Simple Home/Kitchen Decorating Tips For Busy People

Posted by on Feb 9, 2012 in Kitchen Decoration | 0 comments

Simple Home/Kitchen Decorating Tips For Busy People

Whenever you spend a lot of time in one area, you prefer it to look decorated and personalized. Your kitchen is one place where you spend hours preparing meals and then often sit eating those meals with the family. It’s important that it is a place that you enjoy being in as well as a place where the organization flows well for you and your cooking style. Many people feel that they just don’t have the right touch to make their home look like it was professionally decorated, but it can be easier than you think to get it done correctly–even if you don’t have hours to spend running between the hardware and fabric stores. Implementing a few home décor tips will help you decorate your space quickly, effectively, and with stunning results.

 

 

Lighting

The intensity, amount, and placement of lighting in a room affects everything from the wall color to the texture of the furniture fabric. Professionals determine the amount and intensity of lighting with algorithmic equations designed to create the perfect balance of illumination. While you don’t need a specialized computer program, adhering to a few basic lighting principles helps you decorate the rest of the room.

  • Create small “pools” of light by placing a 100-watt table lamp next to each piece of furniture.
  • Soften the ambiance of a room by replacing the previous, translucent lampshade with one made from opaque material.
  • Brighten your kitchen by placing a tall halogen lamp in each corner of the room. Never place the lamp near cloth drapes or flammable materials.

 

Furniture Placement

Your furniture pieces are like marking points that guide the eye around the room and along with lighting, will be the most important of tips on decorating your home. Rearranging the furniture lets you redistribute the space and create an entirely different feel, all within a weekend afternoon.

  • Cluster furniture by size and style for visual continuity. Stocky, comfortable furniture belongs in a separate room from family heirlooms. Placing your grandmother’s antique end-table between two overstuffed arm chairs makes the room look visually disjointed.
  • Position stationary, non-sitting furniture, such as side tables and dressers, in full view so they aren’t bumping into the window drapes or encroaching behind a slanted arm chair. Fully visible and functional furniture makes your room spatially well-proportioned instead of a cluttered mess.

 

Wall Decor

Your wall decor must spatially balance the relationship between the ceiling and your furniture. For example, a room with large, geometric furniture requires different wall-hangings than a room with with slender-legged tables and a sleek sofa.

  • ?Limit wall-hangings to two or three large, framed images for darker rooms or you’ll lose the image details in the darkness.
  • Frame 20-inch by 20-inch patches of colorful fabric to revive a neutrally-colored room.
  • Energize a sparse by staggering your wall-hangings horizontally. For example, instead of placing three pictures in a row, place them equidistant apart but 2-inches higher or lower than the previous image.

Kitchen Organization

One thing specific to your kitchen is arranging the utensils and cooking supplies in an organized fashion. Think about the things you use the most and where you use them and do your best to re-arrange those items so they are closer. For those bigger items that you don’t use much you may consider keeping them in a pantry or cupboard in a room close by so you can save precious room for the items you use more often. See if you can double up various platters or serving dishes as decorations so you can save some space as well. As you pay attention to where you use things and how often, you’ll be able to re-organize your kitchen and decorate at the same time–leaving you with an enjoyable place to spend your time cooking healthy food.

Using a few simple home decorating tips and techniques will significantly change the interior of your home. Your kitchen will be a place where you enjoy spending hours and you will be more efficient as the kitchen flows better for you.  Beginning with the tips on decorating your home listed above will help you develop a decor plan to ensure your decorative changes are thoughtfully coordinated.

 

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Roasted Broccoli

Posted by on Jan 27, 2012 in Recipies | 0 comments

Roasted Broccoli

A delicious variation of your basic dinner vegetable!

You preheat the oven to 425.

Take 4 to 5 pounds of broccoli (I just got two large bunches), cut into florets (but relatively big ones.) Wash and dry them THOROUGHLY.

Now, it’s easy. Put the broccoli on a cookie sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. About 5 Tbs olive oil, 1 1/2 tsps kosher salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper – or just eyeballed it. Now add 4 garlic cloves that are peeled and sliced and toss them in too.

Roast in the oven 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.

You can shake the pan around once or twice during the roasting.

When it’s done, take it out of the oven–and here’s where it gets really good–zest a lemon over the broccoli, squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli, add 1.5 Tbs more olive oil, 3 Tbs toasted pine nuts, and 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

This delicious combination of crispy broccoli with garlic, lemon, and cheese will make this main dish worthy!

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