D home living 120

Posts Tagged ‘Less’

With the huge boom in interior designers and home decorating stores and businesses it is easy to feel unqualified to take on the decoration of your own home. The only thing is, people have been decorating their own homes for years, it isn’t until recently that we suddenly needed the help of interior designers and such to make our homes look like we want them to. You just need to know what you want and then think like an interior designer.

You first need to pick a space or a room that you are going to work on decorating. Only do one at a time, spreading your time over several rooms may lead you to become frustrated since the progress will seem very slow. Once you have your area choose a color that you like. If you are going with a bold or bright color it is better to make that an accent color rather than covering the entire wall. An entire room of bright red or deep purple can make the room hard to relax in since your eyes will constantly be trying to adjust to the extreme colors.

After the color, find yourself a theme. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy like cowboys or space ships, but decide if you want the items in the room to be modern or antique. Then head out and find a few items that fit into that theme. It is necessary that you don’t cram the room with figurines. Once you try to fit too many things in one room, whether it be too many colors or too much stuff or more than one theme the room just looks messy and unorganized all the time.  Read more... (317 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

A record low level of spending by affluent consumers for home furniture and furnishings is suggested by the most recent survey in a series of twice-yearly studies that began in Spring 2002.

Negative attitudes about the current economy and the economic outlook for the next 12 months are contributing to plans for spending less on home furniture and furnishings by affluent consumers during the next year, according to the Spring 2009 Affluent Market Tracking Study #15 conducted by the American Affluence Research Center.

In the Spring 2009 survey of the wealthiest 10% of all U.S. households, spending plans for home furniture and furnishings during the next 12 months, in comparison to their spending for such items during the past 12 months, are to be increased by 10% of the affluent consumers and to be reduced by 43% of the affluent consumers. The remainder (47%) expects to spend the same for home furniture and furnishings during the next year as in the past year.

The survey respondents indicated a negative 12 month outlook for business conditions and personal household income. They also reported declines in their net worth, as a result of substantial declines in the value of their home and their investments/savings during the past two years. Together, these factors have contributed to a general attitude toward reducing or deferring expenditures in all areas.  Read more... (461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)