Home Decorating

Watching a movie on the big screen is usually an enjoyable and fun outing. You can experience all the explosions and heart-stopping excitement like you’re really there. The characters seem larger than life. But sometimes, distractions can take away from this experience. You come back to reality and have to deal with the guy kicking your seat, the baby crying and the crook in your neck from straining to see behind the lady with the fancy hat. Yep, you’ve experienced it: Movie theater madness. But you’re in luck. Today’s technology allows you to bring the experience you love the most about going out to the movies home. Basically, all you need is a TV, a surround sound receiver, speakers, and a VCR or DVD player.

One of the first, most obvious benefits of creating a home theater is saving money. These days, going to the theater is like paying a bill. If you have a typical family of four, tickets can cost more than $25. That’s a lot of money considering you still want to get food. Trying to feed and hydrate a family of four at the movies can be expensive. Before it’s over, you’ve spent more than $50 to watch your favorite movie.

Secondly, creating a home theater saves time. If you have a home theater, there’s no need to stand in long lines. You just walk to your theater room and hit play. It doesn’t get any easier than that. Also, you don’t have to work your schedule around the movie theater’s schedule. Watch the movie any time you want. It will never be sold out. There’s nothing like getting excited about a movie and then get to the counter and it’s sold out; even if it’s not sold out, but at capacity, that is not anything to get excited about. Ever been in an overcrowded theater? Not fun. What’s worse is that you’re jammed in a seat and the stranger sitting next to you refuse to share the armrest. So now you’re stuck and can’t set your drink in the cup holder.

Furthermore, a home theater is just plain convenient. Do you have to get money, get dressed, load the car with the kids and check the schedule for showing times if you have a theater at home? Nope. All you have to do is roll out of bed and into the theater room and you’re all set.

One of the best benefits of all is pause, stop, and play. You can control the movie. No more waiting to go to the restroom. We’ve all been there. You’ve paid over $50 for your family to see a movie and you want to make sure you get ALL your money’s worth. So it’s either miss part of the movie or holds it. Neither is ideal.

In addition, the food’s better at home. You don’t have to be concerned with stale popcorn, dry hot dogs or watered-down soft drinks. You can create your own meal, pop your own popcorn and get a six-pack of sodas for the cost of one drink at the movies. You have the best selection—whatever you want!

Let’s just be honest. Odds are your home theater is going to be much cleaner than a public theater. How does the idea of kicking your shoes off, and relaxing your feet sound, only to be rudely awakened by the fact that your foot’s stuck to the floor from someone’s spilled soda? Or how about grabbing your soda and trying to take a sip only to realize it’s stuck to the cup holder with something between gum and gummy bears. Just not good.

Also, your home theater can be more than just a place to view movies. It can be a cool place to gather with friends. Or incorporate your stereo system and it can be a nice spot to listen to music. In addition, it could be the perfect place for the kids to entertain themselves by watching their videos or playing video games.

The more you think about it, a home theater is a great idea and great investment. If you love watching movies, but hate all the extras, creating a home theater just makes sense.

So you have a small apartment. You are possibly wondering, how do I make my small space look comfortable and inviting with out looking cluttered? I have your answer. Actually several answers first of all start with looking around, notice the placement of windows and which way the light reflects in the rooms during different times of day.

You do not want to blind someone, who could possibly be visiting, by that stunning sunset. Also look at your current furniture and the colors that it is or is not. Some colors can make a room look small, clinical and cold. Good warm toned colors also make it more comfortable for you to live there.  Browns, Reds, Yellows, and Oranges are great colors to open up space and make the room warm and inviting. Use accent rugs to help with the addition of colors as some Landlords do not allow you to paint. Sofa Covers are a great way to add color and save from wear and tear on your furniture.
 
When choosing a color scheme please note that you should choose something that is easy to clean i.e., browns and grays. White is not a good choice, unless you plan on never really living in your place.

Try to look at the big picture, small living rooms means that you shouldn’t get a sectional sofa. Instead try a small love seat or futon couch. Not only does the futon couch help with space but it can be converted to a bed for those single room apartments.

If you are on a budget and don’t want to get rid of your current bed and you are in a studio apartment try a bed that looks like a bunk bed with out the lower bunk. That way you can store your dress and other articles under the bunk and enclose it with a curtain and no one can see your unmade bed up top. This is very useful for bachelors. 
 
Try creating rooms with the use of decorative screens. It can make a single room look like two or more rooms are there. Also remember your curtains, they should be allowing the light in, the more light you allow in the bigger the space looks. Use a small bistro table as a dining table. It is intimate and makes for a great coffee talk spot.

If you are lucky enough to have some one in your apartment remember to always hide your laundry. Laundry laying around makes the apartment appear cluttered and small. Plants are a great way to make your room appear bigger. Try hanging them from the ceiling or by using hooks on the wall. Don’t forget the importance of mirrors. The use of mirrors can make your small apartment look large.

Use a focal point and angle your mirror towards it, it gives the illusion of depth. Most importantly make sure you always have a clean space, it is always bigger when it is clean.
 
Ok so now you have gone and cleaned, you are noticing that the apartment still looks small. Question your storage. You need some ideas for storage you say? Well I am full of them. Look around and if you notice you have lots of magazines lying around get yourself a magazine holder. It is a handy little box that is decorative to your specific likes and it cleans up your tables of clutter.

Get your self a footrest that has storage inside of it. It is nice for when the surprise guest comes over and you need to store something quickly. A coffee table with storage underneath it is also a wise choice. The more storage you have that isn’t added clutter makes your life easier.

Wall shelves help to eliminate tabletop mess. Put your collectible gnomes on a small wall shelf and look at all the free space you have just created for yourself. All of the suggestions presented here to you are easy do it yourself projects. You can get most of these easy to use items at your local all purpose store and hardware store.

The laws underlying all successful interior decoration are :

HARMONY in line and color scheme;

SIMPLICITY in decoration and number of objects in room, which is to be dictated by usefulness of said objects; and insistence upon

SPACES, which, like rests in music, have as much value as the objects, dispersed about the room.

Treat your rooms like “still life,” see to it that each group, such as a table, sofa, and one or two chairs make a “composition,” suggesting comfort as well as beauty. Never have an isolated chair, unless it is placed against the wall, as part of the decorative scheme.

One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of good line, correct proportions, harmonious color scheme and appropriateness: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful things.

Here are a few tips you can use to achieve that sence of beauty :

1# In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by using plain paper and making the woodwork the same color, or slightly darker in tone. If you cannot find wallpaper of exactly the color and shade you wish, often it is possible to use the wrong side of a paper and produce exactly the desired effect.

2# In repapering old rooms with imperfect ceilings it is easy to disguise this by using a paper with a small design in the same tone. Using perfectly plain ceiling paper will show every defect in the surface of the ceiling.

I hope you get a chance to take some of this great information!

Do you live in a small house? Many of us do! The book Interior decorating for everyone gives these tips for smaller homes.

· If your house or flat is small you can gain a great effect of space by keeping the same color scheme throughout that is, the same color or related colors.

·  To vary the character of each room, introduce different colors in the furniture covers, the sofa-cushions and lampshades.

· Urge the repetition of a main background in a small group of rooms; but to escape monotony by planning that the accessories in each room shall strike individual notes of decorative, contrasting color

More of these useful tips will be heading your way in the next posts!