Archive for June 22nd, 2010
(PRWEB) March 29, 2011
Betta Living has launched a new kitchen range, acquirable in ivory and oak finishes, that combines curvaceous good looks with understated classic shaker styling for the eventual in kitchen chic.
The new Milford range, from national fitted kitchen and fitted bedroom specialist Betta Living, is a superb choice for homeowners searching for a modern classic kitchen that can be individualised.
By simply changing worktops, handles and adding style-setting accessories, this kitchen can be fashioned to create a cool contemporary look or given a softer traditional feel with a Belfast sink, integrated chopping board and range cooker. Add a granite worktop to complete the luxurious look.
But in addition to its good looks, this kitchen boasts industry-leading calibre and offers excellent value for money for an average sized kitchen.
Available in a classic ivory or timeless oak finish, the Milford is the first of a number of exciting new ?premium level? fitted kitchens to be introduced by Betta Living.
Designer Jamie Dean from Betta Living said: ?The Milford is a timeless classic that will work as well in a contemporary home as well as it will in a more traditional styled house. It can be combined with light or dark worktops and floors, modern or traditional handles, sinks, taps and other accessories to create a stunning look.
?This new collection combines craftsmanship with high-end design. It offers features such as soft-close doors, a wide choice of units, internal storage solutions, a selection of worktops and lots of accessories.
?The curves are a fantastic feature of this kitchen and make a real design statement.?
Jamie added: ?It?s a great addition to our existing range of kitchens. We have around 50 different styles from ultra-modern to traditional, all offering excellent value for money.?
For more information on kitchens or fitted bedrooms visit http://www.bettaliving.co.uk or call
0800 269 945 for a free home design consultation.
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An outdoor garden shed is a very practical addition to any house. It is an easy way to keep all your tools and yard equipment in a innocuous and convenient place. It can also be storage for bicycles, pet supplies, and any number of things. There are many different designs and sizes for sheds. You can get outdoor garden shed plans and build your own shed.
Buying a shed is expensive. There are many do it yourself kits acquirable that are much more economical. They will give you step by step building instructions for building a shed. They will also wage you with a list of all the materials you will need and the dimensions and sizes of all the materials. You will be healthy to follow detailed plans with diagrams and illustrations that will grant you to easily build your outdoor garden shed without any problems.
If you’re going to build a shed it is important to follow directions of proven shed plans that work. Having a blueprint to follow is essential to the outcome. You don’t want to begin without a proven plan that you know will work. Also, with a plan you will be healthy to know exactly what the costs will be up front as you will know the materials needed. Otherwise, you might have to end up abandoning your project for a number of reasons.
By following directions of the outdoor garden shed plans you will be healthy to create your own shed that will not only solve your storage problems, but will also make a valuable addition to your home. It is prefabricated easy and easy by following the instructions.
Eventually we are all given a home plant either as a gift or a plant from someone who is moving and can’t take their plants with them, instantly giving you the basis for indoor gardening. Many times if you don’t know how to care for it the plant will wither and die. Other times people begin to care for the plant and suddenly become avid gardeners.
Indoor gardens are similar to outdoor gardens, it’s just that you are caring for plants in your home instead of in your garden. A huge plus to indoor gardening is that it can be enjoyed by people that live in the cities with no access to land. It is also a joyful hobby for people that are confined indoors. The real bonus is that they are healthy for us. Basically plants take in carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen (photosynthesis) thereby purifying the air that we breath. So you have captivating plants with added benefits.
Indoor gardens are saint for people that live in hard, cold climates or for someone who lives in a climate that gets searingly hot. With an indoor garden the gardener can manipulate the environment so that their plants thrive. If it is dreary, cold and grey wouldn’t it be delightful to have gorgeous plants sprinkled around your home that not only add beauty but cheerfulness too?
After choosing the plants you wish to grow you must select a container for it. You can opt for a small plant that can be place on a counter or windowsill. Even a massive evergreen in a huge pot can be place next to your door or in a sunny spot in the corner. You must make a plan for your indoor garden. Figure out where you want to place your indoor garden so you will know how much space you have for the plants. Once this is done you can select the container and the plants you wish to grow. Don’t forget to research the plants needs, like watering, sunlight and food before you go to the nursery center.
Once you have gathered all of your material you can begin planting and arranging your indoor garden in your home. When arranging your garden be sure to place plant that needs bright sun near a window. Plants that just need indirect light should be place in a more comfortable spot of low or indirect sun for them. If you get this wrong you will be throwing out your plants and buying new ones.
Don’t overlook planting an indoor herb garden especially if you like to cook. Herbs needs are four to six hours of sun per day and loose easily drained soil. They are pretty plants and will add fix to your meals.
If you have pets carefully select your plants. Pets and plants must be healthy to cohabitate in your home peacefully. Some plants are toxic to animals. You have to be sure that your animal and the plant can live together. For instance, a tall plant might be seen as a scratching tool by cats or even a litter box. Cats have been known to wrap themselves around larger plants and snuggle in the warm dirt. Sometimes this can interrupt the roots. One way to beat this is to place ornamental rocks or crushed seashells right on top of the soil.
You can have an indoor garden and enjoy all of the benefits of beautiful plants. Just do some research either at you local nursery or on the internet. What are you inactivity for? Begin planting.
Happy Indoor Garden!
Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.
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Whether you plan on “borrowing ideas” or plan on creating your own landscaping design, you should have at the very least a basic understanding of the principles of landscape design.
This doesn’t mean that you have to apply apiece principle to apiece part of your plan. But just having an understanding of these principles will help you generate ideas and increase your creativity.
Great landscaping lies in the eyes of the its creator. So, while the principles of landscape design are great guidelines to follow, don’t feel like they’re the “have to rules” of landscaping. Abstract and creativity are allowed.
Unity should be one of your main goals in your design. It might be superior understood and applied as consistency and repetition. Repetition creates unity by repeating alike elements like plants, plant groups, or decor throughout the landscape. Consistency creates unity in the sense that some or all of the different elements of the landscape fit together to create a whole.
Unity can be reached by the consistency of character of elements in the design. By character, I mean the height, size, texture, color schemes, etc. of different elements.
A good example would be in the use of accent boulders. If you’ve ever seen a landscape design that had one massive white round boulder here and another massive red square granite boulder there and so on, then you’ve seen that unity wasn’t created by this specific element.
This is just one example but the principle applies to all other elements such as groups of plants and materials.
A easy way to create unity in your landscape is by creating themes. And one of the simplest ways to create themes is by using a tiny garden decor or garden statues. Creating a theme garden is easier when it’s related to something you’re interested in or have a passion for.
If you’re into butterflies for instance, you could create a theme using plants that attract butterflies as well as using statues, ornaments, and other decor that are related to butterflies.
Unity should be expressed through at least one element in your landscape and preferably more. Using elements to express a main intent through consistent style and a specific theme is what creates harmony.
Simplicity is actually one of the principles in design and art. It’s one of the ideal guidelines you can follow as a newbie or do it yourselfer. Just keep things easy to start with. You can do more later.
Simplicity in planting, for instance, would be to pick two or three colors and repeat them throughout the garden or landscape. Keeping decor to a minimum and within a specific theme as well as keeping hardscapes such as boulders consistent is also practicing simplicity.
Balance in design is just as the word implies. Equality. There are basically two types of equilibrise in landscape design. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.
Symmetrical balance is where there are more or less equally spaced matching elements of the garden design. With a garden equally divided, both sides could share the same shape, form, plant height, plant groupings, colors, bed shapes, theme, etc.
You might remember creating something like this when you were a kid in art class at school. Where you take a piece of paper, splash paint on it, fold it in half, unfold it, and then it magically creates an interesting symmetrical design. So symmetrical equilibrise or design is somewhat of a mirror image or reflection.
Asymmetrical equilibrise on the other hand is one of the principles of landscape design that’s a tiny more complex. While textures, forms, colors, etc. might remain constant to create some unity, shapes and hardscapes might be more random. This form of equilibrise often has separate or different themes with apiece having an equal but different type of attraction.
A good example of this would be where bed shapes or paths differ on both sides of the dividing line. One side could be curvy with a sense of flow while the other side is straight, direct, and hard.
This can also create a neat contrast. Flowing lines are amusing to the eye but the bold contrast of a curve with a straight line can be very interesting.
Asymmetrical equilibrise isn’t necessarily limited to just the shape of your garden.
An example might be where one side of the garden is mostly massive shade trees while the other side is predominately a lower growing flower garden or even a mix of both examples. This is only limited to your imagination.
Contrast and harmony can also be reached using plants. Fine foliage verses coarser foliage, round leaves verses spiked leaves as well as color compliments and contrasts.
Plant height, color, and texture might be varied from one area to the next but apiece area should stay consistent within its own theme.
You’ll hear me speak about “themes” a lot. Many successful do it yourself designs follow a basic theme to achieve most of the principles of landscape design described on this page. The proper use of plants and garden decor or a mix of both is a easy way to achieve themes.
Color adds the dimension of real life and interest to the landscape. Bright colors like reds, yellows and oranges seem to advance toward you and can actually make an goal seem closer to you. Cool colors like greens, blues, and pastels seem to move away from you and can make an goal seem farther from you.
Grays, blacks, and whites are considered neutral colors and are ideal used in the background with bright colors in the foreground. However, to increase depth in a landscape, you can use dark and coarse textured plants in the foreground and use fine textured and light colored plants in the background.
Colors can also be used to direct your attention to a specific area of the garden. A bright display among cooler colors would naturally catch the eye.
Natural transition can be applied to refrain immoderate or abrupt changes in your landscape design. Transition is basically gradual change. It can ideal be illustrated in terms of plant height or color but can also be applied to all elements in the landscape including but not limited to textures, foliage shape or size, and the size and shape of different elements.
In other words transition can be reached by the gradual, ascending or descending, arrangement of different elements with varying textures, forms, colors, or sizes.
An example of a good transition would be a stair step effect from massive trees to medium trees to shrubs to bedding plants. This example is where a tiny knowledge of proper plant selection would come in handy.
Transition is one of the principles of landscape design that can be used to “create illusions” in the landscape. For example a transition from taller to shorter plants can give a sense of depth and distance (like in a painting), making the garden seem larger than it really is. A transition from shorter to taller plants could be used to frame a focal point to make it stand out and seem closer than it really is.
Line is of the more structural principles of landscape design. It can mostly be related to the way beds, walkways, and entryways move and flow.
Straight lines are forceful and direct while curvy lines have a more natural, gentle, flowing effect.
Proportion simply refers to the size of elements in relation to apiece other. Of all the principles of landscape design, this one is quite obvious but still requires a tiny thought and planning. Most of the elements in landscape design can be intentionally planned to meet the proper proportions.
For instance if you are creating a small courtyard garden, an enormous seven foot garden statue put in the center would be way out of proportion and a tiny tacky to state the least. Or a small four foot waterfall and pond put in the center of a massive open yard would get lost in the expanse.
Don’t misunderstand this to mean that if you have a massive yard you can’t have smaller features or garden decor. Proportion is relative and elements can be scaled to fit by creating different rooms in the garden. The goal is to create a amusing relationship among the three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth or height.
A small water feature can be proportionate if put in a corner or on the edge of a massive area and becomes a focal point of the larger area while creating its own distinct atmosphere. An entire room, sitting area, or theme can be created around it. Other rooms and themes can be created as well. See small gardens for ideas on creating rooms and creating illusions.
Also, special consideration and study should be given to proper plant selection to refrain using plants that are out of proportion.
Repetition is directly related to unity. Its good to have a variety of elements and forms in the garden but repeating these elements gives variety expression.
Unity is reached by repeating objects or elements that are alike. Too many unrelated objects can make the garden look cluttered and unplanned.
There’s a fine line here. It’s doable that too much of one element can make a garden or landscape feel uninteresting, boring and monotonous.
However, unity can still be created by using several different elements repeatedly. This in turn keeps the garden interesting.