Moving

Jun12

Moving is an exciting event, the promise of a new life, at the same time it is a stressful period in people’s life. We can reduce the inconvenience of it if we begin to prepare for it in time.
Many unnecessary things can be piled in one’s home without regular sorting. It’s worth to get rid of them before moving, since not only the number of boxes can be reduced this way, but they haven’t to be treated in the new home also. The task should be started far before moving in steps, even room by room. Prepare three big sacks or boxes and sort the unnecessary objects by groups: for sale, for donation and trash. Announce the sale of furniture, decorating objects etc. in time, even with the term of the real taken time. It has a little chance that everything will be immediately sold, that’s why we have to be prescient. Charity services are happy to get any kind of clothes if they are not sleazy or toys and story-books. The broken, useless objects can be recycled. We can get rid of bigger pieces (furniture, carpet etc.) at the yearly garbage. If this is not relevant presently, these have to be taken away which needs organization and has costs.
Don’t let boxing for the last time also. We always have more stuff than we think. Those which won’t be used until moving (books, decorating objects, winter clothes in summer, Christmas ornaments etc.) can be boxed already. Have time to pack them in a clean condition, because this way they only have to be put on their place in the new home. Boxes always should be labeled! It will be much easier if these will have put in that room where they will be opened and we don’t have to seek what we need first in the new place. Stick the boxes carefully, for not to fall apart during moving and objects in them not to be dusty until it.
Moving company has to be booked as soon as we know the moving date. Commonly they are time-workers. We shall rather pay for one or two hours more than the hurry causes harm to our stuff. Wrapping of furniture and big household appliances is the task of the moving company’s employees, wrapping properly every other things is our responsibility.
Ask for advice your friends or even your interior designer before moving to pay attention to what and what kind of mistakes has to be avoided during this period.

Summer decor

Jun9

DIY decoration ideas for summer

Peonies

Jun2

Peony decors for Withsun

Color pairs 25.

May31

Color pairs: red-orange

Make mass-production furniture unique

May29

People who renew their flat/house or those who furnish a new-built one, cannot always afford uniquely style-made furniture. They have to settle for products bought in big stores, frequently flat-packed. These can be however transformed to unique-like pieces with a little fantasy, which may be ornaments of our home.
One of the simplest solutions is changing the handles of drawers or doors of wardrobes. Two-holed handles are always made according to standards of whole-spacing (64 mm is the shortest). If we don’t like that one on the furniture, let’s buy another which suits more for our taste and just screw it in the place of the old one. We can put a two-whole version instead of a knob, we just have to drill some more holes.
Any kind of furniture-surface can be painted with suitable primers and paints. It needs some preparation: put a cardboard or an old sheet under the furniture which we can throw out later. Mask the parts with masking-tape, which we don’t want to paint. Always paint in a well-ventilated place. Often two coats of paint are required after the primer, then the final protective layer which can be lacquer or wax also.
Help of a professional might be needed in the case of upholstered furniture. The seating of a chair is mostly removable easily from the frame. Even we can reupholster it by our favorite fabric and a suitable stapler. In the case of a sofa or armchair, it’s upon a calculation whether reupholstering is cheaper or buying a unique one is more practical. If the furniture is buttoned, changing the buttons to other color is enough alteration and relatively cheap. It’s easy and wallet friendly to change the standard cushions of the sofa, even to self-made pieces. More ideas here: http://blog.classicinteriors.hu/?p=4541.
Wardrobes can be also altered easily by using leftover wallpapers. We can stick it either inside or on the doors/drawers, the upshot will be spectacular. We can renew the top of a table with the same way – put a glass on it for protection. Decorative fabrics can be placed behind or even instead of the glass panels of doors, which will completely change the mood of the furniture.
If we need more of flat-packed wardrobes, let’s buy them in different colors and put them together reversing their doors or drawers. This results a playful view, especially in children’s room.
Very simple, plain doors can be perked up by moldings, this way the total effect will be more classic. Paint/stain the mitered thin moldings (can be bought in DIY stores in strands) to the desired color and fix them on place by a nailer or a strong glue. It will be more special by gilding or silvering.
Ask for help of an interior designer for cost effective makeover ideas!

Choosing wall paint

May22

Many people make the mistake to fall in love with a color based on a very small sample and later they realize only after the finishing the painting that it is not what they originally wanted.
As far as possible, do not choose a wall paint based on a few square centimeters sample. Especially if it is a printed range of colors and it isn’t produced by using the real paint. Colors depend deeply on the lighting of the room, the paint absorptivity of the surface, number of layers, the surrounding colors etc. Always take home a sample if possible and try it in the room to be painted. Wait until it dries to see the final hue. If we don’t want to paint the wall itself, paint big cardboards (minimum size A3) with the given wallpaint. Stick them at least two walls of the room. Watch how the color changes throughout the day. The morning light is a bit yellowish, the light is always the strongest by noon and it has orange hues late in the afternoon. Orientation also matters a lot, as it depends on when and how long the room receives sunlight. Northern orientation pushes the effects of light to the blue range, western orientation does the same to the orange range. Shadows darken colors and make them greyish. All of these influence the way, how we see the color of the wall paint. Therefore, it is important not to choose colors in the shops under lights of lamps.
Most of the paint factories with permanent color assortment have sample pots for them also. With this, they make the perfect choice easier for the customers. For a small amount, we can prevent a bigger mistake which needs time, work and money to be corrected.
Any color can be mixed in the bigger paint shops and DIY stores in a couple of minutes based on NCS, RAL, Pantone etc. range of colors. Ask for the smallest quantity (commonly 1 liter), it is definitely enough to try the wanted color at home. This way we can be sure if the printed color truly fits for our idea and if we certainly endeavored to this effect.
Ask for help of an interior designer–color adviser for choosing wall paint, because he/she is a professional in harmonizing colors.

Hotel Sacher

May19

Hotel Sacher Wien through the eyes of the guest (2010)

DIY pendants

May17

With a small imagination we can create fabuolus pendants out of left-over objects

For radiators

May15

Radiators are not so beautiful, placing them at a not so practical location can make trouble. Of course, they can be changed to another type of heating solution. Details: https://blog.classicinteriors.hu/?p=8844&lang=en. If they have to be there, bring the most out of them.
In Hungary, radiators are placed under the windows most of the cases. The demand to use this space also can occur especially in small flats. A simple console table gives an immediate solution. Push it over the radiator and it will be a useful storage place. The whole radiator can remain open with this method. Take care of putting only heat resistant objects there in the heating season
Certain parts of one-piece, custom-made cabinets – built-in the full width of the wall with the windows – might contain the radiator. They should have densely perforated doors for letting the heat to flow. If the other parts have doors with the same design, but only with a half-cut pattern, the harmony will be more perfect.
Let’s fix a floating shelf between the radiator and the windowsill. The shelf can be placed even on consoles fixed on the wall on the two sides of the radiator also. This is a solution for using the narrow windowsill also, for example for potted plants.
If the replacement of the radiators is necessary anyhow, there will be a possibility to implement a seating bench by choosing low but longer heaters, which can be useful parts of a dining corner or a reading nook, for example.
If we would like to hide only the radiator without building, let’s paint it to the color of the wall or the furniture with the proper heat-proof paint.
If luckily there are old cast iron radiators in good condition, do not change them to modern flat ones, because cast iron provides heat more intensely. Cast iron radiators can be purchased in shops again, which can be ordered in variable colors, this way there’s no need compromise for classic style.
The things mentioned above don’t regard to convectors due to open flame! Ask for help of an interior designer for planning.