Most of us care about our homes and tries to make them as nice as possible. If you want to decorate your home with success and really become clever in interior decorating you should know the basic interior decorating tips as well as the three elements of success that apply to any interior decorating program. This helps you to create rooms that are welcoming and harmonic for everybody.

The elements I am talking about are:

the function,
the mood and
the harmony.

The Function

Any room in a house has to be functional. If not it will be of no use to anybody. Only if it functions according to its’ purpose it will be enjoyed. Functional actually means that the room should serve a purpose and be comfortable to perform that function inside the room.

A living room is an example of a functional room. Some living rooms are so decorated and pristine, they are never used. It should not be like that. This is, to put it plainly, an interior decorating failure. A functional living room should be in a manner that it is used for greeting and entertaining guests and providing a space for family members to interact, relax and share quality time together. This makes it a functional room because it has a purpose and use. keep this function in mind while decorating a functional room like a living room.

The Mood

The next of the three elements of successful interior decorating is the Mood. If the mood of a room is to be relaxing and peaceful, such as a bedroom, then everything in the room will work toward this mood. If you want a room to be high energy, such as an office or game room, then the elements applied to the decoration and design will set this mood. If you want a room to be bright an airy, then colors and treatments will focus toward this mood. You should know the mood for which that room is created. Then accordingly you have to decorate it. The decoration should be in such a way that it brings the desired mood to the person in that room.

The Harmony

The third of these three elements of successful interior decorating is harmony. Every element in any room of the home, office etc. should work in harmony with the other elements or items, for example colors, textures and patterns in that room. Be aware that this is not the same as neglecting contrasting elements; contrast should also be used. The clue is to make harmony in the room and this should be the end result of combining all the items within it. The way we usually accomplish this is by utilizing a color scheme that uses three colors which are highlighted throughout the room.

These three elements of successful interior decorating should be implemented into your home. This will make it more appealing, enjoyable and brings happiness and pleasure. Thus it is made enjoyable by everyone who uses that room. These elements should be pulled together with the decor to make it a welcoming one to your family and friends.

About The Author
Schutz Hertz is a writer and internet publisher who likes to publish information about Interior Decorating.
Go to http://www.home-interior-improvement.com to read more.

I write this article with a twinge of pain felt from still open wounds.

I have spent the last 14 months designing and custom building our new home. I can tell you with complete certainty – the stress involved in making 24-hour decisions about your new home and maintaining your existing home as well as raising your family, (and oh yes in my case also doing this for a living) even with a strong emphasis on planning – Building-From-Scratch is not for the faint of heart!

I would never wish to discourage anyone from this venture as I am sure, similar to childbirth, this will all soon be forgotten (or almost). However I felt the need to share this from a fresh perspective.

For anyone considering such a venture in the near future–check, check and recheck the insurmountable list of needs vs. wants. Revisit your budget and clearly define who is responsible for what. A decision-maker should be named who will take control of the communication for the project (or in some cases lack thereof). Convince someone to volunteer taking the reins on the finance side of things to ensure the train is kept on track. Review what is taking place and when (set a preliminary schedule). Last but not least you must have contact lists of all the sub providers so that you will be able to access and communicate with them if unable to reach the general. Oh, you ARE the general?  Well then all the more reason to read on…

How do you prefer to communicate? E-mail, conference call, fax? Whatever your poison, ensure everyone else is on the same page. If phone calls are your “thing”, then I advise that you have a written recap and sign off system in place so when the derailing begins you’ll hopefully know beforehand. I hate to say it, as I am the eternal optimist, but it WILL happen on one level or another. So much transpires via the world of interpretation – “Oh I’m sorry, I thought you meant…” Anytime you can head off a problem with a written document, drawing, change order or better yet, a site review with a visual and auditory explanation, the better!  Two words OVER COMMUNICATE!

Share everything no matter how unimportant you interpret it to be. Share, collaborate, cry and laugh. Find your inner strength. Recognize perfection is not an option here. Plan to be disappointed at times, elated at others. Building from the ground up is a journey. I have learned so many valuable lessons. Embrace the positives! Remember that when one door closes another opens. What doesn’t kill you really will make you stronger!

Insert deep breath here. First hand experience offers no better benefit! You’ll breathe a sigh of relief if you do. Best of Luck!

by Jennifer Brouwer, Decor By Jennifer Inc.  For more information and tips relating to building or renovating, please check our website www.decorbyjennifer.com.

As the world is progressing more liberal and richer, people are also getting more affluent one by one and day after day. As a result of this fast growth, material possessions and expensive valuables are easily seen everywhere outside. Now luxury cars, diamond necklaces, gold jewelry, designer’s cloths or big premises are few items, which can become an article of burglar’s longing and can pose a great threat for the owner of getting it stolen or damaged. Such an exhibition of affluence has alarmed growing needs of security for life and belongings.

The way such threats are becoming more prominent with the growing crime index, the security devices are also picking their strength up in confronting such intimidations. There is variety of security and surveillance devices available in the market today.

One such category includes motion detectors, which is a very strong means of covering your indoor or outdoor residential or business premises. Motion detectors have a range of devices, such as standard indoor motion detectors, waterproof outdoor motion detectors, and motion detector cameras that cover the surveillance aspect of security all around. These motion detector cameras are a better option because they don’t require any storage like film or hard drive recording. It is very simple to use and easy to install.

If you have a business premises such as a warehouse or a factory premises that needs to be secured 24X7 hours a week, the outdoor and indoor motion detection cameras can be a better choice. These detectors can take an immediate action the moment they detect some danger. An alarm security system is a better alternative, if you have a day-night manned surveillance control room on your premises. The detectors can be attached to a quiet alarm or a light and would alert the authorized personnel as soon as some suspicious activity takes place around your premises. In case, you do not have such manned post available through the night or otherwise; you can plug the indoor and outdoor motion detectors into a central security system. This system acts as a loud alarm as soon as it detects someone. It produces a loud sound to alert the police or frightens the person to run away.

These motion detectors are not only meant for business premises, but also for outdoors. This is because the outdoor residential premises witness a lot of movement in neighborhoods, which can result in too many false alarms. Similarly, motion detector cameras can be of not much help as you tend to watch a lot of tape getting nothing at the end.

If you have very big residential premises, you can still think of putting the outdoor motion detectors or the motion detector cameras to strengthen your security. Yet, indoor motion detectors are a better choice to secure the house against any intrusion anytime during your presence or absence in the house.

The outdoor motion detectors certainly help your security personnel to secure your big or small business premises as well as you and your staff or family members from a forthcoming trouble.

About The Author
Steve Strong’s is an employee with Sun Security which is an innovative and growth oriented company who uses a fresh and new approach to meet the security needs of millions of consumers throughout North America. Visit us at: http://www.sunsecurity.com

There is nothing worse than coming in after a hard day and when you finally get a decent fire going, all you get is smoke coming back into the room. It burns the eyes and lungs, and you wind up having to open windows and doors to let the cold air in to air the room out. That smell gets into all of the fabrics in the house as well as in your clothes, and it seems to take forever to get rid of it.

Many of the common smoking problems deal with the fact that a fire needs to be supplied with a large amount of make up air as one of its three primary elements, as well as needing to have an adequate opening through the chimney to the outside in order to exhaust out the smoke and gases so that they don’t come back into the room. Below is a list of the top ten possible reasons and their solutions as to why you’re having that smoking problem.

1) Dirty or Obstructed Chimney– Have the chimney inspected and swept by a Certified Chimney Sweep so that the chimney can be checked for any obstructions such as a bird’s nest or tree branches, or your kid’s missing volley ball. Also, a dirty chimney cap will prevent smoke from freely exiting the chimney.

2) Closed Damper– Before starting a fire, always check to make sure that the damper is completely open. If you’re not sure, shine a flashlight up the chimney to see if the metal damper plate is open or closed.

3) Fuel– Cut firewood must be aged a minimum of one year. It should be kept dry and protected from the rain. If the log is larger around than 6″ in diameter, it should be split so that it burns efficiently. Also, some types of prefabricated “paper wrapped” logs can be prone to smoking.

4) Fire Grate Placement– The fire grate is where you place your wood in the firebox and should be placed as far back in the firebox as possible, preferably right against the backwall in order to create a good draw. Sometimes it’s necessary to raise the grate with bricks to help. This gets more air under the grate for better circulation and it also raises the height of the fire.

5) Chimney Not Built To Proper Dimensions-Many times the fireplace opening is too large or too tall, especially in relation to the chimney flue size. This can give smoke a choice of going up the chimney or coming into the room. The solution could be adding a metal smoke guard to the top of the fireplace opening, since it shrinks the size of the opening. Also, many two-sided fireplaces have inherent smoking problems due to their sensitivity to air drafts in the house. In this case you might think about installing glass doors. One more thing, if the chimney does not have adequate height, you may need to extend the height of the chimney to improve the draw.

6) Cold Weather– If the weather outside the house is either colder and/or raining, the air inside the chimney flue will be cold and heavy and block the smoke from venting out. In this case, it helps to ‘prime’ the chimney by rolling up a newspaper and lighting it, then hold the lit end close to the open damper inside the firebox for a minute or two to warm up the heavy air in the flue. Then you can light the fire and ideally should have a good draw.

7) The House Is Near a Canyon or Hillside– If the house is next to a canyon, hillside or slope, it can have smoking problems due to wind currents and downdrafts. The air is pushed down the chimney into the room. Many times a specially designed chimney wind cap will resolve this problem since the top part of it turns like a weather vane and the cap’s backside creates a barrier in the way of the wind.

8) Central Heating System– If the heater is on, you will lose the draw from the chimney which will cause a smoking problem. This is because the central air furnace is so strong that even if the air intake vent for the central heating system is not in the same room as the fireplace, it will suck the outside air down the chimney and will cause the fireplace to smoke when the fire is going. Do not run the heater when the fireplace is in use!

9) Air Pressure Difference– Because houses are built much tighter than they used to be, the air pressure inside the house can be different than outside the house and this will not allow for a proper draw of air through the flue as well as the fire not receiving adequate make up air. This will also happen if a house is retrofitted with new tighter windows and doors. To minimize the smoking problem, crack open a window or door (preferably at the same level as the fireplace) in the room.

10) Tall Trees and Buildings– A tall tree or added-on second story (yours or your neighbor’s) close to the chimney may change the wind currents and cause down drafts to go down through the chimney and not only cause a smoking problem but possibly an odor problem as well. Keep those trees trimmed! With the 2nd story problem, the solution will likely be to raise the chimney height, but in some cases the wind cap might help instead.

These at least hit the highlights of what could be the problem when dealing with that annoying smoking problem. There are other possible reasons for this problem, so if following the corrective actions presented here don’t take care of it, the best advice I could give would be to contact a CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep in your area and put him to work figuring it out. Good Luck!

About The Author
Rick Pocock and his wife Terri are owners of Swede Chimney Sweep and Dryer Vent Cleaning in San Diego, California. For more information about the importance of having your chimney and dryer vent routinely inspected and serviced, visit their websites at http://www.swedesweep.com and http://www.dryerventsbyswede.com.

Should I consider buying wool carpets? Wool carpets are wonderful! Wool carpets have made my life miserable! This is actually one of those situations where both of these statements can be 100% true. My hope is to help you determine which one of these groups you belong too before you go through the expense of investing in wool carpets.

I have been cleaning carpets in Boulder Colorado for over 17 years and I have cleaned some wonderful and not so wonderful wool carpets. Wool is soft and it feels great to walk, crawl, or lay on. It feels like walking on soft hair. Wow! It is soft hair! The wool fiber consist of three main parts. The epidermis (cuticle) consisting of protective, overlapping scales on the fibers outer surface. The cortex, which composes most of the wools fiber and the center of the wool fiber is called the medulla. One of the facts that makes wool kinda scary is that it is a protein. Why could this be bad? Wool proteins can chemically bond with other proteins and can permanently attach itself to the wool fiber.

The real protein problem usually arises from our pets. Most of our pets throw up their food which is primarily a Protein base. These pet accidents can quickly turn our beloved soft haired carpet into a visual tapestry of pet throw up, urine stains and other digestive processes that I don’t like to think about. Often, these stains will permanently affix themselves and become part of the wool fiber. Wool is considered the finest carpet fiber in the world and if I didn’t have pets I would seriously consider the expense. The advantages of wool carpet include its’ feel (soft), holds color very well, wears well, soil resistant, cleans well and it is naturally non flammable.

The negative traits of wool fiber include that it is very sensitive to alkalinity (high PH soaps), costs more than synthetic fibers, costs more to clean, not resistant to Protein stains, will dissolve in bleach and can be damaged by carpet beetles and moths. Consider the pluses and minuses as they pertain to your life and if you decide to purchase the wonderful wool carpet fiber, see our special carpet cleaning care guide for wool carpets at http://www.colorado-carpet-masters.com. You will also find free carpet repair guides, allergy guides, carpet buying guides, carpet spot guides, carpet cleaning consumer guides an much more.

About The Author
Keith Wroblewski is an IICRC Master Carpet Cleaner who has been in the cleaning industry for 20 years. His carpet cleaning company Boulder Carpet Cleaning Masters has been cleaning carpets in Boulder Colorado for 17 years. He has produced several free help guides to help his Boulder carpet cleaning clients and now offers these guides( carpet cleaning, carpet buying, choosing cheap carpets, choosing wool carpets, cleaning wool carpets, and many others. You can find them at http://www.colorado-carpet-masters.com