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DecoDreams
Your Guide to Creating Beautiful Spaces, FAST!
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March 01, 2004
Issue #017
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THE MISSION...DecoDreams is the home-decorating-made-easy.com
e-zine that delivers interior decorating tips,
ideas, and solutions to enhance all rooms of
your home. Staying on top of what's hot in decorating
has never been so easy or fun!
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*********ACKNOWLEDGEMENT********
Diversity of creative ideas has always been
the hallmark of home decorating. That's why
I've asked designer, artist, educator and writer,
Marney Makridakis, to share her own unique brand
of decorating advice in our "Ask the Decorator"
column. I think you'll enjoy her wit and original
insights.
Submit
your questions to Marney by clicking here.
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> TABLE OF CONTENTS
o Featured Article
1) Getting the Most Out of Odd-Shaped Rooms
o Today's Quote
~~~~~~~~~~~~NEWS ~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Last month, we launched our newest decorating
Web site
called Kids
Rooms and Crafts. It offers ideas for decorating
kids' rooms and creating decorative crafts to
fill them.
There's simply no other Web site like it!
We're still adding lots of great content, but
there's plenty of original information and projects
for children's rooms of all ages.
Now, we could really use your help.
You see, we know that there are lots of people
out there who would love to get some easy and
inexpensive ideas for decorating their child's
room, but they haven't found us yet.
So, could you help us...and them...by sharing
this issue of DecoDreams or sending them a quick
email?
Also, if you visit decorating discussion forums,
please let them know that Kids
Rooms and Crafts may have just what they're
looking for.
Thanks in advance for your help and I'll be
in touch next month. :-)
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~~~~~~ FEATURED ARTICLE ~~~~~~
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Getting the Most Out of Odd-Shaped Rooms
Many homes have that one (or sometimes, more
than one)
room that poses special decorating challenges
because of its odd shape. You know the one...the
one that when people walk into the room, they
say, "Oh, what an interestingly shaped
room!"
Oddly-shaped rooms definitely add interest...but
wouldn’t you rather your visitors focus
on the room’s décor, rather than
its shape?
While older homes are more likely to have an
odd-shaped room, many modern homes also have
puzzling nooks and crannies that need your decorating
attention. The purpose of this article is to
give you some specific tips for decorating rooms
that are, quite literally, out of the box.
TIP #1 - If there are multiple windows in the
room, hang identical window treatments on each
window. This helps unify a room that may appear
scattered due to its shape.
TIP #2 - If the room is large, divide the oddly-
shaped room into seve ral "inner rooms",
organized by specific tasks for which the room
is used.
For example, a large den could have the following
inner rooms: game playing room, TV watching
room, reading room, studying room. Organizing
a large room into inner rooms will make the
odd space make sense, both practically and aesthetically.
TIP #3 - Walls that connect to one another
at sharp angles can make a room feel cold and
serious. Help "cozy up" a room with
sharp angles with a decorating folding screen
or a rounded sectional sofa.
Besides helping a room to look softer, there’s
another reason to make those corners more subtle:
in the ancient art of Feng Shui, adding round
features to corners in a room is said to increase
financial prosperity and good health!
TIP #4 - If your room has several disjointed
built-in alcoves, consider joining them together
with a painted border. Take a look at the pictures
of this dining room.
A bold red border has been painted across the
entire wall, cutting into each alcove, and also
extending up to include the ceiling area above
each alcove. By joining the alcoves together
with this dramatic border, the room feels whole,
instead of separate and partitioned.
For a less dramatic but very effective variation
of this technique, simply hang a wallpaper border
across the wall, going into each alcove. However,
unlike the above technique, you would not wallpaper
or paint the ceiling area of each alcove. Just
paint the entire ceiling the same color.
TIP #5 - Place an area rug in the center of
the room, to draw attention away from the periphery
of the room.
TIP #6 - If there is an odd corner of the room
that doesn’t get much use, use lighting
strategically to draw focus away from the corner.
Focus your ambient (general, or overhead) lighting
on illuminating the rest of the room.
TIP #7 - If an odd corner seems to really stick
out, it often is appropriate to create a small
reading corner with a chair, end table, and
a small lamp. A reading corner is appropriate
for almost any room, and it makes an awkward
corner appear cozy.
TIP #8 - Use free-standing shelving, rather
than shelves attached to the walls. With freestanding
furniture pieces such as bookcases and armoires,
you can tweak the room’s shape by setting
the pieces away from the wall several inches.
TIP #9 - Keep the wall covering neutral and
avoid hanging bold or dramatic artwork on the
walls. Look to your furniture pieces to act
as the focal point of the room, rather than
the unusual walls.
TIP #10 - All of these tips being said...if
you want to have some fun, don’t hide your
room’s eccentricities! If you love a contemporary
or eclectic look, by all means, you should highlight
the unusual shape of your room!
Here are some ideas of what you can do with
an "odd
wall":
· Paint a single wall a dramatic color
· Paint a mural on the wall
· Cover the wall with a collage or an
unusual collection
· Hang multiple paintings or prints
on the walls of a room to create a dramatic
"gallery look"
· Place a sculpture or pedestal in front
of the wall and light it dramatically
· Cover the wall with pebbles, bamboo,
moss, or another organic material
Whether you choose to highlight the odd shape
or camouflage it, the important thing is not
to let a non-traditional room get you perplexed!
Stay true to your decorating dreams and don’t
let a willy-nilly nook or a crazy cranny get
in your way.
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~~TURNING IDEAS INTO ACTION!~~~
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ASK THE DECORATOR
DecoDiva, Marney Makridakis, Answers Your Questions
About Odd-Shaped Rooms
QUESTION: I have a large upstairs bedroom.
It was the attic and some dry wall was put up
before I moved in. It has the typical slanted
ceilings that you might expect to see, as the
house is almost an A-frame house. Unfortunately,
there is a big square column in the middle of
the room. It is about 2 feet by 4 feet. I guess
it used to be the stack for the old coal burning
stove that was once in the basement. I have
no idea what to do with this thing. Any ideas
would be great!
ANSWER: There’s one way to successfully
camouflage a
big column like the one in your bedroom, and
that is to cover all sides of it with mirrors.
It’s a surprisingly effective technique
for making a column all but disappear.
That being said, a column of mirrors may not
meld with your decorating style. Since you can’t
make the pillar disappear, I’d suggest
you make unique use of it by actively incorporating
it into your room’s them e. Here are a
few ideas:
· To create a blissful country retreat,
paint a mural of a tree on the column that extends
its branches up to the ceiling.
To create a quaint European setting, hang a
collection of china plates on all sides of the
column.
To create an old-fashioned garret, faux-paint
the column to make it look like it is covered
with stones. Add a trompe l’oiel painting
of a wood- or coal-burning stove for a real
authentic touch.
To create a rustic cabin, cover the column
with log planks, and do the same on the ceiling,
to create the feeling of a log cabin. You can
also simulate this feeling with a faux painting
technique.
To create a contemporary loft, paint each side
of the column a different bold color, or cover
it with fine art or an unusual collection.
To create an eclectic island getaway, decorate
your bedroom in a tropical style and create
your own large totem pole from the column, covered
with ethnic masks and artifacts.
Hopefully, you can see from this short list
of ideas that there are many ways to make the
column a part of your room. Take on this decorating
challenge with gusto and allow it to inspire
you to see your room in a new way!
QUESTION: Hi, our new home has a wonderful
sun room, and I would like for my family to
spend a lot of time there. The problem is that
it’s the only place with washer and dryer
hookup, so I need it to serve as a utility room,
as well. But I still want to use it as a living
area, too. It’s a spacious room, rectangular
in shape, with the w/d hookups on one far end.
I can’t afford to put a wall up to divide
the room. What can I do to make a utility room
and a casual family room work together?
ANSWER: To keep your family room as cozy as
possible, I’d suggest sectioning off the
utility area completely, rather than trying
to make them work together as a single room.
There are lots of ways you can section off that
end of the room, without putting up a new wall.
One thing you can do is place folding screens
across the end of the room with the utility
area. You can have a lot of fun decorating the
side of the screens that face the family room
to match it’s décor. You can cover
the screens with fabric, wallpaper, a painted
pattern or mural, decoupaged old postcards or
photographs - you name it! The screens become
the fourth wall to your family room and you
can really take advantage of such a unique formation
for your room.
You also can hang curtains from the ceiling
to the floor to split the room. This is a great
way to bring more elegance to the family room,
while making sure it’s easy to get in and
out of the utility area.
-----Recommended Resource------
"How to Make Roman Shades"
I reviewed this ebook recently and it's the
best you'll find on how to easily create roman
shades on your own. Step-by-step diagrams and
easy, yet detailed, instructions will have you
making beautiful roman shades in no time at
all. Even sewing beginners will find the process
easy to follow. Just think of the money you'll
save!
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*********** TODAY'S QUOTE ***********
"The golden opportunity you are seeking
is in yourself. It is not in your environment;
it is not in luck or chance, or the help of
others; it is in yourself alone."
- Orison Swett Marden
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Wishing you all the best,
Michael J. Holland - President
Home Decorating Made Easy
Copyright © 2004
REPRINTED WITH
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http://www.home-decorating-made-easy.com
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