Beautiful Results

Bob:

You were very helpful with this order. Even though FedEx lost it, and it arrived just two days before Thanksgiving, and I stayed up nearly all night painting it (26 man-hours of detail painting!), and still didn't get it done in time. Got up early Thanksgiving morning and installed the medallion, touched up the paint, tried to install the chandelier so I could get the scaffolding down before the guests arrived. But the steel nipple the chandelier hangs on was 1/2" too short, on account of the depth of the medallion! Nobody open on Thanksgiving -- foiled for want of a $1.00 lamp part! So the family ate Thanksgiving beneath the scaffolding -- Ah, well.......

But it got done the next day after Home Depot opened, and I thought you might appreciate seeing a photo of the results. Use it in any way you would like.

Tom Hannah

We would love to see and publish your beautiful results. You can send yours to info@goceilingmedallion.com.

Decorative Stair Brackets

Stair brackets, also called tread brackets, are a terrific approach to decorating the treads on your staircase. They can be found in all styles of historic homes and are a popular option for decorating new homes, as well. Stair brackets are decorative details that are easily installed, adding beauty and elegance to your entry way for a lifetime.

Stair brackets are an easy and affordable way to add a touch of class with little effort. They can change the look of an unadorned and plain staircase into one that is gorgeous and elegant. Add a touch of architectural elegance to your steps with a set of stair brackets.

Stair brackets are molded from a high density furniture grade of polyurethane. They are beautifully detailed from hand-crafted molds, which ensures a consistent quality product time after time. The precision and quality that goes into the crafting of these exquisite decorative accents provides the best results for application, appearance and longevity. Stair brackets are delivered pre-primed and ready for you to finish in your unique style.

Stair brackets can also be used to complement the existing trim in your home. They resemble the look of the hand-carved accents often found in older homes scattered throughout America. They honor the timeless style, texture and ornate detail from earlier decorative eras. Decorative stair brackets will transform even the look of the most ordinary and simple staircase to one of elegance.

For a free ebook on Decorating on a Budget sign up today and receive all of the latest news and additions to our catalog at GoCeilingMedallion. We are sure to have the right product for your decorative project.

How to Decorate on a Budget

So your celebrity style doesn't match your checkbook? You want to re-decorate your home or your apartment, but you have limited funds. Does this mean that you can't design your space like a celebrity? Consider the following points for your decorating budget:

• Decide ahead of time how much you can afford to spend on a decorating project. Then set aside money in a budget or consider a payment plan. Pace your decorating and make sure that you include money for accessories and miscellaneous items.

• Pick one room at a time to re-decorate. Designate a priority project in that particular room and begin there.

• Make sure that you have a plan. Keep color schemes, style and atmosphere in mind for your project. Select a target date for completion of your project.

• Remember that what ever you are considering will affect not just you but your family as well. Therefore, if you are unsure about tackling your decorating project alone, consider consulting a professional designer. A designer can save you time, money, energy, and frustration.

• Develop a floor plan showing windows and doors. Draw your furniture to scale and place them on your floor plan, moving them around until you get an arrangement that you like. Decide on a focal point. Make sure that you measure any furniture, rugs, etc. before making large purchases. Consider the ceiling height and traffic flow as well.

• Repeat each color in your color scheme at three levels: eye level, mid-level, and floor level. You do this to achieve good visual balance. Repeat any patterns or textures at least two times throughout the room.

• Other less costly ways to update or refresh a room include paint and wallpaper with or without borders.

• Prior to spending money on your project, you want to take a look at the colors and patterns in your home during the daylight hours.

• When purchasing accessories, invest in those that can be used easily in any home. These accessories might include artwork, area rugs, or decorator pillows, for example.

For those of us who have more taste than money, decorating our homes on a budget can often seem like an exercise in futility. As we flip through the glossy pages of home decorating magazines, we bristle at having to make do or having to do without.

However, the principles of decorating your home have always rested on expressing your own personality and your own sense of style rather than how much money you spend trying to make your home look like a picture in a magazine. You can decorate well on a limited budget when you keep this in mind.

For beautiful ideas that are inexpensive, visit GoCeilingMedallion or GoCrownMolding. We have hundreds of decorative accessories to choose from, so you are sure to find something that suits your interior decor ideas and style.

How to Organize Your Home Decorating Ideas

The first thing that anyone considering a decorating or remodeling project should do is to get organized. Your decorating project will go so much more smoothly. To do so, you can utilize a decorating file.

Your decorating file will contain everything that you need to coordinate your project. What should you include in your decorating file? You should include items such as carpet samples, fabric cuttings, paint samples, floor plans, wall paper cuttings, photos, and any pictures of inspiring rooms. When you keep all of these items together in one place the job goes smoothly from beginning to end.

Any type of file that is convenient for you will work. You can use a small canvas tote bag or briefcase. You could also try a notebook with file pockets or an expanding envelope. File boxes work well also. Just make sure that the container you select will be easy for you to carry from store to store or from store to home and that it is large enough to contain all of your samples.

The most important thing to remember about your decorating file is to keep it with you at all times, because you never know when you will need to access your samples. More than likely, you will accumulate many items in your decorating file, especially the longer you work on your decorating project.

Following is a list of the seven most important items that should be found in your decorating file:

Pens and Paper

Keep several of them with you as well as having a pad of paper or a notebook for taking any notes. The notebook will also come in handy when you need to note the particulars for ordering an item or when you see something that you really want or need to remember.

Tape Measure

When out on shopping trips, a 10 foot measuring tape will usually be adequate. However, for measuring rooms, windows, and ceiling heights you will want to have a 25 foot measuring tape. Builders tape measures are heavier, so try to find something more lightweight that you can carry around with you all day if needed.

Floor Plan

No matter what size the project you are embarking on, you need a drawing of the room or rooms with all measurements noted. Use either a simple sketch or a scale drawing on graph paper. Measure walls, windows, and distances between doors and windows accurately. Make sure that your sketch shows the placement of windows, doors, and any architectural details present with accurate measurements.

Photos of Your Room

You want to make sure you take some "before" photos, with all of the angles and details shown. They'll serve as a reminder to you of details as you're working and they are also handy when you're talking to a salesperson about your project.

Calendar

A calendar will come in handy for keeping track of appointments with carpenters, plumbers, painters, or any other reminders that are important in your schedule. Just make sure that you always have it with you as there is nothing more frustrating than needing your schedule and not having it available.

Magazine Photos

Magazines, decorating books, and photos from the Internet are great sources of inspiration for your decorating project. Keep pictures of ideas that you would like to incorporate in your own project in your file. You may see colors that you like, prints that you want to see in your own place, or arrangements of furniture that you feel would work in your space. Tear the pictures out and keep them with you or make or download copies.

Samples of Fabrics, Colors, and Flooring

While you are shopping, you will collect samples of carpet, tile, flooring, fabric, and paint chips. Keep these with you to coordinate your project later on at home. Also, keep samples of anything from your room that you may not be replacing so that you can coordinate colors, textures, carpeting, fabrics or colors. Use a small piece of fabric for your upholstered pieces. Trim off tufts of carpet fiber from an inconspicuous place or use an 8 inch square piece of carpet to carry with you in your tote. You can easily coordinate fabrics with paint and paint with flooring by using combinations from the samples that you have collected. As you settle on a scheme for your decorating project, you will be able to put together all of the elements in your decorating file.

There are several additional items that you may also find useful and wish to include in your decorating file. You can add these items and be ready to go at a moments notice:

Keep your phone list of contractors handy for easy reference.

Keep scissors and tape handy for placing items together, such as paint chips and fabrics.

Envelopes or Ziploc baggies are useful for small pieces of information or samples.

Post-it notes can be used in a variety of ways.

Color boards are useful for attaching fabrics, trims, inspirational photos, or any drawings that you have made.

Organizing your ideas into a decorating file is not only a useful tool but it can be a fun project as well. After all, you are making some major changes and you want to enjoy the process as well as the finished project. It will be that much more special.

Visit GoCeilingMedallion or GoCrownMolding for home decorating ideas.

A Basic Toolkit for the DIY Homeowner

I wanted to give our readers a basic list of tools that any do-it-yourself homeowner should keep available for any simple job that she or he might wish to handle on their own.

Bob, our sales manager, was a general contractor for years before we went into online sales. So I asked him to draw me up a list of tools.

This is the list of tools he said he “never went anywhere without”.

Utility knife for trimming and opening boxes easily.
Putty knives which come in various widths depending on the job and are either flexible or stiff. A stiff putty knife is used when scraping paint, while the more flexible knife is used to putty windows or for spackling.
Multitip powerless screwdriver
Hammer
Measuring tape
Cordless drill and bits for any size hole you might want or need.
A mitre box is optional unless you will do your own crown molding cutting and installing
Saws are frequently used power tools and there are a number of different types. You’ll need one that is specific for your project.
Speed square for laying out lines and marking angles
Chalkline for drawing straight lines

The following three items are all-purpose tools:

Short handsaw
Channel lock pliers
10” crescent wrench

Other tools to keep handy include:

Caulking gun
Level
Framing square
Pencil
Nailgun
Finishing nails
Caulk
Spackle
Sandpaper

The following tools are optional:

Routers
Sanders
Jigsaws
Mitre saw
Circular saws
Table saws

Finally, you will need a few safety items:

Safety goggles
Work gloves
Respirators
Ear plugs
Always make sure that you know how to operate the power tools you are using.

Many of these tools are items which most people are familiar with. It helps to know what you really need versus what would be helpful but are not absolutely necessary. These days we don’t want to spend a fortune on tools we probably won’t use. Plus, you save money on minor repairs and small jobs and you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself and it is that sense of accomplishment that is a great feeling.

For all the decorative accents you'll ever need, visit GoCeilingMedallion. We'll help you feel right at home.

Decorate Inexpensively: Fast and Easy

These are trying times that we are living in today, threatening the very stability of the American Dream. Although these are difficult times, much good has also come out of adapting to these troubling times. The economic recession has opened up a way for new and creative opportunities for learning. It has provided us with new career opportunities as well. And it has forced us to utilize many forms of free entertainment. We have discovered new ways to do more while spending less.

One small change in your life is often all that it takes to create huge emotional shifts in your psyche. Finding ways to feel better in these trying times is so important for our emotional and spiritual well-being. For me, whenever I add beauty somewhere in my life, it just makes me feel better. No matter how big or how small, when I look at the beauty that I have created, it helps me to know that this crisis can't last forever. And it makes me feel good that I am doing something positive for my family and myself.

I want to share some of the inexpensive ways that I have discovered to beautify my home with decorative accents. These ideas are fast and easy and sure to make you smile whenever you admire your handiwork and the beauty that it adds to your home.

Ceiling medallions and decorative rims can be used in creative ways in your home. Many people think that these accents were only designed to use on their ceilings and around lights. However, you can put them on walls as an inexpensive decorative piece. Small decorative rims can be used as frames for pictures of your loved ones. The center hole in the ceiling medallions can also be cut out and used as frames around your favorite pictures.

Panel molding can be used as an inexpensive chair railing. You can also use panel molding on your plain doors to add a little interest. Use a set of panel molding as framing for ceiling medallions on a wall.

Rosettes can be placed on furniture to dress up the plainest of pieces. Use them at the corners of bureaus, armoires, desks, vanity tables, mirrors, or any piece of furniture you desire.

Chair molding is also an inexpensive way to dress up a room. It is also easy to apply and can be done quickly for a small afternoon project.

Corbels can be used to hold up the mantle on a fireplace. They can be used on the inside corners of doorways. You can even use them to dress up the outside of your house by placing them under the eaves.

These are just a few of the ideas that you can use to spruce up your home. Decorating does not have to be expensive or difficult. All of these items can be used in any way that you can imagine. They are sure to brighten your day and give your spirits a little lift as well.

At GoCeilingMedallion, we help you feel right at home. Stop by and look around. We have such a large collection of decorative accents, you are sure to find exactly what you want.

A Plan for Home Decorating

You have decided it's time for a home makeover. But where do you start? When you begin plans for a home decorating project, it is important to know what your goals are. Sit down and decide exactly what end results you would like to see. Jot them down on paper. Without a plan the whole experience will become confusing and frustrating. There are so many details to work out when planning to decorate your home. Some details include theme, materials and intentions for the space being decorated. It is pointless to get up in the morning thinking I'll redecorate my dining room today. It's a nice thought, but without some planning, it's doubtful the project would amount to much. Here are some helpful decorating tips to keep in mind as you begin your project.

You've completed the first step by jotting down ideas and goals for your home decorating project. The next phase should be to consider your budget. How much can you afford to spend on redecorating? Will you do it yourself or do you plan to hire an interior decorator? Materials and accessories alone can be costly depending on what you're decorating plans are. If your plan includes making changes to your entire home, you need to have access to a sufficient amount of money. There are many hidden costs in making huge improvements in your home as well. Once the home decorating begins, little expenses that you didn't think of seem to come out of nowhere. Planning a home decorating project that fits your budget is a priority.

After you have figured out a budget for your project, you will want to choose a style or theme for your home decorating project. There are so many different styles to choose from. Your decision should be made based on what you'd like and on your interests. Country decorating provides a sense of warmth and coziness, while a modern theme might be more lively. Remember when planning to decorate, this theme will probably be around for awhile. For this reason, another good home decorating tip is, be sure and choose a theme or a style that you can live with.

After you've made the final decision about your home decorating theme, a helpful decorating tip might be to sit down and sketch out your plan on paper. Use a pencil and paper and sketch a diagram of the area you want to decorate. Considering the size of your project, spend some time arranging and rearranging, through drawing, the items to go into your space. Using mental visualization and the sketch, you should be certain of your goal before you begin the actual work.

Your imagination and creativity are two great assets in home decorating. One of the most helpful home decorating tips is to make use of your own creative abilities. When your project begins, if an idea pops into your head or you discover you'd like to try orange instead of beige, for example, go for it. Many times it's those seemingly off-the-wall ideas that can make a space look amazing. It's your home and your idea, so use your own judgment.

There are many places to find helpful home decorating tips. You can find them in home decorating magazines and books, on television programs or on the Internet. If you have any concerns or reservations about beginning a decorating project in your home, you will certainly find some helpful home decorating tips from these sources. Decorating your home is meant to be an exciting and satisfying experience. The number one tip for home decorating is to have fun.

Visit GoCeilingMedallion today for a look at some of the most unique styles and the largest selection of decorative products on the internet.