Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sofa Beds - The Most Exciting Piece of Furniture in the House

Sofa beds are perhaps the most exciting piece of furniture in your house, bar none. There is nothing more amazing or more impressive in the furniture world. These wonders of design don't just sit there being pretty like a sofa or a bed. Oh no, they move, they are alive. And, they come in many shapes, sizes, and configurations. They also come in a wide variety of upholstery: all sorts of fabrics, leather, fur, vinyl, denim, micro fiber, or just about any other covering material you can think of.

So let's break this down a little bit. A sofa bed is really two pieces of furniture in one. A sofa and a bed. A sofa alone is functional. It serves as a resting place. People plop up and down on them all day long without much of a thought. They make a great place for watching tv or for reading a book. They even act as a refuge for hubby when he gets in trouble. He may even spend a night or two on it, but generally speaking, the sofa is nothing special. It just sits there, no movement or anything. I mean, couldn't it be more? Of course it can.

A bed, while certainly home to a wide variety of, uh, activities, and a really useful and needed piece of furniture, is nonetheless just a static piece that really doesn't do much. I'm not knocking beds, I just think sofa beds are such a great improvement that a regular bed just doesn't hold a candle to them on their own.

When you combine the sofa and the bed together you experience how one plus one can equal three. It's the best of both worlds. A place to sit and talk and a place to sleep all in the same place.

When you think of sofa beds, think variety and options. You can find more than just the traditional couch looking bed. Manufacturers actually make these in a lot of different sizes and configurations. On the large side of things, they are offered as part of sectionals, those large curved couches that usually have a recliner on one or both ends. These are great because the bed can be conveniently pulled out to use the floor space in front of the sectional. No need to have a completely separate bed set up. On the small side of things, you can get a convertible chair bed that is about the size of a single mattress. They also come in the popular futon style sofa beds. Overall, the sofa bed has come a long ways from the early days, they are much more comfortable and stylish.

If you want to save space, have an extra place for guests to sleep without setting up a whole new bed or having to have an extra guest room, or if you just want to experience the magic of the most exciting piece of furniture alive, then you owe it to yourself to experience what sofa beds have to offer. When you do, you'll never be the same again. Every time you walk into the room where your sofa bed lives you'll just get a little grin on your face. You may even find yourself talking to it and touching it just out of shear love and admiration.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Solid Wood Bedroom Furniture - All the Good in Wood

When you have a house of your own, you think you have everything until you put a home in it. To create a home, you'll need a family or friends or anyone you love enough to want to share a roof with. And then, you'll need furniture. You can't argue with the fact that apart from the human element of a good home, it's the furniture that takes care of everything else. Be it in your living room, dining room or your bedroom, furniture makes the difference between actually appreciating the time you spend there and simply feeling stuck. That's why furniture is always a good investment for anyone who wants to create great memories of home.

When you talk of furniture, wood is a good place to start. Put any wonderfully crafted piece in the right place and you'll be amazed what difference it makes. Be it pine, oak, or cherry, wood furniture creates an aura that breathes traditional royalty without isolating the newer trends. While other types come in fixed sizes and shapes, wood furniture can be custom built to suit your individual style and preferences. You can even create your own design and find a good craftsman to put it to life. Then you have an exquisite piece to take home with you without paying a fortune.

With its rich varieties and proven versatility, you simply can't go wrong with wood furniture. And while it works exquisitely in any part of your home, it has ways with your bedroom. Pine bedroom furniture makes a promise of strength that works great for beds and doors while leaving the regal touches to its distinct texture. Oak bedroom furniture is another favorite with its fullness and depth serving up some real good spice to your bedroom, whether as a bed, a door or a dressing table. And it survives years upon years of wear and tear. Of course, there's cherry wood bedroom furniture with its age-darkened charm that could very well be a family heirloom to be treasured from one generation to the next.

Wood bedroom furniture may come with intricate sculpture, metal pulls and decorative elements or it may be a bare naked thing of beauty. However you want yours to be, there's probably a way of getting it. If you're looking to buy a finished product, be thrilled by the amount of choices you have from sleigh beds to four posters to night stands and desks, headboards and foot boards in all sizes and even bookshelves. While reviewing the price tags, you might want to consider that though handcrafted pieces may be expensive, they're also often a good investment.

Decorating your home is mostly about self-expression, that's why you'll only want furniture that speaks of you while complimenting the rest of the family. The investment you make in your bedroom is a great way to express your philosophy of no compromise and your penchant for nothing but only the quality things in life.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

It's Women Who Wear the Trousers in Bed - The World Over

"Women 'wear the trousers' when it comes to buying beds for couples", it's a fact. Of course, "wear the trousers" may today be seen as a sexist expression, but it's used in its gentlest form, and without any desire to cause offense, to mean that many men choose not to be involved in or are deliberately excluded from the decision-making process.

Having delivered many a hand-made British bed direct into customers' bedrooms all around the world have held many a lengthy conversation with men and women on all the aspects of choosing the right bed its always the woman that make the initial contact and the final decision. It comes as no surprise that women in a partnership make more life-style decisions on matters of décor and lifestyle than their partners. But its amusing and fascinating the number of times women assert their preference when it comes to choosing the right spring-tension, which is a matter of health and well-being". (It is widely acknowledged that the right mattress can give you an extra 40 minutes sleep at night, which in turn gives you more energy and alertness during the day).

It's possible - and a very good idea - to have a mattress made with one half of the springs in one tension "For Him" and the other half in a different tension "For Her" (a "combination mattress", or with two single mattresses of different tensions which zip together. In this way, both partners' needs are catered for and their spines protected when their back muscles relax during sleep. Having said that the number of women that say, 'Oh, he can just sleep on whatever I choose' or words to that effect. I guess we guys just sometimes have our minds on other things and don't wish to over-complicate matters. Even so, I'm still not quite sure whether it's really a case that some men are not really interested, or whether they just 'want a quiet life', or whether it is something a little more indicative of the fact that many women know what is best when it comes to comfort and décor."

The consequences of the wrong choice of bed may be very costly, and badly performing or inappropriate springs may never recover. Whilst getting it right can provide immeasurable benefits for both sexes, for many years into pensionable age and sometimes even beyond, so ladies, we trust your decisions when it comes to the bedroom!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Tastefully Elaborate

When decorating a home people adopt all different kinds of approaches to the task depending on their personal preferences. Minimalists prefer meeting only their basic needs, keeping the number low and the look of their furniture simple and sleek. There are other individuals who love to go over the top, trying to pack as much ornate furniture as space will allow. Most people fall into a happy medium between these two extreme decorating styles, using an appropriate amount of furniture and decorations to give their home a comfortable, stylish look. One good way to manage a nice balance between extreme minimalism and overdoing it is to have different rooms feature set amounts of décor.

One place that people can easily get away with going a little over the top is the dining room. A dining room is supposed to bring a little extra elegance to the home and provide a place for friends and family to be entertained in style and comfort. Finding the perfect dining room furniture is essential to achieving this look and atmosphere. Bold and graceful are two adjectives that should describe the kind of furniture that is to be found in a dining room. Depending on how simple or elaborate a person wishes to make their dining room, there are sets of furniture ranging from seven to nine pieces, ranging in how ornate or simple they are. The dining table is the centerpiece of the entire room so a lot of attention must be paid to selecting the correct one.

Shape needs to be the first consideration when choosing a dining room table. Depending on the group sizes that will most likely be dining there a choice must be made on size as well. For smaller tables a more rounded table could be an appropriate choice, but larger tables should stick to the more traditional rectangular shape. The size of the table also dictates how many chairs need to be purchased and the style they should be. A modern table with sharp angles needs similarly cutting edge chairs to accompany it, while more classic, carved wooden tables require chairs of a similar fashion. For a truly well rounded and ornate set of dining room furniture, people should look into purchases a display chest for their fine china.

The most elaborate chests make sure to amplify the beauty and delicacy of a person's finest flatware. Some chests come equipped with lighting that hits the displayed dishes at exactly the right angle to truly show them off. Many have glass shelves so that the flattering light will be sure to reach all levels of the chest. To further highlight the fine qualities of the dishware many of these chests have mirrored backs to give an all around view of the displayed items. Encased in a large, finely carved case with more masculine lines, the delicate dishware inside provides a nice contrast between what is inside and the rest of the dining room furniture. Personal taste should always be the guide when decorating any room in a home, but a few simple rules of thumb always make the process a little easier.