The first and by far the most valuable type of Tiffany lamp are the originals. Made in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s by Tiffany Studios in New York, founder Louis Comfort Tiffany took his knowledge and talent for creating stained glass windows and applied it to the creation of these unique lamps. Tiffany was inspired by the European Art Nouveau movement, using free flowing designs found in nature. His elaborate lamps were popular during the early 1900′s, however, by Louis’ death in 1933, Art Moderne and Expressionism were on the rise and so the demand for Tiffany lamps declined. During the next two decades, these lamps became obsolete. Fortunately, by the late 1950′s, Tiffany’s designs were rediscovered by museums and collectors. Today, original Tiffany lamps are worth several thousand to several hundred thousand dollars and are honored as valuable works of art.

The next best thing to owning an original Tiffany lamp is to find a Tiffany reproduction lamp. Reproduction Tiffany lamps are actual reproductions of the original Tiffany lamps and are made using the same methods. This includes the Copper Foil Method, which solders small pieces of colored glass together to create designs inspired by Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Art Nouveau movement. Tiffany reproductions are also sometimes referred to as Tiffany style lamps. These lamps usually retail for a few hundred dollars.

What you want to avoid when buying a Tiffany lamp are the cheap knock-offs. Theses lamps are made with plastics and glue or have entire shades made from a mold. These type of lamps are not worthy of the Tiffany name and have much less value than genuine made Tiffany lamps. If you find a Tiffany lamp with a price that seems too good to be true, find out more about how it was made. Or you can stick with authorized dealers of genuine reproduction Tiffany lamp manufacturers such as Meyda Tiffany and Dale Tiffany.

Tiffany lamps bring the beauty of a large stained glass window indoors, utilizing artificial light instead of daylight to accentuate light shining through the vividly colored glass. These lamps work well with a variety of different design and color schemes. Tiffany lamps provide accent lighting with an artistic flare.

It is rather easy to notice the positive details of any given room, making the task of accentuating the positive features easier, but how do you deal with the problem areas? The interior design philosophy teaches us to eliminate the negative and when it is impossible to eliminate it, just camouflage it. Do you have any area in your home that you wish doesn’t exist or is it in a particular architectural style that doesn’t go with your own personal taste or does it have pillars or columns that are distracting?

Here are some possibilities of problem areas that you might have in your home and how to deal with these.

How would you deal with a wall containing a distracting column?

1. You can make it disappear by installing cabinets that will fill the spaces on either side of it. This will make the column appear as if it were part of the straight wall because it is already in line with the cabinet’s face.

2. If your area is big enough and you can afford to lose some space, just simply build a new wall that runs across the face of the column.

3. The simplest and least expensive way is to paint the wall and column with one color, making the column blend into the wall and thus make it appear less obvious.

Have you come across a room with a pillar planted right in the middle? I bet you wanted to hack that pillar right off the floor. The problem with a pillar placed right in the middle of a room is that it cannot just be removed as much as we want to. This usually is essential in the structure’s integrity and eliminating this is definitely not an option. How then will you deal with this kind of a problem? Although this is not a positive feature of a room, you might want to accentuate it and make it stand out. Instead of looking at it in a negative perspective, try to make it a positive feature by making it the focal point.

1. You can paint the pillar a brilliant color, especially if you are planning to have a high-tech or avant-garde room.

2. You can also use some eye-catching device or paint it in stripes to catch attention.

3. If you are planning to have a traditional room, try installing an intricately designed capital and make the pillar stand out.

4. If you have a large room, a mid-room pillar may actually give you the opportunity to divide one big room into two. The pillar could be used as a starting point of a wall that will convert one huge room into two different areas.

5. The easiest and least expensive way to camouflage a pillar is to paint it with the same color as the walls. Although this is not a very effective way to eliminate the irritating center pillar it can at least make it less obvious.

6. The best way to make a mid-room pillar disappear is to mirror it. This is very effective since the mirror will just merely reflect the rest of the room.

Having vivid mental pictures and good imaginations of how things should look like will enable you to solve your interior design dilemmas. And with some help from the interior designer’s well followed philosophy, you can create the same harmonious room that often only designers can achieve.

As the real estate market looks to sell property a Chicago dreamer could find a great piece of property to build an awesome home styled to his or her liking. The small log home plans used by the builders in Minnesota could bring a distinctive look to a Chicago neighborhood. Suddenly, “up north” would be there as a log home every time the Chicagoan returned home from work.

What if the neighborhood has ordinances against log homes? There are unique cottage house plans available to people looking to have the feeling of being at a place suited for the woods. A cottage might be a nice place to come home to after working hard on a computer in a steel skyscraper all day. Plus, most cottages will have little trouble fitting quietly into a small city lot.

The person from Chicago looking to make their “up north” dreams a reality might also be comfortable with a home suitable for the family farm. Looking over country style house plans might inspire one to dream of the simplicity on a Wisconsin dairy farm without the smell of manure. The country house could be the refuge for the person looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the life in the city.

Many people design and decorate their home following traditional interior design methods only to feel unsatisfied with the results. Perhaps you’ve repainted, reduced clutter, and updated your home, but you still feel something is missing. It’s time you learn the principles of Design Psychology so you can purposefully choose design elements that promote positive emotions and well-being.

Imagine revisiting the most memorable, joy-filled home you’ve had the pleasure of spending time in. What made this home special to you? The people who lived there? Were they happy, enthusiastic, and enjoying life? What features in the home and furnishings instilled joyful memories in you?

Envision your own joy-filled home. What feelings does this home conjure in your imagination? Do you seek joy and happy activities? Or, do you yearn for peace, tranquility, and rest?

We want our homes to provide and promote comfort, relaxation, inspiration, refreshment, laughter, and happy moments. You can intentionally design your home to foster joyful feelings when you apply the principles of Design Psychology. How? Choose design details, such as lighting, colors, patterns, textures, and furnishings specifically to support your emotional needs.

First, jot down the activities you desire to take place in your rooms. Second, make a list of the feelings you want to support in your specific spaces. With these wishes in mind, you’re ready to tackle your home makeover by deciding new design details that support your emotional requirements.

You can use fresh interior design ideas for your home makeover to make your home feel great and look fabulous.

© Jeanette Fisher (Publish with live links only.)

Interior design is meant to serve a functional purpose as well as an aesthetic one. Everyone would like their home to look beautiful and solicit admiring comments from guests, but a truly well designed home or business will use well designed plans to improve the overall experience of the visitor as well. When form meets function, great things happen. In fact, once you get past flipping through the pages of the latest design magazines, you will find that on a larger, more practical scale, the true purpose of interior design is to make inside spaces more functional.

When plans are set down on paper for new buildings, one of the most important things that is considered is how the space will work for visitors. In a retail setting, this means creating a space that is comfortable for shoppers and which draws them deep into the store. They must feel at ease and be able to lose themselves in the experience of shopping. Sometimes, this is done on a very basic level. A visit to the grocery store will prove this. The most commonly purchased items are generally placed deep within the store. This forces shoppers to walk past hundreds of other items which are also strategically placed to call out for an impulse purchase. Even the check out lanes are lined with small items that draw the attention of the person waiting in line. Imagine how many small items like chewing gum, candy bars, or flashy tabloid magazines are thrown into the shopping cart every day during the three to five minute wait before reaching the cashier.

Of course, a grocery store is an extreme example. Other venues use interior design in a more subtle way to influence the feelings and behaviors of the people within them. Professional offices are generally designed to inspire a productive atmosphere. Medical or dental offices will be painted in soothing shades to lessen the anxiety of patients during their visits. There is much planning and thought that goes into any well designed interior space. Making the most of that space can be a challenge, but it is worth the effort.

I’m writing this article as a result of numerous questions from my neighbor who is remodeling. Being a lighting professional, they have lots of questions for me regarding their bathroom lighting. It really seems to be a daunting task for them. In Bathroom lighting design, there are many decisions to make. From design and placement to what fixture to use to what light bulbs are best. I’d like to take you around the room to give you a rule of thumb when planning your own bathroom lighting design.

Shower Lights

Showers are a space that you no doubt need a form of recessed lighting. It’s very important to use a recessed fixture that is made for the shower and rated to work under conditions of humidity and possible contact with water. In addition you’ll want to use a light bulbs rated to use in the shower. Most products will be clearly marked as such.

Personally, we have a dimmer on our shower light. It allows for a slow wake up by anyone getting into the shower before the light of day. But it’s important to provide enough light to allow you to shave and see what you are doing.

Bathtub Lighting

Depending on the height of your bathtub and if it is separate from your shower, your lighting solutions here will be different. Let’s assume you have a separate bathtub here. If not, you won’t do anything different than what I’ve outlined above. Typically, you will be using recessed lighting above your bathtub area. It is not necessary to have water rated fixtures and light bulbs in this spot. One or maybe two recessed fixtures aimed at the outside of the tub will provide what you need. Aiming to the outside of the tub will provide light to see what you are doing yet will cut down on any glare.

Mirror and Vanity Lighting

This area might be the most crucial spot to get it “right.” Improper lighting when you are trying to apply make-up or shaving can be the pits. Lighting companies have come up with a number of functional and decorative choices for vanity/mirror lighting.

Topping and flanking your mirror with vanity strips is one way to provide light. Insure that you purchase vanity light bulbs that have a lower wattage or frosted glass so you don’t blind yourself. The mistake I’ve seen many make is that their light bulbs are too powerful and then they unscrew several of them to take the light level down. This totally defeats the purpose of having a vanity strip as it is suppose to distribute light evenly.

What we decided to use is our home is wall sconces. And now that I think about it, we used it in all three bathrooms. The master has 3 as we have a long vanity and there are holes cut in the glass where the sconces sit. The other two bathrooms have the sconces flanking the mirror. When you choose to have more than two, it’s important that the spacing be such that the light is coming from either side of each sink. Spacing here is not as critical; just insure that they are evenly spaced. Most folks tent to stand in front of the sink and you wouldn’t want to have the sconce right in front of your face! Their height should be about eye height. This will need to be adjusted slightly according to the type of sconce that you choose. Bottom line is that you don’t want to be able to see the light bulb itself when standing and looking at the sconce.

Ceiling Fixtures

If you are lucky enough to high ceilings in your bathroom, go for a small decorative fixture like a small chandelier. The rule of thumb on the size of chandelier is calculated by taking the width of the room added to the length of the room. (Or if you are installing multiple lighting fixtures, use the dimensions of the area that this fixture is meant to light.) That number should equal the diameter of the fixture. Ie. A master bath that is 15′ X 13′ would need a chandelier or decorative fixture about 28″ in diameter.

Recessed Lighting

I’m all for recessed fixtures in your overall bathroom lighting design. What I don’t care for are ceilings that look like swiss cheese. After you’ve planned for all other lighting, it would be prudent to fill other lighting needs with recessed lighting. If using recessed in the toilet area, locate the can in front of the toilet and not right over. No reason to be in the spot light!

Use recessed to light dead areas or to light sitting/reading areas. Yes, some bathrooms are big enough for reading or lounging areas. Above a bench or reading area is a perfect place to insert a recessed fixture. Now, I’m going to throw this in now. My neighbor wants to put a sconce above the toilet for reading purposes. Use the same rule of thumb as mirror sconces and place the fixture at about eye level.

Night Light

Some sort of lighting that can be left on all night is not only a safety solution but will allow you to make the middle of the night trip to the bathroom without totally waking yourself up. Lots of folks use a night light and if you don’t have much space in your bathroom, this is a great solution. I love to use accent lamp lighting when there is room. A small lamp with a long life light bulb or compact fluorescent light bulb in it provides a wonderful accent light day and night. Either place on your vanity or on a small accent table.

There are numerous components to bathroom lighting design. The above should get you started in the process or at least give you the confidence that your electrician is putting junction boxes in the correct spots. One last suggestion I’ll make is to put all of your bathroom lighting on dimmers. Many of us use our bathrooms as a serene get away. To achieve this; lighting is a huge component. Having the ability to dim the lights will provide the perfect atmosphere.

Ensure that your sections boundary pegs match up with your blueprint plans or have a surveyor do this for you to be absolutely sure. This process will help determine if the size of your floor plan will fit comfortably within the constraints of your section and boundary. This process may also highlight better use of certain land areas within your section or show that certain parts of your blueprints can be extended / altered.

Will certain areas of your house such as the deck and living room receive the best amount of sunlight in the position you have planned? When thinking about the positioning of your future home note where the sunlight will be during the day. Look around your section for potential sunlight blockers such as trees and empty neighboring sections that may have buildings erected in the future.

Are there any building covenants on the site that could affect the draw up plans of your home? Have you invested in a new subdivision that requires the developers’ approval over your house plans? Does the site have restrictions in terms of building size, height and materials allowed? It is a wise idea to have your lawyer look for potential restrictive covenants before you get too far into the design process.

Find out where utilities such as electric, telephone, gas, sewer and water connections will enter your property; are they near your sections boundary or will you need to bring these services on-site? A Land Information Memorandum Report (LIM) from your local council will highlight these utilities and also make you aware of important environmental and land related information such as storm and drainage, likelihood of flooding, erosion risk, heritage and conservation classifications.

Be sure to have all your building consent forms organized and ready before starting any house construction, it is important that all your home design planning complies with your country’s building code, particularly if you wish to sell your home once completed. It can be a costly and time consuming mistake for new home owners / builders if the above house design considerations are overlooked.

Nowadays, we can still see the remnants of this here and about, as some of the city is still within the preserved regions of Singapore. Colonial design for interior design is very classic and very Victorian, as most of the brickwork and even materials used were transported, in some sense, from the British that came here not long ago. One thing that needs to be realised is that while this is the cornerstone and distinct identity of post colonial Singapore, what needs to be realised is that much has changed over the years. With the global village concept coming to a head and Singapore capitalising on its connectivity to the rest of the world, plenty of influences have come in to change the landscape of interior design. For one thing, as Singapore lunges into modernity and contemporary thinking, what we can see is that since the 80′s, many of the interior design and architecture were demandingly modern, in the sense of the spaces, the shapes and the sizes of many of the new houses and apartments that came up.

The concept of the condominium was perhaps one of the more interesting bulkheads of how interior design became modern. And how this has applied is that it has created these boxes where interior designs saw a vacuum and lunged in to fill it. As we can see, many of the interior design ideas that has pervaded this century, and I suspect, for many more years to come, will be the modern home. The modern home is a loose concept that can be stretched quite horizontally across the regions of design ideas. Modern means crisp and clean design, with a much more concentrated effort on spaces and clean living areas. In fact, there is a leaning towards a more minimalist ideal when thinking about the more contemporary homes here in Singapore.

For one thing, we cannot also just say that this is the trend. Looking at some of the more startling homes in Singapore reveals that Singapore Interior Design is very much a leech in the sense that it absorbs all sorts of influences, and we being a metropolis, fuses them together for some creative collections. European influences come together with Asian touches, and so on and so forth, and this is the trend that we can be expecting for many years to come. If you do need more information on the whole region of Singapore Interior Design, then the few design magazines in Singapore would be a great start.

That is just one part of the formula. That circle of light we now have on the floor is not all the same intensity. About five and a half feet of that circle is good intense light while the remainder is spill over and diminishes as it gets further from the center. This is very important to understand. With this information, you can overlap the spill over light so that you end up with a nice even light pattern over the entire area you are trying to illuminate. Something to remember when you are planning this out is something called the work plane. This is an area about 30″ above the floor. It is an area where most tasks take place.

The work plane is important because as the distance between the light fixture and the surface to be lit decreases, so does that circle we spoke about. In a living room or den, designing the lighting plan so that we have even light on the floor is fine. In a kitchen though, this work plane becomes far more critical. This is why in a kitchen, keeping recessed lights about 4 feet apart, creates a pattern that is even on the work plane with the intense portion of the circle.

There are some other things besides the bulb and the can that shape the light pattern. The finish trim on recessed lights can vary the pattern of light. A wall washer creates a half cone that can be directed at a wall or fireplace. A pin spot trim can direct the light in a very narrow beam to light a small object.

This should give you a basic idea of what is involved when you undertake a recessed lighting layout. If you would like to learn more or have questions, please visit us at the links below.

(c) Copyright 2005 Paul Forte. All rights reserved.

Technically, valves are available in three types – the regular, thermostatic, and pressure balancing. Regular valves are the cheapest among the three. They are not capable of regulating water temperature and even the water pressure. If you use this kind of valve, chances are, when someone flushes the toilet, a burst of hot water will come out of the shower heads (which can be very dangerous as this can scald your skin). This stated scenario simply implies that you do not have any control over the flow of hot and cold water within your piping connections. So, don’t be surprised if a cold burst of water suddenly comes out of the shower as you take a bath, because probably someone is using hot water somewhere in the house.

To prevent such situation, the use of pressure balancing valves is recommended. This efficient shower control automatically adjusts the changes within the temperature and pressure of water so you won’t accidentally scald yourself. They are a more reliable option as compared to the regular valve. Meanwhile, the thermostatic valve is perfect for those who want full control over the temperature and pressure of their shower. These valves are capable of effectively measuring and regulating water temperature. Once you have set the valve according to your desired temperature, you are assured that it will maintain the same temperature unless you configure its settings again. Unlike the two previous models, thermostatic valves feature two controls.

Apart from that, shower valves can also be customized to include additional features such as body sprays and handheld showers. They can be sold individually or as a part of the shower system. Be sure to ask the salesperson on the available options so you’d know if you can save more if you purchase a shower system that is already equip with a valve or it will be more practical to buy it separately.