Category: In House Design

The Best Way To Clean Your Antique Mirror

Michelle from Modern Architecture Concept

Antique mirrors are one decor accessory that add glam, sophistication and style to any home. Maintenance and keeping them looking as good as when you first purchased them can be a little tricky. Here are some tips on how to clean your antique mirrors!


Photo: VSP Interiors

Having an antique mirror in your home is an excellent addition, and mirrors can be used to give a room the illusion that it is larger than it is. The one thing with mirrors though is that they do show smudges and dirt if they are not kept clean. If you have an antique mirror in your home and you are looking for advice on how to clean it, below are some cleaning tips that you may find useful. With a bit of know-how and elbow grease, you can get your mirror sparkling again.

For more information on how to clean your mirrors, you can also look for related articles online and you will surely find plenty of useful advice.


Photo: Tanya Capaldo Designs

First Consult An Expert

When you hang a mirror on the wall, the back of the mirror can get exposed to moisture, and over time this moisture can hurt your mirror. When the mirror has been exposed to moisture for too long, the silver layer which gives the reflective properties of the mirror can start to peel off. If you find that this is the case with your antique mirror, then you are best off contacting an expert to get them to add a new silver layer to the mirror to keep it shining like new.


Photo: Historical Concepts

Cleaning The Glass

If you have something like an antique overmantle mirror which is in fair condition, but the glass needs a good clean, then you will want to make sure that you do not use any strong chemicals on it. Using strong chemicals can affect the silver layer at the back of the mirror and force you to seek the help of an expert and get it recoated. All you need to clean the glass of the mirror is a soft cloth, rubbing alcohol, and water. Mix the alcohol and water and dip the soft cloth in the solution, use the cloth to wipe away all the dirt and grime on the glass.


Photo: Nathan Taylor for Obelisk Home

Removing The Film On Mirrors

If a film has built-up on the surface of your mirror, there are several ways that you can get rid of this. You can try using newspaper and white vinegar. You will want to use a spray bottle with vinegar inside and apply this to the area with the build-up, and then use the newspaper to rub the area without applying too much pressure. You can also use shaving cream and a microfibre cloth to get rid of the film that has built up using the same technique. If the build-up is not too bad, then you can even use water and a microfibre cloth which should be good enough to get rid of the film. Just remember not to apply too much pressure when cleaning your antique mirror.

Cleaning The Frame Of The Mirror

You must be very careful when cleaning the mirror frame as many shop-bought, and home remedies can end up damaging it. The best solution to get your mirror frame clean again is to take it to a local expert and have them clean it for you, especially if the frame is ornate.

Interior Design Ideas for Beginners

Michelle from Modern Architecture Concept

Make your space work to it’s full potential with these easy and simple ideas for decorating beginners!

 


Photos By: Living Etc

There’s something uniquely exciting about having the freedom to decorate your own space – whether you’ve just taken ownership of your first home, or you’re renting out an apartment from an understanding landlord. And while paint colors might be the first thing that springs to mind, making the space work to its full potential is not always as simple as it appears! Here are some basic dos and don’ts, suggestions for those on a tight budget, and clever tricks to make the most of your space!

Pick a Theme Before you Pick Paint Colors

Before you rush off to the paint store, take some time to think about the bigger picture. What mood or feeling do you want to create? Do you want individual rooms to stand out from each other, or would you like a common element to run right through the home? If you’re not sure quite what you want, then flipping through home décor magazines and clipping out designs you particularly like can be very enlightening. Websites like Pinterest can be great sources of inspiration too.

If your favorite color is blue, for example, but you want your home to have a warm, cozy feeling, then using blue as an accent color rather than over all the walls can give you the best of both worlds. Most professional interior designers will create a palette for the whole home before deciding on how to use it in each room.

Work Around the Furniture You Already Have

As much as playing with the aesthetics is fun, a home needs to be functional too. The best design in the world is going to get old very quickly if actually living in the home is difficult! This means you have to consider the placement of furniture before deciding where to place pictures, hang photos, place potted plants, etc. You also need sufficient floor space around furniture so you can access it easily. This includes sufficient room for wardrobe doors, desk drawers and windows to open. Want to play around with different options in a virtual environment? There’s an interior design app for that!

Create Unique Pieces on a Budget by Upcycling

Every year, thousands of people throw old furniture and appliances away because they don’t know how to fix them or just don’t have room for them anymore. A lot of the time, however, all that’s needed is a bit of imagination and a lick of paint to completely transform them. New furniture is very expensive, and your local online classifieds are probably crawling with bargains and even freebies – so take a look before you buy new. It’s more sustainable and kinder on the environment too. Even if an item needs appliance repairs or minor fixes, you can still make a huge saving, improve your living space, and acquire an item that has a story to tell too!

Don’t Follow Trends Just for The Sake of It

Trends, by their very nature, come and go with the seasons – but your home should work for you over the long term. By all means take inspiration from trends you like, but never design a room with colors, textures, patterns or furnishings you don’t like just because they’re ‘in’.

Create a Focal Point

By drawing your eye to the best feature of a room, you lift the entire space. The focal point should let you know at a glance what the function of the room is, and make it an inviting space for that activity. If you’ve got a beautiful fireplace or a lovely view out the window in the sitting room, then try and create a natural flow that encourages the visitor to focus on it.

Make the Best use of Natural Light

Rooms like studies, home offices and kitchens are much more pleasant to work in when they’re flooded with natural light, so avoid the use of dark curtains or blinds that can limit this. You can illuminate darker corners with the clever placement of a mirror or two to bounce light to where it’s needed most. If there’s not much natural light to work with in a particular room, then try and keep it as uncluttered and minimalist as possible to give the illusion of airiness. Another clever technique is to paint the ceiling in a lighter shade than the walls, which makes it look higher and bounces light back down too.

Go Bold!

Your home should be a reflection of your spirit, so if you’ve found a dramatic piece you love or want to do something a little crazy, then take the plunge and go for it! It’s your space, and your opinion is the only one that matters.

How to Carry Your Home Design Concept from Interior to Exterior

Michelle from Modern Architecture Concept

Make your home’s decorating flow seamlessly from your interior’s to your exteriors. Here are some designer tips that really do work!


Photos By: Osmond Designs

If you’ve recently invested time and money into re-designing the interior of your home, then there is no doubt that you’re enjoying the results. A newly designed home that reflects your lifestyle and personality helps to create a real sense of belonging and uniqueness in your home. While plenty of attention is paid to a home’s interior, the outdoor space is often seen as an after-thought rather than an opportunity to carry on with your design vision.

Rather than stop at the interior, why not look for ways to take your home design concept from interior to exterior and create a complete space that fits all your needs and wants. Here are some ways you’ll be able to create that design flow from indoors to outdoors.

Mimic the Same Types of Materials

One tip is to mimic the same types of materials both indoors and outdoors. Take, for example, counter surfaces. If you have used a lot of natural stone in the interior of your home in the kitchen and bathrooms, then why not create that same look outdoors.

Natural stone veneer from Kafka Granite can be the perfect way to create show-stopping landscaping details, walkways, and pathways. You can use the same color scheme as the indoors, so it won’t feel jarring as you move through the house into the yard.

Build a Patio, Porch, or Deck That Acts as Living Area

Another way to help create flow is to build a deck, patio, or porch that acts as outdoor living space. The idea is that you create the same sort of comfortable and welcoming area for entertaining and relaxing outdoors as exists indoors. The area doesn’t have to be massive; it just needs a designated space for seating.

Stick with the Same Color Palette

While you may be tempted to go for something bold and wild in your outdoor space, if this isn’t the same color palette as the interior of your home, it won’t feel connected. Ideally, you want to stick to the same color palette and just use various tones and depths to create interest and drama.

Install Glass Doors to the Outdoors

You also want to make the outdoors feel accessible. Nothing is more welcoming than large glass doors. Let’s face it, they invite you out there since you’re getting a full view of the backyard at all times. Perhaps you already have glass doors, but they are on the small side. You can make a pretty big impact by enlarging the size of the doors and creating a grander entrance/exit.

Design Flow Doesn’t Need to Stop at the Outdoors

When creating a design flow through your house, there is no reason that the outside walls should act as barriers. Instead, look for ways you can carry that same design style and vision throughout the exterior and really perfect that indoor-outdoor style of living that is so very popular.

Review: Illumi Arts LED Artwork is the Hottest new thing in Luminous Smart Art Panels

Michelle from Modern Architecture Concept

Light up your home’s décor with light-up artwork that can change colors via Bluetooth! Meet Illumi Arts, a company that specializes in modern luxurious artwork that doubles as ambience lighting…

This season is all about great lighting, statement décor, and something we all love: uniqueness. It’s no surprise we stumbled across Illumi Arts, a company that creates LED art panels that light up and actually change colors via Bluetooth. It’s something a regular artist would have never though of, unless they had a strong background and knowledge in lighting and design.

Meet the Creative Director

Farah Barnes, the creative director behind Illumi Arts is a lighting design professional and knew exactly how to make a creative design and concept that would wow her clients. Farah is also a former architect and lighting expert that has previously worked on high-profile projects such as commercial buildings, bridges, museums and other interiors. After seeing how important and difficult it is to incorporate natural and artificial lighting into a space, she decided to specialize in lighting and create Illumi Arts.

Pop Inspired Artwork

Illumi Arts creates pop inspired modern artwork that features a backlit LED panel that lights up the design and also your room! It comes with important UL and CE certifications, which make it great for industrial and commercial use. Illumination is a huge part of interior design and can make or break your space if you don’t know how to do it right. We’ve seen tons of spaces instantly transformed just by switching up the lighting. It’s proven that lighting creates ambience in a space, sets the mood, and can also make your space look twice the size. Light up your home’s dark corners with Illumi Arts LED artwork and you’re bound to see a huge difference!

What is so great about Illumi Arts color changing artwork is that you can set the mood to whichever color you want! Feeling romantic? Use your mobile phone to connect via Bluetooth to your artwork and change the color to red! 

Color Changing Art

What I love about Illumi Arts is their products are very dual purpose. They serve as beautiful pop art inspired works of art but also double as fabulous lighting sources. They can be placed just about anywhere in your home to create a luxurious interior: living room, hallway, bedroom or even a fun game room where I think they would fit in perfectly. The artwork can change colors via Bluetooth right from you phone, which makes a great conversation starter and a fun way to impress your guests!

Here is some of my favorite color changing art pieces from Illumi Arts:


Paris, Wall Art Light – Illumi Arts

New York, Wall Art Light – Illumi Arts
 

To make this post even better, we are offering a special promotion to get FREE Priority International Shipping! Just enter code: MODERNARCHCONCEPT in the checkout! Already ordered? Post your reviews and comments below – I’d love to hear about how you’re enjoying your new illuminated artwork!

 

Remember These 6 Things While Decorating Your Home

Michelle from Modern Architecture Concept

Many of us dream of redecorating the house every now and then. Well, it all depends on your budget and abilities of course of how often you require decoration and renovation. Interior decoration plans can be well accomplished if you remember the following things.


Photo: Carriage Lane Design-Build Inc.

Don’t Find Cheap Things

Photo: Carriage Lane Design-Build Inc.

Certainly you can find cheap things to be added to the home. But none of them is of any use. It is better to invest in high quality decoration items which can either be purchased from a flea market or an online store. Don’t feel that decoration of kitchen and bathrooms is not as important as your rooms and living area. In fact, these parts of the house receive most of your visits daily. Come with the ideas which are outside the box. Use traditional materials like granite and combine them with concrete, wood, and precious types of tiles for flooring purposes.

The best part of decorating a bathroom? You have a tiny amount of square feet so something that’s expensive really won’t be that pricey on a small space. A small block of marble for your sink countertop looks luxurious and is a lot more affordable than outfitting a whole kitchen in marble. Those beautiful blinds you wanted to place in your ktichen? You can afford them for your bathroom since you have a small measurement.

Set Your Budget

Without setting the budget, you cannot design the house properly. For one part of the house which is often not visited by any of you like the backyard or storeroom, you can bring somewhat low quality products. But design of the other parts of the house has to be high quality, for which you certainly have to invest a lot of money.

Quality of Lights


Photo: Carriage Lane Design-Build Inc.

Not only you should have high quality lights hanged in every room but also allow natural light to come in through the windows and glass doors. For this, don’t put heavy curtains which prevent light to enter the rooms. In case you have such curtains, keep them aside early in the morning so that fresh air and sunlight peeps through the windows, making the rooms look bright and gorgeous. It is true that the artificial lights can never be an alternate of natural light. Depending on your room, you should purchase different types of lighting. For example, in the kitchen you should have bright lighting which will allow you to cook and have everything clearly visible, while in the bedroom you could opt for more dimmer, romantic lighting.

Beautiful Fireplaces

For those who live in cold areas, a fireplace has to be present in every room. If you are considering to redecorate the fireplace, the best thing is to bring home the fireplace which has color and style as per your room’s overall look. Not all the fireplaces should look similar. Variety has to be created.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#ffa600″ class=”” size=””]If you are stuck on how you should decorate your fireplace, interior designers have a fool-proof formula that makes every fireplace look glamorous. Hang a mirror right above the fireplace and a large chandelier in your living room that reflects into the mirror. Then, install two sconce lights on each side and place two vases on either side of the fireplace. There you have it – instant glam with little to no effort![/perfectpullquote]

Keep Things that Change Mood


Photo: Janis Nicolay

It is good to keep things that change mood. You need not to bulk your rooms with so many odd and useless items. Everything has to be properly arranged and organized. Here one thing to remember is that sometimes the poorly organized items can create an impression of being useless. This is why, you need to pay attention to each and everything—separate the useful items from the useless products.

Living Area Furniture

Living room or living area is where you sit with your family members and enjoy television or do other things that give you relaxation. It is good to place seating facing toward the television but this idea doesn’t work for the big families. You can keep a music station and other entertaining items in the living room so that every person has something to enjoy with. For children, place some video games or toys.

ANOTHER INGENIOUS DECORATING TIP: Come up with a color scheme for the whole house and then take those colors from room to room. Not only with your home look bigger than it actually is, but each space will seamlessly blend into the next. Plus, it’s super easy since you don’t have to create a new color scheme for each room. It’s a win-win situation!