Tag: ca interiors

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Tips on decorating your outdoor space

When you are decorating your home, it is easy to forget about the great outdoors. But, if done right, you can extend the living space of your home to the outside with comfortable and cozy seating areas and clever decorating ideas. Of course, this can add up to a pretty penny if you purchase everything from a high-end store or catalog. Luckily, there are budget-friendly ways to create a homey atmosphere without breaking the bank.

This great collection of inexpensive and DIY outdoor decorating ideas can help you turn your patio, porch, or lawn into a beautiful extension of your home, providing extra space to entertain or unwind in a personalized setting.

CREATIVE OUTDOOR DESIGN

Outdoor living spaces don’t have to be limited to a complete table and chair set placed on a deck or patio. Creating an outdoor room can mean a seating area under a favorite tree, a bistro table, and chairs nestled in the garden, or a lounge set by the fire pit. Look around your yard and find a space that seems cozy or pretty, basically an area that you would like to spend time in, and then think creatively when it comes to furnishings.

BUDGET OUTDOOR FURNISHINGS

Outdoor furniture can become very expensive, especially when you’re looking at lounge sets made up of sofas and chairs. But there are ways to find cheap patio furniture you’ll love, like scouring estate sales, consignment stores, and antique shops. Also check out your local online tag sales (through Facebook or another app), eBay, and Craigslist. And remember that metal and plastic furniture can be spray painted fresh new colors and covered with new cushions and throw pillows, bringing old tired pieces to life.

CREATIVE OUTDOOR DECORATING

Sometimes it is the little touches that make a room—no matter if that room is inside or outside. Charming accents like lighting, planters, and small furniture can take a space from bland to beautiful in no time. But that doesn’t mean the items need to come from the high-end outdoor design shop—there are several projects you can do yourself to create high-end looking decor!

CHEAP CURB APPEAL

If first impressions are your concern, then maybe improving your home’s curb appeal is what you are after. Good thing is that you can do this without breaking the bank. Refresh your front door with a coat of paint, change or add interesting house numbers to the front of the house, or swap out old, outdated light fixtures for some that make a statement.

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Decorating ideas for the summer

Bring the colors and feelings of summertime into your home with our best tips and tricks for summer decorations. With ideas for seasonal accents and easy updates, our roundup of summer decorating ideas will give your home a bright and sunny look you’ll love.

GO NAUTICAL

Some of the best summer decorating ideas come from the seashore. Find subtle nautical decor to make your home feel more like a beach house. Navy blue and white stripes should do the trick, or pick up a boat-shaped relic from the flea market.

TRAVEL SHOTS

Preserve your vacation photos by printing, framing, and arranging them in a gallery wall. This summer decorating trick will save you money on art and give you a great talking point at parties. Plus, the memories will cure your wanderlust as you start planning your next summer vacation.

PARTY STARTER

Welcome summer decorations by entertaining outdoors. Low tables, floor pillows, and strands of clear outdoor lights will set a merry mood. Winning combos of bright colors, such as turquoise, red, and white, create a festive atmosphere and 

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Easy decorating ideas for the Festive Season

On the whole, South Africans tend to show restraint when decorating their homes for the holidays.

It’s difficult to go ‘full on’ with winter-themed décor when the sun is shining and it’s hot. But we do like to put on a bit of a display to celebrate the festive season, especially when there are young ones involved.

If you struggle to dress your home for the holidays, try the following tips…

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION

Most people love anything that twinkles and shines, and tend to go a bit overboard during the holidays. However, you want to take care not to overload your home with bling. You can create a wonderful festive atmosphere with just a few tasteful accessories.

Smaller festive decorations can be used to create a wonderful vignette on a coffee table, shelf or fireplace mantel. These will add just enough festive flair to your home.

CREATE A FESTIVE DISPLAY

It’s easy to pile on the decorations in a smaller home, so much so that it becomes difficult to move around. Create a beautiful holiday display in one area of the home. Make sure that it doesn’t interfere with everyday living though. An entrance hall or staircase is a great place to hang and display assorted decorations. This is an ideal arrangement because the decorations will greet guests as they walk into your home.

To decorate a festive display, all you need are a few garlands of evergreen interspersed with shimmering baubles, a colourful wreath and a small, decorated tree.

LET THE TREE BE THE MAIN FEATURE

If you put up a Christmas tree every year, whether real or artificial, let this be the main feature when decorating your home for the holidays. When dressed with beautiful ornaments and shimmering tinsel, the Christmas tree will be a focal point and set a festive atmosphere for the entire house.

Choose tree ornaments that tie in with the style of decorating in your home. With so many beautiful tree ornaments to choose from, it’s so easy to overload the tree, so decide on a theme and colour, and keep it simple.

ADD SOME SPARKLE

Fairy lights are a staple for decorating a holiday home. LED lights mean that you don’t have to worry about starting a fire as they don’t heat up as much as incandescent globes and can be used indoors and outdoors. When buying lights for the outdoors, make sure they are rated for exterior use.

Many LED fairly lights are battery operated. Being low-voltage and being able to run for a long time on a battery means you can hang these anywhere.

Create your own magical display using fresh, green garlands, strings of tinsel and baubles.

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Tips for decorating a rustic holiday home

There’s something naturally rustic about the holiday season. Whatever the reason, this style gets a lot of attention, and we’re giving it some more.

FOCUS ON WHITE

There are quite a few colors that are associated with the holidays. Red, green, gold, and white are some of the most common. When it comes to creating the perfect rustic seasonal home, you want to keep your focus on the white. With subtle touches of the other colors as accents and décor, use white as backgrounds, upholstery, rugs, and more to create the feeling of being in a snow-covered forest.

RECLAIM YOUR FURNISHINGS

Add coziness and warmth to the room with lots and lots of reclaimed wood. Not only do furnishings made with these materials usually come in a more muted, wintery color palette, but they’ll also add texture and that beautiful unfinished quality to the space that is so important when it comes to rustic designs.

BE INSPIRED BY NATURE

When picking out holiday accents and décor, let yourself be inspired by nature. Reindeer immediately conjure up a Christmasy feeling, so use antlers as ornaments, hooks, and more to bring both the rustic and festive spirit into your home. Introduce succulents on wreaths, pinecones as bookends and candleholders, forest green upholstery on armchairs.

KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

Whatever you do, don’t over decorate. This rustic look is all about simplicity–going back to the basics. Choose your furniture and décor carefully so that each piece is doing as much work as possible. This will allow you to keep your home feeling open, clean, and humble while still enjoying the hints of festive features.

FEATURE YOUR TREE

The item that should be doing the most work in your rustic holiday home is your Christmas tree. This should be the center of attention. You must have a real tree in this style setting, though you can choose whether or not its branches are full or spare.

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The guide to fabrics and how to clean them

We wear different types of fabrics every day, but chances are that we don’t know what they are, or even how to take care of them. Good fabrics are worth nothing if not cleaned or maintained properly, and improper care could be a waste of money.  

Clothing, after all, is and should be treated as an investment. Proper care for the different clothes in your wardrobe can help keep them looking their best and prolong their use. Here are the different kinds of fabrics and how to take care of them:

Cotton

Most cotton fabrics are “pre-shrunk”, which makes them highly durable. Cotton garments can be machine-washed with any detergent. As with any fabric, reserve bleach for whites. If bleach is needed for colored clothing, use color-safe bleach as much as possible.

(Denim, the cloth you find in jackets and jeans, also falls in this category – cotton is woven into denim using a twill.)

Machine-wash in cold or warm water with all-purpose detergent and line-dry in shade to avoid yellowing. For white cotton, wash with bleach on a hot water setting.

Synthetics (Polyester, Nylon, Spandex, etc.)

Synthetic fabrics don’t have the risk of shrinkage unlike more delicate fabrics, and are resistant to water-based stains. However, friction makes them conducive to static electricity.

Polyester, considered the “wonder fiber” of the 20th century, makes for durable, easy-to-wash garments that come in a wide variety of colors. Most polyester fabrics can be machine-washed in warm water, but be sure to iron on low heat to keep the fibers from melting.  

Another synthetic widely used today is spandex, an elastic fiber used in a lot of sportswear because of its flexibility and its resistance to wear and tear due to friction. Be sure to avoid bleach and hot water when washing spandex fabrics.

Rayon

Rayon is a textile made from wood pulp and is treated with chemicals, which makes it a semisynthetic fabric.

While cool and comfortable, rayon has the drawback of losing its crispness, as well as bleed and/or shrink, when laundered.

Consider hand-washing in cold water with mild detergent if dry-cleaning is not an option. Air dry and iron when slightly damp.

Linen

This is an example of a natural fabric, this time made from flax. Linen is a surprisingly light and breezy fabric that keeps you cool in hot weather, and, like cotton, is machine-washable.

Clean linens in warm water with chlorine-free bleach and hang to dry. Using the medium heat setting on the dryer is also a good option for drying this fabric.

Cashmere

Cashmere makes for some of the most comfortable sweaters and scarves, as this fabric is made of a natural fiber woven from goat hair.

Dry-clean cashmere as much as possible. If this is not an option, consider hand-washing with baby shampoo. Ironing or machine-drying can ruin cashmere, and wringing can loosen the weave.

Never hang cashmere scarves or sweaters. Instead, fold them to make sure they retain their shape.

Silk

Silk feels exquisite, but is quite delicate to handle and difficult to clean. This natural fiber is among one of the world’s oldest textiles and clothing materials, and the fiber is in itself washable.

However, silk is difficult to clean because of the many fabric weaves that may tighten or pucker when washed. When washing silk, be sure to follow the garment labels. Dry-clean as much as possible. If hand-washing is an available option, use products formulated especially for delicate fabrics.

To dry silk garments, roll them in a towel to press out the moisture and hang to dry. Press with a warm iron.

Wool

Natural wool is woven from animal fur, which is a great natural insulator and really easy to dye into many different colors.

Wool fabrics can be a cross between rugged tweeds and wool challis, and sometimes both weaves are incorporated in certain clothing. Wool knits need to be dry-cleaned, but may be hand-washable in cool water depending on the label.

Garments made of lined wool look best when dry-cleaned once a month. Be sure to remove the surface soil a damp cloth and refresh by hanging from a padded hanger.