Add A Room To Your Home With A Patio Awning

Written by Garry John


Do you need a patio awning for your lovely patio off of your backyard that only gets halfrepparttar use it could because of rain or far too bright sun? Installing a patio awning to shade and protect it can be almost as good as adding a room to your home!

When choosing a patio awning, you’ll need to consider a number of things –repparttar 143350 area that needs to be covered,repparttar 143351 structure on whichrepparttar 143352 awning will be installed (usually your house),repparttar 143353 weather conditions in your area,repparttar 143354 cost andrepparttar 143355 aesthetics. There are many types and styles of patio awnings available to suit your needs – once you’re certain what your needs are.

The most often stated reasons for installing a patio awning are:

- Protection from Weather

A patio awning provides shade fromrepparttar 143356 sun and cover from rain, to extendrepparttar 143357 usability of your patio and make it more comfortable at all times ofrepparttar 143358 day.

- Protection of Your Investment

Patio furniture and wood floors or patio carpets are a substantial financial investment. A patio awning helps protect that investment fromrepparttar 143359 damaging UV rays ofrepparttar 143360 sun. In addition, if your patio has full glass sliding doors,repparttar 143361 patio awning will also help protectrepparttar 143362 carpets and furnishings inside your home from those same harmful rays.

- Energy Efficiency

Besides shadingrepparttar 143363 patio itself, installing a patio awning can reducerepparttar 143364 heat of your home’s interior by as much as 70%, which can be a major savings in electricity if you’re paying for air conditioning.

- Low construction costs

Patio awnings – even fancy retractable ones with built-in lighting and heating – cost far less than adding a full room to your home, but in many cases,repparttar 143365 effect is almostrepparttar 143366 same – expanded living and entertainment space.

- Aesthetics

Patio awnings come in an almost limitless array of colors and designs. A well-made patio awning can add beauty to your home while providing shade and comfort for you.



Practical Feng Shui – Debunking the myths and finding out what we can actually learn from the ancients

Written by Joey Lewitin


Title: Practical Feng Shui – Debunkingrepparttar myths and finding out what we can actually learn fromrepparttar 143201 ancients

Author: Joey Lewitin

Subject: decorating

Copyright Joey Lewitin 2005 This article is free to reprint if there are no major alterations made to its content, and ifrepparttar 143202 resource box appears atrepparttar 143203 bottom ofrepparttar 143204 page with a clickable link in it.

Practical Feng Shui – Debunkingrepparttar 143205 myths and finding out what we can actually learn fromrepparttar 143206 ancients

Joey Lewitin

Most ofrepparttar 143207 information that is available concerning Feng Shui is highly over-simplified. It often comes inrepparttar 143208 form of out-of-context eastern principals, mixed in with basic interior design horse sense fromrepparttar 143209 west, to form a hybrid which many professional Feng Shui analysts agree can be as harmful as it is helpful. Feng Shui is more than just choosing certain colors, or “getting rid of clutter”, as many books and articles will have you believe. It is actually an extremely complex system of mathematical formulas that give highly specific advice based onrepparttar 143210 type of home, its layout, and its time of construction. There are no simple answers in Feng Shui, however there is something we can learn fromrepparttar 143211 methodsrepparttar 143212 ancients used to derive these principals.

Real Feng Shui is a system that has been evolving over thousands of years. The concept behind this design form isrepparttar 143213 idea that energy or “chi” flows through everything. Feng Shui is an attempt to maximizerepparttar 143214 flow of positive chi through a space to benefitrepparttar 143215 lives ofrepparttar 143216 people within that setting. Feng Shui is originally based onrepparttar 143217 I Ching, an ancient Chinese text of mystical origins. Overrepparttar 143218 years successive schools of thought have come to dominate this decorative philosophy. As each new movement came to power, they refinedrepparttar 143219 formulas and functions of previous schools. In this ongoing process of refinement, every possible arrangement of objects was tested against numerous people’s emotional and spiritual reaction to them over thousands of years. These reactions allowedrepparttar 143220 ancients to slowly improve their diagrams forrepparttar 143221 placement of objects.

This ancient mathematical formula for laying outrepparttar 143222 design of a setting does seem to be a sound method for improvingrepparttar 143223 quality of a room’s décor. While this may be due torepparttar 143224 ancients having determinedrepparttar 143225 way chi flows, their real accomplishment might instead have been to develop a systemized mathematical representation of a wide scale, long term psychological study. While trying to determinerepparttar 143226 flow of energy, they may have instead determinedrepparttar 143227 basic principals of design that elicit positive responses in humans, by experimentally testing and recording peoples reactions to different object settings.

Real Feng Shui is extraordinarily specific, and complex. The only way to do real Feng Shui is either to become a student of this art, and painstakingly learnrepparttar 143228 many principals and subtleties it requires, or to hire a professional to do an analysis and work over of your home. Either way, use of this design style requires a large sacrifice, and is outsiderepparttar 143229 realm of most people’s time and money budget.

However, Feng Shui does teach us something that is very useful when decorating your home. The ancient thinkers who developed this idea derived it by simply paying attention torepparttar 143230 feeling of objects in different spaces. This is a process that every person has it within their power to do. Everyone has taste, everyone has feelings. By simply getting in touch with your inner critic, you can becomerepparttar 143231 source for your own personal Feng Shui. No matter how specific they were, a Philosopher from a thousand years ago is not going to understandrepparttar 143232 spiritual and emotional nuances of you, your family, and your home as well as you do. By usingrepparttar 143233 strategy rather thanrepparttar 143234 formula of Feng Shui, you can develop a highly personalized design that is a true expression of yourself.

Walk into a room, and see how it makes you feel. Noticerepparttar 143235 colors,repparttar 143236 objects, and their placement. What do they evoke in you? Isrepparttar 143237 room comfortable? Is it calming or invigorating? Maybe there is something wrong inrepparttar 143238 room, even if you can’t tell exactly what it is, register that feeling. If you are attentive, you will start to get sensitive torepparttar 143239 psychological influences that placement and design have on your own mind.

Color Colors have very strong and individual effects on people. Different shades will have radically different results on people’s mental behavior. Dark colors can either be relaxing or depressing, light colors can be uplifting or annoying, and extreme colors can be exhilarating or aggravating. Pay attention to how these colors make you feel. When you visit other peoples homes, or even their shops or offices, pay attention torepparttar 143240 effect that walking into a room has on you. Sometimes you will enter a space and feel naturally relaxed. Other places can have a negative effect, making you feel uncomfortable or agitated for no apparent reason. Rememberrepparttar 143241 colors andrepparttar 143242 shades of these rooms, especially if you have a particularly strong response to one.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use