Design | Wellness | Cabinetry
Traditional Home has an on-line spread showing the home of Jill Zarin, of Real Housewives of NYC fame. The new color choices are fresh. I love the dining room’s new light and bright feel.
The kitchen cabinets were painted white with wallpaper used on the flat panels of the upper cabinets. The flooring and countertops were not changed. Mirrored backsplash helps to open up the tight space. You can see the whole spread with before photos here.
About this time last year LED shower heads were all the talk. This year the new buzz is about converting a larger portion of your bathroom to chromotherapy. I discovered this new application while visiting Trendir.
Antonio Lupi’s Cromobox shower kit incorporates LED lights with fixed decorative shower panels. The Cromobox offers a full range of color to so you can add the color you are missing into your chromotherapy.
Chromotherapy is an ancient form of healing which relies on the use of light waves; light waves have the ability to safely penetrate the body without harm or injury. Different colored light waves are believed to rebalance a body’s energy centers, otherwise understood as chi. Through exposure to specific colored lights, such energy centers, also called chakras are rebalanced, replenished, and the natural and optimum functioning of the body is restored.
An Orange shower in the morning is stimulating. Orange is warm, cheering, non-constricting. Orange has a freeing action upon the body and mind, relieving repressions. Orange shows new possibilities and other options in life. Stimulates creative thinking and enthusiasm, and helps assimilate new ideas.
A Violet shower in the evening is soothing. Violet and purple heal melancholy, hysteria, delusions and bring spiritual insights and renewal. These colors slow down an over-active heart; bring sleep and boost immunity. Soothe mental and emotional stress, decrease sensitivity to pain.
Look for the new Chicago Antonio Lupi Showroom to open in April.
If you love finding new ways to use old things, you’ll enjoys these two creative ideas from the Better Homes and Gardens Do It Yourself Website for repurposing items you may have lying around or can easily find at a salvage sale.
Inserting heavy-gauge wire mesh in a painted door and suspending it from the ceiling with metal chains creates additional storage for pots and pans.
Turning an old light fixture on its head and filling it with fresh flowers creates an electrifying display. If the collar on your light does not have this attractive patina paint it with metallic paint to achieve a bronze or copper patina.
For homeowners who want to go green but can’t fit the swirly-shaped compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) into their existing lamps, a new compact CFL from GE will provide the solution you’ve been looking for.
GE’s new Covered Energy Smart CFL bulb features its Spiral CFL inside a glass bulb.
GE created specialized miniature electronics that fit inside the neck of the bulb making the bulb’s profile virtually identical to a standard incandescent light bulb.
The bulbs will be carried by Target and select Ace Hardware Stores. Around Earth Day (April 22, 2009) more retailers such as Sam’s Club and Walmart will have the new bulbs for sale.
“These fit in more lamps and fixtures than standard GE Spiral® CFLs with the plastic base,” says Kathy Sterio, general manager of consumer marketing, GE Consumer & Industrial. “Some people just want an incandescent bulb profile so they can easily use it with clip-on lampshades or smaller table lamps. Other people may see it as more aesthetically pleasing than GE Spiral® CFLs in lamps or fixtures where the bulb is visible. It provides a more finished or tailored look that appeals to a lot of consumers.”
The equivalent of a 60W incandescent bulb, the new 8,000-hour rated life CFL is guaranteed for five years based on four hours of daily use. By June 2009, GE plans to introduce 9W and 20W incandescent-shaped covered GE Energy Smart CFLs. The 20W CFL will have a slightly taller profile that mirrors a standard incandescent three-way bulb.
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