ABC’s of Fine Design

One way to make your home feel better and look better is to remove the bad things. Most of the time this is clutter and other odd things you just don’t need anymore. Right now is a great time to clean things out as everyone loves to have yard sales during the summer. The key to this though is not to buy a bunch of stuff to replace what you sell.

Another thing you want to get rid of in your home are allergens. Use a air purifier like  IQAir to get all of the harmful things out of your air. Not only will it help your health, but it can keep the look and feel of your furniture and other fabrics.

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I wanted to share this topic with you, I know it’s a little off subject, but I think it’s important. I live in Michigan near the Saginaw Bay and we have a lot of boaters that go out in the summer and many of them party, drink and have fun. Some scary facts though are that last year there were 35 boating deaths last year and 28 were a result of alcohol. Many people don’t think about this, but Boating Operating Under the Influence is illegal, it’s just like drunk driving.

I find that Boating Education can sometimes cause these death rates to go down. I wanted to tell you about one great program run by the Arizona government that provides information on Arizona Boating safety and really works for any location. The best part is if you are interested you can take the education classes right online so you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home, well at least not until you have to get to that boat.

Below is one of the videos from their website:

This video makes a few great points that everyone who boats needs to remember. The video below is a little more general.

I’m sure many of you don’t just stay inside and decorate your homes all summer, you go out and not only watching these videos yourself but if you have children having them watch them too.
have fun. You need to be safe when you do and I hope you will consider

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After a long weekend of redoing the bathroom bedroom or whatever room you are remodeling this weekend, do you ever feel like you just crawled out of a hot desert? You have Sensitive Skin that is dry and cracked and you just hate the feeling of touching anything.

I have gotten that feeling after working with drywall for a few days. I have dry skin anyway and that just makes it worse. I found though that the drug store stuff doesn’t always work. If you have the same problem you should check our Iderma.com and get some of their hand creams and body lotions, I’m checking out their daytime protection cream. That way you can be back to work on your weekday things, and be ready for the next remodel. Maybe you can get that backyard done next weekend?

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Since I am an interior design student I am very interested in art and history. Just over a year ago we went to Washington DC. I was very disappointed as most of the museums were closed for renovation. I was surprised as we went during the cherry blossom festival. The worst part about all of that was we had our German exchange student who really wanted to see both the American history museum and the native American museum, both were closed.

I plan on going back some day but I think I may end up at the Stark Museum of Art before I get back to DC. At least I will as long as I move back to Texas like I’m hoping to do. The Stark Museum is located in Orange Texas and has a large collection of Western art and native American art, it’s not just about art though they have books and manuscripts so you can learn a little about the cultures that are in the museum. One collection I am interested in is their decorative arts collection. This collection consist mostly of glass and porcelain. I’m interested in it from a design perspective. Of course all of the art interest me because of this. Another reason I would like to visit this museum is because of there connection to the stark foundation. This foundation supports the arts, education and human services.

Museums are a great place to figure out what kind of art you like. You can check out many different kinds of art and decide what you would like in your home. Art is a great way to express yourself and impress your guest. The best part is you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars. There are many reproductions of famous works that you can get for less the $100. I suggest though you find one piece you really like at an art auction, that way you have something to talk to your guest about. If your planning a summer trip you should really think about adding this museum to your list and visiting the town of Orange Texas. You never know what you may find to add to your home.

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Some people think that once your an interior designer that is all you will do, but in most cases interior designers do so much more. One designer I had a chance to talk to not only does interior design work but she own her own salon and spa. So really you can do anything once you get that design degree. You could design luggage, rugs or bedding. You also could run a restaurant or other business.

A big reason for this is that interior designers also need to know a good part about general business practices. They need to have an idea of laws and codes and are really the perfect person to run any type of business. They know how to design the space to work for the business and what goes into it. So if your thinking of getting a design degree check it out, you can do so much more then just put paint on walls and make a place look good.

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I will grantee you this post is not what you are thinking. This is not about dorm design but about a friend of mine and a contest they were involved in recently with some kids from a local state collage.

The contest involved designing the perfect collage guy home complete with huge couches, big screen TV’s and oh the ever popular beer pong tables yes more then one was required. I am shaking my head as I write this, but I will have to say that what they came up with actually looked good. The guys I know got advice from me and a few other people as to what they should do. Really the whole house is very well done and stylish, we all told them to put the beer pong tables in the basement along with any other weird drinking game stuff.

The point if this story is that you really never know what you may end up designing as an interior designer. Sometimes it will just be very strange.

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Interior design is not all about the money, sometimes it’s about helping people who don’t have the money to get the job done or passably don’t’ even have a home. One of my classmates has taken on the task of finding a bus for sale so that she can redesign the inside for a church group. Not only does it get her some exposure and a great project for her portfolio but she’s helping people who need it. This church as over 300 youth members and they really need a good bus to travel to outings in. They also have a youth choir with 150 members. She’s got a great design in mind now all she needs is for them to get a bus.

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