Japanese Style Interior Design and House Construction

Japanese houses are a stunning beauty with its looks clean and tidy. Compared to western style houses that are filled with lots of furniture, textiles and other decorations, the Japanese house is a bit sparse and simple. But it is this simplicity which makes the beauty that seems so soothing and relaxing.

In fact, the beauty of Japanese houses comes from the wooden frame, not by adding more elements in the room. This minimizes distractions and allows them to shine in the elegant beauty of the building.

Japanese Style Interior Design - Living Room

But a Japanese house or room is not completely empty. It contains some details that are connected with their culture and tradition. Some rooms have floral arrangements, simple but elegant and some scrolls hang on the wall.

The gardens outside a Japanese house are closer to nature. Japanese bamboo fountains give a relaxing sound of gentle running water. A Japanese house is a symbol of simplicity, beauty and balance that are necessary to keep our mind relaxed.

Effects of High Ceilings on Lighting

High ceilings tend to have a weakening effect of lighting. Ceiling lights rarely have the power to illuminate the entire room. For these types of rooms, it may be necessary to install light fixtures both above and below to create adequate lighting. This can be easily be reached by the use mood lighting on the ground or half the height of the ceiling, this can provide enough light to illuminate the entire room. Mood lighting on the roof can also be applied across the rafters if they show or accented by hanging chandeliers to light and enjoy the space above the ceiling.

High ceilings can cause lighting issues

Try to suspend modern accented lights that can be themed to your taste, if you want a little more of a personal touch to suit your style. Do not forget to use CFL or LED lighting technology, better yet, they take time getting used to, but they save you on electricity bills in the long run, and you would be surprised to see the "bulbs" that you can get for them is even smaller and brighter than conventional lighting.

Retro 70s Interior Design

The 70's were interesting times, which are currently revived by interior designers all over the world. It is best known for bright colors. Home decorators were then seduced by the combination of different motifs together in one place. The patterns are geometric, bright and there are many bright and smooth surfaces that contrast each other. The last part of the 60s and early 70s was inspired by Art Nouveau, which is psychedelic in design. The result that followed during the years of the medium was an explosion. Ceilings, walls and floors were designed with swirls. Overall, it was exceptionally elegant.

70s Inspired Living Room Design

Quick Painting Tips

Painting the interior of any room can be easy and inexpensive if you are aware of the condition of walls, how to paint and how much paint is needed about. Paints are available in different colors and there are varieties of coats and texture in the market. But make sure you know the trends and at least get a glimpse of how it can look like. Be careful of level of gloss because it reflects the brilliance of the paint when painted on the wall or ceiling. If you do not want too much glare or reflection, reduce the sheen of the paint.

How to Start a Home-Based Interior Design Business

Learn how to develop a business plan, estimate your start-up costs, price your services, and stay profitable once you’re in business. Read all about getting clients and referrals, outshining the competition, bidding competitively, establishing your daily schedule, organizing your business, getting paid, and much more.

From the Back Cover
Everything you need to know to run a successful interior design business from your
home Have you ever dreamed of starting your own home-based interior design business? Have you been hesitant to put your business plans into action? This book contains all the necessary tools and success strategies you need to launch and grow your business. An experienced designer shares her advice on every aspect of the trade.

Learn how to develop a business plan, estimate your start-up costs, price your services, and stay profitable once you’re in business. Read all about getting clients and referrals, outshining the competition, bidding competitively, establishing your daily schedule, organizing your business, getting paid, and much more. The book is packed with worksheets, including a:

• Products and services chart
• Sample balance worksheet
• Profit-and-loss worksheet
• Cash-flow projections worksheet
• Weekly accounting ledger
• Bid sheet
• Job-tracking worksheet

This new edition also includes numerous sidebars and lists as well as new information on “green” home furnishings and environmentally friendly paints that clients may ask about.

Indian Interior Design

Indian interiors are becoming very popular, this includes furniture, architecture and textile designs. The highly decorative and elegant Indian style means it offers the very unique opportunity to add both glamour and timeless tradition to a room. This is a clearly defined style that is not too difficult to implement.

Indian décor has a lot of imagery of the Sun, which has been worshipped by Hindus for many years. Doors, window dressings, ceilings, and fabric patterns all contain many elements that symbolize the sun. Carved columns and plate traceries are common, as are figurines of respected animals such as cows, horses and antelopes.

Lacquered furniture is hugely popular in India due to its richness of resins of all types. Furniture is typically low in stature and made of Indian Oak, nut wood or pink wood and has a real solid functionality about it. Unusually, Indian furniture frequently has a double use. A former saddle or cart might be used as a coffee table or an elegantly carved door may be used as a table top in the dining room, such is the whimsical nature of Indian style. Not only does this give a real opportunity to add great character to a room when recreating the look, it could also save a lot of money as you may already own old items that could be reused. If not a trip to an old junk yard or salvage shop is sure to inspire some creative thought. A common feature of Indian design that we have already adopted is the nest of tables. Available in most furniture shops, a nest of three wooden tables which fit together like a Russian doll, would add a really typical feature to a room. Other items of furniture to look out for are delicately carved and encrusted cabinets used to store bed linen called “damchis” and maharajas style wardrobes made of Indian oak with fortress gate style doors.

Finally, soften the look with silk curtains and window dressings. India is famous for its silk saris which are used regularly to not only create beautiful clothing but also to add sumptuousness and decadence to homes. Colours to look out for are turquoise, burnt orange and raspberry. For added spice, use beaded back-ties and tassels to draw back your curtains into an effortlessly elegant arch that will really show of the sheen of the silk to its full potential.

Boat Interior Design

The concept of boat or yacht interior design is derived from traditional interior design. As such the design concept should be functional and aesthetically pleasing, although the latter is a highly subjective matter. Interior design. Boats are by nature relatively expensive vehicles. Owners of luxury boats tend to enjoy their boats. Yachts are in some ways, the modern reincarnation of medieval horse drawn carriages. Therefore, what are some of the elements that must be considered in their interior design. We will address those in the next section;

What can be considered from the following image in terms of the boat interior design;

The immediate feature that we notice is the excellent natural lighting in the boat's interior. We notice that the placement of the furniture (we will examine the designs later) is to emphasize the view from the boat's windows. The artificial lighting involves ceiling lights placed at regular intervals in order to emulate outside conditions. Lighting is a key feature of interior design and so it remains and is in some ways more important even in boats.

Furniture:

Placement of furniture you will note that furniture is placed at the edges of the room; near walls. This allows for easy passage across the length of ship. Placement considerations may seem minor but they do honor an essential aspect of the functionality principal in interior design,as mentioned earlier. Finally, the room depicted here is a living space. It should be looked upon as that. There is a seated lounge area, a coffee section and an excellent breakfast bar. The color scheme evokes a sense of indoor comfort normally associated with a land based domicile. It temporarily allowing the inhabitant to forget they are not on solid ground. This is an excellent interior design.

Living Room Design for Beginners

The Living Room is the room that your guests will spend the most time it and will make the biggest impression on them. It gives them an idea of your family at a glance, whether you are laid back, trendy, creative or all of the above.

You need to make the most of the space available in your living room. If you have two living rooms, you could consider having one to entertain guests and another that the family uses on a regular basis. However, for most of us, we will just have one room. So this room could become cluttered with unecessary items.

In the photo above, the living room is fairly small but it remains elegant. A sofa with an array of photos hanging above, a small coffee table in the centre, and single chair matching the sofa design on both ends of the room. A television, if required can be placed directly opposite the large sofa. All the better if it is an LCD tv that can hang on the wall so as to take up less space and to fit in with the rest of the decor. The room also has cane roman blinds matching the sofa upholstery. This design is quite formal and may not suit regular families.

A more casual yet elegant look weighs practicality and aesthetics, here is an example of such a living room. Despite the more elegant appearance of the living room, the room is still practical for daily use with a television as the centrepiece.

Ultimately, the choice of the design and style of the curtains, sofa, carpeting and other accessories lie with you. Choose what you love. This is your living room after all.

Inspiration for your Decor.

There are several books, magazines and sites that can assist you to come up with a general idea for the decor of the room(s) you are designing. These include books such as The Decoration of Houses by Alexandra Stoddard, At Home with Caroly Roehm and magazines like Country Home, Veranda and Architectural Design. There are so many books and magazines out there with magnificent photos and step by step instructions on the initial process of interior design.

In addition to the web, books and magazines, the best inspiration for me is to actually visit a home and to see the design in the flesh. There are countless showhouses, carefully designed by professional interior designers, in every city. Just head to your local real estate agent and arrange a viewing. Just make sure you don't fall for their tactics and end up buying the house! You can take pictures for your own scrapbook of ideas.

There are also several reality tv shows dedicated to home designs many showing you how to do things yourself. With the countless number of these shows airing round the globe, you are able to view designs from different cultures that may suit your fancy. Some of these shows are the amazing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Mix it Up, Trading Spaces, Changing Rooms, House Rules and While you were out.

Now I'm not advocating piracy, but there are sites out there where you can get these shows if they dont air locally for you. I'm sure you can find them if you really want to.

What is Interior Design?

Well before we begin on tips to interior design, it's probably best to first understand what interior design actually is.

Interior design is a profession involving anything in a space e.g. room, office, boat, car, shopping mall etc. Although it is a profession, you can try your hand on it. Several sites, ncluding this one, will give you tips on how to acheive the perfect space for you balancing functionality and aesthetics.