Decorations

5 Ways to Make Your Room Look Bigger

Small spaces can be beautiful but sometimes they can get crampy. With cities getting more populated and rentals getting expensive by the day, the best bet is to look for a way in which you can make your small pad look large. Take a look at how you can make your room look bigger.

1. Play with light and dark colors
It is a well known fact that you can make your small room look large by using lighter pastel shades for your wall paint. Using too many dark colors on the wall tend to make rooms look much smaller than what they are. You can paint your walls and moldings in lighter colors and use dark colors for the borders. Doing this will make the walls look pushed back, enhancing the sense of more space.
2. Remove the embellishments that cramp up your room
Do you have many photo frames, wall hangings, souvenirs and other knick knacks lying around on table tops or shelves in your small room? They’re the culprits of making your room look closed in. So tie your hair up and get ready for some spring cleaning. Removing the clutter will give your room a minimalist look and will make it appear larger.
3. Use multi function furniture to aid utility and space
The variety of multi function furniture available in the market today is mind boggling. Instead of picking a separate book shelf, coffee table, lamp table, magazine rack and a side table, pick a furniture piece that includes all of these. This will mean that lesser furniture occupies space in your room, making your small room look large.

4. Keep your walls and furniture in the same color family
In larger spaces contrasting walls and furniture can look excellent, but if you want to make your small room look large, contrasts won’t help you. Make sure that your walls and your furniture adjacent to it are in the same color family so that they appear to blend in with each other and not look like separate pieces.

5. Use light upholstery
Heavy velvet and satin upholstery may look lovely in commercials and in stores, but using them in small spaces can be a disaster. To make your small room look large, you must steer clear of such materials and fabrics, whether it is for cushion covers, curtains or drapes. Keep it light, is the mantra.

                                                                                                                                                                    

Help your carpets look better and last longer with these helpful cleaning tips.

Testing for Colorfastness

Colorfast carpet will not bleed, fade, or change when you are cleaning it or removing stains. Whether or not it is colorfast may change the cleaning method or products you choose. Here's how to pretest your carpet to find out if it is colorfast.wning a Carpet Cleaning System
If you have light-color carpets and/or a house full of kids or pets, you might want to buy your own professional-style model designed for home use. Home cleaners can save you money over the long haul when compared with hiring a pro several times a year. Keep in mind, though, that the unit you buy may not have the cleaning power that professional models do.

Water Extraction Method
 Most home carpet cleaning systems are waterextraction units that are also known as steam cleaners. They work by injecting a solution into the carpet pile, then pulling the dirty solution back into the machine. To avoid the hassle of dragging a hose around the house, opt for a model that does not require a clean-water hookup. Also, choose the most powerful machine you can afford to ease the burden of water extraction.
Caution: When using a steam cleaner, do not get the carpets overly wet. Overwetting can damage the carpet backing and underlayment, causing shrinkage, discoloration, and odor.

Dry Extraction Method

Other home cleaning systems use a dry extraction method. First you spread a dry absorbent compound over the carpet being cleaned, then you vacuum it with the cleaning machine. Although they usually work better than steam cleaners, dry machines and chemicals are more expensive than steamers and wet extraction solutions.

Renting a Carpet Cleaner
You may want to rent a professional-quality steam cleaner from a grocery store or rental center because of the additional power. With rental fees and the price of cleaning solutions (shampoo, defoamer, spot removers, odor removers, and more), a rental machine can quickly strain your household budget. But it may be a better value if your carpets don't show dirt, your kids are grown, or you don't own four-legged pets.

Hiring a Cleaning Pro
When you hire professionals, you'll get to choose between steam cleaning and dry extraction cleaning. Each method -- if handled by a qualified pro -- will do wonders for dirty carpets. Not only do professionals have far more powerful equipment than you're likely to buy or rent, they have far more experience removing stains. Prices may vary widely for essentially the same service, so shop carefully.