Wooden flooring

Aug15

Many people dream of a hardwood floor in their homes. But it’s not easy to navigate through the several names. Let’s see some parameters which probably help in choosing.
Deal flooring is made of pine, the laths are 10-15 cm wide and 3-5 meters long, its sides are slanted. These are laid juxtaposed, offset longwise and fixed to the bolsters. Commonly the surface has the natural color, treated just with lacquer but it can be treated with oil or wax also.
Swedish flooring is different from the previous one that the length of laths is only 1 meter and can be made of tropical wood also.
Tongue and Groove parquet is made of hardwood (e.g. oak, beech), nailed to the counter floor or glued to the concrete bolster. The laths are 4-5 cm wide and 25-50 cm long. Before laying, it is recommended to store them in the room where they will be laid for adjusting to the humidity. The surface is commonly just lacquered. It can be laid in different patterns fitting for the style of the interior (e.g. herring-bone, basket wave).
Strip flooring is made of hardwood, the lath is 15-18 cm wide and 2-4 meters long. It can be laid without nailing or sticking this way it’s easy to take apart and lay down again.
Inlaid parquet is from rectangular or hexagonal sheets, each of them has its own pattern made of different hardwoods. The final pattern of the room’s floor is created by laying them beside each other. The regular sheets have 40-50 cm side length.
Cork flooring is a bit different from the others because it is made of the bark of cork oak tree, so it is a renewable and environmentally friendly material. The sheets are made by pressing the grist. Its pattern is determined by the particle size. It provides excellent heat insulation and sound-absorbing.
Ask for help of an interior designer for choosing wooden flooring fitting for the style of your home and for the size of the room.

Exhibit kids drawings

Aug8

It’s an ordinary thing in a family with small children that the drawings of the kids are displayed in the living room, hallway or kitchen. These presents are valuable not only for the parents but it increases the child’s self confidence if he/she sees that his/her creation is how much esteemed. The possibility to place and highlight them should be provided in classic style homes also, so that they should be easy changed, tidied and fit to the surroundings.
Drawings fixed by magnets on the fridge form usually the mini exhibition in the kitchen. It’s a bit messy because of opening-closing the door. Let’s buy a cork board instead of this, which can get a frame fit for the style. This can be fixed not only on the wall but for example on the door of the pantry or on the side of the kitchen cabinet.
One of the walls in the living room can be dedicated to the exhibition of the children’s drawings. Let’s buy more similar, classic style frames in the size of A4 and A5 (drawing paper size) which fit in the interior. Arrange them both in portrait and landscape form. The view will be nice even when they are empty, but they will slowly fill with the drawings of the children. The similar frames provide that the sight won’t be too colorful or chaotic. Standing frames can be placed on the shelves of the cabinets, even among books. If the color of the frame is the same as the furniture’s, the drawing will be more dominant.
It’s a perfect solution in a rustic interior to fix a plank on the wall then screw wooden or metal clips on it. If a wire is stretched between the ends, fewer holes should be made but it will be nice too.
Let’s put a glass on the top of the coffee table. Put the drawings between this and the tabletop, they won’t move because of the weight of the glass. The composition can be changed even in seasonally, expressing the changing of nature by colors.
Ask for help of an interior designer for showing your children’s talent fit for classic style.

Beach style

Aug1

Beach style captures the heart not only in summer, but it is popular all over the year. The reason is maybe the cheerful, airy yet elegant and sometimes contrasting color scheme and the memories of vacations.
Beach style can be created in the easiest way with two basic colors: white gives a refreshing clean and a sharp clear background for the decoration, beige/sand provides a much more calm and natural basic. The total effect is colder in the case of the first one and warmer in the case of the second. The additional colors are the same in both cases:
The brown of the natural wood (except for orange and reddish hues) appears commonly on the floor, on the beams and on furniture. It’s important that it is not a painted brown color but the wood’s own color which is protected only with a coat of lacquer, this way its pattern also remains visible.
The neutral colors (warm greys, beiges) of natural fabrics (linen, sisal, coir, hemp etc.) look good on carpet, curtains, covers of seats and on accessories like table lamp made of cord, for example.
Navy blue is a quite dark color, still it is frequently used as wall color also, not only on accessories. It anchors the space and makes the style much more „tangible”. The effect is high contrast, still calming if pairing it with white.
Brighter colors like turquoise, blue water, sunny yellow and red are commonly the colors of accessories. Of course, nothing forbids using them in larger amounts also, even on the walls, but attention should be paid to fit for the beach style. This is much easier to keep if they are paired with white.
Definitely striped is the favorite among patterns which fits perfectly for this style. The advantage of it that it can visualize more of the colors mentioned above in the same time. Patterns depicting ships and their parts, sea-animals and seaside buildings can be freely used also. Seashells and sea-glass can be collected, starfishes, corals and colored glass bubbles can be bought for decoration, but the wall can be decorated even with a steering wheel of a ship.
If you also would like to go home after work as going to holiday in all over the year, ask for help of an interior designer for creating the seaside mood.

Mouldings

Jul18

Mouldings are not only decorative but improve the features of the room. Walls can be sectioned by them, thus we feel the low ceiling higher, but they also help section the too high ceiling, making it more acceptable for the eyes. Frequently the spaces between mouldings are painted in different colors or they get different coverage.
In old times, mouldings were made of hardwood or gypsum. Most of them was richly carved which complemented the architectural elements. Nowadays they are mass produced, made of paintable polystyrol. This can be placed very easily and can be bought in several sizes and patterns.
Baseboard is placed downmost, at the junction of the floor and the wall. Its back side is straight, this slicks to the wall. It is made of wood or fiberboard, which can be painted easily also, but for wet rooms there are many pieces in tile-collections. The dimensions of the baseboard are specified by the scales of the room, commonly 8-12 cm high (but maximum 20 cm). Its task is hiding the floor’s bumpiness and protecting the wall from e.g. scratches by legs of the chairs.
Dado rail is set up at 85-90 cm. The wall-part below it is frequently paneled, which protects the lower part of the wall from damaging impacts. Its height anno was equal with the height of chair backs (chair rail), so it was suited for protecting the wallpaper or painting when chairs were pushed against the wall. Later it had rather just a decorating role.
Picture rail is a fully functional element: big, framed paintings are hanged on it with wires and hooks. It holds their weight and this way the plastered or gypsum-decorated walls are not damaged. It is placed between 210 and 270 cm depending on the height of the ceiling.
Crown moulding is placed at the junction of the wall and the ceiling. It gives finiteness and frames the room. Exact mitering in the corners is essential for the esthetic, perfect fitting of the two parts. The cross-section of cornice is a right-angled triangle, they are being pasted up in just right the corner. Because they hide the joint of the vertical and the upper horizontal planes, they raise the feeling of height.
We can use other, similar decorating elements beside the basics. Ask for help of an interior designer for planning.

Color pairs 16.

Jul6

Color pairs: green-orange

Special wall arts

Jul4

For decorating the walls, we frequently use simple solutions as paintings, engravings, photos, fabrics in frames, wallpapers or smaller objects. These are very showy and it’s easy to find a fitting piece for the style. But let’s be daring! There are so many objects on flea markets and in our home too, which are perfectly suitable for wall decoration.
Old advertising boards, trade-signs, original boxes, marker letters can be found in many places and are popular decoration elements nowadays. We can choose wooden or metal pieces. They can be grouped by color, shape and theme, fitting to the interior.
Hanging old sporting goods on the wall are perfect solutions for sport-lovers: paddles, golf and tennis rackets, riding equipment etc. Most of them are suitable for both horizontal and vertical arrangements which effects the sense of space.
Let’s examine the contents of the wardrobes from this point of view. Our collections of hats, handbags, fans can decorate e.g. the wall of the living room. The harmony of the colors and materials is important for the sight not to be chaotic.
The most common objects could be decorating elements with a spectacular arrangement and an idea suggested by the room. We can decorate the wall of the kitchen with antique pots. They can have in common their material (e.g. copper, tin) or their type with difference just in the size (e.g. cooking tops, sieves).
Use the old doors, shutters and window frames were judged to throw out during the renovation! They fit for several styles in the original condition but renewed and painted they can be hung on the wall. Mirror can be cut into the window frame instead of glass, this way it will perform two tasks.
There are several other solutions, only our fantasy is a limit. Ask for help of an interior designer for choosing spectacular decorating elements!

Air conditioning

Jun27

The matter of air conditioning comes to the fore because of the hotter summers, everybody who can, installs one at home. However, in the case of classic style interiors not only the function but the sight matters also.
The most important aspect of design is to place the indoor unit properly, that the cold air doesn’t reach us directly. If this is not possible because of the lack of space, let’s buy a model with adjustable reeds in both directions. This way, the „target” shouldn’t be the bed in the bedroom, the desk in the office, the main countertop in the kitchen and the sofa in the living room. The air conditioner with proper capacity can cool down the room without risking our health.
Only the grid part is visible of the ceiling built-in models. This can be perfectly implemented to the surroundings by a suspended ceiling decorated with classic style moldings or gypsum stuccos. But this requires a proper room height also.
There are some solutions for hiding wall mounted indoor units also. One of them is painting them with the same color. Since the cover of the air conditioner is removed during cleaning and maintenance, the painting should be done part by part, eliminating surface damages. Color models can be purchased also.
The indoor unit beside the window can be covered with the curtain when out of use. Let’s fix a longer curtain rod which overhangs the indoor unit. When it is turned on, the fabric is just pulled away.
The unit placed above the window or door and in the same color seems like the part of it, just like an overdoor. If it is not lately placed but we are in a building process, the frame of the door or window should be placed around the indoor unit also.
The unit can be hidden in a floor-to-ceiling cupboard too. One of the solutions is putting a door before it. The other solution is hiding it in the place of a shelf, just like a decorating object. If the cupboard and the unit have the same color, it will be more invisible. Proper air ventilation should be provided in both cases.
Take an example of fans, they can be built in behind a drywall also. Let’s create shelves below it in the drywall to make it functional.
Ask for help of an interior designer for fitting the air conditioning system in a classic interior.

Glamping

Jun22

Glamour+camping=Glamping – camp with style!

Paints

Jun13

Several base materials were used throughout the history for making different paints. There are two main groups of them: artificial and natural based. In the latter case we discern mineral, floral, animal and fungus origin paints. They were used equally for paintings, fabric dying, wall painting, ceramics, and even make up.
Prussian blue is an artificial color also. It was first created about 1705, with mixing potash, ferric sulfate and grease. Mountbatten pink was named after the famous general about 1940 who used this as camouflage color to hide the destroyers for the enemy at twilight and dawn. It was mixed from mauve, light pink and grey. For example, white lead, cadmium yellow and Tiffany blue are artificial colors also.
In ancient Egypt copper carbonate was ground, mixed with grease or resin for making malachite green and used as eye shadow make up, around b.c. 2500. Verdigris was also a paint material in Greece since b.c. 300. The green patina was scraped from copper and used as a pigment. It can be created by soaking copper in vinegar or vine also. For example, galena (greyish black) and raddle are mineral colors too.
Turmeric is a floral based paint which is created from the root of the plant. It was used since about b.c. 3000 in India, the dresses of Hindu brides were colored with it. Julius Caesar mentioned the blue paint made of woad in his description of his campaign in Britain, where the enemy used it as a deterrent war make up. For example, the red of mudder is a floral paint also.
There are less animal based paints. Purple was made of a species of lice, they were dried and ground. Montezuma I. got this material as tax. The red coat of British uniform was dyed with this paint until the 20th century. For example, Tyre purple is an animal color also.
Litmus lilac was made of a species of lichen by drying and grinding. It was very popular about 1300 in Florence. Several species of fungi are used for making paint with ammonia or vinegar, which encompass the range of colors from pastel yellow, through rust red and brown to deep dark green.
Nowadays more paint factory keeps on producing paints based on natural pigments, just as several textile factories work only with these kinds of dyes – since they don’t emit pollutants. Ask for help of an interior designer for choosing one.

Double height room

Jun6

Double height rooms are more and more frequent in newly built houses. Mostly one can look down from the upper level which can give a new and exciting perspective for the owners. Typically, the living room, the kitchen or the entrance hall is created this way.
Furnishing of these rooms can be a challenge. Not necessarily the oversized furniture is the solution. The huge space can be filled with creating a focal point to eliminate the feeling of unusually emptiness and rigidity.
Covering the fireplace up to the ceiling is a perfect answer to the problem. Don’t be upset if there is no chimney: bioethanol fireplaces can be placed anywhere. Additional color and texture can be brought in the space with natural stone or wooden paneling.
There are similar window-heights in a double height room, or maybe they are ordinary sized but in two rows. Spectacular curtaining of these works well as a focal point. Hanging fabrics from ceiling to floor has to be left to professionals. It can be complemented with electric blinds; in this case the curtain will serve as just a decoration indeed.
Proper lighting is always a basic task. In this case, a really big and beautiful chandelier can be hung. Pay attention to not only the size filling the room but giving enough light also. If everything else is neutral, it will attract the eye.
If it is a living room, plus stairs can be built here, this way one hasn’t return to the main stairs for going up. A nicely carved metal or wooden spiral staircase is a perfect eye candy. Let’s put the library here, so the bookshelves can reach to the ceiling, they will be easily accessible also.
It’s an extreme case, but a motor-cycle or a smaller boat can be stored by hanging from the ceiling. Pay attention to fit in the style of the flat and don’t transform the living room to a depot. In this case, planning and creating the hanging system must be always done by a professional!
Of course, there are many other possibilities besides those above. Ask for help of an interior designer for esthetically highlighting the double room height.