose a fringe with some contrast to the sheers, and sew them about twelve to fifteen inches from the bottom of the curtain panels. The beads will add dazzle and the braid will add some definition to the folds of the sheers.

Since most people use white sheers, you can add fringe in a color that ties the curtains to the predominant color used in the room, or you can choose a fringe color that is the same as some of the accessories. That way your sheers are personalized to you own decor and look like they were especially made for your room.

If you would like to bring the eye up higher in the room, you should put the fringe where the seam to create the rod pocket shows on the front of the curtains. The same contrast up there will draw the eye up and tie the upper half of the room to the rest of the contents, especially if you have not found the perfect wall decorations to go with you color scheme. But mostly it will look like you spent a lot of money on custom curtains. Add a row on your lamp shades and they also will look like they were made especially for you.

You can use the same beaded fringe on pillows for the floor or couch, and further tie the curtains to the rest of the accessories in the room. And remember to save some for the curtain tiebacks, if you have them. Then the look will really be complete with the beaded fringe at the top and middle (tie backs) of the curtains.

You can find beaded fringe at sewing stores and online. Do not be put off by the apparent inability of some of the fringe to hang straight, as this will not be visible once it is on the curtains. Change the room color, and you can carefully remove the fringe and add a different shade to match the new color.

Watch for other American collectibles in your everyday travels.

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Stackable Chairs

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Stackable chairs can be comfortable, or comfortable. The comfort of the sitter depends on many things, including the height of the chair off of the floor, the amount of padding used in upholstering the chair, the upholstery material and the conformation of the chair to the human body in a sitting position. Any chair, stackable r not, has to have these considerations taken into account when it is designed.

Height of the seat from the ground: the comfort of a chair, for an adult, depends on their ability to keep one or both feet on the floor while sitting in the chair. Chairs that do not allow this cut off the circulation in the legs by the pressure of the front of the seat on the back of the legs. However, chairs too close to the ground can also be uncomfortable. The best chairs allow the occupant to adjust the height off the floor, but this is not an option for stackable chairs.

Padding in the seat: upholstered stackable chairs can have enough padding to make the chair fairly comfortable. The amount of padding depends on the manufacturer and the price the customer is willing to pay for the chairs, as can be said for all chairs and not just stackable chairs.

The upholstery material: like all chairs, stackable chairs are more comfortable if the material used on them breathes, allowing air to circulate around the sitter’s body and through their clothes. Durable material is available that meets this qualification, but more often the stackable chair is covered in vinyl or some other material that does not breathe,

Conformation to a human body: in this consideration the plastic molded stackable chair may be ahead of the game. Unless the chair seat and back beneath the upholstery is modeled to some extent to fit the human body, the padding is not going to be sufficient to make the chair comfortable. Unfortunately, the molded plastic chair does not breathe any better than the vinyl on upholstered chairs.

When considering stackable chairs, or any chairs, the comfort of the sitter should be paramount, unless you do not want people to stay long.

Personal management includes making the most of your time, space and energy. See more at the Personal Management Guide.

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