How to Choose Right Paint for your bedroom?

Nothing has a bigger impact on the mood and ambiance of a room than color. When it's time to repaint your master bedroom, color choice is paramount because your goal is to create a room that is restful and conducive to recharging the body and soul. Here are some tips on how to zone in on the right color for this all important paint makeover.

A Restful Canvas

When repainting a bedroom, or any room for that matter, first look at the space with fresh eyes. What is about the room that appeals to you and what would you like to change? Does the room seem like a dark cave, or does it seem cold and impersonal. Then consider the mood you wish to create, your style and what furnishings you intend to keep or replace. While many people automatically think a bedroom should be painted in a light color, a deep color is a good choice for a bedroom because it has a cozy cocooning effect. Even if a room is small, the fact that it looks cluttered may have more to do with too much furniture, or furniture that is too large, than it has to do with color. De-clutter first by getting rid of whatever you don't need in the bedroom. Clutter will make the room look disorganized and chaotic, and feel anything but restful, no matter what color the walls are painted.

What's more important in a bedroom than the depth of color is the tone of color. A soothing shade of travertine taupe, while deep, is restful. A shade of mauve, while lighter, can have an electrifying tonal effect that is too energizing or 'loud' for a bedroom. Neutral tones and pastels give you many options for bringing in punches of color and style with bedding, accessories, window treatments and furniture.

Before choosing paint color, decide on a look and color scheme to help you narrow your choices. Home interior magazines, books and websites can give you lots of design ideas; keep a file of torn or copies pages or website print sheets of your inspiration room. Once you have a good idea of your 'dream' bedroom, find an item that contains the colors and style you are after. A teacup, a pillow, a pillow sham - it doesn't matter as long as it inspires you and keeps you on track. Take this inspiration piece with you when shopping and it will be easier to achieve your design goal.

Now that you've narrowed down your paint choices to two or three options, don't rely on tiny paint cards from the store to give you an accurate idea of how the finished walls will look. Paint a 2x2 foot square of each color on different walls and live with them a few days in different light conditions to help you make the right choice. You're going to paint over it anyway, so give yourself a chance to see how you will like living with each potential choice.

Rely on your inspiration and choose bedding, pillows, curtains and window treatments, lamps, area rugs, wall art, candles, a chair or bench and accessories to add the finishing touches to you restful bedroom retreat. Accessories are where you can really bring in contrast or harmony with color, and bring in the finishing touches that make a room personally yours. - Jeanelle Deppner

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Best 2 Way to Clean The Air In Your Home

Most people think that the only function of an air conditioner is to provide a cool temperature during summer months. Aside from giving you cool air, your air conditioner unit also helps in decontaminating and sanitizing the air around you through the use of a filtration process. When people are continuously exposed to contaminated air, they might end up with several chronic health problems like allergies and asthma.

There are wide varieties of air conditioner units, and most of them are built using electronic air filters. This type of air filter can pull out clean around 95% of the pollutants in the air by capturing them on a metal filter plate. Usually, this type of filter is placed in the air ducts and the furnace in your heating and cooling system.

Electronic air filters help to clean contaminated air and improve the quality of indoor air. You need to understand the air inside your home contains allergens, dust particles, dirt, fumes, and other several substances that cannot be simply removed with the use of a vacuum. With the use of the electronic air filter, the contaminated air will be cleansed and those particles collected will be drawn to the plates. You can clean your plates to remove those collected substances.

Two Types of Electronic Air Filter;

• Electrostatic - this type of electronic air filter gather particles or substances using the charged plates that are installed in them. These are more effective than other types of filters because they can accumulate a lot of particles.

• Charged filters - the substances and particles collected are deposited using the charged fibers located in the machine.

There are two types of tests to determine how well filters clean the air in your home: the weight test along with the dust spot test. These two tests will help you to determine whether your air filter is efficient or not. The weight test determines the cleansing capacity of the machine using the weight of the collected dirt that the filter can remove. However, this test cannot tell you if the machine is efficient at removing small substances or particles in the air around you. The dust spot test, however, tells you if your filter can catch particularly tiny particles, ranging from 0.3 to 6 microns

Regardless of what type of filter you use, make sure that you clean it on a regular basis using the proper cleaning tools and equipment. This will help you to ensure that you and your family will have a quality and improved indoor air without the risk to your health-Jane Dabad

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Create your personal laundry space

Are you tired of traipsing up and down the basement stairs to do your laundry? Why not have a little niche or space exclusively dedicated to the laundry. Maybe you could convert a store room or an unused servants room into a laundry. Plan your laundry room as carefully as you would any other room in the house. Make it your favourite room in the house so you'll enjoy spending time in it. Give it a personality.

Forget white; surround yourself with colour. Fill it with pretty things. Wallpaper the walls. Add an antique rug, Roman shades and a ceramic urn with flowers.

Give yourself lots of storage. Make sure everything has a place. Open cubbies, shelves and closed cabinetry. Include a linen closet or armoire. Use fancy hardware. If there's room, a 65-inch-long counter-height folding table is a must. There's nothing better than having space to fold bed linens. Add a counter stool so you have the option to sit while you fold. Forget harsh overhead lights. Give the room beautiful lighting. Use recessed cans for task light, then add a hanging fixture over the folding table, or wall sconces for more ambient light. Put everything on a dimmer.

Give yourself a few distractions. Build a flat-screen TV into overhead storage. Play your favourite movie. Use wall or ceiling speakers to play music. Add a utility sink. Give it a stone or marble surround.

Use it for cutting fresh flowers, cleaning up dirty projects, hand laundry and for pre-treating or starching clothes. Buy a great-looking washing machine and dryer. Build them into lower cabinetry and add a stone or marble counter top for folding. Position an ironing board cabinet into free wall space. Or use an ironing stand on folding counter space.

Keep your iron in an open shelf for easy access. Don't let the room go to waste. Use it for other tasks. Let the folding table double as a project surface. It's a great place for the kids to do their homework. Or use it as a quiet place to read a book with a cup of tea. Your laundry room can be a place where you chill out as well.Ritika Ramtri Kumar

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How to clean Pine Wood Floor ? - Cleaning Tips to Keep it Attractive

If you are fortunate enough to have outfitted your home with pine wood flooring, you should follow specific steps to keep it looking nice for years. Though it is often referred to as hardwood, it is actually quite soft and can be damaged over time through small issues, such as dirt and dust.

To keep it looking as good as new for years to come, you should first know that you cannot clean it the same as you would tile or carpeting.

When you notice a spill, your first instinct might be to grab a mop or cloth, some water, and cleaning products. However, such items may actually damage pine wood flooring quite easily. Instead, pick up a lightly damp cloth to wipe the area.

Throwing water on the surface can ruin the look of the floor quickly, stripping the finish fast, and even water-based cleaning products can do the same. Therefore, the goal is to keep the areas as dry as possible, so if water is necessary to remove a sticky spot or difficult spill, ensure that only a limited amount is present for a short time.

Dust and dirt can scratch pine wood flooring, which means it is especially important to keep it clean. You can place small rugs inside each entrance to limit the amount of dirt tracked in from outside, and vacuum or dust often. Just do not use a beater-bar vacuum since that can scuff the surface itself.

You can use an electrostatic mop, which actually works more like a broom, to eliminate dirt without scratching the pine wood flooring.

In general, remember that you cannot use the typical cleaning products on this type of surface. Lots of water, soap, and strong detergent are not the lifesavers on pine wood flooring that they usually are on regular floors. Instead, use specialty wooden floor cleaners, or a mixture of vinegar and water wiped on the floor and dried off quickly.

The consequences of not cleaning this type of floor properly may include expansion, scratches, and loss of shine. You might think this kind of floor seems high maintenance as it is suggested that you sweep everyday to avoid damage.

However, many busy homeowners place area rugs and runners in high-traffic areas of the house, which means they do not have to clean daily. If you decide to take this route, you can simply use these tips when you witness a spill, allowing you to keep your floors clean and attractive for years - Andrew Stratton 

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