The Individual Guide

Whether you have only recently moved into your new house and call for a whole new collection of appliances & fixtures; or you simply need a new kettle - John Lewis has you covered. It’s commonly known that the kitchen is the nucleus of any home, so it is imperative to have the correct home appliances after all, seeing as the incorrect coffee machine can make a large difference.

Without doubt some purchases are significantly more fundamental than others; as a result you could give additional time thinking about which grill or washing machine you want to purchase rather than thinking about your next bread maker. Yet, even the smallest of items can transform the look & feel of your kitchen. Moreover, buying numerous products from 1 shop presents you the ability to give your kitchen a more contemporary look and feel by coordinating the style of your purchases. Glancing around the John Lewis store you might also get ideas for kitchen merchandise you might not have considered previously - juicers for example.

But it is not just the ‘appearance’ of the home appliances that you must look at but also its use; for example what particular size of toaster are you requiring? How many functions should there be on your grill? Do you desire a gas or an electric hob? For added info and advice on selecting the finest kitchen appliances then take a look at John Lewis’s customers’ guide, which can be accessed on their website. Get great deals on Bosch dishwashers at John Lewis

Purchasing from the John Lewis site couldn’t be any more simpler or more valuable. Not only will you have free standard delivery on each & every order; you may also select next day delivery should you ever require that coffee machine in a rush; and also free returns if you were frustrated by the goods. John Lewis also at this instant grants 2 day express delivery on a range of home appliances for instance washing machines, dishwashers & fridges. As a result, you can defiantly purchase from John Lewis’s internet shop with entire confidence.

“A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.” –His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The above statement may seem simple at first reading, but upon consideration, it is really quite powerful. I believe that the Dalai Lama is emphasizing the importance of the state of one’s living space.

Too many people are careless with the space in which they work or dwell. In terms of the Black Sect Tandtic Buddism school of feng shui (which is a derivitive of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism), when a person is thoughtful (or thoughtless) in regard to his or her living space, it spills out into his or her life.

So why does feng shui have all those strange and curious “cures,” you might ask, if all one has to do is create a “loving atmosphere”? The fact is most of us have forgotten what a loving atmosphere is. Sure, we may recognize it when we see it, but making it happen is a different story. This is a result of a mass disease that has taken over our world: that is the disease of not knowing how to love our selves completely. Otherwise, creating our lives according to our deepest desires and most lofty dreams would be a cinch.

I like to tell my clients to imagine reading a short story where the author describes the space. This a quick way to notice the “symbolism” that occurs in your own home. After all, the subconscious sees everything. It constantly absorbs messages from our environment and processes these messages. In turn, these messages are sent into our energy fields, creating the very lives we are experiencing. Imagine the difference of a home filled with unwanted gifts, dying plants, and cluttered closets compared to one with healthy flowers, treasured objects, and neatly organized closets with (gasp) extra space! The first home feels slightly neglected, even if the rest of the furnishings were pleasant, while the second space feels freer, lighter, and, cherished. Even the smallest of details have an impact. Our subconscious mind takes images without a filter.

A wonderful start to a loving atmosphere is to first discard or give away any objects that you do not love in your home. Clutter is a sure way to block your highest potential as the subconscious sees it as a symbol of things that we don’t love or need in our lives and creates accordingly. It is amazing how letting go of a thing as simple as a candle from an unfaithful ex-lover or a blanket that you have never used because it is too scratchy can lighten your load! The subconscious gets the message that you’d rather have something (or someone) better in your life.

Next, play with ideas, and find out what it is that want to invite into your life. Then consciously bring it into your home symbolically. For example, you’ve always wanted to travel to Italy. Then stick a postcard of Rome on your refrigerator. Would you like to amp up your love life? Figure out your own personal “romance symbol” and drape it, plant it, or play it on your stereo everyday. The key to creating a great life is to get creative!

With every object in our homes, we are sending a message to ourselves and to the Universe. Wouldn’t you want your message to be one of pure and uplifting love so that you could receive that, and only that, back? Use your conscious mind to transform your subconscious mind, and then witness the shifts in your life.

Katie Rogers, http://www.katierogersfengshui.com

Caring for your antique metal items requires know-how. Each metal has its own particular characteristics and requires its own brand of tender loving care.

Brass

Brass is commonly found on decorative items, hardware and fixtures. Avoid cleaning with acids such as vinegar or lemon. The acid is too harsh. Likewise, avoid ammonia- based products such glass cleaners. A coat of clear lacquer is often applied to brass to prevent tarnish. A coat of paste wax will slow tarnish. But antique brass should not be polished because the patina that develops over time is desirable.

Bronze

Sculptures, lamp bases, fixtures are sometimes made of bronze. There is good news with this metal. The less you do the better. The patina that comes with aging on bronze is desirable. So, don’t do anything beyond a light dusting to maintain any of your bronze items.

Cast-Iron

Cast-iron is a metal of choice for fireplace accessories, cookware and garden accessories. Cast-iron that has become wet should be thoroughly dried as it will rust. A coating of oil, wax or paint can prevent rust. You can use a small knife to remove small rust spots. Avoid submerging in water any cast-iron cookware as it is often seasoned. Don’t scrub this off. It is desirable.

Copper

Copper is a popular metal used for home and garden decorative ware and cookware. For your outdoor copperware: left untended it develops an appealing green patina, yet people do tend to polish their copper cookware. A timeless homemade remedy continues to be a popular cleaning method. Sprinkle the item with coarse salt and use a half of a lemon to scour until clean.

Gold

Gilt is often applied as a decorative element to furniture and is found in antique jewelry. Gilt and plating found on furniture are very delicate, so gently dust with a very soft brush. Pure gold doesn’t tarnish. But impurities in hard water might discolor gold, so make sure that any gold that gets wet is thoroughly dried.

Pewter

Pewter is found in serving and decorative items. Vintage pewter was made of a soft mixture of tin and lead and is more delicate than modern pewter. Using a light hand is your best course of action with any pewter. A light dusting and good washing with soap and water is all pewter needs. It does not buff up to a bright shine.

Silver

Sterling and silver plate is commonly used in flatware, serving items and vintage jewelry. Buff with a silver polish as needed. The more you use your silver flatware, the less polishing it needs. In a pinch, toothpaste makes a good cleaner. Store silver in silversmith cloth bags.

Tin

Tin is found in decorative items and kitchenware. Vintage tin might be gray. Don’t try to buff it away. The tarnish protects the tin. Dry thoroughly because any moisture remaining could cause rusting.

Martin Swinton owns Take-A-Boo Emporium, an antique shop located in Toronto, Canada. He does furniture restoration, caning and rushing repairs, custom reproductions, upholstery, teaches courses on antiques and does appraisals for estates and community events. He can be reached at 416-785-4555 or by visiting http://www.takeaboo.com

Utility skins are unique because of their large basins and accessibility. These types of sinks are popular in work place environments. These sinks are capable of handling large jobs while not getting in the way. A utility sink is very similar to console sinks. While this model of skins sometimes provides a unique lavish style they are mainly used to get the work done. They are not always meant to look pretty. These types of sinks come in wall mounted models, under mounted models, and models that rest within a sink stand. They come in many different styles, shapes and colors. Their prices differ based on a number of different factors.

Utility rooms, laundry rooms, and other workplace environments often require some type of skin for many different reasons. For instance, an automobile mechanic will often get their hands dirty and need a place to wash them. That’s where utility skins come into play. They are often used to provide a place to clean something within looking pretty. In fact, many times these skins will rarely be washed since it is going to be placed in a workplace area meaning it will eventually get dirty again. Of course, these skins need to be durable and have a promising long life span.

Nothing adds warmth and value to a home like wood floors. Over
90 percent of real estate agents in a national survey said that
homes with wood floors sell more quickly and for higher prices
than other homes without wood flooring.

Some people shy away from hardwood flooring because they believe that they’re
high maintenance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Today’s specially formulated finishes are as tough as they are
beautiful. Only occasionally will you want to do a thorough
cleaning with a recommended wood floor cleaning solvent, and
it’s well worth it to keep your wood floors in glowing good
health.

Another concern many people have is that wood floors are somehow
bad for the environment. Actually, wood floors are ecologically
friendly. Recycled wood from old ships, barns and even old wood
floors is highly prized for its “distressed” characteristics.
Wood is also a good choice for allergy sufferers since its
surface doesn’t collect dust, dander and other allergens.

There are many types and styles of wood floors and many types of
wood can be used in them. The most common styles are:

Strip - A floor made up of wood strips averaging 2″ in width.
Strip flooring is ideal for small rooms as it makes the room
seem larger than it actually is.

Plank - Plank flooring uses larger wood boards ranging from 3″
to 6″ in width.

Parquet - This popular style is made up of wooden pieces that
combine to create an attractive pattern. The simplest parquet
pattern is a 6″ x 6″ checkerboard design, but there is really no
limit to how complex a parquet floor pattern can become. Wood
floors can be protected by a transparent varnish that lets the
wood’s natural tint show through or they can be stained any
color you like to complement any décor scheme. Over 50 different
species of woods are used in wood flooring, including familiar
domestic woods such as Pine, Oak, and Maple as well as more
exotic woods like Bamboo, Mesquite and Teak. All of these woods
vary in hardness and wear resistance, so consider the traffic
patterns where they will be installed.

With all the flooring options available to the homeowner to
consider, wood flooring remains a very popular choice. They’re
more affordable than you might think, and they maintain their
beauty and value as time goes by. As the expression goes, “It’s
the wood that makes it good!”

Liz Smith writes about hardwood floors and other flooring for homedoctor.net

I think decorative and faux painting techniques look great, are fun to do, and add a personal statement to a room. I’ve been adding my personal look to the walls in my homes ever since my husband and I purchased our first “fixer-upper.”

When I first starting using faux and decorative painting techniques on the walls in our home it was a financially motivated action. We didn’t have a lot of extra money. I couldn’t afford new furniture or flooring for a room but I could afford to buy some paint. But just painting the walls a solid color seemed boring to me so I started exploring faux and decorative painting. It didn’t take me long to get hooked. Why do I like faux and decorative painting on walls so much?

1) It’s an inexpensive way to change the look of an entire room. Paint is the most economical way to change the look of a room.

2) A painting technique on the walls minimizes and hides cosmetic flaws such as surface cracks and less than perfect patching jobs.

3) It’s easy to change when you’re sick of it. Repainting a room that has paint on the walls is a whole lot easier and much less time consuming than stripping wallpaper off walls and preparing those walls for paint.

4) It adds your own personal look and style to a space. Color and texture are fun and interesting. An entire home painted the same off-white color is dull and boring to me. A faux painting technique can evoke any mood you want in a room whether it’s a Tuscan look, retro 70’s look, a country look, something elegant, a cheery bright look for a child’s room, or any other look you want.

5) The choices of techniques and paints are nearly endless. Some of the more popular technique choices include: sponging, ragging, dragging, color washing, stenciling, crackling (http://www.decorativepaintingzone.com/faux/cracklingfauxpainting), marbling, gilding, wood-graining, spattering, feather-dusting, and stippling. You could also use one of the specialty paint products on the market today such as Venetian plaster to create the look you want or buy a faux painting kit such as a Woolie painting kit to help make your project as fun and easy as possible.

While I highly recommend faux or decorative painting, there are a few things I’ve learned since I’ve started faux painting that I’d like to share with you. Some of these items are things to “not do” that I’ve learned the hard way. Others are tips and suggestions that were helpful to me.

1) Go to your local paint store or decorative painting store and look at the samples they have. For example, Home Depot has lots of different booklets and paint chips with faux paint finishes on them for you to look at and even take home to look at in your lighting. That pretty metallic finish on a paint chip in the store make look garish when you get it home and look at it in your home’s natural lighting.

2) Consider taking a class before doing your first project. Some paint stores and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, offer free faux painting clinics and workshops. You can also find some very good faux painting classes for a reasonable fee by looking in your local paper or doing an Internet search.

3) Practice your technique on a piece of scrap wallboard before doing it on your wall. This is especially important if you are blending colors. A few years ago my son wanted his bedroom painted. He wanted me to use a Woolie (a great faux painting tool available at most paint supply stores) to blend together a burgundy and a caramel color. Each color looked great by itself, but when they got blended together too much a dark fuchsia color emerged. And anything resembling pink was not something my son wanted on his wall!

Because I had been faux painting for years I didn’t listen to my own advice about trying the technique on a piece of scrap board first nor did I buy sample sizes of paint to try out. I bought gallons because I wanted to save time. Luckily the store agreed to exchange the paint for me free of charge but we did have to paint over a wall and wait for it to dry before starting over with new colors.

4) Remember that the texture of your walls will dictate, to some extent, what faux painting techniques you can and cannot use. If your walls are smooth you can do just about any technique you want. But textured walls are very common, especially in newer homes. You may see striped walls in a brochure or on a sample wall and decide that’s what you want to do in your home; but if your walls are textured it’s going to be nearly impossible to achieve straight lines for your stripes. Keep in mind that faux finishes on paint chips from a store are done on a smooth surface. They will look a little different (but may still look very nice) if you do that same technique with the same colors on a textured wall.

5) If you’re going to do a faux technique in an entire room don’t start on the wall that people will first look at when they walk into the room. That means don’t start on the wall directly across from the doorway. Unless you’re a professional, it takes a little while for you to get your technique perfected in a room. Put that less than perfect start in the least noticeable part of the room.

6) If you get tired while painting and need a break, don’t stop in the middle of a wall. Stop at a corner. If you stop in the middle of the wall and don’t come back to work on the project again until after the paint is dry, you’re going to have a noticeable line on the wall. It won’t be pretty.

7) Think twice about mixing your own color with paint you have at home unless you are absolutely positive you’re going to have enough paint to do the entire job. If you mix your own color and run out of paint before you finish it will be time-consuming and challenging to match that color. You might be able to match it because many paint stores have specialty machines that can match a paint chip you take in, but if you’ve mixed together two different sheens of paint (for example let’s say you mixed a flat paint and a satin paint together) you’re going to have a hard time reproducing that same sheen. In some cases it may not be noticeable; but in other cases it will.

If you’re a beginner, start with an easy paint technique. Sponging is very easy and looks great. Another favorite of mine is the Woolie I mentioned earlier. There are a couple of different types. I like the Woolie roller best. It’s really easy to use and the results are fantastic. It comes with a short video. Watch it before you start painting. If you’re not going to watch the video before you buy your paint, there’s one important thing to remember. Buy paint colors that are at least two places away from each other on a paint strip. For example, if you pick out a paint strip with 5 yellows on it, don’t buy two colors that are right next to each other because they will be so close in color that you won’t see much variation when you put those colors on the wall and start to blend them.

Dorrie Ruplinger is a featured writer for www.decorativepaintingzone.com. Visit the web site for more information on decorative painting and faux painting.