Decorate the kid's room with animals

When you decorate the kid room have some fun and be creative. Ideas for designing the perfect baby's or child's decor for an animal or Noah's ark themed room.

It is easy to give your baby or child an adorable room by decorating it with animals and a Noah’s ark theme.

The curtain and the bedspread will set the stage for the rest of the decor. Many fabric stores have a good selection of fabric in the Noah’s ark theme. Try to find at least two fabrics that coordinate. Wal-Mart carries a line of fabrics that have animals and clouds. Some have just animals and some have just clouds and there are several with a mixture of animals and clouds. This is a perfect series to use.
If you know how to sew buy the patterns you like best for the curtain and the bedspread. If you are setting up a baby’s room you may want to make the bedding for the crib in coordinating fabrics. The bumper looks cute in an animal print while the blanket is clouds or whatever else. In this case you should make the curtains the same material as the bumper. If you are decorating the room for an older child make the bedspread and curtain in different but coordinating fabrics. If you don’t know how to sew these are pretty easy beginning projects to learn on, or find a seamstress to make these things for you.

The walls are the next biggest part of the room you will want to focus on. You may opt to paint them a color that goes with the material you have chosen. A shade of blue is your best bet for a boy’s room. If you are artistic you can paint clouds on the ceiling and animals on the walls, but a plain background will look nice when you add a few accessories.
Now for the accessories. An easy way to brighten the room is to add colorful picture frames. Soft yellows, greens or purples are nice. You can make these frames yourself by covering old frames with wallpaper or wrapping paper. Just cut out the paper a little larger then the frame. On all of the corners cut a diagonal line so that the paper can be folded and wrapped around to the back of the frame where you will glue it. Make a large frame to hold the Noah’s ark scene. This will pull the whole room together.
You can add expression to the dressers and bookcases with scarves. Use a coordinating material, cut it the length that you want, hem and you have a bookcase or dresser scarf.

You can also paint animals on the dresser or bookcase. Each drawer on the dresser could have a line of different animals walking two by two. If you can find a tall wooden lamp, you could paint a giraffe on each side. The lampshade can be stenciled with animals and the ark.

Finally, you can add a border about half way up the wall. You have three options for making the border. You can buy a wallpaper type border, you can paint the animals freehand or you can buy a stencil and stencil the wall. Whatever you choose to do you will have created a beautiful room that you and your child will cherish.

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Welcome to Modern Interior Design IDeas Images! From design tips to the most stylish and durable products on the market, IDeas Images is a new series of video podcasts that explore interior design options to help you turn your home into a beautiful space!

The Color Yellow

The Color Yellow

Color is vital element for interior decoration in your home. Without it our house would be dull, and so would our lives. We use color to empower us, to cheer us up, to raise emotions, to color our world and personalise it.

There are many meanings for the color yellow, the most obvious ones being sunny, warm and radiant.

We use yellow more than we know it, cream is yellow, it is yellow tinted with white. Cream is an extremely popular color as it is warm but not overpowering, it is more friendly than stark white and we use it in every room and a lot outside the house too.

I used to do a lot of design work for office fitouts and I used yellow frequently. It is an innovative color and sharpens the memory, perfect for the office environment. 

Gold is yellow, rich and luxurious, a perfect accessory as seen here in this tieback tassel. 

Learn how to lay ceramic tiles effectivley,and save money!

Have you ever wondered how those tiles are laid can look so perfect? What is the secret of laying tile effectively? How can we choose the right kind of tile for our home? Yes there are different kinds of tiles that we can choose from. There is the ceramic tile, the Quarry tile, the slate tile, and of course wall tiles.

The Ceramic tiles are for interior floors, usually used in areas such as Kitchens, Bathrooms or laundries. One of the key aspects to good effective tile laying is in the preparation of the floor. It’s just like decorating; preparation is the key to success. Both glazed ceramic tiles can be laid directly onto a concrete floor, as long as the floor is dry and in good sound condition.

If you have a timber floor, you can lay tiles directly onto the timber, but only if the timber is strong enough to support the extra weight of the tiles. Tiles in mass can be very heavy, so check with builder to see if your timber floor will take the weight. If not, here are some things that you can do:

1) Cover the floorboards with exterior grade plywood; make sure that the plywood is securely fixed onto your floor. This can be done with special floorboard adhesive and then some you can either nail it or screw it down to the floor.

2) Make sure that the floor is completely level; you may need some leveling compound to do this.

If you have vinyl on your floor you may want to remove any vinyl as this will help for leveling.

Ok, so now that we have our floor all nicely prepared what now? Well, the next step is to start laying out those tiles of yours. If you want the end result to look professional, then careful setting out of the tiles will be required.

Start off by finding the center of the floor, which should be your starting point. Lay the tiles out onto the floors from center out as you would like to see them, make sure that any patterns etc. are properly aligned. Remember too to allow for the joint thickness for the grout to go into. See how many whole tiles will fit onto the floor area Move the rows just slightly if need be to fit more tiles in.

How to lay ceramic tile

Learn how to lay ceramic tiles effectivley,and save money!

As you lay the tiles, use tile spacers to mark the gaps between the tiles. Use a level to make sure that all of the tiles are straight with each other.

Now comes the fun bit, the edges. To measure these tiles, lay a whole tile over the last whole tile laid. Then place the edge of the tile next to the wall. Mark the tile and then cut it to size. To cut the tiles you will need either a diamond tipped blade or you can hire proper tile cutters from your local decorating stores.

Use a high-grade tile adhesive once you have the pattern of the tiles set out. Some adhesives do dry quickly, so you may need to be fast.

Laying tiles may not be as easy as it looks. If you do get stuck, then you will need to consult a qualified tile layer. He will know what the best thing for you to do is.

In the mean time have fun laying those tiles.

A step-by-step guide for how to refinish your hardwood floors. Takes you through every step, from removing carpet, sanding, and finishing.

As the trend toward restoring older homes continues, more and more people are refinishing their hardwood floors. Hardwood floors provide years of maintenance-free beauty, yet they are relatively cheap and easy to restore. What’s more, refinishing floors on your own can save thousands of dollars while raising a property’s value.

Removing Old Carpet

If you are lucky enough to not have your hardwood floors covered by existing carpet, you can skip to the next section. If not, depending on the condition of the carpet and the pad and how they were fastened to the floor, you may have a long and tedious job ahead. Older carpet pads can bond to hardwood floors, adding hours to the task.

The best option for removal of bonded pads is to scrape them off by hand with a putty knife. Take care to follow the grain of the wood and to not gouge it as you scrape. A chemical solvent can be used to speed the process. If the pad is too well bonded, you can elect to use an electric sander to sand the pad off. The disadvantage to sanding at this point is that you may sand some of the carpet staples into the floors themselves, leaving tiny metal scars in the final product. Staples can be removed by hand with a needle-nose pliers.

Sanding the Floors

The best way to obtain an electric sander and other equipment described is through a local tool rental business. These establishments are also usually eager to provide extra information and supplies related to what they rent. Sometimes you can save money by purchasing your own sandpaper and other accessories, however.

Start sanding with the coarsest grit of sandpaper. Perform three passes, using a finer grit each time. Be careful to move with the grain of the wood as much as possible. It is also important to keep the sander moving at a steady pace to avoid uneven patches. Corners are often sanded too much as the machine passes over them repeatedly. There will always be awkward patches where the sander can not reach. The only choice is to do these patches by hand, using the same progression of coarse to fine sandpaper described above.

Once the floors have been sanded three times, they are ready to be prepared for staining. Use tacking cloth, sold at hardware stores everywhere, to pick up the sawdust and other debris left after sanding. Make sure to pick up plenty of tacking cloth because you will also need it for the staining process.

Staining the Floors

After selecting a stain matching your taste, gather up plenty of rags and some old clothes. Apply the stain with the rags in a circular motion. Try to apply evenly to avoid any color inconsistencies. Be sure to consult the product label for drying time and other important information particular to that brand. If after the first application the stain is still too light, repeat until desired color is attained.

Buffing is the next step. Again, tool rental businesses are the best place to obtain a buffer. These machines are the same ones that are used to polish floors everywhere. Ask for a little advice about operating the buffer before you leave with it because they can be hard to handle. Generally, if you pull down on the handle of the buffer, it will move to the left; if you pull up on the handle of the buffer, it will move to the right. Just take it slow at first until you get the hang of it.

Use tacking cloth again to clear away dust and debris, and the floors will be ready for their first coat of polyurethane. The easiest way to apply the polyurethane is to use a mop-like tool. This prevents you from having to stoop over for hours and seems to work as well as other applicators. Once the recommended drying time has elapsed, repeat the above process twice more, making three coats of polyurethane in all.

Now your hardwood floors should be ready to go. You should wait two or three days before using the room and at least a week before putting down any area rugs (or they might adhere to the floor). Again, be sure to consult the labels of all the finishing products that you use for any specific information. Be safe and enjoy your new low-cost hardwood floors!