Mom's Turf: January 2008

White Sofa for your Living Room

The sofa is the main furniture in the living room. Careful choosing needs to be done before buying the kind of sofa that will fit not only to your budget but also to the interior design of your living room. Many people shun away from getting a white sofa because it is quite hard to maintain the look and cleanliness of a white sofa. If you still have young kids in the house, you may have to think several times before getting a white sofa for your living room. But a white sofa exudes elegance, cleanliness, purity and goodness. Some people consider the color white the color of perfection. White gives the environment a feeling of lightness, calmness, and relaxation. Since white also gives the illusion of a bigger space or furniture, a white sofa will make your living room look larger, airy and wider. A white sofa in the living room will also give emphasis on the other decors and fixtures in your living room, the red or orange flowers in the vase will pop out, the colorful scented and decorated candles will be noticed, the colorful abstract painting in the wall will easily catch attention and the rug will be emphasized. A white sofa will also easily blend with any seasonal theme that you may want to do in your living room in the future. A different color of window treatment will not be a problem for a white sofa to blend in, and a white curtain in the windows is also a perfect partner for your white sofa just add complimenting decors and fixtures in a different color to liven up your living room. And with the many varieties of white, you will not have a problem choosing the right shade of white. Next time you need to buy a new sofa, consider getting one in white.

Below are exceptional white sofas from Roche Bobois of Paris

Water Resistant TearDrop iPod Speaker

This TearDrop iPod Water Resistant Speaker is not only striking but also very useful. Because it comes in a variety of colors, you can choose what will suit the place where you will most likely use it often. This can be a very good gift for your teenager or to yourself, after all we all like to listen to our favorite music. I personally like the orange one because the color brightens any surrounding it will be placed into. With this iPod water resistant speaker, you can now listen to your favorite music anywhere you go, you can bring your iPod in the bathroom while taking a bath, to the beach, swimming pool, kitchen, and in the backyard and garden without worrying that you may wet and damage your iPod. And this iPod speaker being water resistant does not mean you should only use it in water surroundings, with its stylish shape and features you can bring and use it anywhere to protect your iPod. This can also be a good looking house decor and will be a great addition in any room of your house if your interiors are modern, eclectic, or even in some contemporary designs, but may not be a good decor for homes with rustic, western, and even victorian interior design style. This good-looking iPod Water Resistant Speaker operates on batteries and can be used for iPods such as iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle or other MP3 Players.

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Western Style Interior Design

Western Style Interior Design is often associated with the country, farmhouse and rustic look. Western Style homes usually make use of earthy colors with a dash of reds and yellows here and there, pottery home decors, leather sofas and ottomans, lots of wood and stones of different surfaces and textures. Another special feature of a Western Style home is the fireplace, here you can display various accessories like bronze sculptures, cowboy paintings, and enough supply of log woods adds to the rustic and western theme. Although this style may look masculine, you can balance it by using colorful fabrics for your quilts, bed sheets, and table napkins. Ceramic displays and clay tiles also adds a feminine feel and style. I love Western Style kitchens because of the hanging pans, the colorful window treatments, the potteries, the wine racks, the stone walls, and the fruits and spices display, it makes me want to cook and bake for my family the whole day. Western style homes often have cowboy memorabilia, antler lightings, fishing and hunting tools, with the addition of potteries, clay tiles, colorful quilts and other decors to make it have the homey, laid-back, and weathered look.

JLF and Associates is a Montana based design-build firm and is one of the most reputable in the United States that specializes in American Western designs. Their completed projects are simply marvelous, creating a place of warmth and comfort without trading beauty and nature. Below is their Livingood House project in Jackson, Wyoming.

Light Emitting Wallpaper

Wallpapers add beauty to our homes. With a lot of design varieties to choose from, it is easy for us to find something that will be appropriate for the interior design of our home and something that will fit our budget. Even if there are some people who say that using wallpapers are obsolete and unsanitary, still there are people who would opt to use wallpapers. Wallpapers available today are more durable and easier to apply. It is also a good decorating technique to combine the use of wall paints and wall papers.

There is a new kind of wall paper in the market today by Netherlands Designer Jonas Samson, it is the Light Emitting Wallpaper. Yes, this wallpaper emits light and is therefore can be a source of light just like the ordinary bulbs you use in your room. The light emitting function can be turned on and off, and when the light function is off, it simply functions as ordinary and regular wallpaper, a designed covering of your walls. The good part about this light emitting wallpaper is that it consumes very little power because it is made of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are inexpensive and consume little power. This light emitting wallpaper has a very great potential to be a common household accessory and a substitute to our regular light bulbs since it means lower purchase price and a lower electric bill. Having this kind of wallpaper in your rooms especially in the bedrooms can evoke a romantic and soothing atmosphere. Children themed light emitting wallpapers will also be a great addition to your child's bedroom, it will definitely stimulate his sense of wonder and amusement. This can be used instead of a lamp shade and the design patterns of the light in the wallpapers are eye-catching.

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A Stylish Sofa

I love sofas and I often change the sofa in my living room. Although I sometimes find it hard to find a space in the house where to place my old sofa, I still can not resist the temptation of buying a new one especially if there will be a special occasion or a party in the house. As it is my hobby to browse the net for new and exceptional furniture especially sofas, I chance upon this wonderful piece of sofa, This DS 152 sofa designed by Jane Worthington for De Sede Switzerland, and it is now on my personal wishlist this year. De Sede of Switzerland is known for creating extraordinary furniture for nearly 50 years that puts the living in your living room, and true enough with this sofa, they once again lived up to the De Sede credo: The culture of excellence. There is no place for the mediocre or pedestrian.

This sofa is perfect for our times, a sofa that provides relaxation, comfort, and style. I can think of a lot of things how I can enjoy this sofa, with the feature of having the TV, video, DVD, and Internet right beside me is totally appealing. And with its extra space, you can snuggle with your extra special someone while watching a film or your favorite Television show or you can have your child have his siesta right beside you while you are doing your online activities. Or I can probably do away with my computer table and work just right in this sofa. And its unusual shape just adds up to its appeal.

Red Bedrooms - Part 2

Barlands Cottage

Ghislaine Viñas

Parkfield House Interior Desgns

Rate my Space - HGTV

Sandra Espinet

Kathleen Bohlken

Back to article on Red Bedrooms

Red Bedrooms

The bedroom is one place in your home where your personality and style can be and should be expressed freely in its interior design. It is a room for your relaxation and comfort. The interior design of the bedroom should suit the taste of the owner of the bedroom, and that you should not choose a design for your bedroom because of fad or trend, or even because it is dictated by your designer. It is important that you choose a design for your bedroom that you like and what will make you feel most comfortable with, it should reflect a feeling of rest, tranquility and peacefulness. The use of color in your bedroom is very important because colors invoke different feelings to a person. There are generalizations on what feelings and effects a color can have on a person, but still there are no fixed rules on this. Our perceptions of colors are oftentimes cultural and personal.

Red is known to be a color of aggressiveness, passion, love and anger. But among the Chinese, red is a color of prosperity and good fortune. Since red is said to stimulate a faster heartbeat and increase adrenaline, it is not advisable for people who have difficulty sleeping to use this color for their bedroom. But if you want love and passion to be the main activity in your bedroom then a splash of red in your bedroom walls, adding red artworks or the use of red bedcovers, red pillows and red sheets will be best for you. As I have said above, there are no sure way to determine how a color may affect our feelings and mood, there are people who feel comfortable in a red room and may find the red color adds a soothing feel in their bedroom while others find it hard to relax and rest in a red bedroom. In using the color red in your bedroom, does not necessary mean that your bedroom will be red all over. Since red is an attention grabbing color, you can just use accessories, bed sheets, lamps, or just hang a red artwork to feel the love and passion this color exudes. If you want to give the red color a try in your bedroom, here are some amazing bedrooms around to give you ideas on how to use reds in your bedroom.

Jonathan Adler

Pfuner Design

Spacecraft

Cayman Paradise Villa

Les Brames Chalet

Couch Avenue

L'Etoile French Chalet

click here for More Red Bedrooms

Decorating your Kid’s Room

Your kid needs his/her own space in the house where he can feel that it is his own domain. Interior design for a kid’s room should be exciting, lively, and a bit whimsical for them to enjoy their stay in their own private space. Make a room that they will remember for a lifetime. In decorating your child’s room, there are certain things that every parent should consider.

First, involve your child in the planning and decorating process. Ask your child what color he/she wants for his/her room to have and what theme, if ever he/she has one, which he/she wants to incorporate in the room, most kids have a particular theme they love for their bedroom. You will be surprised at how imaginative kids can be when it comes to designing their own bedroom. They can be very imaginative sometimes that what they want might cost a lot, it is your part to be the logical one and tell them what kinds of furniture and design will be better in terms of cost. And respect their wishes that you can accommodate, if your child wants a green room and you prefer your boy to have a blue room, do not use your authority and force him to like a blue room. It is best to honor your child’s wishes when it comes to the color of his bedroom, after all he/she will be the one staying there every night. Or you can add the colors you want for combination with his chosen color. In choosing a theme for your child’s bedroom, consider his hobbies and interests, if you have an aspiring car racer, then go for the Nascar theme bedroom. If your child loves dinosaurs, choose beddings and fixtures that have dinosaurs on them.

Second, choose bedroom furniture and accessories that are child-friendly. Make sure that the edges of the things you will put inside their rooms are not hard, and will not hurt them when they are bumped there especially their head. It is always better to be safe than sorry, you do not want to worry every time they are alone in their room playing or spending time alone there. Also choose decors that are not breakable, children can be so clumsy sometimes that you do not want them to break things and get cuts from it. And as much as possible choose items and accessories that are not too expensive, you do not want to go on a rage when your child breaks something very expensive. Children have no qualms in throwing things and jumping around, they know how to enjoy themselves in the present moment and sometimes by being too energetic they break or ruin something, so again do not do not put expensive breakable items. And also depending on their age, do not put things that can be swallowed, and use paints that are lead free, washable, and durable. This will save you a lot of future headaches and expenditure.

Third, have some storage space for their little knick knacks. Train them to put their things in these storage spaces after they use it. You do not want a well-designed kid’s room with so much clutter everywhere. Also, have cabinets and closets for them to display their favorite toys and their pictures, it will give them a sense of ownership and pride in their own little space. Have a board where they can hang their drawings, doodles, and art works.

And lastly, doing the interior design for your child’s bedroom/room should not be a burden for you, make it a fun and exciting activity for you and your child, a bonding moment that you will both remember forever.

Here's a parade of gorgeous Rooms for Your Kids

Teepee and Bedding from Posh Tots