Bring A Natural Focal Point Into Your Bathroom

Every room needs a focal point or place of immediate visual interest, say the experts, and the b`throom is no exception. It’s the place where we relax and unwind, and sometimes have our best ideas. You don’t have to be a qualified interior designer to make aesthetic choices and think like a decorator, and neither do you have to drop your green principles. 

In an empty room, the focal point often stands out clearly – it might be antique wood wardrobes in the master bedroom, a fireplace in a front room, or a striking hallway mirror. However, if the focal point is not obvious, you can create one.

The kind of focal point an interior designer would pick is a piece of art, an interesting item of furniture, a feature wall (wallpapered or painted) or an ornate mirror. Bearing in mind that they will need to be resistant to the large amounts of moisture and differing temperatures that are a feature of bathrooms, any of these could be incorporated into your bathroom. You may find what your room needs at house clearance sales or at bedroom furniture stores. Surround yourself with preloved things that inspire you, comfort you and boost your wellbeing, and your bathroom will become a haven of tranquillity and taste.

Rooms that do not have any kind of organic elements or touch of nature can feel clinical and sterile. Even if you have picked an ice white suite and are a fan of clean lines and neutral colours, you want your bathroom to feel like a spa, not a science laboratory. To achieve this, even in a minimalist space, incorporate some natural textures. Plants – an aloe vera plant is a practical and beautiful choice – fresh or dried flowers, driftwood, a sisal bath mitt, wooden accessories – all bring a fragment of nature into your bathroom. The end result is a room which can calm, soothe and revitalise.

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Dutch door openings with horizontal split

Is called Dutch door openings have a horizontal split, tending to permit independent operation of the upper and the bottom of the door. Thus, a division can be closed and the other left open, according to the needs in each case.

You see more in lodges or small towns as possible to keep closed the lower section to prevent the entry of animals and at the same time, leaving the top open to air and light housing.

Why are called Dutch doors? The identification is that this type of door was traditional in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century, and thus began to appear in Dutch paintings of this period. Consequently, today adopted the international name of "Dutch door".

This kind of exterior doors is also used in the beach areas, in order to take advantage of sea breezes, as well in climates where there is little need for air conditioning systems or heat generation.

However, whatever the weather may be useful and interesting, especially at times of the year when temperatures are pleasant on the outside. Along with all the above points, the Dutch doors are an excellent alternative to create indoor-outdoor connection so appreciated in every dwelling, in a functional way and always with designs in different styles and finishes.

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Doing Up Old Wooden Furniture

If you really love wooden furniture – and who doesn’t? – but don’t have the budget for a lot of new stuff, then it may pay you to get renovating.

There’s a lot of discount bedroom furniture, old beds and bedside tables and other stuff out there in the second hand market and flea markets that’s going very cheap – maybe even free sometimes. So here’s how to go about things…

Firstly, you need to strip off the old piece – stripping away paint or previous lacquers, varnishes or wax etc. To do this, buy a good stripping solution, wear skin and eye protection and scrape and strip the wood using a shavehook or scraper to get rid of the old finish. You may also need to use a soft wire brush to get into the nooks and crannies – and you may need to repeat the whole process a couple of times.

If you have a large flat surface on a table, for example, you may be able to take off the surface via a few light shavings using a fine smoothing plane – and always working with the grain.

The next step is to start sandpapering the piece. This may be done by hand using a block or just the paper for corners etc., though you may prefer to use an orbital sander and/or a detail sander; whatever works best for you.

Use ever finer-grained paper until you have the desired colour and overall smoothness. You may also decide to rub with the grain of the wood using wire wool to get into awkward areas etc.

Next, vacuum the surface of the wood and wipe it with a dry cloth. Now clean it using white spirit and let it dry out completely.

If you’re happy with the overall finish at this point, it’s time for the easy part. If the wood hasn’t come up as well as you’d hoped, or you’re looking for a specific colour – use a stain to achieve the desired effect, followed by a lacquer or varnish. Alternatively, simply wax the wood with a clear or tinted wax to achieve a really nice effect (and one which smells great too).

But if all this sounds too much like hard work or you just don’t have the time, take a look at online and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at the prices.    

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The Importance Of Home Insurance

Those of us who spend a lot of time making our house into our own little oasis from the outside world end up spending plenty of money on furniture and other belongings to make our house a home.

Choosing the perfect dining room table and chairs and picking out a stunning sofa or display cabinet is great fun, but what isn’t so much fun is sorting out the home insurance to protect everything you have invested into your home.

Getting a home insurance is dull to say the least, but it is a definite necessity. If you own your own home and have a mortgage to pay on it, then you’ll be aware that you have to have a buildings insurance policy as an absolute minimum. Contents insurance isn’t vital, but most home insurance policies include buildings and contents cover anyway.

Even if you think you don’t need contents cover, do a quick mental calculation of the value of some of your furniture and electrical items in your home and it will probably add up to quite a lot. Would you really want to pay to replace all those belongings if they were stolen or damaged beyond repair in a fire or flood?  The answer is probably not. In fact, when you look at it that way, then the monthly premiums for a house insurance policy don’t seem too bad!

When searching for home insurance don’t fall into the trap of only looking at the cost of the premiums. A cheap house insurance policy may seem attractive, but check that the cheapest quote you get will also give you adequate cover.

If you feel that the quotes you are getting are coming in too high, there are ways you can reduce them. Make sure that you have adequate security in place – such as fitting locks on all the windows. Installing an alarm system will also lower your risk potential for an insurance company and this will help bring down the cost of your premiums.

You can also volunteer to increase the excess that you pay before putting in a claim. This indicates to the insurance company that you will not be likely to put in a cheap home insurance claim and therefore you may benefit from reduced insurance policy premiums.

Do your research when getting home insurance and you should end up with a reasonable level of protection for your cherished belongings and your home at a reasonable price.

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