Does your room seem to get smaller every time you walk into the room? It seems like more and more items are ending up in the main room that is most used. No one puts anything back where it belongs. It can be overwhelming if the room was small to begin with.

There are several ways that you can make a small room appear larger without costing you a lot of money. Making simple adjustments and changes can make a big difference. People who have rooms of smaller size always feel the need to remodel them in order to have a larger space. But without going for elaborate renovation and remodeling, a few things can dramatically alter the appearance of any room. By changing a few things here and there, one can achieve the look of a new and more spacious room. Here are a few tips on making your rooms look larger and comfortable.

Colors affect the overall appearance of the room. Dark colors make any room look smaller while light colors make even a smaller room appear bigger. Professionals suggest painting all the walls in different tones of the same color as to give an appearance of receding space. The farthest wall should always be the lightest in such a case. If you plan to use wallpapers, remember that wallpapers are not only good at covering your entire walls and hiding any flaws, but they also affect the whole aura of the room. Choosing horizontal stripes – either in paint or in paper, can also lend a more elastic look to the room, creating more spaciousness.

It is very important to take an inventory of all the items in the room. Most importantly your focus should be on the areas where there is excessive clutter. The main reason for a normal room appearing smaller is the presence of clutter all around. Children’s toys, books, magazines, or even furniture can look cluttered if not kept properly. Fewer pieces of small furniture are always better than too many huge ones. Again, coordinating the colors of your furnishing is also necessary. Compatible colors and contrasts are always soothing to the eye that a multitude of colors that may not even complement each other.

Lights also plays an important role in defining a room. Make sure that the room is not overflowing with light. Natural light is more uplifting. You can also use accent lights instead of normal lights to highlight certain areas of the room.

Another innovative way of lending the appearance of space in a room is by using mirrors. Mirrors are considered to be auspicious according to Feng Shui. Correct placement of mirrors can not only make the room appear bright but also larger. You can also cover a whole wall with mirrors. This will actually make the room seem double. But before doing that, make sure that the room is tidy, otherwise it would look all the more confining and constraining.

If you are selling your home, tackling the entrance to your home is a must. Many realtors report this as the first turn-off. It the front entrance is not happy and welcoming potential buyers often go no further. A welcoming entrance attracts buyers.

Let’s start with the front door
It must be pristine: in good condition, clean, and free of chipped paint or non-working hardware. Your front door is probably a candidate for a fresh paint job or maybe it is a bit blah. Pick a color that coordinates with your trim or one that appropriately reflects your personality and the surrounding area. Think of the plants or flowers you may put out in the spring and take a cue from that if you need inspiration. It needs to be obvious…it is a focal point (unless you have a sign that says, “Enter here”, hopefully not) it is appropriate to give it a little color!  Don’t be afraid to make it interesting!

Once inside
In order to create a warm and welcoming area make your entrance interesting. Once you open the door the same rules apply: clean, neat and maybe a little of your personality. The interior hall shouldn’t just be a place to get from point A to point B. Create a passageway that causes one to pause as the house says, “Welcome.” It is the place you to give a subtle hint of what is to come. The entrance hall or space has a functional purpose too. If your area allows offer a table for which to set down keys, gloves or the mail and a chair to ease the comfort in putting on or taking off footwear. A light is also necessary and if you have the table an attractive table lamp would offer the perfect welcoming glow.

Now for the fun part, decorating
If the area is small, this often a great place for a fabulous wallpaper or paint treatment. This should coordinate with any attached rooms but you can afford to be a bit dramatic here with color or pattern. This is a great area for a “wow” wall. Remember this is how you welcome your family and guests; you want the space to invite them for more by engaging their senses. You can use fresh flowers, a nice candle, or a good potpourri/house perfumer. Though that does not mean going overboard with artificial scents. A note on that topic, many people find some scents especially in combination too strong and offensive (think of those stinky candle stores). When selecting a scent pick something that smells natural such as evergreen, eucalyptus, lavender, vanilla, etc. Men are pretty good at this, if they say it stinks, it does.

To guide you in making this “introduction” select a wonderful wallpaper or fabric that has colors that will appear elsewhere in your home. You could think of it like a roadmap for what is to come. Wonderful artwork can do the same thing, introduce colors and or give guests that place to pause, “wow” factor and insight into you.

The front entrance is a perfect place for collections, a collection, either on a table or on the wall. You can use small boxes, collected shells from your trips, interesting pottery or art glass. There are many different things people collect and this can be a wonderful to display them. Please don’t consider every 8×10 size school picture of your children a collection for the front door. Who wants all those people staring at them the minute they walk in?

Mirrors
Everyone asks about mirrors. They are functional and decorative ones can be really beautiful. They can visually increase the size and light in a space. If used well they can be very appropriate. However you must consider what they are reflecting. Is it appropriate and pleasing to look at? I happen to agree with that old Feng Shui rule about not having a mirror at the front door that reflects the front door. It is like walking in and being reminded of where to leave, not very hospitable.

Goal
Whatever you do with your front door and entrance it needs to be warm, welcoming, inviting and offer a little insight into what is to come in your interior and a bit of your personality. This is where your home makes that first impression; your goal should be to make it a good one.

Every home needs a beautiful entrance. With careful thought and planning every home can have one. Following these simple tips will guide you to creating a wonderful welcome for anyone who enters your home.

Wood front doors continue to be favored the world over due to their elegance and natural warmth. The kind of wood front doors you choose will depend upon your taste, place you live, the overall architecture of your home and the budget that you have allocated for this purpose. Here are some tips which may help you in buying wood front doors.

You find wood doors in a large number of designs, colors, wood types and sizes. There are a range of wood types to choose from for your door. These include mahogany, teak, chestnut, walnut, oak, pine, fir and cherry wood. You could go in for a solid wood door, a paneled one or that which has glass inserts in it. A wood door with stained glass panel would bring in lot of light. The colors of the stained glass should be in sync with your windows and exterior wall. In terms of design, there are a whole range of options for you. If you want to go in for a vintage look, you could buy a wood door with the look of an earlier time such as the Victorian, Georgian, Tudor eras. Some doors have exquisite carvings on them or delicate inlay work. Others offer a minimalist look keeping in mind contemporary tastes of certain people.

Most front doors, including the wood ones, conform to one of the following styles. The usual kind is the single acting doors which are hinged on one side and hence open in only one direction. Then there are the bi-folded doors which have two panels that fold in the middle and move to one direction. This is appropriate if you have a wide space for a front door. The third style is that of the sliding door which is again popular but more with glass doors.

The main thing to be cognizant of while selecting wood doors is that they should be in perfect blend with the overall look of your home. The other thing is that your door is the first thing that a visitor notices. Therefore, it should cast a good impression on your visitors. For some people, the door is a form of style statement of the lifestyle of those living in the house.

There are some facts about wood front doors that you should know. They are prone to damage with extreme weather conditions such as high temperatures, rain, frost and humidity. They are also susceptible to termite attacks, cracks and warps. Though the wood doors available now days are of better quality, yet they generally require a greater degree of maintenance over the years as compared to doors made from other materials such as fiberglass and steel. These days, you find that wood doors have steel interiors. Even fiberglass doors come with a wood finish.

According to the principles of Feng shui, your front door should not be see-through such as a glass front door. Solid wood door is highly recommended to ensure safety and security. Red and green are auspicious colors for front doors. Hope all these tips will help you in selecting the right kind of wood front doors for your home.

Color has a remarkable impact on your psychological and physical well-being. Once you begin to understand the meaning of feng shui colors, you can in turn use them to your advantage – both as a metaphorical and literal instigator of positive change in your life.

Red. Red is very active, exciting, powerful and passionate. In feng shui, red is a symbol of richness, luxury, passion, love and romance.

Orange. Like red, orange is very stimulating and active. It is also a very cheerful color and encourages sociability. Because it is more social and less intense than the red, orange is a better color to use in interior spaces.

Yellow. Yellow is very happy, uplifting, stimulating and warm. Like orange, yellow tends to make people more sociable.

Green. Green is very calming, balancing, healing, relaxing, and tranquil. It represents growth, vitality, abundance, and nature.

Blue. Blue is calming, healing, soothing, and relaxing. Blue also characterizes dependability, trustworthiness, and security. In feng shui blue is a symbol of clarity, inspiration, renewal, and nobility.

Purple. Purple represents nobility, abundance, and dignity. It is very soothing and calming and is often related to intuition and spirituality.

Black. Black connotes sophistication, power, elegance, and modernity. It is also introspected and mysterious.

White. White represents clarity, innocence, cleanliness, spirituality, purity, hope, expansiveness and openness.

Grey. Grey is neutral, calm, quiet, and lacks energy. The psychological effects of grey can also be boring, conservative and draining to the physical body.

Brown. In feng shui brown has been linked to the element of earth. Like earth, brown is very comforting, supportive, stable, and grounding.

Pink. Pink is sedating and calming. It also symbolizes love and romance.

The practice of feng shui is much more than just rearranging your home’s furniture, and choosing the right color schemes. When it comes to your home’s feng shui, one must pay great attention to the land features around the house. If the house is located in an inauspicious spot, no amount of good feng shui in the interior can remedy the misfortune that it attracts.

First of all, you must never buy a home that is located below road level. Having your home in such a location makes the household vulnerable to financial troubles. If you are already living in such a home, try to renovate your house in such a way that you will have at least one floor that is above or at road level. All the important sectors such as the bedrooms, living room and the study should be located on the higher floors. The lower floors (below road level), should be reserved for the kitchen, toilets, and storerooms.

It is always more auspicious to have the house above road level. If your house is located between two roads (one higher and the other one lower than the house), make sure that the height of your entire building of your home is higher than the top road. The entrance of the home should be located facing the road that is lower than the house.

If your home is built along the hillside, it is better to have your home at the mid-level, rather than at the peak. The energy flow on top of the hill is too strong. A house located at the mid levels enjoys a gradual flow of Chi through the house.

It is extremely auspicious if the land behind is higher than the land in front of the house. The higher ground behind the house provides good support for the entire household. Just make sure that there are no roads on the higher ground.

When remodeling you are less likely to be moving walls and bathrooms but rather modernizing, updating and replacing things that are either worn out, don’t work or dislike. Just the mere act of cleaning up, fixing up and modernizing is creating great energy for you and your home. By getting rid of the old and replacing it with new things you love, you are surrounding yourself with supportive nurturing energy.

Keep Energy Flowing

As you are making your plans and mapping out every little detail, be sure to keep in mind the flow of energy throughout your home. That is how you energize the various areas of your home to ensure wealth, good health, prosperity and abundance. When energy gets stuck in corners, the back bedroom or a dark breakfast nook, it becomes stagnant and prevents new healthy and prosperous energy from circulating and staying long enough so you can receive its benefits.
Based on Feng Shui principles, there are a few remodeling pitfalls you will want to be sure to avoid if possible.

AVOID seeing the kitchen first thing upon entering your home or easily from the front door. It is the heart of you home to be guarded from energy rushing right through, taking your abundance away right with it. Also, if the kitchen is the first thing you see upon entering your home and the last thing you see upon leaving it, you will always be craving food which can be bad energy for your diet. Try maintaining some type of divider between the kitchen and the front door even if it is a half wall or a grouping of lovely tall plants and silk trees.

AVOID placement of a bathroom right in the middle of your home or very near the front door. Not only will the energy entering your home rush right into the bathroom but it will go right down the drain taking your prosperity and good luck right with it. If this is a current problem, see if you can relocate the bathroom door so it faces a direction other than the front door or kitchen. If that is not possible, always keep that door closed, the toilet seat down and the sink drain closed so the good energy will meander throughout the house and help create abundance and prosperity.
AVOID dark areas anywhere in your house. It doesn’t matter whether it is a dark long hallway, a small dark back entry from a garage, a stairwell or even a room with little or no natural light; make sure there is always light moving through those areas. Paint the walls a very light color. Add overhead lighting that is controlled by a wall switch or place a lamp in those areas on a timer so the light automatically turns on at dusk and off at a predetermined time later in the evening. The added lighting not only ensures energy will move properly through those areas but will also provide you safety when walking through those areas.

AVOID placing electronic equipment into bedrooms. When remodeling, make room for televisions, computers, etc. in the public areas of you home such as living, family or great rooms. Keep all that energy away from you so you can rest at night. If you are a late night show television person, place the television in a wardrobe or cabinet so it can be behind doors when not in use and sleeping. But, be sure to close those doors when the lights go out.

AVOID completely tearing up all of the areas of your home at the same time. Stage your remodeling, restoring and refurbishing into various projects and tackle them one or two at a time. Always maintain at least one room that is not torn up so you can retreat to it and enjoy total silence and calm with no chaos surrounding you. This is the most important step that most people overlook. You will not feel so overwhelmed if you tackle your remodeling in sections or by projects.
Remodeling should bring you joy and lots of new energy to help you create prosperity and abundance along with all of the other good things you deserve in life. By planning ahead and not trying to do too much at one time you will not only be much happier with the results but also much calmer during the process.