Feng Shui And Your Home Interior Design

Feng Shui, when relating to home design, is a topic that is gaining more momentum and is becoming more well known in Western society.

Centuries, or in fact thousands of years ago, Feng Shui was known only to the wealthiest and most powerful of Chinese families, including emperors and empresses of China. The royal families used the concept of Feng Shui to influence the harmony and prosperity of their palaces and homes.

In the modern day, as a result of this knowledge becoming known among the rest of Asia, and now in the West including Europe and the US, these principles are now being embraced, regardless of their cultural background.

See, the principles of Feng Shui are based on the concept of 'chi' or energy. And since we are all energy, it is believed that the energy from environmental forces have an effect on our lives. So how does this affect our choice of homes, and our homes designs?

Well, there are several points to keep in mind when it comes to choosing your home or home design:

Tip 1

Firstly, Feng Shui is used to analyse land forms surrounding the home to determine whether the energy or 'chi' surrounding the home is favourable or not.

This includes locations of hills and mountains, water and certain man-made objects around the house. While this is not the actual house design itself, it is considered to have an important impact from a Feng Shui perspective. If you're looking for a new home or land to build a new home, then this will be especially relevant.

Tip 2

Secondly, there is the environment immediately surrounding the home, and visible from the home to consider.

These include what is visible while standing looking out from your front door, and the area immediately surrounding the house. If you're looking to build or looking for a new home, then you can either learn more about this topic or hire a Feng Shui practitioner to assess the property for you.

Tip 3

Thirdly, comes the interior of the home.

There are many considerations for your home interior, including the location of stairs in the home, the location of the bedroom and kitchen, the shapes of the rooms and height of the ceilings and the location of water in the home, including the bathrooms and ponds.

You can learn more from a book, online courses or from a practitioner to find out the details about how to assess a potential new home, and to screen it from a Feng Shui perspective.

In conclusion, these are the 3 areas to be aware of when assessing any home from a Feng Shui point of view. You can learn it yourself, or you can use a practitioner to help you assess a home if you're new. Feng Shui is just one of the tools that you can apply when assessing a potential new home.

Year Round Decorating Ideas For The Front Door

The front door of your home is the first thing that visitors will see. You can make a good impression on your guests and visitors by adding some special decorative touches to this area. These decor accents do not have to be elaborate or expensive. Many times just one or two specially selected pieces will go a long way. By decorating the front doorway area you can lend a nice touch to your home, and make your guests feel especially welcomed. Here are some ideas for making the most of your decorating area with ideas to give special pizzaz to your front door.

Hang door garland. This can be in any theme and will cover a large amount of space on the front door. Make sure you choose something that will be relatively weather resistant, and will not fade easily. A garland of fall colored leaves would make a wonderful autumn design. For Christmas, holly or poinsettias could be used to make a similar garland.

Display a large wreath or other floral display with the use of an over-the-door wreath hanger. Try making your own wreath out of natural materials like pine cones. This can be easily accomplished by using a glue gun and adding some decorative floral picks. I usually make my own Christmas wreath by using a pre-made wreath shape, and adding Christmas floral picks or handmade bows. I purchase these inexpensively from the Dollar Store.

Add a door knob hanger. This could be as elaborate as a handmade, one-of-a-kind piece, or as simple as a colored ribbon with bells attached. For seasonal themes, a strand of dried corn or even small fall leaves would make a nice hanger. Snowman and poinsettias would be fun ideas for Christmas or Winter.

Seasonal door decorations are a fun way to decorate the front door. For autumn you could use a fall themed wreath with apples, fall leaves, even tiny pumpkins. Thanksgiving ideas include the cornucopia or dried corn. For the past couple of years, I have used a heavy wrapping paper to “wrap” my front door to look like a present. I usually use a bright red foil paper, then add a handmade wreath.

How to Buy a Home with Good Feng Shui

Buying a home is usually a stressful experience. So much rides on a new home because this is where you relax, have fun, sleep, eat; in short, it’s the place central to your life. Not only that, but homes usually cost a whole lot of money and represent our single largest investment. Most homebuyers can usually find the objective requirements of house hunting, such as location, size, and price. But, there are also intangible factors when searching for a new home, but most people don’t know what to look for.

Helping you find the flaws
This is where feng shui comes in. Using feng shui, you’ll be able to spot the problems –or the potential -- in a house that exist outside of the objective requirements of number of bedrooms, amount of storage, etc. These are features that you might not notice, and a realtor will seldom, if ever, point out to you. But, with this checklist, you can at least feel more confident about your decision to go with a particular property.

Look at the space with “feng shui eyes”
When you are looking at a house – or any space for that matter – and considering whether to buy it, it helps to look at it with “feng shui eyes.” You will want to do this once you have considered all the other objective aspects of the house, such as square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, living areas, location, price, etc.

The next step is to run down a checklist of the subjective feng shui considerations that will help you make a feng shui assessment. Even if you aren’t house hunting, this list can give you some important information that might be very revealing about the house you are already in!

The list below provides some of the more serious feng shui problems.

Exterior
?Street: Is house at the end of a cul-de-sac, dead end or T-junction?
?Topography. Is the lot sloped away at the back? Avoid yards that slope down toward the rear. Select home with a rise at the rear. Is house below street grade? This will make for a constant “uphill” struggle while you live here.
?Landscape. Is there a tree or pole directly in front of the front door? Dead trees or shrubs? Dead lawn?
?Garage. Is it ahead of the house or front door?
?Neighbors. Is this house smaller than houses on either side? Do neighbors’ houses have sharp angles pointing at this house or appear to overpower or dominate the house?
?Views & proximity. Can you see or is it close to church, temple or other house of worship? Can you see or is it close to funeral home, cemetery, hospital, police station, sewage treatment, abandoned building or run-down house?
?Water. Is water, lake, river, ocean at the back of house or too close to front?
?Lot. Regular or irregular-shaped? House sits too close to the front of lot? Does backyard fall away from the rear of the house?
?Paths. Driveway ends at house instead of garage? Walkways end straight at door?

Interior
?House style. Split, bi-level, or center hall colonial?
?Front. Front door lines up with back door? Does front door face stairway?
?Structure. Overhead or exposed beams? Ceilings too high or are they low and slanted? Skylights over sleeping areas or kitchen? Foundation cracks or problems? Serious plumbing or electrical problems?
?Entrance. Do you see toilet/bathroom door from the entrance? See the kitchen/stove from the front door? See the dining room from the front door? See the bedroom from front door?
?Toilets. Located in NW, SW, center, or corners of the house? Bedroom, dining area or kitchen located under or over toilet?
?Staircases. Spiral staircase? Staircase stops at front door? Split or scissor-style staircase?
?Hallways. Too long? Divide the house into two sections? Too dark?
?Bedrooms. Over garage? Over bathroom or laundry? Have empty space below, i.e., patio area? Is master bedroom too close to the front door?
?Fireplace. In the NW portion of the house? Is it in the Southeast (wealth) sector?
?Major locations. Problems with or missing sections in Northwest (man), Southwest (woman), North (career), or Southeast (wealth)? Bathroom, laundry, kitchen in center of house?
?Odor. Smells musty, smoky, putrid?

Enlist a professional
Still not perfectly confident? Well, a home is a major purchase and we must always consider that important point. Most people take a used car to their mechanic before buying it — and its purchase isn’t as important as a house. So, if you’re still confused or just want to proceed with the sale in confidence, why not talk to a feng shui specialist about looking about the prospective house?

A professional feng shui consultant should be able to tell you what you can expect from this location, such as good financial or business opportunities. Or, maybe you’ll find out that buying this house means your health will suffer, you’ll discover an afflicted portion of the house, such as a toilet in the SW sector that can hurt your marriage. Give serious consideration to hiring a professional.

Fortunately, most problems have a feng shui fix
It’s important to know that every house has “feng shui flaws” and that no house is perfect. However, you should be aware of what you are buying so that you are knowledgeable about what kinds of problems might be associated with the house. The good news? Most feng shui flaws can be corrected.

Types and Features of American Fridge Freezer

American Fridge Freezers are built to contain both the fridge and the freezer. They are manufactured to have enough storage capacity to suit the customer's need. The two different types of American Fridge Freezer are Upright Freezers and Chest Freezers. Food contents can be arranged well in an Upright Freezer except for the bigger food items that do not fit well. Upright Freezers are less energy efficient because of the door's placement. The door in the chest freezer is pushing downwards and so is more energy efficient.

American Fridge Freezers are used for both domestic and commercial purposes. These keep the food items frozen. They operate at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Models come with double door or triple doors. Cooling system and electronic controls maintain even temperature throughout the fridge thereby circulating chilled air evenly. The fast freeze option cools food items quickly. Different models come with different freezing capacity. The fridge and the freezer come with sufficient space. The food that is stored remains unspoilt for nearly 5 hours from the time of power failure depending upon the models.

The racks of these are adjustable according to the size of the food container. The auto freeze option is very helpful when we need to defrost the fridge freezer. An American Fridge Freezer has to be placed within one metre of a power socket. Some American Fridge Freezer models are designed with Twin-Cooling system whereby the fridge and the freezer have separate cooling system. This is to ensure that the air does not get mixed. Frost free freezer is designed to keep the food fresh for longer time. Some models come with electronic control system.

Some of the important features that are available in an American Fridge Freezer are chiller drawer, glass shelves, water dispenser, water filter, adjustable wine rack, salad crispers, door balconies, dairy compartments, child lock facility, vegetable containers with humidity control, interior light, door open alarm, egg rack, wine shelf, holiday setting, LCD display, environmentally friendly refrigerant, home bar facility, instant ice making and chilled drinks from the tap.

There are also additional features available in different American Fridge Freezer models. Models with different colours and dimensions are available in the market. Care should be taken to select the right model that suits our requirement rather than getting the model with unnecessary features.

Enhance Your Room With A Closet Door Mirror

Mirrors are a good addition to any room. They immediately make the room look larger, which is one reason you often see mirrored walls at restaurants and other places of business. Their light-reflecting properties brighten up a room. If you have a bedroom that needs brightening but you don't have any space, try a closet door mirror.

There are two ways to add mirrors to your closet door.You can buy a kit that allows you to add mirrors to your closet doors. This is a reasonably-priced option, but make sure to install the mirrors well so they don't fall off.

Another option is to replace your closet doors with a closet door mirror. These doors, like traditional closet doors, come in a variety of styles and sizes. They tend to look better than attaching a mirror to an existing door, and you will have no worries about falling glass.

Their is a large variety of closet door mirrors to choose from. It's easiest if you stay with the type of door you have now. In other words, if you have a bi-fold or tri-fold door, don't try to replace it with a sliding door. You will find plenty of options using your existing style and track and won't have to worry as much about getting the fit right.

You can buy closet door mirrors where the mirror covers the entire door. If you prefer, you can find doors that have a metal frame or a wood molding. There are several choices of wood frame to suit your style and the style of the room.

Closet door mirrors are reasonably priced. If you are building a new home and want to add them, the floor-to-ceiling variety can save you money because the contractor doesn't have to take time to drywall and frame.

There are kits for mirrored closet doors that will help the door stay on the track, but not all kits offer this feature. When purchasing, you will be much more satisfied if you buy a door that doesn't jump off the tracks.

A closet door mirror adds light, the feeling of space, and elegance to any bedroom. If you are on a budget and can afford only one home improvement, consider a closet door mirror. There are not many other improvements that add so much to a room for such a small cost.