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By lilybee This time of year there's always a glut of 'round up's', 'best of's' and retrospectives, AND we're gearing up for award season. So exciting! The design world is no different. The Brit Insurance awards call themselves 'The Most Comprehensive Deign Awards In The World'. They cover the whole gamut with categories in architecture, fashion, furniture, graphic design, interactive, product and (phew!) transport.

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Along with the vitality and liveliness children bring in to a home, they also bring great energy. Often times, childrens energy can lead to broken vases, stained carpeting and scratched flooring. Parents often times feel that they must sacrifice their designer taste and style to transform their home into a jungle gym full of child proof appliances and cheap furnishings.
Decorating your home to accommodate children doesnt have to mean giving up rich fabrics and decorator hues for a collection of cartoon characters and primary colors. There are plenty of functional home décor materials to fit your taste and the wear and tear of a busy family lifestyle.
Creating a Kid Friendly Color Palette
Before you start decorating your kitchen or family room, consider how often you and your children use that particular space. If the room is a high traffic area, consider using neutral, organic colors like taupe, light browns and greens. These neutral colors camouflage dirt and the everyday deterioration of your active lifestyle. If these organic hues seem dull, incorporate bright shades by adding colorful home accessories like throw pillows and area rugs. A few accent colors are quick, simple, low maintenance ways to liven up even the dullest room.
If the room you are decorating is considered an adult only space, splurge and experiment with rich decorator hues and color palettes. Creating an adult only room allows you to have at least one area that you can decorate exactly how you want, without the possibility of your hard work being at risk.
To learn more about the latest family friendly home improvement materials that will complement all color palettes, visit www.westcoastflooring.com.
Installing Long-Lasting Floors
When selecting carpet flooring for your home, opt for darker colors. Dark carpeting disguises grape juice and mud stains better than light carpeting. Save the lighter colors for adult zones like the bedroom or home office.
If youre in the market for hardwood flooring, select something more durable that can withstand roller skates and soccer cleats. Bamboo flooring has proven to be a more durable alternative than oak or laminate flooring. Bamboo also accepts a large variety of stains, making it a versatile flooring option that can be blended to match almost any interior color palette. All wood flooring will eventually scratch, but bamboo can easily be refinished, unlike laminate flooring.
Extend the life of your carpets and hardwood flooring by investing in wool area rugs that have been treated to resist stains. Hooked wool rugs are great for high traffic areas where kids walk, play and eat because they offer easy spot clean up and very little maintenance. You can find durable rugs in all sorts of stylish patterns and colors and they can be moved around to designate areas. Toss one in the kids play room, or underneath the coffee table to preserve your home floors.
Visit www.westcoastflooring.com to find more durable flooring options for your home.
Incorporating Durable Fabrics
Though dining room chairs upholstered in silk may look great now, they will not look as attractive after a few meals with the kids. Instead of purchasing couches and chairs upholstered in high maintenance materials, like silk, select durable fabrics such as cotton and ultra-suede that can withstand daily activity. Consider the fancier fabrics, such as chenille and crinkled velvet, for accent pillows and throws. Velvet and chenille have a more formal feel and are more durable than silk.
Couples dont have to surrender their style when they have children. There are plenty of attractive and substantial home décor solutions for the busy family lifestyle. Transforming your home into something more stylish and family friendly is simple when you invest in the right home décor materials.
This article is provided by West Coast Flooring Center, one of the largest flooring stores in Southern California, offering flooring services with a wide variety of quality flooring options and other home improvement services.
West Coast Flooring is currently offering weekly, limited-time specials to represent a different home improvement product or service that would work best in the kitchen, family room, bathroom and foyer. Find the latest West Coast Flooring offers for your spring home improvement projects today.

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The entire world waits with excitement for the Christmas season since it is the sign that this year is almost over and the New Year is just around the corner. A lot of people over the world start celebrating the festive season from the first day of December, or even earlier if you go be the displays in the department stores. The Christmas caked, the Christmas tree, the Christmas decorations and most importantly, Santa Claus, are some of the things we are instantly reminded of every time we think of Christmas. Not only those, wreaths and stars are also inseparable from Christmas.

Everyone from small children to old people start getting busy planning for Christmas sometime before the big day It does not have to be a lavish celebration for everyone. It is a time to be together with the family and simple cozy celebrations are also nice, with people having a simple Christmas tree and decorating it with some ornaments and a star. Christmas decorations can be done both indoors and outdoors or, both together. Most people use the Santa Christmas scene, snowmen and white snow as themes to brighten up their indoors decorations, all centered on the tree.

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Major home improvement projects can be scary. As a homeowner, once you sign the contract and begin the project, you are at the mercy of the contractor. Doing research on a company before doing business with them is essential. Its surprising how unethical some individuals and companies are and homeowners need to take certain steps to protect themselves.
Check License Numbers
A contractors license should be on everything- business cards, websites, proposals and contracts, advertising. If you dont see it, ask for it. Once you have it, check it. You can start at the Better Business Bureaus website www.BBB.com. Verify that the license is current and covers the specific work youre having done.
If the license number checks out, the company is legal to do business. It does not automatically mean that the company will do a good job.
Check The Company and Its Owners
Again, you can start at www.BBB.com to check some of the companys and owners history. Be cautious of a company that has only been in business a short time. Just because a company is young does not mean it will not do good work. It means it has less history for you to look at. You can, however, look at the owners track record. If you see that a person has had a string of unsuccessful businesses, watch out!
Note: Most companies, even very good ones, have had one or two complaints lodged against them. Some may not even be legitimate complaints. Beware of a company that has several complaints against them or that does not resolve them properly or in a timely fashion.
Check References
The best reference is from someone you know and trust. If you can take a look at the work they had done, even better. Another option is to ask the company for references. Companies often have a list of satisfied customers who have agreed to speak with potential customers.
Find out if the company finished the work on time and provided quality service and products. Was the customer given a schedule before the work began? If there were any changes, delays or complications, did the company let the customer know right away? Were the installers professional and respectful of the customers and the property? This is a big project for you, dont be afraid to ask!
Follow Your Instincts
Are you comfortable with the way the sales staff and office staff treat you? Are they overly aggressive? Do they answer your questions or do they try to dodge them? They do not need to be sugar sweet with you but a good company will treat you honestly and with respect. You will be working with this company and its employees not just throughout the project but also throughout the warranty period. If something goes wrong in the furture, do you trust them to honor the warranty and fix the problem?
Doing your research can help avoid bad experiences. Unfortunately, nothing can eliminate risk completely. The sad fact is that there are companies out there doing business unethically and illegally and think nothing of lying to get a sale. These hints will help you protect you and your family as much as possible as you improve your home.
http://www.MakeYourHomeEnergyEfficient.

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Many design trends come in and out of fashion in the world of home decorating. There are no real limits to what can or cannot be done to a room, and those willing to try new things usually end up with the most visually interesting, must-see rooms.
A trend thats recently caught on is incorporating animal prints, zebra stripes in particular seem to be the most popular, into the decorating of any and all rooms around the house.
If overdone, it may feel as though you are taking a trip on an actual safari, surrounded by friendly giraffes, peaceful zebras and curious leopards. But when used correctly, these animal prints can become great conversation pieces and interesting details.
The safari room craze began in the early 1900s when President Teddy Roosevelt went on an African safari. Since then, animal prints have been showing up in homes throughout the years.
The current animal print trend goes along with the recent trend in natural eco-friendly decorating. Homeowners are using natural materials such as bamboo, burlap and cork in home remodels. It makes sense that animal prints can further the natural, earthy feel for a room.
If youre looking to do an animal print makeover, start with the basics as you would with any home decorating or remodeling project. When you choose the room to get the update, decide on how you want the room to feel. That is, do you want it to feel warm and cozy, open and inviting, intimate and romantic? Once you know the feel, you can choose a color palette to suit it.
The color palette will help you decide what animal prints to use. If youve chosen black and red, black and white, or even black and pink then zebra stripes would be an excellent match to add some flair. If youve chosen earthier tones- yellows, greens and browns- then leopard, giraffe and tiger prints will make interesting accents.
Recently, animal prints have been appearing in a variety of colors. You will be sure to see zebra stripes in colors other than black and white. Same goes for the other prints. This means you can really do as you wish and choose any print to complement any room. If you really want to be daring, you can even mix prints, coordinating patterns and textures to create a totally unique room just for you.
You dont have to travel to foreign countries for prints. Faux and painted décor works just fine and is much less detrimental to these animals! They come in the form of rugs, bedding, throw pillows and blankets, furniture, statues, figurines and art. Add just a little or go crazy with it. It all just depends on how wild you are!
Whatever you choose to do, it will be sure to stand out. When guests come over, your unique room will surely make for interesting conversations because animal prints are not only trendy right now, but they are also sophisticated and a step up from the traditional.
So choose a room and start your own safari adventure today.

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Do it yourself, often referred to by the acronym "DIY," is a term used by various communities that focus on people creating things for themselves without the aid of paid professionals. Many DIY subcultures explicitly critique consumer culture, which emphasizes that the solution to our needs is to purchase things, and instead encourage people to take technologies into their own hands.

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Posted by Caren April 7, 2008 3:46 PM
Tags: design
Remember how you felt when you bought (or rented) your first house? Whether you had a ton of work ahead of you or the home was move-in ready, there was probably a moment when you stopped and reveled: "It's mine — all mine!"
And the next day, the thought: "Now what?"
To turn your house into a home, here are some decorating must-reads on HGTV.com.

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