Whether you are working with existing furnishings and fabrics or “starting from scratch” with an empty room, you should always use the elements and principles of design as a guide in choosing everything. The elements are your tools or raw materials, much like paints are the basics to a painter. The elements of design include space, line, form, color, and texture. The principles of design relate to how you use these elements and are balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion and scale, and harmony and unity.

Element #1: Space
Space defines the boundaries and sets the limits on the functional and decorative things you can do. Usually you will not determine the space; instead, you will be faced with the challenge of using the existing space effectively.

Element #2: Line
The lines in a room are second only to color in importance when it comes to setting the overall mood or feeling of a room. The lines of window fashions should support the dominant line of the room. In most situations, the dominant line is straight (vertical, horizontal or diagonal) rather than curved. Your choice of emphasizing the direction of lines will determine the mood you want to create.
• Vertical lines add height and dignity, creating a more formal atmosphere. Vertical lines also balance the horizontal lines found in most furniture.
• Horizontal lines tend to create a restful, informal feeling. They work well in casual rooms or as relief to the strong verticals of formal rooms.
• Diagonal lines attract attention and lead the eye. They can be disturbing unless supported by verticals or opposing diagonals.
• Curved lines add a softening effect and keep the room from becoming too stiff. Use curved lines with some restraint to keep the room from becoming too soft and overly feminine.

Element #3: Form
Lines that join together produce the form, or shape, of an object, which in turn impacts the overall feeling of a room. Straight lines create rectangles, square and triangles. Curved lines form circles and ovals. The rectangle is the most popular form and is often the dominant shape in a room. Triangles provide stability and curved shapes soften the contours of objects.

Element #4: Color
More than any other element, color can make a room beautiful. Color can set the mood. It can make a room warmer or cooler, larger or smaller. It can hide unsightly features or call attention to the center of interest. Even with the simplest furnishings, the proper use of color can transform a room.

Element #5: Texture
Texture is playing an increasingly important role in home decorating. Visual texture is a material’s apparent smoothness or roughness. To maintain and enhance a casual feeling, use fabrics that are more heavily textured, nubby or rough visual texture. Smooth, shiny surfaces such as silk, moiré, chintz and silk-like looks support a more formal feeling in a room. Using several levels of complementary textures adds variety and maintains interest. However, it is a good idea to avoid dramatic contrasts in texture.

About the Author
Kathy Iven, Columbus, OH
kathy@fabricfarms.com
Kathy Iven is the owner of Fabric Farms Interiors, located in Hilliard, OH. Fabric Farms Interiors specializes in home décor fabrics and trims. They also offer custom drapery, bedding and upholstery services. The company was founded in 1971 and is the largest home décor fabric store in Central Ohio. To learn more, visit http://www.fabricfarms.com
All rights reserved.

You are in the market for the ideal new set of bathroom lighting features and are not quite sure exactly what you want. Well you definitely have come to the right spot. Bathroom accessories is exactly what we are here to provide you with. We offers a wide variety of vanity lights, bath bars and mirror lights ranging from the contemporary bath lights to traditional bath lights. You will without hesitation be able to come up with some incredible idea’s on how you want to dress up that all important room. Often the hardest part is getting started.

Bathroom accessories is a broad term used to refer to all those small but important things, which you use daily in your bathroom. Quite often people think that accessories are just an unnecessary addition, it’s not so. Accessories today are a great way to add instant beauty to your bathroom and change the look in a few short minutes. You can add lots of stuff to really flange up this area. With today’s modern design , lighting and fixtures you will definitely be amazed at what your creativity can bring you.

Every little thing like the faucets, lightning, bath rugs can become significant in creating just the right bathroom for you. The trick to putting any bathroom together is to start with a theme or design and stick with it all the way through. There are a variety of different sized and shaped bathroom lighting that you can choose from. Your selection will depend entirely on your tastes and the size of your bathroom.

Amy-Jo Strutt is a successful home decorator and regular contributor to vanities-showers-curtains.com - An online resource to help you find the very best in all your bathroom needs. http://www.vanities-showers-curtains.com/bathroom-lighting.html

Depending on what kind of home renovation look you might be interested in bathroom tend to be the popular choice when spending a few dollars. A nice bathroom vaniety allows you to provide an inviting feel into this room. With bathroom vanities you have the ability too maximize a small space or create your luxurious dream bath. Just imagine the nice appearance your house guests will feel when they go see that room.

Some of the usual bathroom vanities are bath furniture- kitchen faucets, , shower faucets, bath faucet, bathroom faucets and more. This is often the most affordable way to give your bathroom that new look that you really want. With today’s home improvement fashions out there, you will be amazed at the various styles and selection of product that is actually available out there. You definitely want to visual the type of look that you are after and we are definitely here to help you. We want to provide you with the ideas you need to make your remodelling job a successful one.

For a wide range in bathroom plans including vanities we can definitely point you in the right direction. Many products come in a wide choice to suit your layout or design that you are after. Take the time to review these online home decor specialists. Whether you are looking for a matte or polished product you will definitely be impressed with what is available out there.

Amy-Jo Strutt is a successful home decorator and regular contributor to vanities-showers-curtains.com - An online resource to help you find the very best in all your bathroom needs. http://www.vanities-showers-curtains.com

My seven year old daughter’s recent haircut had me thinking, once again, about the age-old "less is more" topic. With the waist-length hair cut to an above-the-shoulders bob, suddenly my little one looked so much bigger (and more grown up, too). All that hair was visually dwarfing her simply because of the ratio of hair length to body height.

With hairstyles being quite a deviation from my field of expertise, I was intrigued by the similar effects of cutting back hair to cutting back on the items within a space. "Cutting back" in a room can mean many things:

» Using smaller scale furnishings to open up the space;

» De-cluttering / removing excess items that create a "busy" feel in the room;

» Using fewer by pieces of furniture by selecting pieces that are multi-purpose, such as an upholstered ottoman that doubles as an occasional table.

Proportion, or scale, is one of the most important elements in good design — interior design, graphic design, and obviously hair "design" too. Something quite big just doesn’t work as well when it’s background is relatively small, unless of course the big item is meant to be the only focal point, as could be the case with a piano or pool table in a home setting.

Although I do like the look of minimalism, I have never accepted it as an achievable style for my own home, or for that of any average family. Most of us are comforted by having some personal belongings visible around us, whether they be books, photos, crafts/hobbies, displays of collectibles, or just a special something that has sentimental value. "Cutting back" too much equates with shaving your head, I suppose. Both are extreme. There is a way to find a happy medium.

In under a day, you can revamp your home in such a way that it is no longer being dwarfed by its contents. Here are some simple (and cost efficient) tips to open up your rooms to showcase the space as well as your belongings:

> Busy prints or patterns, especially on large furniture pieces (such as sofas), tend to make the pieces appear even larger. Cover it with a solid-colour or subtle tone-on-tone print, leaving small areas of the original print exposed.

> Reframe photos in matching frames, or use the frames that accommodate multiple pictures.

> Display collectibles in shadow boxes or on appropriate shelves or in display cases that can be hung on the wall.

> Determine if any of your furnishings can be used as multi-purpose pieces, and do some rearranging if needed. For instance, an old-fashioned desk can be used as a console table, while providing you with an instant place to handle mail and even bill paying.

> Look for hidden storage space. First clear out what you don’t need, and make proper use of the storage space you do have; then look for "hidden" storage areas. Storage solutions can be created underneath stairs, above the washer & dryer, wherever you have wasted space in your home… Depending on your heating system, you may have bulkheads concealing ducting; often some bulkheads are put up just to make the needed ones look balanced. Empty, or fake, bulkheads can easily be transformed into storage space. Don’t leave an inch of space un-thought of if you really are short of room to keep your family’s stuff.

> Strategically hang mirrors to reflect windows and doors. Although this doesn’t affect your layout, it creates a sense of more area. On the other hand never hang a mirror at the end of a long corridor or hall as the "long and narrow" will be emphasized, giving a bowling alley feel.

> Use contrast to define space. Make sure there is a contrast between your wall colour & doors and window frames. Have a stronger contrast between your walls and your small furnishings than between your walls and your larger pieces whenever possible.

> Emphasize open floor space with a simple rug that fits within that open space, leaving a border of visible floor exposed.

> Establish a furniture layout that has your largest (highest) pieces of non-focal-point furniture furthest from the entry to the room. For example, a tall dresser opposite a bedroom door will accentuate the size of the dresser, while a small piece of furniture in that same location will accentuate the space your room has to offer.

A trip to your local library or bookstore can provide you with even more inspiration for you home.

Karen S. Weiner is the owner and principal interior designer of Idealspace Design in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). http://www.idealspacedesign.com

Since the mid-1950’s Chile’s wood product trade has been rapidly expanding due to the cultivation of “plantation grown” softwood and hardwood trees. Chile’s unstoppable growth is also projected to rise within the next 15 years, making Chile an even greater player in the world’s wood product market. Chile is not the only country in South America benefiting from such fast-growing plantations. Both Brazil and Peru are beginning to enter the wood product market, but not with such ferocity and versatility. Chile has systematically managed to capitalize on both the raw product production and the bi-product product production of its wood products.

Experimentation with such fast-growing hardwoods, primarily eucalyptus, has produced positive results prompting Chileans to establish more experimental plantations. Such bold moves are based on the notion that the fast-growing hardwoods could outperform Radiata Pine and provide the industry with an increased volume of high quality fiber as well as saw or veneer logs within 14 years of plantation establishment.

Two trends worth noting, particularly among the larger wood product companies in Chile, are the high levels of horizontal integration within the plantations total operations and the extensive investment made in technology used throughout operations. Both of these trends can be expected to continue. Hardwood and softwood markets are here to stay.

Another significant trend emerging within Chilean wood companies is the investment in other Latin American countries. The recent signing of various free trade agreements with Central American countries, including Costa Rica, has resulted in the establishment of satellite businesses that directly market Chilean wood products. A Mexican wafer board manufacturer and an OSB plant in Brazil are part of Chile’s ongoing mergers. While plantations continue to emerge in Brazil and Venezuela totaling a near $40 million in investments, Chilean firms are confident the returns will be far greater than even they could have imagined.

So what does this all translate to?

Chile has clearly proven itself to be a wood producing success story. Because of trade incentives, Chile has established some of the world’s most impressive plantations and no longer relies on native forests. In addition, the Chilean wood products industry has implemented a fully integrated supply and management system that represents one of the best models of efficiency within the industry. It can be expected that Chile will continue to prosper and emerge as one of the world’s most important wood products supplier resulting in an increased global reliance on South American and Latin American plantations.

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David C Skul - CEO LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. is pleased to serve his clients through traffic generating articles and one way links.

All About Glass Sinks

The hottest trend in bathroom design today is the handmade glass sink – often referred to as a glass vessel sink - which has become the latest must-have for luxury homeowners. Combine the versatility in color and design offered by glass with the vessel mount trend and it’s no wonder that our company, Glass Artists Gallery, can barely keep up with demand. Vessel-mounted, fused, slumped, mosaic, under-mounted and hand-blown sinks have even influenced the faucet manufacturers’ designs because of their unprecedented popularity.

We find ourselves answering questions and dispelling myths surrounding sinks just about every day. This article was created to answer some of the more common questions such as "What is a handmade sink?" "Are they expensive?" "What are the differences in the glass sinks I see in the showrooms and online?" "Are they durable?"

Types of Glass Sinks

To better understand the three main categories of glass vessel sinks, it helps to understand the three main types of glassmaking:

Cold Glass — Working with glass at room temperature. Examples are mosaic glass, stained glass, glass carving and etching.

Warm Glass — The process of fusing, slumping or other kiln forming techniques at temperatures between 1100 and 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hot Glass– The process of blowing glass using a furnace that melts the glass at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the glass is gathered on the end of a pipe, the artist forms the hot glass using a "Glory Hole" (an oven that maintains a temperature of around 1200 degrees Fahrenheit). The resulting work is then slowly cooled in an annealing oven.

With the above in mind, there are three main categories of artisan crafted glass sinks you will find at Glass Artists Gallery:

Fused & Slumped — Glass fusing is the process of joining together pieces of glass. When the right kind of glass is heated and then cooled properly, the resulting fused glass piece will be solid and unbroken. Using fusing techniques, the artist creates patterns and designs in color. The resulting sheet of fused glass is then slumped into the vessel shape. In the slumping process the glass is laid into, or on top of a mold and heated just to the point where it "Slumps" to fit the form of the mold. Once the glass reaches the desired form it must be cooled quickly enough to stop the movement that will result in cracking. Although this might sound simple, the resulting sinks can be quite intricate in their design and require hours of painstaking labor.

Blown Glass — Hand blown glass sinks are created through a much different process. This "hot glass" process allows an artist to create myriad different styles, colors, shapes and sizes that are always unique. Layers of glass are "gathered" onto the end of a "rod" or "pipe" and formed, blown and worked into a vessel shape. Color is applied in many different forms at the beginning of the process. Once finished, the piece is "annealed" for a minimum of 48 hours for maximum durability. Due to variations in the glass blowing process, every sink will be unique.

Mosaic Glass — Pieces of hand-cut colored art glass are adhered to the inside surface of a 1/2" thick annealed glass bowl. Annealing is a process of bending the glass at extremely high temperatures to assure durability of use in the most extreme temperature conditions. The sink is then grouted with a specially mixed blend of sand and tinted cement, then sealed and finished with a protective clear polymer coating to create a smooth surface which is colorful, sturdy, easy to care for and a breathtaking focal point for any bathroom.

Handmade or Production?

As you can see from the types of glass sinks that are available, you have many different choices for incorporating a stunning centerpiece in the bath. The choice you will need to make is whether you want an original "work of art" - an artisan created sink - or a "factory produced" glass vessel. The trend in glass sinks has created a flood of offshore imports that are now available. We liken the current choices to the art world where you can find original art as well as "prints" or "reproductions". Production sinks made in a factory are mass produced generally using single sheets of glass. Many are painted with a design. Few, if any, are truly "slumped & fused".

Durability of Glass Sinks

How do we, as glass specialists, reassure the end user of a glass sinks durability? The analogy I use is that the glass sinks we sell are made by professionals and are able to withstand similar abuse as a porcelain sink. In other words, if you drop a heavy object into a glass sink with enough force to break it, you would have also broken a typical porcelain sink. They both have similar strength characteristics.

The difference between these two materials is that glass is more prone to "thermal shock". Thermal shock can occur when there is a sudden temperature change of more than 70 degrees. For example, you don’t want to pour scalding hot water (over 120 degrees) into a glass sink. Hot water from the tap is generally 100 - 110 degrees, so the temperature difference is well within the safe zone. The most common occurrences of thermal shock happen when a sink is left on a jobsite where the temperature is unregulated.

When installing a glass vessel sink, be sure your contractor knows that thermal shock can be a problem if the jobsite is not yet heated. In addition, make sure they know that the drain assembly should be hand tightened only. Over-tightening the drain is the second most common cause of breakage.

At Glass Artists Gallery, our clients use glass sinks not only in the powder room, but also in the master bath, guest baths and even children’s baths. When treated and installed properly, they are durable, safe and fantastic design options. With proper lighting, they will "glow" and cast wonderful light and shadow effects throughout the bath. They will certainly set your project apart!

To see all of the glass sinks available, as well as artisan crafted sinks in other mediums including stone, metal, ceramic and even wood - please visit Sinks Gallery

Jack Healy is part owner of Functional Art Gallery, LLC - Functional Art Gallery - a growing family of online resources for the designer, architect, builder and discerning homeowner. The company focuses on handcrafted functional & architectural works of art for both residential and commercial projects. The Functional Art Gallery family includes Glass Artists Gallery, Sinks Gallery and Art Lighting Gallery. Together these resources provide the largest collection of artisan and designer products available in North America.

OK, you’ve decided that glass tiles are perfect for your project – so where do you go from here? What are your options?

A lesser known option is to explore “art glass tiles”. These are made by studio glass artists in smaller lots and are generally made specifically for a client or project. Generally these tiles can be customized specifically to a client’s color, texture, style and size preferences and even incorporate custom designs to match other motifs in the room. For example, would you like your tiles to match certain fabrics, a specific paint color or type of stone? Would you like a continuous wall panel or smaller accent tiles? These are the types of variation that can be specified when ordering art glass tiles.

The versatility of art glass tiles textures and appearance is at best, very difficult to emulate on a manufacturing line. The glass artisan specializing in tiles has many glass colors and styles to choose from when creating these works of art just as a painter has myriad shades of colors on their palette. And as the application is specifically designed for, there might be a little more effort involved in having tiles “made to order”, but the result will truly be one-of-a-kind.

To stretch your budget, consider using factory glass tiles as the “field tiles” and mixing in custom art glass “accent tiles”. Field tiles make up the bulk of the tiles in any project whereas accent tiles can be incorporated in much smaller quantities. Glass Art accessories such as accent tiles are the ideal solution for enhancing any room. Combine glass with woods, metals and textiles to create dynamic, memorable interior designs.

Another possibility when working with glass tiles is matching your custom art glass tiles to custom glass vessel sinks or art glass lighting such as chandeliers, pendants and sconces. There are very few mediums that offer this type of design versatility. The work of glass artisans can be coordinated to go far beyond simple wall covering, to create several coordinating functional works of art for your home.

To explore the custom glass option that is right for you, you can go to favorite artists or go to a custom glass dealer. Major tile dealers tend to deal in high volume sales, and are not usually positioned to offer art glass solutions. Instead, as art glass grows in popularity, and the internet is increasingly adopted as a low-cost distribution and promotion mechanism, we are seeing a trend towards glass art collectives and glass art dealers on the web. These organizations showcase the work of several artists; and provide services that range from simple sales channels to design support for integrated glass design for the home.

An example of such a service is the Glass Artists Gallery . They have been helping designers and homeowners all across North America with art glass tiles, lighting, sinks and other functional glass art for years. They are not really a “brick and mortar gallery” but rather a resource for the trade and discerning homeowners for functional and architectural glass.

Jack Healy is part owner of Functional Art Gallery, LLC - Functional Art Gallery - a growing family of online resources for the designer, architect, builder and discerning homeowner. The company focuses on handcrafted functional & architectural works of art for both residential and commercial projects. The Functional Art Gallery family includes Glass Artists Gallery, Sinks Gallery and Art Lighting Gallery. Together these resources provide the largest collection of artisan and designer products available in North America.

Thinking about a new fireplace screen for your hearth? There are more options available now than just a few years ago. Don’t be overwhelmed by the possibilities, though. Here’s a quick guide to fireplace screen shapes.

Fireplace screens vary by the number of panels they have, by whether the panels are straight or curved, by the shape of the top of the screen, and by whether they have access doors. There is also a distinction between fireplace screens and fireplace spark guards.

One panel screens are very popular now. Flat one panel screens fit up flat against your fireplace and are visually integral to the fireplace opening. They usually sit on adjustable “feet.” Curved single panel fireplace screens have a gentle bow in them that allows them to stand without feet. Placed in front of the fireplace, each side edge of a bowed screen is against your fireplace wall, but the middle of the screen bows out a bit from the fireplace opening.

Three-panel and four-panel fireplace screens are piano hinged between each panel. This allows you to position the side panels to fit the width of your fireplace.

Three panel screens are probably the most familiar style. The middle panel is typically about twice as wide as each of the side panels. Three-panel screens are often favored for traditional settings. Some have bowed panels; each panel is gently bowed so the entire screen forms one, continuous bow when placed on your hearth.

Four panel screens, although less common, have a unique appeal. They stand easily and can be adjusted to fireplaces of different widths. In addition, it is easy to fold just two of the panels to tend your fire.

Single panel, three-panel, and four-panel screens all can be had with arched tops or flat tops. Arched fireplace screens are popular not only with homeowners with arched fireplaces, but also with those who want a break from all the horizontal lines of most fireplace setting. The arched screens—whether each panel is individually arched or the screen as a whole has a single arch—can add visual interest and drama to your hearth.

Access doors are a relatively new feature on fireplace screens. Most screens must be moved to tend a fire or add logs. Not so with fireplace screens with doors built into them. Access doors are most common on single panel screens and on the center panel of three-panel screens.

A separate category of screen is the “spark guard.” Spark guards are screens that not only protect sparks from coming straight out from your fire into your room but also protect you from sparks that might shoot up-and-out into your room. Typically, they look much like a three-panel screen with two important differences: First, an additional top section of screening goes from the top of the three panels up to the fireplace wall. Often this top section of screening is shaped like the curved section of an old fashioned roll-front desk. Second, none of the panels is hinged. The entire spark guard is rigid. To tend a fire, handles on the spark guard allow the rigid unit to be picked up and moved away from the fire.

Your new fireplace screen can look just like the fireplace screen grandma used to have. But it doesn’t have to! A fireplace screen with a newer shape, or a classical shape updated, might better serve your decorating and functional needs.

Susan Penney appreciates simple ways to make our homes renewing spaces for our families. She invites you to visit http://www.fireplacemall.com for fireplace accessories to serve your fire-less or your fire-filled fireplace.

Much in the way jazz altered our concept of music, glass art has changed our expectations of residential lighting. In fact, glass art lighting is being hailed as one of the hottest new trends to hit luxury home design. According to 25-year Southern California interior designer Greg Griffith, G. Griffith & Co. of Destin, FL, “It’s emerging as a transitional point for a more energetic look. From Asian to 18th Century, every style and design can incorporate glass art lighting. The fact that these are actual sculptured pieces means you’re adding art to the room without cluttering the wall.”

Aside from aesthetics, the benefit to glass art lighting is that it’s so flexible, it ends up resolving many design conflicts. Take, for example, the story of the Wisdom Window. This stained glass piece was created by a California glass artist to create a welcoming light at the end of a dark, New York apartment hallway. The artist created four matching sconces, but wanted the end of the hallway to feel like a window. He innovated a design where a diffuser sheet will be installed underneath the stained glass piece, and lit from behind.

One New York glass artist developed a unique way to illuminate her bathroom. She created her own mosaic glass sink and lit it from underneath to create a warm, amber glow. It also doubles as her nightlight. To underscore the look of an underlit sink, matching sconces are ideal. Some kitchen designers are commissioning glass art sconces and pendants to match underlit glass kitchen countertops. This creates interesting, ambient lighting in a more finished-looking lighting package.

Glass art lighting can be a subtle accent, or a prism through which the light bathes a room in a swatch of exotic colors. “I find many decorators driving décor based on the lighting fixtures,” says Seattle-based glass artist, Suzanne Guttman. “It’s easy to fall in love with a tentacled pendant light or chandelier and make it the centerpiece of a room.”

The Cost of Beautiful

Investing in gorgeous glass art lighting is less daunting than one may assume. A Bellagio budget isn’t necessary to incorporate museum-quality glass lighting into a residential design. Sconces range from $400 to $1,200; small pendant lighting (suspended by one point in the ceiling) ranges from $300 to $600; larger pendants and chandeliers can range from $1,500 to $10,000. Serious collectors consider glass art an investment as well as being an aesthetic piece, just as they would an original painting, or a piece of antique furniture.

Glass Art Lighting 101

Once a homeowner decides on glass art lighting, it’s helpful to know a little about the glass and where it should be used, based on its physical characteristics. Here are some tips:

Blown glass has some limitations to the size and diameter that an artist can create. Some blown glass lighting utilizes many pieces in its design to create a larger, more sculptural effect.

Cast glass is very beautiful, but quite unusual in lighting because it is very heavy to suspend. One glass artist has created a woven glass technique that takes on the look of woven fabric, and results in a glass art lighting fixture that feels like a glass blanket.

Fused & slumped glass is popular for glass art lighting. Through the use of molds, fusing allows the artist to create large diameter canopied type lighting, thus enabling a single shade to be up to 48” in diameter. This creates consistency in shape and wonderful, unusual textures.

Etched glass is another wonderful medium for flat panel lighting. Pieces such as The Three Graces, by glass artist Margaret Oldman, can be lit with plain or multi-colored fiber optics, depending on the look a designer is trying to achieve.

Mosaic and stained glass are similar, in that they’re both ideal for flat panel lighting. Artists will often incorporate Italian smalti glass, blown sheets of transparent glass broken into small pieces, or dichroic glass, which is coated on one side with a metallic-like mirror finish.

Buyer Beware

One thing homeowners should remember, especially with lighting, is to be sure that the glass artist they’ve chosen understands how the electrical specs will dovetail with the piece, and that they know U.L. standards. As founder of Glass Artists Gallery, I estimate that close to 30% of our first-time customers come to us because they had negative experiences commissioning residential glass art lighting on their own. We are very careful about screening the artists we represent to make sure they understand the technical specifications

In short, glass art lighting choices become a very personal way to reveal a homeowner’s fingerprint on the interior design. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”

For more information or to see thousands of images of art glass lighting, visit Art Lighting Gallery

Jack Healy is part owner of Functional Art Gallery, LLC - Functional Art Gallery - a growing family of online resources for the designer, architect, builder and discerning homeowner. The company focuses on handcrafted functional & architectural works of art for both residential and commercial projects. The Functional Art Gallery family includes Glass Artists Gallery, Sinks Gallery and Art Lighting Gallery. Together these resources provide the largest collection of artisan and designer products available in North America.

Slipcovers are a great way to improve the decoration of your home. They provide a quick and affordable way to change the looks of your house, without having to spend a lot of time and money in redecoration.

With the arrival of new fabrics, old slipcovers (those ones our grandparents used on their home, that were usually both ugly and uncomfortable) are evolving, improving both the ease to integrate them to your existing décor, add touches of fun to your rooms and protecting, at the same time, your furniture from kids (yeah, they are not so lovely when they spill milk all over your favorite armchair) and also from animals (take my advice: slipcovers are my sofa’s last line of defense when my cat attacks, hehe).

It is also remarkable the way that they can be cleaned, much easier than old fabrics.

Being so affordable, you can have two (or even more) different sets of slipcovers, and change them to change the aspect of your chairs, loveseats or sofas accordingly to season, or in special occasions. For instance, imagine these situations:

Big game tonight? You invite all your friends to watch the game and they are surprised to see all the furniture colored to match your favorite team.

Dining with someone special? A nice dinner, a couple of candles, a nice wine, that romantic pale blue set of slipcovers and, boom!, perfect night.

Your puppy keeps jumping onto your seat? Well, take out the everyday slipcover set and allow doggie to sleep freely on the couch without worrying about your furniture.

And those situations are just a few examples on how slipcovers can help you create the perfect atmosphere for any occasion. The décor possibilities are even greater if you switch carpets from one room to another or change the color of the lights.

Slipcovers truly are the best way to have new seats without having to reupholster your existing furniture or buying new one.

Tamara Williams provides tips and advice for Furniture Slipcovers where you can find all the best slipcovers in one place.