11 Tips for Stripping Wallpaper: How to Get Rid of Ugly Wallpaper!
May 23, 2007
I broke my promise to myself and stripped wallpaper again. The only reason I did this is for $100,000 profit. My family and I did not have time to wait for professional help. We sold our investment property before finishing the work and needed the home ready for appraisal.
While stripping the wallpaper, I realized that many homemakers get wrong advice for this horrendous task. After years of experience on 28 houses, I offer my tried and best tips:
1. Use a clothes steamer or rent a professional steamer 2. Soak a large section of the wall 3. Run a “Paper Tiger” scoring tool across the damp section 4. Steam the section again 5. Spray the section with fabric softener and hot water 6. Score the section with the paper tiger again 7. Steam again 8. Remove any curling edges (sometimes large areas peel off) 9. Scrape with a six inch sheetrock blade 10. Repeat the above steps on the section until most scrapes off easily 11. Scrub with hot water, TSP, and a sponge with a scratchy surface
Don’t live with ugly wallpaper any longer!
P. S. Please email me if you have any additional tips that would help others!
Selling Houses: Payback of Window Treatments
May 22, 2007
If you’re planning to show your home mainly during daylight hours, think about your selling season, market conditions, and the benefits of window treatments. Window treatment tips from innovative Design Psychology can help you sell your home for more money.
Real estate market conditions influence decisions regarding window treatments. Hot markets require fewer embellishments in order to sell, whereas increased competition from many listings similar to yours may require extras like great-looking window coverings to attract buyers.
Remember, daytime light is always best if it enters your home in from the outside, because natural daylight makes people happy, while the absence of natural daylight depresses people. When a room is too dark during the day, boosting the light with specific daytime-like lighting helps maintain an aerial emotional atmosphere.
Security and Shelter
We feel exposed in rooms with no window coverings at night, because with interior lights on, people on the street can see into our private spaces, and uncovered glass also looks like a cold, black hole at night. So window coverings are important, both from the security and psychological perspectives.
Tuberous Begonias
May 21, 2007
If you appreciate plants that have no hesitation in boldly stating their presence with huge, almost artificially perfect flowers, then tuberous begonias are for you. While some may find them rather too overstated, downright brazen even, if you like colour, and plenty of it, with subtlety an option rather than compulsory, then look no further.
Flowering from late spring, as the days exceed 13 hours long, until well into autumn when the foliage dies back, these tuberous-rooted perennials have been extensively hybridised and refined to the point where the larger-flowered forms are nothing short of spectacular. For those with greenhouses or a very mild winter climate there are even types that flower well into winter, if not right through the cooler months.
Description and classification and groupsBegonias are among those convenient plants where the proper name is also the common name. The genus is found in the tropics and subtropics, particularly in the Americas, and is made up of around 900 species with 130-odd in cultivation, from which many cultivars and hybrids have been developed. These garden forms have been divided into 8 main categories. They are:
Physiological Response to Window Coverings
May 20, 2007
Nothing soothes the brain like Mother Nature, whose intrinsic scenery relaxes and refreshes us, consciously and subconsciously. Therefore, a view of nature should never be completely covered up during the day.
During daylight hours, windows should let in as much light and scenery view as possible, because people who can’t see out of their windows during daylight hours get depressed. A view of nature, trees, plants, sky, clouds, and birds diminishes stress, promotes general physical health, and contributes to psychological satisfaction.
Factors such as natural light, fabric color, pattern, and tactile quality will also affect the presence of the room. Fabrics with a soft, tactile quality are good choices for creating a romantic, elegant ambiance, but mini-blinds are hard to clean and look severe. Pleated shades are softer, while shutters have rounded edges, can be repainted to change decor, and will last forever.
Window Coverings as Backgrounds
Window coverings that span a large expanse require the same color considerations as walls, since they become backgrounds for people. Too many patterns on windows will detract from both individuals and furnishings, and small prints in large spaces tend to get lost while adding busyness to a room.
Do You Have a Master Bedroom? You Shouldnt! Tips for Remodeling Your Bedroom
May 20, 2007
The word “master” is an antiquated term that suggests control, domination, and inequality, and in today’s cooperative partner and/or single parent household, the label “master suite” has become obsolete. In that light, master bedrooms would more properly be called “main bedrooms” in today’s society.
Far removed from the hubbub of family rooms and busy kitchens, the bedroom is the place where your day begins and ends. Surprisingly, however, main bedroom redecorating frequently ranks near the bottom of most people’s home renovation lists. But if you want an immediate uplift of your emotional state, there are few projects that will do that more effectively than remodeling your main bedroom.
Remodeling Your Main Bedroom for Happiness
The main bedroom, with its softened textures, serene artwork, and muted patterns, intimately captures the warmth of a home. Passion colors, such as red, purple, royal blue, rose, or the gilt of gold, add drama and indulgence. Plan your main bedroom design with private times in mind, beginning with the purpose of the bedroom. Do you want a Passion Boudoir, Reading Room, or Private Sanctuary?
Passion Boudoir
Gallica Roses
May 19, 2007
Very soon stocks of new season’s roses will be arriving in the garden centres, if they’re not already there. Indeed, to be sure of getting the most sought after varieties it may have been necessary to put an order in some time ago. However, in their rush for the new, those who are slaves to fashion often overlook gems, leaving some of the best tried and true plants for those prepared to simply wait and see what is available.
Gallica roses are a case in point. While the popularity of Old Roses waxes and wanes as each new generation discovers them and then seeks something new, the best of them carry on regardless.Rosa gallica, also known as the French Rose or Provins Rose, is a species that grows wild from southern and central Europe to the Caucasus. Because it readily produces sports, has a tendency towards double flowers, and may have hybridised naturally with other species, it is likely that the earliest European garden roses were forms of Rosa gallica.
What is Design Psychology and How Will it Help Me?
May 18, 2007
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the most basic aspects of Design Psychology, first asking a question, and then addressing the various concepts, in abbreviated form.
“I wish I had learned all this before we bought our first house 25 years ago, and before we had our children. Not only would our homes be more harmonious, but so would our lives together. It’s amazing to learn how colors, lighting, sounds, and patterns affect us so deeply.” -Angela Pederson, Palm Desert, California
What are the basic fundamentals of Design Psychology?
- Lighting & our psychological responses to light Color & psychology Patterns & reactions Textures & the sense of touch Scale & human response Styles, themes & desirable effects Ethnic traditions & the importance of heritage Furniture & arrangement for human comfort Sounds & repercussions Scents & sentiments Embellishments & emotional undercurrents
How can Design Psychology help me?
It can help you:
- Select from the mass confusion of home furnishings. Decorate your home right the FIRST time. Save time, effort, and money. Find out which colors, patterns, furniture, and accessories support happy feelings. Learn about lighting and color psychology, and the underlying emotional effects of your home’s design details.
Discover how Mother Nature can guide your home decorating, to create an environment that’s perfect for your emotional needs.
Design Psychology: Fabrics
May 17, 2007
From a riot of color in bold chintzes to the gentle rustle of taffeta, fabrics influence our mental attitude in many subtle and not so subtle ways. Playful patterns make us smile, while mixing prints and solids can present a paradox of dynamic energy. No matter which effect you’re looking for, you’ll want too choose the right fabric colors, patterns, and textures to reflect your interior design plan.
Emotional Factors
Fabrics make impressions on all of our senses. For instance, tactile pleasure is strongly reinforced by the softness of fabrics. The touch of a fabric suggests wealth (silk), formality (damask), or informality (burlap). Our hearing is enhanced in rooms with an abundance of noise-absorbing fabrics. The colors and textures of fabric affect our sight, and some fabrics also influence our sense of smell, offering scents that may be pleasurable, cooling, or annoying. Fabric colors even modify our perceived sense of taste.
Fiber and Texture
Fiber is what gives substance and texture to fabric, and may include such things as reeds, grasses, animal hair, or even plant seeds. When shopping for any type of woven fabric, look for a high thread count for softness and durability.
Seven Essential Color Concepts for Designing Spaces
May 16, 2007
Understanding a few essential color concepts will help you design your living and work spaces more purposefully. Embrace the colors that work best for your specific activity and emotional support. Here are seven Design Psychology color basics:
1. Light colors and cool colors recede; dark and bold colors advance.
2. Bold colors and large patterns take up visual space and help sparsely furnished rooms look finished.
3. Bright primary colors give off energy, while pastel colors absorb energy. Excessively bright colors, like excessively bright lights, are stressful.
4. Unrelieved monochromatic color schemes can be boring and, worse, depressing.
5. Adjacent rooms visually expand when the background colors are alike.
6. Northern exposed rooms generally need more light and warmth. Yellow-based colors add dimensions of light and warmth. Rooms with a southern exposure in a hot climate feel cooler when painted in blue-based colors.
7. Surrounding colors influence the appearance of nearby colors. A color appears lighter when surrounded by a dark background and darker when surrounded by a light background.
Use these color concepts to create your spaces for happiness and productivity.
(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.
Fuchsia procumbens
May 15, 2007
Fuchsia (named after Leonhard Fuchs, a 16th century German botanist) is a genus of over 100 species of shrubs and small trees. Although there are four New Zealand native species (colensoi, excorticata, perscandens and procumbens) and one from Tahiti, the vast bulk of the genus occurs in Central and South America.
Think of fuchsias and chances are the fancy garden hybrids come to mind first. Showy as they are, it is not difficult to see they are related to wild species such as Fuchsia magellanica, Fuchsia denticulata and Fuchsia triphylla.
Some species, however, are less easy to distinguish. Our common native tree fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata) has fuchsia-like flowers, though it can be hard to see the connection with the garden plants when it is not in bloom. But the likes of Fuchsia arborescens from Central America, with its panicles of tiny flowers, scarcely matches the common idea of a fuchsia.
The most widely grown of New Zealand’s native species is Fuchsia procumbens and it too is quite unlike the garden cultivars. It is a low spreading plant with small rounded leaves and can be very hard to pick as a fuchsia until it flowers. Indeed, my initial experience of the plant was with cultivated specimens and I have to admit that I didn’t immediately recognise wild plants when I first saw them.
