Make a Statement With Stylish Home Furniture

 

                    Your home furniture plays a vital role in making your style statement. Decorating a perfect house starts with selecting good furniture. So if your first choice is not perfect, then the end result might not be as fulfilling as you want. If you want the furniture to have class and durability, then investing in stylish home furniture would be the best choice. What you choose to furnish your home is a reflection of your personal taste. This makes it important for you to first be clear on how you want to decorate your home, what kind of furniture you want to buy and how you want to go about it. Furniture is available in different varieties for all kind of rooms. Be it for the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom or even the patio, furniture of different sizes are needed most of your basic needs. Whatever type of furniture you decide to purchase; it should emphasize the character and style of your house. Stylish home furniture comes in various designs, size, shape, structure and materials such as wood and metal. Though wood furniture is generally accepted as the best, metal furnitures can also be a good substitute if the budget is low. A living room is an area where you host most of your parties and entertain guest, thus a lot of attention should be given there. As first impression is the last one consider the kind of sofas, coffee tables, TV stands and cabinets, end tables and other decorative accessories very carefully. They should not only be attractive but comfortable but most importantly go well with each other and also be careful not to overcrowd the living room. The dining area is another important corner of your house which the guests are likely to visit. The furniture for this area in particular should ooze elegance. The dining table set should not only be visually attractive but also comfortable. Many homes have their dining room and kitchen combined. In that case you will have to make sure that the kitchen and the dining area have a common theme. All the miscellaneous, serving tables and the dining table should fit in such a way that it allows you easy movement around the place. The bedroom is for your personal space. It should be designed in such a way that you can shed the entire day's tiredness in a minute and relax in peace. Especially your bed! As soon as you fall on it you should be able to experience heaven. That's the reason why people spend heavily for luxurious beds because there is nothing better than a good night's sleep. Apart from the bed your room also needs armories, dressers, night tables and some more storage furniture. If you have kids around then you'll have an additional room to be taken care of. Kid's room furniture comes in attractive designs and styles. Apart from the indoors if you have a beautiful patio then get the chance to work with material like wicker and metal. Decorate it with benches, plant stands, love seats, coffee tables and anything which fits in well with the outdoor theme. So now that you have many reasons to accentuate your house's beauty from within and outside, bring home stylish modern furniture and enjoy all the extra attention.

Planning the Purchase of Nursing Home Furniture

 

                  Nursing and residential homes contain a great deal of furniture as they normally serve a substantial number of residents. Where any home or business needs high quality furniture of various kinds, it is perhaps of the utmost importance that nursing home furniture is comfortable, given the amount of time people will spend sitting or lying on them. In this article we'll look at the main types of furniture that should be considered. Lounge Furniture If you visit an nursing home, you'll realize that most of the residents stay in the day room. With this in mind, the armchairs that populate this room need to be two things. They need to be very robust, as an investment in a selection of armchairs will mean the chairs are sat on for long periods and might be moved around a lot. Lounge chairs will perhaps be moved around a little less than other types of furniture, and so can be a little bigger than in other parts of a nursing or residential home. The other aspect of lounge furniture its comfort; with so much sitting around watching TV or playing games, these armchairs need to be very comfortable. Beds If the lounge is where most residents stay for most of the time, then the bedroom is where they spend much of the remaining time. Among nursing home furniture beds, are perhaps some of the most specialized types. Normally of the single bed type, these beds again need to be very robust, although is any special requirements are sought in terms of mattress of mattress covering then this might be addressed separately. The trick with nursing home furniture is to find a balance between the very functional aspect of the furniture, the comfort, the aesthetic look and of course the price. Dining Room The dining room is where a great deal of movement occurs when compared to other activities that take place in a given home. This type of nursing home furniture is typified by being very manoeuvrable, with the bare minimum of widths being used so that people can be set before their dining tables with ease. There are various special devices that are in the realm of nursing or residential home furniture that can be invested in to make the dining process as easy as possible for resident and carer alike. There are many companies that provide the special nursing home furniture and equipment required to make such an institution function smoothly and efficiently.

Seven Places To Find Used Home Furniture

 

                    Home furniture can be quite costly, especially if you need to completely furnish your house. A big way to cut costs is to buy used furniture. Here is a list of possible locations to find good deals on some quality pieces. Used Furniture Stores A good place to start is at stores that specialize in used furniture. These establishments acquire the furniture from various sources and usually have a wide selection to choose from. Keep an eye out for special sales and promotions so that you can get an even better deal on low cost home furniture that you need. Rental Stores Stores that rent furniture usually offer to sell pieces that have already been rented several times or have been replaced by newer models. This does not mean you have to purchase furniture that is out of fashion, especially if you prefer the classical style. Like blue jeans, there are some basic furniture that are always "in." Classifieds Ads Most local newspapers have a classified section. Nowadays, you can probably access it online. If you live in a small community, search the nearest large-circulation newspaper. You can often find individual pieces of furniture listed from people who have purchased new items and want to get rid of the old without having a big garage sale. Don't forget to search Craigslist.com for your city. Garage Sales Here is a great place to find excellent deals on used home furniture. For example, I recently bought a sleeper sofa that looked brand new for only $200. It was valued at over $800. Most newspapers run a special section in the Friday edition that lists weekend garage sales in the area. Since many people frequent garage sales, you need to get an early start if you hope to find the furniture you want. Estate Sales Estate sales are similar to garage sales except that all items in the house are usually for sale and not just a few things. This generally means a lot more furniture pieces are available. Besides offering more, estates sales tend to have home furniture that is in better conditions than that found at garage sales. Storage Auctions There are many different reasons why someone might abandon their belongings in a storage unit but, independent of the reason, it means great saving for you on furniture. Auctions at storage units are usually announced in the local newspaper. You can, of course, call local storage companies and ask for auction dates. Online Auctions At the writing of this article, there were hundreds of used sofas, chairs, recliners, tables, bedroom sets and more listed on eBay. The site allows you to search for home furniture by location so you can find something near to where you live. If you don't find what you are looking for on eBay, try some of the other online auctions.

Good Home Furniture Means Quality Plus Appearances

 

                  Nowadays, they are mainly four types of home furniture namely living room furniture, bedroom furniture, dining room furniture and entertainment units. Living room furniture consists of a sofa, a coffee table, lamps and sometimes side tables. Bedroom furniture consists of a bed, lamps and side tables. Kitchen/dinning room furniture consists of a large table, chairs, and sometimes stools. Entertainment units are TV, DVD players and speakers. It is not easy to buy home furniture as different member of a household usually have different requirements and tastes. Therefore it is important that every member in the family must first agree on the style and usage of the furniture before purchase. Many actually make mistakes by judging the furniture from their outer appearances alone without even thinking of its practical functions and long term usage. So then it is vital that each piece of furniture must be thoroughly thought of before it is purchased. This process is called "preparation". A few things that need to be considered before buying are function, color, practicality, and durability. All the furniture must also be tested a few times and the color of fabric must exactly match the potential owner's wish. One practical thing to do is to bring a sample piece of fabric back to the potential buyer's home to see if it matches the interior of the house and other existing furniture. Remember that the color of fabric may look different in daylight and at night. Therefore, the potential buyer must be patience and observe the type and color of the fabric for at least 24 hours before deciding to order the furniture. Ignoring this process may result in dissatisfaction of both the buyer and seller as furniture is not normally to be returned or exchange. Scale of the furniture is also extremely important. Potential buyers must accurately measure the space available for their new piece of furniture, at their homes before going to any furniture shop. It is advisable that the potential buyers carry along with them a tape measure to the furniture shops and correctly measure the furniture that they are interested before agreeing to buy it. All these processes are also applied in choosing home entertainment units. All the equipment must be tested and thought through before being purchased. In the 21st century, technology grows at an incredible pace and the potential owners must really be sure that the models of the TV or DVD players in question will certainly be a good investment and won't be outdated in a few years time. For that reason it must be reiterated that furniture should not be bought in a hurry so there will not be any dissatisfaction occurring after the purchase.

Buying Furniture: Use a Website or Home Furniture Showroom?

 

                   When buying furniture, many people are undecided whether to buy from a home furniture showroom or from a website. The feeling is generally that online is easier and also more convenient, but that buying from a showroom or mall store is safer. Are they right or not? Unfortunately there is no distinct answer to this question, because those marketing using each of the above options claim they are the best and safest. There is little evidence either way regarding the security of your payment details. There have been problems with leaked details online, and with credit card cloning offline, so quite frankly you are best to ignore that aspect. The vast majority have no problems using either method, and it comes down to which is best for you. Is it more convenient to buy online? Sure it is! Is it best to by online? That is your decision to make, but with furniture one thing is clear - you have a far better choice online, but you get a better view of your furniture in a mall store or home furniture showroom before you pay for it. So which is best? Neither! You need to think about the benefits and drawbacks of each method of purchasing furniture and try to eliminate the negative aspects of each while combining their strengths or benefits. Let's have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each, while keeping in mind that the weakness of one will likely be a strength of the other. Buying Furniture Online Large Choice of Manufacturers: The main advantage of buying furniture online is that you can visit a large number of online furniture store websites in a morning. You can check out Sherrill Furniture for a good selection of upholstered chairs and sofas, Simply Amish for some mission or Shaker furniture for your kitchen, Southwood Furniture for a selection of beautiful reproduction furniture and L. & J.G. Stickley Furniture for beautiful living room and dining room furniture. Made in America: These are just some examples of American furniture manufacturers that offer products that are 100% made in the USA. So another advantage of buying online is that if you are patriotic, you can find the truly American companies where every item is made in America. Try that in your local shopping mall, and you will struggle to find products that are made in the USA by American craftsmen and women using sustainable American wood. Online Room Planners: Several furniture outlets or dealers offer design services or online room planners for your use. In fact, you can often rely on finding a room planner on the website of a manufacturer. After entering the dimensions of your room, you get a scale model of it and you can add similarly scaled thumbnails of your furniture choices to add to it by the click of a button. That way you can see how your furniture choices fit into your rooms. Easy Ordering: Some online furniture stores allow you to order and pay online. We are assuming here that online and offline payment methods are equally secure, which they generally are. However, sometimes it is too easy to order online with a credit card, and you can easily overspend Buying from a Home Furniture Showroom See Your Furniture Live: By far the biggest advantage of buying furniture from a mall store or furniture showroom is that you see what you are paying for. It might look great on your computer, but how does it look in the flesh? Is the color truly what you want, and is the wood grained the way you want it? Ease of Operation: These recliners and lift chairs sound marvelous, but how do they actually work? Is that recliner easy to operate with your arthritic hands? Is that lift chair gentle or will it shoot you out into the room on your hands and knees when you want to stand up? It is important that you understand how your choice of motion furniture operates, and that it is suitable for you or your elderly relative. Ask the Right Questions: When buying furniture you will likely have a few questions to ask. How do you do that online? Have you ever tried to get a quick answer online? They do not exist! One of the strengths of buying from a home furniture showroom is that you can ask the questions you want to ask, and you get an instant answer. Conclusions Our conclusion is that you can use the benefits of each of these methods. You can select your furniture line from the websites of your favorite manufacturers - or even better, select a reputable local dealer and check out all the suppliers it offers. A good dealer will offer products from good American furniture manufacturers such as those mentioned above.

Home Furniture Construction: Signs of Furniture Craftsmanship

 

                  Home furniture construction is every bit as important as its looks - perhaps even more so. Most home furniture manufacturers offer much the same type of furniture, with not a great deal of intrinsic difference between their overall design and appearance. It is how furniture is made that matters, because you want it to be comfortable, hard wearing and last a long time. The standard of furniture craftsmanship employed is very important, whether you are purchasing a table, cabinet or sofa. Here is what to look for in your own home furniture before you part with a single cent: The Construction You can always tell how well a furniture manufacturer builds it furniture by checking a drawer. Just one drawer is all it takes to make a fairly accurate judgment. Remove the drawer and check the joints. There should be dovetail joints all round, signifying strength and durability. The front joint should be hidden dovetails, so they don't show on the outside face. Inspect the outside and inside of each drawer to make sure everything has been properly smoothed down, and its contents are unlikely to be snagged. The sign of good furniture craftsmanship is that even the outside surfaces of the drawers, including the bottom, have been properly smoothed and finished. They should also open smoothly, preferably with a central drawer guide rail to prevent any lateral movement. Rails and framework should be fitted using proper carpentry joints: cross rails using dovetails or pinned mortise and tenon joints. Mortise and tenons should be used on the main frame of chests, cabinets and armoires. The wood finish should be added in steps. This should begin with a preservation coat and then the staining and finishing coats added. Back panels should not be stapled - these frequently loosen, and the furniture could be weakened. In fact, if the correct jointing techniques have been employed in home furniture construction, the back panels should not be needed for strength - the frame should be strong enough itself. Nevertheless, panels should be attached using screws and corner blocks. An important aspect of taller furniture is that it has been tested for stability. You don't want a tall chest tipping over when you pull out a filled top drawer. Furniture Craftsmanship in Upholstered Furniture Here again the strength of the frame is all-important. You sometimes find upholstered home furniture construction given less attention than that of cabinetry because it is not so visible. However, the frame should at least be constructed from a properly jointed hardwood frame, and not just from plywood panels nailed together as you sometimes find. A well-built frame provides a solid base for the springing and other upholstery, and your chairs and sofas will last a long longer because of it. The base of the seat should first be correctly webbed and then sprung using steel springs of the right size for the depth of the seat. The springs should be properly secured to a solid wood frame and tied together so that the seat is comfortable to sit on. They should then be covered with canvas or synthetic burlap, and then stuffed using a suitable natural or synthetic stuffing material before adding a final cotton batting that acts as a base for the cover. The External Covering Fabric The cover fabric should be hardwearing, meeting industry standards for upholstery fabrics and also meet any fire-resistance regulations applicable. The cover should be properly tacked to the frame, although it is common these days simply to use a staple gun. The cushions should be filled comfortably, some preferring a coil sprung filling wrapped in a layer of foam or batting. Whichever type is used, the internal fiber should be effectively secured and distributed evenly. Finally check the overall appearance of the furniture. If your upholstered furniture has been manufactured using proper standards of home furniture construction, it should look good, feel completely stable and also be comfortable to sit on. The covers and cushions should fit correctly, and be neatly sewn, and the seat should offer support at the front edge and not sag. Home furniture construction is very important, and without being sure that proper standards of good furniture workmanship have been employed in its manufacture, you should not expect it to last. While furniture hand-crafted from solid wood and the best materials can be expensive, you should assess that against the cost of replacing poorly made furniture that fails to last.

Buying Home Furniture Online From American Furniture Stores

 

                   Buying from American furniture stores is not just being patriotic, but makes sense, particularly if you are buying home furniture online. Even if not, furniture made in America from solid hardwoods such as maple, cherry, hickory and Oak from firms such as Nichols & Stone, Cambridge Mills and Simply Amish is of high quality wherever you buy it. So why American, and why not import fine English furniture or French classic designs for your home? Some will prefer these of course, but it is hard to beat the solidity of American furniture made using traditional carpentry techniques with traditional American woods. Take quarter sawn oak, for example. This comes from the same tree as ordinary oak, but the plank is sawn radially into the annual rings. If you imagine a radius drawn from the center of a cross-section of the trunk out to the bark, an ordinary plank is cut across that radius while a quarter sawn oak plank is cut down the radius. It is more expensive because you get fewer planks that way, but the grain is even and the resultant plank of wood less liable to warp. Many American furniture manufacturers and cabinet makers employ quarter sawn oak for their furniture. Another particularly American wood is the American black walnut. This is a true walnut, unlike the African walnut which is a species of mahogany. So buying American furniture means that you are also buying sustainable American woods, which is good for the environment. Quality of Craftsmanship When you buy from American furniture firms such as Cambridge Mills, Nichols & Stone, American Craftsman or Simply Amish, you are buying experience and craftsmanship. Their products are crafted using proper joints, not just glued and screwed together like too much of today's home furniture. Yes, glue and screws might come up with a solid structure initially, but how long will it last? Nor just that, but if they cut corners with basic construction where else are they cutting corners? Is their wood properly cured and seasoned, or will it start warping in a few months? Has the seating on your sofa been properly upholstered, with well-tied springs and strong webbing, or will it start falling to pieces after a couple of years? Or is it actually just foam! The quality of craftsmanship that you get from many American furniture stores can be second to none - or it can be the worst. It is up to you to select your furniture from recognized American furniture stores that are renowned for their quality and standard of craftsmanship. Stores like those mentioned above, or Southwood, Stickley, Sherrill and The Custom Shoppe - all American and all highly regarded. Buying Home Furniture Online Many of America's best furniture manufacturers specialize in their work. It figures that craftsmen who can produce beautiful tables and chairs might not be so good at armoires or beds. Master upholsterers can make a sofa the most comfortable thing you have sat on, but would not know how to produce high quality functional home office furniture. When buying home furniture, you may not just want to buy furniture for one room - perhaps you want a variety of pieces, which might involve a trip to several furniture stores or even several shopping malls. That is very time-consuming, and we don't all have unlimited spare time on our hands. This is where buying home furniture online makes perfect sense. Many online home furniture stores offer the products of a number of different American furniture firms. You can select your furniture from a variety of styles and also choose the firm that specializes in the type of furniture you are seeking. For example, you can purchase a beautiful sleigh bed from Simply Amish and the mattress from Jamison, both marketed on the same online furniture website. You could also use one of the customization services. Many online home furniture firms offer online room planners. The Custom Shoppe is a perfect example. You enter the dimensions of your room, no matter how irregular, and the empty room plan comes up on your screen. You can then add scale representations of various furniture pieces, so you can find out exactly how and where each piece would fit. You can choose your sectionals online to suit your room shape. The problem with sectionals is choosing the components most suited to your needs. By combining a room planner with the firm's range of sectional products, you can buy home furniture online that makes best use of the space available to you - including corners. Buying home furniture online from American furniture stores makes sense, and there are many online that you can use.

Benefits of Buying Home Furniture Online

 

                  You get a much wider choice when you buy home furniture online than from a physical mall store. This is particularly true when you visit the website of a distributor or dealership rather than a manufacturer. While the latter is restricted to its own range of products, a distributor can offer you the range offered by each of multiple manufacturers. For example, the Stickley website will offer only Stickley furniture while a distributor can offer Stickley, Simply Amish, The Custom Shoppe, Southwood and Sherrill furniture, and also great mattresses from Jamison besides. That is surely better than having to choose from just one company's range of products! A Wider Choice of Home Furniture This is one of the greatest benefits of buying home furniture online: you get a wider choice, and not just of the traditional type of furniture. You might want a beautifully upholstered sofa and armchair suite from Southwood Furniture, perhaps in a period Queen Anne style or in a delicately slender Thomas Sheraton design. However, on browsing further through the distributor website you might come across some beautifully plain Simply Amish furniture that could get you thinking along a different line - rather than sumptuously upholstered period furniture for your living room you might like the idea of a style more fundamental to the original pioneers. Perhaps a traditional hickory rocker, or an aspen sofa and chairs furnished with comfortable cushions rather than fully upholstered. Maybe even a comfortable four post glider for something different, and you could introduce a touch of modernity with an Amish entertainment center, accommodating a large LCD flat screen TV set and hi-fi unit. Get New Ideas With Online Furniture Stores When they set out to buy home furniture, most people will have something in mind, but they will also be unaware of all the options available to them. It's only by browsing that you get exposed to fresh ideas and options that may never have entered your head. By visiting a mall furniture store you see only what that one store stocks, and you will even more restricted if that store is a single manufacturing outlet. That's like going to a sports shop that sells only Titleist golf balls or Slazenger tennis racquets! It is so restrictive! Few would visit a sports store like that, so why do so when you are looking for furniture? Furnishing your home is an expensive thing to do, so you would think that the greater choice you had the better! Discounts Might be Available Not only choice in design, style or manufacturer, but also choice in price! When you buy online you can often get discounts not available from offline stores, since the online facility is less expensive to maintain than a mall store. It's a fact that many businesses that have both an offline and online sales outlet can reduce their prices because the online sales are able to finance part of the cost of maintaining a mall store: rental, rates, staff pay, power costs and so on. You have none of that with an online store - or at least very little. You have staff to pay of course, but that's about it. Then you get all the other benefits that an online operation can offer. The major of these is information: if the internet is good for one thing it is for the provision of information. Not only can an online furniture store offer you its entire range of products to look at on your screen, but it can also provide you with specifications of each piece. Online Room Space Planning The dimensions of every piece of furniture are at your fingertips, enabling you to easily plan how it fits into your room. You can use online room space planning software to fit each item into your room - and you have the firm's entire stock to play with, not just the pieces they are able to display in their showroom. Add to these benefits the fact that you are under no pressure to buy. They might mean well, but how often have you been annoyed by pushy sales staff trying to 'help' you come to a decision? You would feel self-conscious if you wandered around a mall home furniture store for 3-4 hours without making a purchase!

Benefits of Choosing Home Furniture Online

 

                   One benefit of choosing home furniture online is that you can choose your accessories at the same time without any pressure to buy. I am sure you have sometimes felt under pressure when visiting furniture stores - you are trying to select your furniture and then check out the best accessories to go with it, but are continually followed around by keen sales staff who are trying to help, but are doing anything but! However, that aside, whether you choose your home furniture online or visit the furniture store itself you should choose the furniture that meets each of three criteria: a) you need it, b) it fits in with your decor and other furniture, and c) you like it. It is surprising how many people miss out one of these factors when choosing furniture for their home - and it can be even worse with accessories such as lamps, mirrors and rugs. Let's examine each of these three simple criteria in turn: 1. You Need It Only purchase what you need. 'Nice to have' stuff is nice to have, but unless you need it you may wish later on that you had spent the cash on something else - unless you have unlimited funds of course, but then you wouldn't be reading this. Your interior designer would be looking after your home furniture for you! It is possible that you will come across some lovely pieces of furniture and accessories that were not included in your original list. That is only to be expected, because it's not unusual for somebody to spot the need for a particular item when they come across it. Everyone cannot be expected to draw up a list of furniture needed for their home without missing something! If you are furnishing a bedroom for example, you might spot a beautiful chest that can be used to store your bedding. One example is a beautiful Allure ottoman almost 4 feet long and 2.5 feet deep sufficient to hold a selection of sheets and duvet covers that can also double as seating. You may not have thought of using an ottoman for your bedding, but it seems a reasonable addition to make to your list. 2. It Fits In With Your Decor If this ottoman was in bright red and your room was decorated in light blue, then it might not be such a good choice after all. However, if the ottoman in question is upholstered in powder blue it would match perfectly - unless you prefer the contrast! Perhaps the item you came across was a fabulous armoire in cherry or maple, and you intended to furnish your bedroom in light oak. You would then have one of three choices: search for a light oak armoire in the same design that attracted you, switch the plans for your bedroom furniture to cherry or maple, or simply forget it. For many people the third choice is not conceivable so they usually decide to fit the rest of their bedroom furniture around their preferred piece. Although this appears to be a contrived example, it is not as theoretical as it seems because such things do happen. It is not unusual for people to furnish an entire room around a single essential piece. 3. You Like It It would be extreme folly to purchase home furniture you don't like simply because it fits in with your design and decorative style. It's better to change your decor than to live with furniture you don't like. Sometimes the opportunity to choose home furniture online is not an advantage. Sometimes it's best just to do what our parents, or even our grandparents had to do, and visit a selection of furniture stores and choose from the bedroom suites available. Maybe Using One Home Furniture Store is Best Many would visit just one store, and make their choices from that. Choosing home furniture online can offer too many choices for us to make, when it would be better to be more limited. Is there an answer to this problem? You bet there is! Rather than ignore the choice the internet offers you, why not make the best use of it by using a single online furniture store that offers you a room planner. Using that, you can start with an empty room of your exact dimensions and then fill it with the furniture options offered by that store. Don't look further because that just causes confusion. Then you can add the bed, cabinets, chests, armoire and everything else you need, each piece matching, and end up with a beautiful bedroom furnished just as you want it. The main reason for using just the one store is that everything will match. Yes, the internet can offer too much choice. However, if you choose your accessories and home furniture online using a template of your room, then you will meet all three of the above criteria and be happy with your choice.

Home Furniture Design and Fabric Selection

 

                   Home furniture design and fabric selection are very important to a modern homeowner, whether male or female. Nobody wants to choose the wrong furniture or home fabrics, and although the furniture might appear the more important of the two, the wrong fabric selection can completely ruin an otherwise well-designed room. So what do you do? Leave it to chance and hope that your untrained eye is as good as that of anybody else, or hire a professional to help you? In fact, your own opinion about how to decorate and furnish your home is likely to please you just as much as that of a professional interior designer. Most people who worry about such things are trying to please friends and visitors rather than select what they personally like. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because most people do not make the best decisions when it comes to home furniture design and fabric selection. While there is no procedure you can follow to come up with what is best for your home, here are some guidelines on how to go about selecting your furniture design and how to make the correct fabric selection to go with it. Decide on a Theme You cannot even begin to consider furniture without deciding on a theme for your home - or even for each individual room. Very few people furnish and decorate their entire home on one single theme, but tend to mix them. Thus, many people love to have at least one themed room in their home: an Egyptian room or a room based on Ancient Rome, Classical Greece or an Asian, Wild West or Native American theme. None of these is suitable for general household furniture, of course, or for the normal fabric selection you will find in your local sores. However, it does show that your whole house doesn't have to be decorated the same way. So when you decide on a theme, your living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom can all be based on a certain home accent - even a traditional one. For example, you can use antique style furniture and fabrics in your lounge or living room, with sofas and perhaps a chaise longue in the classical French style. Your dining room might be either contemporary, with a black glass-topped dining room table or one in beautiful glossy French polished walnut or mahogany with Queen Anne legs. The chairs might be traditionally webbed and sprung, and then upholstered in tapestry or velvet fabric. What this is inferring is that you should decide on a general them for each room before you decide on appropriate home furniture design, and then choose the furniture and a fabric selection appropriate to that theme. Home Furniture Design As stated, the design of your furniture should go with the theme: contemporary, antique, Georgian or art nouveaux for example. Furniture makers such as The Custom Shoppe can help you design your own solid wood furniture, offering a choice of designs and woods appropriate to your general theme. You may have chosen a Shaker theme with simple solid wood furniture. Shakers used what was available locally, such as pine, birch, cherry and poplar, and some even used maple or beech. You might prefer something more European, with stained dark oak, walnut, or cherry veneer or the exotic cinnamon-colored Asian teak or solid mahogany which has a beautiful deep red shade. Rosewood is another beautiful wood suitable for most forms of home furniture design. Traditional American furniture, such as that available from American Craftsman, could be fashioned from light oak, apple or cherry, and black American black cherry is very much in vogue. So is Maple, although the wood you choose should be appropriate to the rest of the furniture in your room. Home Fabric Selection If you choose light oak for your dresser or armoire, a walnut or mahogany chest of drawers or table would not go well. This is where advice on home furniture design would be worth seeking. The same is even truer when you consider your home fabric selection. This is where genuinely serious mistakes can be made. It would be far better if you could find somebody well versed in interior design, and while you might think that it doesn't really matter - it does! If your drapes, rugs and upholstery fabrics all match, and the colors and designs were appropriate to the type of furniture you have chosen, then an OK room could be converted into a fabulous room.