What's Your Decorating Personality?

"What's your decorating personality?"; is a question we all need to look at as we all have different life styles.  Some change their furnishings frequently and match home decor to fashion trends and others buy the highest quality traditional furniture, keep it forever and plan to pass it down to their children.  Here are a few tips to help you make home decor decisions:

Determine the function of each room.  Look at the wear and tear the room will get from kids, pets or frequent entertaining?

Take stock of your current furniture.  If you have family heirlooms, antiques or high quality furnishings, you have the option of reupholstering or refinishing them to restore their appearance and function.  If you are living with furniture that you dislike, doesn't quite fit the space or is past its prime and not worth repairing, buy new pieces and donate the old ones to a charitable organization.

Determine your personal style.  Look for ideas in your favorite colors and motifs.  Magazines, books, online sources, home shows, stores and professional decorators can give you insight into the types of decor that best suit your style and make you feel at home.  Start a photo collection of styles that you love, as pictures say a thousand words when you go out to find the similar look in the stores.

Identify a focal point in each room, such as your fireplace, a conversational seating arrangement, a piece of art or a window with a view.  Keep in mind natural traffic patterns and arrange your furniture accordingly for ease of movement.  Define spaces in open floor plans.

 Choose paint colors last.  Take samples of fabric, wood tones and flooring when choosing paint colors and bring chips home to view them in the room at different times during the day.  When you think you have found the right color go back to the paint store and buy samples of the colors so that you can paint a sample on the wall in several places.  It is sometimes amazing to see how a color changes with the light in the room as the day passes.  Most of all - don't be afraid of color.  With a little imagination you will be able to transform your home.

Roman Shades - A Popular Window Covering Trend



Bestline Roman Shades

 As the popularity of using draperies and fabrics at the window has risen, the popularity of roman shades has also increased.  These shades operate as a complete window treatment and can be manufactured from many different materials, including many styles of fabrics and natural products like woven woods and woven reeds.

Roman shades add style, softness and texture to the window.  This cannot be achieved by the use of blinds alone.  They can also be used as a black-out shade or a light filtering shade depending upon the lining that is used; and can be trimmed with contrasting hems, trim and other forms of design to make them truly unique.  Also the use of natural hand woven materials provides texture and sun control.  Flexibility of materials that can be used, and  various style elements, are the keys to roman shades' resurgence and popularity.

Roman shades also offer softness at the window.  When pulled to the up position they can look very much like a valance, yet when lowered they give privacy and light control.  When you want the "look" of roman shades but desire the blinds ability to see through it when tilting the vanes, roman shades become great valances when installed permanently above the blind.  This way you can get the contemporary, sophisticated look of roman shades but with the flexibility of being able to see out when the blinds are down.

Roman shades can be extremely versatile - they can stand alone or be coupled with draperies, cornices or other fabric treatments.  I especially love installing a window with a roman shade for privacy, then adding a decorative iron rod over the window and drapery side panels at each side.  This becomes a wonderfully soft design that can be made to easily coordinate with the rest of your room's decor.

Pirouette Window Shadings - Now Available With PowerRise & Specialty Shapes

Pirouette Now Available in PowerRise & Specialty Shapes

Pirouette window shadings manufactured by Hunter Douglas are now available with PowerRise 2.0 with Platinum Technology  and Specialty Shapes.

These uniquely designed shades with soft horizontal fabric vanes attached to a single sheer backing allow for enhanced views to the outside and full beauty of the fabric appearance to the inside.  The shades not only offer a contemporary finished look to your windows they also protect your home from Ultraviolet UV rays; blocking up to 86% of rays when the vanes are open and up to 99% when closed.  There are many fabrics, two vane sizes and a stylish color palette of 44 options, all available in semi-opaque or room-darkening opacities.

New to the line is the PowerRise 2.0 operation with built-in infrared eye; external eye optional, built-in battery or optional wireless wall switch operation.  They can be conveniently operated with one Platinum remote, even if shades are in different rooms.

New Specialty Shape options are now available in any fabric, vane size, opacity and color.  All specialty shapes are non-operable and will be in the closed contoured position.  Call us for a free estimate at your home or office  (707) 578-0849.

Yep...It's Finally Summer

Search Amazon.co for gh    Can't help smiling again!  We had the wettest winter in many moons.  Now the sun is shining and the temperature has risen.  Matter of fact went to a high school reunion picnic on Saturday and it had to be over 100 degrees in the little town of  Cloverdale where the picnic was held.  ( Didn't realize how old I've gotten until I spent the better part of a day with some of my 'old friends', almost no one there had any color in their hair... even me.)  The heat that day reminded me that now is a good time to look at the window coverings in my house to make sure they are in good condition to keep out the heat to save energy this summer.  Also soon PG&E will be installing a new smart meter at our house and from what we read in the newspaper and see on the TV news we'll need to get ready for the shocking energy bills to come.

Hunter Douglas' Duette Architella shades are still part of the Federal Energy Act through 2010 so now is the time to be able to get a Federal Tax refund, up to $1,500 this year, when buying the best energy saving shades on the market.  These shades are wonderful energy savers, not only in the summer, but in the winter too.  They come in many different colors and fabrics to satisfy the most picky shopper.  Call us to give you a free estimate.  In the mean time, I hope that your summer is - well, just great!

Saw this little tree on Amazon reminded me of Hawaii and summer!