Home Decor: quality home furniture and contemporary design

I was talking to a friend recently who lived in a beachside town. During the course of the conversation in her lounge/dining room, overlooking the ocean, she said, "You know, this room does not reflect anything of me. All the furniture here comes from people who are either now dead or who are living but no longer a part of my life. I can't see anything of me in this room!"

She then pointed to an elaborately carved, solid cedar dining setting and expressed concern about how "out of place" it looked in her beachside home.

Does your home decor reflect YOU or someone else?

Of all the pieces of furniture in a home, perhaps the one that is the most reflective of the personality of the homeowner is the curio cabinet that has been chosen to occupy an honored position.

Curio cabinets hold many different things. Some of them hold collections of bells or angels. Some of them hold sports trophies. I have even seen a beautiful corner curio cabinet that held a collection of bird's nests! The things in a curio cabinet tell the visitors to home a lot about the people who live there.

There are dozens of styles of curio cabinets from which one might choose, as well. There are tall curio cabinets, corner curio cabinets, lighted curio cabinets, and wall mount curio cabinets. There are really big curio cabinets and then there are very small curio cabinets.

The furniture of every country in the world contains some form of a curio cabinet or display case. Every style of furniture has a curio cabinet within the line, whether the style is French provincial or country or ultramodern.

Through the centuries, people have always used display cabinets or curio cabinets for their treasures. There are curio cabinets that are even designed for the display of specific types of objects like plates (there's a groove in the shelves for the plates to rest in).

People all sit on sofas or chairs no matter what fabric they are covered in. They sleep in beds no matter what style of furniture they are. Curio cabinets are different. Yes, curio cabinets are the only pieces of furniture that are used to display the personality, the interests, or the abilities of the people who own them.

Have you ever walked into a room and it looked lopsided? If you have, then you may have then noticed that the furniture seemed to out of place, or something else, like you couldn't quite put your finger on it. When you are decorating your home with furniture, this is going to either make your room or break your room. So, therefore, it is important that you buy furniture that will fit into the room, as well as arrange it to be well balanced in the room.

First of all, look at the size of the room for which you are going to buy furniture. Notice where there are windows, if they are centered, where there are doors, how much room you have on each wall. Also, notice where your television will be sitting because a lot of times, that is where the cable runs into the house and the television may not be able to be moved very easily. Take a tape measure and measure the length of where you are planning on placing your couch, then a chair or two chairs, and possibly a loveseat.

If the room is not very big and you go out and buy a huge couch, a loveseat, two recliners, and a coffee table and end tables, you may be jamming the whole room up with nothing but furniture and it will look overcrowded. Be smart, look at your space, and buy your furniture based on the amount of space that you have.

Also, remember that furniture in a store will not look that big when you see it sitting out on a huge showroom floor, so be sure that you are not buying overly big furniture. A loveseat may be a little too much for your room. You may want to stick to just getting a couch and a chair or two.

Decorating your bathroom is not going to take much effort or expense. First of all, a bathroom is not that big and it can only hold so much stuff. It already is full with a bathtub/shower, commode and vanity sink. Just like any other room in the house, you want to make sure you have a color scheme. If you have a window in your bathroom, the window curtain should match your shower curtain. These two items should blend in with your bathroom rugs and toilet seat cover. These items are your essential items and now you can begin decorating around these items.

A matching soap dish and toothbrush holder is decorative on the lavatory. You may consider placing a long mirror on the back of the bathroom door. You can place several mirrors in a bathroom. You can't go wrong having a few hooks to hang robes or bath towels on. Shower curtains come in a variety of styles; you can go from plain to fancy, depending on what you want. You can even buy the decorative shower hooks to hang your shower curtain on.

Shelves are a big plus in a bathroom. You can use shelves for a variety of things, from placing personal items on to placing decorative candles or other decorative items such as sculptured soaps, perfumes, bath powders, etc. Hanging decorative towels on a few towel racks in the bathroom also will dress it up. Makeup lights above the vanity make the bathroom bright and pretty. Hanging plants or plants that will sit on a vanity are very decorative in a bathroom.

Designer boxes that hold toilet paper placed in a corner and designer Kleenex holders are also great for the bathroom. You may have enough wall space to place a few small pictures; these should coordinate with your bathroom colors.