Decorating Your Home With Orange Accents

The color orange has a lot of nice qualities to it. It is feminine, youthful and is said to help cheer people up. It is good in rooms that require that you relax and focus at the same time. In 2011, orange is also a very haute color that has been seen making a comeback on the runways and in furniture and fabric design.
Y
ou do not have to paint your entire home orange in order to be fashionable however painting the occasional accent wall a bright juicy hue will help it be more in style. The key is to not overdue it as too much orange might look a bit too playful or immature.

One simple and effective way to use the color orange is to replace your bathroom or kitchen drawer knobs with orange ceramic or plastic drawer pulls. You can also get beautiful orange pulls that look like blossoms from anthropolgie.

You can also add orange accents by displaying food and collectibles on orange trays. You can buy plastic orange trays at any dollar store but sometimes you can also find orange painted wood trays on retro websites or at garage sales. Orange placemats and orange tablecloths also give your kitchen a bit of a citrus punch as do cutlery with clear or solid plastic orange handles.

It is quite easy to give your kitchen a splash of orange by getting a brand new flashy orange kettle from Le Cruyeset.This steel kettle is dark orange and the base and graduates up to a flowery tangerine color. Orange mixing bowls and plates made out of ceramic also can brighten up a kitchen.

A single orange vase placed in your room can make this color your focal point. The nicest vases are tall, elegant and made of glass. You can get great handmade orange single vases made out of milk glass at Pier 1. Bar that you can make your own orange vase by spray painting jars or bottles a bright orange.

For a burst of real orange try making a floral display out of a grouping of orange roses or orange bougainvillea. You can also make a lovely floral centerpiece out of oranges or blood oranges. Pile the oranges in pyramid shape and stick the flowers between the edges of the fruit to create a display.

Finally a single gold fish in a clear bowl can add a bright point of orange to a place devoid of color.

Remember that if you do not want to actually paint the walls you can always use lighting by replacing your white light bulbs with orange or red ones to create a citrus like glow.

Decorating With Stone Waterfalls

To build a waterfall that resembles the type of waterfall you would see pouring out of the ancient stone walls of Roman baths, you need to first find or purchase at least twenty or more rounded stone boulders that are slightly flat on top.

Your first step is to build a stone and mortar brick wall by laying these stones on top of each other. This wall does not have to be perfect. It should almost look like a ceremonial stacking of stones. Be sure to stack the stones so that about three quarters of the way up the wall you have left room to insert a one inch copper pipe. This pipe is inserted into the wall along with PVC tubing that can either be attached to an external pump (hidden behind it) or to a submersible pump. The copper pipe, which oxidizes with time, also looks nice if it is sawed of at an angle to look like a spout.

When you turn on the pump, the water should splash out of the side of the wall. If you want to create the look of moss covered ancient walls in a hurry, try smearing yogurt over the new rocks. This will age them and encourage plant growth quite quickly.

Another easy type of fountain o make is the flat ledge fountain. To create this fountain you will have to acquire at least thirty broken pieces of flat stone slate. Make sure that you have one piece of slate that is at least three times as large as the others. The idea is that this piece of slate will extend laterally out into the pond.

Build a support for this slate by stacking cinder blocks at the desired distance out towards the center of the pond. Stack the largest piece of slate so that it is leveled and supported by both the edge of the pond and the cinder blocks.
You can use an external pump for this waterfall and hide it beneath the slate stone staircase or you can thread PVC through the rocks and use a submersible pump.

Build a supporting wall of cinder blocks a foot or two away from the pond. Now stack the flat pieces of slate on top of each other, using the larger pieces on the bottom and the smaller pieces on top to create a variegated staircase effect. The result will be a lovely cascading flow you can enjoy for years