Home decor ideas and helpful hintsUsing unusual home accents and decorative items to give your home a lift |
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Indoor Here are a few things to consider when purchasing accessories to decorate your home. First, you should decide on the look and feel that you would like to have. Does the existing decor contribute to that look and feel? If it does, then your task is somewhat easier and less expensive as you may only need a little tweaking to get it exactly the way you want. If it does not, then you may have to consider a complete makeover. Fortunately, home decor accessories do not have to cost an arm and a leg. A good way to go about it is to go for a particular theme for each area of your home. For example, you may like to have your living room decorated with an African theme while the dining room may have an Oriental theme or a Western theme. It all depends on the feel you want to have during a particular activity. For relaxing in your living room you may find that the babbling of a table water fountain is particularly relaxing. Of course, strategically placed tart burners, oil burners and incense holders are great accessories for enhancing that look and feel you are trying to achieve. These do not only serve a decorative purpose, but also contribute to the relaxing effect known as aromatherapy. Tarts, oils and incense come in a vast assortment of scents, and their absolutely wonderful aromas can certainly give your home a heavenly feel. Not to mention, they are very inexpensive. Please remember to keep these burning items out of the reach of small children. One spill and you may be doing some major redecorating and possibly house hunting. Outdoor Hopefully we don't spend all our time inside the house, wonderful as it may be. Go outside, get some fresh air and enjoy the outdoor atmosphere. Lots of plants, an outdoor fountain, bird house, bird feeder. and the right outdoor furniture will make that outdoor experience just as enjoyable as the time you spend relaxing inside. Again you don't have to spend your life savings to get this done. So, what plants will you choose for your garden? There is definitely a wide choice. The first plants that come to my mind are palm trees and topiaries. We all know what palm trees look like, and there are many varieties. But topiaries? Those are not so common, but quite likely you have seen them around, just didn't know that's what they are called. These are plants pruned and shaped to form a "sculpture" of animals, objects and/or various shapes. For example, there are spiral, single ball and triple ball and a host of other shapes and size topiaries. You can buy them, or if you have the time and patience, you can do your own topiary creations. There are many sites on the internet where you can learn all about topiaries. Now you might be thinking, "I don't have the time to deal with creating my own topiaries, I'll just buy them." Just remember that even if you buy them, you will still have to maintain them. Topiaries need constant pruning and shaping, otherwise they will soon grow out of shape and look just like any other plant. If you are really into home decor, It can be fun and relaxing. But if you don't have the time, or are not willing to put out the effort, then topiaries are not for you. The picture below is one of my garden projects, before it was fully completed. In the foreground forming a semi-circle around the fountain are Ixora, also called Flame of the Woods, Jungle Flame, or Jungle Geranium. These bloom small red, orange, pink, or yellow flowers and are perfect for small hedges. I expect these to form a full semi-circle after a few months. To the left in the background is a multi-ball topiary. No, I did not create this myself...it takes enough time just trimming it to keep the balls nice and round. But it's worth it. By the time the grass grows back and the Ixora fill out, it's going to look really nice. Total cost of this project was $225.00
Building a backyard pond. This is not as daunting a task as it may seem, and the result will be well worth the time and effort spent. In the end you will be rewarded with a beautiful garden spot in which you will spend a lot of time relaxing and just simply enjoying your surroundings.
What will you need? Below I have listed all the items ( and their approximate cost) that you will need to get your pond completed.
PREFORMED POND
Once you have all these, you need to choose the spot where you want the pond to be; ideally, a shaded, or partially shaded area. If you have no shaded area, then you need to make sure a few of the plants will provide some shade for the pond. In some areas of the country the hot summers can cause the water temperature to rise above the point that the fish can tolerate. (Of course, if you choose not to keep fish in the pond, then this is not an issue.)
Having chosen your spot, its time to start digging. You need to make an outline of the shape of the plastic pond. Turn the pond upside down and use the spray paint to make an outline following the shape of the pond. Then you dig a hole which will follow the shape of the outline. The depth will be determined by the depth of the plastic pond. Hopefully you don't encounter any huge rocks, as I did. That's when you will really break a sweat, digging them out.
Once the hole is complete, place your pond inside the hole. Make sure it fits fairly snugly. Fill in any gaps with the dirt you dug up. Pour in the river gravel, enough to cover the bottom of the pond. Next step is to fill the pond with water. If you are going to keep fish in the pond, then tap water is not a good idea as it will be necessary to condition the water to remove the chlorine, and you will have to do this to any water you need for topping up the pool as the water level drops, due to evaporation. This adds to the cost since you will need to purchase the conditioning chemicals. I got around this problem by running a line from my well water sprinkler system to the pond. I attached a plastic faucet to the end so I could regulate the amount of water flow into the pond. This is a great convenience; every time the sprinkler comes on, the pool is automatically refilled with well water, which is perfect for fish.
At this point the hard work is over. Now you place your pump and fountain in the pond, hooked up to the ultraviolet bio-filter. The bio-filter is the best and most convenient way to minimize the growth of algae, which can quickly turn your clear pond water into ugly, green, stinky sludge. You will need to clean the filter once a week, but if you don't have the time, once every two weeks will do. *** Check back with us soon. More home decor information is continually being added to this page, and in the meantime, why not take a look at all the unusual gifts and home accents we have to offer?
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