Tag Archives: kitchen

Decorating With Western Style Feng Shui

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One of the reasons that some people are reluctant to practice Feng Shui is because a lot of the “cures” and decorating tips in Feng Shui are a bit too Chinese looking for this culture. You don’t want your place to look like the lobby of a Chinese restaurant!

Thankfully there are equivalents in our culture that you can use that will bring you the same type of good fortune without looking too ethnic.

For instance it is a Feng Shui tradition to decorate with plastic or silk flowers in order to attract love and good energy into the home. To make this more contemporary looking use live flowers instead and choose modern looking vases instead of the red or green ceramic vases favored by Chinese Feng Shui enthusiasts. You can also use vases that have eight sides to attract good fortune as well.

The color red is lucky in Feng Shui but you can use different shades of it as accents all over your house. For instance to attract fame into your life you can just paint one South wall red and leave it at that. You can also use red light bulbs, which symbolize fire to light up the appropriate corners to attract love.

Pairs of ducks are used in Feng Shui to attract love. Traditionally a wooden pair would be placed somewhere in the home. You can find a more elegant answer in a work of art or you can be quite funky and use rubber ducks instead. Placing two happy looking yellow ducks in the southeast corner of your bathroom can help attract a love to you.

All things in pairs are said to strengthen the love and relationship vibe in your life. If you do not like the obvious look of some of the Feng Shui statues then consider hanging pictures of flowers that contain two buds in the Southeast corner of your home to attract love. Yet another idea is to hang pictures of birds. In your kitchen consider salt and pepper shakers that are figurines to you. Pairs of things symbolize love.

Copper vessels are used in Feng Shui to attract love. Hanging anything copper on your kitchen walls, including pots, pans and molds will help.

A remedy for bad luck in Feng Shui is to hang wooden flutes from the ceiling or from a beam that might be causing negative energy to prevail. However if you do not like the look of wooden flutes you can use any type of musical instrument that is hollow and makes noise instead.

You might find aquariums full of fish or fountains too fussy to deal with in your modern life. If that is the case then try putting lava lamps in place instead. Lava lamps symbolize the water element!

Remember that any time you want to use a lucky Asian symbol that there is probably a North American equivalent for it in art!

How to Decorate With a Butcher’s Block

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A butcher’s block is much more than just a slat of wood. It is a decorative and sometimes valuable object that can tell people who you are.

For one thing they come in all kinds of different types of wood. Some of the nicest ones are made of large Vermont Maple or Walnut.

If you want a really nice cutting board be prepared to spend some cash. Remember that you are not looking for just any old plastic cutting board from Ikea. Some of the cheaper cutting boards that are made of wood are barely worth the investment because they harbor so many bacteria in their seams and cracks.

Here are six things you should look for when investing in a high-end quality cutting board –
1. Make sure you like the way it looks. If you don’t like beige colored woods then don’t get a cutting board that is made of beech or birch or some other type of light colored wood. If you don’t like dark woods then stay away from walnut or mahogany cutting boards. Each type of wood has a character and it should be friendly to your tastes as it will be yours for a very long time.
2. Make sure it matches your kitchen. It is a good idea to try and match the wood of your cutting board with the wood or wood veneer in your kitchen. If there is no wood in your kitchen make sure the color of the wood matches the paint job in your kitchen. If you are planning to redecorate again and again then go for the butcher’s block that is the plainest looking.
3. Look for a board that has been treated with mineral oil before it leaves the shop. This will keep it sealed, moisturized and resilient to scratches with sharp knives and butcher blades.
4. Make sure the board is made out of solid wood and not somehow glued together from two pieces of wood. Not only can wood cutting boards boast seams that trap bacteria but they can split when they get wet. The kinds of industrial glues that are used to put together wood like this are also not very healthy for humans. Furthermore one hard whack with a knife at the wrong angle could cause the board to split and cause the board to split.
5. Look for an unvarnished cutting board. Cutting boards with varnish can leach poisons into your food.
6. Look for a high quality butcher’s block or cutting board that has rubber feet. This prevents your countertops and table tops from being marred. Without these feet you can leave dents or marks due to the blunt force of chopping motions applied to the block.

As you can see there is a lot more to consider when decorating with a butcher’s block then you probably originally contemplated!