Weiss Report Blog

When decorating a smaller room, space is generally the main concern. And with the rising prices of real estates, decorating petite rooms is a challenged that more and more home owners face. But there are different ways to visually expand the space of your rooms and create welcoming ambiances and easy to live-in spaces. Small rooms don’t have to be a decorating liability!

Play with lights and color to make your small room larger than it actually is

Whenever possible, let as much natural light flow into the room as you can. Do not block windows with blinds or heavy curtains. Natural light creates a warm atmosphere, and makes a small room more welcoming.

Also, reflecting natural light visually expands the space. When facing the main light source, mirrors become another source of natural light, and make the room brighter and look bigger.

To visually enlarge the space further, paint walls white or other soft and clear colors. These shades will bounce, not capture, light. Light-colored floors also reflect the light and make a room bright and airy.

You can also achieve the illusion of length by painting a couple of horizontal lines on your walls. Choose bold colors for a greater effect.

Choose the right furniture and decorative accents

Smaller room proportions do not mean you have to sacrifice comfort or attractiveness when selecting furniture. Considering “function” and simplicity in your choices is the key to success.

Think about the main function of the room. It will guide you in simplifying the quantity, style, and placement of furniture. If the room has many functions, select furniture that fold, stack or hang, and only bring them out when needed.

Keeping in mind a few designers’ techniques and tricks will help you to further create the illusion of more space:

- Keep furniture finishes and styles the same throughout a room. Reflective glass or glossy furniture will also further brighten up the room. - Choose sleek furniture for a slimmer and lighter look and keep seating, beds, and cabinets low to give the illusion of a high ceiling. - Opt for dark floor coverings. The contrast between the dark floors and the bright walls and furniture will create the illusion of higher ceilings.

You can also achieve the illusion of larger spaces by placing long framed pictures and paintings on your walls. The paintings that achieved the best results show long horizontal lines.

Whether your home office is a whole room, or only as big as your computer desk, you’ll know how hard it is to keep chaos at bay luckily there are some nifty modern home office organization solutions to suit workstation spaces large and small.

If you have the roof, the best way to organize your home office is with plain industrial shelving and file boxes. Safco industrial shelving starts off with four shelves and four posts and can be extended to suit your growing needs. The shelving is light and easy to assemble with S-shaped hooks.

Marbig have a vast range of storage solutions to maximise your home office storage. Start with large, easy to assemble file boxes to take care of documents, spare copy paper and anything else you want to store long term. These boxes are easy to pack if you are moving, without having to repack everything they contain.

Magazines can be stored in Marbig’s easy to assemble magazine cases and you will find their suspension file boxes much easier to handle and store than a metal filing cabinet.

The smaller your office space, the more critical it is to find clever organization solutions. A couple of large archive file boxes can be fitted under your desk, one on top of the other, but you can also get large box organizers with pull out drawers and shelves for easy access.

Maximising your desk space is a must if you want to get organized. Desks quickly fill up with the usual work at home necessities such as a computer, printer and scanner. But there are ways to cut down on the space demands.

Instead of having a separate printer and scanner unit, get a printer and scanner combined. This will take up less space and add to your efficiency.

If you like music while you work, headphones will take up less space than speakers. If you need a fan to keep your workspace cool, get one that mounts on the wall rather than a desk fan.

Make use of wall space with a corkboard so you can keep track of your projects. Many of us who work at home also like to have personal photos and cards in evidence, and a corkboard will also keep these items from cluttering up your desk.

Place a multi storage organizer on the desk itself to take care of the `fiddly bits’ like pens, envelopes, staples and printer cartridges. One of the best is the home office desk organiser from Alsto’s, which has four levels of shelves and drawers to keep everything organized, from paper clips to documents. It is also a very stylish piece of furniture crafted in wood finished with a matt black surface.

If you don’t want to go to a lot of expense, simple cardboard organizers and stacking trays will do as well. You can get stacking trays from Marbig that can be fitted together in as many levels as you need, or you may prefer the Buddy desktop organizer range, which also provides space for slotting document wallets in an upright position as well as stacked trays.

If space really is a problem, a useful organizer for those working at home is a folding cart, like those made for crafts or the kitchen. A trolley with at least two shelves and a flat table top can store anything you are working on now and can be quickly moved from room to room, depending on where you want to work. A trolley is handy if you have a laptop, or need to stow your work out of the way in a closet or spare room when visitors arrive.

Whatever your home office organizer needs, there is a storage solution that will work for you.

Probably one of the most overlooked features of window are the curtain rods and finials. For a lot of people this is the last thing they think about if they’ve chosen a curtain that covers most (if not all) of the curtain rod anyway. Who cares what it looks like? Well, someday you may fall in love with a curtain style, such as a button tabbed curtain, that prominently displays the rod underneath. You don’t want a $2 tin stick beside your adorable window treatments, you need something that makes a similar statement as the curtains.

This overlooked feature can really bring pizzazz to your décor and needs to complement both the window and the curtains you have chosen, as well as be appropriately functional.

Hardware for window treatments is available in a wide variety of styles. Some curtain rods are designed to be covered by the curtains, while others are best displayed prominently due to their highly decorative nature. If the rod is meant to be featured you could hang the curtains from decorative rings sewn into the top panel. Considering both the curtain and the rod at the same time will save you the disappointment of having pieces that don’t complement each other.

Today’s Lesson: Do you know what finials are? They are the decorative ends on the curtain rod. I didn’t know their official name for several years. I just called them “ends of the curtain rod.” They can be wooden, wrought-iron, glass, or plastic.

The most standard types are: * hook * the onion (or ball) * the swirl * the dagger

Finials can range widely in price, from the $2 plastic pieces to $100 very heavy fancy pieces. Consider your budget but also know that what you choose will make a certain statement in the room and that statement will last longer than the effects of spending a little extra money. You also have to be sure the finials will fit where you are hanging the curtain. Consider the shape of your window and the molding around it. In some cases there just isn’t room for large fancy finials, nor is it always appropriate for the style of curtain you’ve chosen.

Frustrated with the lack of heat you get from your natural gas fireplace log set? Carl Herkes explains why gas fireplace logs are inefficient.

Natural gas is on the rise. It is predicted to double in cost this year. Are you afraid to use your gas fireplace because you know those gas logs don’t throw enough heat? Are you frustrated because the gas logs are downright ugly when they aren’t burning? And now you won’t use them because you can’t stand to waste the natural gas? Let’s face it. Traditional gas fireplace logs are inefficient. Let me explain why.

First, much of the gas burns behind the logs. You don’t see most of the flame and you don’t feel the radiant heat from it. In order to see a good deal of flame, you must turn the gas much higher than just an idle. In doing so, you are burning more gas than you should. This also presents an additional problem. By-products, mainly in the form of soot are produced. Not enough oxygen can combine with the natural gas to completely burn it up. Remember the days when cars were not equipped with catalytic converters? Remember driving down the road and smelling the exhaust of the cars around you? That is the smell of gasoline not being completely burned. The catalytic converter solved that problem. It gets very hot and helps to burn any leftover gasoline before it exits your exhaust system. Fireplaces are like cars without catalytic converters. Soot and other by-products are produced when natural gas is not completely burned.

Secondly, gas fireplace logs have some fill underneath them that is supposed to look like ash from a wood burning fireplace. That fill substance is usually crushed lava rock. Lava rock neither retains nor radiates heat. No doubt, you have seen countless styles of heaters on the market. Whether electric, natural gas, kerosene or propane, they all share a common feature (with the exception of a few radiator-style heaters). The heaters all have reflective surfaces around the heating element to better radiate heat into your room. Those heaters do not have a lava rock lining around the heating element. Manufacturers know that a reflective surface is the best surface for throwing radiant heat.

Thirdly, the gas logs themselves do not help to drive radiant heat into the room. The logs do retain heat, but the surface of them (made to look like bark on a tree) is certainly not reflective. The surface of the logs is usually very rough and starts getting covered with soot the first time they are used. The soot further inhibits the logs from radiating heat.

In summary, gas fireplace logs are sold because some people would like to see a fire that mimics what a real wood fire looks like. Often, manufacturers don’t take into account that consumers are only getting half the benefit of having a fire if it’s only visual, but lacks the heat advantage.

Manhattan is the lifeblood of New York City and has become one and the same with the city as a whole. The island of Manhattan itself is home to Times Square, as well as a number of artistic and cultural centers. The Island of Manhattan can be roughly divided into Downtown, Midtown and Uptown areas, each of which contain a number of top-notch points of interest.

Positioned to the south of 14th Street, Downtown Manhattan is the home of the Financial District which runs along Wall Street, including the rebuilt World Trade Center and Battery Park, from which you can access the Statue of Liberty by boat. Several admired cultural areas downtown, including Greenwich Village Tribeca and Soho feature significant architecture, hip eats and plenty of shopping. Another well liked location downtown is Manhattan, which runs along Canal Street.

The Midtown area is located between 14th Street and Central Park, and the location of a prominent artistic scene. The center|core|axis|hub|heart} of arts life in the metropolis is the Theater District which is home to Broadway, Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen, as well as the Madame Tussaud’s. Midtown is a convenient place for out of towners to stay as there are many Midtown Manhattan hotels in the section. Other well liked districts comprise Gramercy Flat Iron, a hip residential area, as well as the fashion obsessed Chelsea District.

Large amounts of real estate controlled by Central Park, Upper Manhattan is home to the Belvedere Castle in Central Park, the Jewish Museum and a number of museums all over the Upper East and West side. Moreover, the section is the location of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, the significant Harlem area and Washington Heights.

Each of the Island’s matchless sections hold their own sense of history, as well as trendy selling points from world-class arts to food. A visit to New York is not complete without a extensive tour of Manhattan’s best destinations. There is a good reason that the island has come to classify the public face of New York city. Manhattan is one of the world’s premier cultural capitals and continues to lead the way in commercial and cultural trends.

© Charles C Harmon Co. http://www.memory-foam-buyers-guide.org

Are you thinking about buying a memory foam mattress?

Are you confused about all the hype and confusing claims made by the different advertisements for memory foam?

I’ve set out to clear the air, remove the “smoke and mirrors”, and put into one article all the true information you’ll need to make a selection that will thrill you, give you years of value and make poor sleep a thing of the past.

The term “memory foam” or “visco-elastic memory foam” was coined in the early days of NASA’s space program. That’s why it’s also known as NASA foam.

Sometimes, a memory foam mattress is referred to as a NASA foam mattress.

During lift-off, astronauts were being subjected to tremendous g-forces that the human body just wasn’t designed to endure. The need for a new material, that would make these conditions tolerable for the astronauts, spawned the research that resulted in the invention of this brand new kind of foam.

If water, springs, air or any combination of those things had been an alternative, the expensive research that followed wouldn’t have been needed, and the need for a new material wouldn’t have existed.

Visco-elastic foam has unique qualities. It is able to mold itself to the shape of any object that puts pressure on it and, yet, when the object is removed, it will slowly return to it’s original shape. The picture that comes to mind is the hand above the memory foam mattress that still has the hand print showing on it.

Memory foam is an open celled foam, which means that air is free to move from one cell to another, so when pressure is applied, the affected cells collapse and you feel sort of like you’re floating down into the material.

This collapsing of the cells allows the material to “melt away” from pressure until the entire surface of your body is evenly supported over the surface of the memory foam.

It virtually eliminates pressure points.

Another unique feature of a memory foam mattress is temperature sensitivity.

Within a short time of your body lying on the mattress, your body temperature will start to cause the memory foam to soften. Any area of your body that has excess heat, such as a fevered injury, will cause the mattress to soften even further where it is touching, making memory foam the ideal material for a comfortable mattress.

The problem with the NASA foam was that it “off gassed”, putting off a smell that was overpowering in the confined quarters of a space vehicle. It was eventually scrapped by NASA. To my knowledge, it was never actually used on any space mission.

At that point, memory foam was just too expensive to be used for mattresses and the off-gassing wouldn’t have been acceptable either.

A few medical research companies started experimenting with the material for use in hospitals. Many patients develop bedsores when confined to bed over long periods of time.

Because it was cost effective for this application, these experiments led to using memory foam in a variety of health industry settings to alleviate pressure points in hospital patients.

Through this medical research, memory foam became more and more adaptable to use as a consumer product in the form of pillows, mattresses, toppers, chairs, etc.

The Memory Foam Mattress Industry Was Born

The memory foam mattress industry started slowly in the early 1990’s and then shot into the mainstream in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

So much so, that it’s difficult to find a magazine, newspaper, or television that doesn’t have several ads for memory foam products running continuously.

With that kind of demand for the product it’s no wonder that a lot of people started forming companies to manufacture and sell to an audience with this enormous appetite. And, yes, as in all industries, some companies are born just to make inferior products and, then, using terminology that is confusing or misleading, capitalize on the lack of good information that’s available to consumers.

So let’s clear some of the confusion with a few simple facts.

What Is The Difference Between Good And Bad Memory Foam?

Memory foam is graded by it’s density. Imagine yourself cutting a huge “dice” (yeah, like the kind you throw on the crap table) out of memory foam 12″x12″x12″ and slapping it onto the scale in your doctor’s office.

The weight of that 12″ sized cube is how you determine density.

For example, if your “dice” weighed 5.9 lbs. it’s considered to have a density of 5.9, or if it weighs 3.2 lbs. the density is rated as 3.2.

Pretty simple, really, isn’t it. Like most things, we all thought density would be determined by some E=IR formula or something terribly complex. You, now, know more about density than most of the sales people in your local mattress store.

It’s also a fact that the less dense foams are made mostly of air, not foam. Less foam, less cost to manufacture…they can sell it cheaper.

For most memory foam mattresses, it’s a fact that the human body is best supported by a density of 5.3 lbs. to 5.9 lbs. Any heavier than this and it tends to be too dense and won’t allow the proper cell collapsing that allows your body to settle into it. Any lighter and you don’t get the needed support in the hip and shoulder areas.

Another problem is that the lighter foams won’t continue to return to their original shape after a relatively short lifespan. They’ll lose their comfort.

Some of the 5.3+ lb. mattresses are still going strong after 15 years being just as comfortable to their users as the first day…and with no body impressions.

Remember, too, that we discussed temperature sensitivity. Not all foam being advertised as “memory foam” is temperature sensitive.

Make sure it has this feature so you get that “fine tuned” comfort.

A better memory foam mattress will contain 3 1/2″, or more, of memory foam as a top layer. Any less than this probably won’t keep you from bottoming out and laying on the underlying base layers of foam. Those foams aren’t meant to be in contact with your body and won’t comfortable for you. They are there to help the memory foam do it’s job correctly.

Just remember density and temperature sensitivity, when you go shopping for your memory foam mattress and you’ll be miles ahead when you purchase.

Traditionally Hardwood flooring has been viewed as the crme de la crme of flooring. Until the 1980’s if you had hardwood flooring, to a certain extent you were considered wealthy. Times change as does technology and this either brings prices down or up depending on the supply and demand of a product. In todays times, hardwood flooring can be found almost in every retail flooring store around.

Hardwood flooring is generally sold in only a couple varieties. Unfinished Hardwood, Pre-finished Hardwood, Engineered Hardwood.

Unfinished is the traditional product which was bought in a couple different woods, widths, and lengths. The tongue and groove design was laid and then sanded to get a smooth and even texture on the surface of the wood. Once the wood was sanded, it was then stained and lacquered which traditionally consumed a lot of labor. Time equals money and in the pre 80’s this was a very expensive process.

Pre finished has been on the market for many years now and is the most commonly used hardwood in homes. This flooring is unique where right after the manufacture cuts the tongue and groove, it sends the wood through the finishing sander and then to the spray booth where all pieces are finished. The time consuming labor processes involved in the sanding and staining/lacquered unfinished hardwood have bee replaced by machines which can produce at a higher level of efficiency than the human hand. The installation of the pre-finished hardwood flooring is a 1-2-3 step process. This flooring makes prices competitive with other flooring alternatives.

Engineered Hardwood is the newest product on the market and is becoming more popular. This product is unique where it is made from a new form of particle board with a veneer layer of your choice of hardwood on the top. This is then pre-finished and sold in stores. The unique aspect of this engineered hardwood is that it can be installed in basements and cooler/more moist environments where the pre-finished and unfinished hardwood cannot. Prices are slightly higher on the engineered hardwood but may come down as supply rises.

In conclusion, choosing which of the three to put on your floor depends on the look you are going for. Each product will give you a slightly different look in your home. If you needs are driven by economy, there is a lot of pre-finished hardwood flooring options on the market. If you are driven by the traditional look, unfinished hardwood flooring is a good option. But if you are driven by technology and flexibility, then Engineered hardwood is your best choice.

Fabric wall hangings come in a wide variety of sizes and styles, so you should be able to find something that’s just perfect for your needs. Fabric wall tapestries have been used throughout history to enrich the interiors of our homes. In medieval times, kings and nobles had elegant tapestries made from rich fabrics, to display their wealth and prestige. Not only did they look elegant, these traditional wall hangings had the practical use of providing insulation for castle walls and giving privacy around a bed. If you are seeking ways to help decorate an existing room this is definitely a good way potentially.

Nowadays fabric wall hangings are used for decorative purposes, but can still add a touch of grandeur to a room. A fabric wall hanging woven from sturdy material should be able to withstand many years of use, and can be a real asset to a home. Designs range from those inspired by classic art works, such as Italian landscapes or religious paintings, to art nouveau and even psychedelic styles. There really is a wall hanging for everyone, and to suit all budgets! You can determine the ideal look or theme that you might just want to portray.

Fabric wall hangings are designed to be really easy to hang, and come complete with sleeve rods and lined backings. You may be surprised at the impact a wall hanging can have on a room, instantly providing vibrancy and style. A fabric wall tapestry can be a stunning art piece in itself, and will be sure to impress your visitors. The nice part about any wall tapestry you will also find coordinating items such as lighting sets, chairs or stools along with rugs that can make any room look superior. You can definitely have fun creating a nice environment.

Christmas gifts almost always prove to be hideously expensive. No matter how carefully we plan, Christmas proves to put a strain on everyone’s finances. Following the recent shockwaves that have hit the stockmarket, we have either felt the effects of the credit crunch or we are alarmed at the potential consequences of a major economic storm. Certainly many of us are simply not in the mood for spending and Christmas does not seem to be a priority at the moment.

Choosing to delay Christmas gift shopping until later in the year is not an altogether unreasonable response to financial worries, but in this instance, it’s not the best policy if you want to save money. Although smart shoppers already know that the best of the bargains are to be found online, relatively few have realised the extent to which the prices fluctuate throughout the year.

As a seasoned Amazon seller I have noticed a definite pattern. The best time to buy your Christmas gifts is probably late summer: prices begin rising in the autumn and as we get closer to Christmas, the price of gifts (most notably, children’s gifts) increase steadily. In the final week before Christmas you will pay premium prices on Amazon, and that’s if you are lucky enough to find anyone who still has stock.

Be warned… Christmas will come this year as ever, and it will come whether we are ready for it or not. Meanwhile, don’t despair! It’s not too late to find a Christmas bargain this year as sales have only just started to pick up. So… get out there and enjoy your Christmas shopping before the Christmas rush!

So you want a swimming pool. I know I do but that’s because my body is getting flabbier as I get older and I want a pool for 2 reasons. I hope by exercising in a swimming pool it will tone my muscles, help me loose some of my flab and make me fitter and the other reason is I don’t want to scare people when I use a shared pool. When I’m in a public swimming pool people think there’s a whale loose in it when it’s only me. Oh dear, I think I need to diet as well.

I spent last summer vacationing in Europe. I started in London - it rained, travelled through France and stayed in an old converted remote farmhouse with its own pool and then travelled down through Spain to the Costa del Sol where I then spent 3 weeks in a villa high in the Andalusian mountains with stunning sea and mountain views and of course its own swimming pool. Both pools were unique and were self-builds. The swimming pool in Spain had been built by the villa owner, a great guy called John, who was an ex pat builder from London. The swimming pool he had built was 25 ft by 32 ft. It wasn’t square, the floor wasn’t level, the tiling wasn’t level, the slope of the floor wasn’t even, and you know, it was the best swimming pool I’ve ever been in. It was great.

I had travelled to Spain to see the area as its somewhere I had always wanted to visit on a vacation and do you know, I need to go back as I didn’t see a great deal of it. I spent most of the 3 weeks I was there in the pool. The swimming pool had what they call in England, rustic charm. The sides were not straight, the floor tiles were slightly uneven and the floor sloped ever so slightly from side to side but taken with the converted stables, now a villa, and the country setting it worked and worked very well. It was the best swimming pool I’ve ever been in. If I was building a swimming pool this is how I would build it. However, a swimming pool like this would not work with a new build house, it just wouldn’t suit it.

Take the swimming pool in France. This was much more of a modern pool but again was in a countryside setting so a really formal new swimming pool wouldn’t work and I’m pleased to say that this wasn’t a formal swimming pool although at least everything was straight like the sides of the pool. Again, the design was something I had never seen before. The swimming pool sloped down from the shallow end but at a certain point, the deep part fell away on all 4 sides to become 12 ft deep. However, it had an underwater ledge about 3 ft below the surface all the way round the pool. It was great for chasing the kids round the pool, or for them chasing me, and we had a fantastic holiday with 2 fantastic pools.

The trouble was though that although I had a very long vacation, I didn’t see a great deal of France or Spain except when we were travelling. The reason, well I’m sure you can guess. If not here’s a clue. I had 2 fantastic swimming pools. I am sure I can describe the swimming pools better than the countryside local to where I stayed. I’ll have to go back next year and try again but I know I’ll be distracted by the swimming pools when choosing somewhere to stay. Then again I could try a mountain cabin with a lake to swim in. That’s something I’ve always thought would be fun. It’s a tough choice, lake or swimming pool. Maybe I can try both or better still perhaps its time I built my own swimming pool at home.