Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordinates, and manages such enhancement projects.

Interior Design.

Ayesha Raza

If you’ve shopped for new kitchen cabinets recently, you know that it’s often much more economical to refinish your old cabinets than to buy new ones. Here are 8 tips that will make your kitchen cabinet refinishing a huge success.

1. If your cabinets are painted, remove the paint with a chemical stripper. If your cabinets are stained or varnished, either clean the surface well or remove most of the stain or varnish with a chemical refinisher.

2. Take the doors off your cabinets and remove the handles and hardware. It will be much easier if you lay the doors flat to work on them.

3. Check to see how much damage there is to the cabinets. If there is only minor damage, such as dark stains around the door handles, just clean these areas. Use a synthetic steel wool pad because it won’t hurt your fingers or get caught on the wood grain.

4. Dip the pad in paint thinner, mineral spirits, or turpentine, and scrub the stains. Then lightly scrub the whole surface, cleaning and dulling it so the new finish will stick.

5. Once you’ve cleaned the surface and removed the dark stains, wipe on an oil-based, clear finish such as Minwax. All clear finishes are low-odor and most are available in either glossy or satin finish. Apply several coats for a thicker finish.

6. If you find you need to redo more than just a few stained areas, use a chemical refinisher – a strong solvent cleaner that dissolves and removes part of the old varnish. Ask an expert at your local paint store to suggest a good quality refinisher.

7. When you’re using the chemical refinisher, work in small areas, and scrub the finish with a synthetic steel wool pad. The chemical refinisher will remove the finish and even out the color of the wood and stain. Rinse the pad in more refinisher when it gets clogged with dirty finish.

8. The cabinet’s surface should be smooth and evenly colored after you’ve scrubbed the whole surface. If you find it isn’t, just wipe the entire cabinet in long, overlapping strokes with clean refinisher and clean steel wool in long, overlapping strokes. Most of the stain color will remain, and the wood will be very smooth.

It’s extremely important that you wear protective clothing and make sure that your work area is well-ventilated when you’re refinishing your cabinets. And don’t forget to follow all safety precautions on the refinishing product labels.

By following the 8 tips above, you’re sure to enjoy your newly-refinished, beautiful kitchen cabinets for many years.

If you think your bathroom could use a boost, you’ve got company. Bathrooms are among the rooms most likely to be renovated in a home, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute. Homeowners spend about $4,900 on home makeovers during the first year they own their homes, while about 60 percent feel their bathrooms are “inadequate.”

The good news is that there are ways to make over your bathroom without spending a lot of money on remodeling costs and without replacing old fixtures. Try these tips:

You may be able to save yourself the cost of replacing worn-looking toilets, bathtubs or sinks with a good cleaning. Built-up soap scum, hard-water stains, rust, calcium and lime can dull the look of a bathroom and make it seem older than it actually is.

Try using a powerful cleaner designed for tough bathroom stains, such as Kaboom Ultra Scrub, to give your bathroom surfaces an instant makeover. Ultra Scrub’s thick cream clings to surfaces and its scrubbing granules get deep into textured surfaces to remove grime and stains, without scratching. Stay on top of your bathroom’s appearance using maintenance products such as Kaboom NeverScrub Continuous Toilet Cleaning System. It allows you to throw away your brush and never scrub your toilet again.

Use mildew-resistant, latex paint to add new color to the bathroom. Be sure to use a bin primer over any water stains or spots before starting the job, and pay careful attention to detail-areas, such as woodwork or trim around mirrors.

Home designers often say the bathroom is a good place to experiment with colors. If your home has more muted tones, consider using bright hues in the bathroom to help make the room seem cleaner and brighter.

Finally, add some decoration to the bathroom to make it seem less stark and more comfortable. You may want to hang some family photos on the wall or a framed picture or two. Just be sure not to make the bathroom appear too cluttered. Remember, if you have limited space, home designers say less is more.

The kids have moved away, and now you suddenly find yourself with an extra room in the house. Unless you’re in dire need of a home office, why not make that extra room into a game room? After all, you’ve worked hard enough, now it’s time to play, and the game room can be a room full of excitement and fun.

There was a time when you could only afford the luxury of a game room if you had a basement, and that usually meant a couch and a billiard table. However, in this age of technology the game room most likely will have a big screen TV and a game console with lots of video games. Few will still have a billiard table. One reason is because most rooms are not as big as a basement and a billiard table would take most of the space available.

Since this should be a family room, or a room for you and your friends to get together for fun, why not add a game table you can use to play board games, and perhaps a soccer table, or an air hockey game table. These won’t take up as much room as a pool table. If it’s in your budget, a jukebox can add to the fun and atmosphere!

What is the best way to decorate this room? What colors should you use? What about wallpaper? Below are some ideas you may want to consider.

First, be sure to use bright colors. Stay away from dark colors – no one wants to play in a dark room. Use “fun” colors such as light green, light yellow, and light orange, but try to only use the orange as an accent color. You should not paint an entire wall orange. Bright colors will raise the excitement level in the room, whereas dark colors will only bring gloom to the room.

In addition to painting the game room a bright color, you may want to add a colorful border as well. There are so many patterns to choose from! If the theme of your game room is geared more towards board games or card games, find a border with graphics of tables, chairs, or maybe poker cards. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, then look for borders that represent fun, excitement and celebrations. You should also try to have borders that appeal to both sexes. Keep that in mind with the colors as well. In other words, try to stay away from colors such as pink.

If the game room allows it, try to section off the room so that your friends and family can easily move from one area of the room to the other. For example, you may want to designate one area of the room as the card and/or board game area and place the table in that section of the room. The other area of the room could be designated as the TV area. Here, you can play video games or watch the Super Bowl or other sports games. If possible, try to have something for everyone.

As mentioned above, if it’s within your budget, a jukebox can really add to the fun. You can also use a stereo (perhaps with surround sound?) to add music to the room. Another great item is a karaoke machine. Be sure to have lots of sing-along lyrics, not only for the kids, but for the adults as well!

Consider holding a “Decorate the Game Room” party. Invite your friends and family and get them involved choosing colors, borders, games, music, etc. Together you can make this the best room in the house!

There is no rule which says you must paint woodwork white, or strip it, or color it to merge with the walls. In a room whose walls, window frames and doors are in the same neutral color, you could paint the skirting board a clear contrasting color. This will define the line between the floor and walls. Trim colors that contrast with walls and ceilings might suit your style in one room, while a more subtle color change might be right somewhere else in the house.

You can liven up plain, flat walls by adding moldings so as to create panels around the room. For best results, make sure you keep your working area within the proper temperature range recommended for the paint. All interior woodwork that has been stripped, from baseboard to dining room tables, needs to be primed with either a standard acrylic wood primer. After that you can paint on it with oil-based flat eggshell, gloss, or acrylic paints.

Most interior woodwork looks best in an eggshell finish, as high-gloss paint can have a rather bleak, deadening effect. If your plan is to paint walls, ceiling, and trim, then it’s best to get the trim painted first, along with the room’s windows and doors. Paint woodwork in small sections. Keeping a wet edge to avoid lap marks.

A wide range of broken- color effects work well on woodwork, but ideally you should use oil-based paints as latex has little durability on wood. Stains add color to wood while allowing its natural grain pattern to show through. Varnishes are clear finishes that form a tough coating over stain. They are available in a range of finish sheens from satin to high gloss. At the end of a project, combine all of the leftover paint of the same color into as few cans as possible.

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