Archive for June, 2009
Decorating a Child’s Bedroom
There are plenty of ways to decorate a child’s bedroom with out spending a lot of money. We have to conceder that they grow up and out of there younger themes, but there still young enough other ideas to refresh the room. Once you have a color pick out we can decorate using the child’s art work. Have them create coordinating custom artwork. Then frame the artwork in cute picture frames that pick up the theme or the color.
You can make a big deferent’s in a child’s room with just using paint as a great choice and with out spending a lot of money. Changing the color will make a big change even if you don’t do anything else. Faux painting technique is a great way of using paint to decorate you will save money and us less paint, but it will add lots of interest to the room.
Once you have your child’s bedroom finish you may want to replace the sheets with new ones, but keep your existing comforter. If you want to change the comforter buy a duvet cover. It’s just like putting a giant pillowcase on the comforter. We have now created a fresh new bedroom for our growing child
From a Little Girl to a Teenager
How the time flies. One day your little girl wants Dora and princess’s and fairies to decorate her bedroom. Now she is a teenager and it time to put away the little girl and decorate for your teen. She has dreams of her own retreat what colors she likes and designs. You can make this a mom and daughter day of painting and giving the walls a wake-up call with pretty paint techniques and fashion.
If you want the walls to sing with a pattern but don’t like messing with wall paper, try a custom paint finish. Use two shades of color and a woolly-pad to create a soft mottled base for the walls. Then using a darker color and a handcrafted stamp made of craft foam and plexiglass you can make your teenager’s own special design to stamp a great design on the walls.
To top off the finishing touches we must change the linen from little girl to teen girl. Let’s take her shopping for new sheets, luxury duet covers and accessories to create a true teenager’s room.
Mini Make Over
Some fabric and paint is all you need to turn ugly furnishings and unfinished pieces into stylish beauties. Treat a ho-hum headboard with a dashing slipcover. Wrapping with foam and batting and slip it into a comfortable canvas cover gives it a plush new look. Putting a pretty ruffle made from inexpensive ticking stripe adds feminine flair.
Coordinating the bed ensemble with a matching striped luxury bed in a bag adds a breath of fresh air to a new bedroom with a mini make over. Add a couple of throw pillows and we have turned our bedroom into a stylish beauty.
Loft Beds
Loft beds are beds that were elevated off the ground. They were most common in college dorm room to make more room for a chesterfield or computer desk. They have come popular in the home for kid’s rooms again to give more room if it’s a small bedroom. Loft beds are a bed built on stilts usually a twin-size frame attached to the inner braces of the structure. You can easily make your own loft bed for your child but for safety reasons you might want the help of a professional builder. Many furniture stores care loft beds they are just like bunk beds without the bottom bunk.
Some features that come with a loft bed when buying from a store is a futon built in below for extra sleeping area or just to sit on. They come with a kid’s organizer with small closets or drawer, toy chest and other storage space.
When decorating your kids room with a loft bed finish it off with a set of twin Egyptian cotton sheets.
Small Dorm Room Luxuries
If you’re sending a child off to college this coming fall, it can be an exciting and difficult time. Especially if your child is used to a loving and luxurious home, the prospect of moving out to a dorm can cause a bit of trepidation. But there are ways to make the transition as smooth as possible. For one, be excited with your child about their new independence. This will help them focus on the positive.
And two, look into a few luxuries that your kid can take to the dorm. Even if they have to sleep on a flat mattress on the top of a rickety bunk, that doesn’t mean they can’t have Egyptian cotton sheet sets at their disposal. In this way, they will have one small indulgence and luxury to look forward to every night. And because these will be durable and long lasting, they can also make all the subsequent moves with your young college student.
Day Beds
Day beds are beds that look like a couch. The back of the couch serves as a headboard. To make a full-size bed some come with a trundle that fits under the bed when set up it looks like a couch. To make the bed bigger for guest to sleep on the trundle is pulled out from under the day bed. The trundle is on wheels which makes it easies to pull out and then can be popped up to the same level as the main part of the day bed. When using a link spring you can join the trundle to the main bed making it into a king-size bed. It can also be left separate to make two twin size beds.
A day bed is considered to be more comfortable then a futon as it has an actual twin mattress. Day beds take up more room then a futon because it is a permanent piece of furniture in a room. None the less it only takes up the space of a twin-size bed. Day beds are great to create a guest room that also may be use as an office. When set up looks like a couch. When buying linens for you day bed measure you mattress for the proper size. In most cases you can buy twin sheet sets. Day beds are considered a more classical approach to use then a sleeper sofa or futon
Egyptian cotton Sheets
What are Egyptian cotton sheets? They are the high quality of bedding in standard sheets. Because of it luxurious feel and durability it is considered the king of all cottons. Egyptian cotton is known as a breathable material. The cotton pant they use to make this product resists piling due to the fact that it doesn’t produce a lot of lint.
Egyptian cotton comes from a cotton plant called gossypium barbadense and another type of plant called gossypium hirsutum both is native to America. Mohammed Ali Pasha ruler of Egypt introduced the plant to Egypt in the nineteenth century. The plant was developed as a cash crop to support his army.
Known for its ability to make extra long staples or fibers Egyptian cotton produces thread thinner then cotton because of it longer length resulting in higher thread count. The thread count is what makes a luxurious sheet the higher the count the Egyptian cotton sheet will last a decade if properly cared for.
Egyptian cotton sheets are some of the finest sheets available due to the very high thread counts; they tend to all for a much higher price then regular cotton sheets.
Two things to keep in mind if you are buying Egyptian cotton sheets is one the difference in thread count and two some sheets are labeled Egyptian cotton and are really make from cotton blends. If you want the real thing make sure the label states 100% cotton. There are cheaper Egyptian cotton sheets made from a blend of fibers that are still nice, but won’t have the full quality and feel that Egyptian cotton is known for. For Egyptian cotton bed sheets there’s no substitution.
What are Egyptian cotton sheets? They are the high quality of bedding in standard sheets. Because of it luxurious feel and durability it is considered the king of all cottons. Egyptian cotton is known as a breathable material. The cotton pant they use to make this product resists piling due to the fact that it doesn’t produce a lot of lint.
Egyptian cotton comes from a cotton plant called gossypium barbadense and another type of plant called gossypium hirsutum both is native to America. Mohammed Ali Pasha ruler of Egypt introduced the plant to Egypt in the nineteenth century. The plant was developed as a cash crop to support his army.
Known for its ability to make extra long staples or fibers Egyptian cotton produces thread thinner then cotton because of it longer length resulting in higher thread count. The thread count is what makes a luxurious sheet the higher the count the Egyptian cotton sheet will last a decade if properly cared for.
Egyptian cotton sheets are some of the finest sheets available due to the very high thread counts; they tend to all for a much higher price then regular cotton sheets.
Two things to keep in mind if you are buying Egyptian cotton sheets is one the difference in thread count and two some sheets are labeled Egyptian cotton and are really make from cotton blends. If you want the real thing make sure the label states 100% cotton. There are cheaper Egyptian cotton sheets made from a blend of fibers that are still nice, but won’t have the full quality and feel that Egyptian cotton is known for. For Egyptian cotton bed sheets there’s no substitution.
How to Fold a Fitted sheet
Summer is here and you just bought a new set of queen percale sheets to freshen up your bedroom from a long cold winter. As you remove them from the package you wonder how they fold the fitted sheet so neatly. When it comes to folding a fitted sheet it surely is not the same as folding a flat sheet. It can be every frustrating for those people who like to keep things folded and stored perfectly. Do you every find yourself how do you really fold these sheets with the odd shape corners. Here are a few simple steps I found to folding a fitted sheet.
Folding a fitted sheet taken out of the dryer while it is still warm and not beginning to wrinkle a great deal is one important factor. If you like to hang your sheets out side to dry you may want to run a warm iron over before you start to fold it.
You will find it a lot easier to fold a fitted sheet on a flat surface like your bed or you can use a folding table.
Her we go lets fold our fitted sheet. First you must keep in mind that the fitted corners have to be tucked into one another as part of the process. Put your hand into one corner of the sheet and feed that corner into the opposite corner. Example, feed the bottom right into the top right corner repeat for the other two corners then smooth material as flat as possible. If you folded as above you should have a rectangular shape having the pockets of the combined corners facing up the overlapping fabric lying flat against the folded sheet.
The next step is to fold the two sets of combined corners into one another which involves repeating the first step .Put your hands in one set of corners, insert the set into the other combined corners, picking the sheet up from the work surface with the sheet already folded in half making it easier to work with making the initial fold .The four corners are tuck in put on a flat surface a second time taking care to smooth the overlapping sections flat and make sure the shape is rectangle. This will help with the final fold of the fitted sheet.
Fold your rectangle shape into a square, overlapping the sections inside the square leaving the surface resembling a folded flat sheet. Continue to fold the fitted sheet to the size you like to fit in your linen closet. When you put your folded fitted sheet beside your flat sheet it will be difficult to tell them apart.
Who Invented Fitted Sheets
Fitted sheets were made with elastic corners to fit over a mattress at all four corner preventing the sheet from slipping off when you laid down on the bed at night.
The fitted sheet was invented by a lady by the name Giselle Jubinville, a Canadian from Alberta Canada. This housewife Giselle Jubinville was fed -up with sheets that would not stay in place so she set out to design a better fitted sheet. Sewing day and night for months on end she tried hundreds of designs. Everyone told her that she was wasting her time that you can’t patent a sheet. But she never gave up and she kept sewing in a corner of her bedroom all night.
The perfect design came to her in a dream. Stitching the corner at just the right angle and using more fabric, she was able to make deeper pockets. This helps the sheet to stay in place on the mattress.
It took Giselle 4 years to sell her design. In Washington, D.C. the patent office turn her down three times. They told her that there was 100, patent ways to sewing sheet corners so they didn’t agree that hers was new. Giselle took her design to Washington herself to show them in person. After the patent examiner had been shown the design he agreed it was new, and awarded a patent.
The next step was to go to the two largest Canadian sheet manufacturers, but both companies were not a bit interested in purchasing her design. Giselle tried Springs Industries in the U.S., they purchased her patent for a $1million plus.
Now Giselle Jubinville and her family are enjoying the results of her ‘foolish’ Idea.
We all get the pleasure of having fitted sheets that won’t slide off the bed. Fitted sheets come in many different sizes starting from twin sheet sets up to king size.
Two Types of Waterbeds
When waterbeds became a house hold name and you wanted to in vest in one you had only two types of waterbeds to choose from .The two different styles of waterbeds were a hard-sided bed and the other was know as a soft-sided bed.
The hard-sided waterbed was rectangular frame of wood that was constructed on a plywood deck that sat on a platform. Some platforms were made with drawers for extra storage. You could also decorate your bed with headboards or tall posts.
The other style of waterbed called the soft-sided bed was a rectangular frame of sturdy foam with a zippered inside of a fabric casing. This type of waterbed’s platform looks like a conventional bed. Looking like a regular box spring and mattress. This is the type of waterbed I have and when you first look at it you would think it a regular bed until you sit or lie on it.
The mattresses when first made were a one water chamber called a “free flow” mattress. When you lay down you would feel a significant wave action which took some time to settle after a disturbance. Later on they came out with a wave-reducing method, including fiber batting and interconnected water chambers. The more modern “wave less” waterbeds have a mixture of air and water chambers, usually interconnected. My waterbed is made up of individual tubes.
Waterbeds are heated with a pad that is controlled by a thermostat. Most pads consume 150-400 watts of power, depending on the insulation, bedding, temperature and other factors, electricity usage may vary.
The material use to make a waterbed is a soft polyvinyl chloride or similar material. To repair a waterbed you can use any vinyl repair kit.
Waterbeds are not as popular as they were back in the 70’s but there are still stores around that sell the beds along with the special waterbed sheets that go with the bed. Some waterbed sheet sets are sewn together to make it easier to make the bed, specially the “free flow” style beds.