Why Custom Furniture May Be Better for Your Budget

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When we hear the phrase “custom built,” the thought that often automatically follows is “expensive” – and with good reason. Since custom-built furniture is takes up more time and effort and expert know-how to make than mass produced items, there is naturally more cost involved.

But do you know that there are actually times when custom furniture can be less expensive in the long run? Here are three reasons why:

1. Custom furniture stays in good shape longer. Generally speaking, custom-built furniture will keep in good shape long after that store-bought cabinet’s doors have gone askew. One reason for this is that you could specify the materials you wish to be used, and how you want it to be treated, so that it does not rot or mold or break easily.

This means you’ll only need to buy that piece of furniture once. It will not be an expense that recurs every other year.

2. Custom furniture retains its value. When custom furniture is properly built, its value appreciates over time, unlike mass-produced furniture, which begin to depreciate the moment they are loaded onto the delivery van. It is, when well made, a work of art. If, someday, you decide to sell it off, you may even make some profit from the deal.

3. You can make one piece of furniture do the work of two. For instance, it’s not every day that you can find office tables that can also be used as a reliable safety deposit box in your neighborhood furniture store. Getting one custom built will spare you from having to buy an office table and a separate safety deposit box – which, by the way, will eat up extra space you may wish to use for something else.

It will also be a good way of hiding your valuables. Who would have thought that table had a secret compartment? Only you and your furniture builder would know.

The Importance of Accessories in Decorating

 

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For many of us, accessories are the last things we consider when we design our homes and offices. Often, we plan the materials for the floors, the color of the wall, maybe even the finish for the ceiling, and the type of furniture we will put in. But seldom do we think about the accessories that will finish it all off.

In the end, we come up with a room that feels comfortable, looks decent, but somehow feels incomplete – like a salad without dressing, or an iced cake without flowerettes, or a low-cut dress without a necklace to match.

Now if you’re still wondering why the room feels incomplete, let me spell it out for you: it is incomplete. You haven’t put in the accessories yet!

Paint and floors and ceiling and furniture make a room – but it is the accessories that make it your room. In exactly the same way, offices have hundreds of identical cubicles. Only when you’ve put in your family pictures and potted plants does it become your cubicle.

Without the accessories that mark a territory as your territory, that piece of space will never completely feel like home. It will feel like a nice hotel room – shiny, anonymous, impersonal.

So when you design your room or office, remember not to stop halfway. Put some pictures or other interesting items on the walls, tables, or shelves. Put in your favorite books or magazines, and let the world know what you feed your mind with. Let your choice of blinds or curtains reflect who you are: bamboo, lace, or beads, perhaps?

Of course, make sure that all these things combine harmoniously with each other. You don’t want your picture frames or curtains to clash with your furniture or walls. And this is why you need to plan your accessories along with everything else; they should not be an afterthought, because really, your room will never be truly finished without them.

(Can you imagine how annoying it would be if, after all the time you’ve spent cutting and washing up veggies for your salad, anticipating how heavenly it would taste after you’ve tossed it in with your favorite dressing, you discover that there’s nothing but chocolate syrup in the house?)

Decorating with Plants: Tips and Tricks

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Plants are a great way to add color, life, and a refreshing dose of nature and oxygen into a room. They can be intimidating to some of us, though, because they are living things and need a little more care than picture frames and figurines.

You don’t need to be daunted by the prospect of decorating with plants, though. All you need to do is remember a few simple things.

1. Choose a sunny spot for your plant. As you know, plants get their food from the sun. Without sunlight, your plant will die, and instead of adding oxygen into your room, it will add carbon dioxide instead.

2. Choose plants that thrive indoors. Some plants survive indoor conditions better than others. Cacti, bamboo palms, ivies, and philodendrons are some. Herbs such as basil and thyme generally survive pretty well on a kitchen window sill – and they are often useful for more than decoration there too.

3. Make your pots match your décor. Terra cotta pots are popular, but they aren’t your only option, and they certainly won’t work well for all kinds of decors. If your home has a sleek, modern look, you want sleek, modern pots. If you have bamboo furniture, you can put your terra cotta pots inside wicker baskets. If you have an all white motif, with white sofa covers and white frames hanging on the wall, you may need white pots as well.

4. Choose different sizes of plants. Big plants, small plants, plants with different shapes of leaves – these are more interesting to look at than several tiny pots of barrel cacti scattered all over your living room.

5. Match the size of the plant with the space. If you have a large empty space, you don’t want to hang a tiny little plant there. You need something that will match the space. Likewise, a large potted plant should not be placed on top of a small corner table. Your plants should nicely fill out the space available for them.