Spring Capital Home & Garden Show

Time: Feb 26 --- Mar 1, 2009-2-26

Venue: DULLES EXPO CENTER

Official Website: http://capitalhomeshow.com/




Who Attends:

· homeowners who are looking to improve their living spaces
· people attend with their spouse or significant other-meet both decision makers!
· families have a high household income, making $100,000 or more 


Why They Attend?

· looking for home decorating ideas
· to see new products/services
· want to get home renovation ideas
· interested in gardening, landscaping or patio ideas
· come to see/compare new costs

Projects Planned - How They Plan to Spend
 
· planning a major gardening, landscaping or patio project
· decorating or planning an interior design project
· planning a kitchen or bathroom renovation project
· planning a major renovation
· purchase major home furnishings, electronics or entertaining products 


The Capital Home & Garden Show swings into action February 26 - March 1, 2009, at the Dulles Expo Center. Take in more than 750 exhibits, featuring experts, how-to workshops and demonstrations. 

View the latest in technology and gadgets in the home improvement industry, while getting the scoop on top gardening and landscaping trends. Given the economic and housing situation in the country, it's an ideal time to score some money-saving tips and ideas.

The Capital Home Show is better than ever with more diverse exhibits, more categories and more presentations on our fabulous stage! Our show offers a unique and broad selection of home improvement-related businesses. 

Stroll through the Idea Gardens created by the region's top landscaping companies and featuring the newest gardening techniques and designs all in one new location in the South Hall. 

You'll enjoy various entertaining features and special guest speakers. Get ideas, investigate new products, gather information and meet the professionals to help you make your next home remodeling, renovation, or decorating project a breeze!
 
Shop, compare and save at more than 750 exhibits!

Tips: Buy tickets online and save $3 off the admission price(Your children 5 year old and under are frree) !

* Original post: Spring Capital Home & Garden Show

Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan III -- Return to Original and Natural

Japan is a country which is modern, fashionable but also traditional, low-pitched…

In Tokyo, those skyscrapers and modern fashion designs will make you dazzling, and their high-tech tools also very advanced and high-developed, but if you entered in some common families in Japan you will find their foods, living rooms, and daily-use articles still been kept very traditional, especially in Kyoto, there are very few high-rise buildings, and most of buildings there are traditional low living houses, inside which there are tatamis, Japanese are accustomed to sitting and sleeping on the floor, that is a most traditional way of life in Japan.

In past time the demand rank of life in most Japan families was arranged according to food, clothing, transportation and living, now that has shifted to a new order as living first, transportation next, then clothing, and food last, which put the improvement of living conditions to the first place. And during the peorid of post-war, Japan began to emphasis much on both technical quality and talent development, which constructed a solid base for Japan’s rapid development later.

Now the space characters and design concepts Japanese pursued could incorporates as following:

1. More Purified and Abstract Design thus to Attain a More Pure beauty…

2. Appreciate Natural Materials, Sights Stirs Up with Feeling, and Return to Original and Natural

Think much of the surface material processing when to create a space, and emphasis on the textures of material commonly, that imply its functions to break through frames.

Keeping those surfaces of concrete, wood textures as well as metal plates such as aluminum alloy, steel and other metal composite panels, artificial stones, mosaic revealed intact and boldly.

To show the material texture or its original forms specially, plus precise polishing, and let the quality of the surface materials which throughout modern technology processing entirely same as them shown on photographs from camera, or as quality viewed from a color filter, a particular method of material application with visual effects.
 

This type of filtering space effects featured with cool, smooth visual effects on surface, which could affects people's emotion, so that people living in cities could get some redeems for their potential moods of nostalgia, nostalgic, and back-to-nature.

In the process of design forms purification and abstraction, the more attention paid on material’s texture and quality will bound to rise to an unprecedented level, and the modern technology also has built good conditions for this rise.

Now, to create new texture effects, and the psychological effects people respond to these texture effects have become one of particular parts pursued deliberately by modern interior designers.

(not finished to continue…)

* Original post: Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan III -- Return to Original and Natural

Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan II -- Purified, Abstract Design Style

--- Purified, Abstract Home Design Style

Japan is a modern country as well as a traditional country, as the No. 2 economy great power in the world, Japan has created a economy miracle, who has a lofty level of modernization, while whose land area is just as small as one of Chinese provinces…

In recent years throughout Japan there raised a hot trend of home reconstruction, which is in the ascendant still.

In order to pursue a more comfortable and convenient living environment, in virtue of home design, Japanese try to take full advantages of spaces and setting modern appliances, furniture in their current narrow residential space.

In past time the demand rank of life in most Japan families was arranged according to food, clothing, transportation and living, now that has shifted to a new order as living first, transportation next, then clothing, and food last, which put the improvement of home living conditions to the first place.

Now in Japan, the space features and design ideas they pursued has following specific performances. ..


1. Purified, Abstract Design Style thus make the decoration style attain to a beauty purification realm

Famous post-modern architect Hans Hollein had been engaged in a lot of architectural designs and interior designs, whose work has broken traditional frame and very different from modernist architectural designs. His designs mainly used symbols, metaphor techniques, and applied to modern technique materials and combined with special colors and patterns, thus to create a purified particular ideal environment.

Hans Hollein’s design has put a considerable influence on the world, as extended to his design idea, many Japanese designers follows a step forward, they applied with implied functions and the same time emphasis on the simplicity and abstractness of design, they applied with geometric form elements and managed interlaced arrays of simple lines and surfaces to avoid pop out of objects and shapes, and try best to eliminate all excessive marks; they also adopted the restrained method of removing detailed decorations to embody the essence of space, and make the room space take on concise and lively modern effect.



Nordic think design is an integral part of their lives, Americans keep it as a money-making means, while Japanese believe that design is a important way for national survival….
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* Original post: Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan II -- Purified, Abstract Design Style

Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan I -- Preface

Japan is a modern country as well as a traditional country, it is a major industrial country that ranks the No. 2 economy great power in the world, it has created a economy miracle with a very high degree of modernization in a small land whose area is as small as one of provinces in China.

Skyscrapers and modern fashion designs in Tokyo's all make you dazzling, those high-tech products also very well-developed, while their eating, living, and daily use articles still remained very traditional, especially in Kyoto, there are very few high-rise buildings, most of buildings there are traditional low-rise residential, and inside living space there are tatamis, people used to sitting and sleeping on the floor, which is kind of very traditional way of life.

Rooms in Japan are mostly constituted with logs, white walls, papers and wood lattice sliding doors, which reflects a collateral system of tradition and modern, with the passage of time, the modern become integrated well with traditions, and Oriental aesthetics features will usually be added in modern designs.

Nordic think design is an integral part of their lives, Americans keep it as a money-making tool, while Japanese believe that design is a means of national survival.

After the war Japan was occupied by U.S. troops, on whose land they have to build barracks, homes, offices and various service facilities for themselves. As the U.S. military could not suited the Japanese way of life, they build American-style homes and furnishings according to American patterns and practices, and check and accept them according to American standards too, so the level of design skill in Japan raised rapidly and has attained to a top grade in the world.

At the beginning of the 60s, Japan began to establish specialties of interior design and furniture design. With professional design teams, they also set specialized subjects of interior design and furniture design in their higher education system.

During times of post-war, Japan put a high premium on both technical quality and talent development, which has built a solid foundation for its rapid development in future.

(not finished to continue…)

*  Original post: Perspective Freehand Style of Home Design in Japan I -- Preface

Something You Should Know for Building a Perfect Home Feng Shui

There are something you must not do if you are going to decorate your house, unless you'd like to meet bad fortunes in near future ...  
 

First. Do not Keeping Too Many Mirrors in Your Home

In the Feng Shui theory mirror is one kind of lunar and negative articles and it is easy to recruit bad fortunes, if there are too many mirrors in the home they will cause too much money consumption to the husband and wife, that is means that the couple are crazy shoppers, they always buy impulsively a lot of things that needless, and the result is their expenditures will exceed their income, long after the home’s economy will turn to worse and worse increasingly.

Second: Check the Doors and Door Posts in your Home and see Whether there are Breaking or Bending Remarks on

Door posts are the four face pillars of the door, and door face is just the door itself, if there are some marks of bending or even breaking, that is indicates that the God of Wealth could not come in, while the God of poverty entered.

Third: Throw Away Broken Pots or Stoves in Your Home

Some people are too lazy to throw away their broken pots or stoves, but as to the Feng Shui theory, which will make you never to stand up and regain success, also the God of Wealth will never meet you.

Fourth: Do Not Put Ceramic Tiles on the Walls in Your Bedroom

Now there are many people who have gained money, and occurred with fantasy ideas that to settle their houses on a river, they thought it is romantic and idyllic enough, they will never consider that in the Feng Shui theory, a river or other types of flowing water coming through the residence should be prohibited absolutely, which will make people living in the house losing a great number of money they own.

Fifth. Whether the Bed in Your Bedroom is Against the Wall on Three Sides?

Tiles in home decoration are generally be used in the toilet and in the kitchen, but there are someone who also had inclined to use them in the bedroom, so do not, because tiles will fall off, it correspondingly implies bad wealth fortunes of your family.

Sixth: Plan to Settle Your House on a Beautiful River?

For space saving sake, some families will settle their beds against the wall on three sides, but such a furnishing will give the person who sleeping in the bed a feeling of confined, furthermore, the bedroom is the place that stands for wealth sub-position, as the wealth position has been imprisoned, of course money will not come in.

* Original post: Something You Should Know for Building a Perfect Home Feng Shui 

Home Furnishings in This Winter and Autumn, Low-Key but Luxurious Enough

The communication of seasons has brought a new round of fashion expressions for soft home furnishings trend. Some well-known home furnishings brands launched their new products of soft home furnishings in succession, and in this autumn and winter, the fashion trend for soft home furnishings is: natural & luxurious.




Focus Colors

Classic black, white as based color, mixing with a little red embellishments which indicates passions, thus to outline the whole profile of the home furnishings style in this year’s winter and autumn.





At the same time, as the featured color on the fashion stage in this autumn and winter, grey has been applied to home furnishings too, thus to create matched levels, style tones and color concentrations with different shades of grey.

Focus Materials

This year, home-style fashion stresses more on the choice of materials, with high-grade materials such as genuine leather, silk, wool or boucle to present a kind of feeling as natural and luxurious.

Adorned with a small amount of metal, a strong sense of modern and low-key luxury temperaments thus shaped out.

Basic Patterns

Simple, functional straight lines, may be combined with a small number of flowers, branch and vine patterns, which transfer you concise textures and exotic flavors.

To choose home furnishings with delicate textures, the exquisite and elegant life style of the hostess could be expressed more easily and more naturally.

* Original post: Home Furnishings in This Winter and Autumn, Low-Key but Luxurious Enough