Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Salamander Designs - Contemporary Style

Salamander Designs was established in 1990. It was built to fulfill the personal need of a young designer who was looking for furniture to store his home entertainment devices. He was dissatisfied with those available in the marketplace, so he decided to handle the problem himself. Salamander furniture incorporates modern design, with plain, clean lines and functional shapes that have characterized the works of the modern leading designers.

Also these products are meant for today's electronic era, when the furniture has to meet the fluctuating demands of its users. This has been made possible by including elegant, modular parts that can be fitted together in many ways. Whenever there is a change in the requirements, you can alter it by simply adding more parts or redesigning those available.

The company provides 2 different types of furniture systems. The first one, the Archetype System, uses easy but an all-around design. It has threaded-steel support poles and identical fasteners to grasp shelves safely while offering plenty of vertical adjustments. The second furniture range known as Synergy System uses the most vital features of Archetype and is characterized by chic, extruded-aluminum edge columns, hardwood shelves and discretionary sides, backs and doors.

Products:

Synergy furniture has a modular design that is so original that it received a US patent. It lets you personalize settings by mixing various elements that can be restructured as per your requirements. The idea is to merge ease with extraordinary flexibility. Synergy cupboard tops and bases are sold in 3 authentic hardwood surfaces - cherry, maple and walnut - and in simple black. Edge posts are either matte black or aluminum in color.

Salamander Designs Chameleon Collection Hampton 336, 3-part Cabinet for TVs with the maximum size of 61'' has Distressed Black finish. It brings back the memories of an European country mansion. This stand looks good in almost any type of home. It has 2 grille-covered speakers that open over a drawer. Its top has a crown with molded edge.

The Adirondack Chair and Patio Cushions

If there is anything that defines summer seating comfort, it is an Adirondack chair and patio cushions. Adirondack chairs originated in 1903 as built by Thomas Lee. When Lee vacationed in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York State, he found a need for outdoor seating. He designed and created the highly iconic seating that became known as an "Adirondack" chair. Lee designed the first chair from 11 pieces of wood. These chairs are notable for their high backs and slanted seats. He designed them for use in the steep inclines of the Adirondacks. To add to the comfort level, he created the chair with wide arms. The typical contemporary Adirondack chair today has three planes of wood for back support and less of a slant to the seats. When patio cushions are added, these chairs make a splendid outdoor seating arrangement.

Patio Cushions
Patio cushions for modern Adirondack chairs are readily available wherever summer furniture is sold and range from bright solids and patterned colors. These patio cushions are easy to maintain and most are waterproof, although it's advisable to store them for winter for maximum use.

Natural Wood or Finished
Adirondack chairs are often purchased in natural wood that "weathers" over time. In pine or cedar, the wood ages to a familiar Adirondack "weathered grey". However, Adirondack chairs are also available with stained or painted finishes. There are also several colors available for Adirondack chairs manufactured from poly resins. These materials are not as durable as natural wood. Resin chairs tend to crack in extremes of cold or heat if left outdoors.

Adirondack Chairs for Other Uses
Though these are most often used for patio seating, they also are great in pairs for featured outdoor niches. This creates a special effect of a comfort zone for viewing nature or just relaxing. There are other types of Adirondack chairs available in two-seater settees and chaise lounges. Patio cushions are available for these types of chairs. In addition, the Adirondack style is carried out in foot benches and small tables that fit nicely between two chairs or beside a settee. A new addition to this style of outdoor furniture is the Adirondack "rocker" for adults who love the idea of Adirondack style in a rocking chair for their front or back porch or patio area.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The History and Evolution of Futons

Futon is a specific term used to describe traditional Japanese styles of bedding. Like most other styles these also consist of stuffed mattresses and blankets. The only difference is that they can be folded so as to make the room available for other purposes as well. The stuffed mattress (shikibuton) and the blanket (kakebuton) are together called a "futon".

The history of futon and its evolution into what it is today is discussed in brief in the following paragraphs.

Futons were originally designed to be placed on the floor and were folded and kept away in the closet in order to allow the room to be used for other purposes. They were put out in the sun and beaten regularly using a tool made from bamboo, quite like a carpet beater.

There are a variety of futons available in various sizes such as single futons, double futons and futon beds.

Evolution
Futon beds and furniture have evolved a lot since their early days. The western version has several modifications. Western futons are placed on a wooden or a metal frame and can be used both as a bed and a couch. The frame is foldable in the middle allowing it to be used as a couch. The western futon is larger and thicker than its Japanese counterpart. These have become very popular with western buyers owing to its flexibility and low price and the frame and the mattress are mostly sold together as a complete bed set.

Benefits
Futon beds are cheap and are preferred especially by people who live alone, like college students. But now days, beautiful and smart variants that have flooded the market have made them a favorite among buyers who want to enhance the look of their living or study rooms.

If you do not have the money to spend on a bunk bed for your children's room, then a futon bed is your best bet. Cheap, as it is, you can get a good quality futon bed in less than a hundred dollars. Put a set of futon sofa beds in your drawing room and make sure you are always ready for those unexpected guests wanting to stay overnight.

A lot of furniture buyers have a set thinking about futon beds not being comfortable. Now, this is a misconception. These beds can be as comfortable as a regular bed with a conventional mattress and come at less than half the price.

The conventional futon sets and its many variants are available in your nearest furniture mart but to avail great discounts and a wider choice, don't forget to go and look for them online.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Modern Commercial Furniture Gives Professional Look

If you are going to open a new business such as a hotel, restaurants or office, you have to purchase commercial furniture according to your business needs and requirements. This is one of the most expensive deals. Commercial furniture is required for waiting room, dining rooms or lobbies for many businesses. You can save money by purchasing the furniture in bulk or wholesale. At the same time, new business owners may need to shop around the nearest market to find one of the best deals. Before purchasing it, you should make sure that you are satisfied with the quality, look and the comfort of the commercial furniture.

It would be great for business owners to do exhaustive research in the market before buying the furniture for their offices, lobbies, dining rooms or waiting rooms. For a new restaurant owner, restaurant dining furniture and restaurant commercial furniture are one of the most important things. Furniture set should be based on the theme and atmosphere of the restaurant. So, it's important for a restaurant owner to give a special attention in choosing colors, type and material of the furniture. They should also consult to various commercial furniture distributors and suppliers to get the best furniture as per their requirements.

Commercial dining furniture should be comfort so that it could allow a pleasant and comfortable dining experience for customers. Customers, who enjoy the atmosphere of dining area and are comfortable with seating and eating, will likely to become permanent customers of you. As most of restaurant owners use to purchase multiple set of furniture for their public or dining areas, they can get a wholesale or discounted price on these items. Moreover, there are many distributors and suppliers who offer lower or discounted price if a restaurant owner buy large quantity of furniture. Most restaurant owners consider the price of furniture only in purchasing it but this is not the ideal way. It is recommended that you should also consider quality of the furniture along with its price.

If you have just started your businesses and no any idea about commercial furniture, you should try to get the detailed information on various online resources. In this Internet era, there are many websites where you can get the review of different kinds of furniture along with its prices. Here, you can also get the lists of reputed furniture stores that are nearest to you. Many online stores provide great discount and offers to their new customers.


How to Create a Bedroom Zone Free From Clutter

Are you tired of stumbling over stuff on your bedroom floor and then having shove aside old clothes in your closet, simply to make room for more? If so, you probably need an organizational makeover in your bedroom. It doesn't really matter what size of bedroom you actually have, you can still make the most of your space. The key to getting more floor and storage space is your mind set. Can you part with things and be a bit creative when it comes to getting more organized? Then, here are a few pointers to help you enjoy your bedroom space a lot more.

Dig through your closet and become clutter free

Most people's bedroom closets aren't anything to brag about since that is usually the last ditch resting place for many old clothes, bags, shoes, personal accessories and other items. You'd be surprised at what ends up there that you've actually forgotten about. Make yourself dig it all out and seriously chuck a lot of items that you don't and won't ever use again. If you haven't used it in the past year, then you probably won't ever use it. Unless it's a special item, toss it in the to-go pile.

Apply the tools to your closet space

Even if you're not much of a handy person with tools, you can still reconfigure your closet for good organizational space. There are many space saving ideas at your local hardware store. Be a bit creative and think about stacking, layering and hanging everything. Most people don't make good use of their closet space and loose a lot of organziational storage area because of that. If you need a little push in the right direction, your hardware store often has pictures of how to use various types of closet hardware for storage.

Get rid of what doesn't belong in your bedroom

You'd be surprised at what ends up in most people's bedrooms. Whatever won't work somewhere else in the house, many times, ends up in a bedroom, simply because it is more easily hidden there. Even though this isn't a good idea, it's easiest to do this for many busy people. However, if you want to get serious about redoing your bedroom, be brutal about getting rid of or storing the stuff elsewhere. Bikes, recreational equipment, excess furniture, housing accessories and even small appliances can end up in a bedroom. They must go.

Change your bedroom furniture

Change is sometimes good, even though some people have a really hard time with adapting to change. In this instance, if you really want to organize your bedroom and open up more floor space for you to enjoy, you will need to change things. Especially if you have a smaller bedroom, you may need to reconsider the type of bed and furniture you have. In order to get more floor space, you need to have less furniture.

How do you do that when you need extra storage for personal items? Simply choose a bed frame with drawers that are built underneath, much like cabinetry. Some units have a lot of drawers and make it possible for you to forget dressers and chests, and simply use a bed with an end table or two. You can get up to 14 drawers in a queen size bed, which will make your room much more organized, with a lot of floor space besides.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Quality Furniture For Your Home and Office Space

Finding the right kind of furniture for your home as well as your workplace can become a tedious task at times. Lack of knowledge about the kind of furniture is a single largest problem that you are going to face when you set out to buy that exotic piece of furniture for your home or just some modular wooden ensembles for your workspace. Furniture of both modern and retro designs is available in the market for you to choose from.

Let's take a look at the major kinds and variety of furniture available in the market to give you a fair idea of the current trends.

Oriental furniture is also referred to as "Asian Furniture". Until the past decade it has been limited to the Chinese and Japanese but globalization has made other Southeast countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bali gain recognition and grab a portion of the world furniture market. Indian furniture is also becoming popular among buyers who want to base their living or dining rooms on ethnic themes.

The evolution of Chinese furniture compared to its Western counterpart has been both similar and different in many ways. Low platform Chinese beds can lend a catchy look to your living room. There are other things to choose from such as daybeds and couches. While daybeds can be an excellent outdoor as well as indoor seating option, modified modern versions of the Chinese couch beds can lend a breath of fresh air to the way your drawing room will look.

Tired of experimenting? Then stick to the basics! Black Lacquered Furniture is a great option and can be used to decorate each and every part of your house. Using it to decorate your bed room can give it an Asian or contemporary look. Try using the Black lacquer finish for the mini dining table in your kitchen.

If you are someone who can go to great lengths to preserve the environment, this is the thing for you. Eco furniture is great on looks, is multi-functional and extremely space saving. This is the best option for people who want more walking space inside their homes. Try the cross fingered kind. It is beautiful, multifunctional and even foldable, for that matter.

Sustainable furniture comes cheap and is long lasting. Sustainable furniture is a term, difficult to define. It is made through technologies that are non-polluting and employ the use of only certified materials. Designs are much simpler. So if you don't want anything that is too bright or flashy, this is the furniture type to opt for.

So make the most of these tips. Hope you buy the best for your home or office.

Stylish and Comfortable Sofa Beds

Sofa beds are fast becoming popular with the modern day individual owning flats, apartments and condos. As a name suggests, it can be transformed into a comfortable bed with ease. The trend has caught up well in metropolitan cities where the need for saving space has led the modern buyer to invest into furniture that can be used for more than one purpose. Markets today, are flooded with excellent quality sofa beds which are not only good on comfort but also easy on your pocket.

Let's take a look at the things that you need to care of before you buy your perfect sofa bed.

Where to Put It?
This is the most important thing to consider before you shelling out that big amount for a possible decade long investment. Depending on the shape and size of your room, you can choose from a variety of options such as the Corner Sofa Bed, The L-Shaped-Sofa Bed, Furniture-Sofa Bed or the Sofa-Bed-Reclining-Chair. You can even put one in the guest room to avoid hassles for those unannounced visits.

The Fabric
Available in a variety of fabrics and colors, it can be customized to match up with the texture and color of your room, curtains etc. Besides various types of fabrics such as the China Fabric, velvet, and hard micro fibers, sofa beds are also available in leather. Leather Sofa Beds are the most popular of all, available in a variety of colors and skins.

The Style
These are available in a variety of styles depending on where you want to place them. Beautiful ones are available for drawing rooms, living rooms and even as a bedside option.

Where to Buy
The business is wide spread. You can either go to your nearest furniture mart to choose a design or get them custom made. But if you are looking for variety and international designs, be sure to look out for the same online. There's a wide variety of Leather Sofa Beds, Furniture Sofa Beds and Corner Sofa Beds available which can be delivered right at your doorstep.

The Price
As a long term investment, a decent sofa bed will be pricey but that does not mean that you should stop looking. The best way to check brands and their prices is to go online. Most companies with online portals are offering great quality at throwaway prices. Almost all of them offer discounts that go as high as 50%.

With all these tips in mind and a bit of market survey, you can confidently go ahead with buying your favorite sofa bed.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Right Choice of Sofa Will Define a Room

In the world of furniture, few things are as functional and stylish in one as a sofa. A good couch can indeed make or break a room in your home: the right aesthetic mix and it's all good; the wrong combination and everything is very, very wrong! Though having a couch is not necessary in most bedrooms, dining rooms or kitchens, this furniture item is an absolute must for any den, living room, TV room, lounge area, and sunroom. Knowing how to properly choose a couch is therefore a pretty important aspect of adequately and aesthetically pleasingly completing a home-in both a decorative and a functional way.

A sofa needs to be an article of furniture that blends in well with the surroundings, and therefore any interior designer (whether someone being contracted to do the job or a home owner himself or herself) needs to really contemplate what complementary colors to work with, which textures and kinds of fabrics would work well in the space in question, and whether to go for something very classic or something more risqué and modern. For example, if a person wants to put a couch in their living room, which is painted in very bright colors and receives lots of light, and is decorated with very modern and bizarre elements, then perhaps it would be best to go with a more modern couch design-bright, smooth fabric, with simple geometric dimensions and no excessively elaborate bordering or woodwork. On the other hand, if the living room were to be a space in a very old, traditional-style home, in a dimly lit area that is painted/wallpapered in more somber, dark colors, then the ideal kind of couch will be different-a more classic style couch, like a canapé or Chesterfield, with elaborate woodwork, darker color tones, with a fabric that has a more interesting, rich texture.

Size is always a big deal when choosing a sofa: space is at a premium in any home, and properly managing space in any given room (especially a room where many people will constantly be reunited) is an important aspect of successful interior design. Along with color coordination, proper management of space is a key facet of a home's feng shui (or lack thereof). In order to avoid serious issues like needing to return a couch because it won't fit where you want it, it is crucial to measure the dimensions of the room you have chosen for it as exactly as possible. Usually, people leave a space behind and on the sides of their sofas in order to improve circulation in a room and to have a space for storing things; keep these passageways in mind when jotting down possible dimensions for your couch. Generally, the couches that are best adapted to being squeezed into a corner without spaces behind or beside it are sectional couches, which often complete a right angle shift (creating the form of an "L"). These are among the most practical and space-efficient of all sofas.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Corner Desk - Pros and Cons

A corner desk is a useful piece of furniture. If you already use one for your office or at home, then you already know what a great option it is. If you don't, but are trying to decide what type of desk to get, then take a look at the pros and cons of a corner desk to help you make a good decision.

I've used all sorts of desks over the years. Probably my favorite one is the corner desk I use now. It works great in my home office. I can freely move my office chair around in the space in front of the desk. This is extremely important to most people, as it is for me. Being able to access not only my keyboard, but also my filing cabinet and printer easily is something facilitated by having a corner desk. A regular rectangular shaped desk tends to get over crowded. So, pro number one is ease of access to office machines and work spaces.

The second pro of using a corner desk is that it is an efficient use of space that otherwise would be wasted. You know how it is. If there is an extra square foot of free space we tend to fill it up with something. Maybe one of those awful fake plants I am sorry to say I have owned way too long. Or some figurine or other useless object will be placed there. I'm not sure why we do that, but we do. Obviously, having the desk in the corner means nothing else can go there.

My corner desk also has vertical space built in above the main work surfaces in the form of shelves. These are really nice. I can't emphasize enough how important it has become to me to be able to place objects up and out of the way. I like to use part of the shelf to keep my extra cds and DVDs, a few basic office supplies, and a few personal items like a picture and plant. On the other part of the shelf I tend to store my external hard drive, digital camera, card reader and flash drive. These things are nice to have close by since they are regularly used, but up and out of the way of my normal working area.

The biggest con to owning and using a corner desk is really only applicable if you are one of those people who just has to have their back to the wall. I don't know if that comes from the old west thing where you always want to have the room and door in front of you at all times or what. You never know when you might have a shoot out I guess, and you want to be prepared for anything. All kidding aside, some people are just more comfortable when they are situated more directly against a wall or in a corner facing out. I, for one, am not one of those people so having a corner desk that forces my chair to be more out in the room with my back to the door doesn't bother me at all.

There are many sorts of desks that come in all shapes and sizes, and any number of these may work great for you. A corner desk is something I have come to prefer over the years because of their ease of use and organization as well as accessibility to everything you need while working. If you are considering a corner desk, I would recommend one without reservation.