Great New Bath Hardware Adds Elegance and Function

Remodeling a bathroom shower or tub can be a major task. If you’re just looking for ways to enjoy the bathing experience, but don’t want all the expense of a total remodel there are several new items to help you create just what you want.

If you haven’t seen the innovations in bath hardware for showers, you owe it to yourself to find out what’s new in bath hardware. One of the most improved sections of bath hardware is showerheads. Showerheads have undergone tremendous changes. You’ll find many new benefits such as massaging, oxygenating, handheld spa-like head, and water saving on these great new showerheads.

To feel really pampered in the shower investigate the Showerhead with Massage. You get a spa-like experience with a showerhead containing five adjustable jets delivering fifty body sprays. Eight center jets provide pulsating streams to complete the experience.

If you’re looking for a great water-saving showerhead try the Oxygenics Water-Saving Showerhead. You’ll save water a while you get an oxygen enriched, energizing shower.

Another great improvement in bath hardware and showerheads are the hand held showerheads. One favorite is the Six-Pattern Handheld Showerheads. Choose from powerful massaging spray to gentle flow, you’ll get just the right water flow you want.

If you’re worried about having trouble installing your new showerheads there’s been improvements there as well. In most cases it a simple matter of removing your old showerhead and simply screwing on the new. To get a great new shower experience no tools, tapes, or plumbing experience necessary.

If you needing a new shower rod there’s been improvements there as well. One such improvement is with the Crescent Shower Rod. It curves out to instantly create a roomier shower without concerns of leaks.

One of the most innovative updates without a total remodel is the total spa shower organizer. You’ll get spa-like effects every time you turn on the shower. A five-function showerhead, plus six powerful massage jets complete with a built in organizer is the perfect solution. You’ll feel like you’re in a totally new shower.

Trendy Bath Furniture Delivers Instant Storage

The trends in bath furniture have changed drastically. No longer is the bathroom just for bathing and other essential personal care. Along with the basic functions, the bathroom has become a place for rest and relaxation. Newly designed bathrooms are larger than ever before. However, if you’re looking for ways to improve your smaller bathroom and increase storage space there’s great new bath furniture to supply just what you want.

Today’s bath furniture is designed to handle the extra moisture, yet it looks much like furniture you’d find in other rooms of your home. For example, a bathroom hutch made from warp resistant wood, provides two paneled doors and molding designed to match any décor. Inside you’ll find four shelves (three adjustable) perfect for storing towels, bed linens, and other bathroom accessories in one neatly organized hutch.

If you’re looking for ways to further increase storage space in a smaller bathroom, try bath furniture that’s designed to be wall mounted. The wall is often an overlooked space that’s perfect for creating new storage. A bath cabinet with towel bars can provide much needed storage for personal care items and provides easy access to towels.

Shelving is another way to use the walls to increase storage space. A small bath pedestal cabinet with shelving overhead provides extra storage as well as counter space to display bath accessories.

Don’t overlook the space above the commode. You’ll find trendy new bath furniture like the Bath Etagre designed to fit perfectly over your commode. Glass paneled doors cover shelving and an open shelf sits atop the commode. You’ll be amazed at all the new storage space you’ll have with this Etagre designed to match any décor.

These are just a few ways to increase storage space and liven up your existing bathroom. It’s a good idea to do an overall inventory of your current bathroom and decide how you might increase storage with these trendy new items. It may help to do a simple drawing of your current bath and determine where you might move or place new items.

New Bathroom Furniture and Accessories Makes a Small Bath More Functional

No matter how small your bathroom, there are ways to use bathroom furniture and accessories to make it feel larger. With a bit of planning you can create an enjoyable, uncluttered bath in even the smallest of space.

Evaluate Your Space

The first tip is to evaluate the total size of your current bathroom. Look at the current functionality. Sometimes you’ll be able to free up space by moving fixtures, adding bathroom furniture and accessories and still use your current items. Combining a mini remodel with the purchase of a few well-chosen bathroom furniture and accessories pieces, you’ll feel like you’ve done a total remodel at a fraction of the expense.

At this point, it is very helpful to do a rough drawing of the perimeter of the room including the measurements of all four exterior walls and any inside walls that may be present. Once you have this information on paper, you can begin to look for ways to maximize the space with newer more functional bathroom furniture and accessories.

Investigate Your Options

Before you begin to make any permanent changes such as moving showers, tubs, or commodes, browse bath furniture and accessories to find ways to improve the space without have to do too much remodeling. As you’re browsing, remember all aspects of the space. For example, inside the shower you can use shower caddies to store necessary items like soaps, body wash, razors, buffers, sponges and other personal care items.

Don’t forget wall space. If you have empty wall space in your bathroom, adding a bath cabinet with a towel rack can provide much needed space for storing towels and grooming essentials for everyday use. You can also use the wall space to add open shelving to store regularly used items or accent pieces. These are great ways to free up vanity and counter space in small bath.

If you’re really in need of larger storage, you may want to consider a bath hutch. Made very much like armories, a durable, moisture resistant bathroom hutch can provide the storage space of a full size linen closet.

Another place to add storage is over the commode. A wooden bath etaere with two upper shelves inside glass doors for easy view, and an open shelf below for frequently used items can store a wealth of items.

Just taking a bit of time to plan, measure, and shop can create a wonderfully efficient bathroom, even in the smallest space.

Glass Bathroom Vanities

A relatively simple way to update your bathroom is to replace your bathroom vanity. One of the hottest trends today is the glass bathroom vanity. With a little careful choice, you should be able to freshen up the look of your bathroom with relatively little trouble, and it’s a great way to give new life to the look of your bathroom without having to spend a lot of money.

What should you know before you choose your bathroom vanity? Well, what is your particular style? Is it traditional? Is it modernistic? Whatever your home décor is, if you want your bathroom to fit into the rest of it, then you want to match what you choose for your vanity to the rest of your house. Alternatively, if you’re only updating the bathroom vanity but you want to keep the rest of your bathroom the same, then you’ll have to take the rest of your bathroom décor into consideration as well. Therefore, you can go traditional, or you can go with this latest trend, the glass bathroom vanity.

If you do decide to go with a glass bathroom vanity, be aware that they are relatively fragile. It will also take you a little bit of extra effort to maintain the vanity. However, if you like the look, if you think you can do the maintenance, and want to impress your guests without a doubt, then go for the glass bathroom vanity.

You can find the latest designs in glass bathroom vanity sets by first doing your homework online. The Internet is a great place to do “preshopping” so that you can decide what you want without ever having to leave your home. This will give you a very good idea of what the latest designs are and what the latest trends are. It can also give you some ideas as to what will fit best with your own décor, so that you have better choices to make when you do go shopping.

The mirror fits in with the glass vanity as well. Of course, most bathrooms have a mirror, and some of those serve as medicine cabinet fronts as well. In this case, you want to consider the design you are using in the rest of your bathroom, whether you’re simply updating your vanity or remodeling your entire bathroom.

If you choose to do a medicine cabinet with mirror, choose one where the mirror overlaps just enough that the hinges of the cabinet will be behind it. Some glass vanity mirror and medicine cabinets are designed so that they looked simply like they are a protruding mirror, if you choose this option.

There are sinks and tops available in glass bathroom vanities as well. Although they may look fragile, it will depend on the brand and materials that you choose. Make sure what you decide on is well made and sturdy. If chosen carefully, your new glass bathroom vanity will absolutely add ambience to your bathroom.

Finding Inexpensive Window Covering Solutions

In your home, your windows are probably very important you, as they “provide you eyes unto the world.” Your house wouldn’t be the same without you windows, since you would simply be boxed in with no access to sunlight or a view of the outdoors. Windows are also instrumental in letting sunlight into your home, brightening it up and perhaps warming it on a cold winter’s day. However, windows can also be energy robbers in that they can let warmth escape out of the house in the winter, or otherwise create drafts. Windows themselves can also get broken.

If you need to repair your windows, it can be quite easy. However, once you repair your broken windows, finding suitable window coverings can help keep them from getting broken again. Window coverings can also help protect windows from ever getting broken in the first place.

Where should you go to look for inexpensive window coverings?

First, look at what you’ve got in your house. You might have something in your house already that you can use as a window covering.

Second, be creative. You might have things you never thought of that can be used as window coverings. Or if you’ve got a creative friend or neighbor, have or her come over and see what they can come up with for creative window treatments that won’t cost you much if anything in the way of money.

Third, if you want to buy something ready-made, relatively inexpensive options like shutters are available at most do-it-yourself repair stores.

Fourth, if none of these things seems to strike quite the right chord for you, and you want something that’s custom-made, you can hire a professional. If you have a broken window, of course you’ll need to replace it, but simply having some shutters to close over your broken windows quickly will help a lot until they can get replaced or until you can do it yourself.

Finally, keep in mind that the only real solution for a broken window is to replace it. Although you may not be able to do it quickly, if perhaps the break happens on a weekend, for example, you will need to do it, so keep in mind that any solution you use should be relatively inexpensive unless you intend to keep them long-term to upgrade the value of your home, such as installing shutters, for example. However, having a broken window in your home devalues your home. In addition, most neighborhoods now no longer let you have a broken window as part of the covenant over the long term, since they have specific maintenance requirements for their homeowners to follow. Therefore, the only final solution, of course, for a broken window is to repair it. Don’t look to other solutions to do that for you permanently.

Stain Glass Windows Brighten Any Home

When creating a stain glass window the design may begin as a drawing, a painting, a photograph or any other kind of graphic artwork. The design needs to be simple and bold. Once you are happy with the design you can start work on the stain glass window. Nothing is better or creates character like a stained glass window, it is elegant and it adds sophistication to your home, the light that is produced is soft and is diffused into your home and creates a soothing atmosphere.

It’s a good idea to make two copies of the pattern so that you can use one copy to cut the templates and the other copy to place on the work piece to see how it fits. You can cut some costs if someone can donate their old cutters to you, but even if you need to go out and purchase some stained glass cutters they are usually a pretty reasonable price.

Creating stain glass there are many techniques that can be used. When creating the classic stained glass window, there are many pieces of color glasses, you will need to cut each piece so they fit together, then you will need to take lead, brass or copper and use it as a buffer between the glass.

Rub the lead lines and get them well coated with the chemical on the cotton. Take an old rag and polish the lead lines very vigorously. To create an illusion of a lead line you need to do it on both sides of the glass.

Sometimes, a piece of stained glass will lose its original brightness and color that the lead lines once had. The blackness or copper of the patina will dull and you find that over time there will be a buildup of some type of corrosion and it usually appears around the edges of the lead. Most manufactures use lead as the bonding material because it is flexible to use and it last for a very long time.

Lead is used and stripped into predetermined shapes so that they can be fitted between then the pieces of glass.

As you get some experience under your belt you can acquire more tools and accessories as deemed necessary by you- the master craftsman. If you do your homework earlier on before diving in with both feet, you will find that some of the tools you use will continue to be used by you for many, many years to come. These tools help assist an individual in marking, cutting, smoothing, and soldering the glass. To make stained glass, you will first need to get the tools and materials ready.

Some people use stain glass making as a hobby and other times the hobby becomes a business. Stain glass windows are becoming very popular again and many people want these colorful windows in their home to brighten and bring good cheer. Many people bring the stain glass windows into their homes by purchasing lamp shades that are stained glass. One of the most popular stained glass lamps is tiffany.

Are Giclee Prints Collectible?

Giclee is the name used to identify a fine art digital print just like serigraph is the name for a fine art silkscreen print. One of, if not the greatest artists of the 20th Century, Pablo Picasso never produced a giclee print although he produced a lot of serigraph prints. His serigraph prints are available from just under $100 up to $7000 plus, the difference being the top dollar prints have been hand signed by the master.

Throughout his career Picasso made art in a variety of disciplines. He was a painter, sculptor, ceramicist and a prolific print maker producing not only serigraphs but etchings, lithographs, heliogravures (photographic engravings) and linogravures (linocuts). Had he had access to the technology it is a safe bet Picasso would have produced giclees and those that carry a signature made by his hand would be fetching the big bucks today.

As the 21st century unfolds, more and more artists are embracing digital technology in the production of their art. Painters now create digital files of their work as record and to produce giclee prints. A growing number of artists are using computers to create their art. If you want to hang one of these digital artist’s work on your wall, it will no doubt be a print and if you want it to last more than a few years, it will be a giclee.

Historically prints have been printed in open and closed editions. Open editions were and often still are printed in the 1000s on cheap paper whilst closed editions, more commonly known as limited editions, are printed on high quality art papers using methods that could only produce a finite number of prints. The limited number was due to either the printing plate be it a lithographic stone, a sheet of carved lino or an etched copper plate degrading to the extent that no more decent prints could be produced or the artist’s pocket running out of depth.

With the improvements in digital printing and the associated introduction of print on demand, the fine art printing industry has been turned on its head. The distinction between and open and closed editions has become decided blurred if not non-existent. An infinite number of prints on high quality papers and canvasses with a life expectancy that rivals if not surpass traditional printing methods can be produced one at a time, as and when required.

Tiffany Lamps, An Essential Part of Home Decor

Tiffany lamps and lighting have been an essential part of a luxurious home décor for over 100 years. These stained glass lamps are from the style and design of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Louis Tiffany used his creative talents to follow his love for art, rather than following in his father’s footsteps. His father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, was the founder of the silver and jewelry firm Tiffany & Co. In the 1880’s Louis turned his focus from his oil and watercolor works to interior design. The goal of Tiffany’s new passion was to elevate interior design to the same level as fine art.

During this period, Tiffany began using the discarded glass pieces from his stained glass panels to create the decorative lamps synonymous with his name. Tiffany lampshades were created by carefully fitting hand cut glass pieces into copper foil enclosures. Copper foil is extremely light and strong which enabled Tiffany to design and create large and complex shades for his lamps. Commonly

Tiffany style lamps can be used in any room within your home. Tiffany ceiling lights are a great lighting source for illuminating an entire room. Smaller table lamps are an excellent source for directing light to a specific area. Should space be an issue Tiffany floor lamps can provide a lot of light while taking up minimal floor space. Tiffany lamps can also be found for desks, walls sconces, and accent lighting as well as table lighting.

Adding the elegance and beauty of a Tiffany lamp to your home decore will easily bring a warm and inviting atmosphere to your room and home.

Spruce Up The Bathroom With A New Bathroom Vanity

The style of the bathroom vanities have changed, the new styles bring a touch of style and elegance to the bathrooms. Bamboo bathroom vanities improve the style and beauty of bathrooms. There are antique, traditional, and contemporary style vanities.

Many of the corner bathroom vanity come in wood; some of the popular woods are cherry, maple, oak and mahogany. Many home owners are not buying the standard vanities like our parents, they are looking for unique designs, something different that says something about their personality, and these new vanities are innovative and beautiful. All modern bathrooms have the one thing in common, sinks, toilets, vanities and mirrors.

Vanity tops have changed drastically; no more will you only have a choice of Formica you now can choose from granite, ceramic tiles, synthetic granite and marble. When remodeling your bathroom it is a good idea to replace that old pedestal sink with a nice vanity, it will not only help with storage but give the bathroom a new look and make the bathroom appear to be new again. Here are some things to consider when choosing new vanity furniture.

There is nothing that spruces up your bathroom like a nice looking vanity cabinet. Getting a bathroom vanity can change the look and feel of your bathroom and can be the focal point of the entire room; many vanities are considered furniture pieces. Setting up vanity tables is another great option to put into your bathroom, make sure you have space for it, this can be used to layout clothing, putting on makeup or anything else you think of.

Bathroom sink vanities have come a long way, they come in different sizes, shapes and many different colors, and some even look like furniture or pieces of expensive art. When looking for sinks you can get the standard white or colored bathroom sinks, some you can get with designs, of course the more detail you add to the sink the more expensive it gets. The more traditional vanity does what it is suppose to do, it holds a sink and has storage for bathroom supplies and hides the plumbing.

Your bathroom sink vanity will create the look of your bathroom, plus it will help provide organization and it will also reduce the amount of clutter on the vanity. You can have a single sink or multiple sinks in accordance with your usage, and the vanity tops can be fashioned according to individual requirements and the edges can be smoothed to prevent injury by bumping against them. Look at your bathroom suite, if your bath tub, sink and toilet are all in reasonable condition, you could get away with keeping them and just replacing the hardware such as the faucets.

When people are planning the dream bathroom many people forget about the storage that is needed in the bathroom. Bathroom vanity cabinets are an essential component of any bathroom and can add drama to your design and decor.