Posted by janette on 31st May 2008
Think of these words - freshly cut grass, leathers, fruits, cedar, freshly baked bread, colognes, and baby powder. What do you think these words have in common? Yes, they all evoke our sense of smell.
The sense of smell can play a part in room decor. In the designing point of view, the sense of smell is second to sight. Nothing has a more direct link to our emotions and memories than the sense of smell. For that reason, the whiff, smell or aroma plays an enormous task in our view of any space.

Photo Credit: EffervescentEva
Accessories are the simplest way to incorporate scent into a home’s design. Candles, store-bought potpourri and room perfumes work superbly just like assembling some fresh fruit or vegetables. This mode of preparations can be used in any room of a house, whether it’s a kitchen, living room, dining room or bedroom.
Another way of accentuating the scent in any of your room is by buying fresh flowers on a regular basis. You can also use these flowers to add an accent of color to your place.
Do not ever underrate the exquisite scents secreted from other materials used in your homes such as wood flooring and furniture, hence it continuously emit a scent. Also include the scent from a natural-stone floor, especially slate. It has a superb earthy aroma that is rekindled every time you use water to wipe it down.
You can also use clear vases or bowls and fill them with anything from fresh or dried flowers to bars of soap, flower petals, sand, shells, rocks or even salt. You can also add a drop of potpourri oil to add a certain scent to it. They do not just emit a nice scent but can also accentuate your room with its visual appeal.
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Posted by janette on 31st May 2008
Sleep in a good physical shape bedroom that’s both good for you and the environment.
Prefer a Green Mattress.Invest in the most vital part of your bedroom: the mattress. The whole thing you bring into your home has a probable to off-gas, so when you opt for mattress to doze on, you must look at what they’re made of. Select a mattress that’s free from toxic and those that doesn’t contain polyurethane foam and fire-retardants. Green preferences include organic wool and cotton-filled mattresses that are just as comfy as a chemical-filled mattress. Organic cotton mattress pad help shield your mattress from dust mites.

Photo Credit: organicbedding.com
Buy Organic Bedding. Its sheets and pillowcases made from fibers grown without synthetic pesticides or genetic engineering. Eco-friendly is the overriding umbrella and organic is underneath that. If it’s organic but it uses a lot of resources from the earth in terms of how it’s made, then it’s not necessarily eco-friendly in the holistic sense. Organic is still preferred when it comes to your health. Try to shun the chemical known carcinogen and choose chemical-free sheets such as organic cotton or bamboo. Buying organic doesn’t only do you a favor; it also preserves our mother earth. For blankets, wool is greener than polyester. Be very particular when you see the words “repellents” or “proof” on bedding labels. This point out that chemical are used to treat these products.
Reuse Furniture and Fabric. Instead of buying a new bedroom set, check out some furniture that you already have and invigorate it. For inexpensive do-It-yourself pillows or curtain panels, go for fabric shops and ask for their leftover material scraps. Or, repurpose previous blankets and sheets and create a comforter that’s completely your own.
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Posted by janette on 31st May 2008
When it comes to home design, green is now becoming the new norm. These days you don’t have to sacrifice style to be earth friendly, even when remodeling or redecorating your home. From buying antiques to turning to exceptional fresh designs, you might find these tips helpful.

Photo Credit: beogenesis
Purchase quality products that lasts and you’ll not throw away in time. With our recent environment and the rise of new technology we should consider being ecologically responsible. It is significant to think about buying stuffs that are not disposable if you want to gorge on a new kitchen, patio ensemble or bedroom set.
Integrate classic pieces into your work. It is always best to use your old furniture or other stuffs and repurpose them when you can. It will not only add a style and character to any of your work, it will also save you some cash in your pocket. Reusing or recycling items rather than discarding them is a great way to green up a remodeling project

Photo Credit: iLoveButter
Mull over woven straw or natural fiber made rugs. Try considering something that works well with your floors like rugs that are made from natural fibers. I have one in my room and it feels great and gives me a sense of closeness in nature since I can still smell its fresh aroma, as if I was sitting on a field plus the fact that the color is naturally greener than most floor coverings.
Shop locally. The greatest green product isn’t so great if it has to be shipped halfway around the world on boats, trains, planes, and trucks. Prefer the ones that are made and are available locally.
One thing about designing with sustainability in mind, it’s not necessarily just the products you use, It’s about pure design.
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Posted by janette on 31st May 2008
Walking or just passing into any hotel lobby resembles a hand shake of someone you recently met. Everything is all about the first impression. Just as similar to human, hotel lobbies exemplify different qualities. A lobby could sometimes be alluring, aloof, daunting, or can be incredibly cool.
If you’re taking the shoes of an hotelier, your task will not entirely be standing on the front door and welcoming every guest who comes in every now and then, you can also direct initial familiarities by transforming your lobby into a sanctuary.

Photo Credit: Pargon
The finest lobbies create a shelter and refuge for guests such as tourists, for the business trekker, for the couple or family taking the pleasure of a weekend getaway. Every lobby blends the best of their function and form as you don’t just introduce your sense of style but also anticipating their every need. The guest will surely brand your hotel if they find it trendy, chic, cool, cheap and luxurious the very moment they step in the main front door of the hotel. Lobby will always be the first public space where they immediately step into so take this opportunity to create a powerful first impression once your guests passes through this threshold.
You should come up to smart solutions that will keep your guests coming back. Analyze who your potential guests are. If it’s a couple, design a romantic lounge, if it’s a family on vacation consider on designing a space for play or ice cream area. This way you create an atmosphere that will delight your guest with a welcoming area that they never even expect. In addition to that make your property unique if you want it to stand out among others and will stun your guest to stop every time they pass and be allured with your distinct style. Creating such ways will definitely make your guest’s first visit not their last especially in a competitive hospitality industry.
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Posted by janette on 31st May 2008

Photo Credit: clared23
Stickers or wall decals can be a distinctive approach to generate attention-grabbing theme for your home interior design. Vinyl wall decals are available in various themes. The good thing with these wall decals is that they are easy to remove since they have no adhesive backing in nearly all cases and it can be placed to other areas of the house or any rooms. Vinyl wall decals are beneficial most especially for rented apartments. These decals can be easily removed since they hold fast with static cling - leaving no trace on any surfaces or walls once removed.
Wall decals are also all the rage in decking a nursery’s room - alphabet, train and animal stickers are the most common themes parents chose for their children. Some film fanatics also opt for their favorite science fiction movies such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry or their kid’s favorite heroes like Spiderman, Superman, or Batman just to name a few. A number of designs are attractive such as glow in the dark decals. A solar system look offers a gleaming effect for quite a few minutes but can intermingle to some degree when lights are turned on. Even sport idols, rock stars and other music artists can also be selected as a theme for the wall decals to add a different touch for your kid’s room making it a nice place to hang up and chill whenever your kids turn on their teen years.
Wall decals are also a unique way for a place during parties. Balloons and streamers are the usual choice for a party touch environment but decking your walls with wall decals can add up an excitement to whatever party you have.
Vinyl wall decals for home design and interior decorating grants you infinite ways do embellish a room or home. Their ease of use, simplicity and transferability are the best advantage you can
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Posted by janette on 31st May 2008
Photo Credit: Looking Glass

The awareness in interior design schools is always constantly soaring, maybe because interior design is such an effervescent, ingenious line of work. Interior designers are in demand for their proficiency in generating engaging, fit for human habitation interior places, making the most of their comprehension of quality, color, work of art, blueprint, illumination, health and wellbeing. These are all topics educated at any school or universities in interior design and these topics are not in general uncomplicated to become skilled at on one’s own.

Photo Credit: lucamascaro
Designing vocation is capable to be very rewarding, generating an average of something like $50, 000 and could be more than that. To turn out to be an interior designer, you must be a graduate from a recognized interior design curriculum and pass the National Conference of Interior Design Qualifications examination. Interior decorating, interior design, set design, commercial interior design, exhibit design, lighting design and space planner are just some of the specialties that you would want to opt for and fit your interests.
Generally it will take four years to complete the course in an interior design schools. In addition to that you also need to consider the quality of the faculty, average class size, the school’s reputation or ranking, the school’s record in finding graduates jobs, and things such as location and cost of tuition. However it is also an option to attend an online interior design school and bring in an AA degree that will get you to work faster. A lot of online listings can assist you to discover the ideal school for your interior design education
If you encompass an imaginative bent, going to an interior design school perhaps is the perfect progress for you and just prior to knowing it, you’ll be getting the pleasure from a fulfilling and money-spinning profession in the pasture of interior design.
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Posted by janette on 30th May 2008
Another piece of art that astonished me is the “Tete-a-Tete Rocker”. This is one of the furniture exhibited by Laurie Beckerman designs in the 2008 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City. This design was also part of the exhibit happened last January 17 - April 11 2008 at the Nhow hotel in Milan, Via Tortona 35.

Photo Credits: lauriebeckerman
Born in Brooklyn, Laurie Beckerman took her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from New York University, finished her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Pratt Institute, and started to design a housing project in Brooklyn and Harlem for the Pratt Architectural Collaborative after her graduation.
Her passion in creating her own style of furniture designs enkindled when she first created a table from using a stone for the facade of the Jewish Museum., where she mostly spent her break time at the stone yard of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine to perfect her learning for craft and carvings.
This modern version of lounge chair Tete-a-Tete Rocker is made in Corian (material from Dupont) with Height: 2′-6″, Length: 5′-0″, Width: 3′-6″ and are available in all colors by Corian. This rocking lounge chair is designed to give an intimate conversation among two people and at the same time enjoying the comfort of seating with privacy.
Source: lauriebeckerman
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Posted by janette on 30th May 2008
Bean bag chairs are a voguish form of furniture made by fabric and usually filled with little pieces of styrofoam or PVC pellets. They were staggeringly best-selling as a stylish article of furniture during the late 1960s and early 1970s; their fame resumed in the mid 1990s, as companies began marketing chairs filled with shredded polyurethane foam, bearing down a premium for the added comfort provided by their products.

From the 1970s furniture, the bean bags now reappear in the design world of interiors with an eye popping new forms and new fabrics. One major aspect designers consider in creating their best work is the space. Style, texture and colors are all important but combined with flexibility is a major plus. I just happen to gaze to one of Lojoball’s design, from the word ball, which makes a really big sense to me. I was captured with its unique style and flexibility. I thought of those times I am living in a limited space with my dorm mates during my college years. I told myself these beanbags are perfect for the place.

Photo Credits: lojoball
From Europe Lojoball introduces their products in New America with concept of utilizing any space without even compromising the comfort. Lojoballs are flexible enough to be used as a stool, footrest and the best part, a lounge chair. Just zip and unzipped it and you’ll create a different cool design without any hassle in considering the space. Plus it can also be used in outdoors since it is also inflatable and comes with a stylish tote bag. Lojoball products are formed with beans on it’s rear to mold the shape and carry your bottoms and its back is inflatable to support the lower back.
Behind Lojoballs success in design are the couple Kirsten and Stefan Knox from UK. The Lojo has captivated the attention of the crowd when it was first introduced at IMM - International Furnishing Show in Cologne, Jan 2008 and has also captured the eyes in its launching at ICFF 2008.
Source: Lojoball
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Posted by janette on 30th May 2008

Photo Credits: marujafuentes
Have you tried having some guests you least expect to come over your house? Do you have those tough moments when you’re running out of space or rooms for your extra guests? I have come to discover a unique design from marujafuentes - the leaning-molds. I think this is perfect when you invite friends to come over at your place partying. In this kind of event oftentimes guests chose to stand and chat the whole night with friends having a toss of drinks with their hands. But at the end of that everyone will get weary of course, when you don’t have any spare spaces your walls are best to place this leaning molds. Instead of sitting, they can comfortably lean against it for support. These leaning molds are formed with two recycled plastic molds with the same shape. These pieces look like a puzzle and they are designed to fit together and can also be used in either individually or in composition.

Photo Credits: marujafuentes
Another cool design I found from them is the seating and also a table system called “flower pods”. Like the leaning molds it could also function as a puzzle. Its cool design and organic shape can transform any space, making it flexible that it can be arranged in different ways.
A designer raised from Puerto Rico, Maruja Fuentes attained her Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture at Catholic University of America, pursue her Master’s in Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and also took furniture and textile design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She believes that the importance of concept is what makes every design unique and best. Things that are unnoticed and those that are taken for granted are her best choice and her objective of making all her furniture environment friendly.
Source: marujafuentes
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Posted by janette on 28th May 2008
From the world of soft designs, molo’s creations are the best that I can think of. They’re soft structures are made from papers and textiles that includes softwalls, softblocks, softseating and the most recent softlight. The ideas of creating these soft products are designed to transform any open space into a more intimate momentary ambiance that is flexible and sequential way allowing a reusability that is incomparable.
molo is a Vancouver based design studio, committed to materials research and a journeying of space creation. As a design and manufacturing business, molo produces and hand out exceptional and ground-breaking products to clients worldwide. The design of molo products develops from Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen’s architectural discovery, enthused by the inspiration that minor concrete stuffs and elements can have a real influence in the substantial understanding of a space.
Photo credits: molodesign


From the recent release, they now introduce the softlight, an assortment of sculptural lamps, completed from flexible honeycomb arrangements. Because of its flexibility, each softlight can be adjusted to obtain deviations in figure, and so the physical course of design carry on as different person adjust its shape into a their personal choice by just simply stretching, pushing and pulling the soft, elastic honeycomb structures.


Added to their collection of designed products are the flexible softseating which is also created in a water and tear-resistant, non-woven textile material. The softseating is created with different sections having a magnetic end panels that could easily connect ends of any two or more of the same size to craft a long meandering benches and seating sceneries.


Another honeycomb structures from molo is the softwall and sofblocks both can expand, stack, and be freely shaped. Because of its flexible nature in structure the softwall can be long-drawn-out and contracted to generously shape intimate room within bigger open space and can also be fanned open to just over 16.5′(5m) in length, or smaller dimensions as desired while the softblock can be stacked to any height up to 10′(3m), as well as functional horizontal surfaces of varying heights and forms.

All of the pieces in the soft collection of softseating, softblocks, softwalls and softlighting are designed and intended to be used and molo’s idea is to make each one reusable in a flexible and vibrant way to allow a little bit of material to go a very long way.
Source: molodesign
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