Home Decorating & Design

It’s the accent pieces, the finishing touches, the small but significant items that give a home personality. When you’re decorating a new home from scratch, these things are often overlooked in favor of the major decisions about flooring, wall coverings and large furniture such as beds and sofas.

These little decorative items are what make a room comfortable and welcoming. Toss one or two beaded pillows on your bed or couch, and see how inviting it becomes. Brighten up your kitchen with some ceramic gourmet pigs on the counters, and it will become the place where everyone gathers. Envelop your living room in the grace of candlelight and watch everyone relax in its glow. You don’t have to spend an enormous amount of money to create an inviting atomosphere.

Use Greenery to Give your Room Life
Plants and flowers are among the best ways to make a room hospitable. Use a wide variety of planters, urns and plant stands to suit your decorating scheme that are made from alabastrite, which is an inexpensive material. Select your plants and containers to complement the room, not clash with it. Bright colors are excellent for the kitchen, but pastels might be more restful in the bedroom.

Don’t forget about the outdoor areas as a lead to your interior decorating. Matching lions statues at the end of the driveway give a regal touch to your entrance. Or you may prefer something more whimsical, such as loving frogs on a bench sculpture, to liven up your patio or door entrance. For a romantic atmosphere, choose a Victorian style cherub, or hang candle lanterns in the branches of nearby trees. Inside and out, let your home reflect your own gracious welcome.

Visit your on-line resource for home decor accents at affordable prices.

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You almost have to be from another planet these days to not be familiar with the term ‘eBay”. Tbe growth of online auction houses and eBay in particular has been phenomenal. At last count eBay has almost 150,000 registered users, 50,000 categories and over 400 million listings.

If you are considering redecorating or just starting to decorate your home, it could be almost impossible not to find whatever it is you are looking for. In fact, you may find many new ideas and items of interest you never even thought about. This may send you off in an entirely new direction you hadn’t ever considered.

Shopping for home decorating items on eBay should be an experience you should have at least once. It is as if a world wide bazaar was spread out at your feet. If you had access to Aladdin’s lamp, you would not get a wider array of goods available to you. If you are new to eBay, start with small, inexpensive and easily shipped items.

There are two keys to an enjoyable eBay shopping experience:

• Question, question, question
• Research the vendor

Question until you are satisfied

The descriptions and pictures are often very detailed and accurate. However, you still may have unanswered questions. Don’t hesitate to contact the vendor and ask questions until you feel you have all the information you need to make a bid or purchase.

As you look at other various similar items, notice the information given in the description. This will give you an idea what type of information should be included in the description. If there is some information in a similar description that is not included in the description of the item you are considering, don’t hesitate to ask for that information.

Believe me, the vendors only want to satisfy buyers. They do not want the hassle of returned merchandise. You may be surprised to learn you can get more product information from an eBay vendor than you can obtain in a nearby retail store.

Research the Vendor

The second most important key is to research the vendor. To find a member, click on the “Advanced Search” button. From there click on “Find a Member” button in the left column and enter the seller’s eBay user ID/name. You will be brought to the seller’s “About Me” page. From here there are all types of information available for your research.

You can also click on the item you are interested in.
This will bring you to the description page. In the right hand column is the info about the seller. The name, number of comments (listed next to the star), and feedback info is there. The most important information you will be looking for is customer feedback. A feedback rating in the high 90’s will assure you will have excellent customer service and be satisfied that your purchase is exactly as it was pictured and described.

When you make a decision to jump in and get your feet wet at eBay, these are the two most important points to remember in order to enjoy the experience and have maximum satisfaction with your purchase.

Once you receive your purchase, look it over carefully to be sure it was presented accurately and you are satisfied with your purchase. Most vendors will bend over backward to keep their buyers happy and returning with more business. The high rating they have worked hard to achieve is important to them. They certainly don’t want any negative feedback bringing that rating down.

Follow these guidelines and you can confidently purchase any item you could possibly want for your home decorating project. So go ahead, take the plunge into the world of online auction bidding and buying. Redecorate with style and amaze your family and friends with your one of a kind decorating items and rare finds.

You may find you are having such a great time that you may never shop for your home decorating items in a retail store ever again!

Gloria Daniels has worked in many areas of the home decorating field and has been helping clients decorate their homes creatively for over 20 years. For more help and hints about decorating with eBay visit her website at www.home-decorating-room-by-room.com/ebaybudgetdecorating.html. While there take advantage of her *free* online home decorating workbook to help you develop the home of your dreams.

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Typically a small space consisting of just a sink and toilet, you most likely know them by a more common term “half-bath” or “guest bath.

Ever wonder where the term “powder room” came from? It’s derived from Victorian times, when women needed to “powder their noses”.

Why consider them a jewel when it comes to decorating, also why bother decorating them, it is after all only a bathroom.

A bathroom is a room in your home, in fact depending on the number of baths you have it can become a public room, which means from time to time other people besides yourself will be passing through. So why not dress it up, even if guest only use it occasionally make it pretty for you.

Due to their size, a complete make over can be done in as little as a weekend and at little cost. This is also what makes them a jewel; being small you can really have fun decorating them, plus by not requiring a big budget you’re able to change the look more often.

The following are a few ideas to get started with.
Start with the walls. Paint, wallpaper, stenciling what ever treatment you like. With the small size of the room, the cost will be a lot lower.

Here is the perfect opportunity to experiment with bolder colors, some type of theme or maybe you’ve been dying to try one of the many painting techniques.

Using a theme to decorate the bath can be really fun. If your not sure what to use take a look around your home for inspiration. It could be an extension of a collection you may have or a take off on a vacation.

Example of a theme, based on a vacation: Do you love the beach and vacation each year at the ocean? If so here is your inspiration. Use a wallpaper border around the room with shells or boats on it. Hunt around discount stores, flea markets or garage sales for beach related accessories; use a lightweight natural color window treatment. But before you purchase anything new, take a walk around the house, if you love the beach chances are you may already have items that you can use.

Add some sparkle with a new light fixture, mirror or towel racks in finishes of chrome, gold and bronze.

With limited floor space, look for storage solutions that perform double duty. Shelves with a towel rack provide not only a place to hang pretty towels; it’s the perfect place for extra toiletries and accessories.

New flooring can add drama however; if this is not currently in the budget an area rug in a bold color or a geometric pattern will do the trick.

Of course a complete make over is not always necessary, sometimes just simple changes could be all that’s needed. How about a vase of fresh flowers, some new towels, a whimsical piece of art or new window treatments.

Have some fun - get creative - and turn that often passed over half-bath into something special. Let it become the jewel in your home decorating projects box.

This article is shareware. Give this article away for free on your site, or include it as part of any paid package as long as the entire article is left intact including this notice. Copyright © 2004 bonnie carrier

Bonnie P. Carrier is the creator of Savvy Home Decorating. She is the mother to two grown daughters and a very spoiled 4yr old Blue Merle Sheltie named Toby. Having been a homemaker for over 23yrs has provided years of experience in budget decorating and organization. Stop by Savvy Home Decorating -http://www.savvy-home-decorating.com - for ideas and tips on budget decorating:

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