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Upholstered armchairs and sofas are comfortable and attractive additions to any home. When neglected, however, upholstery can quickly turn into next year’s yard sale’s featured item. Help the upholstered furniture in your dining room, living room, family room and bedroom last for years and years, by getting to know the ABC’s of upholstery preventative and corrective care.

Stop Damage Before it Occurs

Protect Upholstery from: SUNLIGHT, NEWSPAPER INK, FABRIC DYES, PAINTS & POLISHES

Allow common sense to dictate what you should keep from harming your upholstered furniture. Sunlight will fade upholstery, so keep your upholstered couches, armchairs and ottomans away from the window, or else well-shaded. Put your newspaper on a coffee table or side table, to avoid ink damage to your upholstered furniture.

Other items that can cause permanent damage include dark-colored sheets and blankets, for when damp or wet, the dark dyes on these fabrics can rub off and ruin your upholstery. Finally, paints and polishes, such as nail or shoe polish, should never be used on upholstery. Make sure to cover your upholstered furniture when painting your living room, dining room, or bedrooms!

Keep it Clean!

1: Vacuum, 2: Damp-Dust, 3: Professionally Clean

There is nothing like wood furniture to add elegance and beauty to a home. Whether it is a thick, all-natural butchers block table, an Art Deco wooden dresser, a simple mahogany dining room table or a sleek, modern coffee table, wood furniture is a staple in homes across America and the world. Make sure your wood tables, vanities and dressers stay gorgeous for generations to come with these simple solutions and guidelines.

Stain, Stain, Go Away!

Ever gasped after a child inadvertently left a giant scratch in the surface of your dining room table? Or cringed when a well-meaning adult accidentally knocked over a drink onto your beautiful wood coffee table? Well, fear not. One of the best attributes of wood furniture is that it is simple to touch up or renew its original luster.

Small nicks and scratches can usually be disguised with the help of a store-bought scratch cover product. For larger scratches, try using a felt tip pen or shoe polish in a color closely matched to the finish of the furniture piece. Shoe polish applicator bottles filled with the stain work well for the cover-up job, as do Sharpie markers. Coloring in the scratch is easy and surprisingly effective.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art used in the home to create balance and harmony. Feng Shui Practitioners have many tricks of the trade used to get rid of negative energy and promote happiness, stability, affluence, tranquility and peace. With the help of this guide, now you, too, can use Feng Shui to enhance your surroundings.

Here are some Feng Shui fast solutions to allow you to experience maximum fulfillment in your current home:

Color. Color can lift you up or bring you down, so pay attention to the colors you choose for your furniture and to decorate your house. Decide on which color best suits your living room, bedrooms, dining room and furniture by figuring out the energy you would like for that particular room or area.

Red: Great for energy and excitement. Works perfectly in a dining room to keep folks awake at the dinner table. Not so good for bedrooms and studies, as its properties can make it hard to relax and unwind.

Orange: Stimulates hunger. Softer, lighter shades work great for living rooms, playrooms, and even bedrooms.

Yellow: Inspires happiness and creativity. Use in any room to add brightness and vitality.

Would your child’s room benefit from some fresh design ideas and reorganization? Most could, but it can be hard to know where to begin and what concepts to use. Obviously, the age and personality of your child, not to mention your budget, will dictate much of the design concept. But where and how to begin? With these easy-to-follow tips, you will be ready to dive right in and decorate.

A room with a viewpoint

Every piece of furniture, wall-hanging and accessory in a child’s room contributes to an overall feeling conveyed by the room. A sports theme conveys excitement, while soft white clouds against a light blue sky add a relaxing, inspirational touch. Choose the design that is right for your child by having a conversation with each object and piece of furniture before you place it in the room, asking what it could contribute and where it would like to be placed. Ask the room what color it would like to be painted, or the walls what they would like hanging on them. Stay open-minded and you will realize the answer to each question is within you.

Ahhh, the sumptuous days of summer. Clear skies, green lawns, barbeques and trips to the beach. Who wouldn’t want to capture that feeling year-round?

Believe it or not, it is easy to bring the style of summer into your own home. Follow these simple, inexpensive tips, and be on your way to enjoying a summer home in your own home… any time of the year!

Color is Key

Paint is a simple tool that can be used to create a summery atmosphere in any room of your home. Brighten up a living room with lime green walls, a dining room with canary yellow, or a playroom with creamsicle orange.

Lighten up dark wood coffee tables, side tables or bookshelves with salmon pink or eggshell blue. Even painting the inside of a dark bookshelf a bright, summery color can freshen up a room considerably.

Store or cover darker colored items, such as maroon pillows and brown couches, replacing them or covering them with lighter, brighter covers. Floral patterns are nice and summery, as is a beach motif. Hang white or see-through curtains over dark drapes to quickly achieve a summery feel.

Parlez-vous Françes? Don’t worry - you don’t need to speak French in order to enjoy the bright, comfortable and classic style of French Country in your home. From weathered walls to wide wooden tables, it is not hard to achieve the French Country look using the following guidelines.

French Country style is all about well-used, worn-in, imperfect but beautiful architectural elements, furniture and accessories. Forget sleek lines, fine china, and black, white and gray color combos. Instead, fill your house with chunky wood tables, dozens of sweet-smelling flowers, and brightly patterned couches, curtains and pillows styled after the look of Provence, the southeast region in France that borders the Mediterranean Sea.

When choosing a French Country style home, think along the lines of cracked wood beams, curved panels, hand-carved decorations and raw material flooring and walls, like stone or exposed brick. Raw or distressed wood also can be used to cultivate a French Country atmosphere, as do uneven plaster walls.

Don’t worry about that spider crack in the paint in your kitchen, or the slight discoloration of the paint in your bedroom or living room. In French Country “speak”, these imperfections simply add character.

Why is planning home decorating projects important? Let’s start by asking the following question.

What do the following have in common?

1) Boxes of odds & ends collecting dust in the basement

2) Bags of discarded curtains, bedspreads and pillows in the attic

3) Half empty paint cans stacked against a wall in the garage

It could mean you have a hard time parting with anything, however, in this case all these point to decorating attempts gone astray.

Let me continue with a short story:

"The Discovery" Once upon a time there was a very cluttered basement. Over the years the occupants of the home had done nothing but toss things down there. When it finally became obvious that the only way to get from one side to the other was with the use of a road map, Mom decided it was time to clean house.

As she began going through the numerous boxes and after opening an infinite number of storage bags, she began to realize that one particular phrase was continually being repeated, "Why did I buy this". After what seemed like an eternity in the basement, she moved on to check other parts of the house.

Begin your written plan by choosing one room to start with. This helps keep you and your budget focused on the project. Which not only guarantees it’s completion, it’s going to save you money. Why? Remember impulse buying, well it’s less likely to occur if you’ve planned and written down items specifically for that one room.

Think about it this way; You go to the grocery store without a list, what happens? Everything looks good, so you end up buying extra things you do not need and probably forget a few essential items.

Tip: A large notebook or blank writing journal will help make this process easier. This will come in handy for jotting down ideas, measurements, color choices, keeping track of purchases even drawing out a layout of your room. Also, if your purchasing any large items furniture, lighting, carpet etc. this is a good place to keep track of stores that carry things you’ve seen and the prices.

Now that you have chosen the room, the next step is to think about how the room is used. Sound like a strange thought, well not really. This will determine the direction your decorating goes in.

Have you been in a craft store or maybe gone to a fair and noticed booths filled with home made crafts such as embellished wreaths or pretty decorated boxes and thought it might be fun to make something like that.

Well it is fun, and it’s a lot easier than you may think. However, lets first start by talking a little about the advantages to making your own craft projects.

One is the cost factor, for example in most instances it is less expensive to make your own decorative wreath than purchasing one already completed.

Another savings is with the materials; many can be used for numerous projects. For instance a bottle of paint or a jar of decoupage glue even a yard of fabric can go along way.

This is another way that becoming a savvy home decorator really pays off.

Another big plus is the gratification and pride you will feel by taking something you have made and using it as an accessory in your home.

Looking for a new idea? The next time you are flipping through a magazine and you stop to look at a picture, examine the entire picture not just what the caption on the bottom is primarily focused on.

Buying bedroom furniture can be an exciting time; unfortunately if you have not shopped for bedroom furniture in awhile or this is your first time to buy bedroom furniture on your own you may not be well versed in the many different kinds of bedroom furniture available.

Confusion about bedroom furniture often arises in the different sizes of beds and mattresses available. The twin or single bed is about the smallest type of bed on the market and while manufacturers differ in the sizes slightly, the standard twin or single size bed measures 39" x 74." If you need a twin or single bed that is slightly wider and longer you might consider the size known as the super single; which measures 48" x 84." The old fashioned or full bed also known as the double bed is measured at 54" x 74". This is the kind of bed that you commonly see in standard hotel rooms. A queen size bed measures at 60" x 70" although you can purchase what is known as the California queen bed, a size that comes in longer than the regular queen bed at 60" x 84." The next size up in bedroom furniture is the king size bed measuring 76" x 80" while the California king size bed measures 70" x 84."