Learning to appreciate a decorative wall clock is part of the perks of owning or collecting antique wall clocks. Owning a clock just for the sake of knowing the time is entirely different than owning one for its decorative value. Clocks are not just tools for pinpointing the time of day, they are more than that. An antique grandfather clock, for example, can add life and elegance to your living room, assuming of course that you can appreciate its essence and decorative value.

Such a timepiece can possess a variety of attributes that may appeal to certain groups of individuals. The number of decorative clocks available in the market that caters to almost every individual’s needs is quite limitless. What works for you perfectly may not be right for others. It usually depends on how you would want to use the clock. For example, a clock for the wall in the kitchen does not necessarily work in the living room or bedroom, design wise. With the wide range of designs to choose from, you will not have any trouble picking one that is just right for you.

Depending on where you would want to place the clock, a decorative wall clock should possess something that appeals to you. This is how you start to appreciate clocks, be it antique clocks or even digital clocks. If you are into antiques, grandfather clocks or long case clocks are great for decorating your living room. If not, you can try out some ornamental clocks that work as picture frames. This way, your visiting guests can be able to appreciate your family photos as well as figure out the time.

A religiously themed decorative wall clock is also quite common among many people, since religion can be a powerful motivator. You might feel inspired if you are constantly reminded of your faith. A decorative clock that depicts the last supper would look great in your dining room, wouldn’t you agree? Or the infamous footprints in the sand story that is incorporated in a clock would work well in the kitchen.

You should also keep in mind that the decorative wall clock’s face color should match the room’s general color scheme. This is essential because you do not want your clock to stand out in the room where you place it. A decorative wall clock should fit right in the room’s decorative theme. Even antique or digital wall clocks should blend with the room’s atmosphere.

A decorative wall clock does not only tell time but add up to the beauty of your room as well. To know more about it, check out http://www.qualityclocksreview.com.

There are several things the professional interior decorators do that you can learn to do. They are not difficult or expensive – just time consuming. And time is what you are paying for when you hire a professional. You are paying not only for the time they work for you but for the time they have spent to learn their profession or trade. So if you have more time than money here we go.

Find a magazine that most represents the style of home interior you would like to have and subscribe to it. Now put some effort into choosing a magazine – spend some time at the book store perusing many decorator magazines and pick the one which has the most “decor items” and “room pictures” which make “your socks roll up and down”(means you love it and can’t live without it). You will not do everything in the magazine nor only things from the magazine but it will give you a starting place.

Now pick a room or a space in a room you want to change. For our example we will pick the bathroom. Look through the magazine and look for bathroom pictures of things you like which will fit or work in your bathroom. If you need a new towel bar, find one which will fit in the space you like and which makes your socks roll up and down. If you can’t find one in the magazine but something there has given you an idea go to the web and start searching. Don’t get frustrated it takes some effort to find something which is awesome and it is worth the time. Once you find the perfect towel bar, compare prices, both at your local stores and on the web. Then just buy it and install it.

Do the same thing for colors – when you see a room in a picture which you would love to have, try to copy the colors. If you see a decor item such as a sculpture for a table or a lamp you love, check to see if you have a space for it. Don’t buy “stuff” you like unless you first make sure you have an appropriate space for it. This will save you a fortune – we all have extra stuff sitting around which we cannot use.

If you have a space in a room that needs decorated, try to find a picture of a room or space in a room similar to your and check out how it is decorated. I decorated an entertainment center by looking at a similarly shaped one in a magazine picture and then filling my spaces with approximately the same size and shaped items as the professional decorator who got the picture in the magazine had used. It worked – mined turned out very pleasing to the eye and it actually looks like I knew what I was doing.

In picking a magazine, I was very specific. I loved southwest decorating and chose the southwest magazine which best matched my love of wild colors and extreme decorating.

For more on all of this check out my before and after pictures.

http://www.decoratetechniques.com Marsha Hansen

Cheap decorating tips are some of my favorite things to learn and so I would like to share some of my favorites with you. My all time favorite thing to decorate with is candles.

There are two ways I like to decorate with candles and the first one is to take long stemmed wine glasses and fill with sand or fish tank gravel and put a candle down in the center. This is such a fancy look and the color of candle is so easy to change. My second tip is to take a cluster of candles and place them by a mirror or on a mirrored tray. The reflection from the mirror make an additional glow and is very appealing.

Second on my list of cheap decorating tips is throw pillows. I have always loved pillows but did not like the high prices. Even shopping at a large national chain I found the prices way to steep because I didn’t want just one pillow,but several.

Some of the large chain stores have a fabric section and most of them have material on sale. The store I shop at always has a $1.00 per yard rack to go through. I pick through the material and decide on my colors and buy about five or six yards. This will make me several pillows and cost me only five or six dollars. I then buy the stuffing which cost more than the material, however the price compared to bought pillows is still quite a savings.

You can also stuff home made pillows with strips of old clothing, but I personally prefer to pay for the stuffing. I think they look better and the cost for several pillows is still under $15.00.

Sewing pillows is easy and can be done by anyone. Just cut the material the size and shape you want, turn the material to where the wrong side is showing and sew up three and one half sides. Turn the material inside out and start stuffing. Once stuffed to the degree you want, hand sew the opening up and you have a great pillow!

Another thing I do to decorate is when I’m decorating my bathroom, I buy fancy shower curtain rings not the cheap plastic ones. This tip alone will spruce up your bathroom and for under $20.00. Over the years some of the cutest I have had were shaped like the hot and cold faucet handles and were made of Chrome.

One last tip is to take cheap but colorful cup towels and use them as place mats. This looks great and they are so easy to just wash, dry and put out again.

Learn more ways to save time and money by visiting our blog. Quick tips, that are fast reading yet informative, will be found there. Learn how to save on medical bills, or do your own professional photography. Go there now and pick up your free ebook ‘Buying, Cooking, and Freezing in Bulk’.
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The feng shui elements are one of the main foundations that feng shui is built upon. The five elements dictate how objects and furniture should be distributed and placed precisely around our home to attract the right type of energy we desire. Luck in wealth, love, family, careers, health, fame, children and education can all be achieved through correct use of the feng shui elements in your home, it’s a core concept and should be fully understood to benefit from it’s efforts. Each element has specific colors and location in your home associated with them and we’ll get to those a little later but first, let’s break down rights and wrongs of using the elements in your home.

The Productive and Destructive Cycle of Elements

Productive Cycle

The feng shui elements – water, wood, fire, earth and metal – can be arranged in a cycle where each element is used to create the next in the cycle. By using the correct locations, objects and directions, feng shui takes account of the elemental relationships and can use one element to assist or boost the another, bring greater energy for the life area they’re placed in.

The productive cycle is as follows:

Water > produces > wood > makes > fire > produces > earth > creates > metal > makes > water and so on.

Example:

Out of all the feng shui elements, water is the strongest representative of your wealth energy, which is located in the southeast area of your home or space. Water related items should feature in your wealth area to energize it and attract more of it. In the productive cycle, metal is the elements that makes water and so metal objects can also be placed in the area to boost the wealth area. Water is the main element and so be sure it isn’t overpowered too much by the metal.

Destructive Cycle

In the same way, if a destructive relationship of feng shui elements exists in the same location, this can bring about negative results which will harm your good intentions for the area. Most of the time, people unknowingly already have conflicting elements in the wrong locations which is why their wealth, career or any other area of life is suffering.

The destructive cycle is as follows:

Wood > devours > earth > destroys > water > extinguishes > fire > consumes > metal > demolishes > wood and so on.

Example:

As mentioned above your wealth corners main element is water. Earth destroys water in the destructive cycle shown above and so having any objects related to earth would devastate the positive effects of your water element, therefore your wealth. Things like ceramic pots, pictures of land or globes etc and will need to be removed before good wealth energy can flow freely into your life, unrestricted by the earth element.

Elemental Properties

For your reference, note the following relationships each element has with colors, locations (according to the bagua map) and objects in your home:

Wood – Green shades – East – Paper, Plants, Furniture, Pictures of Wood etc

Water – Blue or Black shades – North – Fountains, Aquariums, Pictures of Water etc

Fire – Red shades – South – Bright lights, Fireplaces, Candles, Pictures of Fire

Metal – Metallic colors, Gold, Silver, White – West – Coins, Jewelry, Wind chimes, Pictures of Metal etc

Earth – Brown shades – Center – Pots, Flowers, Ceramics, Globes, Pictures of Earth etc

Knowledge of the feng shui elements and their cycles help you too utilize the energy you need, and can balance out the destructive energy you don’t. Balance is the always the key when using the elements, they can even be used to correct any existing elemental and location problem you have in your home.

Sometimes, structural things like fireplaces can’t simply be moved. They’d naturally represent fire and if they’re in the wrong location for that particular element, you can use water based objects to destroy the fires negative effects and again, balance out the energy. A firm understanding of the feng shui elements and how they work will be key to help you benefit from all the great things that feng shui can bring you and your family. Wealth, health and happiness can soon be all yours when you combine all of your feng shui knowledge to build a life-time of well being and good fortune!

Lin Mai is a feng shui enthusiast and author. Visit Way to Feng Shui to start using feng shui elements to bring you all you desire!

Most people have heard of feng shui as something that Chinese people do to their houses, but most are unsure as to exactly what it is. In many respects it is employing practical design applications and making environments more pleasant to live in.

Feng Shui is thousands of years old and has evolved over time to meet the requirements of the population and their current level of thinking.

The version that has migrated to the western world is mostly concerned with people quests to make their living space more harmonious.

It is believed that the Taoists developed Feng Shui in their efforts to greater understand nature and relationship with it. However you don’t need to embrace Taoism to enjoy the benefits of Feng Shui.

In the 1970’s there was a surge of interest in Chinese culture. Martial arts movies had made their mark with Bruce Lee becoming a house hold name and Chinese food became commonplace.

The main reasons to use Feng Shui are:

To make your home more peaceful. To create an environment which is a sanctuary from our hectic lives. Using the right colours can immediately have a calming effect. Modern studies have clearly shown that pale green and blue are relaxing and are now universally used in hospitals.

To make your home more livable. Feng Shui dictates that the energy must be able to flow freely otherwise there are points of stagnation and disturbance. e.g. cluttered spaces, untidy shelves, art works displayed in a way that causes some negative emotional reaction.

In some spaces we are not able to pin point the problem, we just have a feeling that the energy is not right. In other spaces the moment you enter you can feel a sense of calm. Take note of the difference in these spaces. The light, the flow of air, the background noise levels, colours and design.

The Chinese idea of energy is expressed as Chi Or Qi (same pronouncement) The symbol for Chi literally means Air. They describe good chi or bad chi, just as the goal of Acupuncture is to encourage the flow of Chi through a sick or injured to restore heath, the purpose of Feng Shui is to encourage the harmonious flow of Chi to ensure calm and wellbeing within a home or business.

Owners of commercial buildings have spent millions in Hong Kong and China to ensure good prosperity is bestowed upon the building. A western interpretation is that good clever design, has a relaxing positive effect on those working in a building which reduces stress, thereby increasing productivity.

Many building s will include a water feature, in truth there are few people who do not feel a little more peaceful when in the vicinity or water which is gently flowing.

And now for your free information on Feng Shui go to http://www.livingwellpublications.com/hobbies/fengshui/

For my regular blog on many aspects of health plus many fun and interesting topics. go to http://livingwellpublications.com/blog/